Return From Vaca

[The Rugger]

So the dreeded going out of town and leaving your reef in the care of someone else and returning to issues has struck. It is not as bad as some of the things I have head over the years, but I still have some worries and I am stumped on what is going on.

All my fish are intact, but my ricordia and rodactis have evaporated. Just gone. Also the coraline algae is starting to turn white in areas.

I have tested everything and all seems well. The temps and salt levels are and were reported fine. Usually fish go before these other items if something is way off. I have done a water change for safe measure, but since I can not idenify the issue I hardly know if it has been addressed.

Any Ideas?

[thefishgirl]

That's not a very nice welcome home. You are doing all the right things... testing, water change, etc. I'll be tagging along to see if you or someone else can figure out the issue.

[graphixx]

did it get hot while you were gone??? temp swings will wipe coralline and softies out pretty quick.

if the parameters are fine my guess would be a temp swing

[The Rugger]

No temp swing was reported by the baby sitter and I trust him. It may have crept into the low 80s because I rolled the AC back a few degrees while I was gone, but nothing that should have done this. Even if it had gotten warm enough for this to occur, would the fish not have been impacted?

[jimsflies]

Low 80's...like less than 83 should be fine.

What all fish do you have? Any chance one of them got extra hungry?

Although the coralline algae disappearing would potentially indicate a alk/ph problem. How are you maintaining Ca and alk?

[The Rugger]

My thoughts is that it is not the temp.It should have been fine.

I doubt the fish ate them, but for conversations sake in the display I have,
a Yellow Tang,
a False Perc Clown
a Royal Gamma
a Chromis
and a Pearly Jawfish.

I don't have any hard corals yet so Ca consumtion would only be from the Coraline. I use Ocean's Blend additives. I tested and am at ~450 on the Ca.

Would High Alk take out the Shrooms but not the fish? Doesn't seem right to me.

[speedstar]

I'd still go with heat myself, how is the tank lit?

This is when you wish you had a controller to look back at logged data. I wish I had logging on mine but it is a cheap one.

[The Rugger]

I have a 2X150 MH fixture. The only time I had a issue with heat was when I came home to a broken AC unit after being gone over night and the temp rose to 87 degrees. All the items in question survived that except for all but 1 fish. All my fish are intact for this episode.

[Timmyb770]

Sometime Rics are really sensitive to Ph levels that might have been why the melted away?? what are all your parms??

[schminksbro]

My first guess would automatically be temp followed closely by Ph swings. Rics can be pretty touchy sometimes. Were they Yumas? Rodactic and Yumas of certain colors tend to come from deeper water. Therefore cooler water. Especially Pinks and purples.

[The Rugger]

They were nothing special and had survive one heat episode in the past and been fine. They have proven to be quite hardy. Ph levels were fine. I am stumped.