How to nuke a 300g SPS tank

[rynoe]

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

[crimper]

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.

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.

I hope your corals recover soon. Best of luck.

[ashr]

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!

[KPG007]

Originally Posted by crimper

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.

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.

I hope your corals recover soon. Best of luck.

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.

Originally Posted by ashr

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!

Thanks Andrew.

Originally Posted by Reef Pilot

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.

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.

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by KPG007

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.

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).

[KPG007]

Originally Posted by rynoe

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

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

[TimT]

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

[George]

Sorry to hear that Kelly.
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.

[ashr]

Note to self: "check all my levels tonight"

[jason604]

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