600G SPS Reef Disaster

[KPersico]

All,

This past weekend I’ve suffered my first tank crash. It was a total wipeout, with all my livestock and volleyball size acro colonies. All because of human error.

I was cleaning my storage vats with 5 pounds of citric acid (approx 150 gallons of water) and dumped it into my tank by accident. Essentially 5 pounds of citric acid was mixed with my system.

overnight my system became extremely cloudy and before you know it everything was lost. In 48 hours with the help of a great Local shop nearby, we were able to do a 100% water change. I am now in the process of doing 100g water changes daily.

my ph crashed to 3.4 and now remains at around 8. The water isn’t cloudy anymore. The skimmer I’m running barely due to an insane amount of foam being produced by it. Constant overflow. My sump looks like a bubble bath.

any idea what The lasting effects of this terrible mistake will be? I’m ashamed to be writing this but appreciate any knowledge one may have on the subject and what I can expect.

I’m concerned about my live rock also. It hasn’t crumbled to touch but it’s hard to tell how much may have been lost (melted).

the corals have been with me for 10 years. From a 180g at 17, a 300 at 20, and now a 600g system I had built in my first house at 25. Now two years later and everything gone in a matter of days. Just hope this doesn’t taint my system and I can rebuild.

 

[shblink]

Oh noooo!! I’m so sorry to hear that... hoping you can recover from this and rebuild!

dont let it get you down. Crashes happen to the best of us.. just come back stronger and better than before

 

[TriggerFinger]

Wow, that’s rough bud. So Sorry for your loss. @Randy Holmes-Farley may be able to advise on the citric acid part. Do you have a sand bed in this tank?

 

[KPersico]

Wow, that’s rough bud. So Sorry for your loss. @Randy Holmes-Farley may be able to advise on the citric acid part. Do you have a sand bed in this tank?

Bare bottom, thankfully!

 

[Weasel1960]

Very sorry this has happened to you. We all make mistakes when we are rushing or thinking to far ahead. I dumped my chainsaw gas/oil mix into the ATV a couple of weeks ago, not as disastrous as you but I was thinking of something else at the time.

Hope you have better days ahead and recovery comes easily for you.

 

[Devaji]

Dang man, SOOOO sorry for your lose.

 

[F i s h y]

I'm very sorry for your loss. Im not any help on the lasting affects of your tank crash either. All I can offer you is support. It sounds like you have been an amazing reef keeper. Reefs don't get that old and large without skill, knowledge, and patience. You have a wealth of experience that you can fall back on and rebuild with.

Remember my fellow reefer... the sun is always shining, even behind the clouds. Sometimes we just have to climb higher than we thought to see it again...

 

[fishguy242]

so sorry to read this,i cannot offer help,but can say ,stuff happens ,hang tough ,best wishes,maybe #reefsqaud may have some ideas for you!

 

[leighla wolf]

All,

This past weekend I’ve suffered my first tank crash. It was a total wipeout, with all my livestock and volleyball size acro colonies. All because of human error.

I was cleaning my storage vats with 5 pounds of citric acid (approx 150 gallons of water) and dumped it into my tank by accident. Essentially 5 pounds of citric acid was mixed with my system.

overnight my system became extremely cloudy and before you know it everything was lost. In 48 hours with the help of a great Local shop nearby, we were able to do a 100% water change. I am now in the process of doing 100g water changes daily.

my ph crashed to 3.4 and now remains at around 8. The water isn’t cloudy anymore. The skimmer I’m running barely due to an insane amount of foam being produced by it. Constant overflow. My sump looks like a bubble bath.

any idea what The lasting effects of this terrible mistake will be? I’m ashamed to be writing this but appreciate any knowledge one may have on the subject and what I can expect.

I’m concerned about my live rock also. It hasn’t crumbled to touch but it’s hard to tell how much may have been lost (melted).

the corals have been with me for 10 years. From a 180g at 17, a 300 at 20, and now a 600g system I had built in my first house at 25. Now two years later and everything gone in a matter of days. Just hope this doesn’t taint my system and I can rebuild.

I had a tank issues when I first started in the hobby (wonky parameter fluctuations and bad lighting) I know this sounds crazy but leave the skeletons of the coral in the tank. I had many corals that looked like bone with no flesh and I left them because I read that sometimes if there’s even the smallest bit of flesh or life (even if they look really really gone) they’ll come back....it took MONTHS and then one day they did! It was pretty amazing to watch one of the acan colonies that looked like it should’ve been pulled start to grow tiny heads again! This hobby is challenging and we all make mistakes and are attached to our livestock. My fish even have names.. so I am sorry this happened. I feel your pain...but maybe as your tank is sorted....leave the colonies and see....sometimes in a lot of bad. We get a little luck.

 

[RVA REEF]

its just a flesh wound

 

[Viking_Reefing]

Ah man, that’s terrible.
I don’t think that the citric acid will cause any problems in the long run, it shouldn’t bind to the rock like some heavy metals can. I would just keep doing a bunch of water changes since you will most likely have a bunch of die off amongst the micro fauna.

 

[MERKEY]

So sorry for your loses and this happening, there really aren't enough words

 

[Bepis]

Yep it does happen to the best of us. For example me... Got hit 3x by ich that killed all my fish each time worth atleast 1500. And the worst part it was my maintenance guy that was at fault the first 2 times

 

[ApoIsland]

In 48 hours with the help of a great Local shop nearby, we were able to do a 100% water change. I am now in the process of doing 100g water changes daily.

So sorry to hear this. You will eventually get back to where it was though so keep positive.

100g on 600g is less than 20%. Which is not going to benefit you much in my opinion. If things are going to die it's going to happen in the first few days. I would skip the 100g water changes for 4 or 5 days and then change 400g to 500g all at once. Same amount of water but less effort and you will have replaced 80% of the fouled water instead of like 50% with 5x daily changes. And if things are continuing to die in those 5 days the ratio is even worse with daily changes.