Weak/Pissed Off Corals!!! Help!

[iTzJu]

Some people have no problems what so ever using 2 others have their whole tank wiped out in a matter of hours. This would lead me to believe there are manufacturing inconsistency or there is an issue with shelf life. I really hope I'm wrong and this is just a mini cycle.

hopefully, that isn't the case. its been over 24 hours and all livestock regarding fish and shrimp seem ok, no mysterious deaths or odd behavior. hopefully that is still the case when i get home tonight. i am hoping this is just a mini cycle and nothing else.

 

[hcker99]

hopefully, that isn't the case. its been over 24 hours and all livestock regarding fish and shrimp seem ok, no mysterious deaths or odd behavior. hopefully that is still the case when i get home tonight. i am hoping this is just a mini cycle and nothing else.

At a min. I would run heavy carbon and go from there.

 

[iTzJu]

At a min. I would run heavy carbon and go from there.

I think thats what I'll do tonight, i already have a bag of carbon in ther sump. going to run a second reactor with carbon.

 

[iTzJu]

I am showing signs of ammonia in the system .3 or .6, my test kit is a hagen kit for ammonia so I really cant tell between the two colors. I suspect a mini-cycle. Hopefully this is the reason why my corals are pissed off and not due to the silicone I used. Livestock as far as fish and shrimp are still alive and acting normal. My zoa's dont seem to effected. my sps look ok, from what I can tell. no bleaching or anything that I can notice. My frogspawn has developed a white fuzz on one of the heads. I am all kinds of stressed, I am just hoping this isnt due to the silicone. I dosed 150ml of Special Blend to try and help out on the ammonia side. hopefully this subsides..

If this was the silicone wouldnt the zoas be effected too? I would think those would be the first to go or my sps. I mean, wouldnt the sps just bleach out due to the chemical exposure? all my inverts in the tank who are usually the most sensitive to chemical changes seem to be doing fine?

 

[iTzJu]

I've read more and more about GE Silicone II and I am just slowly dying inside. is there anyone that will be willing to hold on to some coral for me till I get this issued fixed?? I will be more then happy to frag out what I can when my sps or what ever I have grows out. (I only have frags right now) I also have a shipment coming in tomorrow and I dont want those to go to waste either.

 

[Chrisgarrick]

I put a 70 gallon sump in. Used plain silicon. Didn't have any issues. Hope it works out.

 

[joeyhatch11]

My 15x15x7 work tank was put together with GE II and its been up and running for 6 months now with no problems. Also my 33L home tank with 20L sump was resealed with it as well and again no crazy side effects from it. The home tank has been up and running for 5 months. Id like to think its not the silicone.

 

[iTzJu]

My 15x15x7 work tank was put together with GE II and its been up and running for 6 months now with no problems. Also my 33L home tank with 20L sump was resealed with it as well and again no crazy side effects from it. The home tank has been up and running for 5 months. Id like to think its not the silicone.

I've used it in past projects as well, so far resealed a 40 gallon and used it on 3 different sumps, this being the 4th. I also let this sump cure for 2 weeks before I water tested it. I always picked up GE II. I don't know. I am just freaking out. for lack of a better term, I am panicking. The logical side of me believes I am experiencing a mini cycle, I added two power heads that could of taken care of some dead spots in the tank which in turn could of picked up on debris on the display causing some sort of spike. I also removed a 5" DSB and about 15lbs of live rock in my old refugium and replaced it with just a 2" clay bed and about 8lbs of the rock in the new refugium section of my sump. I've also lost about an extra 10-15 gallons of extra water room due to the downgrade from the 30 gallon to the 20 gallon sump. I tested my water and it showing about .3-.6 of ammonia, so logical me is pointing to mini-cycle. freaking out me, is blaming the silicone and regretting I picked up II instead of I.

 

[hcker99]

I am showing signs of ammonia in the system .3 or .6, my test kit is a hagen kit for ammonia so I really cant tell between the two colors. I suspect a mini-cycle. Hopefully this is the reason why my corals are pissed off and not due to the silicone I used. Livestock as far as fish and shrimp are still alive and acting normal. My zoa's dont seem to effected. my sps look ok, from what I can tell. no bleaching or anything that I can notice. My frogspawn has developed a white fuzz on one of the heads. I am all kinds of stressed, I am just hoping this isnt due to the silicone. I dosed 150ml of Special Blend to try and help out on the ammonia side. hopefully this subsides..

