HE detergent and our tanks

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duke62

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I had a coral crash just about 7 months ago. My corals were losing color,PE and died slowly over 3 months. I did everything I could to stop the carnage. Large water changes, tested every parameter everyday, had a room built around my sump in the basement, changed lighting, shut off calcium reactor and gfo etc. nothing worked I was losing all my corals and couldn't figure it out. Well I decided then to pull my 3 socks out and did another series of water changes. After 3 weeks my corals started to heal, what I had left started coloring up and soon started my sps collection again. What seemed to happen is the left over residue from washing clothing was still getting into the socks even with a rinse out of the machine before I washed my socks. Since it was HE soap there was no suds in the tank and my skimmer didn't over flow yet the small amount of residue got in and was slowly killing my corals. Now I have a front loader and I'm thinking the HE soap was getting trapped in the rubber gasket and leached out when I did my socks. So since June my tank is flourishing, sps growing and colorful as ever so if you are having issues in your tank and can't figure it out and your washing your socks in a HE front loader this may be your issue.
 
I haven't used socks for several years, but when I did, my wife washed them in the machine with vinegar, and baking soda.
 
It's really not a discussion on washing socks. It's just a thread to warn people about HE soap to let people who are having issues to remove their socks for a bit to rule out possible contamination. I've washed my socks for many years when I had a regular washing machine with no issues. It's the front loader and HE detergent that was trapped in the crevices of the machine that caused my crash
 
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I run a cycle with bleach. Extra rinse. When done I run a second time with just hot water. They come out like new. I do an RODI rinse before use.
 

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