Reef Bass
colors and textures
As soon as I walked through the front door I could smell something wasn't right. Sure enough, tanks were somewhat cloudy and almost every sps looked at least bleached if not dead. All z and ps closed tight. Trachy shrivelled and gaping. Kole tang pale.
If I were on Jeopardy, it would be "I'll take Things That Suck for $2000 please Alex".
Quick system check. All pumps were on. Temp was beautiful. Lights were fine. Skimmer foaming. No dosing pumps stuck on. No ro-di left on. Like an idiot I stuck my hand in the sump to check for stray voltage. Nothing.
It was like someone poured poison in my tanks while I was at work.
I went back to my sump, got on my hands and knees and scrutinized my heaters. Sure enough, one of them was blown. The thick walled glass tube of one of my Jager heaters was split in half. Cause of tank poisoning identified.
This is the part where, once again, I have to acknowledge what a fine, helpful representative of club spirit Grant is. Between us we set up 2 10gs and a 20g with freshly mixed salt water, pumps and heaters and transferred all the mostly white, mostly dead looking sps to the small tanks. That was a lot easier to write than to do. Thank you Grant for your assistance with the doing and for providing some of the equipment and water.
I was not excited about moving already way stressed corals to freshly mixed water with no acclimation other than temp, but that was better than leaving them sit in 150g of toxic waste.
I emptied the gfo canister in my gfo and carbon reactor and replaced it with two cups of carbon.
The next morning the small tanks looked ok, or as good as can be expected. I did see some micro polyp extension on a few pieces, so there was some hope. That day I spent making ro di water and adding salt. Then in the evening I did about an 85 gallon water change, roughly 60%. I used the opportunity to vacuum my sand bed too. And after the big tank was full again I transferred all the corals back in.
Here now 4 days later I am very pleased (and relieved!) to report that almost everything is still alive. All sps bleached pale almost white, but alive. Some are beginning to show hints of their former colors. Zoos and palys open. Fish looking good and eating and behaving well.
I was impressed by several things during this event. First, I was super relieved the cause wasn't anything overtly stupid I did myself, like leaving ro water going into the tank or something like that. Second, I can't believe how fast my tank full of relatively well colored corals turned super pale white dead looking. Less than 12 hours. While still in the right temp with the usual lighting and gobs of flow. Un-freakin-believable.
Third, fish can live in sewage compared to corals.
I am surprised I didn't get more upset at the time, but that's more of a testament to how focused on work I am at the moment. Plus getting upset wouldn't have helped. I had to take action and get upset later.
There's also the realization that, just as in life itself, accidents can happen out of the blue and threaten everything through no fault of your own. That's an unfortunate vulnerability and the reality.
Bottomline I was incredibly fortunate to have avoided a complete and total wipeout.
Originally I thought I was going to have to turn the white corals brown first and then hope for some color eventually, but some are hinting at color already. I'll just have to be patient. Sigh.
If I were on Jeopardy, it would be "I'll take Things That Suck for $2000 please Alex".
Quick system check. All pumps were on. Temp was beautiful. Lights were fine. Skimmer foaming. No dosing pumps stuck on. No ro-di left on. Like an idiot I stuck my hand in the sump to check for stray voltage. Nothing.
It was like someone poured poison in my tanks while I was at work.
I went back to my sump, got on my hands and knees and scrutinized my heaters. Sure enough, one of them was blown. The thick walled glass tube of one of my Jager heaters was split in half. Cause of tank poisoning identified.
This is the part where, once again, I have to acknowledge what a fine, helpful representative of club spirit Grant is. Between us we set up 2 10gs and a 20g with freshly mixed salt water, pumps and heaters and transferred all the mostly white, mostly dead looking sps to the small tanks. That was a lot easier to write than to do. Thank you Grant for your assistance with the doing and for providing some of the equipment and water.
I was not excited about moving already way stressed corals to freshly mixed water with no acclimation other than temp, but that was better than leaving them sit in 150g of toxic waste.
I emptied the gfo canister in my gfo and carbon reactor and replaced it with two cups of carbon.
The next morning the small tanks looked ok, or as good as can be expected. I did see some micro polyp extension on a few pieces, so there was some hope. That day I spent making ro di water and adding salt. Then in the evening I did about an 85 gallon water change, roughly 60%. I used the opportunity to vacuum my sand bed too. And after the big tank was full again I transferred all the corals back in.
Here now 4 days later I am very pleased (and relieved!) to report that almost everything is still alive. All sps bleached pale almost white, but alive. Some are beginning to show hints of their former colors. Zoos and palys open. Fish looking good and eating and behaving well.
I was impressed by several things during this event. First, I was super relieved the cause wasn't anything overtly stupid I did myself, like leaving ro water going into the tank or something like that. Second, I can't believe how fast my tank full of relatively well colored corals turned super pale white dead looking. Less than 12 hours. While still in the right temp with the usual lighting and gobs of flow. Un-freakin-believable.
Third, fish can live in sewage compared to corals.
I am surprised I didn't get more upset at the time, but that's more of a testament to how focused on work I am at the moment. Plus getting upset wouldn't have helped. I had to take action and get upset later.
There's also the realization that, just as in life itself, accidents can happen out of the blue and threaten everything through no fault of your own. That's an unfortunate vulnerability and the reality.
Bottomline I was incredibly fortunate to have avoided a complete and total wipeout.
Originally I thought I was going to have to turn the white corals brown first and then hope for some color eventually, but some are hinting at color already. I'll just have to be patient. Sigh.
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