Devastating Post

[vetteguy53081]

Thanks a lot everyone, I greatly appreciate it. I put a lot of time into this hobby and trying to help other people get into SPS, never thought something like this would happen but I guess that’s when something bad happens. Trying to be positive going forward.

I am elated to hear of your acceptance and plan to move forward

 

[fishsocks]

I am really sorry for your loss.... On a side note, can you pay homage to your reef by using those as a sort of like a rock for your next tank when you decide to?

 

[Kooma]

That’s awful, sorry to hear that happened. If you find out what happened please update us, maybe someone can benefit by learning from this.

 

[FishTruck]

Sorry man, I can relate. I just threw out all my SPS after five years of steady growth - and I keep procrastinating a post about it. Maybe this weekend.

The good news is it gives me a chance to make major changes in the system without worrying about disturbing corals.

I will follow your progress. Good luck!

 

[CoralWealth]

I am making progress.

I took out all the dead corals in the display tank and completely redid the rockwork.




This was it when I got home which I showed in the first post.

 

[kynan]

Are you certain your rock isn’t contaminated with something? Perhaps grab a few cheap sticks as a test case?

 

[ninjamyst]

I am so sorry. Been there before and I swore off acros. Parameters can be spot on and everything is growing with white tips and all of a sudden, just RTN everywhere.

Of course I say no more acros but here I am dumping more money into more frags.,..

 

[CoralWealth]

Are you certain your rock isn’t contaminated with something? Perhaps grab a few cheap sticks as a test case?

Yeah i am pretty positive, I will slowly start adding acros over the next couple of weeks.

I plan to document this a lot more going forward so people can follow along the rebuild

 

[SeaDweller]

Yeah i am pretty positive, I will slowly start adding acros over the next couple of weeks.

I plan to document this a lot more going forward so people can follow along the rebuild

dang dude. You got RIGHT back on it. It’s tough, but really, what can you do, you know? Kudos to you for jumping right back in. Wishing you the best and I hope you figure out what the heck happened, because it could happen to any of us.

 

[CoralWealth]

dang dude. You got RIGHT back on it. It’s tough, but really, what can you do, you know? Kudos to you for jumping right back in. Wishing you the best and I hope you figure out what the heck happened, because it could happen to any of us.

I am trying to remain positive and get back into the game. I will slowly add acros, it will take years to get anywhere close to where I was before.

The dead corals filled 2 30 gallon trash cans

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

I am trying to remain positive and get back into the game. I will slowly add acros, it will take years to get anywhere close to where I was before.

The dead corals filled 2 30 gallon trash cans

Hey brother! I came back to this thread to see if you found a direct cause of the crash. I saw you mentioned bacteria bloom, but I would assume that would have had some negative impacts on your fish as well. You mentioned low ph 7.4. That will definitely melt your sps in 24 hours. I’m not sure what your method of additives are but I’m assuming that you may be using a calcium reactor. Could a malfunction in the c02 be what dropped your ph and killed the sps?

 

[CoralWealth]

Hey brother! I came back to this thread to see if you found a direct cause of the crash. I saw you mentioned bacteria bloom, but I would assume that would have had some negative impacts on your fish as well. You mentioned low ph 7.4. That will definitely melt your sps in 24 hours. I’m not sure what your method of additives are but I’m assuming that you may be using a calcium reactor. Could a malfunction in the c02 be what dropped your ph and killed the sps?

Hey man. That is what I would point to too, but I had my brother turn off the C02 the second corals starting peeling because I knew they wouldn't use the alk, etc so that definitely was not it.

The PH plummeted because of the bacteria bloom from what I have seen online and talking to owners of major vendors. It was just awful timing with me being across the world. It has hard to make any dent when my brother was trying to fix things as a 50 gallon water change is nothing when looking at 700-800 gallons of total water volume.

The only thing that was slightly off was salinity at 1.028, but that would not cause a crash like that.

It had to of been just an awful bacteria explosion that caused RTN that then spread even faster.

 

[p1u5h13r4m24]

Hey man. That is what I would point to too, but I had my brother turn off the C02 the second corals starting peeling because I knew they wouldn't use the alk, etc so that definitely was not it.

The PH plummeted because of the bacteria bloom from what I have seen online and talking to owners of major vendors. It was just awful timing with me being across the world. It has hard to make any dent when my brother was trying to fix things as a 50 gallon water change is nothing when looking at 700-800 gallons of total water volume.

The only thing that was slightly off was salinity at 1.028, but that would not cause a crash like that.

It had to of been just an awful bacteria explosion that caused RTN that then spread even faster.

Ah ok. So the rtn happened before the ph dropped?

 

[CoralWealth]

Ah ok. So the rtn happened before the ph dropped?

Yes, multiple days before.

 

[Reefer1978]

Ph drop from CalRX would have also melted the media and cause a huge alk spike, which I believe was not observed.

 

[CoralWealth]

Ph drop from CalRX would have also melted the media and cause a huge alk spike, which I believe was not observed.

Yup exactly, the alk did not change more than 0.2

 

[Red_Beard]

Wild. So many things have to go just right to be successful. So few for a total crash.

 

[CoralWealth]

Wild. So many things have to go just right to be successful. So few for a total crash.

Unfortunately, this is spot on. I will say though, my setup was very very simple, I did not do anything crazy to get the really good growth and colors I had.

 

[Red_Beard]

Unfortunately, this is spot on. I will say though, my setup was very very simple, I did not do anything crazy to get the really good growth and colors I had.

I think that is a good policy. The more complex a system the easier it is for it to be derailed.

 

[SamMule]

Wow, just saw this. So sorry for your loss! I can't imagine the helpless feeling of watching it all die from afar like that. Curious. Have you ever ICP'd your tank to see if anything from the plywood or sealer could have been slowly building up? Looking forward to watching your rebuild!