Tank crash! How to stop it?

levi83

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I have a tank that is in the middle of crashing. What do I do with the rock and coral? Do I take it out? Leave it in? How do I stop the crash? I’ve moved several pieces that made it through the first couple days. My fish are all okay but all corals are dying. Sps is all gone. My gsp actually hasn’t opened in over a week. I still have zoas and some lps in there but I believe they are on their way out too. I’m out of room in other tanks to move corals out.
So here’s what happened. I installed the new kamoer waterchange pump. I went camping for the weekend. I set the pump to only do manual water changes while I was gone. I had to start them through the app. When I did this I turned the ato off without knowing it. I got home to a tank with no heat because the return pump quit working when it ran out of water. I use continuous duty pump to drip Kalk in. So when I started the return pump back up it pumped a days worth of kalk in 2 minutes. My ph was 8.8. Alk was 11.5. Tank temp was 71. The sps had mostly died before I got home. Now I’ve done 3 30% water changes. Some zoas started opening yesterday. Now I have more lps starting to die. Do I need to take all the rock with the dying coral out? How do I stop the crash? I really would like to leave a couple pieces in. I have hopes that some will make it. Am I dreaming? Will anything survive or do some corals just take longer to die? I had temp, ph, and Alk swings all at one time. Nitrate and phosphate are good but that doesn’t seem to matter. If anyone has experience please share.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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the first step is low light levels or no lights, don't light burn. dont take out rocks thats not causing the crash, post a tank pic. initial CPR comes from tank pic not parameter measures/post tank pic


there are two or three threads on crash arrest and this one isnt a classic crash where many fish die and overcome a biofilter, its a coral insult crash so its less disassembly reaction needed.
 
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levi83

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F929280D-BA90-4150-86A3-CBEFBD0DB9F5.jpeg
 
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levi83

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the first step is low light levels or no lights, don't light burn. dont take out rocks thats not causing the crash, post a tank pic. initial CPR comes from tank pic not parameter measures/post tank pic


there are two or three threads on crash arrest and this one isnt a classic crash where many fish die and overcome a biofilter, its a coral insult crash so its less disassembly reaction needed.
CPR?
 

Cell

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8.8 pH is the biggest concern, I think. The alk can come down gradually, but you might need to get that pH down ASAP. Hopefully @Randy Holmes-Farley can confirm.
 
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levi83

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the first step is low light levels or no lights, don't light burn. dont take out rocks thats not causing the crash, post a tank pic. initial CPR comes from tank pic not parameter measures/post tank pic


there are two or three threads on crash arrest and this one isnt a classic crash where many fish die and overcome a biofilter, its a coral insult crash so its less disassembly reaction needed.
I turned my lights down from 70% to 30% the day I got home and found it.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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some of those fine specimens can make it back for sure, so sorry for this impact here I know that's a gut punch. I'm having to think on this a bit as a total water change back to normal levels isn't feasible in tanks this large

if it was a nano we'd have all new water in, matching temp and salinity, begin great target feeding in a couple days, lower light maintained and ramped back up. its nice you didn't have a sandbed there above in case we do take some big physical actions.

instating UV and carbon filtration from a temporary canister/HOB filter seems like helpful initial ways to begin clearing that water, the changes you've done so far really helped/opening corals really helps
 
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levi83

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No sand. This is a Red Sea reefer 250. Only 60ish gallons. I’ve had my sump in the basement for awhile and I have a 100 gallon peninsula tank I’ve been waiting to link the systems together. The 100 gallon has matching parameters as my display tank. I figured with the crash there was no better time to put them together. So I added 100 gallons to my 60 gallon system. I keep 50 gallons of saltwater mixed and 30 gallons fresh rodi water. I linked tanks and have done 3 50 gallon water changes. I’ve just never had a crash. It seemed to get better when I took out all the rotting sps colonies out. Now it’s looking bad again.
 
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levi83

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some of those fine specimens can make it back for sure, so sorry for this impact here I know that's a gut punch. I'm having to think on this a bit as a total water change back to normal levels isn't feasible in tanks this large

if it was a nano we'd have all new water in, matching temp and salinity, begin great target feeding in a couple days, lower light maintained and ramped back up. its nice you didn't have a sandbed there above in case we do take some big physical actions.

instating UV and carbon filtration from a temporary canister/HOB filter seems like helpful initial ways to begin clearing that water, the changes you've done so far really helped/opening corals really helps
I’ve got a bag of carbon I set on my return pump inlet screen. I’ve been changing it out every other day since the crash.
 

brandon429

why did you put a reef in that
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I'm 100% sure in a nano we'd just clean out the entire system, swish-twist rinse rocks off even with corals attached in old water to jet off detritus, we would reinstall as a basic rip clean totally cloudless clear new water and begin the feeding process and it would for sure fix params, stop the loss and begin new growths we do it lots of times in harmed nano setups, glad that's only 60 it looked twice that

the clouding was never arrested/stopped because the water was done in increments, and actual detritus might still be in suspension along with whatever else is in the clouding... I like working with tank fixes all at once because it controls all variables to simply arrive at a laser clean finish, every single time. we match temp and salinity to the ideal conditions and get the animals back in quickly vs the slow change back.

you have changed water in increments enough to remove toxins in my opinion, and its hard to know if pH stated is right considering various kit comparison threads, so am hesitant to react with ways to bring it down, I know its not much help at all to hear about rip cleans but at least its a brainstorm added to completely snap control it back into shape if we can't get your water cleared any other way
 
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levi83

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I guess I’ll just sit and wait. My filter roller is working overtime. My skimmer has also been the nastiest I’ve ever seen/smelled. It appears filter roller is going to need a new roll after only two weeks. Ph4 is .09
NO3 is 1.8. I’ve been dosing a little nitrates trying to keep it above 2. I’m set up to change a liter of water every other hour. Just a little over 3 gallons a day. I’ve always done 2 gallon manual water changes daily with success. I missed a couple every week but did them the majority of the time. I’m just tired of looking at this ugly tank.
 

Cell

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Is HR Nitrate accurate at 1.8?
 
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levi83

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I would say it’s close. I’ve been using it for a couple months now. When I first got it I did saliferts tests with the Hanna checker to compare. They were always close. I’ll do a saliferts test and see what it shows. I bet it’s in between 0-5
 
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