Need Some Help

Alright...I am calling on all brains to help figure out my tank's problem.

Around the time of the Reef Tour my tank started to decline. At first it was a blue carpet anemone, then corals, and it has progressively been getting worse. At this point I have about 3 corals alive in my tank...out of over a hundred...

Here is what I know:

Temp has been stable, at 78 degrees. My controller and glass thermo both agree on this. Temp hasn't varied more than a quarter of a degree.

Salinity is 1.025. I have checked with hydrometer and refractometer both.

pH has been between 7.8 and 8.25.

You can see history here:
http://www.reeftronics.net/curtis-j/rke-history

You may notice that temp dropped off yesterday, that is because I was cleaning the sump and probe was in a cup of water.

Ca: 440-480
dKH: 10-12
Mg: 1500
Ammonia: 0
Nitrates: 0
Copper: 0

Other than that nothing has changed. No algae blooms, no bacterial blooms. I am just so confused. Last night I took all the sand out of my sump just because that was the only thing I could think of.

What livestock do you have in there?  I am sure you know what may or may not eat corals but maybe something was munching down on them and you just never caught the culprit.  Unlikely but just a thought.

Good questions here.

First I dont think it is fish, I have had coral dying in my display tank upstairs and also my frag tank downstairs. Both are in the same system, so share common water, but not common lighting or inhabitants. That also kindof rules out a worm or other parasite that could be killing them.

I should clearify that I am having all types of corals dye. Acans, SPS, Welsos, zoas, frogspawn, hammers, duncans, ect. I have checked several times for parasites such as flat worms or red bugs and found nothing. I also don't think that they would all be dying.

With the LPS the corals are kindof recessing tissue and eventually dying off. This is the normal way I have seen them dye. With the SPS there was several ways they died...pretty much every way possible...Some would RTN (very few), some would bleach out then drop off tissue, and some would lose tissue starting from the tips.

Magnesium "could" be the issue, but honestly I have kept it this high for a very long time and it has been very good for my tank. Many others keep it this high...Like Tyree, Jared Butler, Marine Aquatics. It is said to help reduce the rate at which coralline grows, and since coralline takes in calcium at something like 3x faster than coral, it helps reduce the ammount of supplementation.

I am using Instant Ocean Salt. I switched after things started to go downhill. Months after. I was using Reef Crystals before. The Reef Crystals were a good batch, I know that since I was using the 10 buckets I bought for the last year and a half.

I have several things to reduce PO4. My filtration system until last night had a 100g deep sand bed, refugeum with cheato, grape calerpa, feather calerpa, and mangroves. Reverse lighting of display tank. I also use filter socks (changed daily), carbon reactor, and purigen in a large reactor.

The tank has been set up for just over a year, here is a pic, although I haven't taken any recent ones. Mike Savage has the most recent, he took them at Reef Tour.



I should also include that about 2 months ago I lost the bluejaw trigger and the chevron tang, about 3 weeks apart.

Ryan Thompson wrote: Did you change lighting at all? I mean ANY tweaks of any kind? Electricity is another thing I'm thinking right now. Especially since a tang died

Nope. I thought maybe the bulbs were old, but I had corals dying in both tanks, upstairs and downstairs and the ones downstairs were fairly new. I replaced the bulbs unpstairs a couple days ago.

Stray voltage...last night when I was taking out the sand bed and doing water change I kept getting the crud shocked out of me. I checked voltage and it was around 19v and would spike up to 45v at some times. But...now there is none. I think I got something wet that shouldn't have been. I am getting a 0 reading no matter how I try. I also have grounding probe.

All thoughts are welcome. I just want to figure this out so I can have corals again, FOWLR tanks suck...

Really? I have had the grounding probe the entire time I have had the tank setup. I have heard lots of debate on grounding probes, but I thought the general consensus was that they were good. I have had it the whole time, but electricity may have started leaking recently. It may be grounding now, through the probe, but last night when I was barefoot in a puddle of water I may have been a better curcuit than the probe...This is something to look into. Can you link me to any info that would suggest against the grounding probe?

I will see what I come up with. I will look more into it and when I get time I will test the voltage without the grounding probe. I will find out what is making the voltage...if anything....

When your ready for some frags I'll hook you up with some for free =)

you've always been great to deal with so I'll return the favor

I also have plenty to get you started again, including the stuff I got from you!

Are you using any airborne cleaners? Fragrances? Even in the next room over? Maybe those air fresheners that spray stuff into the air every 2 hours or so?

So, turns out I two grounding probes, neither are in my tank.

I tested voltage, got a 0 reading.
I realized my carbon reactor pump wasn't put back in the tank after cleaning sump last night. So i plugged that in and set it in the water, and it shocked the crap out of me. I left it on, in the water, and tested, got a 0v reading. Pulled it out of the water and tested directly on the pump and got 50v. Anyone know what is going on here? As of now that pump is definitely not in the water, or plugged in.