If this was the silicone wouldnt the zoas be effected too? I would think those would be the first to go or my sps. I mean, wouldnt the sps just bleach out due to the chemical exposure? all my inverts in the tank who are usually the most sensitive to chemical changes seem to be doing fine?

First thing...get rid of that hagen test kit. Go pick up a salifert. .3 or .6 is a huge difference when it comes to ammonia. I'm not 100% convinced your issue is the silicone. If it was then everything would be dead by now. Now ecambero's i definitely think was the silicone as everything was dead within 12-24 hours.

 

[iTzJu]

First thing...get rid of that hagen test kit. Go pick up a salifert. .3 or .6 is a huge difference when it comes to ammonia. I'm not 100% convinced your issue is the silicone. If it was then everything would be dead by now. Now ecambero's i definitely think was the silicone as everything was dead within 12-24 hours.

yeah, I know. not the best kit but it's what I had laying around for ammonia. (I never thought it would be an issue after my tank cycled) I'll pick up a salifert kit tomorrow.

I am not 100% convinced it's the silicone either, like I keep saying. I am just freaking out. I mean, if it was the silicone i suspect everything to be dead already. The zoas are open, I have a variety too. my SPS have not bleached out, has not shown signs of STN/RTN, the polyps are just not extended. The only ones showing major issues are my devil hand coral, yellow polyps, frogspawn (white fuzz has started to grow), duncan and shrooms. surprisingly the torch opens up alot but the sweepers just look weak.

 

[reeferwanabe]

It seems you let the silicone cure long enough but even then I gurantee its the wrong silicone. I always use the tubes they have at depot they keep with the glass and plexiglass. 100% silicone white with red lettering. I have built at least 20 sumps and never had an issue.

 

[iTzJu]

Update*****

So I picked up a Salifert Ammonia Test kit and I ran the test 3 times and all three test came out <0.25 and to be safe I wanted to see how my Hagen kit would compare and that kit gave me a reading of 0 for ammonia. I also picked up a small pad of poly-filter just so I can see the color that it would change to after its been in my sump for awhile. Overall, it seems like my tank is stabilizing now. I dosed the rest of the bottle of Special Blend this morning and Nite-Out II. I havent lost any livestock till now and this is day 3 of the sump change. The shrooms are actually expanding now, and the white fuzz that was on the frogspawn has dissapeared, but it looks like some tissue damage happened. I still suspect the 80% of the corals are still pissed but they looked less pissed then before. no SPS has bleached as of yet. I actually received a new shipment of some zoas and red plant acro and they look like they are doing fine so far. the polyps on the red planet are actually out right now. only time will tell. I will probably do a 10% water change this weekend and maybe set up a frag tank with the spare tanks I have.

 

[TanksNStuff]

Something on that last post caught my attention. When you said "white fuzz" that to me sounded like a possible coral attack. Do you have any other corals withing a few inches of the frogspawn?

 

[iTzJu]

Something on that last post caught my attention. When you said "white fuzz" that to me sounded like a possible coral attack. Do you have any other corals withing a few inches of the frogspawn?

I had a devil's hand coral like about 6" away from the head that had the "white fuzz".

 

[iTzJu]

Updated #2 ***

Tank looks soo much better now, I am pretty confident to believe this happened due to a mini-cycle and not because of the silicone that was used. Ammonia spike through the roof which pissed off/damaged all my corals due to a major overhaul I performed last Sunday. All the corals, except my SPS look like they are bouncing back. Shrooms, Torch, Frogspawn, Yellow Polyps, Zoas, Trumpet and GSP are looking good, way way better then 2 days ago. SPS, however seem like barren skeletons. is it possible for an SPS to die out before it bleaches? I always thought they bleached first before dying?

Also, thanks guys for all the input! I've learned never to use GE II just to be on the safe side and always expect a mini-cycle after major over hauls.

 

[iTzJu]

Update 3 **

Tank has stabilized and all the zoas and lps I have are recovering. I eventually lost all my SPS corals except some monti caps which I hope they can recover. I only have one SPS frag and it is the red planet I received when the tank was stabilizing, hopefully that can make it. I have a bad outbreak of cyano after all this. I think my RODI membrane needs to get replaced, it's been 6+ months since I last touched it, so my TDS on my top off and salt water might be higher then it should be. now, to just battle that cyano and try restocking back my tank with some SPS!

Thanks again for all the input when I was freaking out about my tank! lol I really appreciate it.