Whew! Wiping sweat from forehead! LOL I am so glad that there is hope. I wasnt going to give up. Unique corals either sent me a half dead blasto or I nearly killed it in the dip but I still have the skeleton in tank hoping for a comeback. I dint want to complain because after all.. I wont them and maybe it was the dip! I had dipped 18 that day. To many to add all at once especially in a ten gallon.
So it has been about 3 weeks and it got worse and now just skeleton. Someone said I should throw away from rot, but there is no tissue anymore to rot! I have had my acan bounce back before and got real flat and it was looking good b4 this mishap!
So what happened to your tank? Was that a crash? Someone said I was experiencing a crash but it isnt all at once but gradual and everything is good now except amonia still present. I am wanting to change out this tank though to an AIO 13.5 gallon eveo. I like it in the corner of my kitchen! I spend a lot of time in there cooking for my 3 kids that are all back home. Its crazy! My son has to have his food purreed as well. I want an aio so I can have room for a skimmer. The reefroids make the tank get dirty much faster since adding corals! So I hope it dosnt loose cycle after I regain it back! All the stores are sold out now anyway if not this would be the bes t time since I am having a mini cycle I guess anyway!
Thanks for the encouranging words and I wont give up thats for sure. I Love my corals! LOL. Is there anything I can do to help them though? Like an iodine dip or anything or would that stress them further?
My Tank got wiped out overnight because I added some Carbon (From Fresh New Bucket) that
had toxic Copper in it.
It was a manufactering mistake that never got pick up in quality control.
When I woke up in the morning my corals were drooping really badly. No idea why.
I panicked and checked things all over. Still no idea.
I knew corals were dying/damaged badly, like some of your's so wanted to improve the water quality. Even spoke with experts. They recommend Carbon to clean things up.
I ADD MORE CARBON to clean thing up. LOTS.
That's when the corals started getting worse (the photo I posted). Litterally melting and disinegrating.
A week or so later I saw a notice at the fish store (RECAL on the Carbon I used).
Then I knew what was the cause.
It was devastating for a long time, and worst was losing the Huge 12"+ prize Clam that I grew from 2" baby over years.
It ended kind of ok. Since the Carbon Company is a big company, and I had photos of before and after. They settled with me and gave me a cheque to cover all my losses.
Don't worry, you can't possibly crash a 10 Gallon Tank, unless you really want to. Maybe you are reading crash horror stories that are worrying you. That's for bigger tanks that can't be cleaned up instantly like a 10 Gallon.
Be careful on the Bacteria additive. Too much and you will have a bacteria bloom. That's when your water goes super cloudy white, and the bacteria suck up the oxygen in the tank. If that happens (and you have fish in there, they will die if you don't add extra Oxygen via aeration with and air-pump/stone).
Like I said, if you have removed the fish, then you won't need to feed the tank whicg will raise ammonia,nitrites (from rotting food that fish don't eat).
Getting whatever corals
that are ok to recover should be possible. Even consider brand new water (proper salinity).
Remember No salinty checker is good unless it's properly calibrated. Calibration solution is a must to keep your salinty checker acccurate. (buy some or make your own batch when you know your checker is correct). You Hanna that ordered will probably some with some calibration solution (so take the chance to make some more, and kept that bottle seal for use each time).
I agree with you. Cheap Hydrometers are awful. Good when new, but drift over time. I had problem when mine got off, and never will use them again.
Then when things are good, you can consider adding fish back to cycle the tank. (Ideally removing the corals during the cycle, which you can speed up with the Bacteria you have). Cycling is easy, and doesn't take long, if you don't polute your tank with Fish foods, and other stuff.
Stop the reef roids for a while. One thing I learned in 25 years of mistakes, is to stop the snake oil additives and coral foods. Tiny bit is fine. Target feeding corals with syringe is beter than spreading all over your tank. Super tiny bit (which is your 10Gal tank very very little. Rice Grain amount mixed into some water before adding to tank).
The other thing I learned that I want to pass on like other have already is Coral and Fish want stability. Stable Salinity. levels, and stable lighting. The more your muck around the worse things will get. All changes should be gradual unless you have a critical condition.
In this hobby, we all make mistakes. More as time goes on, and then we learn and get better.
Here is a writeup I did, of most of the Big Mistakes/Accidents that Happened to me.
Might make you feel a bit better, knowing things go wrong. Might help you avoid some.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/90-gallon-mixed-lps-tank-15-year-journey-to-★success★-every-accident-disaster-problem.326397/
All the best. Let us know how things go.
