FarmerTy's 215-gallon SPS Tank

[Wrangy]

**** me dead Ty!! How is everything looking now??? What a wild weekend you've had.. haha

 

[FarmerTy]

That's unreal! So the biopelet reactor physically broke and leaked water out of your system? Does your skimmer cup go to external reservoir with a high level off switch? Get a water alarm to put in your fish room, they are like $10.

Pellets clogged with gooey bacteria and then out of nowhere blew loose. I have some optical sensors and floor water sensors arriving tomorrow. It was long overdue to install them... moved houses and tank when my son was 1 week old. Never came back to add in my safety checks and this is the reef gods way of reminding me.

Just finished reading through the entire thread. You have had some ups and downs, but I love your attitude through it all. Thanks for sharing your whole journey with us and not just the parts where everything is good.

Hoping for no delayed reactions to the recent turmoil your tank has gone through. Glad you were able to think quickly enough to get parameters back in line in a timely manner to minimize the damage.

Thanks a bunch! All journeys have ups and downs. While I like to try to focus on the positives in my personal life, felt that was being a bit disingenuous to skip over the bad with my tank journey. The facade of being perfect doesn’t help anyone.

Wow, crazy. I hope everything survives! Big thumbs up on posting it in your thread. I’m a firm believer in posting my failures (and successes) in my thread to help others.

I’ve been bad about posting failures but I’m doing my best right now to try!

**** me dead Ty!! How is everything looking now??? What a wild weekend you've had.. haha

Everything still looks pretty good. Lost a little color but it’s coming back fast. Those who aren’t acroholics would probably not even notice colors aren’t at their peak. I really lucked out on this one and quick action helped a bunch.

 

[FarmerTy]

 

[Reefpuck]

Looking good! Heard from a little bird at the lfs that you were adding a few more low boys possibly?

 

[FarmerTy]

Looking good! Heard from a little bird at the lfs that you were adding a few more low boys possibly?

Yes sir. Working on a backup system since 2019 seems like the year of user initiated goof ups. Figured I better have a backup system in place for when the skimmate hits the fan.

 

[FarmerTy]

Backup system

 

[Wrangy]

Really glad to hear things are settled Ty! You should be proud of your reactions and getting things under control

 

[FarmerTy]

Really glad to hear things are settled Ty! You should be proud of your reactions and getting things under control

Thanks my brother from down under! Who knew one day I'd be pouring straight muriatic acid into my tank... to save it!?!?

 

[Wrangy]

Thanks my brother from down under! Who knew one day I'd be pouring straight muriatic acid into my tank... to save it!?!?

hahaha I don't think anyone could predict that but it's a valuable lesson and I have no doubt that your experience here will help save someone else's tank in future

 

[cFloor]

Backup system

Strong call! I've finally decided I'm going to do the same thing this year. I've put it off for years but I don't feel safe having all my eggs in one basket like I do now.

 

[Blutspitze]

Glad to hear things are coming back after such a scary weekend! So happy to hear that you didn't lose any major livestock, though the water bill might be a bit higher than usual for whatever your particular intervals are

 

[FarmerTy]

hahaha I don't think anyone could predict that but it's a valuable lesson and I have no doubt that your experience here will help save someone else's tank in future

That’s why I aim to share the follies as well. Teachable moments for myself and others who may run across the same scenario. Better yet, help others avoid my own pitfalls.

Strong call! I've finally decided I'm going to do the same thing this year. I've put it off for years but I don't feel safe having all my eggs in one basket like I do now.

It’s just too scary. One bad weekend like mine and I could easily lose way more than a simple backup system costs. It’s just dumb not to for me at this point. I am not looking forward to running two SPS tanks. Lol.

Glad to hear things are coming back after such a scary weekend! So happy to hear that you didn't lose any major livestock, though the water bill might be a bit higher than usual for whatever your particular intervals are

Water company loves me at this point for sure. Haha

 

[FarmerTy]

 

[aabjones888]

What coral is the last one in your latest pics?

 

[cmaxwell39]

I thought you said you tried to upset the tank?? Great pics of some great corals as always.

Good luck with setting up the backup system. I hope you never really need it, but it will be good insurance.

 

[FarmerTy]

What coral is the last one in your latest pics?

WWC All star I got from @bubbaque All that guy sends me is trash.

I thought you said you tried to upset the tank?? Great pics of some great corals as always.

Good luck with setting up the backup system. I hope you never really need it, but it will be good insurance.

I did my best but couldn’t tick it off enough even trying 3 times over the weekend. Go figure. Can’t even succeed at failing.
Backup system will be awesome and more places to stash more corals! Yay! Shhhh!!!

 

[SneakyTortuga]

I also got AllStar from bubba. I can’t wait for this thing to grow! It has so much potential

 

[wkd4b11]

@FarmerTy glad you were able to act quickly to save most everything! If it were me I think I would've panicked and lost everything.

As I was reading about the incident, I couldn't help but wonder if there was a reason you don't have your ATO controlled via your Apex? A simple "if pH > 9.0 then ATO off" could have prevented it from dumping 50 gal of Kalk water into your tank, unless it was a siphon of some sort?

I'm genuinely curious, not trying to bash in any way. I'm setting up a large system soon so I'm trying to think up all equipment and fail-safes.

 

[SneakyTortuga]

@FarmerTy glad you were able to act quickly to save most everything! If it were me I think I would've panicked and lost everything.

As I was reading about the incident, I couldn't help but wonder if there was a reason you don't have your ATO controlled via your Apex? A simple "if pH > 9.0 then ATO off" could have prevented it from dumping 50 gal of Kalk water into your tank, unless it was a siphon of some sort?

I'm genuinely curious, not trying to bash in any way. I'm setting up a large system soon so I'm trying to think up all equipment and fail-safes.

Personally I’ve had my ato almost cause a crash 3 times while away on a business trip. i won’t brand bash but I had brand new top of the line ato get stuck on dumping 10 gallons of kalk saturated water into my 80 gallon. Then I returned the ato and got another brand new ato and it caught a siphon dumping 10 gallons for the second time.

i now dose kalk on a timer from a holding tank and have a gravity fed ato. Its been flawless and running kalk on a scheduled timer really balanced out the tank parameters instead of relying on evaporation to dictate when the kalk is dosed

 

[aabjones888]

I gotta get a frag if that someday!