corals dying...HELP

[ReefBuilderNJ]

about a week ago my corals started going down hill. first my frogspawn(idipped them in "reef dip"with no success)then mymushrooms started to shrivle up and then my wellsophylia and kenya tree.now my xenia is going too.
right before this all happened, everything was spreading like crazy and multiplying, my tank was doing the best it has been in 2 years. a few nights before this started, i added about 6 gal of fresh water and i also added a DIY de-nitrator.i cant figure whats wrong..
i have a 135gal reef tank with a 55gal sump/fuge, uv sterilizer,phosphate reactor, three 175w MH bulbs, two vho actinics.
my levels are good:
temp=78f
ph=8.1
amonia=0.25
nitrite=0
nitrate=0
alk=norm/high
phosphates=0.1
salinity=1.022
copper=0
magnesium=420mg/l(ppm)
calcium=280mg/l

i havent added any suppliments in 8 months because my tank seems to do better without the additions.
my acro seems unaffected and so does some of my star polyps and cabbage coral. as well as the fish, crabs,feather dusters, and tube anemones.
i dont think it could be the glue from the freshly made de-nitrator that i made 36 hours before, since its the same we use for our plumbing. CAN SOMEONE HELP ME????

 

[Phyl]

Your mag should be around 1300 and your Calcium up closer to 400. Beyond those, I'm at a loss. Did you add any metal (screws, hose clamps, etc) into your system where they're in the water? I'm not concerned about the PVC glue. That stuff pretty well dries on contact. We started up several hours after finishing our plumbing and didn't have a problem with anything in the tank afterwards.

What's causing the ammonia? How old are your bulbs? Has your flow changed at all? What are you measuring your PH with? What about your salinity?

Good luck. I can only imagine how frustrating that must be!

 

[Brian]

Hi ReefbuilderNJ,

I would be concerned with your ammonia level. That reading should be zero
I would do a water change to try and bring that down, that can kill everything.

Maybe something has died and it rotting in the tank?

Have you checked the TDS in the RO water? If your RO membrane is shot or your RO supplier hasn't changed their filters maybe that could be a problem.

Now, I really dont mean this to sound bad.. Please don't take it the wrong way.. .

Are your Nitrates really zero? That must be one hell of a Denitrator that you built  

 

[ReefBuilderNJ]

no, i dont use any metal objects for any of my plumbing and i dont think anything is rotting in the tank, except the corals one at a time. :'(
i make my own ro water and i havent changed the filter in a few months.
lol... yes i got a zero reading for my nitrates. i use red sea tests for the amonia and nitrates. maybe the tests are not acurate, because ive always had a reading of some amonia and my corals were fine.

 

[ReefBuilderNJ]

i have a small nudibranch (about 1" long). could he be my problem? ive heard that they can poison a whole tank if threatened. how would someone know if it was the nudi? wouldn't it kill the fish too?

 

[ghost427]

Try Salifert for the Amonia test. I used REd Sea and it always tested 0.25. Had the lfs test my water and amonia was 0. Switched to Salifert and Amonia test 0.

 

[BobCReef]

I always got .25 on the amonnia as well. must be a problem in their kit

bob

 

[ReefBuilderNJ]

thanks for the advise guys. i guess that pretty much means amonia is zero. so, what could be happening???? i guess some other matter must have gotten into my water. the rest of my corals seem to be slowly improving except for my xenia. i did an 11gal water change today and am slowly increasing my salinity.
hopefully my problem will be ending soon.......

 

[Ruden]

When you made your Dinitrator what type of tubing did you use? I am sure you used the correct type but thought I would ask just in case it might be leaching something into the water?

 

[concept3]

Try this quick fix:
15% water change of the same aerated and heated new salt water
3 cups carbon for 8-10 hours

That should be enough to dilute/adsorb any pollutants in the water....

Xenia from what I've heard also thrive in water with slightly higher nutrient levels, as well as most softies/LPS. Maybe your tank's TDO has gone down considerably. Have you changed your husbandry and feeding regime lately?

 

[ReefBuilderNJ]

you know, i always used carbon in my tank, but about a week or so before the problem, i never replaced the carbon. i left it out because i read that xenia dont like carbon.

that might be my problem......thanks