Tipping snails, Nitrate spike and a nem on the go!

Things in our tank just did not seem right for a few days. we began to notice that our corals just did not seem happy. Perhaps i should back up a coupla weeks or so. I moved a few of our corals around because my brain coral was beginning to bleach (I wanted to bring him to about 1/2 tank depth instead of 1/4). Anyway he was to close to my Kenya tree and we had ourselves a territorial war. Well since that happened we have had quite the battle on our hands. We lost our bubbletip anenome within a day or so after the war. our rock nem was not faring to well either, but seemed to be hanging on. he lost the ability to grip his food at least larger peaces anyway. Our pulsing xanias quit pulsing. The kenya slumped down but has since popped back up. We did do a water change after we pulled the nem out. now back to the problem at hand. Everything seemed to go back to normal until a week or so ago. My chemisty was way off. -- cal-200, mag-(was to low to test so had to be under 1000) alk-14, ph-8.3. --- i began to add more cal and mag to my top off water (each morning instead of every other) i ran my cal test each day and it never came up. i doubled my mag input and now have that at 1240 and my cal has come up to 220. my alk came down to 11 and my ph is at 8.4. i ran my nitrate test 20 ppm and my nitrite is at .5 no amonia level. My salinity level is at 1.027 (how this happened i am baffeled at. i will have to run a calibration test on my refractometer.) i know these are not in the extreme levels but i have snails tipping over (one did die but was removed before any decomp had taken place), my sand sifter is moving rather slowly and not burrowing. The before mentioned Rock nem does not look to good. This morning he was drooping badly from his semi-vertical perch he calls home. I do now see a small section on the top next to the outer edge that is a light tan color. It looks to be a different texture as well. My wife thinks the nem is the problem and wants me to remove it. I'm ok with this if i'm sure its the issue and not something else.
Ok, i think that brings anybody who has read this thread up to date. I am going to do a 30 gal. water change tomarrow. Can i get some input on what causes nitrate and nitrite to rise. and what causes snails to lose their suction ability. It seems to me that whatever is causing this is effecting the larger turbos more so than the other snails varieties we have. Any and all input will be greatly appreaciated.

 

Most likely the coral war is still a problem. Try running carbon to pull out the chemicals from the warfare. It is a good idea to run carbon in tanks with softies and nems. Your corals will start recovering when you get your CA to around 360. Your alk will most likely drop to around 8 or 9 but this is not a problem as long as you keep the values steady. The nitrate and nitrite spikes can be due to deaths you have not seen and decomposition from overfeeding. Skim wet to help remove the chemicals causing the spikes.

 

thanks! i am running carbon 24/7 and GFO. will bump up my skimmer to skim a little more wet. and perhaps your right about the die-off with the amount of LR we have in the tank its impossibe to see in the cracks. still having difficulties getting my cal. to return to a safe range. not sure whats going on there. using agrimilk as my suppliment right now, going to go get kalkswasser tomorrow. using epsom salts to replenish my Mag levels but am being persuaded to spend the mony for soda ash. will be an interesting next coupla days. any input on the nem removal???

 

If it looks like it is going to die get it out of there. You can raise your CA 50 PPM per day safely. Your MG is OK where it is at. Getting it up to 1300 will help with getting your CA up. The CA and MG additions will cause your alk to lower. As long as your alk stays above 7 dKH it will be fine. The kalk will boost your pH if you aren't real careful. It needs to be slowly dripped in.

 

understood. thanks K++ for being the only one out there in reef land to lend some advise.