May have crashed my tank

[John08007]

I would run carbon for a few days, maybe even swap it out every day to clean those chems out. Never heard of spraying an accelerator, think thats your problem

 

[Miamialum620]

Is your Alk normally that high? Seems excessively high.

No it's usually 9-10

 

[NatureHold]

No it's usually 9-10

I agree with john. I think the alkaline manipulator is the culprit here. Your alkaline jumping through the roof is a side effect of the accelerant IMO. run the carbon, and a few intermediate WC probably wouldn't hurt.

 

[Sebastiancrab]

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[nanocrazy4life]

OP said tank has been running for 1.5 years. Weird that a water drain and fill would kill your bacteria that fast.

Did you dip your corals? If so, how did you rinse to insure that no dip chemicals made it into your tank.

It all depends on how long he left the tank drained 75% if rocks were left outside of water for longer than 30 min meanwhile light is penetrating aquarium to glue frags. It can cause the rocks to die off and cause spikes. Main thing is to add bag of carbon and add microbacter 7 to keep things stable

 

[Miamialum620]

It all depends on how long he left the tank drained 75% if rocks were left outside of water for longer than 30 min meanwhile light is penetrating aquarium to glue frags. It can cause the rocks to die off and cause spikes. Main thing is to add bag of carbon and add microbacter 7 to keep things stable

The tank was left drained for a decent period while I prepped the coral epoxy, clipped the stem off of the frag plugs, crazy glued, and placed about 30 frags. The tank lights were on the entire time.

 

[Velcro]

Plenty of people, including me, have used the bsi insta set. It's fine. CA glue is all the same except for the different viscosity additives that are added for different thicknesses.

 

[Biglew11]

Plenty of people, including me, have used the bsi insta set. It's fine. CA glue is all the same except for the different viscosity additives that are added for different thicknesses.

+1 ca glue is ca glue is super glue no matter who makes it. Not so sure about using instant in the reef tank myself, not saying it's bad just never used it in a tank.

The tank was left drained for a decent period while I prepped the coral epoxy, clipped the stem off of the frag plugs, crazy glued, and placed about 30 frags. The tank lights were on the entire time.

I suspect the rock being left out of water for a long period probably caused problems. Run carbon and add prime or amquel. And add some microbacter7.

 

[Miamialum620]

Should I do a water change and then add prime or vice versa?

 

[nanocrazy4life]

The tank was left drained for a decent period while I prepped the coral epoxy, clipped the stem off of the frag plugs, crazy glued, and placed about 30 frags. The tank lights were on the entire time.

I'm sorry to hear my friend you might be able to turn things around by adding a large chemipure blue and see if any one around you is doing a water change or if LFS sells you 5 gallons of a established reef water you'll be ok. You have a biocube 32 correct? Unfortunately you've ran into a couple things. For future reference you should never really need to remove any water from your tank to glue new corals down. The way that glue and spray works is you should grab coral with tongues or gloves and place in spot you'd like to have it find any grooves that seems like a safe spot then super glue and spray super glue with accelerator outside of aquarium and quickly place in tank hold in place a few seconds and done. My concerns are that you may have sprayed alot of that accelerator in aquarium and also appoxy tends to leave some chemical reaction in tank that may cause corals to close all can be removed with carbon. Good luck and keep us posted. Also too many water changes aren't good either so let things settle unless you use established water from another reef.

 

[GlassMunky]

It all depends on how long he left the tank drained 75% if rocks were left outside of water for longer than 30 min meanwhile light is penetrating aquarium to glue frags. It can cause the rocks to die off and cause spikes. Main thing is to add bag of carbon and add microbacter 7 to keep things stable

Then I guess the coastline of every ocean around the world has the rocks die at least 2x a day (the tides) by this logic

 

[leighla wolf]

F

I was looking up Prime and amguard before making this post and will be heading to petco in the morning. Not sure which one is better. Should I also add some kind of nitrifying bacteria also like Dr. Tim's?

Fritz turbostart

 

[SMSREEF]

Then I guess the coastline of every ocean around the world has the rocks die at least 2x a day (the tides) by this logic

Obviously if this happens twice a day Every day, the bacteria and organisms that live there can survive there. It’s not applicable to life that is not accustomed to being out of water.

 

[nanocrazy4life]

F
Fritz turbostart

Our small home aquariums can't keep up with die off as our oceans can and as long as there is humidity and wet conditions spraying on rocks the rocks stay alive. If they are left out like BRS tv says when adding dry rock if you cycle the rocks in a bin and then decide to pull them out to build your scape you kill off everything you did and start new if left out too long. I know I'm pretty new to the forums and all but I run a aquarium service company for 5 years and been in hobby for more than 15 years. I only write in these threads from my past experiences and all my research to help my clients and now help in this community.

 

[EMeyer]

Don't add bottled bacteria, they arent gonna do anything at all in this situation (like most situations). Or add some if you like. Or take a cup of water out of your tank then pour the same cup of water back in. All three actions will have the same effect on your tank

13 dKH is fatal. You should lower that slowly to 7, the alkalinity of the ocean.

As others have pointed out, there is no need to drain the water to glue frags.

There is also no need for "accelerator" -- seawater itself promotes the reaction that hardens superglue. Whoever came up with "accelerator" was a marketing genius on the level of the guys who came up with bottled water or pet rocks.

 

[Arabyps]

When I had to drain my tank to deal with an issue I saved the water and returned it to the tank. In my case there was no water issue and I didn't want to add another variable by using virgin water. When I do my regular interval water changes I always dose Microbacter 7 just to be safe.

 

[Biglew11]

Whoever came up with "accelerator" was a marketing genius on the level of the guys who came up with bottled water or pet rocks.

Spray accelerator itself is awesome for uses outside the reef tank. I used it alot for bulding rc airplanes, and other things that I want a fast setup on. I just don't like the idea of it in my reef tank.

 

[MERKEY]

Should I do a water change and then add prime or vice versa?

You have a lot of information coming at you and its some good stuff.

This is how I would attack this problem. To each their own so please take this as only suggestions.

1. Run carbon ASAP to pull out the super glue mistake. Stuff happens so don't beat yourself up over it.

2. In a 1.5 year old system Do a 50% WC or if you feel comfortable as close to %100. You have enough built up bac to do this so do not worry.

3. Add bac....some say its snake oil but I would add some micro7 just for the sake I am doing all I can.

4. Airate the surface of the tank to get oxygen moving as much as possible for the fish.

This should stabilize the system after a few good water changes.

 

[andrewkw]

I would guess the main factors in this crash are :

Leaving the lights on while the tank was drained, out of the water is not so much a problem but cooking the corals would be. Same for rock. I have brought corals home from plane trips in the past just wrapped in damp paper towels. No issues 4,5,6 hrs or more out of the water depending on what type of coral it is.

The parameters were already stressing out the corals and then added stress of being out of the water finished many off. A healthy coral can take being taken out, cut, ect but a stressed coral can handle a lot less.

 

[92Miata]

The glue is the changing factor here. 1.5 years is a mature system and the glue doesnt look like something I've seen before I would look up on the glue and run carbon.

It's the same glue BRS sells. It's been used in a lot of tanks.

I just broke up all my rock and reglued it using super glue and acetone based accelerator - and things were fine (and I bet I used way more than he did gluing frags).

I doubt it's the glue.

Most likely he killed some corals/etc keeping them out of water and it's a big spike in bioload.