Well Last night while cooking dinner I looked over at my reef and the water was all cloudy. I could barely see across to the other side. My first thoughts where holey cow what did the kids throw in the tank, followed by what is happening in the sump? Well when I went over to look around in the tank, all of a sudden there was another explosion! WHOA that came from my clam! I grabbed the cell phone for the camera and video and called my son to go get the good camera while I watched in case it happened again. Sure enough it happened every minute or two for an hour. I have seen it blow debris out from its insides like a bellow, but never the white cloud. What in the world could this be doing? Is it dieing or did something tick it off?
Having six hungry mouths including myself, I went on with dinner and went on with our nightly duties with the kids. When they went to bed, I went to the computer to post my pics and something said research it first. Well when I did, my heart stopped. The first three threads I found said the clam spawning will trigger the other clam to do the same( don't know if it did or not because I was focused on the big clam). This behavior will cause the clam to die , pollute the water and crash the tank. OMG
So when I should have been going to bed, I was changing out carbon , filter socks, and the skimmer to make sure it was working 100% I took a great chance by ignoring the suggestions to do 25% water changes 3 days in a row and didn't do any. Where would I get 100 gallons a day for 3 days anyway?! I did have 50 gallons mixed and heated on standby for the AM as well as 55 fresh RODI waiting for salt. While I was buttoning things up for the night and making sure the skimmer was working properly, I was looking at some white foamy bubbles at the surface of the sump. Hoping this would not be a problem any more, I finally went to bed.
I woke up about 4am and ran to the basement to make sure the skimmer wasn't overflowing and looked into the dark tank and could not see a thing except the clam still had a mantle( I was afraid everybody would eat it). After sleeping the rest of the morning, I made the rounds again. Looked in dark tank with room light only and all looked pretty good, ran to basement checked all there, put kids on school bus and finally the lights turn on. All looks good so far other than the clam was only 90% open. I grabbed a sample of water and my test kit and out the door. Tested the water while I was away from the house and results were good( especially looking for ammonia spikes as I had read).
I do not know if I am out of the woods yet, but it made me realize how vulnerable our tanks are. Even nature can create havoc on us. I have been through loss of power, loss of return pump, outbreaks of one algae or another and the infamous dead fish that you can't find ammonia spike, but this was the biggest scare I had. Because I have had so much success in coral growth and coloration over the last year, I was terrified to lose it all. WHEW So far so good, I will continue to monitor closely and act accordingly.
Taz
Having six hungry mouths including myself, I went on with dinner and went on with our nightly duties with the kids. When they went to bed, I went to the computer to post my pics and something said research it first. Well when I did, my heart stopped. The first three threads I found said the clam spawning will trigger the other clam to do the same( don't know if it did or not because I was focused on the big clam). This behavior will cause the clam to die , pollute the water and crash the tank. OMG
So when I should have been going to bed, I was changing out carbon , filter socks, and the skimmer to make sure it was working 100% I took a great chance by ignoring the suggestions to do 25% water changes 3 days in a row and didn't do any. Where would I get 100 gallons a day for 3 days anyway?! I did have 50 gallons mixed and heated on standby for the AM as well as 55 fresh RODI waiting for salt. While I was buttoning things up for the night and making sure the skimmer was working properly, I was looking at some white foamy bubbles at the surface of the sump. Hoping this would not be a problem any more, I finally went to bed.
I woke up about 4am and ran to the basement to make sure the skimmer wasn't overflowing and looked into the dark tank and could not see a thing except the clam still had a mantle( I was afraid everybody would eat it). After sleeping the rest of the morning, I made the rounds again. Looked in dark tank with room light only and all looked pretty good, ran to basement checked all there, put kids on school bus and finally the lights turn on. All looks good so far other than the clam was only 90% open. I grabbed a sample of water and my test kit and out the door. Tested the water while I was away from the house and results were good( especially looking for ammonia spikes as I had read).
I do not know if I am out of the woods yet, but it made me realize how vulnerable our tanks are. Even nature can create havoc on us. I have been through loss of power, loss of return pump, outbreaks of one algae or another and the infamous dead fish that you can't find ammonia spike, but this was the biggest scare I had. Because I have had so much success in coral growth and coloration over the last year, I was terrified to lose it all. WHEW So far so good, I will continue to monitor closely and act accordingly.
Taz
