Cali Kid Corals

Venting

swayd

swayd

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So I come home yesterday to add some awesome chaeto and some freebies NLY04 was awesome enough to give me and then it all happens.
First off I get a huge shock as I put my hand in the tank. I figure it was the heater as it was old and I already had a new one ready to go. I take out the heater and notice it had some perspiration in it and switched it out. Now I'm trying to make room for my chaeto when Bammmmm! I get shocked again and this time worse. Now I'm worried as I dont know where the current is coming from. I turn everything off and One by one check all of my connections and plugs. Nothing! Last I check my ATO (DIY) and there it is a nice fat shock again. I get rid of the ATO and throw on a aqualifter pump I had laying around. I set it to turn on for 30 minutes 2 times a day. Keep in mind I dose kalk in my ATO water. I do a quick water change and leave the RO/DI on to make some fresh water, outside.
I go to sleep and wake up in the morning to a slurping sound. I look at my tank and its cloudy. All of my ATO water drained into the display overnight because I left the timer in the "outlet on" mode and did not set it to "timer on". Now I have dumped 6 gallons of RO/DI with 4 teaspoons of kalk mix into the tank and I'm horrified as I can already see my acros starting to bleach. I look outside and water everywhere as I also left the RO/DI unti on all night as well. Im late for work and have no choice but to wait until after work today to go home and do a water change and asses the damage. I did leave about 15 gallons of water mixing so it should be ready to go when I get home.

Any advice any one can give me would be greatly appreciated! I hope its not as bad as I think it is and I hope my alk and calcium only went up a couple numbers. I will post my alk once I test it but I am assuming its going to be somewhere near 12dkh as I had it at 9 prior to this happening. sorry for boring you all to death I just wanted to share my disaster.
Oh and I had just bought a bunch of nice stuffs from Reef Raft :(
 
Yes I did but on small frags no signature pieces for me. Not going to lie their acro frags are pretty chunky!


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Yikes. I had a similar thing happen when a snail got stuck in my overflow and my ATO reservoir emptied into my tank. Hope all works out for your tank. This is the reason I like smaller ATO reservoirs when you are using kalk in your top-off. It helps minimize problems when this stuff inevitably happens.
 
I had it all mapped out until I started dosing. I hadn't taken into account the amount of kalk I was dosing and the possibility of it all draining into my system at once. You live and you learn lol.
 
1st piece of advice get a controller if you haven't already, if you're on a budget the old Neptune AquaController can be had for no more than $100 if you keep an eye out for it.

2nd get a doser and keep kalk separate from your ATO, on a budget? a used peristaltic pump can be purchased on ebay for less than $50, put it on a timer & keep a very small kalk container. Also a used BRS 1.1 pump sells for around $60 used.

And finally, do big water changes, how big is the tank? I would do a couple of water changes once you're home and replace 50% of the DT water by the last water change.

I've been through this process already and had to improvise & work with a very tight budget so I ran the AC reef controller, still using a pharmaceutical grade peristaltic pump (for kalkwasser) I bought at an estate sale lol and for a while did put kalk in my ATO, was constantly worried about timer failing or something weird like that. The biggest peace of mind I had was when I threw out timers & replaced them with the ACIII, having a PH probe was perfect too because I was able to program the controller so that it shut off power to kalkwasser if PH went above 8.4.

Hope your livestock survives ok, bleaching can be reversed I'll cross my fingers for you & hope you can clear it up before any RTN or STN sets in.
 
Fidel speaks the truth!

In addition, just keep in mind everything fails. I've had my Apex go bonkers twice. Both times I was out of town. Murphy's Law? ;) Proper programming can prevent disaster.

I use a AquaLifter to pump TO in. At least it's not fast. I also have the output several inches above the level of of the sump. Sounds like young boy/old man (don't ask how I know that) peeing. My low tech version of an audio alarm!! :)
 
HiFidelity said:
1st piece of advice get a controller if you haven't already, if you're on a budget the old Neptune AquaController can be had for no more than $100 if you keep an eye out for it.

2nd get a doser and keep kalk separate from your ATO, on a budget? a used peristaltic pump can be purchased on ebay for less than $50, put it on a timer & keep a very small kalk container. Also a used BRS 1.1 pump sells for around $60 used.

And finally, do big water changes, how big is the tank? I would do a couple of water changes once you're home and replace 50% of the DT water by the last water change.

I've been through this process already and had to improvise & work with a very tight budget so I ran the AC reef controller, still using a pharmaceutical grade peristaltic pump (for kalkwasser) I bought at an estate sale lol and for a while did put kalk in my ATO, was constantly worried about timer failing or something weird like that. The biggest peace of mind I had was when I threw out timers & replaced them with the ACIII, having a PH probe was perfect too because I was able to program the controller so that it shut off power to kalkwasser if PH went above 8.4.

Hope your livestock survives ok, bleaching can be reversed I'll cross my fingers for you & hope you can clear it up before any RTN or STN sets in.
Click to expand...

I have been looking at the controllers and havent decided on which one to use. I will keep an eye out for a used one because all of the features you mentioned sound amazing. I was thinking of just purchasing another aqualifter for a separate kalk reservoir.
My system volume is around 70gallons and I will do a 15gallon water change when I get home and then another 15 gallon tomorrow morning. I think at this point if I lose my acros I will probably just stick to zoas, euphylia and some montis. At least until I upgrade my sump and some equipment.
Thanks for all the advice everyone!
 
aqua-nut said:
Fidel speaks the truth!

