[bruha]

Hello, I have had a 30 gallon tank setup for 7 months now. I have 3 24" VHO bulbs for lighting and had some candy cane, open brain, and some mushrooms. Last week my candy cane and brain coral were stripped of their flesh. I woke up to find the green color of the coral still there, but there was no flesh. I thought maybe it had retracted into the coral, but after a couple days it was obvious they were dead. I had a sun coral die in the tank about a week earlier and the only thing that has survived is my mushrooms. Any ideas what happened here? I do a water change of 5 gallons every 2 weeks. My salt water is all premade at the LFS and I buy prepared fresh water from the same source. So I am rulling out water. I introduced a sun coral before these problems occurred and also an emerald crab. I also added about 10lbs of live rock to the tank right before the die off. I was advised not to add anything to my tank for a while, which i'm doing. I figure I will wait a month or so before I put anything else in it.

My other question regards fish. When adding fish is it necessary to have a quarantine tank to put them in before adding to the main tank? Also, how long they need to stay in the Q-tank before adding to main tank? Should all fish be put in Q-tank? What are some good reef safe fish?

Thanks,
Corey

[patsfan1130]

Originally Posted by bruha

Hello, I have had a 30 gallon tank setup for 7 months now. I have 3 24" VHO bulbs for lighting and had some candy cane, open brain, and some mushrooms. Last week my candy cane and brain coral were stripped of their flesh. I woke up to find the green color of the coral still there, but there was no flesh. I thought maybe it had retracted into the coral, but after a couple days it was obvious they were dead. I had a sun coral die in the tank about a week earlier and the only thing that has survived is my mushrooms. Any ideas what happened here? I do a water change of 5 gallons every 2 weeks. My salt water is all premade at the LFS and I buy prepared fresh water from the same source. So I am rulling out water. I introduced a sun coral before these problems occurred and also an emerald crab. I also added about 10lbs of live rock to the tank right before the die off. I was advised not to add anything to my tank for a while, which i'm doing. I figure I will wait a month or so before I put anything else in it.

My other question regards fish. When adding fish is it necessary to have a quarantine tank to put them in before adding to the main tank? Also, how long they need to stay in the Q-tank before adding to main tank? Should all fish be put in Q-tank? What are some good reef safe fish?

Thanks,
Corey

Going to need more info regarding your coral quandry. (water perams/additives etc)

as far as Q/T is concerned...I highly recommend you Q/T everything (including inverts) for 6 weeks before adding to your display

[Jimbob]

More information is definitely needed to try and offer more help.


It is possible that you had anammonia spike from adding 10 lbs. of LR to such a small system (unless of course you had quarantined the LR for 4-8 weeks prior to adding it to your display). The die-off taking place in the freshly added LR would spike ammonia rather quickly in a small enclosed space such as a 30G.

What are your other params?

Alkalinity
pH
Ammonia
Nitrite
Nitrate
Phosphate
Salinity
Temperature

These are important things to consider. Also, what is the temperature fluctuation in your system each day?

Did you change any of the bulbs within a few days prior to this happening?