Sorry for MIA for a while, its been a little set back in my system in the last two months.
So the story began around 2 months ago, one morning noticed my Rr Pink Floyd didnt have good pe like normal. I knew for sure something wrong happening because its my indicator corals in the 100 gallons system.
(If you new with this term, I always pick one corals in my system that ALWAYS has good polyps extension to be the indicator. Everytime I walk by the tank, I have a habit of quickly look at that coral. Every systems has a different one. For example both of my systems have rr Pink Floyd, but only the Pink Floyd colony in this 100 gallons system always has CRAZY pe. On my 45 gallons system, the Asd doomsday colony was the one instead.)
Come back to the story, I did 20 gallons water change and change GAC (more than normal amount). Its my procedure everytime something goes wrong (~everytime I notice my indicators coral doesnt look happy).
The next day everything brown! And I meant everything! Fishes still look normal, active and eating. Water still crystal clear. Temp, alk normal.
Not even have the time to think what happens, I saved a cup of water for later ipc test and I did another 50 gallons water change.
The 3rd day some random frags started rtn. Horrified, I remove whatever can remove and transfer them to my other system. (Its the new frag system with has been set up and running for...7 days). The other that encrusted to the rock and couldnt remove I cut branches of them and move those to the frag tank with the hope I can save some. Did another water change. Still, I dont know what wrong!
Think of some possibilities like something drop into the tank. I checked carefully, nothing.
ICP test come back with the results of everything normal. Only phosphate was high (0.3ppm, yes, not 0.03, but 0.3). I havent test for phosphate since...forever so I have no idea what number to compare. How high is high? So I run to my buddy house and...test his water! (His system is a copy version of mine, same filtration, same reefing philosophy) and he has...0.35ppm of phosphate! So the problematic didnt come from phosphate.
Meanwhile the corals look worst and worst day by day. Getting super brown/dark and super skinny. I was stressed. Still, I couldnt find out what wrong. The real problem is dont know whats cause the problem, isnt it?
Only one possibility that I cannot eliminate:
Check out this picture
Hes sunbathing like every day! And spraying sunblock like crazy! Spray 2 bottles at the same time! Meanwhile I have window open with fan turn on (to dehumidify). I was able to smell the fume standing inside my house!
A buddy of mine said I am paranoid! But its kind of make sense.
First, the corals went from colorful to super brown in 2 day > something poisonous infected the tank.
ICP test confirms that no heavy metal or traces overdosed
Fishes showed no sign of distress mean if poisonous dropped into the tank, its a very little amount.
Its suitable with my theory of sunblocks spray. Because its only a little getting into the room and end up in the tank.
Let me know what you think?!
Almost 2 months later, the corals that I left in the 100 gallons getting healthier slowly everyday. And I havent lost anything!
Whenever the corals I moved into my new frag tank keep rtn one by one.
I dont know because most the one I moved to the frag tank was frag (they were not encrusted) so they had smaller change of survival or moved them was my mistake (huge one) since the tank was new.
But heres the casualties: (therere a lot more I threw into the trash bin already!)
