My tank is sick for the 1st time....help! :(

[Reef_Angel]

Our tank is sick! :( The only thing we figure that's happening is a salt change from our usual "Oceanic" and being forced to use "Instant Ocean". We didn't think it would be a big deal until I went out there just now. My brand new Bubble Coral died. It was so beautiful. I didn't even get a picture of it. It was fine this morning... I can't believe it. Oh crud....light bulb went on. Mrs. Clean here just thought about how I scraped the sides of the glass. I went down into the edges of the sand but not any further than I ever do when I do tank freshen ups. Dave is saying that he doesn't think it was my fault, but now I'm worried. Did I crash the sand bed? Dave's been doing 10% water changes for me. He's done 2 in the last week now and things were looking better til today. What's your take on this everyone?

Angel :angel5:

[davejnz]

Going from different brands was probably the cause.I dont think it was the sand bed.sorry for your losses.Oceanic is quite different from IO in cacl/alk/and other elements.

[Reef_Angel]

Just the salt would be a good thing I guess. Although it made short work or my beautiful bigger than softball size Bubble Coral. I should have just thrown that $40 in the trash. I feel bad for the coral because it seemed so happy. Bummer!

[jerryc]

Sometimes it doesn't take much to upset things.
I'm going to change from IO need something to help keep my calcium up
and dread the Change you never no.

[dakar]

Well I just finished running a full battery of tests, everything checks out normal (ish) Alk is down quite a bit from normal now around 7dkh from our normal 10.5-11. Started with Oceaniac and been using right along, very rarely had to supplement for Ca/Alk, must have something to do with our well water, even after adding the RO/DI, Ca/Alk stayed up. I got caught short with no Oceanic available so I grabbed what I could get (the IO), the few that carried Oceanic were all sold out, it's taken weeks to get it ordered in, should have 2 200gal boxes in tommorrow for me. One box is dedicated just to filling the 180 this weekend.

But going to make sure I don't get caught short again thats for sure. Not sure what to do with the remaining IO (half a bucket), mix up what I have left and use it with the Oceanic to start cycling the new tank or just toss it? Our poor RO/DI is going into overdrive mode for a few days..LOL

Now I need your collective thoughts, do my normal ~10% weekly WC's to try to bring things back around slowly, or start off with larger changes (maybe 20%), or even smaller changes than normal (5%?).

Edit: I'm going to run a side by side comparison of the two salts this weekend.

[Reef_Angel]

Good news! My bubble coral is not dead afterall. There must have been a hint of life left in it. I moved it to my qt tank when I saw it and it's coming around. When I found it, it was completely dead looking....mouth wide open... I mean dead dead. No response to stimuli or anything. Wooo hooo.... I have Angel powers!!....hehehe :smt051 The same salt is in the qt tank though but it's only a 10gl. and it's not a sand bed, it's gravel. Dave has also been doing the water changes there as well. More food for thought.

[peregrinus]

umm sorry to hear that. not sure. i use instant ocean all the time with no probs.

[Reptoreef]

It's not neccessarily the type of salt, but the absence of time for the corals to adapt to the change of types of salt. IMO, Oceanic and Red Sea rock, though.

[Whoyah]

My suggestion the balance of the IO salt is to mix with the Oceanic in the new tank or maybe trade to some one. I have always used IO or Reef Crystals. I guess I never knw there was such a drastic difference in salts. Good to know. Sorry about the bubble Angel. :cry: Always hard to loss something.

[Reef_Angel]

Well it goes to show you how fussy corals are to sudden change. I didn't lose my bubble afterall. I put it in the qt tank because my hands were full and I just wasn't ready to part with it. I hoped maybe there was a spark of life left in it, and Dave told me to look at my bubble! I couldn't believe it. It's trying to hold on. Tomorrow is another day and all I can do is hope and wait now. I've done all I can for tonight.

[jerryc]

Angel glad your bubble made it hop everything gets rite soon.

Thank on my Change, I will just start withe a little added to a water Change and
slowly increase it each change maybe 1/2 cup to 2 or so to start.

