Clogged Filter caused tank to flood with freshwater

[skijumpersc]

I just got home from not seeing my tank since yesterday morning. I had done a water change and rinsed the filter pad in the old tank water. Today when I got home I found that not only was the green hair algae exploded since but my tank was on the verge of overflowing. My filter pad had gotten clogged so not much water was getting through. This caused my return pump chamber volume to drop and my ato to turn on. I think it put about 2 gallons of fresh water into the display tank. My SG has dropped from 1.026 to 1.024 which doesn't seem like a lot, but my Banded Serpent Star was running all around the tank which he's never done and had no interest in the food I tried to give him and my anemone is looking more deflated than normal. What is my best course of action here? I don't think I can do a water change tonight as all the stores are closed and I don't have any new water. I could do a partial water change with water from my QT that has been setup and never used, or I could put my starfish into there. The problem with that is its still cycling and I dont think its ready.

Also, I'm using Classic Aquarium polyfiber filter pads. Is there something better that wont get clogged as fast? How long should I expect to get out of a pad? I think that one was in there for a week and a half, but it got rinsed at the last water change

 

[Daniel Waters]

I'd probably shut off my ATO for a day and let salinity climb back up slowly that way.

If you want to get the salinity moved back up a bit closer to where it was more immediately, you could remove a gallon (or two) of saltwater (turn your ATO off) and mix in some more salt. Let sit for the appropriate time according to your salt mix (most advise an hour I think) and then add 1/4 of a gallon back into the tank every 15 minutes or so into a high flow area. Depending on your tank volume, you might have to add quite a bit of salt to that gallon or two you remove (i typically need about 1/2 cup salt mix per gallon of RO water, so if you had 2 extra gallons of RO pumped in, you would probably need 1 extra cup of salt mix added in for instance). When your salinity gets back to where it's supposed to be in the whole tank, remove the extra volume of saltwater you may have and turn your ATO back on.

I would not remove the serpent star. Another abrupt salinity change is likely to create more issues. You very well may wake up tomorrow morning and find your starfish may have broken apart in pieces. They can be very sensitive to salinity changes.

 

[skijumpersc]

I unfortunately don't have any salt at the moment to do that with. I buy premixed water and all the stores are closed. The anemone has me more worried. his organs or mouth or whatever you want to call it is way puffed up and his tentacles are super skinny. I could siphon a couple gallons out of my QT tank which was still cycling, but its salinity is up at 1.028 since i havent topped it off today. Its never had a fish in it so the water should be ok. I can do a quick nitrite test, last i checked it was monday and it was at .25

 

[Halal Hotdog]

I would let it sit where it is and let evaporation help get the salinity back in line. It is a swing in salinity, but I would not characterize it as something horrific. Are you using a refractometer to measure salinity? Are you sure there isn't something else going on as well? Extract RO/DI water in the tank would not cause a GHA explosion.

 

[skijumpersc]

Yeah I am using a refractometer, Im not sure about the GHA, thats kinda been something ive been fighting, it just seems more pronounced today. Im guessing its not related.

What type of filter pad do you use and how often do you change it?

 

[Daniel Waters]

I unfortunately don't have any salt at the moment to do that with. I buy premixed water and all the stores are closed. The anemone has me more worried. his organs or mouth or whatever you want to call it is way puffed up and his tentacles are super skinny. I could siphon a couple gallons out of my QT tank which was still cycling, but its salinity is up at 1.028 since i havent topped it off today. Its never had a fish in it so the water should be ok. I can do a quick nitrite test, last i checked it was monday and it was at .25

The amount of water you'd have to transfer over from the QT might be rather large (if it's only at 1.028), but that just depends on how many gallons your main display is. I'd just wait and let evaporation bring your salinity back up. Should only take a day or two with the ATO off, depending on how much evaporation you get each day.

The anemone will be fine. It's ticked off but should adjust. Anemones uptake a lot of water and can inflate / deflate. It may look scary, but it will be fine. Leave it be and don't try to feed it. It will recover in a day or two I suspect. The serpent star would actually be my biggest fear, but honestly there's nothing you can do at this point. The drop from 1.026 to 1.024 isn't that drastic, and most likely it didn't occur super rapidly but over hours (?). I'd give good odds the starfish will be fine if he's been in your tank a while.

As someone else pointed out, your GHA outbreak is an unrelated issue to your salinity drop.

 

[skijumpersc]

The amount of water you'd have to transfer over from the QT might be rather large (if it's only at 1.028), but that just depends on how many gallons your main display is. I'd just wait and let evaporation bring your salinity back up. Should only take a day or two with the ATO off, depending on how much evaporation you get each day.

