boy did i fu#* up

[rhino509]

well i just got done watching 4 possibly 5 corals all just die within the past 3 days.tank has been going for about a year,but just now decided i wanted baffles in the sump,so i went and had the glass cut(which i was dissapointed in,lowes only had 2.5mm thickness glass,but itll do) asked my lfs which type of caulk or silicon to use(asked about 3 months ago when i was originally going to do this project) i was told(so i thought) i could use ge silicon 1 or 2,so when i was at lowes they only had the smaller tube of it in silicon 2,so i grabbed a big tube and the tooth paste sized tube(to get hard to reach areas) of the silicon 2,came home,emptied the sump,figured where i wanted the glass,and proceeded to install the baffles.i let it cure overnight and add the system water back into the sump.a while into the cycling of the water to/from the tank,the water started to get cloudy.i let it run just figuring it was bubbles from filling sump once pump was running(let it run overnight) to wake up to the tank still cloudy and all the corals are sucked up,the mushrooms are shriveled(or starting to) and no fish to be seen.i was devastated.my tuxedo urchin was secreting white stuff(on top of dropping all his stuff)

so needless to say the first thing i did was empty the sump,then called the lfs that i asked and asked again,he said silicon 1,not 2,as soon as he said that,it clicked,i remembered him telling me that 3 months ago,i was so damn mad at myself i didnt know what to do.i started with going and getting the right silicon,i stripped out the baffles,scrapped off ALL the silicon from the sheets and from inside the tank,reinstalled the baffles once again with ge silicon 1 (turns out silicon 2 has bio-seal to prevent mold),let it cure and added system water back into the sump(along with the 30 gallons i took from the sump) it seemed the animals were getting better as the water cycled(with the exception of the corals), fish back to eating/being active.

so today is full day #1,no cloudiness from the new silicon at all,sump seems to be working the way i wanted it to(kind of),i had the sheets cut too tall so the water level in the sump has to be extra high,as far as the tank goes,i have no idea what should be my next move.should i do continous water changes? should i just wait and see what happens? should i gut the entire tank and start from scratch?(please dont vote this option,i will problably cry.......literally) sorry my post is so long,i just dont know what to do next......thanks for your time

 

[Chris Clark]

Yea sorry to hear that, Id maybe do a few water changes to make sure you get that water back to normal..

 

[magdelan]

Along with doing some water changes, I would ride this thing out. You have done what you could do by scraping off the old silicone 2 and re-doing the baffles with #3. Unfortunately, you may have lost some coral but, the fish seem to be making a come back. Good luck to you!

 

[BeesGoneWild]

I would do a water change asap and then do them continually through the week. I wouls also put in an extra big helping of carbon with good flow on it. Goodluck

 

[rhino509]

thanks for the word people.my fish list includes flame angel,foxface rabbitfish,neon dottyback,and two twospot gobies,and as far as i know,the gobies would be the sensitive fish of this group(unless im mistaken) and they are eating and active as normal.i definately think i will ride it out,water parameters are looking good actually.even though i dont test for phosphates at this time,was told by lfs that having hair algae is the only test kit i need.i take his word serious becuase he has lots of years under his belt,along with a few thousand gallons of saltwater heaven under his belt.but other than that,alk,ca,mag,ph,ammonia,nitrite,and nitrate all look good.how do i know once a coral is all the way dead? two of them are already starting to have algae grow on them(i take it they are all the way gone) and 2 more are pretty much all the way white.do i brake them off now or wait till they are all the way dead?

 

[aquarius77]

Let them in there till you know for absolute sure they are dead and not comming back. Alge on them is a good sign of death and so is flesh peeling off.

Its hard to say when something is dead because i have an acro that laid in the back of someones tank as a frag for over a month, then in a new 14 g biocube laying around in the substrate, i then realized it was alive and put it in my ten gallon under pc lighting. After a few months of that i switched it to my 20g display under metal halide and had some more die off. NO exaggeration there was about an 1/8 inch spot (on a very small frag to begin with) that was still alive at this point. I fragged everything dead off it and mounted it to a plug and today its about a half inch tall with full polyp extension and a beautiful metallic green hue.
Dont count a coral as dead till you know for sure nothing at all is alive on it. I would say to watch them for a month or so.

 

[everl0ng]

good luck rhino and i am sorry to hear about everything. definitely get that carbon in there asap!!