hermit
Guest
It happened about 3 weeks ago. I was so shattered, it was my first tank crash.
My tiny Nuvo 8 had been running for about 11 months. On a Friday late after work, I was due to change about 1 gallon of water. Also, the purigen that I had recharged, was bleached, dechlorinated and ready to be reused. I took care to use some extra Seachem prime and keep it in the dechlorinator for twice as long. Sequence of events that happened:
9:00 pm – Feed the fish
9:30 pm – Change 1 gallon of water (about 15%)
9:45 pm – Add back the purigen (Bleached for 8 hours, treated in prime for more than 24 hours)
Next morning:
8:00 am: The single acro frag I have is completely white
Hollywood stunner chalice is 70% bleached
Pit viper Leptastrea is 40% bleached
Birdsnest colony I had grown for about 10 months is shedding most of its tissue
I immediately performed a 2 gallon water change (All that I had in spare. Note to self: Keep more spare water) I went to work and came back around 6:00 pm.
The wall hammer looked in bad shape. Bicolor branching hammer had turned to pale white. The tissues on Zoas were pale white. For the next 3 days I performed between 4-5 water changes 40-50% each.
Aftermath:
The beautiful birdsnest colony which I had grown for about 10 months is dead. Acro is dead. Zoas are recovering, but look in bad shape, wall hammer looks unhappy. Hollywood stunner chalice is recovering. In all this mayhem, only coral that didn’t seem to be affected was Jack-o-lantern leptoseris. Also second least affected coral is the purple birds nest.
No harm done to the clown pair and fire shrimp. The snails and hermit crab seemed to be unaffected as well.
Possible causes:
1. Dechlorinator didn’t work and the Purigen I added to the tank contained traces of chlorine.
2. Something contaminated the water I changed.
With this crash I took some time to ponder over the fact that the systems we all maintain are very very fragile and need complete attention. I had become a bit relaxed since my tank had been doing really good since last 4-5 months. Its time to get back on toes and be more regular with testing regiment. I am really glad that just about a week prior to the crash, I placed about 5-6 frags in a friend’s tank since I didn’t have enough room.
This tank crash was my first crash and I was really devastated. Even though it is a small tank, I was so attached to it.
As the corals are recovering, I took an opportunity to make an upgrade and find a more comfortable house for the tank inhabitants. I recently purchased a IM 20g tank and now I am focused on setting it up. I plan on starting a tank journal for this one.
Even though I missed on creating a tank journal for my tiny 8 gallon tank, I do have a photo journal for it.
If you made through this post, here is my photo journal for the Nuvo 8 gallon tank:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/u9f0228nfelzQqQC3
My tiny Nuvo 8 had been running for about 11 months. On a Friday late after work, I was due to change about 1 gallon of water. Also, the purigen that I had recharged, was bleached, dechlorinated and ready to be reused. I took care to use some extra Seachem prime and keep it in the dechlorinator for twice as long. Sequence of events that happened:
9:00 pm – Feed the fish
9:30 pm – Change 1 gallon of water (about 15%)
9:45 pm – Add back the purigen (Bleached for 8 hours, treated in prime for more than 24 hours)
Next morning:
8:00 am: The single acro frag I have is completely white
Hollywood stunner chalice is 70% bleached
Pit viper Leptastrea is 40% bleached
Birdsnest colony I had grown for about 10 months is shedding most of its tissue
I immediately performed a 2 gallon water change (All that I had in spare. Note to self: Keep more spare water) I went to work and came back around 6:00 pm.
The wall hammer looked in bad shape. Bicolor branching hammer had turned to pale white. The tissues on Zoas were pale white. For the next 3 days I performed between 4-5 water changes 40-50% each.
Aftermath:
The beautiful birdsnest colony which I had grown for about 10 months is dead. Acro is dead. Zoas are recovering, but look in bad shape, wall hammer looks unhappy. Hollywood stunner chalice is recovering. In all this mayhem, only coral that didn’t seem to be affected was Jack-o-lantern leptoseris. Also second least affected coral is the purple birds nest.
No harm done to the clown pair and fire shrimp. The snails and hermit crab seemed to be unaffected as well.
Possible causes:
1. Dechlorinator didn’t work and the Purigen I added to the tank contained traces of chlorine.
2. Something contaminated the water I changed.
With this crash I took some time to ponder over the fact that the systems we all maintain are very very fragile and need complete attention. I had become a bit relaxed since my tank had been doing really good since last 4-5 months. Its time to get back on toes and be more regular with testing regiment. I am really glad that just about a week prior to the crash, I placed about 5-6 frags in a friend’s tank since I didn’t have enough room.
This tank crash was my first crash and I was really devastated. Even though it is a small tank, I was so attached to it.
As the corals are recovering, I took an opportunity to make an upgrade and find a more comfortable house for the tank inhabitants. I recently purchased a IM 20g tank and now I am focused on setting it up. I plan on starting a tank journal for this one.
Even though I missed on creating a tank journal for my tiny 8 gallon tank, I do have a photo journal for it.
If you made through this post, here is my photo journal for the Nuvo 8 gallon tank:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/u9f0228nfelzQqQC3
Last edited:
