Reef Catastrophe last night

[fishmon]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9056518#post9056518 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by firefish2020
Bob is my pulsing sinularia, we called it Bob, it was one of the first in the area and is a pretty rare coral. Matt knows it's exact name, I can't remember, we just call it Bob to throw off people who may want frags LOL.

I have had 2 pieces I got off Matt for sale for about 3 months w/ no takers, I thought they would go like hotcakes, I guess nobody knows what they are.

Sorry to hear about your implosion, if you need anything drop me a pm. I had a major oopsie myself a little over a week ago, but w/ no deaths luckily. My skimmer cup was completely full of pure dark crap filled to the rim (G4 approx. 1/2 gallon) anyway, I meant to empty it but got busy, I was feeding some silversides to another tank and had them thawing in water, I always dump that silverside water in my tank, my corals love it. when I did it, forgetting my skimmer was full, it caused it to overflow completely into my sump until only clear water was in the cup, I could smell something awful and noticed my tank was very cloudy. nothing died but I have been fighting cyano ever since, I finally changed out my sand bed to solve the problem, I was actually bare bottom for about 20 minutes (no Amy I didn't like it, just wasn't for me).

 

[H.crispa]

We have your back. Let me know when you get straightened out.

 

[firefish2020]

UPDATE:
pH is still stable 8.1 lights off, 8.3 lights on.

Tank is finally clear today, looks like the green candy is OK.
My green Sarco is not so good though and is prob not going to make it. EVERY SPS in the system is bleached white, except my Blue Ridge, they don't turn white. I am testing Ca and Alk in the AM to see what the damage is chemically. I think the next battle will be a bacterial bloom as brown sheets of algae have started to grow on the glass no doubt due to the vinegar.

On a side note the F/W plant tank could not look better LOL.




More to come...

 

[phljess]

I want to take a guess at what your water chemistry will look like tomorrow. My guess is ~2.0meq/l for alk and ~400ppm cal. Tell me how close my guess was.

 

[coralreefer]

I was actually bare bottom for about 20 minutes (no Amy I didn't like it, just wasn't for me).

Hey you were bare bottom for a couple weeks when you first set it up too
I truly don't like the look that much either. I DO like the control a bb gives you though. Plus I remember how hard it was to take the sand out of the tank. btw I do have sand in the 12
Must be the season for tank problems though. My tank's been having major problems for the last week. Dunno why either.

I have had 2 pieces I got off Matt for sale for about 3 months w/ no takers, I thought they would go like hotcakes, I guess nobody knows what they are.

I'd bet most LFS customers that aren't members of an internet based reef community have no idea that it's anything special. I probably wouldn't if it wasn't for RC and CVRC. Same with the name fad for zoas. You had at least 3 colonies of RPE in the $35.00 sale tank for months last spring. If you'd labeled them RPE half of your customers wouldn't have cared the rest would have paid triple the price :lol:

My guess is ~2.0meq/l for alk and ~400ppm cal

I'd be surprised if the Ca is that high probably about right on the alk though.

 

[firefish2020]

Ca - 360
Alk - 3.5 mq/L

Clear at last.
Doing a follow up water change tonight.

Zoas are coming out of it, Rics look good, sarco still looks like crap.
Candy fine, clams to stupid to notice a change.

 

[Rod Cobble]

I just read an article, on this same type of catastrophe. Author suggested using CO2 to immediately bring PH down instead of vinegar. More control without the after effects. What are your thoughts?

 

[phljess]

CO2 gas would work but it is not as easy to find unless you have a calcium reactor. In essence Ron did add CO2 to the tank when he added the soda water.

 

[firefish2020]

Seltzer Water works very fast and can be controlled far better than vinegar which usually leads to an over shoot of the target pH from what I read. I don't have a CO2 tank if I did I would have injected but it would have had the same effect I believe. I put in fresh carbon in the PhosReactor which added a bit more CO2.

UPDATE:

Tank looks clear again, everyone is eating zoas are out about 75% green sarco still not doing good at all. Clams still stupid happy.

Been running O-Zone for about 24 hours now, cutting it off.

 

[essop3]

Talk about a bad week for reefs. I had to replace an outlet and do some rewiring after water dripped down some power cords. Lucky my house didn't burn down.

I think I have the same green sarco. It's needs to fraged if yours doesn't make it

 

[firefish2020]

Thanks to everyone who has helped in this issue and the offers, right now I'm just waiting to see what happens next, this thing was shoved way out of balance and I would bet it gets a bit bad before it gets 100% better. Hope I'm wrong about that though.

 

[firefish2020]

Last Update:


Almost every coral hit by the Ca overdose has recovered and/or is trying to.

Every SPS did eventually die though.

Added new rock and began a re-design