Tank Crash.

Ive had them running now for about 4 months, and this is the first time i had to add some, as they were getting broken down, so i added the amount i lost, and started to notice a slight down hill in my corals, i cut back on them and turned them way down to help recover the tank while the alk dropped back within range, ive been using reef crystals which is pretty high in alk. so that didnt help me with that.

 

I hate to hear that man. It is amazing how frustrating this hobby can be at times. But I seem to remember you taking the pellets offline a couple of weeks ago? I'm just having a hard time believing that the blame should be on the pellets alone. Maybe a swing from the issues before, and then removing them caused an even worse one???

 

Sorry about your losses. At least the tank isn't nuked.

What was the Alk at? And how fast did you bring it down to 9?

 

If using RC, I'd guess it was at 12 or higher. I had to switch to RS Coral Pro so I could run BP.

 

I didnt completely take them off, i just cut they way down, my alk was a little high, and i brought it down over time, so in 2 weeks i let it drop naturally from 11dkh down to 9dkh, i have a feeling it was a combo of both, not really pointing the blame at one thing but the combination of the 2 probably did my tank in.

 

When i put in the fresh water it was at 11 today when i tested it was at 9 so in 5 days it dropped 2dkh, id still like it in the 8's before i start vodka dosing, im hoping another 2 days or so ill see some improvements on that, so i can get fully switched over to red sea pro, i do my water change again this sunday, and from there i will start dosing vodka if the parameters allow me to of course.

 

Over a series of a few days, i let it fall naturally, i didnt do anything to bring it down faster, just what my tank was using up, i went from 11 to 9 in 5 days, i still would like to see it at 8 before i start dosing vodka.

 

Sorry to hear, siphon the cyano out and that will help your water quality a lot. I had a problem with cyano and my corals looked better the next day after siphoning out what I could. Be aggressive with your water changes and skimming. I mean real wet skimming if you can. Go for straw colored skimmate not tea or coffee colored.

 

I did just do a 15g water change, and cleaned off all the algae, and such, i also cleaned out my skimmer and 15m later its pulling out some really nasty stuff, and foaming like mad, so i have a feeling something got in the tank while i was gone, and no one will fess up to it.. :-X

 

Sorry to hear that Shackman23, that really sucks....

Also, though, just a thought, always double check test kits before making any big alk changes. I was testing steady at 9, which seemed odd, as I was using RC, but I was using a lot of alk, so, I thought it was possible. However, turned out to be a bad test kit, I'm actually at 12dkh. if your test kit is reading high by a few dkh and you lowered it more, that could do it. From what I understand, a lot of these kits are calibrated to fresh water and can be off by a few dkh in saltwater.