Friendly reminder not to get too cocky!

dbl · Jan 12, 2016

For the first 1 1/2 years, I performed weekly water tests religiously. I'm on a regular water changing schedule as well. Everything was running smoothly and there was never any swings after the doser was dialed in. So guess what, I got a little cocky and started skipping weeks, then more weeks doing my testing. See where this is going...

Take a look at the once nice colony below. So I thought maybe I should check parameters. Low and behold my alk had spiked to a 11.3, up from my normal 8.0-8.1. Can't say how quickly it happened, can't even say it's the cause of the picture below. What I can say it was way off for my system, and I'm extremely lucky this is the only piece I lost...so far.

So, I thought I would just throw this out there as a friendly reminder not to get too cocky. Check your water (at least the big three) every once in a while! You may be as surprised as I was this evening.

Happy Reefing...

kschweer · Jan 12, 2016

Great reminder! Sorry for the troubles, I hope you get it worked out soon.

rayn · Jan 12, 2016

Dang, that sucks. Good reminder though to monitor your tank.

143MPCo · Jan 13, 2016

ouch, that hurts!!

I have to admit, I've had this very issue happen to me, part of it is life getting in the way, complacency, and the big one for me at least is, laziness! You can have all the gadgets, alarms, and reminders you want but, if you don't get off your "backside" they're useless!

TheEngineer · Jan 13, 2016

Yoikes! Good point. We all get complacent when things appear to be working smoothly.

McMullen · Jan 13, 2016

Excellent reminder!! This has also happened to me except it took me a few times of losing nice size acro colonies to get the point. It's always been Alk swings too. Now because my tank is sps dominant I check every three days if not sooner. I find coral will sometimes hit a growth spurt and suddenly my dosing is behind. Or simply adding a new piece will of course add to the absorption. I hope all those interested in sps take a peek at this post

revhtree · Jan 13, 2016

Dang bro sorry!

dbl · Jan 13, 2016

revhtree said:
Dang bro sorry!

Thanks Rev, and others for that matter. No apologies necessary since this was more than likely a self-inflicted loss :mad:. Just a reminder that sometimes we're our own worse enemy, and sometimes we're our inhabitants worse enemy too!!!

bairdimusprime · Jan 13, 2016

sorry for the loss!!! i am guilty of the same charges

aabjones888 · Jan 13, 2016

I've done the same thing and it really sucks. It also is so very easy to do. A good reminder from from your phone can help. Myn was also an alk swing.

Salty1962 · Jan 13, 2016

Man... that had to hurt. Looked like a nice colony. Were you able to save any of it?
Thanks for the friendly reminder!!

gtipp24 · Jan 13, 2016

Thanks needed that tip since I am just starting my reef aquarium.

steve&mari · Jan 13, 2016

Sorry and hopefully it's only loss you have. Think we all are guilty of this at some points in time. But always hurts even knowing why.

Reeflogic · Jan 14, 2016

<-----Guilty :/ Sorry for your loss man.

Singlefin · Jan 14, 2016

When I see something off in MY tank, it's usually alk. 11dkh isn't dangerously high though.

hybridazn · Jan 14, 2016

Oh man that's terrible! If any good can be taken from this is that this will hopefully show other ppl to not make the same mistake you did and remind you to keep up as well.

Best of luck!

And I agree with the above post, if anything seems off in my tank. 9 times out of 10 it's alk related. Imo the most important element to test in our tanks

hybridazn · Jan 14, 2016

Singlefin said:
When I see something off in MY tank, it's usually alk. 11dkh isn't dangerously high though.

I agree, but if he was running a ulns or something even close 11dkh is def fatal

dbl · Jan 14, 2016

Singlefin said:
When I see something off in MY tank, it's usually alk. 11dkh isn't dangerously high though.

hybridazn said:
I agree, but if he was running a ulns or something even close 11dkh is def fatal

@Singlefin, you are correct, 11 dKH is within the accepted range and not necessarily dangerous. However, @hybridazn is also correct, as I do run a ULNS and my normal level is about 8.0. There is a lot of information out there regarding the effects of elevated dKH in an ULNS. However, and as I said originally, I'm not 100% positive the elevated (for my system) dKH level is the cause of the loss. Diagnosis was not the intent of my posting.

The thread was meant to point out that we should be testing our water on a regular basis. I got lazy (or cocky) and paid the price.

Prozium · Jan 15, 2016

Don't give up on sps until it is covered in algae.... I have personally seen montipora (for example) come back from well over a month of no light in a garage just keeping the rock alive. (Which is the point when I bought it) Randomly 2 different montipora were growing on the rock that have NEVER been in my tank before that. (they came back around)

And as far as the point of the OP... good advice.

larangcon · Jan 16, 2016

All reefers or maybe 97% of us has gone through the laziness when our tank is doing well. Less visit to the LFS means that my attention is somewhere else this is the time when my wife will drop me off suddenly to the LFS without any notice. She is right too many hours spent and high investment should not go to waste just because of laziness.