In addition, just keep in mind everything fails. I've had my Apex go bonkers twice. Both times I was out of town. Murphy's Law? ;) Proper programming can prevent disaster.

I use a AquaLifter to pump TO in. At least it's not fast. I also have the output several inches above the level of of the sump. Sounds like young boy/old man (don't ask how I know that) peeing. My low tech version of an audio alarm!! :)
Click to expand...
I hear ya. I guess its time to start upgrading my equipment either way lol.

LOLZ
 
Ok so
two acro dead
The other 3 browned out
4 montis browned
1 blasto dead
Zoas look POd
Other LPS just look POd as well

I did 20g water change and it brought the alk down from 11 to 10. I might just try to keep it there tho and let the coral consume the rest of it. Salinity went from 1.025 to 1.022 and is now currently at 1.023 after the water change and I'm just going to let evap correct that over the next few days. Not as bad as I thought but for sure a great learning point in my reefing career.



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So that's not the worst case scenario, glad it didn't wipe out your tank but still sucks that those corals died :(

I'm curious what your PH is now?

If you begin to entertain the idea of an older controller I am confident more than one person will mirror my opinion on it in regards of reliability, flexibility, etc. & I love that I don't need any extra modules for it (all the functions you need are in one box) I would opt for the ACIII or A/C Junior w/ ethernet. PH is built in and the reason I recommended these two is because they both have ethernet connectivity so networking is very possible as well as the ability to go WiFi for $20 (a separate universal gaming module) so it's extremely easy on the wallet. Aditionally you have the option to plug float switches directly into the controller so basically you have built in ATO capability.

Another thing I didn't talk about in the first post which I am using this controller for now is my kalk dosing, I have it programmed to run the pump 1 min on & 10 min off so my kalk dosing is super spread out (epic fail with a timer here :D) so consequently my PH swing is only from 8.3 to 8.4 throughout a full 24 hrs. This little advantage has saved me from having to buy a doser, now it's almost 2 years since I set up the tank and finally I am now looking for a doser with multiple pumps.

Like I mentioned in the first post don't pay more than $100 for the controller + 8 socket relay box, make sure temp probe is included, PH probe is bonus but they're cheap on ebay. The WiFi adapter is WNCE2001 by Netgear and goes for about $20 on ebay. If you have the budget then I'd say Apex but you're looking at $500+ new, $350-450 used...

Last piece of advice (I promise :p) my kalkwasser container is a mere 1-1.5 gallons in size I forgot exactly, and my DT is a 50 gal sump roughly 20, I am confident that even if my controller's relay failed and got stuck on, I'm pretty sure the tank can absorb that much kalkwasser without being hurt much, it takes it only 4 days to consume that much anyway. You have to fill a small reservoir like that more often but it's worth the benefit in safety.
 
HiFidelity said:
So that's not the worst case scenario, glad it didn't wipe out your tank but still sucks that those corals died :(

I'm curious what your PH is now?

If you begin to entertain the idea of an older controller I am confident more than one person will mirror my opinion on it in regards of reliability, flexibility, etc. & I love that I don't need any extra modules for it (all the functions you need are in one box) I would opt for the ACIII or A/C Junior w/ ethernet. PH is built in and the reason I recommended these two is because they both have ethernet connectivity so networking is very possible as well as the ability to go WiFi for $20 (a separate universal gaming module) so it's extremely easy on the wallet. Aditionally you have the option to plug float switches directly into the controller so basically you have built in ATO capability.

Another thing I didn't talk about in the first post which I am using this controller for now is my kalk dosing, I have it programmed to run the pump 1 min on & 10 min off so my kalk dosing is super spread out (epic fail with a timer here :D) so consequently my PH swing is only from 8.3 to 8.4 throughout a full 24 hrs. This little advantage has saved me from having to buy a doser, now it's almost 2 years since I set up the tank and finally I am now looking for a doser with multiple pumps.

Like I mentioned in the first post don't pay more than $100 for the controller + 8 socket relay box, make sure temp probe is included, PH probe is bonus but they're cheap on ebay. The WiFi adapter is WNCE2001 by Netgear and goes for about $20 on ebay. If you have the budget then I'd say Apex but you're looking at $500+ new, $350-450 used...

Last piece of advice (I promise :p) my kalkwasser container is a mere 1-1.5 gallons in size I forgot exactly, and my DT is a 50 gal sump roughly 20, I am confident that even if my controller's relay failed and got stuck on, I'm pretty sure the tank can absorb that much kalkwasser without being hurt much, it takes it only 4 days to consume that much anyway. You have to fill a small reservoir like that more often but it's worth the benefit in safety.
Click to expand...
Thanks man I appreciate all of the info. Now Im really going to be on the hunt for one of these older controllers. Where would you say is the best place to start looking? I messed up a week ago and lost my PH test kit so I have no way of knowing at the moment what my PH is. I am def sold on the controller I now just need to find a reasonably priced one haha. Thanks again your advice is much appreciated!
 
swayd said:
Thanks man I appreciate all of the info. Now Im really going to be on the hunt for one of these older controllers. Where would you say is the best place to start looking? I messed up a week ago and lost my PH test kit so I have no way of knowing at the moment what my PH is. I am def sold on the controller I now just need to find a reasonably priced one haha. Thanks again your advice is much appreciated!
Click to expand...

Reef Angel is a reasonably priced controller, and local.
I used one before I went DIY, and it worked well.
 
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