How to nuke a 300g SPS tank
 

Back in November I bought Dave's (Acepumping) 200g tank (+ 100g sump). Over the course of the next few months I slowly moved everything in got all the equipment installed and finally got my doser dialed in.
Now after 8 years of reef keeping, I know how to keep them looking good, and know whats required to keep them healthy. My problem is, I'm a bit lazy with the small stuff. Water changes? once a month or two...or three. No problem as I dose like a machine. Carbon? do you change it after 3 months or 6? Whatever. Testing? YES, looking at my logs I last tested...2 months ago.
With the new tank and the doser now hooked up I was testing weekly until I got it dialed in. Then I forgot about it. Fill the canisters when their empty and let everything grow.
Tank was looking good, polyps were huge, Acans big, extended and growing. There were a few issues. Some SPS not holding color. A couple fading, bleaching or browning out. Now this is a new setup and there are always issues that come up. Too much light? not enough? flow? water quality? It all can cause these issues.
So one day I did a water change. Next day, acans are closed up tight and polyp extension on the SPS is about half. This had me scratching my head. How does BETTER water make a GOOD tank go sideways? Things get marginally better over the next couple weeks. The acans though are still PO'ed, so I transfer them to another tank. They slowly return to normal.
With the SPS not really perking up too much, last Thursday I decide to do another 10% water change. When I walk into the fish room on friday the tank looks like a bomb went off. Bright green slimers are now brown, actually ALL SPS are now brown with zero polyp extension. Prized corals are fading. Strange though, Zoas and most LPS look PO'ed, but OK. I quickly transfer as much SPS out of the tank as I can.
Spent saturday freaking out, trying to figure out what happened. Everything is working like a charm. Eventually I decided I had a look at my saltwater changes (but I'm adding good water to a good tank! Salt is from buckets 2/3rds used! All other tanks are fine! It can't be the new SW, can it? Turns out I had another bucket of SW mixing. Test were coming out fine. Ca was a little low and Alk was a little high at 9.9. So that wasn't it. Had the test kits out and thought I should test the tank. Tested Alk first - whatthe heck? its coming in at 3 Dkh! Test again. 3 again. I checked the doser and it initially looked good. Then touched the hoses and it basically came apart.
What seems to have happened is, the hose connector (joining the hose from the canister to the hose for the doser) cracked. It started drawing air instead of liquid, but still enough liquid that I saw the canister emptying, but much slower then usual. Over the course of a couple weeks the Alk level would go down to around 3 then I would hit it with a 10% water change with 9.9 Alk. Things would go into shock. The first time maybe the Alk was a little higher in the tank and the shock not as much, but the second time was huge.
I have now bumped the Alk up to the 6-7 range, but the damage is done. my Red Dragon colony melted away, a few others may go too. All my SPS from that tank is brown. On the bright side is Zoas look fine, LPS is 60-40 to the good and I think a lot of the SPS will recover (eventually).

Has anyone else done something similar? What do you think recovery time will be? Do you think they will recover at all?

You have my sympathies, Kelly, for sure. I had a similar problem last summer with my alk doser plugging at the sump end. Because I was away a lot then, didn't have time to closely monitor everything, and by the time I discovered the problem the damage was done. Doesn't sound as bad as yours though, as my alk just went below 6 (normally at 8 or 9). But I still lost some prized SPS.

Surprisingly, some corals (incl some SPS) were not affected at all. However, it took about 3 months to recover from that before my SPS was happy again, with good color and growth returning. And I should have known better, too, as I have to regularly watch that alk return line so it doesn't plug.

Sorry to hear the news. I had a similar issue and things did recover. It took a long time though.

Sorry to hear that Kelly.

That's why up to now, I'm still having a second thought installing my doser. I purchased it last December, calibrated and ready to go but opted to do the dosing manually. I will probably used it only when I'm going away. :redface:

O well my tank is not big as yours and I don't have much corals as you have. I think automating the process would take away my personal touch to my humble reef. :biggrin:

I hope your corals recover soon. Best of luck.

So sorry for the loss Kelly.. Tank crashes are the worst! I hope you can recover most of your stuff that you didnt loose off the bat. Good luck man, keep your head up!

This is my second tank with a doser and the first one has worked flawlessly for years. This one was working fine too if not for the broken connector. It was a used doser and I would have found the issue out if I had kept up with the testing. Even if I had found it down around 3, I could have slowly raised it up over time and everything would have been fine.

