I could have lost everything!

[scolley]

Just wanted to share with my ARKSC club buddies a major boner I pulled yesterday. As many of you know, I've been working on this tank for more than 5 years. It's not finished, but it is the direct result of a couple years research, followed by three years pulling together a pest free starter tank, and then two year of growing out that first system in a new, more esthetically pleasing tank. And I almost destroyed all that work (and $$$) in in a few hours yesterday! Wow.

Instead it was just a very close call. I got lucky.

It all boiled down to careless clicking on my Apex controller web page, and a magnesium dosing jug that was luckily getting low.

But all's well that ends well. I put the whole sortid story here as a cautionary tale for others.

Happy Reefing.

 

[EvilMel]

Nuts! Glad it wasn't worse.

 

[Collinrb]

phew! good thing you take such care of your tanks

 

[scolley]

Thanks folks! But as it turns out I spoke too soon... my sea stars are having a really tough time, if not dying. Did not notice last night when it happened. I've go a magnificent red brittle that I'd hate to lose. And a brown brittle that was the first saltwater invert I ever had. And it's looking bad. And even worse... my CUC was primarily the hundreds and hundreds of brittle stars in my rock. Those guys are nowhere to be found.

Gonna try some water changes to see if that helps turn things around. Fingers crossed.

 

[skip0211]

Hmmmmmm.... Apex

 

[scolley]

LOL!

I ain't the Apex... It's the Apex user. But this is why I don't really use the app. Nor leave the web page up when I'm not using it. Too easy to accidently click something.

 

[dudemeister]

As you know been there, done that. Turned my sand bed solid by overdosing Calcium but no apparent losses. Perhaps this is the event to cause you to UPSIZE your tank? ;-)

More volume, more room for forgiveness!

Let me know if you need anything.

 

[scolley]

Yeah... this would have not even registered on the radar if it had been in my 180g. Having a nano CAN contribute to instability. But that's been part of the fun of this tank, having a nano, but making it uber stable.

I guess I have to modify that to "uber stable, MOST of the time."

 

[Masedaddy]

Very glad the crisis was adverted for the most part! Cuc is much easier to replace....

 

[scolley]

Cuc is much easier to replace....

No a large population of micro stars. Hard to find. Not available in quantity anywhere (assuming you can find even one available for sale).

Not many people care about them, but IMO they are one of the biggest reasons my corals are so happy. Their little skinny arms keep all the little holes and pores in my live rock squeaky clean. It'll be a major drag if I lost them.

On the positive note though - my two large stars have moved (so not dead yet) and I've spotted a number (a small number) of the micro stars today, where there were absolutely none to be seen yesterday. So they are all not dead. Yet.

 

[peter15]

Fingers crossed.

 

[scolley]

Thanks pal. There are more micro stars out today. So IMO they are recovering. Their population is regulated by the food supply, and they multiply fast. So I'm quite relieved to see that at least some portion of the polulation remains, and appears to be recovering. I'm sure in a month or three I'll be back to full population.

But the big serpents are another story. The one brown one that I've had since I started reefing is moving around, and even responded to some Mysis today. But the red one - while having moved out into the open - has a gruesome hole in its side. It appears to be alive, but not responding to food or touch. Will hope it can mount a recovery.

D*mn. All because of an inadvertent mouse click. Go figure.

 

[EvilMel]

I LOVE mini-brittle stars. They're really cool.

I need to get some for my current tank.

 

[scolley]

I LOVE mini-brittle stars. They're really cool.

I need to get some for my current tank.

If I can tease any of these out of their nooks and crannies, I'd be more than happy to give you some. They reproduce fast, and are killer CUC IMO. Let's see where this recovery goes...

 

[EvilMel]

Thanks!

 

[scolley]

FIW my various sea stars are hanging in there. Was not a complete star crash after all. The red one looks ROUGH, yet it is still alive, so maybe a full recovery can happen with time.

Also a strange things happened. This week my water testing revealed a big dip in Alk, and a not insignificant drop in Ca. Needless to say my Mg is still higher than I ever keep it. But the Alk and Ca drop (that had been quite stable) appears to be due to an increased uptake rate - a coral growth spurt. So I'm wondering if the elevated Mg caused it.

I did do two large (25%) water changes. But ESV is higher in Alk than I keep my tank. And I believe (not sure though) the same is true for CA.

So I'm going to let my Mg settle a little higher than the 1350 that I keep it at, to see how that works out.

 

[skip0211]

What were the ALK and Calk numbers .. We have discussed my surprise ALK drop when I was in vacation .. Mine went to 6.2 and I don't know for how many days 1 - 8..

Skip

 

[scolley]

Skip - my Alk was exactly where I like it a week ago... 7.7. And it's worth noting that in the course of a week, a swing of 0.3 or 0.4 would be a BIG swing for me, caused by a clogged dosing line or something. But to my shock, today it was 6.1. I was so stunned I ran the test three times.

Ca had been exactly where I want it too... 450. And it's been pegged on 450 for several weeks. Yet today it had fallen to 435. Granted that's not a lot. But Ca gets sequestered in calcium sinks, so sometimes a drop can represent a higher consumption the numbers seem to indicate. You might pull a lot from your calcium sink before the numbers even move at all . Conversely, that's why it can seem so difficult to increase sometimes... You gotta fill the sink before the Ca concentration in the water moves at all.

Long story short... Huge move for Alk. And a smaller apparent move for Ca, but that does does not necessarily reflect the potential magnitude of calcium consumption.

 

[Masedaddy]

Doesn't your Alk and Ca get driven down when your Mag goes up?

 

[scolley]

Doesn't your Alk and Ca get driven down when your Mag goes up?

Seriously? What kind of magic would do that?

Which BTW would not apply in this case... my Mg is not that high anymore anyway. It's only 1390 now. I assume the two water changes, lack of Mg dosing, and possibly this apparent growth spurt have knocked it back to a reasonable level - even if 40 ppm higher than I normally keep it.