Fish are fine Coral is BAD - Emergency!!!

Get a grounding probe VHO will do the same thin all fluorescent tube will cause the problem. The reason being that the electricity dances all along the outside of that tube also.. Like with a wire I can test for power and voltage with my ampprobe and simpson meters and never touch the bare wire . Its not like water in a pipe current actually dances along the outside of the wire and under the wires insulation.

 

I have stray current all the time and never have had any problems with my big system I dont think that is the problem I would check mag levels though.

 

back to your levels of light, what are they? and what are your Ca,Mg,salinity,dKH,O2?

 

my light was PCs from aquatraders. the 4 x 55 watt with 2 daylight and 2 actinic. this lighting was working great for the last year with no issues so I don't see how that could change overnight.
My calcium is 500
salinity is 1.025
dkh is 6
I don't have a Mg test kit or 02. The only store nearby is out of stock of both they said they get a shipment tomorrow. I've been busy with work and thanksgiving so maybe tomorrow I can try them or another store.
Would the Mg drop off overnight and result in the corals all turning from perfectly healthy to shriveled?
I also noticed my royal gramma is missing for a couple days which is the same time this all started. The clown and damsel are fine. Cleaner shrimp is fine. Small snails are moving around but the big one is not.
How can Mg and 02 go bad overnight?

 

Mg and O2 wont drastically change overnight. are you getting dKH and meg/L switched around. for Ca @ 500 the dKH should be around 15 dKH or 5.35 meq/L. corals need the dKH in order to use the Ca.
SaltyZoo's Alkalinity Reading Conversion (meq/l / dKH / ppm CaCO3) Utility
most cases, in order for corals to literally die overnight something had to have been introduced in the tank that killed them. maybe you noticed a decline instead of instant death. heres some web sites to help you out.
Advanced Aquarist's Online Magazine - Lateral Lines: Classification and Terminology For Reef Aquarium Lighting

Chemistry and the Aquarium

Reef Aquarium Water Parameters by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

Calcium and Alkalinity by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com

for now the only suggestion i can make is to do a large water change ( 50% ), that will minimize any unknown disease and bring the paramaters within specs.

getting rid of the stray voltage will also help.

 

May be something was added to the water

HI,
Most of my dedicated saltwater stuff is isolated in the garage, but if someone cleaned the garage or stirred up some dust who knows what could happen,
many of the houshold items in our homes are deadly poisions to many animals. example I had someone smoke a couple cigs in my house and my tree frogs got sick, they were that sensative to the nicotine.
You wash your hands with soap or someone borrows a water bucked to mix up something and you don't know it and that stuff even though its a trace amount can be intraduced to the water column.
I tell my wife don't spray that air fresh stuff in my tank room.
heck I ve evne seen those so called freindly pest control guys kill my fresh water tank cause they sprayed the outside of my house.
Lots of junk floating around in our homes.
PSPs they sell all kinds of GFI outlets even power strip gfi's at lowes, if there's a tiny short it trips and then you get to plug in each item till it trips again.
its a pain but I have'nt been shocked in a year i plug a large power stip into a single gfi that way i only need two..
PS lights only last about 8 mos max before you most change the bulbes. any excessive salt bridges on the light means you may have corrosion, any rust products from the lights may have heavy metals like copper,and other nasties.
Doug
and any drastic addition of buffer in my tanks and all my corals, LTA's start pulling in for days.

 

well i did like a 30% water change so hopefully that helps. The LFS didn't get the Mg test in for their shipment but i can get one at a lil further away store tomorrow. I just don't think it was something like that. It was definitely an overnight change. It wasn't a decline. I look at my tank every single day. It had been growing great lately. My hairy mushrooms split and a few weeks ago my feather duster popped his head off but a smaller one grew back. So this tank went from looking great and all the corals fat and bright to all corals retracted and the mushrooms bleached.