Jonas 3.13, 150G of Miracles fun
- Thread starter ojonas81
- Start date
Out on a business trip and got a call yesterday from my wife saying that the drum of the APEX AFS had fallen in the tank. All the pellets were soaked and had to be discarded. Apparently the skimmer was working hard as well. Hopefully this was a one time thing. Anyone else had the same issue?
Back again from two weeks vacation in Europe (Sweden and France). Let both tanks (DT and QT) run by themselves fully automated. Did have an emergency person available just in case.
The tanks looked surprisingly well after not being attended to for two weeks. All fish were accounted for, both in DT and QT. Did however lose a few SPS. Did find a few possible reasons for this:
Both the WP-40 had stopped making the water flow much less than it should. Cleaned both in a vinegar bath and then then were both back in action. Turned off CA dosing for now until the parameters comes down again closer to 450 ppm where I want them. Doing the opposite with the alkalinity and dosing extra to bring it up to 9.0 dHk where I would like it to be.
Did not expect to see the salinity increase that much until I realized why. Since I was going to be gone that long I used one of my large 32 gallon brute containers to store all the RO/DI top-off water in. The same brute container I selected for this task happened to be the same as I normally use to mix fresh saltwater in. Guess some build up had leached back and I was effectively topping off with water that had some salt in it. Over time it raised the salinity in the DT. I am working on slowly bringing it back down to 1.026 where I want it.
Could any of these have caused the death of some of the SPS? Or maybe all together became too much for them to handle?
On a happier note it seems like the Powder Brown tang have gotten rid of his growth and looks very healthy. Like all other fish in QT. Unless I should not, I will add them to the DT tonight. Any reason to wait longer at this point?
Will provide updated photos soon as well.
The tanks looked surprisingly well after not being attended to for two weeks. All fish were accounted for, both in DT and QT. Did however lose a few SPS. Did find a few possible reasons for this:
- Both WP-40 had stalled
- Salinity was high at 1.029
- CA was high at 565 ppm
- Alkalinity was low at 6.0 dHk
Both the WP-40 had stopped making the water flow much less than it should. Cleaned both in a vinegar bath and then then were both back in action. Turned off CA dosing for now until the parameters comes down again closer to 450 ppm where I want them. Doing the opposite with the alkalinity and dosing extra to bring it up to 9.0 dHk where I would like it to be.
Did not expect to see the salinity increase that much until I realized why. Since I was going to be gone that long I used one of my large 32 gallon brute containers to store all the RO/DI top-off water in. The same brute container I selected for this task happened to be the same as I normally use to mix fresh saltwater in. Guess some build up had leached back and I was effectively topping off with water that had some salt in it. Over time it raised the salinity in the DT. I am working on slowly bringing it back down to 1.026 where I want it.
Could any of these have caused the death of some of the SPS? Or maybe all together became too much for them to handle?
On a happier note it seems like the Powder Brown tang have gotten rid of his growth and looks very healthy. Like all other fish in QT. Unless I should not, I will add them to the DT tonight. Any reason to wait longer at this point?
Will provide updated photos soon as well.
Transferred the fish from QT to DT last night after lights out. So now the Powder Brown tang, Yellow tang and 5 Chromis happily are swimming around in a much bigger home. This morning they all seemed to be very happy and active.
Think I am getting close to be done adding more fish for now. At least bigger ones. I still want more gobies in the tank and a possible jawfish again.
One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was that after I got the WP-40s to work again after cleaning my return pump quit working. When it rains it pours right? Read here that it was not an uncommon thing to happen to this pump and seemed lime the DC controller was to blame in most cases. Before going too far down that road I decided to do a full cleaning of the pump. Soaked it in another vinegar solution and then reassembled it. That did the trick and now the pump return is working again. Just got lucky it decided to stop working after we came back from vacation and not during. Not sure how the tank would have looked if the sump would have been offline for up to two weeks. Need to do more frequent cleaning of the pumps in the future I think.
