The Dead Sea adventure. My personal experience.

[lilbluelude]

I figured it was time to share my experience from about a month ago. I had a mini crash of my tank. I came home after a long week at school to find everything in my tank was withering away or had bleached white. All of my fish were breathing hard or dead. As you can imagine how I was panicked when walking in the door to see that. I sat there for probably 5 minutes just staring at my tank. I had no idea where to start or what to do. I couldnt believe my eyes everything was pretty much dead. I sat and watched my clown fish eat about 8 bristle worms as they floated by dead. Thats the most ive ever seen that clown fish eat in a day. Finally, the shock wore off and panic set back in. I immediately started checking my thermometer, then another and another. The temperature was fine, it was sitting right at 80°. That's normally the temperature my tank sits at, so obviously that was not my problem. Next I tested PH, calcium, ammonia, nitrates, and even nitrites. Nothing was seriously off in an alarming matter. So I got out my hydrometer and tested the salinity. It was off the scale! The scale reads to 1.032 I could not get the needle to even read that. As I was panicking I got out my other hydrometer and repeated the test. Same results, saltier than the dead sea. Obviously, the dead sea is cleverly named that for a reason. So as quickly as I could I got out my water change pump and proceeded to drain my entire sump into the backyard. I ran downstairs and turned on my RO/DI unit to make as much water as possible. I then came back upstairs and tried my best to make an aeration system to get as much air as possible in the tank, although i found not much disolves at that specific gravity. After 6 hours of making water and trying to fill my 20 gallon sump back up I was down to 1.030. It took a good 14 hours to get my tank back down to where it needed to be by partially draining and refilling the sump another time or two. During this time I am sure that I had wild temperature spikes, but the other alternative seemed worse.

So what happened? While I was a school that week my father cut my return pump off as the sump looked like it was going to overflow. I had topped off my tank all the way to the top praying I wouldnt have any power outtages and floods. Well, cutting off the return pump caused about 8 gallons to spill on the floor before siphon break occured because of me overfilling the tank for the week in preparetion for not being home. Luckily, it only made a huge mess and caused the hard wood floor to bow up.... Well, my brother went and got one of the 5 gallon jugs I had filled up for my water change the next weekend. Filled the tank straight with saltwater without even knowing it. No big deal because it was just replacing lost saltwater. But, he kept topping off the tank all week with saltwater as it evaporated from another 5 gallon jug I had which was too salty. I just figured I would store it for a week and put it back in my trash container to remix for the next water change. It was in the 1.030 range because it was the last of the water in my change bin and the salt didnt completely dissolve until the water level got low. Looking at the jug sitting next to the tank labeled do not use with masking tape on it was my dead give away. It was empty too... The worst part was I was so mad, but I couldnt be mad at my brother for helping out with top offs or be mad at my father for being an idiot. I cant even say the event with my father did much damage or any at all. I could only be mad at myself for having the tank at home while Im away or not coming home daily to check on it....


Tanks losses:

Fish:

I only lost my strawberry psuedochromis . Everything else is still in there alive and kicking. Those are some seriously tough fish.

Corals lost:

several assorted zoas (5 unknowns)
a few assorted palys (3)
Lunar eclipse zoas from Darren 24
Lord of the rings zoa from Darren24
Some fluorescent pink zoa from jin -Futureinterest
Fluorescent purple plate coral from jin- Futureinterest
dark red plate coral
some GSP
my patch of xenia

All of my SPS corals went bye bye(14).
I bought a frag pack from Casper75 on here that had 11 SPS and then I picked up a couple of other SPS frags from REDEDGE2K1. They were all small frags that had started growing pretty nicely and colored up really well. Well, they are now all bleached white. None of them have withered away, so I still have a little bit of hope for them now a month later. Im not putting much faith in them because I dont see any signs of life or polyp extension, but a man can pray right?




So, the overall consensus is my tank looks pretty bare right now, but Im not going to give up. Im too sadistic for something like that apparently. Plus, I have like 6 corals that survived (mushrooms, nuke palys and a few zoas) that whole ordeal. Of course, being practically broke isnt going to make it a speedy recovery, but maybe Ill get it back to a reef tank in the next year or two...

 

[stacy22]

Tommy, I am sorry about this happening to you. I am sure that you are down about the loses. I am happy, though, that you plan to fight through this and keep on reefing. Most of us have had a stroke of bad luck like this. All we can really do is learn from our mistakes and move forward. I wish you good luck with the tank recovery. Hang in there.

 

[lilbluelude]

Thanks for the condolences... Im by no means down and out. I just consider it a hard learning experience, although Im sure Ihad it coming one way or another considering everything else had been working for a few months nicely.. Im not sure whether the bryopsis overtake attempt that lasted for 4 months is even considered a rock skipping on a pond anymore compared to this tsunami.

The good news is I had just purchased a bundle of things right before this happened. From new MH bulbs, to a new skimmer, to the Ricordea GB, and i was trying to purchase some corals from DawgDude. It may have been the easiest stepping stone for me to get over my losses because I received so many new things within days before or after the crash. Of course, those purchases were going to end my spending for about 4 months. I wish I had the cash to replace some of the things i lost, but such is life.

 

[acroholic]

Tommy,
A good thing to do is have an experienced Reefer friend's telephone number handy for your family to call if they need help. Make sure your friend knows your equipment and is willing to come by if called. That way you can take care of problems before they become a full blown disaster.
Dave

 

[lilbluelude]

I do have a good buddy whom I would think qualifies as an experienced reefer who I can call to help out if needed. He actually showed up at my house with beer about 15 minutes after I got home. Wow, were we both in for that suprise. We were about to head out bowling, but like to have a beer or two and check on the tank before hand every week. Its our routine. Hes the guy who suckered me into this hobby. Of course, I suckered him into ARC. BrentonPrice is his username. Hes the guy who grows a pound of chaeto a month and is always giving it away. Man can he grow some macro.

No one told me anything was wrong. Im pretty sure my brother had just topped off about 3 gallons that morning (2am-4am before he goes to bed) and no one had been home all day to notice things closing up and acting odd. So, the water may not have had crazy salinity for a week. It was probably just elevated a bit until it got intense right at the end. Otherwise I dont see how my fish could have survived at all.

My system is about 70 gallons total, so 5-7 gallons of saltwater used for topoff can easily do havoc as noted..

 

[FutureInterest]

Man. Sorry to hear that. :sad: If you're in the area I'll help you restock some of those for free.

 

[lilbluelude]

thats awful kind of you Jin. Thank you.


I might take you up on that, but I do feel awful bad being a freeloader of any kind.