Thanks Andrew.

Thanks Walter. That was the biggest surprise for me. As the Alk was going down, corals continued to look great, it was only after the Alk spikes in the water change did anything happen. I can handle brown coral knowing things are good now and they will return to normal soon enough.

Yeah, thanks. Good to know they will recover. Corals lost will be replaced by new, brighter corals! :mrgreen:

Actually mine got worse too after I corrected the alk, and then took 3 months to fully recover. Having said that I also had some other tank issues (high nitrates after I had disconnected my bio pellet reactor) just before this, and the low alk was the just final tipping point. But again, some SPS were never affected, and none of my LPS or soft corals even noticed anything amiss.

I think you are right, though, alk spikes make it worse. That's what did mine in, too, I think, when I raised it too quickly (didn't have time to fool around as I was not home a lot at that time).

Hi Kelly,

That's the joy of dosing. Too easy to forget about the hoses. I learned the hardway too but only had my alk drop to 6dkh as I test every 3 days. That was enough to **** off my 18" chalice and I lost over half the colony. What got me was that the hose from the doser to the tank plugged on the tank end and then when the pump went on the pressure blew the hose off the dosing pump. Now every 3 months I replace all hoses.

I have found that recovery is long and slow.

Cheers,
Tim

Sorry to hear that Kelly. :sad:
Been there done that. A year ago I was playing with my doser and messed up the timing. Almost one gallon of Ca water dumped into my tank and kill most of SPS. Fortunately my tank didn't have any super expensive SPS.

Note to self: "check all my levels tonight"

Tank crashes hurt. Expecially 1 of this magnitude.. Now back to bizz. U must of tons of corals on liquidation prices =)

Wow! Kick a guy while he is down, you cold man. I like your style. :mrgreen:

All jokes aside, sorry for your loses. I totally agree with you kelly. If you would've raised it slowly I don't think you would have such a traumatic experience, sure Sps would've turn brown but they should've all slowly recovered. Countless times I had my alk go from 7.5 to high 4 in the 300 and I guess because the share volume of the 300 gallon tank I would raise it by 150ppm without any issues except once when I overdosed It and alk climbed to 8 from 5.1 a few Sps pealed. I guess you live and learn.

Our hobby is tough, especially with uber sensitive sps. I feel your pain Kelly. *§£¥€ happens. Mistakes always happen. The important thing is to keep on keeping on. A fine example is Peter in oakville (my hometown). Nicest reef in Canada, if not north America. A friggin seam splits and bam. It'll all come back for ya! Painfully slowly, but ya still have water in the tank!

Yeah, this hurts. More then I thought actually. Luckily I have a good attitude. F you tank! I'm going to make it even better then before!!!

As for corals for sale, brown slimer and brown digi free!...to everyone except you :twised:

Joking of course. Again, if you know me, I'll keep those brown sticks until they are blue green and red, even if it takes me forever!

Thanks Rich. Problem was, I didn't know what the issue was. Corals were looking fine in the low alk. When I changed water, it shocked the SPS and it was too late. IF I HAD been testing, I would have figured it out and raised the Alk slowly.

Compared to Peters loss, mine is nothing. I posted mainly because most people ohh and ahh over my tanks maybe not realizing the care I actually DO put into them. Even then, one 50 cent plastic connector and me being a little lax on the testing can cause big problems.

Hey Kelly that news really sucks, We had a saying in our trade, " If it's mechanical, it's not if it's going to fail it's when." Sad but very true.

Well I just checked last night and noticed my dosing airline tube had a leak in it and it was not dosing either. Lucky that line was just for vodka/vinegar dosing. Should start doing regular checks on everyday equipment to prevent disasters from now on I guess

*sigh*, I read your post and though "wait, did I accidentally post under another canreefer's login?".

I've done exactly this. Recently. Expect some SPS to bite it, no matter what you do. Only advice I can offer is that if you've got a piece that's not recovered and sending out new growth tips in 6 weeks, you're almost better off chiselling it out and putting something new in it's place.

Yes, recovery is possible, but after something like that, SPS (acropora in particular) need to be in pristine conditions for months - like 6 months to a year - to make a full recovery. The ones that are most affected (most dramatic colour change, biggest change in PE) will be at imminent risk of RTN every time your alk wavers a few points for the next half year at least.

That said, some species of Acro seem to be able to tolerate those kinds of swings and bounce back relatively quickly. No surprise, those are the ones more common in the hobby. The rarer and more expensive they get, the less likely they'll forgive you for something like that.

