Is my tank crashing? Not how I wanted to spend my day

[slimfitz]

Hello all,
I work long hours 4 days a week so I dont get much time other than to come check on the tank when I get home at night and maybe feed my fish. Last Sat I did my 10 gal water change. Also changed my GFO. When I tested my water my Alk was low at 6.8. I dont dose anything other than kalk in my ATO. I had some B Ionic 2 part and tried to adjust the Alk up. Going off of the reef calculator I needed to add 50 ML of the Alk solution to get it up to 8. I added it in over about an hr. The tank has looked fine the last couple nights when I come home from work except last night my ORP reading was at about 280. It is normally around 360-400. All corals were closed up. I have never seen them as far retracted as they were. I turned the lights on and they started extending out. So I said I will deal with this in the AM. I checked the Apex. You can see where I did the water change last Sat and then it just doesnt seem like it was right since then. My Orp slowly started dropping off. Never really counter acted my PH.
This morning things still look bad. Orp is now down to 250. All 4 anemones are balled up. My carpet that is normally 12-14" is the size of a baseball. All corals are losing color. So Ive started making more water to preform a big water change. Ive tested all parameters.
My tank is a 90 gal
Temp 78-79 (Apex)
Salinity 1.026 (Milwaukee and Apex)
KH 6.8 (Hanna and Red sea)
Cal 420 (Red Sea)
Mg 1400 (Red Sea)
Ph is currently 8.0 (Apex)
Orp 262 currently (Apex)
N02 0 (Red Sea)
No3 0 (Red Sea)
NH3 0 (Red Sea)
p04 .02 (Hanna)
I have accounted for all 7 fish (look fine no heavy breathing). Most of the hermits and snails. All 4 Anemones (just closed up). Does this sound like I crashed this tank?

 

[art13]

How big is your tank? personally i don't trust hanna or red sea anymore for anything, accept the hanna po4 tester. Saliftert i've found much more accurate, you might be suprised, i'd order one of their kits for calc and alk if you can and retest. I've never used an orp probe so can't help you there.

 

[slimfitz]

The tank is a 90 gal with a 30 gal sump. Ive tested with Salifert side by side with Red Sea and got same results in the past.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Skimmer running correctly?

Probe needs to be cleaned? (Although that wouldn't explain change you're noticing in your tank)

 

[art13]

run some carbon, do you have any sea cucumbers or anything like that in the tank?

 

[slimfitz]

Skimmer running correctly?

Probe needs to be cleaned? (Although that wouldn't explain change you're noticing in your tank)

Yes skimmer is running correctly. I even have the air intake plummed outside for fresh air. I cleaned the cup last night and disconnected the air line to make sure that no bugs or anything crawled into the line. So as of now its just sucking air in the sump. I have it skimming very heavy right now

run some carbon, do you have any sea cucumbers or anything like that in the tank?

No cucumbers, and I just changed my carbon this morning

 

[slimfitz]

Forrest fire This is purple stylo thats normally bushy This is red planet that is dull pink now

 

[slimfitz]

Torches that are normally huge. They have inflated some since lights came on. Carpet is normally huge. 12-14." Hes came out a little bit with lights on

 

[Lostinthedark]

You said your alk was 6.8 then you raised it to 8 and now it is back down to 6.8. Could be your alk swings are irritating everything. I would try to keep everything where it is for a few days and let everything recover. A doser might be the best solution with your work schedule. It will cut down on a lot of fluctuations.

 

[slimfitz]

You said your alk was 6.8 then you raised it to 8 and now it is back down to 6.8. Could be your alk swings are irritating everything. I would try to keep everything where it is for a few days and let everything recover. A doser might be the best solution with your work schedule. It will cut down on a lot of fluctuations.

Yes that is correct 6.8 up to 8.0 back down to 6.8. That is what I was thinking but wouldnt that have been immediate. This happened 3 days later. I also did the water change Sat not Sun. I worked on Sun. I have been planning on buying a doser at some point Ive just never had any issues with the Kalk.

 

[trivan]

I would guess it's Alk swing. I believe the recommendation is not to increase more then 1 dkh over a 24 hour period. I've done it before and seen frags RTN a few days later.

 

[Lostinthedark]

but wouldnt that have been immediate.

Not necessarily. Its hard to guess what it may be. Reefs are a lot more sensitive then fish only. It may be coincidence and be something entirely different. IMO, actual levels come secondary to stability.

 

[slimfitz]

Well thanks for the replies guys. I did about a 40 gal water change today along with changing my carbon. Huge pain in the ass making that much water and then getting it up to temp. I need a fish room! The torches and hammers seem to be inflating. I guess I will see how everything else does tomorrow and over the next couple days.

 

[trivan]

Careful on the large water change as the parameters of the new salt water (NSW), may be very different then the old water. I my experience I've always had more troubles doing large water changes. I found that the alk in the NSW was a lot higher then my DT. I switch to a mix which is a lot closer to what I run at. If they are close then no problem.

I also found frags in my hands were able to deal with going from High to low Alk better then low to high.

 

[mikem]

I would guess it's Alk swing. I believe the recommendation is not to increase more then 1 dkh over a 24 hour period. I've done it before and seen frags RTN a few days later.

This would be the problem.

 

[slimfitz]

Ok, I have no idea what is going on now. I did the 40 gal water change today things were looking good. Polyps started extending out. My ORP has steadily been on the rise. I have been checking this tank all day. Constantly looking at it. Now right after lights out Im watching TV and look over and the water is completely cloudy. I jump up and run over to the tank thinking that the ATO kicked on and dumped a bunch of kalk slurry in. But my ATO is off. Its on a timer through the Apex to only come on at 1am to 5 am because of the ph swing. What would cause this? I saw my stomatella snail spraying stuff in the water column today. Did he/she spawn? There are small white looking eggs everywhere floating. My skimmer is going crazy. I tried to attach a video showing all the small white eggs or beads but I guess it doesnt work here

 

[redfishbluefish]

Wow! What the oogly boogly is going on? If they're spawning, you're going to have millions of stomatella. I've never seen that before. What's you're ORP doing? I would think that would drive it down???

 

[slimfitz]

Man I dont know. I want to know what is going on! lol. During all of this cloudy water my ORP is still increasing (its up to 308 now). Ive been reading online. I think my corals spawned. It looks just like all the images Ive seen online of coral spawning. Maybe me messing with the water caused everything to start spawning?

 

[Lostinthedark]

Any Anemones? When mine spawned thats what it looked like. No ill effect to the tank exept nitrates rising a little for a few days.

 

[slimfitz]

Any Anemones? When mine spawned thats what it looked like. No ill effect to the tank exept nitrates rising a little for a few days.

Yes three bubble tips that all split from one and a carpet. Would that be the carpet that would spawn? And now Im kinda worried because one of the three bubble tips is missing. Im wondering if he got in the powerhead? I hope he just moved to the other side of the rock and I just cant see it
Edit: Found the missing bubble tip under some hammer coral.