Just got back from two weeks vacation in Europe (Sweden and France). Let the tank run by itself fully automated. Did have an emergency person available just in case and a couple of web cameras pointed at the tank.
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 so very little water movement
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?
Below are some pictures showing the "damage".
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.
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 so very little water movement
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?
Below are some pictures showing the "damage".
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.
