Tank Crash after 21 years and Im sick BUT humbled...

[Uriken]

Hello my fellow Reefer's. I hope all is well. Myself, after going on my 3rd day after a severe tank crash I find myself still feeling sick and depressed. I have been in the hobby about 26 years and my latest reef tank I have had running for about 21 years. Nothing special but a 40 breeder that was a fully wall to wall stocked beautiful mixed reef tank. I come from the old school world of saltwater and been using older out dated equipment from back when I started. It all still worked and my reef was my daily motivation as it always offered that beauty and just peace of mind to sit and watch it. I went as far to have a camera on it so I can look at the tank throughout the day on my phone just to make sure all is well. Friday while at work, I finished my lunch and did the usually camera checkup on my phone. Right away I knew something was wrong. The water looked cloudy white and the corals instead of being out and flourishing were hard to see being all shrunk down in their skeletons and shriveled up. I just told the boss I got to go and went home. Walking into the house I about got sick. Everything was pretty much dead and the few things that were hanging on looked terrible. At 1st I though it was a small frag rack I just bought off Amazon that I put in the day before as it requires glue to hold the weighted bottom onto the top holder. The glue is reef safe and had me thinking about the recent dosing I been doing. I have had a good amount of calcium consumption and using the ESV Bionic I was struggling a bit to keep up with the daily usage of late and increased the dose the past week. Getting frustrated and not wanting to over do it on the ESV dosage I decided to add Kalk at night. This is where I apparently screwed up (going to fast with adding to much) as on night 2 of adding it brought me to the tank crash. I used to think I had a pretty good knowledge of this stuff and always stayed away from dosing and all that. Yet so much is talked about it I started following suit. And now here I am. Of course doing that you need to test your water and often. I got into the mode of doing it once a week thinking I was understanding my consumption but apparently I didn't. I was able to save an elegance and a set of palys that I put in a Small Fluval EVO 13.5 tank I had laying around. All the zoa's I put in there also but have yet to open up. The SPS for sure all died as they were bleach white and I tossed. I still have the tank to take down but I cant even look at it. A few people just told me to start over but I just cant do it. I'm fine with the Fluval EVO and keeping the couple corals that pulled through. I hoping over the course of the days the zoa's may come to life. Anyways, I needed to share my story. Its's a humbling thing to happen. Just when you think you somewhat know what your doing you find you don't. I should have just stuck with the routine water changes I would do that got me many years of success.
Happy Reefing.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Sorry about your tank...

Just goes to show theres always more for all of us to learn, which (in my opinion) is part of the fun, but also is part of the challenge.

Keep us updated on how your tank is doing! I have faith you'll be able to get it back on track!

 

[blaxsun]

Sorry to hear about your tank crash. Save what you can and just sleep on things for a few days. Chances are you'll have a fresh perspective after things have had a chance to diminish somewhat.

 

[DJF]

Sorry to hear- I am in a similar spot dosing esv with an offline kalkwasser reactor I may rethink.

 

[Lowell Lemon]

I applaud you for over 20 years of success. Not many can reach that level of achievement. To ere is human, to forgive is Devine. Forgive yourself and continue to enjoy the hobby at what ever level you think you can.

 

[TheDuude]

Very sorry to hear about your loss. Thank you for sharing as we can all learn from this.

I always get nervous when making any major changes in my setup or routine.

Did you just overdose the kalk?

 

[MnFish1]

Hello my fellow Reefer's. I hope all is well. Myself, after going on my 3rd day after a severe tank crash I find myself still feeling sick and depressed. I have been in the hobby about 26 years and my latest reef tank I have had running for about 21 years. Nothing special but a 40 breeder that was a fully wall to wall stocked beautiful mixed reef tank. I come from the old school world of saltwater and been using older out dated equipment from back when I started. It all still worked and my reef was my daily motivation as it always offered that beauty and just peace of mind to sit and watch it. I went as far to have a camera on it so I can look at the tank throughout the day on my phone just to make sure all is well. Friday while at work, I finished my lunch and did the usually camera checkup on my phone. Right away I knew something was wrong. The water looked cloudy white and the corals instead of being out and flourishing were hard to see being all shrunk down in their skeletons and shriveled up. I just told the boss I got to go and went home. Walking into the house I about got sick. Everything was pretty much dead and the few things that were hanging on looked terrible. At 1st I though it was a small frag rack I just bought off Amazon that I put in the day before as it requires glue to hold the weighted bottom onto the top holder. The glue is reef safe and had me thinking about the recent dosing I been doing. I have had a good amount of calcium consumption and using the ESV Bionic I was struggling a bit to keep up with the daily usage of late and increased the dose the past week. Getting frustrated and not wanting to over do it on the ESV dosage I decided to add Kalk at night. This is where I apparently screwed up (going to fast with adding to much) as on night 2 of adding it brought me to the tank crash. I used to think I had a pretty good knowledge of this stuff and always stayed away from dosing and all that. Yet so much is talked about it I started following suit. And now here I am. Of course doing that you need to test your water and often. I got into the mode of doing it once a week thinking I was understanding my consumption but apparently I didn't. I was able to save an elegance and a set of palys that I put in a Small Fluval EVO 13.5 tank I had laying around. All the zoa's I put in there also but have yet to open up. The SPS for sure all died as they were bleach white and I tossed. I still have the tank to take down but I cant even look at it. A few people just told me to start over but I just cant do it. I'm fine with the Fluval EVO and keeping the couple corals that pulled through. I hoping over the course of the days the zoa's may come to life. Anyways, I needed to share my story. Its's a humbling thing to happen. Just when you think you somewhat know what your doing you find you don't. I should have just stuck with the routine water changes I would do that got me many years of success.
Happy Reefing.

