My boneheaded catastrophe...

WWIII · Jul 21, 2018

This stinks to read, but thanks for sharing. At least as a reminder to us all that no matter how experienced we are and how long we go smooth sailing, these things can happen. I know you will get it corrected in the best manner possible, especially with all the good advice here on R2R!

I don't trust myself, and I don't trust my technology enough, that I limit my ato to 10% total display volume. I flooded my basement a handful of times, but usually it's when I get distracted and forget to turn off my mixing pump. My rodi has a shut off valve (that I added after flooding the basement with a couple hundred gallons) that saves me there.

Anyways, I know you're not looking for anyone to tell you what went wrong (you were there to see it). I'm hopeful everything will be back to normal asap!

PDR · Jul 21, 2018

Sorry this happened

I have been fortunate enough to not have any major disasters but I can feel my time coming...

HotRocks · Jul 21, 2018

Sorry to hear this @mdbannister it definitely happens to the best of us. Grrrrrrrrrrrr

dbl · Jul 21, 2018

Daniel...sorry to read this my friend. Good luck getting things back in order. Also, thanks for sharing it. Proof positive things can go south no matter how long we've been at this madness.

Cabinetman · Jul 21, 2018

That sucks. In my opinion you don’t need to go that slow raising the salinity. That would only apply to fish kept for weeks in low salinity not hours. The longer your coral is kept in low salinity the more will die. Just be careful only to add well mixed brine

truepercs · Jul 21, 2018

My brother did the same thing a few weeks ago... small tank,lost all his coral but fish survived. We all go through something.

I am in process of switching to a bigger tank. I had to wait for another part to add the gate valve. While waiting I had most of tank filled and also had sump filled with heated salt water. Having heater issues in the past I thought that I should put the new controllable heater in the aquarium rather than in the sump since I had the 3 fish and one shrimp that came with already in the aquarium. So I put the better heater on top and left the sump to settle at room temperature. The next day I seen the shrimp caught in the mp40. When I went to remove the dead shrimp the water was hot. My infra red thermometer read 98. After looking I realized I left the sensor in the sump :0

I hurried and put the 25 gallons of cooler sump water in. Knocked down a few degrees. Then a ran up and bought a few bags of ice and floated zip lock bags until I was able to get the temp down to 84. Then I let it cool down on its own till 79

I lost the shrimp, and a clown fish. The blue tang skin peeled off on his belly(turned white and gray), purple tang is ok. It has been two weeks now after the incident. I transfer all of my corals in the new tank the blue tang is 80% healed up and is doing fine. Don't know if it makes you feel any better but we all have had an incident. I still feel like crap about it, I am so happy the blue tang is almost recovered from me doing something stupid. My thoughts were in the right place by using the better heater I just screwed up. I guess there is a bright side, at least it happen before I transfered everything to the new aquarium.

My brother... he is going to wait a while before buying any coral... still bummed.

Humblefish · Jul 21, 2018

truepercs said:
My brother did the same thing a few weeks ago... small tank,lost all his coral but fish survived. We all go through something.

This suggests the need to move all the coral into a higher salinity ASAP, via drip acclimation.

saltyhog · Jul 21, 2018

Daniel, I'm so sorry to hear this! Agree with getting the salinity up 0.002 every couple of hours if possible

How did water get in to the tank from the ATO reservoir? Is your ATO reservoir a chamber in your sump?

truepercs · Jul 21, 2018

Daniel I would also watch the snails.... start pulling them out. I think that may have polluted my brothers tank fast. Anything dead get it out...

Daniel@R2R · Jul 21, 2018

saltyhog said:
Is your ATO reservoir a chamber in your sump?

Yep. It's built onto the end of the sump as a way to save space...I'm rethinking that strategy now. LOL

Flippers4pups · Jul 21, 2018

I manually fill mine. You may consider that as well.

saltyhog · Jul 21, 2018

mdbannister said:
Yep. It's built onto the end of the sump as a way to save space...I'm rethinking that strategy now. LOL

It is kind of cool and saves space. I would never have thought of this happening. I guess my 16 gallon plastic tank filled manually every two weeks isn't as bad as I thought it was!

Flippers4pups · Jul 21, 2018

Yes, I have to topoff mine every week and a half. 16 gallon ace roto mold tank.

User1 · Jul 22, 2018

Sorry to hear but I'm pretty sure we have all been in similar situations. Hell I seem to recall setting up my lighting back in February on my new 210 gallon and having trouble. I had asked my daughter for some extra hands and she asked me to wait. Being somewhat impatient I decided to go it alone and try to clamp one of my DIY multi channel arrays onto a rail. Up I go on the ladder, no hands to stabilize my accent because I'm holding the array with one hand and attach point in the other with wires, get to the top, reach over the tank (yes, with water) route through, under, and get ready to clip when much to my surprise I almost fall off the ladder, let go to stabilize and not fall, and watch my array slowly sink to the bottom of the new tank. Hit rock, tumble, glide to the bottom (30" tall btw), and poof - sand storm.

Few choice words to myself, go out side kick a bush or two, come back and my daughter gave me a look, climbed up the ladder, grabbed the light, and proceeded to clean it up by rinsing in Ri/Ro water, etc. Array works perfectly fine but had i waited it wouldn't have happened and cause all the commotion. So yeah - been there, done that, and I'm sure I will again. I think people already gave better advise than I would have so I'm here to say you are not alone and no one died. That is key

Hope it gets better.

Daniel@R2R · Jul 22, 2018

Thanks for all of the encouragement, everyone! Salinity is slowly climbing back up. All the fish still seem ok. Moved the corals to 1.016 salinity as recommended. Not sure they will all make it, but I think at least some of them may pull through.

HotRocks · Jul 22, 2018

mdbannister said:
Thanks for all of the encouragement, everyone! Salinity is slowly climbing back up. All the fish still seem ok. Moved the corals to 1.016 salinity as recommended. Not sure they will all make it, but I think at least some of them may pull through.

Fingers crossed for you buddy, such a bummer. I'm sure fish will be fine!

najer · Jul 22, 2018

So sorry to read this, fingers crossed for you.

Humblefish · Jul 22, 2018

mdbannister said:
Thanks for all of the encouragement, everyone! Salinity is slowly climbing back up. All the fish still seem ok. Moved the corals to 1.016 salinity as recommended. Not sure they will all make it, but I think at least some of them may pull through.

Every couple of hours keep raising the SG on the corals 0.002. Until you are back around 1.022-23 (safe zone), and then slowly raise it back to normal.

Katrina71 · Jul 22, 2018

Tank crashes are kinda cool in a twisted way. Been there. You might be shocked in 6 weeks to see what looks really good. The first 3 weeks are hard to swallow, but then you see amazing survival and growth. Don't be so hard on yourself. It happens!!!