[Reef_Angel]

I agree with you there Whoyah! When we go back to our regualar salt, we are going to ease back into that as well. What a lesson to be learned. My Bubble Coral is still hanging in there this morning. I still can't believe it, but I am extremely happy about it!

Hey Whoyah.... have you been doing any recruiting for us lately? lol :)

Angel :)

[Grandmaster_Toad]

Could have been number of things...
1. cleaning up to the edge of the sand bed didnt hurt anything
2, whenever you chage salts....try to "ween" your tank from one to another...Its alway a good practice to slowly phase out one salt if your going to change. "daveinz" was right.....salts have different chemical properties.....some things can be sensitive. UNderstandable that you just got caught short...errrg
As far as water changes....is sounds like things are coming back around. I would suggest doing the same WC on the sam schedule....more drastic changes can be harmful
Hope this helps
GT

[Reef_Angel]

Everything is back to normal, and this time we bought extra salt ahead incase the LFS runs out on us. When we need bulk salt again, we'll give them a weeks notice too! The tank looks great again and my nerves are a wee bit better. Those are like extra kids in that tank! lol

[peregrinus]

glad to hear everything worked out..

[ewaitob]

I would be curious about your last mix concerning specific gravity. I've interchanged the different brands of water without difficulty.

[dakar]

Pulled this one out of the abyss..... Guess we should have updated this thread a long time ago, best we could figure out after switching back to the Oceanic salt was the Ca/Alk levels, I tested each several times using tap and RO/DI water and anything that could have made such a mess, Ca/Alk levels differed by a large margin, perhaps enough to throw everything into a tailspin. Now light dosing for Alk every other day and staying with the same salt, everything remaining very stable.

BTW Welcome Aboard Ewaitob!

[ocean]

I am happy to be by the twin cities so many petco's pet-smarts exotic aquatics and plenty of other small business's you cant find your self in that situation.. happy that your bubble is not dead sounds like you got a good deal on that 40$ is one of the better prices I've seen my lfs bubbles are 100$ , that i would not buy from her.

[Reef_Angel]

I did get a good deal on that bubble, and it was a very beautiful coral. I enjoyed hand feeding her. We had a real nice hammer coral in our tank that just suddenly started to up and die off little by little until it was completely gone. We had no explaination for it at all, but it died piece by piece regardless of the futile attempts I made to save it. What ever it had, it gave to my beautiful Bubble as well and this time I really did lose her. I had her for such a long time in my tank....probably 7-8 months. I was pretty sad to see her die, but at least I know what caused it. If the right one comes along, I may replace it. Thanks for your comments!

[jerryc]

I sounds like you got a good deal on that 40$ is one of the better prices I've seen my lfs bubbles are 100$ , that i would not buy from her.

A 100 is a lot for a Bobble coral most i see go for about 30 to 50 depending on the size

[Sweetpea]

I had no idea using a different salt could harm a system like that. Since my tank is so small, I just buy my water on an as needed basis. I sure hope my LFS always uses the same salt... I'll have to ask the next time I go in!

What a scary spot for you guys to have gone through! I'm glad your bubble is recovering! :)

[Reef_Angel]

Hi Sweatpea... You grabbed an old post from last year, but it was a real good lesson to learn when it happened to us! That situation really frustrated us. All our tests looked pretty good if I remember correctly, and the blah! We couldn't believe how things had changed in our tank. All that money you put into a new hobby, and then a water change suddenly threatens to wipe out your new aquatic world. There is a big difference, and we'll never do a switch like that on our critters ever again. We were pretty new to reefing when we designed this board, so we have grown with the site! It's amazing what you pick up from other's help.

You should be ok the way you're doing things, but I would suggest buying from the same place each time, if at all possible. Don't be afraid to ask the store exactly what they are using, and if they're consistant. With any luck, the water is likely the same they are using to support their sale tanks. ....Angel

PS. Welcome to the site! We're glad to have you here!

[davejnz]

IME,alkalinity swings have been linked to more coral deaths for me than anything else.SPS and some LPS seem especially vulnerable.I interchange IO/Reef Crystals/NSW with no problems.