Looking for opinions on sps post Labor Day vacay

[Newb_reefer1]

Hello R2R family !

Just got home from about a week long Labor Day vacation last night. Left the fate of my tank in the hands of a good friend while I was gone. I was sure I had left him with the most detailed instructions I could possibly give to someone with no prior reef keeping experience. Did a 10% WC the day of my departure & dosed the tank to the levels I have been keeping ( 9 dkh , 420 calcium, 1350 magnesium ).

Upon my return home late last night I found 3 of my sps frags had completely died off ie they were totally white skeletons. The pieces that died off were a red dragon, a no name tenius & a sunset millipora if that holds any merit. After a quick glance at the tank this morning before work I noticed there is also another no name stag showing signs of burnt tips & slight recession from the base up.

Come to find out my buddy had used the extra 5g of saltwater I had left over for a WC upon return to top off the tank water instead of the RODI water. I added about 3g of RODI to offset the change in salinity. I also did not dose this morning in fear he may have heavily over dosed the tank since he clearly did NOT follow the instructions. I will be testing the water when I get home from work today too see really how far off my parameters are.

My question to the community, should I expect even more coral deaths by the time I get home or even in the next few days to follow ? Is there anything I should try to mitigate the damage that has already been caused ? Am I better off just letting Mother Nature do her thing ?

for good measure these are the corals that appeared to be Unaffected. Green slimmer, electric miyagi tort, PC Rainbow, blueberry fields, ATL Joelene, TNT anacropora, Tri color valida, AcroBerry, orange Setosa, Jack o lantern lepto, forest fire digi, Red/green grafted plating monti, rainbow cyphastrea, rainbow encrusting monti, orange hammer, gorgonian, & my Derasa clam

 

[Lavey29]

How high did salinity get?

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

Hello R2R family !

Just got home from about a week long Labor Day vacation last night. Left the fate of my tank in the hands of a good friend while I was gone. I was sure I had left him with the most detailed instructions I could possibly give to someone with no prior reef keeping experience. Did a 10% WC the day of my departure & dosed the tank to the levels I have been keeping ( 9 dkh , 420 calcium, 1350 magnesium ).

Upon my return home late last night I found 3 of my sps frags had completely died off ie they were totally white skeletons. The pieces that died off were a red dragon, a no name tenius & a sunset millipora if that holds any merit. After a quick glance at the tank this morning before work I noticed there is also another no name stag showing signs of burnt tips & slight recession from the base up.

Come to find out my buddy had used the extra 5g of saltwater I had left over for a WC upon return to top off the tank water instead of the RODI water. I added about 3g of RODI to offset the change in salinity. I also did not dose this morning in fear he may have heavily over dosed the tank since he clearly did NOT follow the instructions. I will be testing the water when I get home from work today too see really how far off my parameters are.

My question to the community, should I expect even more coral deaths by the time I get home or even in the next few days to follow ? Is there anything I should try to mitigate the damage that has already been caused ? Am I better off just letting Mother Nature do her thing ?

for good measure these are the corals that appeared to be Unaffected. Green slimmer, electric miyagi tort, PC Rainbow, blueberry fields, ATL Joelene, TNT anacropora, Tri color valida, orange Setosa, Jack o lantern lepto, forest fire digi, Red/green grafted monti, rainbow cyphastrea

What were these salinity values pre and post vacation? Do you top off you evaporation every day by hand?

 

[Newb_reefer1]

How high did salinity get?

I wasn’t able to check before leaving but I was at 1.024 prior and he added 5g of salt also @ 1.024 in 50g total volume if we have any math wizards here.

 

[Newb_reefer1]

What were these salinity values pre and post vacation? Do you top off you evaporation every day by hand?

I’m kicking myself in the you know what for not setting up my JBJ ATO before leaving but yes, I usually add maybe a little less than half a gallon in the mornings and again when I get home. Gonna make it a point to get that set that up this weekend.

 

[Newb_reefer1]

Phosphate has been steady @ around 0.05 & nitrates hover around 10 if that helps. I’ve been doing some reading and it seems most people keep their salinity a bit higher than what I have mine @ around 1.025-1.026… so perhaps that is not the issue then ?

 

[Rick5]

Can you clarify how significant the salinity shift was? It sounds like it went from 1.024 to 1.025, which even semi-healthy SPS can handle. If i’m understanding you, the small salinity shift didn’t do it.

 

[Newb_reefer1]

won’t be back home till around 9pm PST tonight so I will have to report back on what the actual change was, but It was originally @ 1.024 before I left for vacation.

 

[Dburr1014]

So it sounds like you need almost a gallon per day in topoff water in a 50 gallon system. But he used the salt water.
That's a 10% increase in salt.
If it was dosed everyday at a gallon per day it doesn't seem to bad but, if it was dumped all at once, eh.
I guess you need to do a full check of everything when you get home.

You already corrected the problem as fast or faster than the original problem. That may also be a problem. You may experience more death but you will know in the next day or 2.

Hindsight is always 20/20. Sticky notes are your best friend for someone not in the hobby. They probably didn't remember what you said right after you walked out the door.

Sorry for all the troubles op, I hope everything else pulls thru.

 

[thatmanMIKEson]

I’m kicking myself in the you know what for not setting up my JBJ ATO before leaving but yes, I usually add maybe a little less than half a gallon in the mornings and again when I get home.

I have that jbj nano it's pretty good, but a lesson learned DONT LET NON REEFERS TOUCH YOUR REEF!

But you added water to lower salinity how did you know it was high? You should have checked it, what is it at right now. As far as losing more I don't think anyone can say for sure just figure it's all going to die and be happy when a few things make it, im sure some will just a bump in the road and experience gained.

 

[Newb_reefer1]

I had just assumed it would have increased to some degree at least, however I am still getting a 1.024 reading now. Perhaps this is from adding more RODI water than usual yesterday. I have narrowed down the cause of death to a major alk swing. I’m getting a reading of 10.6 ALK today so I can only imagine it was much higher a few days ago. Still didn’t dose anything today, just gonna let params come back down naturally.

 

[LARedstickreefer]

I’m going with your corals just getting heartbroken over your trip. Mine are always a-okay before a trip…

I usually come home to several in peril even though they are routinely left alone for the same amount of time every week. Common denominator is my absence.

Prove me wrong

 

[Newb_reefer1]

Well that would be quite the coincidence. I know my fish get sad when I leave them but I never thought the coral would feel the same way too lol

Anyways I decided to buy some new salifert test kits yesterday while I was getting water for my WC (10g) just so I could double check my numbers against the Red Sea test kits since they were pretty close to being empty and the parameters are totally out of whack ! I got a reading of ALK @ 10.9 Cal @ 500+ & Mag @ 1380… still haven’t dosed anything to the system but my LFS uses Frits Redline for their salt mix. I’ll probably hold off on doing a WC next week so the numbers can go down faster but I still have yet to dose anything to the system since getting back a few days ago.

Fingers crossed so far everything SPS wise seems to be alright since. My orange hammer coral is really the only piece looking a bit unhappy after the WC. The stag horn that was receding appears to have stopped all STN with about 80% healthy flesh left over ! I guess only time will tell but I’m glad to report no new skeletons in the past few days.