Tank crash depression...someone...anyone...help

ReeferMadness80G

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I was browsing through threads the other day and I came across a post "..one tank crash can make someone leave the hobby for good..", I skimmed by it and thought, my tank crashed before and I got through it! Over the last 7-8 months I've developed a pretty successful SPS dominated nano tank, I had beautiful coralline algae encrusting and several of my sticks were really starting to color up and encrust the rock, I was so proud and started to finally regain confidence in my reef keeping abilities. I had several frags in racks stuck to the glass and really needed a new rock to stick them too, I had a section in my tank that would look great for a home for a good chunk of live rock and my frags. So I set off in search of the perfect piece of LR, I know my system was crazy sensitive due to its size and contents so I wanted to be very picky about the place I would purchase this rock from. I traveled an hour away to a very reputable fish and coral store that we all know and love! They steered me towards a piece of Man Made rock, it was perfect! I stared at it for awhile and decided I'd take it home, longer story short I glued all my frags to it and it looked great!
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If I dare say, I was finally happy with the way my tank looked and could start to sit back and enjoy watching it grow after almost a year of hard work!

After about 3 days I could tell something was wrong, my red setosa which is normally a deep red was starting to look almost translucent and pink! I tested my water and ALK SPIKE from 8.5 to 11-12 was the only thing different than my normal parameters. The next day, my red monti was doing the same, the next day greens and vivid blues were all muted paled versions of themselves. So I did a water change and now it would seem everything is back to normal as far as water parameters go. However I've suffered great loss in colors in 85% of my sps but the whole tank has taken a hard hit .

Months and months of hard work gone down the drain, I feel like giving up and smashing my tank. It's crazy how depressed this has made me, everything I worked for is gone, money spent, time spent GONE!

Please I need someone to make me feel like I still have a fighting chance.
 

leepink23

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I just had a heater explode and blow a hole in my sump, I know the feeling of wanting to give up. I am trying to learn from the mistake of buying a cheap heater and hopefully get things going back positive. You have beautiful corals, sorry that you are going through this. I have learned I never add anything including rock directly to my display without going through quarantine. Hopefully everything turns around for you!
 
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ReeferMadness80G

ReeferMadness80G

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I just had a heater explode and blow a hole in my sump, I know the feeling of wanting to give up. I am trying to learn from the mistake of buying a cheap heater and hopefully get things going back positive. You have beautiful corals, sorry that you are going through this. I have learned I never add anything including rock directly to my display without going through quarantine. Hopefully everything turns around for you!

Thank you! And sorry for your losses as well. I should've known better but bc of the reputation of the place where I got them and the advice of it's employee I chose not to quarantine the rock. That won't happen again. Thanks for your kind words. Hearing everyone's stories do make me feel better
 

leepink23

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Thank you! And sorry for your losses as well. I should've known better but bc of the reputation of the place where I got them and the advice of it's employee I chose not to quarantine the rock. That won't happen again. Thanks for your kind words. Hearing everyone's stories do make me feel better
I have done the same thing, all my current fish are in quarantine because I trusted a lfs and got ick in my tank. It's really hard when we invest so much money and things are going so well. I know though through these mistakes I have made I will do things the right way every time and eventually have my dream tank. Hopefully for you all coral will survive and bounce back strong!
 

Bacon505

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People oftenly make it worse when freaking out after a crashed or some short and make quick drastic changes to the system. Slowly address your issue and wish you for the best.
 
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ReeferMadness80G

ReeferMadness80G

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I have done the same thing, all my current fish are in quarantine because I trusted a lfs and got ick in my tank. It's really hard when we invest so much money and things are going so well. I know though through these mistakes I have made I will do things the right way every time and eventually have my dream tank. Hopefully for you all coral will survive and bounce back strong!

Powerful words! Thank you :) feeling better already, I check out your thread and wow! It really blew a hole, makes me feel like I'm not so bad off. Sorry that happened to you.
 
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ReeferMadness80G

ReeferMadness80G

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People oftenly make it worse when freaking out after a crashed or some short and make quick drastic changes to the system. Slowly address your issue and wish you for the best.

I haven't done much except test every couple hours, fed Reef roids and turned my lights down 50%, is that ok?
 

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My advice in this is to test alk daily. I have had alk spikes and it becomes very hard to track down the numbers when I don't test daily.
I don't understand how the rock made your alk spike? Did I miss something in the thread? Only way I see it happening is water trapped in the rock being high in alk. If it's made from calcium corbonate it shouldn't cause a spike like that.
Now what could Have caused it is if you moved the corals around during the install of the rock and corals will literally stop growing because of this. Even changes in flow, lighting, etc will cause the alk spike. I take it your dosing?
 

Bacon505

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I haven't done much except test every couple hours, fed Reef roids and turned my lights down 50%, is that ok?
Alkspike usually burn the tip of your acro, bot washed out the piece completely. If the entire piece is wasked out and pale is probably due to low nutrient/starving. On the side note, seems like your back wall of you tank is covered with coraline algae. Scrape it off to reduce the calcium uptake in the tank.
 
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ReeferMadness80G

ReeferMadness80G

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My advice in this is to test alk daily. I have had alk spikes and it becomes very hard to track down the numbers when I don't test daily.
I don't understand how the rock made your alk spike? Did I miss something in the thread? Only way I see it happening is water trapped in the rock being high in alk. If it's made from calcium corbonate it shouldn't cause a spike like that.
Now what could Have caused it is if you moved the corals around during the install of the rock and corals will literally stop growing because of this. Even changes in flow, lighting, etc will cause the alk spike. I take it your dosing?

Yes, the only corals that really got moved were moved off the frag racks and glued into place. The rock I picked kinda fit right where I needed it to. Yes I dose Cal Alk and Mag and I usually test my tank every couple of days due to its small TWV
 
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ReeferMadness80G

ReeferMadness80G

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Alkspike usually burn the tip of your acro, bot washed out the piece completely. If the entire piece is wasked out and pale is probably due to low nutrient/starving. On the side note, seems like your back wall of you tank is covered with coraline algae. Scrape it off to reduce the calcium uptake in the tank.

I agree about the low nutrients, however my No3 levels are never undetectable and are usually stable around 5ppm. I dose KNO3 for that and that's one of the ways I've colored up my sps since January
 

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