Tank crash caused by Wal Mart fan!

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by Lance

Well it looks like I've lost my two largest SPS colonies.
The blue-tipped Stag has expelled all its zooxanthellae and is completely bleached. The orange Monti-Cap still has some colour left but not much.
Two other smaller colonies are toast as well: (Acropora Lovellei & Sky Blue Loisetteae).
Two large Pocci's don't look very good and my Hammer Coral is hurting, but I think will pull through.
All other corals seem ok. Both cleaner shrimp made an appearance and all the fish are fine.
I have done 3x 20gal water changes, changed the carbon twice and still the skimmer is pulling the blackest, most putrid skimmate I've ever seen. This afternoon I'm going to do a 50% water change and change the carbon again.
All very depressing but I think how much worse it could have been.

Ugh that is just awful Lance. Keep up with the waterchanges and carbon as the ammonia levels will do some damage if they aren't continually reduced, sounds like the nastiness I dealt with after my move. I would imagine your LPS will be ok its just the SPS (acros) that are touchy and man they can really do some damage to each other as they mucous up and die. Also you can try using an ammonia reducer, it sometimes helps but be careful with the dosages.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

Sorry to hear of the losses Lance. Do want me to send a frag of orange monti cap home with Christy (Marie's meeting up with her eventually) to help replace your mother colony?

[Lance]

Originally Posted by SeaHorse_Fanatic

Sorry to hear of the losses Lance. Do want me to send a frag of orange monti cap home with Christy (Marie's meeting up with her eventually) to help replace your mother colony?

Thanks Anthony, but I think I'll hold up for awhile and see just what happens with my cap. Portions of it still have some colour so I may be able to save some of it.

[Lance]

Originally Posted by christyf5

Ugh that is just awful Lance. Keep up with the waterchanges and carbon as the ammonia levels will do some damage if they aren't continually reduced, sounds like the nastiness I dealt with after my move. I would imagine your LPS will be ok its just the SPS (acros) that are touchy and man they can really do some damage to each other as they mucous up and die. Also you can try using an ammonia reducer, it sometimes helps but be careful with the dosages.

Yeah it sucks! I've been testing the ammonia every 3 to 4 hours. Right now it's under .25 on a Salifert kit. The water still has a faint murkiness to it, even though I just did another 20 gal water change. I'm running 2 liters of carbon in a BRS dual reactor and changing it every 6 hours or so. I've got an old canister filter I could fill with carbon as well. Or do you think this may be too much?

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by Lance

Yeah it sucks! I've been testing the ammonia every 3 to 4 hours. Right now it's under .25 on a Salifert kit. The water still has a faint murkiness to it, even though I just did another 20 gal water change. I'm running 2 liters of carbon in a BRS dual reactor and changing it every 6 hours or so. I've got an old canister filter I could fill with carbon as well. Or do you think this may be too much?

I would imagine what you have running right now is likely doing the job. Just keep up with the waterchanges if you can (which can be friggin exhausting, eventually I just said eff it and gave up, it was too much but in hindsight I wish I had kept going as I ended up having a second round of die off).

[Ryanst]

That sucks I hope everything pulls through. After reading this I decided to actually install the gfi's that have been sitting on my counter for the last couple of weeks. lol

[Lance]

Originally Posted by christyf5

I would imagine what you have running right now is likely doing the job. Just keep up with the waterchanges if you can (which can be friggin exhausting, eventually I just said eff it and gave up, it was too much but in hindsight I wish I had kept going as I ended up having a second round of die off).

This is what I'm thinking:

1. 25% water change twice a day.
2. Change one liter of carbon daily.
3. Test ammonia frequently. (Amquel if needed)
4. Cut back on fish feeding.
5. Keep fingers crossed.

What do you recommend? Anything else?


Additional List:
6. Buy more salt.
7. Buy more carbon.
8. Start picking out replacement SPS from web sites.
9. Ignore Visa statement.

[christyf5]

Originally Posted by Lance

This is what I'm thinking:

1. 25% water change twice a day.
2. Change one liter of carbon daily.
3. Test ammonia frequently. (Amquel if needed)
4. Cut back on fish feeding.
5. Keep fingers crossed.

What do you recommend? Anything else?


Additional List:
6. Buy more salt.
7. Buy more carbon.
8. Start picking out replacement SPS from web sites.
9. Ignore Visa statement.

Excellent list, thats pretty much what worked for me except I got tired of 1 and 2 and 3 after awhile. Number 8 was pretty fun though

As you feel you can slow down with the waterchanges, keep on top of the ammonia testing, you never know what can trigger another coral to go south and you'll need to be prepared if that happens.

[Lance]

Originally Posted by christyf5

Excellent list, thats pretty much what worked for me except I got tired of 1 and 2 and 3 after awhile. Number 8 was pretty fun though

As you feel you can slow down with the waterchanges, keep on top of the ammonia testing, you never know what can trigger another coral to go south and you'll need to be prepared if that happens.

OK. Thanks again.
Water changes aren't too bad. I have a 55 gal container for mixing and a big pump for quick mixing. I'm just thankful it wasn't the big tank, then the water changes would be a real PITA!

[Lance]

A couple of pics of the bleaching.

Blue-tipped Stag. One of my first SPS corals. (12"x12") The acro to the right of it is now bleaching as well.


Large orange Monti Cap (14"x6") About 50% bleached





Losses so far:
Blue-tipped stag, Acropora Lovellei, Sky Blue Loisetteae, Blue Teal Acro, Pink Bird's Nest, unknown Acro, one small colony of zoas.

Iffy but so far still alive:
Orange Monti Cap, 2x smaller Acro colonies, Hammer Coral (5 of the 18 heads are done), two large Poccillopora colonies.

Survivors:
all softies; all LPS excluding the above mentioned Hammer, which I'm thinking will make it; all fish; all shrimps; all snails; feather dusters; and of course all Aiptasia, Majanos, Bubble algae.


Funny how the larger SPS were hardest hit. It seems the smaller the SPS the better it came through the ordeal.