Full Tank Crash :/

[Zik]

Well, I made it right to the 1 year + 1 month mark. Went to church this morning, all seemed well - came home to a microbubble/cloud filled tanked, & everything (like.... everything!) dead.

All fish, all SPS, and 75%+ of the LPS looked like they're gone. SPS were finally starting to do real good too! Every softie/zoa is also closed, but we'll see what happens if they come back

Did water changes w/ what I had available, & as fast as my RODI unit will put out, but in reality there's only "so much" left to save. Also put in some Prime to hopefully nullify any ammonia in there. Pretty toast.



Unsure wth happened, but what I did come home to was 90% of my ATO dumped into my tank (back-up sensor didn't stop it), as well as my sump looking like a bath tub full of foam. My assumption is whatever set everything off, after the skimmer started acting up and filling up, whatever crud was in the skim-cup went BACK into the tank, and killed the rest of the tank.

Real sad moment, but only so much you can do!

Time to do some WC, try & get that skimmer back under control, and wait for everything to stabilize.

Oh the learning tank just keeps on teaching :/
Thanks every1 who I reached out to for input, really appreciate your advice, as well as any1 else who my have suggestions.

 

[five.five-six]

Keep everything that has any life on it at all, it’s amazing what can coem back.

 

[hersheyb]

Hmmm a tank crash within hours?? Were u running Kalk on ur ato? I've had my skimmer overflowed a few times dumping all the poop back in the tank but wasn't bad enough to crash the tank..


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[jacobl]

Sorry to hear, which ATO do you use, is it due to siphon act that it dumped 90%? That’s one thing that I noticed my ATO reservoir keep dripping if I filled it too full

 

[Zik]

Keep everything that has any life on it at all, it's amazing what can coem back.

Yeah, I'm not going to toss anything. A few weeks ago, I noticed an interesting red monti growing.. turned out it was a reverse superman monti I got 8months prior + tossed out. Guess 1 polyp survived & came back!

Hmmm a tank crash within hours?? Were u running Kalk on ur ato? I've had my skimmer overflowed a few times dumping all the poop back in the tank but wasn't bad enough to crash the tank..


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Nope, no kalk, & my 2part doser was offline since I was letting alk slowly drop from 8.7 back to ~8.2. Never got the chance to turn it back on
No idea what could have died so fast to cause all that havoc.

I have a grounding probe as well, so IDT it was electrical

Sorry to hear, which ATO do you use, is it due to siphon act that it dumped 90%? That's one thing that I noticed my ATO reservoir keep dripping if I filled it too full

No, no siphon. The pump is @ the bottom of the ATO container, and the tube does not sit into the sump water.

Sadly, it was the Tunze Osmolator. Out of all my equipment, I spent $$$ on that guy hoping to avoid situations like this. But I can't point fingers since I still don't know what caused it.

Thought maybe the anemone, but it still looked alive (just stressed cause everything else was dead!)

 

[moondoggy4]

Sorry for your loss, I hope that you can save a bunch.

 

[jeepguy242]

foamy sump doesn't make sense... freshwater doesnt foam, and low salinity water foams less

anything else maybe dump into the tank....


i have has my skimmer overflow more than several times and nothing happened.... its just putting bak what was already in the water...

 

[pga7602]

Sorry to hear. May I ask how big your tank is and how much water was in your ATO?

 

[jacobl]

I had the same issue with my Tunze ATO, luckily the float 2ndary valve works to stop the ATO. Tunze could not find anything wrong with the controller for couple times, they end up replacing the controller

 

[Pepbill]

What's your salinity and temp at? In my experience animals tolerate salinity going down quickly but not up quickly.

 

[dodgerblew]

When you say 90% of your ATO was empty how full was it when you left? How big is the reservoir? Was the water level in your sump raised up too? That would explain the skimmer overflow if the water level is to high. The overflow just dumps into the water what was there originally. It wouldn't kill anything that quick. Is your salinity low now?

 

[ricosreefer]

Probably ato overflowed sump and that made skimmer freak out cuz of water rising. Then skimmer probably dumped all the waste into tank. It's happened to me before

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[Zik]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. Freshwater was a 5gal jug, with ~4.5 of it dumped into the tank (75gal tank and 15gal sump). ATO was full as of last night

Salinity went from 1.026 norm, and was ~1.021/22 when I got home & checked

Yes sump water level raised. I'm real lucky the foam didn't go over all the electrical.

I simply don't get the foam thing either. We were all out of the house as well, except dad who was sleeping. But here is pics. The tank cloudyness is actually microbubbles from skimmer

Every sps is now fully gone, with 90% of LPS out of skin. We'll see if zoas end up surviving.

This foam freaking acts like dish soap. No matter how much air i restrict on the venturi, it still fills up the cup & acts like freaking dish soap..

& yeah, the skimmer cup was ~1/4 full of dry skim gunk, so the moment it went back into the tank, ammonia was probably through the roof

*This pic was taken once I got home. Any color you see is now wihte

 

[ricosreefer]

Skimmer dumping out probably caused a bloom that killed it all. I've had the same thing happen with that foam when skimmers overflow. When the skimmer overflowed it kept bubbling over and through the holes in the lid then into the sump. Luckily when it happened to me I didn't have any waste in the cup

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[ricosreefer]

Skimmer dumping out probably caused a bloom that killed it all. I've had the same thing happen with that foam when skimmers overflow. When the skimmer overflowed it kept bubbling over and through the holes in the lid then into the sump. Luckily when it happened to me I didn't have any waste in the cup

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Super sorry that this happened by the way man. Sucks.

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[Zik]

Skimmer dumping out probably caused a bloom that killed it all. I've had the same thing happen with that foam when skimmers overflow. When the skimmer overflowed it kept bubbling over and through the holes in the lid then into the sump. Luckily when it happened to me I didn't have any waste in the cup

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You know I'm beating myself up big-time for thinking last night "ill clean that skimmer cup tomorrow morning"

 

[ricosreefer]

You know I'm beating myself up big-time for thinking last night "ill clean that skimmer cup tomorrow morning"

Man that sucks. I would be devastated as well. I would pin it on the skimmer causing a bloom that's why it's cloudy. Have you tested for ammonia?

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[Zik]

Man that sucks. I would be devastated as well. I would pin it on the skimmer causing a bloom that's why it's cloudy. Have you tested for ammonia?

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With the amount of death, there's no need to test for ammonia
You can smell the death walking in the house

Only so much that can be fine at this point. Chin up, move forward

 

[NVTE]

Sorry to hear about that Zik .

 

[o2manyfish]

There was no bloom from a skimmer cup overflowing within a couple of hours.

Matt, seeing the photos of the sump. Did you change or replace a filter sock or a filter pad. That's a ridiculous amount of 'foam' not bubbles. Normal salt water can't support that kind of foam. Is there a chance that a pad, or towel, of sock with detergent was used?

And it appears the foam is on the side where your overflow returns... With the incoming water that should be helping break apart the foam, and ye the foam is the same height.

Dave B