Degener8
Active Member
Ok so this is what I think happened....
I began the process several days back to make a 20L i had sitting around into a sump for my 75 gallon tank.
The baffles were in and silicone cured so the upgrade began.
The new sump in place with new skimmer installed (skimmer was running in old sump for a week no issues)
While moving hardware to the new sump I decided to use a new heater. The old one was working but getting old..
Re added water and new sump is up and running. so a few hours later I notice the xenia and other soft corals starting to close. THis is odd everything looked great through the entire process. Lights not due to turn out for a few more hours. LPS is still looking normal at this time. Not being one to over react I continue to dial in the skimmer to the new sump. Its output is very inconsistent.. skimming normal one minute and overflowing the next. (i chalk this up to my tinkering.) Finally get it settles in and all is looking good but every soft coral is now totally deflated and slumped over.
Fast forward to this morning.. everything is still shriveled and the LPS is not looking to hot now either. The Snowflake moray which normally eats everything i throw at him won't even touch a silver side i held 1/2" from his nose.. ok now I KNOW something is definately wrong..
Water tests right off.. Ammonia nitrite= 0 Nitrate 20 PH 8.2 Alk 180-220 ish.. hard to tell on my test kit but safe none the less. I use reef crystals salt.
So all looks ok right (no calc or mag tests I only have 2 acans, 1 candy cane and one Open brain coral so I rely on weekly religious water changes for these and have never had an issue like this before.
So i think what could it be. The only other thing i changed was the heater. So out it came and back in went the old one. There was some condensate in the new heater when I pulled it. and it looked corroded somewhat inside. So I think it was a bad heater.. possibly stray voltage een though I did not get shocked ever.
Question now is what to do.. I am mixing water for a 20 gallon water change.. at the mercy of my RO unit to make water atm.
Is there anything else I should look at or check?
I don't want to change to much to fast. This situation seems to go with the saying "nothing good ever happens fast" in our tanks atleast.. LOL
Ideas thoughts and comments welcome.
I began the process several days back to make a 20L i had sitting around into a sump for my 75 gallon tank.
The baffles were in and silicone cured so the upgrade began.
The new sump in place with new skimmer installed (skimmer was running in old sump for a week no issues)
While moving hardware to the new sump I decided to use a new heater. The old one was working but getting old..
Re added water and new sump is up and running. so a few hours later I notice the xenia and other soft corals starting to close. THis is odd everything looked great through the entire process. Lights not due to turn out for a few more hours. LPS is still looking normal at this time. Not being one to over react I continue to dial in the skimmer to the new sump. Its output is very inconsistent.. skimming normal one minute and overflowing the next. (i chalk this up to my tinkering.) Finally get it settles in and all is looking good but every soft coral is now totally deflated and slumped over.
Fast forward to this morning.. everything is still shriveled and the LPS is not looking to hot now either. The Snowflake moray which normally eats everything i throw at him won't even touch a silver side i held 1/2" from his nose.. ok now I KNOW something is definately wrong..
Water tests right off.. Ammonia nitrite= 0 Nitrate 20 PH 8.2 Alk 180-220 ish.. hard to tell on my test kit but safe none the less. I use reef crystals salt.
So all looks ok right (no calc or mag tests I only have 2 acans, 1 candy cane and one Open brain coral so I rely on weekly religious water changes for these and have never had an issue like this before.
So i think what could it be. The only other thing i changed was the heater. So out it came and back in went the old one. There was some condensate in the new heater when I pulled it. and it looked corroded somewhat inside. So I think it was a bad heater.. possibly stray voltage een though I did not get shocked ever.
Question now is what to do.. I am mixing water for a 20 gallon water change.. at the mercy of my RO unit to make water atm.
Is there anything else I should look at or check?
I don't want to change to much to fast. This situation seems to go with the saying "nothing good ever happens fast" in our tanks atleast.. LOL
Ideas thoughts and comments welcome.