The anemone will be fine. It's ****** off but should adjust. Anemones uptake a lot of water and can inflate / deflate. It may look scary, but it will be fine. Leave it be and don't try to feed it. It will recover in a day or two I suspect. The serpent star would actually be my biggest fear, but honestly there's nothing you can do at this point. The drop from 1.026 to 1.024 isn't that drastic, and most likely it didn't occur super rapidly but over hours (?). I'd give good odds the starfish will be fine if he's been in your tank a while.

As someone else pointed out, your GHA outbreak is an unrelated issue to your salinity drop.

Great, I'll keep my fingers crossed. How often do you recommend changing filter pads and what kind do you use? These seem to get clogged up faster than I'd anticipate and I'd rather not have the same thing happen again

 

[Daniel Waters]

Great, I'll keep my fingers crossed. How often do you recommend changing filter pads and what kind do you use? These seem to get clogged up faster than I'd anticipate and I'd rather not have the same thing happen again

I'm not sure what your filtration is set up like. I don't use filter pads. My tank drains into my sump and goes through filter socks. I have some filter floss to catch any final stray debris in an area before the final compartment of my sump where my return pump is. My sump is set up even if my filter socks were to become clogged, they would overflow into the sump and not create the kind of issue you had.

I have used poly filter before, and my filter floss does sometimes get a bit clogged, but it's typically after a couple of weeks. It usually gets very dirty and is changed way before it would ever get to the point of not letting adequate flow through. The 200 micron filter socks I'm using before that area are going to filter out the vast majority of things first. I have to change my filter sock every 2 to 3 days (it's a 4 inch diameter one that is about 10 inches long I think). My shorter filter socks I also have clog up in a day or two.

 

[Halal Hotdog]

Yeah I am using a refractometer, Im not sure about the GHA, thats kinda been something ive been fighting, it just seems more pronounced today. Im guessing its not related.

What type of filter pad do you use and how often do you change it?

I don't use filter pads, but filter socks. How often you change them varies by the micron size of the sock and amount of particulate in your tank. I run 200 micron socks and change them every 2-3 days. Like Daniel, if my sock clogs it would not change the water level in my sump. I also don't run an ATO, which simplifies my situation.

It seems you may be newer to all this, which isn't a bad thing. You may want to change how much water you have in your ATO reserve as well as reorganize your filtration/sump. Flooding your house can make you regret ever getting into this hobby and can cause very costly damage.

 

[skijumpersc]

Yeah, super new. I think the water change i had just done stirred up a bunch of debris which went straight into the poly. Ive got a red sea max 34 gallon and right now im running the surface skimmer upgrade. I think if I got rid of that my total volume would drop to the point where even if my entire ATO reservoir ran out it wouldnt make it into my tank. Since right now im not running a sump im using an in-tank media basket with a the poly filter set up up top and then a purigen bag in the second chamber. I wonder if I could run a really coarse filter in the top chamber to get the big debris but thats easy to swap out then then filter floss or something finer in the second chamber so it would last longer and then purigen in the third

 

[beaslbob]

You might also attempt to set up the ato so it is disabled when the display level is above certain level.

 

[laverda]

I would not worry about your salinity at all. The change is relitivly minor and I doubt any thing has really been bothered by it. Just let evaporation take care of it.
More important is to make sure it can not happen again and cause a flood. You need a way for water to bypass your filter pad if it gets that clogged up.

 

[OriginalUserName]

I'd put a fan on the tank and help evap bring it up a little faster than normal. IMO, if your stuff isn't dead already they will be ok as long as you don't shock them again with an abrupt increase.

 

[skijumpersc]

It seemed like it took forever for my salinity to come back up after that ATO incident. I was holding off on water changes until it got back to where I wanted it. Two days ago I noticed my serpent star out cruising around again and acting weird. Yesterday I did a water change and afterwards he was starting to lose pieces of his arms. I think it had started before the water change, but I did some tests and nothing seemed out of whack except for my nitrates which were above 40ppm. I wish I'd tested that before the change since I just got a new gravel vacuum and did a good sand bed cleaning. Im not sure if that might have stirred up a bunch of nitrates or if they were already that high. Today I got back from work and he's lost almost all his arms, but his disk still looks ok. I've heard of them making miraculous recoverys so I want to give him some more time, but I also don't want him to die somewhere that I can't find him. Its a tough call to make. My nitrates are still about 40 so I think I'm going to do another change and see if I can get them back in control. I also added some chemipure elite so hopefully that will help