while you were sleeping

[parkavenuereef]

BRIAN, DUDE, I am sorry to hear about the tank man. I know the feeling.. Its sucks... hey question, you know the dow flake we use? well I know you keep yours in the basement like i do, did you check to see if there are any insects in the mix that my have secreted any fluids and or toxins, larvea etc? i found an spider make a home and lay eggs in my bucks that was left open for a day and i immediatly threw it out! But yea if you need anything to reset please let me know... were here for ya buddy!

 

[LFS_worker]

did not check to dow flake good Idea!

I may have an Idea of what it could have been ...

I run 2 overflow boxes and a mag7 one box can handle it but I didnt want to chance another flood. I tried to make them level but I dont think that one was getting very much flow at all over the past month.. the boxes have not been cleaned in 2 years and were starting to look bad so I removed one box and cleaned it pretty good using vinegar and water.

I installed the box again and it was lower than the other (this was about 3 weeks ago) about 2 days after that I had a major precipitating event caused by : when I tested my alk it was low so I opened my dripper up to run wide open. I forgot about it for about 5 minutes but it was too late. I cleaned the siphon tube about 4 days later ( about 2 weeks ago) Im guessing that the water started using the 2nd box to go to the sump and some of that rank nasty water was flushed into my sump.

I removed that sihon box yesterday to clean that one out and look into the drain tube and I thought my wife was going to kill me! smelled pretty bad. Still Im kinda confused about the brown slime but all of my pumps , heaters, RO, skimmer, they all check out fine other than a little precip on them.

well needless to say this has helped me out alot a great learning expreience. thinking of having the tank drilled for a calfo overflow. undecided for now but ..

Brian

 

[CountersCC]

Sorry to hear about that Brian. Good luck on cracking the case.

 

[nwrogers]

Brian:

Sounds like it could have been that overflow box and the rank nasty water that washed into your sump that fueled the crash. This is really good info for those of us how are using overflow boxes. I have been cleaning both of my overflow boxes every month along with the sump and pumps. Now I will definitely be keeping up that habit. I am sure the new system will be beautiful Brian! Donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t give up

 

[RandyO]

Hey Brian,
Sorry to hear about your loss. I just found this thread.

The very first thing I thought of when I read your first post was a power outage or pump malfunction.

I once came home to a pump failure. The lights were on in the tank, but the main pump was not running. The second I opened my door to walk into the house I knew something was wrong from the smell. That Ocean smell. The smell of dried out algae baking under the lights. None of my corals were exposed to the air, but the algae on the sides of the aquarium were. That's what caused the awful smell. And I'm sure that algae was dying. I was a little worried about it as I got the main pump going again, and it flushed the dying algae back into my system.

Maybe something like this happened in your tank. Possibly from raising and then lowering the water levels, you also exposed some algae that started to cook under the lights.

Or maybe a pump malfunctioned while you were gone, but then started back up again, but for a while, your water level was low, and caused the room to stink. Then, the pump started again, but the algae that was exposed was already dead, and fouled the water.

A lot of it is a guessing game at this point. The odd thing is having two other aquariums affected.

Any UV's on the three affected tanks? If it is a bacteria problem, that's the one piece of equipment I'd want on there.

Hope you find some answers.

 

[dalbrecht]

That muck would be inline with a dino bloom. It's probably provided both the starter population & the nutrients needed. Once it killed something, it would have had all the food it needed to start the cascade.

Bosborn. The thing with dino's is that many of them have rather specific toxicity. The ones involved here were likely not toxic to fish and were instead toxic to a range of coral species.

 

[LFS_worker]

Randy awesome info thanks a TON !!!! None of the systems use UV I thought they were pricey for what little (to me I thought it was little) they did. The smell was kinda like that ! I did lower the overflow box when I put it back in... also not allowing one box to be moving any water... I know that under the rim the algea was there but that honestly never occured to me! It has cleared up in the 55g with minimal effects to this point. This makes me look at hang on filtration a little different.

Power outages here are rare maybe 1 flash (off then on)

 

[dreaminmel]

dalbrecht,

I agree with your explanation of a dino bloom creating major problems and, even if that is not what happened in Brian's tank, it definately was a severe issue when my tank crashed. I had noticed the "stink" about two weeks before the crash, did some water changes, replaced carbon, etc but enough damage had already been done that there was no stopping the chain of decay and even though it appeared to be "in check" during those two weeks all it took was one night for everything to get worse tenfold. All surviving corals (moon coral, candy, gsp, polyps and shrooms) were moved to a quarantine tank and it literally took my tank 1 full month to recover. The entire month I left the lights off and did periodic water changes but the delicate balance had progressed so far out of wack that it just had to run its course.

What killed me the most about that was the fact that I made every attempt to get it under control after the initial "stink" and minor brown bloom warning but in the end there was nothing I could do except to make a mental note to never introduce dino "food" to my tank in the future.

Melanie

Also, FWIW my fish did not die from the dinos yet rather from the water quality issues that ensued. If I had removed my fish at the same stage Brian did they would probably still be alive. I most definately would have removed them at the onset if I'd had any clue what I was up against.