Temp swings and bleaching events. What’s the deal?

[wopadobop]

hey everyone. I had a heater failure the other night and the tank got down to about 71-72 . Woke up in the morning to everything very angry. Full bleach on all sps . Lps closed up and very angry.

The night before i had performed a 20% water change while cleaning my refugium out. The salt had been in the ptfe tank with a heater and circulation for about 6 weeks?

I cant imagine that a temp swing that far over the course of many hours would do that. I am thinking it could have been the salt. It seemed to have killed off a lot of stuff in the tank as the phosphate jumped up about 1.0 ppm as well.

Now I’m freaked out about doing water changes with that container.

It’s been about a week and the lps seem to have come back except for the zoas which are all still closed. Up. The fish are fine. There is no ammonia and never was. So the bio filter didn’t seem to be effected. I had some Dino’s starting to pop up but were gone the next morning . I am assuming whatever nuked them released the nutrients they were holding into the water column? Could be Dino toxins?

I have since gotten the po4 back down to 30 ppb. And the nitrates holding steady at 10 ppm. Been running rox 8 at the recommended dosage changed every 7 days in case of the toxins.

Opinions? Has anyone seen this from a very temporary temp swing ? I cant imagine the temp alone would do this ?

Thanks.

 

[hybridazn]

What kind of salt do you use?

 

[bif24701]

What kind of salt do you use?

This is important. Some salts can not be mixed and used hours days weeks later.

I do not think that the temperature alone cause all your problems. May have only initiated or exasperated the problems.

Just get thinks back to normal as fast as possible. Water changes, carbon, and elbow grease.

 

[wopadobop]

Red Sea blue bucket .

 

[wopadobop]

Yeah I’ve got carbon running , temp back to normal and nutrients back down to “acceptable levels “. Some are recovering. Some not so much .

 

[ajhudson15]

ive read that almost every salt suggest using within a couple hours of mixing. my water all up to temp and then when I know im about ready ill add the salt. They water can sit in buckets for however long you need but not normally with salt in it

 

[wopadobop]

I use a large ptfe container, with a heater and mixing pump that constantly cycles it. But your right. 6 weeks is a long time. Could have been even longer. I’m sure that was part of the problem .

Water changes with fresh salt here we go!

 

[MTBake]

I've experienced a temp swing from 82 to 72 during a power outage about 6 years ago. Dropped that much over 8 hours or so. I didn't loose any coral but only had a couple encrusting and plating montis and one acro in there, along with some zoas and lps.

Was salinity good on the 6 week old water?

 

[wopadobop]

I've experienced a temp swing from 82 to 72 during a power outage about 6 years ago. Dropped that much over 8 hours or so. I didn't loose any coral but only had a couple encrusting and plating montis and one acro in there, along with some zoas and lps.

Was salinity good on the 6 week old water?

Checked salinity , alk ca and mag before use . Everything was spot on. No smell , water was crystal clear . But who know what storing it does in a veiled container . I can’t imagine it was a ph swing as I add it 5 gallons at time with the skimmer running in the sump before I turn the return pump back in .

 

[MTBake]

Checked salinity , alk ca and mag before use . Everything was spot on. No smell , water was crystal clear . But who know what storing it does in a veiled container . I can’t imagine it was a ph swing as I add it 5 gallons at time with the skimmer running in the sump before I turn the return pump back in .

Had to ask. And I agree with your thought on something leaching out of the container. Hard to say how the material would react to saltwater in there for so long. I don't know much about plastics to be honest. Maybe a polypad would help remove any unknowns. Never hurts to run one when in doubt, imo. I try to keep a few on hand just in case.

 

[wopadobop]

i had that exact thought

 

[bif24701]

Red Sea blue bucket .

Shouldn’t really be a problem as much with this salt as it is not a “Probiotic” salt. However being so long sitting unstirred could have resulted in some precipitation of essential elements. There is no way of knowing now what happened. The only thing you can do it get things back to normal as quickly as possible.

Just the other day I had a cloudy tank, very cloudy water. No idea how it happens but I acted quickly and thankfully nothing seemed to mind. In a few days the water was crystal clear.

 

[wopadobop]

just to give you guys an update. very few of the sps are recovering. 2 of the digis look like they might pull through. everything was lost and continues to decline. really bummed that i cant 100% pinpoint the reason. i have some polyfilter on the way just in case the storage tank was leaching something metal related. its only ever been used for salt and never had an issue before but you never know. im leaning more toward a dino die off that toxified the tank. all of the lps have recovered and are SWOLLEN huge and happy. so strange. im also going to send in a triton icp test before i run the poly to see if there is something that shows up there. lesson learned . double up on heaters with a controller on them.