Neptune Aquatics

Emergency- alk rising and ph dropping to dangerous level - complete tank crash

Do you have an ATO on the tank? If so, are you sure something didn't get into that water?

All other dosers are presumably completely off and tubes aren't even in a place where they could drip in if there's something up with the dosers?

Do you still have fish in there, and if so are you feeding?

You sure all the dead fish and stuff are out of there?

Don't feel obligated to answer these things, just tossing out ideas.

My gut would be grab a cheap UV, like the Petco ones, and try that. They aren't meant for saltwater, but salt mix isn't cheap so using one even if you toss it might not be a huge deal.

Also if you're near Redwood City I have a uv sterilizer you can use. Needs to have the base over a sump because one connection kinda leaks. Requires a pump, but I probably have one of those too. You'd just need to grab it from my garage (I can give you a code and make sure my neighbors don't call the cops on you). I also have a polishing filter you can give a try, and a bunch of carbon.
 
richiev said:
Do you have an ATO on the tank? If so, are you sure something didn't get into that water?

All other dosers are presumably completely off and tubes aren't even in a place where they could drip in if there's something up with the dosers?

Do you still have fish in there, and if so are you feeding?

You sure all the dead fish and stuff are out of there?

Don't feel obligated to answer these things, just tossing out ideas.

My gut would be grab a cheap UV, like the Petco ones, and try that. They aren't meant for saltwater, but salt mix isn't cheap so using one even if you toss it might not be a huge deal.

Also if you're near Redwood City I have a uv sterilizer you can use. Needs to have the base over a sump because one connection kinda leaks. Requires a pump, but I probably have one of those too. You'd just need to grab it from my garage (I can give you a code and make sure my neighbors don't call the cops on you). I also have a polishing filter you can give a try, and a bunch of carbon.
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I have an ATO with a lid. Anything could happen but unlikely things get in.

No fish in there and I’m not feeding or dosing
All dead fish is out . Can’t be sure about every snails , hermit etc

I am running a UV and carbon. Skimmer is back on.

I have decided to give up on the main tank. Encrusting LPS and zoas seems to be doing fine for now, but it’s too difficult to get them out. If everything is dead in a few days, I’ll just reset

Whatever alive and those that can be frag is now in a 10g.
 
newfly said:
Good point.

Can I get nsw from Neptune? If not , where I can get NSW?

I’m about to throw the towel soon and restart. There are a couple of encrusting coral I cannot easily remove. Otherwise , I will drain and reset. A large colony of monti sentosa and another green monti seems to be unaffected. I frag a couple of small pieces.

I frag as much as I can and put them in a 10g tank,

Since this morning, alk is rapidly rising, it’s 10 now. Either both Hanna and Alkatronic is off, I feel like I’m at the end of the road. I can’t be changing multiple 40% water everyday.

Sometime is terribly off and wc alone doesn’t seem to help.
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Neptunes carries natural sea water. I have a few 5 gallon jugs you can borrow if you need.

For alk to still be rising is this the same batch of salt you used in your last water change that you mentioned you did 3 days before your issues?
(Could be a bad batch of salt)
DId you test that water for alkalinity before adding it to the tank?

Just my thoughts are that you must still be adding alkalinity to the tank?

unless whatever it is you dose has a delayed release before showing up in testing results.

I would also test the rodi water before mixing salt with it as well just to elimnate those two as possible issues.
 
newfly said:
I have an ATO with a lid. Anything could happen but unlikely things get in.

No fish in there and I’m not feeding or dosing
All dead fish is out . Can’t be sure about every snails , hermit etc

I am running a UV and carbon. Skimmer is back on.

I have decided to give up on the main tank. Encrusting LPS and zoas seems to be doing fine for now, but it’s too difficult to get them out. If everything is dead in a few days, I’ll just reset

Whatever alive and those that can be frag is now in a 10g.
Click to expand...
I'd dump the ATO water and swap in new. Low chance of it being the cause, but easy to swap out. Though I'm saying that under the assumption your numbers are still skewing and not stabilized.

Also I can't recall if you mentioned this, but did you test your RO, such as seeing if you're getting 0 TDS still, and if your filters are still good? When's the last time you've done a water change on the other tank you're referring to? Main reason I'm mentioning that is I'm relating to tank cycling related bacterial blooms.

Looking over things, seems the sequence was:

1. out of town with others helping for 2 weeks, things seem stable
2. alk consumption drop Friday (presumably seen remotely)
3. get home, see a bunch of algae
4. 40% water change Sunday
5. Wednesday alk spike, pH crash, bacterial bloom

seems like the most plausible thing would be something happened mid to late last week (like some fish died off and took awhile to crash) OR it was something about the water change. You mentioned bare bottom, which removes the sand acting as a bacteria surface. Any chance a fish or two died due to various things (eg not getting enough food from the auto feeder while you're out) and there wasn't enough bacteria surface area to handle it?

