Jackie and Glenns 180g Reef Build

[Janci]

Wow.. I was amazed to see the notification that there were so many posts to the thread and thought it had to do with the UV installation victory.
I skipped a few heartbeats when I saw the pictures of the tank.

Those SPS and invertabrates are kind of tricky but the LPS is strong and can take a hit.
The water changes is the best you could have done in this situation where it is uncertain what caused the corals to fade.
Hoping to hear some more and better news this morning...
Hang in there!!!

 

[prsnlty]

Dang this is terrible

The cloudy water is most likely a mix between the water changes and dying coral.

When you added the rox did you use more than usual? As you known it will strip the water very quickly if too much is used. Maybe rox in conjunction with chemiclean might have caused these issues?

I too very recently thought of tearing down, bit perseverance came thru and here I am and so shall you. Keep your chin up, you know we are here for you.

Thank you George It means a lot that everyone's here. People at home don't quite get it.

There's only about 2 cups total of rox running and I have the flow on 40% because of worrying about stripping it. But I'm thinking the 40% is not enough considering how cloudy it is and how strong the odor is.

I think the problem was a combo of a fast, considerable pH drop, mass amount of microbubbles and ticked off palys. Circled in the picture above. They're called Caribbean Green palys. The very same type that nuked Sanjay's tank. I thought I killed them before I set up the 180. Then used the rock in the 180. They came back... and I was about to make replacement rock and pull them out in the next few weeks when the rock was cured [emoji26] I have used chemiclean many times and never had an issue before. And I wasn't running the Rox during treatment. So no I don't think that was it.

Lost all acro frags, my thick green birdsnest and stylo colonies. Red monticap is 1/2 dead as is the sunset. The green and purple slimers are very pale and I don't see any pe. 3 other acro colonies that were returning to life are no more.

I wish I didn't love acros so much and just fill up the tank with softies and lps... but it just isn't the same.

Finished the 3rd wc. Going to bed and hope tomorrow is a better day...

 

[prsnlty]

Hybird,
I've only seen play's go off like that once in my life time.
If we need to pitch in on R2R as a family to get Jackie's 180 back up again, it will be done.

It is heartbreaking and we've all been there one way or another but right now, I'm praying for Jackie to get some duly needed sleep, put it out of her mind and take care of herself.

Freddie

Thank you Freddie Heading that way now...

 

[prsnlty]

Wow.. I was amazed to see the notification that there were so many posts to the thread and thought it had to do with the UV installation victory.
I skipped a few heartbeats when I saw the pictures of the tank.

Those SPS and invertabrates are kind of tricky but the LPS is strong and can take a hit.
The water changes is the best you could have done in this situation where it is uncertain what caused the corals to fade.
Hoping to hear some more and better news this morning...
Hang in there!!!

Thank you Janci

I truly wish it was about the UV but honestly I didn't even get to it because of this. I'm going to change out some of my media in the morning and pull as much of the dead that's left out of the tank as I can and do a fourth water change. At that time I am probably going to hook up the UV since I'll have the tank shut down for the water change. At least I'll have that out of my way. I'm really hoping that I don't lose the Red Robin or the slimers and especially not my fish. But I'm going to try not to think about that right now and go get some rest. I'll update everyone in the morning. Thanks for rooting for me!

 

[prsnlty]

Did a 4th wc this morning and replaced the carbon and filter sock. I also cut away what I could with bone cutters of the dead sticks. The rest are too thick. Lps and softies are still not opening.

 

[prsnlty]

My TDs is reading one so I need to stop making water until I get more Di. I think I have done all I can do for now anyway. I'm just going to keep changing out the media as need be and hope for the best at this point. My tank looks terrible. there's one section of Slimer that I should probably cut off but I'm afraid to break what's left and it's not possible for me to cut the Monti cap off- otherwise all of the dead acro's are gone. Here are a couple of current pictures.... I've noticed that it looks clearer in pictures than it does in person.

 

[prsnlty]

Turned the skimmer on, no cup yet. Letting it run until the bubbles calm down a bit 1st.

