Don't Make the same mistake I made

Peacocksm · Jan 29, 2023

Yes. 100% the reason for the crash. As soon as I discovered the salinity issue I was able to correct the problem. It took about 6 days to get it to the right levels. In the process I added some fritz turbo start to replenish some of the bacteria that was killed off from running the dead sea in my tank. I lost 90% of my coral and livestock. It was very devastating. But I have everything set back up and I'm slowly adding new coral. It's bouncing back. I'm no longer using the digital stuff and sticking to the refractometer.

TalkinTangie · Jan 29, 2023

Appreciate the insight and feedback. I have made some mistakes and I always chaulk it up to a good learning experience if nothing else. A costly one though! Good luck as things continue to stabilize and recover!

X-37B · Jan 29, 2023

Peacocksm said:
Yes. 100% the reason for the crash. As soon as I discovered the salinity issue I was able to correct the problem. It took about 6 days to get it to the right levels. In the process I added some fritz turbo start to replenish some of the bacteria that was killed off from running the dead sea in my tank. I lost 90% of my coral and livestock. It was very devastating. But I have everything set back up and I'm slowly adding new coral. It's bouncing back. I'm no longer using the digital stuff and sticking to the refractometer.

Tropic Marin floating hydro is all I use. Simple and quick.

olonmv · Jan 29, 2023

Peacocksm said:
So I've been building a reef tank for a couple years now and it was looking really good. I did a water change and I could see that my sump had seen better days. So I decided to clean the sump because it didn't look so good and I didnt want the wife to have a reason to complain about how it looked. I drained the sump and scrubbed it down. Looked nice and clean and was proud of how good it looked. I put it back into the system and did the water change to just the sump and didnt think anything of it because its not that big of a water change. Well I was wrong. As soon as i got it up and running I could tell something was wrong. My tangs started sitting at the bottom of the tank and all my coral closed up. I checked all the levels and everything seemed perfect. So I didnt think anything of it. The next day I could smell the bacteria had started to die in the tank and my water was cloudy. Instant reaction was to do another water change to help save my tank. That was another mistake. I looked at all the forums and I have caused my tank to go unbalanced. Once that happens there really is nothing you can do. You need to let it cycle again. All my coral have died and I have a couple fish still hanging in there. Biggest mistake I ever made and now I have to watch my tank die. I'm letting it get back to being balance but I have paid a huge cost. So if you are reading this. There is a such thing as cleaning too much. If you are going to clean do it in stages and nothing over the top. I'm happy I have a nicee clean sump but my tank is not doing good at all. Very sad lesson I've learned and one I'll never do again. yes yes yes I know I'm stupid.

It’s disheartening when you’re trying to do good and you end up affecting livestock. I cleaned all my snails once tryna clean to much at one time. Condolences.