It's a funny catch 22 that as your tank establishes and you feel like you've got it dialled in and get complacent, the need for you to pay attention to your tank actually increases. As you colonies grow, the water to coral ratio shifts in a dangerous way. Relatively speaking a mature, jam packed 1000 gallon reef tank can be in the same risk category as a 3 gallon pico in terms of parameter swings. One cracked hose can drop your alk to coral killing emergency levels in a day.

Anyway I feel for you. There's nothing you can do now except stay on top of equipment and parameters and remove anything that's taking more time and effort than a new, prettier coral in it's place would.

Yes, that's very true. Never let your guard down.

Wow. There you go. I'm glad this post got you reviewing your system. One problem averted.

I think my new policy is to test tank parameters before every batch of NSW. That way if something is really wrong, I can fix it before I nuke it again.

Thanks for your story. It looks like quite a few of us have gone through this.
Even though tank parameters are back to normal, SPS in and from that tank continue to die. Not many so far - one colony, 3 or 4 frags dead, another colony and a couple more frags on the way out. Considering how much I had in there, thats not too bad.

As I go through this, I'm noticing some interesting reactions from the SPS that originated from that tank.

Days before nuke (NSW change) effected tank, it would have had an Alk of around 3 and Ca over 500. All other tanks would have been stable and within range (Alk 7-8, Ca 400-450)
- I noticed a few corals lightening up with very little polyp extension, so I moved them to one of the other tanks as a precaution. Unknowingly I moved corals from an Alk of 3 to an Alk of 7+. There has been no 'crash' with these corals. They don't look any better, but they don't look any worse.
- LPS looking a little PO'd Scoly's have pulled back about 50% and had a couple newer chalice frags die. Most of the rest is fine.
- Zoas are looking good!

Day after nuke (Alk spike) all SPS corals in effected tank have browned. Some are peeling. Again, unknowingly, I move some of the more valuable corals to other tanks.
- Corals from this time period, moved in to the good tanks, are no worse. Some that were peeling are still peeling a bit but it is a STN situation with those.
- LPS is looking even more PO'd. But I leave all of them in the tank.
- Zoas are finally looking a little PO'd. Opened about 75%

Two days after nuke, I figure out the problem and nuke it again, bringing the alk up from 3.8 to 7. My thinking here was SPS are already nuked and bring the alk up quickly into range shouldn't make it any worse.
- Some SPS in nuked tank continue to get worse. More peeling and dying.
- Again, moved a few more corals into the good tanks. A few days later and these guys don't seem to have gotten much worse.
- No change in the LPS and Zoas

The last few days (sunday - wednesday) the nuked tank has been steady as far as Alk. It settled out at 6 and has been rising slowly to 6.5 by wednesday night. Theoretically, this should be a relatively good tank now. Alk a little low, Ca a little high (I have not tested again, as it was out of range previously. I have stopped dosing until it comes into range. I'll test again tonight). With some die off, there should be a nitrite spike but it is a 300g tank and die off was minimal in the tank. Also most SPS has been moved out.
- SPS in nuked tank not improved (obviously. None of the ones in other tanks are 'improved' either), but some continue to fade including some that were brown, but holding it together the day before, are now starting to peel.
- SPS moved to other tanks - Not improved, but holding it together. A few that were peeling continue to decline, but slowly.
- LPS - Scoly's seem a bit better. It took a few days but favia has finally browned out. Torches have reduced polyp extension.
- Zoas returned to normal polyp extension.


So even though tank parameters are the same as the other tanks, there is still a lot of bad mojo still in that tank that is still causing corals to decline. Corals moved to other tanks (and effectively being nuked again) seen to be fairing better.

I'll post more updates as the weeks progress.

Ouch kelly, that sucks! Hope they all recover. Its stories like this that make make me test and inspect every week without fail. It does'nt take much to destroy years if hard work.

I had a few more die yesterday. In the end it'll be fine. The problem has been fixed and the tank is getting back up to speed. The SPS that was in there can take its time to recover. Luckily I have 3 other tanks full of SPS! They are all huge and needing a prune!

Kel

Good to hear you are keeping your head up man!!! I cannot wait to come and visit u this summer. I'm sure ill drop a few $$$ your way haha :)

Wow, sorry to hear about your crash Kelly. That sucks. I like your attitude, though. And I cuess having all the other tanks and the same coral in multiple tanks helps. Good luck with the recovery.