hi all,
i'd like to tell you about my last difficult moment in reefing.
last september, while on vacation out of the country, my tank crashed.
a little (a lot) my fault. one evening, i saw on the Apex that the ALK was a little low, so i gave the pump a shot, putting it ON for about 30 sec to 1 minute, but, when it came time to put it back on auto, it stayed ON by mistake, i have the impression that my command didn't go through, thanks to the crappy internet at the hotel.
the entire ALK liquid container (2L ) has been emptied into the tank, so it messed up my parameters, and, since I had no one to make a major water change, I hoped for the best, got the worst. (Next vacation, trust me, I'll have a large reserve of water ready, and my daughter will be trained to do a water change, just in case)
when i got back, i was stuck with dynoflagelées
another really strange thing is that i live in a rural area, and at the end of the summer, they spread manure on the farmland in the area, sometimes it smells really bad for a few days.
i have a hose that goes outside and is connected to the intake of my skimmer, which i had left in place during my vacations, can you imagine that when i came back, my flipper that had stayed in the tank, smelled of manure, but really intense (not my water though) could it have helped crash my tank or help the dinos? Probably.
so, i lost almost all my corals, except for a few zoas, i lost shrimps and snails. i fortunately saved all my fish and my clam.
i started by restoring my parameters over a few weeks, but the dino remained. i stopped water changes and started adding bacteria (microbacter 7) that helped, but it was far from being won, i reduced the photoperiod. which also helped.
And, finally, after 6 months of battling, at a time when the dinos had diminished considerably, I decided to buy a UV, telling myself that if it didn't work, I'd either do a reset or close the aquarium.
today, I think I can say i'm well on my way to winning my battle, with the dinos, they’re 99% gone, well, how satisfying it is to look at a clean tank, those of you who have been there surely remember the feeling of great satisfaction.
I haven't completely won yet, there's still some algae on the rocks, but it's disappearing gradually, the improvements are visible day by day.
my zoas, which had been 3/4 closed for months, are starting to open up again, I've taken a chance on some cheap corals, and they're holding up well, I've got a duncan, a candy cane, and a Monti frag, all of which have been doing well for a few weeks now. the duncan had a hard time at first, but it's getting better every day.
I even took a chance with a small frag of birdnest, and it is doing very well, the colors have remained beautiful, and the polyps are expanding.
I think I'm going to go frag hunting in the next few weeks.
oh and guess what I saw last night? a f... aptaisia, my tank was almost completely wiped out, but, these little pests find a way to survive.
(it was eradicated as soon as I saw it)
i'd like to tell you about my last difficult moment in reefing.
last september, while on vacation out of the country, my tank crashed.
a little (a lot) my fault. one evening, i saw on the Apex that the ALK was a little low, so i gave the pump a shot, putting it ON for about 30 sec to 1 minute, but, when it came time to put it back on auto, it stayed ON by mistake, i have the impression that my command didn't go through, thanks to the crappy internet at the hotel.
the entire ALK liquid container (2L ) has been emptied into the tank, so it messed up my parameters, and, since I had no one to make a major water change, I hoped for the best, got the worst. (Next vacation, trust me, I'll have a large reserve of water ready, and my daughter will be trained to do a water change, just in case)
when i got back, i was stuck with dynoflagelées
another really strange thing is that i live in a rural area, and at the end of the summer, they spread manure on the farmland in the area, sometimes it smells really bad for a few days.
i have a hose that goes outside and is connected to the intake of my skimmer, which i had left in place during my vacations, can you imagine that when i came back, my flipper that had stayed in the tank, smelled of manure, but really intense (not my water though) could it have helped crash my tank or help the dinos? Probably.
so, i lost almost all my corals, except for a few zoas, i lost shrimps and snails. i fortunately saved all my fish and my clam.
i started by restoring my parameters over a few weeks, but the dino remained. i stopped water changes and started adding bacteria (microbacter 7) that helped, but it was far from being won, i reduced the photoperiod. which also helped.
And, finally, after 6 months of battling, at a time when the dinos had diminished considerably, I decided to buy a UV, telling myself that if it didn't work, I'd either do a reset or close the aquarium.
today, I think I can say i'm well on my way to winning my battle, with the dinos, they’re 99% gone, well, how satisfying it is to look at a clean tank, those of you who have been there surely remember the feeling of great satisfaction.
I haven't completely won yet, there's still some algae on the rocks, but it's disappearing gradually, the improvements are visible day by day.
my zoas, which had been 3/4 closed for months, are starting to open up again, I've taken a chance on some cheap corals, and they're holding up well, I've got a duncan, a candy cane, and a Monti frag, all of which have been doing well for a few weeks now. the duncan had a hard time at first, but it's getting better every day.
I even took a chance with a small frag of birdnest, and it is doing very well, the colors have remained beautiful, and the polyps are expanding.
I think I'm going to go frag hunting in the next few weeks.
oh and guess what I saw last night? a f... aptaisia, my tank was almost completely wiped out, but, these little pests find a way to survive.
(it was eradicated as soon as I saw it)
