ATO Malfunctioned help!

[silenthuntertm]

Hi everyone,

I need some help figuring out the best next steps. Here’s what happened:

Timeline​

• Wednesday – My ATO malfunctioned and dumped a lot of freshwater, dropping my salinity from 1.026 → 1.023. In a bit of panic, I removed the excess water and added freshly mixed saltwater with higher salinity to bring it back up to 1.026 quickly.
• Thursday – Everything looks normal.
• Friday – Corals looked stressed, especially plating montis and my torch. Tested alk and it was high. I run at 7.9-8.0dKH and it tested at 9.2dKH so I stopped dosing All For Reef to lower it.
• Saturday – Tested alk again and it was still high at 9.1dKH so I did a water change and it went down to 8.5dKH.
• Sunday – Corals still look stressed and my starfish thats been in the tank for 7 months died, I removed it right away. And ran carbon.
• Monday – Corals still stressed. Montis and millepora losing color, digitata expelling some tissue, torch and hammer not opening fully. Mushrooms not puffy as before.
• Tuesday – Did another 20% water change and added fresh carbon. Tested alk now at 8.2dKH.
• Today (Wednesday) – Things are not worse, but not really better either.

Current parameters​

• Salinity: 1.026 (stable now)
• Alk: 8.2dKH (normally 7.9–8.0 in my system)
• Nitrate & Phosphate: within normal range
• Dosing: Stopped All For Reef for now since alk is high. Continue dosing Aquaforest ABEV and Pro Bio S + -NP Pro as per my schedule.

Observations​

• SPS (montis, millepora, digitata) losing color and some tissue.
• Torch, hammer, mushrooms not opening as usual.
• Other corals also look a bit stressed but fish are fine.

My question​

Should I do another water change at this point, or wait it out to let things stabilize?
Is there anything else I should be doing right now to help the corals recover?

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I personally would let it stabilize. Your corals are just stressed from the quick swing of parameters. 8.2dKH isn’t bad at all so I wouldn’t worry about that.

 

[Waters]

At this point, I would leave everything alone and give it some time. Looking back, I would have brought the salinity back up slowly over days (the tank can handle a quick drop much better than a quick rise). The rise in ALK is likely due to the corals being stressed and no longer consuming ALK.

 

[eggie]

I would just wait out sometime doing a lot at the same time stress things more faster.

Next time just drop an 8 oz cup with salt in the sump and it will mix slowly and bring up your Salinity in a less stress way for you and the corals

Also what Carbon media did you use ? Apparently Petco Carbon Media is giving some tanks issues

 

[silenthuntertm]

I personally would let it stabilize. Your corals are just stressed from the quick swing of parameters. 8.2dKH isn’t bad at all so I wouldn’t worry about that.

At this point, I would leave everything alone and give it some time. Looking back, I would have brought the salinity back up slowly over days (the tank can handle a quick drop much better than a quick rise). The rise in ALK is likely due to the corals being stressed and no longer consuming ALK.

At this point, I would leave everything alone and give it some time. Looking back, I would have brought the salinity back up slowly over days (the tank can handle a quick drop much better than a quick rise). The rise in ALK is likely due to the corals being stressed and no longer consuming ALK.

Okay for now I would leave everything as it is but yeah, I’m just worried since theyre losing a lot of colors and expelling some tissues. Thank you very much for the tip appreciate it.

I would just wait out sometime doing a lot at the same time stress things more faster.

Next time just drop an 8 oz cup with salt in the sump and it will mix slowly and bring up your Salinity in a less stress way for you and the corals

Also what Carbon media did you use ? Apparently Petco Carbon Media is giving some tanks issues

Ohh yeah I’ve heard of that. I’m using Seachem’s carbon. Should be good right?