AHHH, what did I do???

[cjanlui]

Okay yall, I don't post very often and just moved here to SA. I've had my 100 gal for about 3 years. Moved here couple months ago and found that my corals "enjoy" the water. They were on RO/DI in San Diego. Did water tests last night because of a little cyano on my green stars. Here's #'s: ph-8.4 to 8.6, AM-0, NI-0, NA-5, PO-0. the only wierd ones was KH was 5-6, and CA was 360. SG 1.025 like they like it!
I was noticing my water was a little yellow and CA was lower than I normally keep it-but then so is the KH.

Anyway, This morning I added a small carbon pad in the filter sock in my sump. I waited about 2 hours. I filled the top off reservoir with RO water which is a first for a while. and added some Reef calcium to the reservoir. The top off added about 1/2 gal and an hour later added another 1/2. My corals started freaking out.
The star polyps have retracted 1/2 way. The frogspawn is thick and stalky, almost white with the only color being at the tips. My bubble is completely flattened itself out with only little bubbles at the tips. My mushrooms have turned cone shaped almost. My hammer heads have retracted into their stems with only the tips sticking out. and my toadstools have all of their polyps retracted.

I removed carbon immediately and it's been about 1/2 hour, no one's doing any better.

What is this and is there anything immediate I can do to stop it? Maybe my RO filters have gone bad. We've only used it for drinking water since we moved. Or maybe mixing calcium and carbon not so good.
Thanks for the help in advance

[Texreefer]

i would leave the carbon running,,, what kind of ca additive are you using,, with the look of those level you need to be more worried about ALK thn Cal.. if you added a gallon of concetrated calcium to your tank in two hours you are probably seeing your corals freak out because of the precipitation of the calcium out of the water..
do you have a TDS meter to check your RO
i would get some more current flowing in there and do a few water changes over next few days

[cjanlui]

Calcium: REEF CALCIUM, by seachem. I did not add a gallon of calcium :-). I added about 30 ML (6 capfuls) of calcium to a 5 gal tank of fresh topoff water made by my RO system. In turn my Top off added 1 gal of water to system.
Question: If your filters need changed on your RO/DI system, does it just allow water to bypass without cleaning it or does it re-release gunk into the water? If it is just clogged it would be the equivelant of adding tap water right? I have only been adding tap into my tank for the last 5 months.
I'll go check my numbers now.
Only change since 20 min ago is blasto's perked up a little and the polyps on the toad stools are 1/2 extended. Mushrooms still look like they're going to melt.

[cjanlui]

Okay, retest. Tested KH-6, Also tested the tap ALK (10) and RO unit ALk (0). Tank CA 400, PH 8.4 NA- 5. Maybe it's something I'm not testing for.
It looks to me like I NEED the tap water for the ALK. But how bad is San Antonio water really, anyone know? Especially after all of this rain. I have seen a lot of people lately comment on cyano.
I have some SeaChem reef builder for the carb. alk. Any opinions on this?

[cjanlui]

The frogspawn is loosening up but it's still extremely retracted. And the bubble is still flattened out but the bubbles at the edges are inflated a little bit more. 1/2 of the stars are out.
I think I'm going to dump the make up water, keep the carbon out and do a 10% water change here in about 4 hours.
I still can't solve my air bubble problem either. I have tons of bubbles in the tank. Not micro bubbles from my skimmer but like the water is too oxygenated. I keep blowing them off the corals and snails but it just comes right back. Maybe this has something to do with it?

[Bill S]

Where are the bubbles coming from and are you sure they are bubbles and not precipitated calcium?

[safeuerwehr]

Did someone say snow? most likely precip.