JMello
Community Member
140 gallon mixed reef been up and running 4+years I've had it for 1.5 years.
Was dosing all4 reef
Swapped out my sump for an outside sump (in enclosure)
When I mixed the salt for it I just got the petco instant ocean salt that had a higher ALK content and didn't think much about it (mistake#1)
I filled sump and tested all parameters before mixing the display with the sump. Tested everything except alk (mistake#2) (I know I'm an idiot)
My alk before the swap over was a little on the high side but corals were all doing good some growing some not but all alive and well.
Nitrates are always between 3-15 usually around 10 and Phos is usually .02-.10
Ca is right at 450 and mag is 1450-1500
Ever since I swapped over to the new sump I did have a temperature drop down to like 70-72 when I first did it as I forgot to program the heaters right (fixed) and from the chart you can see my alk spiked around 12 something.
Since then on the advice from others got red sea 8ALK salt and started doing small 20-40 gallon water changes every day or other day. The display is 140 the sump is 250 (yes 250, I plan to add another tank to the system so I'm planning ahead)
You can see on the chart where my alk starts to drop down to a reasonable level. Goal is 9ish.
First question is did my temp and alk cause all my sps to die off? I lost digi and tons of sps sticks some huge colonies as well.
Also lost torches and branching hammers. One of my anemia's has disappeared (after it moved) and my 3 bubble tips are spread out and bright pink and white colors. Oddly enough my zoe's seems to be doing well, bounce mushrooms good but some green and other ones shriveled up.
In your opinion is this all caused by the alk fluctuation and temp or should I consider some sort of foreign containment got into the new sump? Fish are doing great no issues at all. I also ran chemiclean through the system twice because I heard that would clean out any contaminants.
My corals have stopped dying quickly but I only have one torch left it had 4-5 heads and i think maybe 2 are left and barely sticking out. I also have one hammer head with three heads two of which are reseeded.
2nd Question is, do I just wait it out or do I try something else? I've lost so much coral that I'm half tempted to just ignore it and do fish only. As I know many others have experience this, it's a hard lesson learned not my first and most likely not my last.
Was dosing all4 reef
Swapped out my sump for an outside sump (in enclosure)
When I mixed the salt for it I just got the petco instant ocean salt that had a higher ALK content and didn't think much about it (mistake#1)
I filled sump and tested all parameters before mixing the display with the sump. Tested everything except alk (mistake#2) (I know I'm an idiot)
My alk before the swap over was a little on the high side but corals were all doing good some growing some not but all alive and well.
Nitrates are always between 3-15 usually around 10 and Phos is usually .02-.10
Ca is right at 450 and mag is 1450-1500
Ever since I swapped over to the new sump I did have a temperature drop down to like 70-72 when I first did it as I forgot to program the heaters right (fixed) and from the chart you can see my alk spiked around 12 something.
Since then on the advice from others got red sea 8ALK salt and started doing small 20-40 gallon water changes every day or other day. The display is 140 the sump is 250 (yes 250, I plan to add another tank to the system so I'm planning ahead)
You can see on the chart where my alk starts to drop down to a reasonable level. Goal is 9ish.
First question is did my temp and alk cause all my sps to die off? I lost digi and tons of sps sticks some huge colonies as well.
Also lost torches and branching hammers. One of my anemia's has disappeared (after it moved) and my 3 bubble tips are spread out and bright pink and white colors. Oddly enough my zoe's seems to be doing well, bounce mushrooms good but some green and other ones shriveled up.
In your opinion is this all caused by the alk fluctuation and temp or should I consider some sort of foreign containment got into the new sump? Fish are doing great no issues at all. I also ran chemiclean through the system twice because I heard that would clean out any contaminants.
My corals have stopped dying quickly but I only have one torch left it had 4-5 heads and i think maybe 2 are left and barely sticking out. I also have one hammer head with three heads two of which are reseeded.
2nd Question is, do I just wait it out or do I try something else? I've lost so much coral that I'm half tempted to just ignore it and do fish only. As I know many others have experience this, it's a hard lesson learned not my first and most likely not my last.
