Full Tank Crash :/

[Daltonbilecki]

Full Tank Crash :/

Man I'm so sorry for your loss. I agree with Dave though, those bubbles look very foamy and when my skimmer overflowed the bubbles had a tint to it because of all the gunk. Those bubbles are very white


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Zik]

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

Thanks again for your help earlier Dave

No its actually sockless. The only sponge is on the waste gate of the skimmer, which I hose down once a week, AND I added a very small amount of newly purchased sponge into the sump baffle which I rinsed thoroughly the previous night, trying to seed with bacteria for a qt see up.

That was done 12+hours from any crash

No other sponge or pads. But I do agree that it looks and acts like soap..
But doesn't smell like it, and other noses confirmed no cleaning supply smell

 

[laverda]

Wow really sorry about your loss. I can not imagine how bad that must feel.
I have to agree with Dave, It does look like soap bubbles. And the bubbles are higher in the compartment to the right. Could something fallen in your sump? I would definitely check it carefully.
I would lower the water level in the sump and skimmer to get it working better and keep dumping the cup or unplug it all together. And more water changes. Good luck!

 

[five.five-six]

#1 hit me up once your tank settles down and you are in corona, I’ll set you up with a little SPS starter pack N/C

#2 Dave is spot on. That foam looks like detergent. And not laundry detergent as it has an anti foam additive. Looks like dish soap got in your tank. Reminds me of when we were in high school and would get drunk and dump a bottle of dish soap and red dye in the fountain Arcadia park.... what do you suppose the statute of limitations is on that?

 

[rvareef]

only time ive seen this much foam is when adding brand new filter socks that have not been washed, they have some sort of manufacturing residue, also seen water clairifiers and prime do this

 

[five.five-six]

Detergents have a lot of phosphates, do a phosphate test and if they are off the chart...

 

[d-man]

Sump lvl rising caused skimmer overflow. Skimmate in the water now caused the extra foam production.

As far as everything crashing, that is strange within a few hrs except maybe ammonia increase, but even in a few hrs it's hard to believe. Even with a drop in salinity (which is low but not deathly. Either way, sorry to hear

 

[o2manyfish]

I'm wondering if the new sponge you added to the baffle is the cause. Totally theoretical, but somewhere inside the middle of the foam sponge could have been some contaminant from the manufacturing process. And it just took 12+ hours for whatever that was to get wet, dissolve, and then get transported out of the middle of the sponge. Or it was some chemical that was from the extrusion machine (like a release agent) that was on the surface of the sponge and again it took awhile for enough of the surface area to get wet and get the chemical from inside all the nooks and crannies out of the sponge and into the tank water.

Dave B

 

[pga7602]

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

I have to agree with most here, that there is something missing. I can't believe a couple of hours can make foam like that... cloudy.. yes, but not foam that dense.

That said, once you get things back up you might consider the following. Like most, I have designed my ATO reservoir to last 4-5 days of evaporation. Yes, I actually sat there, made a mark on a temp reservoir, marked how much evaporation per day, and pour out remaining water to figure out volume.

When I go on vacations, I use the entire 4 gallon reservoir and ask my father to top off the ATO as needed anytime I go for more than 4-5 days. This is the only time, I fill it all the way up. On any given day, I have roughly 2.5 gallons at most in my bin. It does sound like a hassle, but in the event my ATO dumps water into my 90 gallon reef, it just keeps going.

As for the Skimmer issue, you should look into a device call a skimmer tender, or hook it up to a apex. I don't have this issue because I run my skimmer externally. I don't really trust internal skimmers anymore, after multiple overflow issues and my sps suffering.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4EsnOMtho0

 

[Dwarfmoray]

So sorry to hear this happen to a super nice guy too. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help, I would be happy to give you some frags once you get your tank back in order and I have some growth to trim

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

[Chels.Marie]

Oh no such a bummer!! I haven't run a skimmer in years because I'm terrified of something like this happening. I just got one though, guess I'll have to be extra careful. So sorry for your loss

 

[m0nkie]

You can prevent your skimmer from overflowing. drill the skimmer lid and add a float valve on the top. hook up that float valve to control the power supply of the skimmer so once the cup gets full, the power shuts off.

or something like this that has everything I just mentioned..
https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/reef...RIli9yWkFyGRn8S5LjH0oL-IfA6KXvAEaAnbwEALw_wcB

I don't think it's the skimmate either.. I've had those flood multiple times before. It did create some foam, but it was nasty skimmate foam. and the whole cabinet turned black. but it did no damage to the tank beside algae outbreak

 

[Zik]

Thanks for the rest of the notes. That skimmer float switch is a real smart idea.
Dave - I guess that is possible, but impossible to know at this point.

