I'd do a water change asap, even if your param's are good. (Always check your param's 1st when things are off.) If your param's are good, you might want to run some fresh carbon. Something might have polluted your tank. You say that your lights need changing. Without more detail I can't comment for certain but my guess is that old bulbs shouldn't cause all your coral to stress out and die all at once.
Sometimes hasty things like water changes can actually stress things and make things worst, especially in very small nano tanks. .
I am under the train of thought that water changes are always good.
Whenever I see anything that looks abnormal in my tank, a water change is always the first course of action and only further justified by parameters being off.
I am under the train of thought that water changes are always good.
Whenever I see anything that looks abnormal in my tank, a water change is always the first course of action and only further justified by parameters being off.
Never heard a wc could be a bad thing, but then I've never had a nano. Interesting info.
That's what I've always thought.
I take it you are under the train of thought of medicate first diagnose later as well? Cut first measure later?
A hasty water change will not only skew your test results, but again, it can cause a large shift very quickly in a small tank. In a larger tank like we have the water change isn't as much of an issue.
I'd do a water change asap, even if your param's are good. (Always check your param's 1st when things are off.) .
I did recommend the "diagnosis" as a starting pointit obviously wouldn't make sense to test param's after a wc.
"... it can cause a large shift very quickly in a small tank." This is a good point, but if his param's are off to the extent that they are killing his coral, I still stand by my recommendation to do a wc. To avoid a potential drastic shift caused by a big wc in a very small tank, multiple smaller wc's could be done. In any event, I would personally do a wc if all my corals were distressed, especially if one has already died.
I take it you are under the train of thought of medicate first diagnose later as well? Cut first measure later?
You assumptions are incorrect.
While keeping our tanks, we are unable to maintain the stable parameters found in the natural environment, one of which is stabilizing water chemistry including micro and macro nutrients. Though we attempt to maintain these parameters artificially through dosing and other means, the only true recourse we have to "reset" the manipulation we intentionally create is a water change. In this hobby, and in my line of thought, a water change is the only true return to a natural condition we can create inside of our tanks.
As such, this is the exact opposite of medicating or manipulating conditions in the tank as a first response.
Multiple small water changes are ALWAYS better than a single large water change.
So water change first test later? Good luck with that. I'll stick with knowing what the problem is before I act, hopefully others will too.