Tank is in trouble! Need advice

J

JumboAg99

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Added a Chiller a couple of weeks ago to help stabilize tank temps and now tank looks bad... Temp hasn't changed much. Just a couple of degrees. I had it set at 78, over the past few days I've inched the chiller up to 82 (where it basically wont even run).

My mushrooms used to be HUGE. The brain coral was puffy and happy, the zoos looked good.. Now everything is shrinking and droopy. The mushrooms especially look pale and in trouble. Not sure what to do. Tank's been around for 3 years, so its a stable ecosystem.

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Only other thing I've done recently is put some Seachem phosguard in a filter bag in the sump to drop phosphates a bit.

Going to try some water change triage on it, but wondering what it could be. Fish all seem fine.
 
What is your alkalinity at? Phosphate removers can make a sudden drop in alkalinity, which would show up in softies as you are describing. I would test your alkalinity and boost it slowly.
I also am not fond of phosphate removers such as the one you are using. They are aluminum based products and from I have read, they can leach aluminum into the system.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/issues/july2003/chem.htm
Scroll down in this article till you see phosguard.
 
Rick, you could be onto something. My alkalinity is a bit low, but not sure its low enough to be doing this much damage.

The Salifert kit's showing it at about 2.17 meq/L. Normal should be right around 3 right? Is that enough of a drop to be causing this? If so, what are good suggestions to get the levels back up to par.
 
It definitely is too low. You can use baking soda to raise it. Mix a couple of tablespoons of baking soda with some ro/di water. After it is pretty much dissolved slowly pout it into the sump in a high flow area. Do this and wait at least 12 hours and measure again. If it is not over 3 do it again. I try to keep mine about 3.75 meq/l or 10 dkh.
 
Hi,

You may want to run some carbon also along with those water changes. Best way is to use phosban reactor or something similar.

Cheers!
 
Also, a thought in another direction - how old is the chiller? I used to have one that "leaked" and ran out of freeon. The freeon was dribbling into the tank water, and I didn't even know - the leak was rather slow.

If you have a new chiller, it still wouldn't hurt to check for freeon leak or stray voltage.
 
The Chiller is a brand new JBJ Arctica. It's powered down at the moment - at least until I get this issue resolved. (Partly because I needed the pump I was using for it to mix water. - Hadnt gotten around to buying a new one yet).

Alk levels are higher now... Still got a bit to go. Dosed last night. Just hit it again. Might take one more tomorrow, will know more when I test it in the morning.
 
Alk levels back above 3... Softies still look bad, but not getting worse. They're starting to get their color back, but are still really droopy. Hopefully they'll all survive.
 
Aluminum-based phosphate removers are hard on leathers as well. It can take weeks to bring them back to normal. Once I had to wait over 6 weeks for my Toadstool to recover.
 
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