I tried running the skimmer again, seems like it just acts just like yesterday. I doubt I will be able to get everything out of this water even with 100% WC, so because of that - the tank is going offline. It would need a full restart, and I JUST started a new job today, so that will be put on hold.

With that said - it DOES appear that my zoas are only ****ed, but still alive.I contacted a local member to see if he's down to take them, but if not - let me know who would be interested in grabbing the bunch. Once (if) I get back up & running, I only request some frags back.

There are 2 conditions with this deal.
1) Since I just started up a new job, and it's a bit of a commute, you would need to either link up w/ me @ my house in simi valley ~7am before work, or be flexible enough to meet me at my house ~9/10pm pending schedule
2) I will be selective with who gets them if there are multiple people - and will choose someone I am either familiar with, or has a decent reputation on the forums. Rather give all to 1 person since I don't have time to link up with many.

I HIGHLY ENCOURAGE you to cut everything off the rocks as much as you can. Some zoas are open right now even, so they're def strong. You'll get a nice fat variety of:

Multiples of each. Prob 4-10 per type at the minimum. 20-50 on others
WWC Illuminati
Blue Hornet
Red Hornet
Ultimate Chaos
Utter Ultimate Chaos,
Pink Diamond
Fruit Loops
Sakura Sunrise
Fire and Ice
Rainbow Incinerator
Sunny D
And honestly probably 20 / 30x+ other types

Let me know who would be interested in this, and its best done ASAP. I'll keep the thread posted if my local friend does not want them

 

[ricosreefer]

Pm sent zik

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[calistyle]

Ahh man. I'm here in Simi if you need any help getting back up.

I'm recovering from a mini crash myself, so not sure I can help hold for you, BUT all my zoa's are fine, so if you get to a point where you need to move quickly, I'm available.

PM info incoming.

 

[nashorn]

I won't trust my tunze anymore since it has failed twice and even after I sent it in the 1st time.
I added a float switch to turn off power to it if sump gets to high.
But not sure adding 5 gal to 70 + gal tank will drop salinity that much.

 

[Zik]

Thanks for the amount of support & pm guys, really means a lot. My local bud is willing to hold them for me - but what's interesting enough is that after 2x days of being ****ed... every zoa is open. Like nothing ever happened...

Every sps tho... oh they white. Every LPS as well minus 2x hammers & 1 other lps.
Even hairy mushrooms... hairy freaking mushrooms were splitting and acting as stressed like I've never seen them.


--- Interesting enough. Went to start my skimmer yesterday, it foamed up once in 5 mins, again in 10, then again in 1 hour. Very very slow, vs. before it was once every 30 seconds. It kind of makes me think it was going through a 'break-in', because I would assume if my tank had a chemical dumped into it, the skimmer should still be going nuts, even if I were to start it 3 days, 1 week, 1 month later, right? Because that chemical is still in my tank until it's taken out - what I assume.

Yeah things will soak it up, but I doubt my foam would be this calm 3 days later IF dish-soap was poured in.

Thoughts?

Current debate is:
1) Be lazy & watch tank as is, watch a few algae outbreaks & see what happens
2) Empty & clean everything out, then spend a ton of $$ on new rock/sand/water

 

[iSeeMax101]

One of your fish did Tide Pod challenge
Smdh

 

[pga7602]

Thanks for the amount of support & pm guys, really means a lot. My local bud is willing to hold them for me - but what's interesting enough is that after 2x days of being ****ed... every zoa is open. Like nothing ever happened...

Every sps tho... oh they white. Every LPS as well minus 2x hammers & 1 other lps.
Even hairy mushrooms... hairy freaking mushrooms were splitting and acting as stressed like I've never seen them.


--- Interesting enough. Went to start my skimmer yesterday, it foamed up once in 5 mins, again in 10, then again in 1 hour. Very very slow, vs. before it was once every 30 seconds. It kind of makes me think it was going through a 'break-in', because I would assume if my tank had a chemical dumped into it, the skimmer should still be going nuts, even if I were to start it 3 days, 1 week, 1 month later, right? Because that chemical is still in my tank until it's taken out - what I assume.

Yeah things will soak it up, but I doubt my foam would be this calm 3 days later IF dish-soap was poured in.

Thoughts?

Current debate is:
1) Be lazy & watch tank as is, watch a few algae outbreaks & see what happens
2) Empty & clean everything out, then spend a ton of $$ on new rock/sand/water

Please dont over react. For sure 1. Its too much of a coincidence your ato malfunction the day your tank crashed. Occam's Razor

 

[Zik]

One of your fish did Tide Pod challenge
Smdh

Dam hipsters

Please dont over react. For sure 1. Its too much of a coincidence your ato malfunction the day your tank crashed. Occam's Razor

Pretty true. Plus #1 is the "free" route that saves me $500+/headaches/time/effort

I think a solid month or two fallow should give me a better idea of what the status is