Well it finally happened - full tank wipeout

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sshindell

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I came in the morning to a white tank.....all corals gone in my 400, all clams gone, still investigating what happened (all fish are alive)...


I am afraid my tank will not look up to snuff for the meeting....
 
Yikes! Sorry to hear Steve... let us know if we can help out any.
Keep us updated on what happened.
 
:sad: SORRY TO HEAR ABOUT THAT STEVE :sad:

If you need coral donations tomorrow, I am sure a lot of people will come through.
 
It appears as if the protein skimmer got stuck higher than normal, causing the tank to become hyposalinic, killing the clams (one about 14"), increasing the ammonia, killing the coral.......

All the fish survived, but I lost my corals - some of which I have had for 5 years (a large galaxia). Some digitata may have survived, but large colonies of SPS are gone. The tank is very cloudy, so it is hard to tell...Massive water changes are underway.

Thanks for the offers - I may take people up on it...
 
Ouch- I was there 6 months ago and can completely empathize with your situation. Let me know if I can do anything, including coral donations.
 
Oh, man, Steve, that is terrible! I'm so sorry. Let us know what we can do to help.
 
If you need frags, just tell us which ones you want. Sorry to hear about your loss.
 
Ohh wow I'm very sorry to hear about your crash! It is so disheartening when this happens so I do feal for you. I have not ever seen your tank but I could only imagine a 400g reef tank. What a huge loss. So the skimmer was overskimming (removing too much tank water) the tank and you have an Auto Top Off that added too much RODI water? I'm guessing ... just trying to figure it out so as not to make the same mistake ever. Hopefully you can get things stabilized soon. :(
 
JustOneMoreTank wrote: So the skimmer was overskimming (removing too much tank water) the tank and you have an Auto Top Off that added too much RODI water? I'm guessing ... just trying to figure it out so as not to make the same mistake ever.
Click to expand...

Not to go too far off topic, but I've read about this happening in several other tanks. It goes something like this: too much kalk goes into the tank (stuck valve or something), pH goes up, too much skimming (as a result of the higher pH), auto top off adds too much water, which in turn causes more kalk to be added; it's a never ending loop that ends in a crash.

The easiest way around this? Use a skimmer that shuts off if the skimmate bucket fills up - similar to this waste collector:
a>
 
Sorry for you loss.

Not to go too far off topic, but I've read about this happening in several other tanks. It goes something like this: too much kalk goes into the tank (stuck valve or something), pH goes up, too much skimming (as a result of the higher pH), auto top off adds too much water, which in turn causes more kalk to be added; it's a never ending loop that ends in a crash.

The easiest way around this? Use a skimmer that shuts off if the skimmate bucket fills up - similar to this waste collector:
Click to expand...

I built one of those waste collectors out of a 5 gallon bucket, toilett flush valve and some silicon. Total cost was under $20.
 
mojo wrote: Not to go too far off topic, but I've read about this happening in several other tanks. It goes something like this: too much kalk goes into the tank (stuck valve or something), pH goes up, too much skimming (as a result of the higher pH), auto top off adds too much water, which in turn causes more kalk to be added; it's a never ending loop that ends in a crash.

The easiest way around this? Use a skimmer that shuts off if the skimmate bucket fills up - similar to this waste collector: http://www.myreefcreations.com/psaccessories.htm">http://www.myreefcreations.com/psaccessories.htm</a>[/QUOTE]

I had one of these in use, but I disabled it. When the wastre container topped off, the valve closed, and forced the water level up in my skimmer- to right over the air inlet for the beckett's! D'oh! Water comes out of those as easily as it goes in!
Click to expand...
 
mojo wrote: Not to go too far off topic, but I've read about this happening in several other tanks. It goes something like this: too much kalk goes into the tank (stuck valve or something), pH goes up, too much skimming (as a result of the higher pH), auto top off adds too much water, which in turn causes more kalk to be added; it's a never ending loop that ends in a crash.

The easiest way around this? Use a skimmer that shuts off if the skimmate bucket fills up - similar to this waste collector: http://www.myreefcreations.com/psaccessories.htm">http://www.myreefcreations.com/psaccessories.htm</a>[/QUOTE]

If you had an RK2, couldn't you also use the pH control option to shut off the skimmer and the ATO (with calc) if the pH goes above a certain value like 8.6? This might be an easier solution that the float switch for the RK2 owners.

Steve...I'm sorry about your tank. Thanks for posting though. Keep us updated on the reef reconstruction.

Just curious, how/why did the ammonia spike when the salinity dropped and pH increased?
Click to expand...
 
Take two large clams (8-14"), have them die, wait a weekend, and you will get ammonia.
 
SShindell wrote: Take two large clams (8-14"), have them die, wait a weekend, and you will get ammonia.
Click to expand...

Ah, I just assumed this happened over a few hours. A weekend explains it.
 
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