Like the title says, I really f'd something up last night when I was cleaning my tank.
Background, I've been having algae issues since I setup my tank at the the beginning of the year. It was most likely because I started my tank with used, dry rock that I foolishly did not treat at all. Most recently hair algae has been growing on pretty much everything. Before that, it was bryopsis, but water changes and Kent's Tech M seemed to have brought that under control. But my corals have been looking pretty bad, and this last week, my last remaining sps (birdsnest and plating monti's) all bleached over the course of about a day. RBTA's look ok, and some LPS (euphyllia) are ok, but don't look great. Last night before my disastrous water change, my Ca was 400, Alk 9.2, NO3 25 (maybe a little less). My fish all looked great, ate everything and were nice and active.
I was struggling to figure out a way to get a handle on the algae problem, so I bought a plastic scrub brush, rinsed it off as well as I could, and while changing the water, started scrubbing surfaces of the rockwork I could get to to break up the algae so I could siphon it out. Apparently, this is a horrible idea. After a few minutes of this, I noticed my kole tang lying on it's side. Still breathing, but looking bad. So I stopped and starting adding water, hoping he was just stressed about be messing with the tank. Nope, that was it. Then, my male lyretail anthias came shooting out of the rocks, thrashing like I've never seen, and died. My clowns were breathing a little heavily, but settled down. Pygmy angle, gramma and fire shrimp seem ok. Have not seen my blenny or the other 2 small anthias. I'm about to start pulling all of my rock out to find what I assume will be the bodies so they don't rot and make things even worse.
Where I could use some advice - and this may be impossible to answer - what happened? It was like breaking up the algae poisoned the water. As for rocks, if I'm taking them out anyways, I don't really want to put them back, I'd rather replace them pieces that have been treated properly before going into the tank. Is there a good way introduce new rock into a system with fish and some inverts?
I have loved this hobby, and I have loved keeping my tank, but right now, not so much...
Background, I've been having algae issues since I setup my tank at the the beginning of the year. It was most likely because I started my tank with used, dry rock that I foolishly did not treat at all. Most recently hair algae has been growing on pretty much everything. Before that, it was bryopsis, but water changes and Kent's Tech M seemed to have brought that under control. But my corals have been looking pretty bad, and this last week, my last remaining sps (birdsnest and plating monti's) all bleached over the course of about a day. RBTA's look ok, and some LPS (euphyllia) are ok, but don't look great. Last night before my disastrous water change, my Ca was 400, Alk 9.2, NO3 25 (maybe a little less). My fish all looked great, ate everything and were nice and active.
I was struggling to figure out a way to get a handle on the algae problem, so I bought a plastic scrub brush, rinsed it off as well as I could, and while changing the water, started scrubbing surfaces of the rockwork I could get to to break up the algae so I could siphon it out. Apparently, this is a horrible idea. After a few minutes of this, I noticed my kole tang lying on it's side. Still breathing, but looking bad. So I stopped and starting adding water, hoping he was just stressed about be messing with the tank. Nope, that was it. Then, my male lyretail anthias came shooting out of the rocks, thrashing like I've never seen, and died. My clowns were breathing a little heavily, but settled down. Pygmy angle, gramma and fire shrimp seem ok. Have not seen my blenny or the other 2 small anthias. I'm about to start pulling all of my rock out to find what I assume will be the bodies so they don't rot and make things even worse.
Where I could use some advice - and this may be impossible to answer - what happened? It was like breaking up the algae poisoned the water. As for rocks, if I'm taking them out anyways, I don't really want to put them back, I'd rather replace them pieces that have been treated properly before going into the tank. Is there a good way introduce new rock into a system with fish and some inverts?
I have loved this hobby, and I have loved keeping my tank, but right now, not so much...