Eric Boerner
Coral Cutter
I am typically the patient reefer. Having been in this gig for over almost a decade, I've learn the fast way out isn't always the best. Well, this week, I had a "Eric, that was a dumb thing to do" moment.
It started with recalibration of my pH probe. My pH has been on a slow down swing going from a nice steady 8.2/8.3 to a recent 8.0/8.1. I've been doing more frequent water changes lately due to a cyanobateria bloom at the start of winter. Anyway, I've learned recently that the Reef Crystal batches sent out recently have been poorly QA'd. I assume my pH has been lowering because of my water changes. Safe to say, the cyano is gone. Unfortunately, because of my lowered pH, my calcium reactor hasn't been coming on as steady as it has been, and the recent week, it hasn't fired up the cO2 at all.
I tested everything else, and as you'd think, Calc is at 400, dKH is at 8. Not an emergency, but much less than the 480/10 it was at two months ago.
I think to myself, no problem, I'll pick up some kalkwasser this weekend and bring it back up with my top off. That'll get my reactor back in line again. Problem solved, live on...
But wait... here is this bottle of Seachem Carbonate Alkalinity that I've had under the tank for ohhh, I dunno... 3 or 4 years. If I start dosing a little of this now, I'll help get my dKH and pH up a bit until my kalkwasser arrives in the mail. I'll just add 'half' of what the recommended dosage is 50 ML. After all, its not going to hurt anything right?
Wrong...
Within minutes of putting 10 capfuls into the sump slowly, every single anemone I have in the tank shriveled up. My SPS start sliming, pulling their polyps into their skeleton as much as possible.
Ok... that doesn't look good.
Im thinking at this point, I dosed too much. I must have spiked the Alkalinity in the tank. So I test again. pH is still 8.0, calc is still 400, dKH is still 8. No significant change. So it couldn't be a spike. Perhaps they're irritated. Maybe I added it too quick, and it'll mix in an hour or two.
I sent an email to Seachem just in case, asking if this activity has been reported before. I got a reply 2 days later, after all is said and done, much too late to help anyway;
I had decided to do a partial water change that evening anyway. I changed out another 30 gallons (15%) with the same Reef Crystals, and tested yet again. No detectable changes, 8.0, 400, 8 dKH. I shut the lights down and hit the sack.
By morning time, 18 out of 36 SPS were bleached, the other 18 looked 'bad' and all 16 anemone were all balled up more than usual at night time.
I freak out of course.
I performed another 30 gallon water change that morning, and tested... 7.9 pH, 380 calc, 7 dKH.... It's getting worse.
Sadly, I had to run off to work. I needed to make more RO water anyway. By the time I got home, lights were on, and another 5 SPS bleached. The anemone were not closed up, but still didn't look as flowing and full as they usually do.
I did another 30 gallon change. Tested it.... 7.9 pH, 380 calc, 7 dKH.
So here I sit with a bleached reef tank, anemone looking ill, but seemingly recovering, and crappy water parameters. All because of bad salt... A product that "Irritated" my corals to the point where they'd bleach... and an impatient dumb moment in my brain.
I sent a follow up email to Seachem on their response asking if it was possible that their product may have gone bad over a 4 year period.
In other words, you're bleaching event was completely coincidental when you added our product to your tank. There’s no way possible that one happened because of the other. Even if you hadn't put it in your tank, you would have had a bleaching event. Don’t blame us, were not responsible.
Yeah, right...
Morale of the story. Don't have dumb moments. Don't be impatient and do the 'quick fix'. Don't use products that have been sitting under your stand for more than a year, even if the company claims to have an indefinite shelf life. Don't use salt that is badly QA'd even after you already know that it wasn't manufactured correctly.
It started with recalibration of my pH probe. My pH has been on a slow down swing going from a nice steady 8.2/8.3 to a recent 8.0/8.1. I've been doing more frequent water changes lately due to a cyanobateria bloom at the start of winter. Anyway, I've learned recently that the Reef Crystal batches sent out recently have been poorly QA'd. I assume my pH has been lowering because of my water changes. Safe to say, the cyano is gone. Unfortunately, because of my lowered pH, my calcium reactor hasn't been coming on as steady as it has been, and the recent week, it hasn't fired up the cO2 at all.
I tested everything else, and as you'd think, Calc is at 400, dKH is at 8. Not an emergency, but much less than the 480/10 it was at two months ago.
I think to myself, no problem, I'll pick up some kalkwasser this weekend and bring it back up with my top off. That'll get my reactor back in line again. Problem solved, live on...
But wait... here is this bottle of Seachem Carbonate Alkalinity that I've had under the tank for ohhh, I dunno... 3 or 4 years. If I start dosing a little of this now, I'll help get my dKH and pH up a bit until my kalkwasser arrives in the mail. I'll just add 'half' of what the recommended dosage is 50 ML. After all, its not going to hurt anything right?
Wrong...
Within minutes of putting 10 capfuls into the sump slowly, every single anemone I have in the tank shriveled up. My SPS start sliming, pulling their polyps into their skeleton as much as possible.
Ok... that doesn't look good.
Im thinking at this point, I dosed too much. I must have spiked the Alkalinity in the tank. So I test again. pH is still 8.0, calc is still 400, dKH is still 8. No significant change. So it couldn't be a spike. Perhaps they're irritated. Maybe I added it too quick, and it'll mix in an hour or two.
I sent an email to Seachem just in case, asking if this activity has been reported before. I got a reply 2 days later, after all is said and done, much too late to help anyway;
I had decided to do a partial water change that evening anyway. I changed out another 30 gallons (15%) with the same Reef Crystals, and tested yet again. No detectable changes, 8.0, 400, 8 dKH. I shut the lights down and hit the sack.
By morning time, 18 out of 36 SPS were bleached, the other 18 looked 'bad' and all 16 anemone were all balled up more than usual at night time.
I freak out of course.
I performed another 30 gallon water change that morning, and tested... 7.9 pH, 380 calc, 7 dKH.... It's getting worse.
Sadly, I had to run off to work. I needed to make more RO water anyway. By the time I got home, lights were on, and another 5 SPS bleached. The anemone were not closed up, but still didn't look as flowing and full as they usually do.
I did another 30 gallon change. Tested it.... 7.9 pH, 380 calc, 7 dKH.
So here I sit with a bleached reef tank, anemone looking ill, but seemingly recovering, and crappy water parameters. All because of bad salt... A product that "Irritated" my corals to the point where they'd bleach... and an impatient dumb moment in my brain.
I sent a follow up email to Seachem on their response asking if it was possible that their product may have gone bad over a 4 year period.
In other words, you're bleaching event was completely coincidental when you added our product to your tank. There’s no way possible that one happened because of the other. Even if you hadn't put it in your tank, you would have had a bleaching event. Don’t blame us, were not responsible.
Yeah, right...
Morale of the story. Don't have dumb moments. Don't be impatient and do the 'quick fix'. Don't use products that have been sitting under your stand for more than a year, even if the company claims to have an indefinite shelf life. Don't use salt that is badly QA'd even after you already know that it wasn't manufactured correctly.
