Flashy Fins Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 Came home to a disaster tonight. đ« A day ago, my QT tank looked like this, just with a bit more algae on the glass (pic taken a few weeks ago): I left home before the lights came on this morning, so I didnât pay it any attention and canât say what it looked like then. Came home around 7 to this: If youâre having trouble making much out, thatâs exactly the experience I had. I noticed it was incredibly cloudy and discolored, then noticed corals stripped of their flesh. Sure enough, a closer look reveals skeletons of a lobo, trachy, & scoly; the ones that appear to have some tissue left did not really; it slid right off as soon as I went to grab them out of the tank. I was able to yank out (and put into a bucket of clean water from my display) the sun coral, a grab bag frag (acanâish, not sure what it is), the candy cane coral (half the polyps dead, half hanging on), a fire shrimp, an urchin, and 2 of 3 rock flower nems (the 3rd is lodged in the rock; canât get him off). Dead are the lobo, trachy, & scoly, the largest of the colorful corals I bought on Black Friday to spruce up my tank after the last disaster, a move that went poorly and killed most of my corals (more on that below). The starfish melted in the middle and felt lifeless when I picked him up, so heâs presumed dead. I donât know for sure what happened, but I have a guess... There is a laundry basket next to the tank, and I remember I sprayed a sweater with stain remover last night. I was very careful (or so I thought) to move several steps away from the basket and to spray in the other direction, but I canât imagine it would do a tank good if any got in. The other possibility is that it was a problem with the tank not being fully cycled. I started with live rock from a local shop and determined it cycled when a couple of weeks of heavy ghost feeding (dumping in tons of pellet food) failed to raise the ammonia level (I figured the live rock was working and processed it; I shouldâve double-checked by testing for nitrates but admittedly didnât do that). I removed all the rotting food, did a massive water change (90%+), added a HOB filter with carbon, and went coral shopping. I lean more towards the stain remover being the culprit, because the corals looked perfect up until today. Would a non-cycled tank look fine between Black Friday and now, then suddenly crash in a matter of less than 24 hours? I donât know. Almost no food has gone into the tank during this time.  Accidents/mishaps/dumb mistakes during my move in early November: Container leaked water all over my car (unbeknownst to me) and left some corals without water for hours (a tube nem actually survived this, although it still looks rough) Temperature mismatch between the buckets that had been in my freezing cold car (long night; moving sucks), versus the overheated water in the new tank. I filled it the day before and overlooked the high temp setting on a heater I tossed in to warm freezing ro/di water, so corals went from 68âish to 80âish; I tried to cool the new water and acclimate corals slowly, but that meant they were in shallow floating trays snuggled up next to one another for a day, which some did not handle well Salinity mismatch - in my frazzled state after discovering the problems above, I started panicking that everything was going wrong and forgot that I was supposed to use water in buckets from my old tank to fill the new tank the rest of the way (10 gallons in a 40 breeder that holds around 46 gallons); instead, I dumped in too much freshwater, not only lowering the salinity too much but also forcing the corals into entirely new water (stupid mistake, 100% my fault)  & a few other things Iâve either forgotten or blocked from memory. I was so tired after a long night of cleaning my old place and packing up the rest of my crap (my furniture was moved on a prior day, but thereâs always a lot of last minute stuff your last day in a place), I think my head was not clear, but mostly it seems Iâm just really freaking terrible at this whole reefing thing. Thatâs not to say Iâm giving up. The silver lining here is that some corals I bought today were not in the aquarium. I had too many things going on and no time to dip and acclimate, so theyâre still in the bag. Iâll deal with them tomorrow when I figure out what my plan is. Unfortunately, theyâre nowhere near as flashy as that scoly or trachy, but whatâs done is done and whatâs dead is dead, so Iâm trying to shift the focus to what I can save. Long day. Had several mishaps unrelated to reefing, as well, and I just needed to vent about this one to people who understand how much this kind of thing sucks. Even when itâs our own stupidity, we donât intend to flush money down the toilet when we buy corals or kill living creatures. Itâs frustrating. Time for sleep. Tagging @Gumby since itâs too late to text, and heâll hopefully have some ideas for me tomorrow. I think I should probably not use the tank or rock this disaster happened in, if the chance of contamination from the laundry spray is likely. Perhaps Iâll pull old rock from my display and stick it in a new tank. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashy Fins Posted December 9, 2018 Author Share Posted December 9, 2018 Sorry if the font size appears large in some spots and small in others; whenever I copy and paste to rearrange paragraphs, it happens. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
milesmiles902 Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 That's scary. I hope it gets better, Cherany. You don't deserve that. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 Awww that stinks, heck of a day sorry!! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremevans Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 That's a bummer. Sorry to hear. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youcallmenny Posted December 9, 2018 Share Posted December 9, 2018 Whoa! That's brutal. Sorry that happened. Did you test salinity/alk to see if something was out of whack? Too late for those corals but forewarned is forarmed in the future. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashy Fins Posted December 10, 2018 Author Share Posted December 10, 2018 6 hours ago, youcallmenny said: Did you test salinity/alk to see if something was out of whack? Too late for those corals but forewarned is forarmed in the future. No, because even if one was out of whack, I wouldnât know why, and I donât plan to reuse the water or rock in case itâs contaminated. Iâd be surprised if either was off, though. Edit: checked the salinity (havenât emptied the tank of water yet, just rock in there), and itâs pretty high. 1.030 đ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashy Fins Posted December 10, 2018 Author Share Posted December 10, 2018 Seriously, Iâm going to rip all my hair out before yearâs end. Just came home to find this disaster in the display. I was standing there admiring how a few corals are starting to bounce back, focusing on the positive... then noticed this. đą My poor forktail blenny, one of my best/favorite fish. And of course, his body was wrapped all the way around, so trying to pull him out only got me the body and left his decapitated head inside. I could only see the fangs from that side and had to use tweezers down his mouth to remove. I guess I jinxed myself with this thread title. Ugh. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashy Fins Posted December 10, 2018 Author Share Posted December 10, 2018 No idea if I need to worry about any poison released from his demise, but the tank otherwise looks as it did before. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albertareef Posted December 10, 2018 Share Posted December 10, 2018 Oh man... so sorry to see this. Â Been a rough few weeks for you for sure. Â Hope things stabilize soon. Â Wish I could offer you some replacements but, as you know, I'm still trying to dig out myself. Â Let me know if I can do anything to help. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashy Fins Posted December 11, 2018 Author Share Posted December 11, 2018 New mystery. Was breaking down the crashed QT tonight and found this white chunk on the heater. It popped right off and crumbled easily. Too opaque to be salt creep; I confirmed by stirring into a glass of water and getting a 0 reading on the refractometer. WTH is this? Looks like a soap sliver, but it wasnât slimy and did not cause suds when wet, so thatâs a no. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheClark Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 8 hours ago, Flashy Fins said: New mystery. Was breaking down the crashed QT tonight and found this white chunk on the heater. It popped right off and crumbled easily. Too opaque to be salt creep; I confirmed by stirring into a glass of water and getting a 0 reading on the refractometer. WTH is this? Looks like a soap sliver, but it wasnât slimy and did not cause suds when wet, so thatâs a no. Could be calcium carbonate? Did you hit it with vinegar? RHF article looks good on this topic: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/rhf/index.php#3  2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
youcallmenny Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 My bet is calcium carbonate. Yikes, what a week! We've all been there to one degree or another. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
albertareef Posted December 11, 2018 Share Posted December 11, 2018 5 hours ago, TheClark said: Could be calcium carbonate? Did you hit it with vinegar? RHF article looks good on this topic: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/rhf/index.php#3   5 hours ago, youcallmenny said: My bet is calcium carbonate. Yikes, what a week! We've all been there to one degree or another. This would be my guess as well.  Sorry for all the struggles lately Cherany. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashy Fins Posted December 12, 2018 Author Share Posted December 12, 2018 On 12/11/2018 at 7:41 AM, TheClark said: Could be calcium carbonate? Did you hit it with vinegar? RHF article looks good on this topic: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-07/rhf/index.php#3  Whoa, information overload in that article! đ  It mentions that it can clog pumps, but I donât think that was an issue in this case. Would this have otherwise caused the tank to crash as it did? I donât have any of the precipitate blob left, but Iâll clean the heater with vinegar. Iâm assuming thatâs what you meant? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Z Reef Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 Have you checked the heater itself? I had one crack and almost nuke my tank, something leached out of it (not the temp change). Just something to double check. I donât think the calcium carbonate is an issue. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashy Fins Posted December 12, 2018 Author Share Posted December 12, 2018 4 hours ago, Blue Z Reef said: Have you checked the heater itself? I had one crack and almost nuke my tank, something leached out of it (not the temp change). Just something to double check. I donât think the calcium carbonate is an issue. I looked it over and couldnât see anything amiss, aside from the calcium carbonate on it. Iâm nervous to use it in another tank, though, so I plan on tossing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeremevans Posted December 12, 2018 Share Posted December 12, 2018 I agree it looks like a calcium deposit. That usually is related to dosing two part in the wrong proportion and having the CA level rise but could have to do with the high salinity. For what it's worth that is most likely to happen on a heater just like you saw. On a site note, whenever you get up and running I can give you a few frags if you want to test out the tank before buying the high end stuff. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuncrestReef Posted December 13, 2018 Share Posted December 13, 2018 The calcium carbonate can also precipitate if your 2-part liquids are dosed in close proximity or in low flow water. Â I use a small powerhead in my sump right below the dosing tubes so the liquids are rapidly dispersed before they have a chance to precipitate. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashy Fins Posted December 13, 2018 Author Share Posted December 13, 2018 Thanks, everyone. I donât do any sort of dosing, so I can really only shrug and hope I donât have more problems coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mandinga Posted December 16, 2018 Share Posted December 16, 2018 That stuff builds up on pretty much anything that gets hot, and the more carbonate available in the system, the more buildup overtime. Had this stuff destroy my pumps in the past.  Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashy Fins Posted December 16, 2018 Author Share Posted December 16, 2018 3 hours ago, Mandinga said: That stuff builds up on pretty much anything that gets hot, and the more carbonate available in the system, the more buildup overtime. Tank hadnât been set up long, but the heater definitely wouldâve been super hot to touch, b/c itâs having to work hard to heat the water in the cold garage space itâs in. I set up a new tank with a new heater and used water and rock from my display, so hopefully itâs smoother going this time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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