What's wrong with my corals, snails and starfish

[reddevil329]

Recently I have added a torch coral, xenia and 2 giant turbo snails to my 60 gallon tank. Everything was dripped for 3 hours before I place them into my tank. Everything was open and alive within the 3 hours. However as soon as I place my corals and snails into the tank, the torch and xenia changed to a dull blue colour and the torch started to spit out some white mucus. The snail went inside its shell not moving at all. After 24 hours the snail was still in the same spot. I picked it up and it smells fine. The torch was still shrunk and dull blue. After 2 days the snail died and my xenia died too.

Is the torch dead????????


My tank is 4 months old with 50lb of liverock with livesand

water parameter(I use RO water)
ph-8.4
nitrite-0
nitrate-5
ammonia-0
copper-0
calcium-420
phosphate-0
salinity-1.024( with instant ocean salt, tested by a refractometer)
kH-9
temp-78

I use APi test kit

I have 6 t5 blub, 4 day light and 2 aqua blue+ turned on 8 hours a day.

Torch on my sand bed with moderate water flow.

Fishes- 2 clownfish, 1 firefish, 1 yellow tang, 1 scooter blenny, 2 cleaner shrimps. All doing perfectly fine for 3 months.

Why are all the coral and snails dying? Please HELP Thank You.

 

[JonnyJ]

Why did you acclimate a snail and a coral for 3hours? you lost me there. i acclimate according to the salinity and temp of the bag. I dont like to acclimate that long because of the temp swing that could occur during 3 hours.

How long was the livestock in the bag?

For instance. if i buy something thats local and has a salinity matching mine i only acclimate for a maximum of 40 minutes...and i have never had a fish or coral die from it in over 3 years. now if the salinity or temp is way off i acclimate for longer periods of time.




Are all of the corals in the tank dead? any doing ok?

Im leaning towards a temp swing, or salinity issue. especially if the levels you have given are correct.

jonny

 

[scapone]

For instance. if i buy something thats local and has a salinity matching mine i only acclimate for a maximum of 40 minutes...and i have never had a fish or coral die from it in over 3 years. now if the salinity or temp is way off i acclimate for longer periods of time.




+1 dont over do it with acclimenting your live stock. I dont ever take hours to put my stuff in my tank and i never have issues.

 

[reddevil329]

From the photo i showed above, is my torch coral dead? All my corals I put in were dead before. I only acclimated my old corals for about 30 minutes and they were all dead, my lfs told me that I need to acclimate it for longer specially for snails. That's why I did it for so long this time. My lfs's salinity is 1.025.

Thanks for the advices tho.

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

I think you might want to have someone with another brand test kit check your parameters.

 

[reddevil329]

I did. I brought it to 2 different fish stores to test my water. Both said my water is perfect.

 

[InfernoST]

How old is the tank?

 

[Chiefmcfuz]

What brand were they using?

 

[reddevil329]

My tank is 4 months old. One fs uses API too and the other uses elos aquatic test kit

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

Maybe you have copper in the water or a stray voltage in your tank?

 

[Alex]

If as stated, your parameters are good, I would also agree with the long acclimation. a possible temp swing as well.

 

[guarda]

Did you have any corals prior to the torch in there?

 

[bigcapct]

I personally never drip aclimate any corals ,only a quick float in the bag for the temp

Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk

 

[Arati]

although I cant tell you whats wrong. I will suggest what I would do.

first I would make up a big water change. as big as possible. for me thats 30gallons. (i use a brute garbage pail) I would also add some poly filters to take out any chemicles in the water. change the carbon or add a carbon cup if you dont have one.

get you water tested including magnesium. do you add mag? check for stray voltage. I use a finger with a small cut on it. since my fingers are always cut up. you can feel the sting.. but im sure there is a way to test it better then that.

after I did the water change I would run all of my tests again 2-3 times and slowly.. looking for any anomolys. I know with the api nitrate test if you dont do exactly what the instructions say. including the waiting times between every drop and step , it will read much lower then the real number.

in my mind I think you have nitrate much higher then you think. (but thtas just a guess)

 

[basiab]

Interesting puzzle. Since you have fish that are alive and well I would not expect stray voltage nor water issues. Torches have been a problem for me over the years but xenia usually survive easily. Snails can be difficult at times as well. You did not describe how you acclimated over a 3 hour period so if you water tempurature ended up different than your tank that would be a problem as noted earlier. I would try introducing one new coral at a time or at least a couple from the same family.
I acclimate my corals by placing the bag in my tank for 20 minutes. Open the bag and remove water so that it is half empty. Slowly add tank water till almost full, remove half and slowly add more tank water till full, then shake coral in bag in case there is any slime on it and put it in tank. This takes 20-30 minutes.

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

The torch is not totally dead but it's close. For xenia to die there must be a big problem yet your fish are ok. I'm guessing that copper was used in the tank previously and is in your silicone. Copper will not affect fish but will kill corals. That's my best guess. Did you buy the tank used?

 

[reddevil329]

I acclimated my fish by placing the fish in the bag unopened for 15 minutes then I have a plastic box which I placed in my tank. I added the corals/snails in after that. I got another small bucket placed on a higher level then my tank, tank water was added into the bucket and started to drip for roughly 2 drip per second. I added water to the bucket every 15 minutes from my tank to help the temp swing.

My tank was bought brand new and I have tested copper by myself and I brought my water to two different fish store and no copper was found.

I have changed 20 percent water with Ro water every two weeks also.

I really want to solve this problem.... Thanks you everyone for your inputs so far.

 

[KathyC]

"I acclimated my fish by placing the fish in the bag unopened for 15 minutes then I have a plastic box which I placed in my tank. In your tank, as in floating in your DT? I added the corals/snails in after that. I got another small bucket placed on a higher level then my tank, tank water was added into the bucket and started to drip for roughly 2 drip per second. Ok, so you have water dripping from the bucket up above the floating box - is that correct? Where did the water that was overflowing out of your floating box go - into your DT? I added water to the bucket every 15 minutes from my tank to help the temp swing. "

Just trying to understand how you did this..thanks.

btw- Xenia is rather easy to kill. There are MANY people who cannot get it to grow in their tans and many others who would kill to get it OUT of their tanks.

Can you possibly provide a full tank shot..and resize the pic please to 600 x 480 if possible before posting

 

[KathyC]

Sorry, I have a few more questions for you.

The parameters you posted - are they from after you did the acclimation on the corals & snails you first spoke about?

The other corals you mention that have died - what kind of corals were they and how soon after putting them in the tank did they die?

I see you live in Canada? How are you transporting these items to your home from your LFS - are you using a closed cooler & a heat pack during transportation or just bringing them home in a store bag?

 

[reddevil329]

In my tank meaning in my DT. Sorry very unclear now that I read it again.
Water is dripping from the bucket up above the floating box. When I see the floating box is starting to get full, I would take some water from the floating box and dump it away(not to DT)

I placed hammer, torch, polyps and xenia into my tank. All corals and snails will not move/shrink as soon as I put in it. Snail will die within 24 hours and corals will be dying and become skeleton after 2 to 3 days.

My LFS is only 10 minutes away from my house. Therefore I just left it in the store bag. I always go home asap after purchasing.