Think I am getting close to be done adding more fish for now. At least bigger ones. I still want more gobies in the tank and a possible jawfish again.
One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was that after I got the WP-40s to work again after cleaning my return pump quit working. When it rains it pours right? Read here that it was not an uncommon thing to happen to this pump and seemed lime the DC controller was to blame in most cases. Before going too far down that road I decided to do a full cleaning of the pump. Soaked it in another vinegar solution and then reassembled it. That did the trick and now the pump return is working again. Just got lucky it decided to stop working after we came back from vacation and not during. Not sure how the tank would have looked if the sump would have been offline for up to two weeks. Need to do more frequent cleaning of the pumps in the future I think.
Here are some pictures that I promised.
First out is one taken right after I got back from our vacation showing the tank in an untouched state after two weeks of neglect. That is followed by some new FTS as well as some of the SPS that has suffered from the lack of maintenance. It may be too late for some of them but for a few I have still hope.
Have started to bring down the CA and up the Alkalinity. Will start adjusting the salinity down tomorrow as well. Hope that by the end of the week have all parameters in check again.
First out is one taken right after I got back from our vacation showing the tank in an untouched state after two weeks of neglect. That is followed by some new FTS as well as some of the SPS that has suffered from the lack of maintenance. It may be too late for some of them but for a few I have still hope.
Have started to bring down the CA and up the Alkalinity. Will start adjusting the salinity down tomorrow as well. Hope that by the end of the week have all parameters in check again.
Here are some pictures that I promised.
First out is one taken right after I got back from our vacation showing the tank in an untouched state after two weeks of neglect. That is followed by some new FTS as well as some of the SPS that has suffered from the lack of maintenance. It may be too late for some of them but for a few I have still hope.
Have started to bring down the CA and up the Alkalinity. Will start adjusting the salinity down tomorrow as well. Hope that by the end of the week have all parameters in check again.
It time to see how fast it will recover
Will update with some pictures tonight but the tank is not recovering as quickly as I was hoping for. Think I may have stopped the recession of SPS death but lost a few more pieces over the last week. Got the salinity in check but having issues with the alkalinity and calcium. Not sure if it is my test kits that are incorrect or something else going on. Seems like I cannot keep the parameters stable (except for Mg).
One day I got these measurements:
Alk: 8.7
Ca: 550 (Red Sea test kit, Hanna checker flashed 600)
The next day (yesterday) I got the following:
Alk: 7.6
Ca: 350 (Hanna Checker, Got 500 with Red Sea kit).
Not sure what the culprit is here. I am not so worried about the alkalinity as the values are still within range, although it should not fluctuate so much on a daily basis. The calcium is all over the map. I am also having "issues" with part of the sand (mainly the one in the front of the aquarium) clumping together like concrete. Don't know why that is happening. All the other sand is nice and soft.
Did a water change two days ago and will do another one later this week. All fish looks very good as do the two RBTA, zoas and all LPS. Inverts are also doing well including the mantis in the fuge.
Not sure what to do next more than keep testing and hopefully get everything stabilized soon. Any suggestions of action to take?
One day I got these measurements:
Alk: 8.7
Ca: 550 (Red Sea test kit, Hanna checker flashed 600)
The next day (yesterday) I got the following:
Alk: 7.6
Ca: 350 (Hanna Checker, Got 500 with Red Sea kit).
Not sure what the culprit is here. I am not so worried about the alkalinity as the values are still within range, although it should not fluctuate so much on a daily basis. The calcium is all over the map. I am also having "issues" with part of the sand (mainly the one in the front of the aquarium) clumping together like concrete. Don't know why that is happening. All the other sand is nice and soft.
Did a water change two days ago and will do another one later this week. All fish looks very good as do the two RBTA, zoas and all LPS. Inverts are also doing well including the mantis in the fuge.
Not sure what to do next more than keep testing and hopefully get everything stabilized soon. Any suggestions of action to take?
