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.