***Side note for those who have outside air tubes connected to your skimmer intake; running with the cup off doesn't allow the intake to suck enough air through it to help your ph. I only see the difference when the cup is in place.

I cut the best looking branch off the green slimer and put it in the 29g. I am in hopes it will survive but not expecting anything. Other than massive amounts of aptasia that tank does pretty good so we'll see...

The purple slimer has no pe and slightly faded color I'm hoping it hangs in there. All the rest of the acros are gone. Only monti's remain of the SPS corals and most of them look bad.

Hopefully the carbon does a good job of pulling out any toxins that are left in the system. I think if I keep doing water changes at the rate that I was doing them I will be causing a reset. I have dumped 8 oz of API stress zyme bacteria in the tank also. It's all I have available in my area. I've had good luck with it before so I hope I do again.

As far as the UV goes I haven't done anything with it yet other than disconnect from the manifold. I have the next 3 days off from babysitting my granddaughter so I will be working on that then as well as DIY Rock. No time like the present to go ahead and start removing troubled Rock from the system. Hopefully the new rock cures quick enough because before I put it into the tank I am also going to make it live. Unless somehow I find myself desperate to have it in there first LOL. I'm just going to play that one by ear.

So that is my update for today. I may not be on here very much tomorrow because I have a full plate dealing with the tank and doing the DIY Rock. I'm going to start with the bridge then other pieces just for replacement and future rubble rock use.

 

[prsnlty]

On a side note; with all the rain that we've had the last month or two I should have done the rock a month or two ago and it would definitely have been cured. The rain helps tremendously with leeching the alkalinity out of it. Plus it adds a lot of good minerals and I don't have to change the water as often. It's the best thing for it when curing it. With my luck now it won't be raining LOL!

 

[prsnlty]

Current events.... The green slimer is gone. As is the bonsai. The only other acro remaining is the purple slimer. I think I'm going to move it over to the 29 gallon as well. Then I better check the parameters in that tank because that tank was not meant to hold SPS. It's a softy tank that I pretty much ignore LOL. At this point I don't feel like I have much of a choice if I want to save it it will not happen in the 180. I am also losing Monti's yet. One of the Hammers doesn't look too well either which I'll show in a picture below. Anyway here they are beginning with 2 fts and 2 of the purple slimer...

 

[GoVols]

doing the DIY Rock. I'm going to start with the bridge then other pieces just for replacement and future rubble rock use.

... ...


.

 

[Janci]

Do not give up on the montis.
They are nuclear resistent.
I have dipped several of them in heavy dip sauce for hours with freshwater bath as a way to kill nudis.
I thought I killed the monti as well, but after over 3 weeks and several time cleaning off algae, those animals come back.

 

[prsnlty]

Do not give up on the montis.
They are nuclear resistent.
I have dipped several of them in heavy dip sauce for hours with freshwater bath as a way to kill nudis.
I thought I killed the monti as well, but after over 3 weeks and several time cleaning off algae, those animals come back.

Lol, yeah I thought they were pretty indestructible too especially the red one that I have. I don't really care about the red Monti cap cuz it's more trouble than it's worth but the rest of them I do.

I am going to do one more water change even though I wasn't planning to. The coral death smell is a little too much and the protein skimmer won't stop foaming. I really need to get that protein skimmer running.

It must be doing a little better in there though because the zoa's and remaining paly's are opening however the LPS are still shrunken and the plate won't even try to feed. I'm hoping tomorrow will be a better day after one last water change

 

[prsnlty]

Current Parameters:
Time 5:10pm
Sg 1.026
Ph 8.31
Temp 77.4
Alk 10.05
No3 5ppm
Ca 390
Mg 1170

Alk is high... need to adjust doser and bring mg up a little. I can't believe my tank uses so much magnesium. It seems to go in Cycles where it uses lots of magnesium then other times it doesn't.

 

[prsnlty]

Sorry I haven't updated in a few days. Nothing in the form of good news I'm afraid. All acros are officially gone, LPS still haven't opened and I lost the slimers, grafted monticap Spongodes and setosa. Haven't seen the baby cardinals in a couple of days nor the harlequin (Glenn's favorite).