Got late very quick but have a whole bunch of photos ready for posting. Most of them are coral pics before and after my issues. Will post them tomorrow. Below are a few teaser ones of the full tank as well as a few very bad ones on my shy Mantis shrimp that lives in my remote fuge.
Enjoy.
Secretively Mr. Mantis.
Got two new corals a few days ago as well. If anyone knows the names please let me know.
Finally a few corals that still are doing really well to cap the day off.
Zoa garden, current state to the left.
Enjoy.
Secretively Mr. Mantis.
Got two new corals a few days ago as well. If anyone knows the names please let me know.
Finally a few corals that still are doing really well to cap the day off.
Zoa garden, current state to the left.
My fight to get back to where I want the tank continues. Think I got the alkalinity stable now as well as the salinity back to normal levels. Next up is to get calcium stable as well. Having some difficulties with that. Hopefully I have stopped the crash at least.
Here are some before and after pictures of my SPS. The recent one is to the left and the state the same coral was in at its prime to the right. Not a pretty sight.
Here are some before and after pictures of my SPS. The recent one is to the left and the state the same coral was in at its prime to the right. Not a pretty sight.
xtlosx
Just Reefin'
I just went through an unexpected Alk swing about a month and a half ago now, and recently have gotten the dreaded RTN\STN on some of my acros... Some were taken out completely, some have lost a lot of growth, stalled, and I hope they begin growing back eventually, but I feel your pain.. It sucks especially when things started going well (finally in my case) and then this happens. It's frustrating..
Yeah. Hope I will bounce back relatively quick. Just glad this happened now (it it would happen at all) and not later when all my frags were big colonies.
Funny thing is that I have now realized how nice some of the frags actually looked before the crash. When you see them every day you don't necessarily realize that but now when I compare them side by side in the photos above you can see just how good they were (or how bad they are now).
Funny thing is that I have now realized how nice some of the frags actually looked before the crash. When you see them every day you don't necessarily realize that but now when I compare them side by side in the photos above you can see just how good they were (or how bad they are now).
xtlosx
Just Reefin'
Tell me about it... It's depressing, but for me in my alk swing, the ones that lived through tissue recession, just stopped receding one day magically... They stalled, and at some point begin to grow again.
Did a fresh test tonight and came up with the following:
Alk: 7.9
Ca: 379
NO3: 0.25
PO4: 0.09
Looks like I may have stabilized the alkalinity and calcium for now. Just need to raise the calcium level some to 430. Phosphate is also going down but still a little higher than what I would like.
Alk: 7.9
Ca: 379
NO3: 0.25
PO4: 0.09
Looks like I may have stabilized the alkalinity and calcium for now. Just need to raise the calcium level some to 430. Phosphate is also going down but still a little higher than what I would like.
Well the battle continues. Tested Ca, Alk and Mg tonight again and the alkalinity seems fairly stable but Ca and Mg is still a major issue.
Alk: 8.2
Ca: 313
Mg: 1000
Can I really drop from 379 to 313 in just 24h? Did the test twice. One time with my Hanna Checker and one time with the Red Sea Pro kit. They both matched. Granted I have reduced the dosing for Ca due to it being in the 500 before. Will up the dosing some and try to manually bring it up with about 40 ppm per day.
Mg was 1100 last time I checked 4 days ago. A water change happened between as well. Seems like a big drop for just 4 days unless the 1100 was really 10XX instead.
On the good side is that I have not seen any further STN/RTN. Hopefully I have stopped the fall by now.
Alk: 8.2
Ca: 313
Mg: 1000
Can I really drop from 379 to 313 in just 24h? Did the test twice. One time with my Hanna Checker and one time with the Red Sea Pro kit. They both matched. Granted I have reduced the dosing for Ca due to it being in the 500 before. Will up the dosing some and try to manually bring it up with about 40 ppm per day.
Mg was 1100 last time I checked 4 days ago. A water change happened between as well. Seems like a big drop for just 4 days unless the 1100 was really 10XX instead.
On the good side is that I have not seen any further STN/RTN. Hopefully I have stopped the fall by now.