So sorry to hear this - my story - I had a full tank of SPS - growing well. etc - My controller - went haywire - and dosed a full liter of calcium and alkalinity at the same time. As did you - I lost all the SPS. (the calcium was not bad - the alkalinity peaked at 22, the next day 17, etc. I decided there was not much to really do - I thought changing things quickly back to 'normal' - may cause more problems than it would have solved. I left everything (except as you did) - took out the obviously dead SPS. within a month - small areas where the SPS was - began to 'come back'. The soft corals all survived. The fish all survived - with no problem. I started doing 10% water changes - and within 3 months the alkalinity was back to 7-8 which is where I wanted it to be.

Its a little unclear whether the cloudiness is due to Kalk - vs - a bacterial bloom. Do you happen to know your alkalinity, pH, Ca? ammonia? etc? Point being I would not necessarily 'toss out everything' - depending on your parameters - things may still come back. Increase aeration, add flow, activated carbon - and wait (i.e. don't do anything rash). If there is nothing left alive in the tank - I would do a large water change - and just wait.

Its very easy to make a 'rash decision' - that you might regret later. I would give it some time. Again - extremely sorry for what you're going through

 

[Uriken]

I appreciate all the comments. I knew my fellow reefers would understand. Everyone else just gives me that look like, "So what,..its just a fish tank?" Even on day 4 now I still cant shake off the funk. As for some questions with my current water parameters, I honestly cant answer that as I been in such a mood I pretend now that I don't see the tank in my view and just walk passed it. I need counselling now I think. Probably tonight I will do some checking on things and start cleaning up wave makers and pumps. The few items I put in my EVO kind of look like they have life but they are far from looking ok. My guess is although they are in clean saltwater that I just made that they are in shock or just happen to look better than dead people. All the live rock I had is probably gassing off ammonia I would think yet that will probably be the 1st test I do.
Thanks everyone for the support.

 

[All_talk]

I think you are entitled to a few days of reef depression, I know I would be gutted.

A few years ago I lost one of my paired clownfish. I ever since I was a kid I had dreamed of a clownfish pair in an anemone, and for about 6 months I had it and I was very happy and loving my tank. When the clown died it kinda broke my heart and my passion for the tank dropped to the point that I did only the minimum with the tank for a couple of years. Only recently have I relit the fire and am now working to get the tank back into good form, and soon will try and re-pair my existing clown.

I think a lot of us have been where you are at and can sympathize.

 

[SlugSnorter]

I appreciate all the comments. I knew my fellow reefers would understand. Everyone else just gives me that look like, "So what,..its just a fish tank?" Even on day 4 now I still cant shake off the funk. As for some questions with my current water parameters, I honestly cant answer that as I been in such a mood I pretend now that I don't see the tank in my view and just walk passed it. I need counselling now I think. Probably tonight I will do some checking on things and start cleaning up wave makers and pumps. The few items I put in my EVO kind of look like they have life but they are far from looking ok. My guess is although they are in clean saltwater that I just made that they are in shock or just happen to look better than dead people. All the live rock I had is probably gassing off ammonia I would think yet that will probably be the 1st test I do.
Thanks everyone for the support.

I hate those people, and you are 100% justified in feeling sad. Having a tank crash, especially in a tank that was part of your life for so long can be really crushing, and I hope you can make progress in restoring your tank.

 

[rmorris_14]

Just wanted to send virtual HUGS your way. Sorry!
Don't worry about how other people think you should react. Taking the proper time to process your emotions and thoughts will lead to a better outcome on how you make decisions moving forward.

 

[Nano sapiens]

Oh wow, after that long of a time that is truly heartbreaking

I think it's just the nature of what we are doing, namely trying to keep things stable enough for an ecosystem of delicate sea creatures, that makes it likely that something like this is can happen given enough time (for me it was a 6" black Sea Cucumber that got too cozy with a powerhead propeller while I was on vacation...bye-bye Euphyllia garden).

As mentioned, I'd just concentrate on stabilizing the tank with a few good water changes and bringing parameters back in line. It's surprising what can make a come-back if conditions are appropriate.

 

[AquaGemCorals]

Sorry I couldn't image. Yes you deserve a few days to recover. Maybe take a break and restart.

 

[Uriken]

Again, I appreciate everyone's support. Oddly enough with my Irish stubbornness and repeatedly saying, "I'm done with this hobby (and then pouting)!"...I got home last night and my elegance and a couple zoa's actually looked kind of normal. Just by seeing that I got the spark to do some maintenance and now I shall see what happens. The ammonia is up there but with some water changes it might just make a come back.
I hope!
Have a good reefing day!

 

[Uriken]

Hello my fellow addicts. I just wanted to give a small update on how things went in case any of you have to go through a surprise crash like I did. I had a small Fluval EVO on the shelf that I decided to get up and running as a good portion of my corals had the look like they had a small bit of life left in them. All my zoa's were closed and I viewed that more like a defense mechanism so I took out some of the rock and put it in the EVO and right with it as many corals as I could that were not bleached or falling apart. I'm glad I took the time to get this thing up and running as 80% of my corals are thriving again. At first all of them had no color and were washed out but now after a good month they are happy and back to growing. I did lose all my SPS and of the LPS the hammers, frogspawn, and torches didn't make it. The soft corals stayed strong and pulled through. The tank is a bare bottom and stocked with rock wall to wall trying to get as much in it as I could from my old system but it turns out it has worked perfectly giving a nice reef scape. I guess the moral of the story is to not throw in the towel and to just give it time and things can and will bounce back. Its actually kind of nice having a smaller tank like this versus such a large system after all the years. Pictures to come in another week when I think everything will be back 100% on color. Thanks for the support.