Either way, just imagine the crash was going to happen either way. At least you got to have some good tank time beforehand, saved a couple things, and are infinitely further ahead towards the next tank being setup then you were originally (even have all the equipment and tank and ... already in place)!
 
just a shot in the dark. are you making your own rodi water? if so, whats the tds currently? and last time you changed the filters/membrane?
 
richiev said:
I'd dump the ATO water and swap in new. Low chance of it being the cause, but easy to swap out. Though I'm saying that under the assumption your numbers are still skewing and not stabilized.

Also I can't recall if you mentioned this, but did you test your RO, such as seeing if you're getting 0 TDS still, and if your filters are still good? When's the last time you've done a water change on the other tank you're referring to? Main reason I'm mentioning that is I'm relating to tank cycling related bacterial blooms.

Looking over things, seems the sequence was:

1. out of town with others helping for 2 weeks, things seem stable
2. alk consumption drop Friday (presumably seen remotely)
3. get home, see a bunch of algae
4. 40% water change Sunday
5. Wednesday alk spike, pH crash, bacterial bloom

seems like the most plausible thing would be something happened mid to late last week (like some fish died off and took awhile to crash) OR it was something about the water change. You mentioned bare bottom, which removes the sand acting as a bacteria surface. Any chance a fish or two died due to various things (eg not getting enough food from the auto feeder while you're out) and there wasn't enough bacteria surface area to handle it?

Either way, just imagine the crash was going to happen either way. At least you got to have some good tank time beforehand, saved a couple things, and are infinitely further ahead towards the next tank being setup then you were originally (even have all the equipment and tank and ... already in place)!
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All the fishes are accounted for until the night before the crash. I only have 5 fishes, so it’s not hard to keep count.

Yeah, restart will be the most likely scenario. I wonder if I should bleach the rock and really start from zero.
 
newfly said:
Good point.

Can I get nsw from Neptune? If not , where I can get NSW?

I’m about to throw the towel soon and restart. There are a couple of encrusting coral I cannot easily remove. Otherwise , I will drain and reset. A large colony of monti sentosa and another green monti seems to be unaffected. I frag a couple of small pieces.

I frag as much as I can and put them in a 10g tank,

Since this morning, alk is rapidly rising, it’s 10 now. Either both Hanna and Alkatronic is off, I feel like I’m at the end of the road. I can’t be changing multiple 40% water everyday.

Sometime is terribly off and wc alone doesn’t seem to help.
Click to expand...
I would call around for NSW
I’m not sure which lfs have it for sale these days
 
Another random thought here, does the tank have good oxygen mixing somewhere? I know there was no skimmer, good oxygenation is important to fish health.

If you haven't changed salt and know your di water is good, I personally would not worry about the nsw. It is a known good, but I think you should be able to rule out bad water pretty easily.
 
H2OPlayar said:
Another random thought here, does the tank have good oxygen mixing somewhere? I know there was no skimmer, good oxygenation is important to fish health.

If you haven't changed salt and know your di water is good, I personally would not worry about the nsw. It is a known good, but I think you should be able to rule out bad water pretty easily.
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I think so. I have 2 2000gph power head at near the top, pointing to the surface plus 1 600gph pump near the dosing tube.
 
Switching gear to restart.

I wonder if anyone available this or next weekend willing to help. I can compensate with $$, beers, pizza etc

I’m in Santa Clara. I would love to get it setup again over a weekend. Since we are draining the tank, perfect time to get the tank level. Can’t do this by myself.
 
newfly said:
Switching gear to restart.

I wonder if anyone available this or next weekend willing to help. I can compensate with $$, beers, pizza etc

I’m in Santa Clara. I would love to get it setup again over a weekend. Since we are draining the tank, perfect time to get the tank level. Can’t do this by myself.
Click to expand...

I can’t help this weekend but BAR members are known to help other supporting members out. I am more than happy to donate some frags to restock your tank once your tank is stable. Supporting members always help each other out. :)
 
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newfly said:
Switching gear to restart.

I wonder if anyone available this or next weekend willing to help. I can compensate with $$, beers, pizza etc

I’m in Santa Clara. I would love to get it setup again over a weekend. Since we are draining the tank, perfect time to get the tank level. Can’t do this by myself.
Click to expand...
I have to work Saturday evening, but I could give a bit of time if we got a earlier start
 
newfly said:
Anyone can help frag encrusting coral from my tank? Any tips?
the coral are on the bottom glass . I don’t want to lose the coral but I am afraid of cracking the glass.

Is it worth it to safe the coral?
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I have a rather thick metal razor blade with a nice long handle that I actually use to scrape 3d prints off my bed and some coral snips you can borrow if that would help.

And I myself am free and willing to help anytime except Saturday. Let me know when.
 
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newfly said:
Switching gear to restart.

I wonder if anyone available this or next weekend willing to help. I can compensate with $$, beers, pizza etc

I’m in Santa Clara. I would love to get it setup again over a weekend. Since we are draining the tank, perfect time to get the tank level. Can’t do this by myself.
Click to expand...
Depending on where exactly you’re located, I can maybe help out. Purely transportation limited.
 
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