Is my tank crashing? Not how I wanted to spend my day

[Lostinthedark]

If everything else looks ok the nem might only be hiding. If the fish look stressed it might be time for another water change. I ran a triple amount of carbon for a week which seemed to head off any adverse repercussions.

 

[slimfitz]

Yes everything looks fine. I have accounted for everything again. My water is still cloudy but not nearly as bad. I can see all the way through the tank now. My skimmer is still working like crazy. Its more foamy though and my sump has a film or slime now. All the small eggs are gone. I will test water parameters here shortly.

 

[Lostinthedark]

Sounds like what I went through. I put on felt filter socks and ran extra carbon and had no ill effects at all. Try to let the tank settle in from all the changes and let it find its equilibrium again.

 

[slimfitz]

What kind of anemone did you have spawn?

 

[Lostinthedark]

What kind of anemone did you have spawn?

Sebae. It's over a foot across so it was a pretty big mess. I did notice that for a few days before it was acting
differently. It took more of a volcano shape rather then a dinner plate shape.

 

[JRWOHLER]

I had green star polys spawn once and my bigger clam has spawned(corals love that). Just make sure you keep the powerheads running, should be OK.

 

[Lostinthedark]

@slimfitz
Hows everything looking today?

 

[slimfitz]

Its looking like its getting back to normal. My water is alot clearer. My skimmer seems like its making the correct bubbles again. The GSP have come out. The Torch and Hammers have come back out. The Stylo is trying. I see polyps starting to peek out. However everything has lost alot of color, some stuff almost white. I have cut my lights back 50% to try and help bring the color back. My Alk did go up again with the big water change. This time up to 9.6. I tested for Nitrate, Nitrite, and Ammonia all 0. My ORP did climb up before the spawn but then about 30 min later dropped again. I think it was my carpet Anemone that did it. I found some other stories of carpets spawning and causing the tank to get extremely cloudy. Wow this has been a mess. Im just glad I was able to catch this on my first days off.

 

[Lostinthedark]

Its looking like its getting back to normal

Good to hear it. Glad it's getting back together.

 

[slimfitz]

Man keeps getting better. So I noticed my UV light was out during all of this and wanted to take it out to replace it. But I needed to see what bulb I needed. So i took the end cap off and water fell into the sump. I knew I had a problem then. The ORP dropped again from 325- 240. I think this is the main cause of everything. Im going to mix a bunch of water again!

 

[redfishbluefish]

Oh boy.....that doesn't look good....but I think you've found the problem. Carbon....water changes....carbon....water changes....not necessarily in that order.


Now how did that add to the cloudy tank situation you had?

 

[slimfitz]

Yes I do believe this was the root cause of everything. Ive never seen my coral lose color as fast as they did. I am making water again. I am getting tired of making so much water. Luckily I can make RO water pretty fast. About 10 Gal an hr. This morning I did a 20 gal water change. The biggest thing is heating it up. I have 20 more heating up now. Im afraid I might run out of salt and need to run out tomorrow and find some. You can see where I did the water change this morning and you can see where I unscrewed the UV light and got that water in the sump. Anyone want to buy a slightly used UV light?

 

[Lostinthedark]

I used to use heaters to heat the water but i found it a lot faster to take my big lobster steaming pot and heat the RO/DI on the stove then add to that in the mix station.

 

[slimfitz]

Oh thats a great idea. I am definitely going to use that on my next big water change. Well did another 30 gal water change to day. The GSP came right back out. The Anemones look great. Everything else looks blah. Even my mushrooms and these nasty green palys that never die are pissed. I have been searching online but cant seem to find anything other than one quote that said people have wiped out all of their corals when the UV light fails. I checked on them after the lights were out last night. All the Acros had polyps extended. Even my red planets that are almost white now. Maybe they will pull through?

 

[redfishbluefish]

I used to use heaters to heat the water but i found it a lot faster to take my big lobster steaming pot and heat the RO/DI on the stove then add to that in the mix station.

I know it sounds counterintuitive, but you're better off adding the salt to room temperature / cool water, and once mixed, now heat it up. It's the calcium....it's a strange nut and actually is more soluble in cool water.

 

[slimfitz]

Thats pretty much how I have been doing it. I put a 30 gal breeder next to the tank and start making water. The prob is the water comes out at 60 deg. Takes forever for my little heater to bring them up to temp.

To answer your question earlier about the cloudy water I believe that the Anemone was stressed out and spawned. I imagine the UV light going out really messed with everything. Thats also why I think the stomatellia snail was spawning. My ORP is on the rise once again. The anemone seems happy now. This is his normal size

 

[Juano908]

Thats pretty much how I have been doing it. I put a 30 gal breeder next to the tank and start making water. The prob is the water comes out at 60 deg. Takes forever for my little heater to bring them up to temp.

To answer your question earlier about the cloudy water I believe that the Anemone was stressed out and spawned. I imagine the UV light going out really messed with everything. Thats also why I think the stomatellia snail was spawning. My ORP is on the rise once again. The anemone seems happy now. This is his normal sizeView attachment 14820

Good to see things are back to normal.


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