With all the colonies and a bunch of rock gone the fish have few places to hide at night so they fuss with each other a lot. Earlier while cleaning the glass someone, I didn't see who, chased the yellow Coris right out of the tank. Apparently this old lady still has excellent reflexes though and caught him before he hit the carpet lol. Mid flight you might say!

I think it's a possibility my lighting is now too bright with so few Coral in the tank and that's why the LPS may not be opening. They are also new bulbs. So I'm going to only leave the blue pluses on tomorrow to see if that makes a difference.

So that's it...

 

[hybridazn]

Dang that stinks

 

[prsnlty]

Dang that stinks

Yes and Glenn still doesn't know about this. I didn't want to tell him while he is on the road. He'll be home sometime tomorrow so we'll see how that goes.

There is one little bit of good news the pH has come back up even with the skimmer not running. I tried to run it but it just continuously overflowed. Ph is in a decent range anyway even without running the skimmer.

I'm wondering what could have caused the ph to take such a sudden dive like it did though. Nothing in the house changed and nothing in the system changed. I mean yeah I was trying to hook up the UV sterilizer but that wouldn't have changed my pH because I never turned it on except to test the flow and that shouldn't have done it either. I'm wondering if the paly's let out a bunch of poison and that could have dropped the pH. Instead of the pH causing the paly's to do that.

This is 2 screenshots of the ph graph. When the crash happened and just now.

 

[HolisticBear]

All acros are officially gone, LPS still haven't opened and I lost the slimers, grafted monticap Spongodes and setosa. Haven't seen the baby cardinals in a couple of days nor the harlequin (Glenn's favorite).

I am so sorry. That's a difficult loss. A loss is never easy, but after everything you went thru with the power outage, it's more difficult. Again, I'm sorry.

Apparently this old lady still has excellent reflexes though and caught him before he hit the carpet lol. Mid flight you might say!

Amazing catch, that's a nice positive surprise for ya!

I'm wondering what could have caused the ph to take such a sudden dive like it did though.

I'm just quoting Melev's Reef here, so FWIW. The downside of chemiclean is that it drops the oxygen level. A lower O2 likely implies a higher CO2 content, so potentially that's the cause of the pH drop? In his video, he recommends letting the skimmer overflow and throwing the waste water away. So you need to have some premixed saltwater, but keep emptying the skimmer cup and replacing with your premade saltwater. Just something I recently watched on YouTube, so passing it along.

 

[prsnlty]

I am so sorry. That's a difficult loss. A loss is never easy, but after everything you went thru with the power outage, it's more difficult. Again, I'm sorry.


Amazing catch, that's a nice positive surprise for ya!


I'm just quoting Melev's Reef here, so FWIW. The downside of chemiclean is that it drops the oxygen level. A lower O2 likely implies a higher CO2 content, so potentially that's the cause of the pH drop? In his video, he recommends letting the skimmer overflow and throwing the waste water away. So you need to have some premixed saltwater, but keep emptying the skimmer cup and replacing with your premade saltwater. Just something I recently watched on YouTube, so passing it along.

Thank you [emoji3] Great video also!

I've done several chemiclean treatments on this tank before with no issues. However I haven't done one since before most of the acro frags became colonies. I did do something different this time though. I ran my skimmer and let it overflow (Not collecting) with no cup. Normally I ran a air bubbler with wood diffuser in front of the return pump and skimmer off.

I probably will never know what happened so I decided that I am just going to cleanup and save what's left of this reef tank and pretty much start over.

 

[GoVols]

Thank you [emoji3] Great video also!

Lol!!!
I thought he'd never start that video.
I was like... Can you get on with it.

 

[prsnlty]

My game plan;

Hook up the uv.
Start making the diy rock and bridge and get it kuring.
Clean the sand bed one section at a time at each water change.
Clean up the sump.
Remove some rock that I don't care for. Mostly due to runaway xenia.
Add Fritz turbostart 900.

By the time the rock is ready so should the tank be. I figure about 2-3 months before adding coral.