I think my system is crashing...help

[theo]

My system has been up for about a year and a half. I just recently switched to ro water and this is the only change I've made. My water is now hazy and my corals are shriveling. Any thoughts, ideas, anything?

[Gordoe]

what are your water parameters? Livestock?

[theo]

Amonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates very low
KH 10
Ph 8 - 8.2
calcium 400
the tank water just started clouding up and things started to shrivel. All my fish seem O.K. I found my cleaner shrimp dead but hadn't started to break down yet. I'm not sure if he was the problem or just a symptom. All my softies are scrunched up and look like s**t. The only thing I've done different is started to use an RO unit that I bought used. I used tao water that has been serving me well for about 1 1/2 years and changed about 30 gallons of water in a total mass of bout 100 gallons.

[Gordoe]

Is there any possibility you connected the RO unit in reverse, and ended up with someone dirt instead. Maybe chlorine or copper??

[Dman]

Theo,
Sounds weird, I saw you tanks Last Sunday they looked fine. The RO unit couldn't be the cause, especially if you have been using tap water all this time. What is you water change regimen like? I was a little concerned about your substrate, mostly 'cause I've never seen that used before, but if it has worked for a year and a half then go figure (me scratching my head). Removing Fibi should not have caused this type of problem either. So I'm at a loss.
If your water is clouding up it usually means there is an abundance of an additive, but you don't use any, except iodine, right? My buffer will sometimes make my water cloudy (if I overdo it), resulting in my softies getting mad, but it never lasts more than a couple of hours. Wish I could be of more help
Dman

[canadawest]

Do you have a refugium, or a bunch of macro algae somewhere in your tank?

It could be that it went sexual, as this will cause a clouding of the water, and excess organics.

In any event, sounds like you need to be doing some water changes 10-20% every other day for a week to get the water back to normal. I would also recommend running some activated carbon for a couple days to help absorb any toxins that may be in the water.

HTH

[reefburnaby]

Hmmm....

This is a long shot, but one of your corals may have become sexual. In this case, a male coral. The white hazy stuff is possible sperm from the coral. The only problem is that it is the wrong time of the year and the moon is in the wrong position. :)

Anyway, large water change should do the trick and run that skimmer. The problem with things going sexual is that there is a sudden increase in livestock load on your tank -- so, there isn't enough oxygen for the corals.

Best of Luck.

- Victor.