Most tank crashes are caused by this….

[MZabel67]

It still applies to me though. I’m losing zoas left and right lately. About 75 frags melted away so far. I wasn’t paying enough attention.

What do you mean by not paying attention to the zoas?

 

[Reefer Matt]

What do you mean by not paying attention to the zoas?

I’ve been working overtime at my day job and the only time I have to inspect everything is on the weekend. I am a part time local vendor and have multiple frag tanks for aquaculture. For some reason all of my zoas are melting regardless of what I do. It happens sometimes.

 

[Jeff Kohlmann]

Nothing about my ex's is funny.

How many ‘ya got?

 

[Jeff Kohlmann]

How many ‘ya got?

 

[tbrown]

How many ‘ya got?

Well, they all live in Texas...

 

[Brandon Wilcox]

All I have to say is, if you ever switch off a power bar for necessary maintenance before heading off to vacation, tape your house keys to the switch while it's off.

Or better, use remote controlled sockets

This is some of the best advice. I've done some stupid things in a hurry thinking I'll remember to put it back. Reminders or controllers are a must. That includes setting a schedule for maintenance. I'll eventually get to it. Then a month passes. I screwed up a bunch early on in the hobby. Make everything simple to start or you'll spend 10x the time or cost to fix it later.

 

[dakoop]

My worst crash was ato sticking on when adding water through kalk stirrer. Total wipeout

 

[fish farmer]

This is some of the best advice. I've done some stupid things in a hurry thinking I'll remember to put it back. Reminders or controllers are a must. That includes setting a schedule for maintenance. I'll eventually get to it. Then a month passes. I screwed up a bunch early on in the hobby. Make everything simple to start or you'll spend 10x the time or cost to fix it later.

Schedules for maintenance is great...until on the weekend you have to get stuff done, you're sick in bed, then the wife gets it, then your back to work, two weekends in a row with a short break in the middle.

You should see how long some of my lawn is, got some mowed yesterday, now it's going to rain for two days.

At least that gives me indoor days to do that water change that was due two weeks ago.

 

[vlangel]

Schedules for maintenance is great...until on the weekend you have to get stuff done, you're sick in bed, then the wife gets it, then your back to work, two weekends in a row with a short break in the middle.

You should see how long some of my lawn is, got some mowed yesterday, now it's going to rain for two days.

At least that gives me indoor days to do that water change that was due two weeks ago.

Ha ha, I hear ya and feel your pain.

 

[Formulator]

 

[PharmrJohn]

Schedules for maintenance is great...until on the weekend you have to get stuff done, you're sick in bed, then the wife gets it, then your back to work, two weekends in a row with a short break in the middle.

You should see how long some of my lawn is, got some mowed yesterday, now it's going to rain for two days.

At least that gives me indoor days to do that water change that was due two weeks ago.

And this is so true WRT schedules. But in a few years, I will be retired (roughly 494 days) and I'll have absolutely NO excuse!!!! That is going to be very cool!

 

[PastaReefs]

My worst crash came when I ran out of api water treatment and started using prime to treat my top off water, in less then 3 weeks every inch of my tank was GHA. I have since bought more api and the gha is receding with the help of a tuxedo urchin and 3 small turbo snails in my evo 13. The only coral that hasnt recovered is the candy cane which surprised me because my acropora didn't need any recovery it was hardly effected.

 

[Formulator]

My worst crash came when I ran out of api water treatment and started using prime to treat my top off water, in less then 3 weeks every inch of my tank was GHA. I have since bought more api and the gha is receding with the help of a tuxedo urchin and 3 small turbo snails in my evo 13. The only coral that hasnt recovered is the candy cane which surprised me because my acropora didn't need any recovery it was hardly effected.

Why are you treating top-off water with conditioner?

 

[PastaReefs]

Why are you treating top-off water with conditioner?

I use tap water so I detox chloramines and chlorine with conditioner, I had been doing this algae free for almost a year before I ran out and switched to prime. I plan on going rodi eventually, I just got tired of buying it weekly. I know tap water is generally considered taboo.

 

[PharmrJohn]

I use tap water so I detox chloramines and chlorine with conditioner, I had been doing this algae free for almost a year before I ran out and switched to prime. I plan on going rodi eventually, I just got tired of buying it weekly. I know tap water is generally considered taboo.

I would start using RODI ASAP. As you know, tap water has a lot of different impurities in it. And much of the time, those impurities build up in the tank and livestock over months or even years. So when issues hit, it's not always obvious what it is and when it started. And, IMO, those are the worst sort of problems.

 

[tbrown]

 

[Formulator]

I use tap water so I detox chloramines and chlorine with conditioner, I had been doing this algae free for almost a year before I ran out and switched to prime. I plan on going rodi eventually, I just got tired of buying it weekly. I know tap water is generally considered taboo.

Depending on the water source some people get away with tap water for a while, but I would highly recommend buying RODI for your top off. The problem with topping off using tap is that you are concentrating all the impurities over time. So what might initially be a minuscule trace impurity in your raw tap water can rise over time to become a problem as you continue to top off with it. Every time you add top off water you are adding more of that impurity. Evaporation only takes the pure water with it and leaves the impurity. The same goes for the byproducts of the water conditioner. After neutralizing chloramine, those molecules don’t disappear, they are still there in different form. Typically sulfates and ammonium or nitrates. These too are concentrated over time in your aquarium if you are topping off with treated water.

 

[RelaxingWithTheReef]

This may not be the cause of Most, but probably worth an honorable mention.

Tank is absolutely beautiful, but for some reason the reefer believes a parameter is not “correct”, and overreacts.
Example - 0.100ppm phosphate is “too high”. Remedy goes something like this:

Add GFO = Crashes PO4
Coral start to bleach so lower the light
Alk then swings up and down
Dinos get triggered
Corals start STN / RTN
Ammonia then spikes
Let’s dose H2O2
Maybe time for Blackout
Etc.
Etc.
Etc.

Next thing you know, everything is dead… Q.E.D.

 

[Ocean BLou]

For me scraping away algae everyday no matter how small makes me take notice of everything else that’s going on in my tanks

 

[vlangel]

Depending on the water source some people get away with tap water for a while, but I would highly recommend buying RODI for your top off. The problem with topping off using tap is that you are concentrating all the impurities over time. So what might initially be a minuscule trace impurity in your raw tap water can rise over time to become a problem as you continue to top off with it. Every time you add top off water you are adding more of that impurity. Evaporation only takes the pure water with it and leaves the impurity. The same goes for the byproducts of the water conditioner. After neutralizing chloramine, those molecules don’t disappear, they are still there in different form. Typically sulfates and ammonium or nitrates. These too are concentrated over time in your aquarium if you are topping off with treated water.

It depends on your tap water supply. I have been using tap water for 25 years and have never had an issue. Not algae or a build up of other impurities. My tanks are up for long time, (my current tank has been up almost 8 years).

I also use a dechlorinator that removes chloromines.