UPDATE:
Long post warning its been a long time since I gave an update.
Tank was running well around the beginning of November I had added an Aquamaxx 1.5 hob skimmer that is running like a champ. Also added a second AI Prime HD, which helped with some corals i has reaching and eliminated some shadows i had. Had some birds nest and a few other sps growing well and tank was chugging along.
Fast forward to the beginning of this month when I returned after several months away for work, I come home to 90% of my coral dead and a major GHA outbreak. The only surviving corals are my BTA, 6-7 RFA, Dragon eye zoas, 2 hammers, 3 acans and my gsp on the back wall. All the fish were alive still. So I started testing water to see how bad things were....salinity was 1.039 ALK 14(hannah) phosphates .80(hannah). After testing my wife confessed that she had topped off the tank with saltwater not RODI. so that was the cause. I cant be mad because she had a lot going on with work a 6 yr old and a rental house with problems while I was gone. All I could do is move forward and be glad I didn't have anything to expensive in there that died.
So after consulting with some long time reefer friends/lfs I decided to buffer the water with RODI slowly. I set up my new BRS 75 GPD filter system and started making water. Over the next 2 weeks I removed my struggling acans to my buddies store to recover while I get Things back in line. So I slowly started taking about 1 liter of tank water and replacing it with RODI 4-5 times a day totaling about a gallon a day. Fast forward to the beginning of this week parameters are a lot better, salinity 1.027 ALK 6.5 phosphate 0.18 PH 7.9 nitrate 5.
Yesterday I did a 5 gallon water change to help get ALK back up. I know I didn't test cal or mag and thats because I will be doing All-for-reef once corals are back in and adjusting my dosing for that.
Hopefully sometime next week I can get corals back into the tank and slowly making this a reef again. Sorry for the long post but like I said alot happened and I haven't felt like updating until now.
Long post warning its been a long time since I gave an update.
Tank was running well around the beginning of November I had added an Aquamaxx 1.5 hob skimmer that is running like a champ. Also added a second AI Prime HD, which helped with some corals i has reaching and eliminated some shadows i had. Had some birds nest and a few other sps growing well and tank was chugging along.
Fast forward to the beginning of this month when I returned after several months away for work, I come home to 90% of my coral dead and a major GHA outbreak. The only surviving corals are my BTA, 6-7 RFA, Dragon eye zoas, 2 hammers, 3 acans and my gsp on the back wall. All the fish were alive still. So I started testing water to see how bad things were....salinity was 1.039 ALK 14(hannah) phosphates .80(hannah). After testing my wife confessed that she had topped off the tank with saltwater not RODI. so that was the cause. I cant be mad because she had a lot going on with work a 6 yr old and a rental house with problems while I was gone. All I could do is move forward and be glad I didn't have anything to expensive in there that died.
So after consulting with some long time reefer friends/lfs I decided to buffer the water with RODI slowly. I set up my new BRS 75 GPD filter system and started making water. Over the next 2 weeks I removed my struggling acans to my buddies store to recover while I get Things back in line. So I slowly started taking about 1 liter of tank water and replacing it with RODI 4-5 times a day totaling about a gallon a day. Fast forward to the beginning of this week parameters are a lot better, salinity 1.027 ALK 6.5 phosphate 0.18 PH 7.9 nitrate 5.
Yesterday I did a 5 gallon water change to help get ALK back up. I know I didn't test cal or mag and thats because I will be doing All-for-reef once corals are back in and adjusting my dosing for that.
Hopefully sometime next week I can get corals back into the tank and slowly making this a reef again. Sorry for the long post but like I said alot happened and I haven't felt like updating until now.
