Corals seem to be dying...any ideas?

keep doing water changes and dont add any additives to the tank like calcium or two part.
use prime on your new water before adding the salt to see if you are getting any chlorine or chloramines.
if the carbon filter on a ro/di unit is exuasted it takes very little chlorine or chloramines to seriously effect your tank and it a easy and safe way to rule out that problem just to be safe. and dose the whole tank with prime as soon as you can just to be safe.
any time you cant figure out whats wrong in your tank and theres just no answer you should look to your new water as the problem, and really the only thing you can do to new unsalted water is use a good water conditioner like prime.
run carbon too, just so you know, zenia seems to not like carbon, thats my experience anyways.

 

Hello and sorry 4 your troubles, dont let it ruin your new hobbie! To me it sounds like too many fish!!! In closed home aquarium systems there is always a competition for o2. It seems to me like u have a lot going on in a 29g tank. As mentioned above with the addition of carbon your light values will also increase due to the water being so clear. So be careful not to over-expose the coral too fast. Also check and see if your salt mix is fortified w/magnesium, stronum, iodine, ect. Over time livestock and coral will know the differance. How are the inverts? Check temp for pm and am temp swings, have u been running the airconditioning? Mabe buy a worm trap or fish trap and see if you have a hitch-hiker? Did one of your fish become a late night coral muncher? Lastly buy a tds meter 4 your fresh h20, my ro/di runs @ about 2-5ppm. Remember if it was real eazy everyone would have a saltwater setup! Hope that this might help, they were some of my early problems. If not let me know and everyone will brainstorm...... DAVE

 

Posted By seanndenise1 on 05/08/2008 8:04 PM
keep doing water changes and dont add any additives to the tank like calcium or two part.
use prime on your new water before adding the salt to see if you are getting any chlorine or chloramines.
if the carbon filter on a ro/di unit is exuasted it takes very little chlorine or chloramines to seriously effect your tank and it a easy and safe way to rule out that problem just to be safe. and dose the whole tank with prime as soon as you can just to be safe.
any time you cant figure out whats wrong in your tank and theres just no answer you should look to your new water as the problem, and really the only thing you can do to new unsalted water is use a good water conditioner like prime.
run carbon too, just so you know, zenia seems to not like carbon, thats my experience anyways.
What is Prime?  I've never heard of it.  Wouldn't it really be adding another additive?
Seems to me that checking the quality/readings on the water and to continue to do water changes is the best thing to do.  What about flow in your tank?  A four month old tank is still a pretty new tank and can easily become unbalanced.  Are your fish doing ok?

 

First of all, welcome!!!! We will try to help you get your problems resolved.

It looks like your parameters are a little off. Your calcium is too low, and you alkalinity is too high. 7 fish is a lot for 40gallons. What kinda fish do you have

Xenia is tricky at first, I wouldn't worry too much about losing that.

(sorry if this message doesnt make sense, its the first night after finals, and I just got back home from the bars)

 

Posted By RobynT on 05/08/2008 11:08 PM

Posted By seanndenise1 on 05/08/2008 8:04 PM
keep doing water changes and dont add any additives to the tank like calcium or two part.
use prime on your new water before adding the salt to see if you are getting any chlorine or chloramines.
if the carbon filter on a ro/di unit is exuasted it takes very little chlorine or chloramines to seriously effect your tank and it a easy and safe way to rule out that problem just to be safe. and dose the whole tank with prime as soon as you can just to be safe.
any time you cant figure out whats wrong in your tank and theres just no answer you should look to your new water as the problem, and really the only thing you can do to new unsalted water is use a good water conditioner like prime.
run carbon too, just so you know, zenia seems to not like carbon, thats my experience anyways.
What is Prime?  I've never heard of it.  Wouldn't it really be adding another additive?
Seems to me that checking the quality/readings on the water and to continue to do water changes is the best thing to do.  What about flow in your tank?  A four month old tank is still a pretty new tank and can easily become unbalanced.  Are your fish doing ok?
prime is just a chlorine/ chloramine remover, its completely harmless, i would never trust a ro/di to remove chloramines.
this time of the year when rivers are flooding the municiple water companies jack the levels of chlorine/chloramines up to the highest levels allowed 4ppm because of the high bacteria levels in the water.
if you are not a person that changes pre filters on your ro/di unit religiously or test for chloramines in your new water, its a good idea to use prime.
alot of times when i read posts about peoples fish gasping for air or laying on the bottom of the tank gasping for air, or just unexplained problems a bell just goes off in my head.
saltwater keepers are basically clueless when it comes to chloramines, no insult intended, because they have never had to deal with them on account they use a ro/di unit, but ro/di units if not properly taken care of will let some chloramines past and in your water.
chloramines dont go away like chlorine does, it just stays in the water and will build up levels as your topoff water is added.
its very dangerous stuff at very low levels, it attacks the red blood cells of fish and basically suffocates them. it does at very low levels kill all bacteria, it can litterally destroy a tank.
i would never trust a ro/di unit to remove it.
i just found this article on ro/di units and chloramines, it explains alot better than i can, look at the toxicity levels on that chart, very very low levels to be toxic.
http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-11/rhf/feature/index.php

 

I have always had problems with my Xenia not pulsing when my Ph gets low. I use it as kind of a Ph tester of sorts. Correct your Alk/Calcium levels, then check your Ph. Just my 2 cents.

 

Yes, what is your pH and Temp (at the heat of the day)? What is the source of your water, RO/DI? If not get some and do a large (50%) water change. Then do another 50% in two days. If you don't want to get drastic, then back off to 30%. But 50% with good water should make a large difference. You also didn't mention the salinity? Do you have much algae growth in your tank?

 

Get an RO/DI filter ASAP...filterguys are great and so is airwaterice

 

I would loose the amquel as it's nothing more than masking the problem at hand. I would slow down on the water changes, my guess is you've thrown the tank into a new cycle by changing that much water that quickly. Maybe try only changing the water once a week and testing the water several times weekly. As for the red dust...aka red slime or cynobacteria. What are you running for pumps? Red slime is usually caused by a lack of flow or high phosphates or overheating the tank (or all of them). Depending on what your pumping for flow you might be able to just increase with one or two more pumps and have it clear up. How long are you running your lights?