The Puffer Forum

I will start with the basics I have a 40 gal SW reef tank i have had set up for about 6 months. It has about 50-55lbs of cured live rock and about a 3" sandbed. I had a false perc. clownfish,damselfish, and a coral beauty angelfish. My corals are red mushroom and a few different zoas and starbust polyp.I do 10 gal WC weekly with ro/di water and my parameters 2 days ago were salinity 1.024, ph-8.2,ammonia-0,nitrite-0,nitrate-10. I have been dosing iodine, essential elements, calcium fhe 6 months its been set up. I also started using "reef Bugs" instead of marine snow to feed corals from a friends recommendation and have been doing so for past month. So now to the issue. Last night i did my weekly dosing of the reef bugs product of the same amount as usual and shut off the lights. Woke up this morning to very cloudy water and everything dead. My corals are still ok but a few polyps show signs that they are dieing. All my fish were dead along with my peppermint shrimp but snails and hermits still alive. I have piles and piles of pods that died off all over the tank. I tested the water and this is what i got... salinity 1.024 ph-7.8,ammonia-.25, nitrite-.50,nitrate-10. So as you can see something drastic happened over night and the only thing i can think of is the reef bugs product. Im lost at what happened and what to do next. I picked up 15 gal of premixed ro/di water and am about to change some water out but dont know if i should tear down tank or what because i dont know what caused this. Any imput at all is welcome

So sorry to hear this! Possibly overfeeding of the product. IDK about Reefbugs but Marine Snow it total garbage. As a matter of fact, none of your corals require any feeding, just good lighting. It may have also been the iodine--no reason to dose that, especially with the corals you are keeping, nor Essential Elements or Ca. Plenty of all you need in the fresh SW you use for WC. You're going to have to do way larger WC, probably 80%.

I always have a a 33g Brute can of mixed SW ready for emergency WC.

I thought zoas needed a little supplement feeding??? i only do it once a week and its in small amounts. And i meant i dose coral-vite not iodine im sorry and i figured i would have to do a larger wc but only had three buckets on hand. do you suggest the 80% all at once or like 40% now 40% in morning? i just didnt wanna take out any good stuff with such a large wc. Also since everything crashed will my tank go through another full cycle or a mini one or none

Cloudy water? Like milky? Could be a bacterial bloom.
That would wipe out all your O2 in the water and kill your fish.

if by milky you mean a white cloudiness then yes

There is NOTHING good about ammonia/nitrite in your water. What good stuff do you mean? Zoas need no supplemental feeding or any dosing. IDK where you're getting all this bad advice from but please stop listening to them. Sounds more like someone trying to sell you a lot of crap you don't need.

i was talking about the good bacteria if there is any left. Obviously i KNOW ammonia and nitrite are not good. And it was my buddy that told me that not a salesman. all he said is with my lighting i might want to do a little supplement feeding untill i get my new lighting

Do you skim your tank?

Yeah, if you do, that thing must be overflowing!

yes i have one of my bak-paks with pre skimmer on it right now and yes it is going haywire... i have a sump and a urchin skimmer just havent set it up yet

Bacterial bloom then. Mate do not feed particulate food as you don't need to as it will break down, make a carbon source and cause blooms.
Get a powerhead pointed at the surface to promote gas exchange and stop dosing everything. Big WCs aswell.

ok thank you sorgan

Seriously mate stop dumping stuff into your tank unless you understand what's going to happen. I feed my corals because they require feeding, I also skim my tanks to silly levels and run measures to prevent blooms. Zoa's need no food

I think he's learned his lesson the hard way. Not the 1st...

ya i know only reason i did was it came from a trusted source but guess it blew up in my face