Cali Reef Life
Active Member
It pains me to write this but I lost 25% of my corals I was growing over the last 3 years in less then 2 months. The only person to blame is myself and that's the only way one can improve. Watching your coral die slowly is a painful site. What lead up to this and how can I prevent this in the future.
The first problem I had was my new Hana checker broke causing a spike in alk.
After fixing the issue I was beginning to run low on salt so I started doing water changes every 2 weeks instead of one.
I stopped testing every week because I bought a new dual red sea dosser who needs to test as often when you have a machine that does it for you. I was planning a trip and went to bulk reef supply and bought my 2 part dose and magnesium. I had started to see signs of my coral getting stressed prior to my trip which is never a good sign. Finally tested my magnesium and it was 950 which is really low and I wasn't dosing Mag on the regular. I put in carbon and hoped the tank would be fine when I came back.
The mistake I didn't catch till later was I stupidly bought sodium bicarbonate instead of calcium. Changed the supplement in a hurry and didn't read the package because I normally dose soda ash. Came home to my calcium in the mid 200s and my alk at 14. It took me almost 3 more weeks after dosing mag to look up my order history when my calcium wouldn't raise. My nitrates had also raised to around 30. This caused some brown algae to start growing on already stressed corals.
The down fall of my tank is I got to comfortable because things were going well.
Now I am kinda tight on cash but sucked it up and bought a new 5 stage RODI and calcium and a box of fritz salts. $326.91 later at bulk reef supply and a box a salt I bought a couple weeks ago I am slowly going to get my tank back to what it is through water changes. Still waiting on the RODI and calcium since I just figured it out last night.
The moral of the story is don't give up and don't forget the little things. If I would of tested more and did more water changes I probably would of been fine with buying the wrong supplement but because I did multiple things wrong it caused a mini crash. Check your pumps and heaters do preventive maintenance every few months and avoid the problem.
Keep on reefing guys this hobby has ups and downs. Even if something fails you its up to you to have a plan and be proactive rather then reactive. Wanted to share this since none of my friends or family have the same interest as me in this hobby.
The first problem I had was my new Hana checker broke causing a spike in alk.
After fixing the issue I was beginning to run low on salt so I started doing water changes every 2 weeks instead of one.
I stopped testing every week because I bought a new dual red sea dosser who needs to test as often when you have a machine that does it for you. I was planning a trip and went to bulk reef supply and bought my 2 part dose and magnesium. I had started to see signs of my coral getting stressed prior to my trip which is never a good sign. Finally tested my magnesium and it was 950 which is really low and I wasn't dosing Mag on the regular. I put in carbon and hoped the tank would be fine when I came back.
The mistake I didn't catch till later was I stupidly bought sodium bicarbonate instead of calcium. Changed the supplement in a hurry and didn't read the package because I normally dose soda ash. Came home to my calcium in the mid 200s and my alk at 14. It took me almost 3 more weeks after dosing mag to look up my order history when my calcium wouldn't raise. My nitrates had also raised to around 30. This caused some brown algae to start growing on already stressed corals.
The down fall of my tank is I got to comfortable because things were going well.
Now I am kinda tight on cash but sucked it up and bought a new 5 stage RODI and calcium and a box of fritz salts. $326.91 later at bulk reef supply and a box a salt I bought a couple weeks ago I am slowly going to get my tank back to what it is through water changes. Still waiting on the RODI and calcium since I just figured it out last night.
The moral of the story is don't give up and don't forget the little things. If I would of tested more and did more water changes I probably would of been fine with buying the wrong supplement but because I did multiple things wrong it caused a mini crash. Check your pumps and heaters do preventive maintenance every few months and avoid the problem.
Keep on reefing guys this hobby has ups and downs. Even if something fails you its up to you to have a plan and be proactive rather then reactive. Wanted to share this since none of my friends or family have the same interest as me in this hobby.
