TheClark Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 Well, almost two weeks ago I had a big alk drop. Coral took it hard.Fast forward to today, and nothing makes sense. All params are in line, water changes attempted, pests examined.When the sea hare died today, it told me that we are most certainly dealing with something bigger than a calcium reactor issue.So I tore into the tank, looking for problems. Found this rust on the Jebao DC 12000. Could this be the issue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Micah Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 I have more than a couple metal bits showing a little rust and my tank seems great. I wouldn't worry about it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badxgillen Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 Yeah, you should see the metal hose clamp on my aqua euro skimmer. I been meaning to change it but it is not in the most accessible spot and the corals are growing for the past year and look amazing so I am thinking it is not rust but more the flux. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted May 28, 2015 Author Share Posted May 28, 2015 I figured that was a stretch, thanks guys. Still looking for the smoking gun... The one that kills sea hares too, not just coral. The hunt changed today. Might have to give up and do the big old water change. Last small water change stressed the corals more, so not looking forward to it. Have carbon, polyfilters and cupramine running now. Water tests out darn near perfect (calc, alk, mag, nitrates, phosphates, sg, ph even did an iron test).... Ah well.... These reef tanks have highs and lows so a wise reef keeper once said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rworegon Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 CUPRAMINE? In a coral tank? Tell me thats a typo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Z Reef Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 I think he means cuprisorb media Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ninjabeaver Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 Maybe it just died for no apparent reason? Where was the hare getting its main supply of food from"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rworegon Posted May 28, 2015 Share Posted May 28, 2015 I think he means cuprisorb media Me thinks you may be correct sir. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted May 29, 2015 Author Share Posted May 29, 2015 Yep lol, dangerous typo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted May 29, 2015 Author Share Posted May 29, 2015 Maybe it just died for no apparent reason? Where was the hare getting its main supply of food from"? It is sure possible. I will say it has been struggling the last two weeks after thriving for months eating the GHA that comes off of the phosphate leaching live rock. Gonna miss that service. His belly was greenish yellow instead of the usual white / grey color. Could have just been rotting. Got him out right away anyways for toxins. Big sucker, barely made it down the toilet BTW phosphates tested out at .02 today. Hoping tomorrow morning things look allot better. The sinularia (ya, even that wants to die) is slightly better looking tonight. Nothing else looks great, the zoas perhaps a little better. The CUPRAMINE... hahaha, I mean cuprisorb is working Laundry list of things changed today to try and turn this around: - UV sterilizer drained and offline (been in service for almost 2 years, but is an optional component) - Dosers turned off (potassium iodide and reef plus, optional not required) - Kalk reactor turned off (optional not required esp while coral is not using calcium) - Went through all the pumps looking for rust - Return pump replaced with backup DCT-12000 (probably not the cause, but turning over all stones. Note the DCT is noisy compared to DC, humming whirring sound) - Cuprisorb - Pura pads I didn't have the luxury of trying one experiment at a time for troubleshooting purposes. That kills me. Ultimately at the end of all this, it would be nice to understand what went wrong so it is never repeated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Higher Thinking Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 That's really unfortunate man! My stupid doser from Marine Magic has been extremely unreliable lately. It has taken (I'm not even exaggerating) two months for them to ship out the replacement unit. Meanwhile, I've just been limping along. Long story short, they kept saying one thing, then they would say another, then disappear for a couple weeks, then say something else. Eventually it just became humorous dealing with those people. Either way, the past couple months my alk has been on a roller coaster. I usually keep it around 9 and then one day I checked and noticed that it was below 6.5. I thought that it had to be a mistake since my test kit (Salifert) was a bit old....no way it could be that low. Since it was already half used, I got another one and sure enough, it was right a round 6.5. While dealing with this doser, I have had my tank flying around between <7 and just over 9. The crazy thing is, with over thirty acros, I've only lost two. For me, alk drops always seem to show up in my acans before anything else. I have had noticeable tissue lose in the acans during this process and have experienced similar things during prior alk issues. It's crazy that your alk dive had such a devastating impact. Here's to hoping for a speedy recovery!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted May 29, 2015 Author Share Posted May 29, 2015 That's really unfortunate man! My stupid doser from Marine Magic has been extremely unreliable lately. It has taken (I'm not even exaggerating) two months for them to ship out the replacement unit. Meanwhile, I've just been limping along. Long story short, they kept saying one thing, then they would say another, then disappear for a couple weeks, then say something else. Eventually it just became humorous dealing with those people. Either way, the past couple months my alk has been on a roller coaster. I usually keep it around 9 and then one day I checked and noticed that it was below 6.5. I thought that it had to be a mistake since my test kit (Salifert) was a bit old....no way it could be that low. Since it was already half used, I got another one and sure enough, it was right a round 6.5. While dealing with this doser, I have had my tank flying around between <7 and just over 9. The crazy thing is, with over thirty acros, I've only lost two. For me, alk drops always seem to show up in my acans before anything else. I have had noticeable tissue lose in the acans during this process and have experienced similar things during prior alk