The plot thickens...!! :eek:

Wow...ya if I'm the jury, the jury is in, and the guilty part is oxygen starvation for sure! The glass lids wouldn't be a problem if you ran a skimmer, but from what I understand you don't have a skimmer, right? Then the powerheads not giving any surface agitation...poor combination.

pH is low because of elevated levels of CO2 in the water due to not being able to off-gas, and not enough O2 being injected into the tank. Simply adding an airstone will often increase pH. For more information on this subject read the pH heading in my guide on reef chemistry in my signature.

Alfredshouse is gone
 

Yah, i have really learned alot in the past two days. I no longer have lids and and my sump is being built as we speak. I am really grateful to everyone that tried to help, especially Belezuth, who spent hours helping me change water and do repeat testing. And another thank you to AA who spent alot of time troubleshooting and determining to cause. Thank you all again. Right now my tanks are being aerated and closely monitored, they have white board marker test results all over them.:biggrin:

You can put your lids back on once you get a skimmer. I have had lids on some of my tanks (with skimmers) with no troubles. Help keep evaporation down as you already know. Now that you have an O2 kit, you can always test just to make sure! ;)

Expensive lesson to learn, but you can scratch that one off the list on newbie mistakes now. :D

an absolute tragedy, but I learned a ton just by tagging along. I am truly sorry for your losses but thanks for sharing it with us.

I also am very sorry for the losses you have ocurred but I want to thank you for sharing it with us so that we all can learn a little more about this hobby.

Really sorry for your losses. Much more gained by the rest of us tagging along on this thread. I have learned a great deal from this incident.

Good luck with getting back up....I hope the rest of your tanks inhabitants make it.

Brad

Alfredshouse is on the mend.
 

SG 1.024
PH 7.8
NO2 0
NO3 20
O2 5+

This is from opening the lids, adding two bubble wands, pointing the koralia 4 toward the surface and other koralia lower, still have the FX5 going, and sump will be finished thursday. I expect the parameters to just get better now. I will test my tanks for O2 levels from now on and never make this mistake again! Just other mistakes!!! I have to have a sense of humor after all this.:redface::redface::redface::redface::redface: :biggrin::redface::redface::redface:

Your poor hubby stuck in the carport till Thursday :( hehe. Sorry for your losses. But always a learning experience for ourselves and others.

You don't need the bubble wands. They'll only cause unwanted salt creep.

Ahem - not wanting to blow my own horn but I think I mentioned a CO2 buildup a few pages ago :lol:

Just glad to hear you've tracked it down