keaton
Actually keaton's mom
Most of you know I inherited my son's reef when he went away to college.
MY specialty is gardening...I throw stuff in the ground and most of the time, it thrives. You might say it comes naturally to me. On the other hand, the reef thing is NOT second nature. It has been intimidating and as the result, I have been pretty methodical in my habits.
I keep everything as well maintained as I possibly can and fiddle around very little. My motto is, "If it's working, WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T MESS WITH IT." My biggest decision was when changing to a new sump as my old one was too small and overflowed when the power went out. It took a year of admitting that I must do it and then months to pull the trigger on that one.
Soooooo, I have been absolutely stunned for the past month when, in spite of my consistant care, I began to see several corals begin to bleach. Candy canes had changes in their coloration, and the duncan and several zoas didn't fully open. Over the weeks, corals actually died! THREE of them...and two more are suffering badly. I've been trying to figure out how I could possibly farm the corals out somewhere till I could get a handle on the problem.
I used all my reasoning to try to figure it out. I stopped dosing for a week in case my calcium and/or alk was contaminated some way. No improvement. I did a larger than usual water change. No change. I run ROX carbon and went ahead and put in a fresh batch. Nada.
CAN I TELL YOU I HAVE BEEN PHYSICALLY ILL OVER THIS????
Today, the lightbulb went off as I pondered it for the millionth time. Corals bleach in high temps. I remembered that I was having a hard time keeping the temp up a while back and added another small heater. This was after I purchased replacement heaters (that I had cranked waaaaay up). I pulled out the old foot long Fisher scientific thermometer that belonged to my late research doc father-in-law and stuck it in the sump...85 degrees without the MH lights on. I'm betting it was reaching 88 or worse at its high point. All the while, the battery operated digital thermo read 75.8.
Of course in retrospect, my mistakes are glaring, not to mention incrementally disasterous. I replaced the old heaters when they didn't seem to be keeping up in the winter. I didn't run any fans this winter although I usually need one. I added a heater when the brand new Jaegers couldn't seem to keep up...and this during a mild winter. I put faith in a digital thermometer like it was the second coming... STOOOOPID, STOOOOOPID, STOOOOPID. Worse, why didn't I see the light? OMG.
So, maybe you will learn from my monumentally stupid error. Don't take anything for granted, look past the obvious, and maybe you should double check the accuracy of your digital thermo. I'm thinking the battery is weak as I actually don't think it has EVER been changed. I'd say it's 4 years old.
Barrett, do you still have that sweet blue milli you shared a couple years ago? It was one that bit it along with the green slimer that may have also come from you. Let me know.
RIP my calciferous friends...
Pam
MY specialty is gardening...I throw stuff in the ground and most of the time, it thrives. You might say it comes naturally to me. On the other hand, the reef thing is NOT second nature. It has been intimidating and as the result, I have been pretty methodical in my habits.
I keep everything as well maintained as I possibly can and fiddle around very little. My motto is, "If it's working, WHATEVER YOU DO, DON'T MESS WITH IT." My biggest decision was when changing to a new sump as my old one was too small and overflowed when the power went out. It took a year of admitting that I must do it and then months to pull the trigger on that one.
Soooooo, I have been absolutely stunned for the past month when, in spite of my consistant care, I began to see several corals begin to bleach. Candy canes had changes in their coloration, and the duncan and several zoas didn't fully open. Over the weeks, corals actually died! THREE of them...and two more are suffering badly. I've been trying to figure out how I could possibly farm the corals out somewhere till I could get a handle on the problem.
I used all my reasoning to try to figure it out. I stopped dosing for a week in case my calcium and/or alk was contaminated some way. No improvement. I did a larger than usual water change. No change. I run ROX carbon and went ahead and put in a fresh batch. Nada.
CAN I TELL YOU I HAVE BEEN PHYSICALLY ILL OVER THIS????
Today, the lightbulb went off as I pondered it for the millionth time. Corals bleach in high temps. I remembered that I was having a hard time keeping the temp up a while back and added another small heater. This was after I purchased replacement heaters (that I had cranked waaaaay up). I pulled out the old foot long Fisher scientific thermometer that belonged to my late research doc father-in-law and stuck it in the sump...85 degrees without the MH lights on. I'm betting it was reaching 88 or worse at its high point. All the while, the battery operated digital thermo read 75.8.
Of course in retrospect, my mistakes are glaring, not to mention incrementally disasterous. I replaced the old heaters when they didn't seem to be keeping up in the winter. I didn't run any fans this winter although I usually need one. I added a heater when the brand new Jaegers couldn't seem to keep up...and this during a mild winter. I put faith in a digital thermometer like it was the second coming... STOOOOPID, STOOOOOPID, STOOOOPID. Worse, why didn't I see the light? OMG.
So, maybe you will learn from my monumentally stupid error. Don't take anything for granted, look past the obvious, and maybe you should double check the accuracy of your digital thermo. I'm thinking the battery is weak as I actually don't think it has EVER been changed. I'd say it's 4 years old.
Barrett, do you still have that sweet blue milli you shared a couple years ago? It was one that bit it along with the green slimer that may have also come from you. Let me know.
RIP my calciferous friends...
Pam
Let me know if you make it around.