issues. It's crazy that your alk dive had such a devastating impact. Here's to hoping for a speedy recovery!!! Wow, that is crazy warranty service. Thank goodness for manual dosing. BTW, I have a spare doser if you get tired of it and want to borrow one here. Yes, the alk one time drop two weeks ago is starting to seem fishy. It is no roller coaster as you are describing. Maybe that is still the cause but I have to wonder now. Alk has been very steady for at least 11 days, but I see new problems every day in all kinds of coral, even things like galaxea and sinularia, even the grandis palys were hit hard and bleached, never seen that before. Just odd stuff. Something nuts is going on with this system and it is pretty much a major downer I gotta say. One fun part of this hobby is problem solving, so that is enjoyable if I try not to think of all the lost colonies and frags. Salt water is mixing for a big, slow water change (continuous via dual head peristaltic pump). Gotta decide how fast to change the water, the pump changes 5 gallons per hour and it is a 450 gallon system. Last 20 gallon water change over 4 hours further stressed things, it was unnerving. Not looking forward to trying more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandinga Posted May 29, 2015 Share Posted May 29, 2015 Any stray voltage? Rodi unit spitting 0tds? Fresh carbon:) How are your other inverts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted May 29, 2015 Author Share Posted May 29, 2015 Any stray voltage? Rodi unit spitting 0tds? Fresh carbon:) How are your other inverts? Thanks Mandinga. RODI - 0 TDS on meter Carbon fresh yesterday (2nd swap out) Will double check stray voltage, do run a grounding probe and GFCIs Other inverts Fire shrimp - fine Snails - fine, a couple of deaths but nothing unusual Emerald crab - One death a couple days ago Appreciate the ideas, at a bit of a loss here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lexinverts Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 Send your water off to Triton! Sorry to hear of your troubles. I am dealing with a similar tank crash myself. Once it starts, it's oh so hard to stop.....even if your parameters look perfect. The initial stress seems to send everything into a downward spiral. I would turn your UV sterilizer back on. You don't want some opportunistic algae or dinoflagellates to move in and make things worse. Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 Send your water off to Triton! Sorry to hear of your troubles. I am dealing with a similar tank crash myself. Once it starts, it's oh so hard to stop.....even if your parameters look perfect. The initial stress seems to send everything into a downward spiral. I would turn your UV sterilizer back on. You don't want some opportunistic algae or dinoflagellates to move in and make things worse. Good luck! Thanks, yes, I am regretting a) Not sending water to triton when everything was awesome b) Not having a vial handy to send off now. Sorry to hear you are fighting it also, I guess that comes with the hobby. I think I have tracked down the cause via the aquarium logs, but will wait to announce until sure. With a theory to work on now, I have been able to try and take some action to fix it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fishboys Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 (edited) Please keep us posted. I am on the edge of my seat wanting nothing less than a full recovery. Edited May 30, 2015 by fishboys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 Please keep us posted. I am on the edge of my seat wanting nothing less than a full recovery. Sure appreciate that, will do. Sadly full recovery at this point definitely will not happen, too many bleached skeletons. Partial recovery though, that would be awesome. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vanz Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 [language filter] sorry to hear. Hope you get things figured out and corrected soon. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pledosophy Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 Man this is painful to read. When you get it figured out, come over and we can frag anything in my tank you want to get you going again. They say Karma is a ... well not for some people. Karma is a great thing for some people. IME over the last 15 years the only time I ever had anything similar I finally attributed it to a bad batch of food. I searched the internet and found that several others were having similar experiences and the commonality was a specific frozen food. Everything I could test for was great, and whatever was wrong specifically, we never found out. Sometimes it's impossible to know. Seriously though, figure it out, come over, take some frags home. Only thing I ask is that if I'm ever in your shoes you hook me up with what I lost. That's what this community is supposed to be about. I know it's hard man, been there. But if you did all you could, and it sounds like you have done everything reasonable, there is nothing else you could have done. Just bad luck for the animals. A positive you can take out of it though is how the community takes care of good people when they need it. You have my contact info, offer does not expire. If anything you'd be helping me out to because I only have one other "bank" and as an IT guy you know redundancy is important. Infact I got this tri I've been growing for several years from nothing and only Arsonmfg has a piece. It'd be good to get that dispersed anyways. I have a Favia I need to bank too. Good luck friend. (Warning if you come over we might talk about frogs, Cuz I want one for the bedroom. Wife wants a NPS tank... I think Kermit) [emoji6] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 Awesome, thanks for the offer. It is amazing how things can go from a dream to a nightmare so fast. Some day when the tank is stable again it will be fun to take you up on that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandinga Posted May 30, 2015 Share Posted May 30, 2015 Any chance you can double check your water tests? If I was closer, I'd check it all for you. Salinity and alk would be pretty easy to verify. Multiple inverts deaths would raise a red flag for me...I think you are a doser? If so, salinity can creep steadily over time...I know it's a stretch, but maybe someone can just double check those for you. Either way, a properly balance WC is surely in order. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted May 30, 2015 Author Share Posted May 30, 2015 Continued over here... http://www.pnwmas.org/topic/34545-diy-flatworm-exit-mishap-tank-crash/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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