yauger November 19, 2008 Share November 19, 2008 Man, I had hoped this would never happen to me but hey I'm not always perfect... I have been under the weather lately and my reef has taken the hit for it... my kalk reactor pump (CHIP Speacial reactor, MJ400 inside the reactor) impeller died on me so I went out to buy another one. good so far but since I have been without a kalk mixing pump for about a week now I thought it would be a good idea to turn on the new pump to mix the kalk since it had been sitting for about a week now. that would have been okay for about 20 minutes but me in all my sickness decided to go to sleep... when I woke up around 4am this morning I hearn a syphon noise coming from my fish room and upon further investigation I found my entire system cloudy to the point I couldn't see 1" into the tank... Now being in the reefing hoby for many years and reading threads about others dosing way too much kalk I did similar procedures to CHIP, I pumped all excess water from my sump out to level out my water and then walked away... hard to do but seriously there is nothing I can do about it right now. I did a status check on my fish and they all were swinging around uneffected however blinded by the thick cloud of kalk... this comes at a bad time since I just transfered all my corals back from a buddys system while mine was being upgraded... bummer I hope I didn't lose anything I really love (basically all of my fish and corals!!!) I hope when I get back home from work today the ph is stabilized and the water is clear so I can begin to syphon out the excess kalk... from the looks of it I had dumped about 4 cups of kalk into the system thankfully my ATO return is right next to my skimmer intake so my skimmer had pulled out more than 2 cups already.... I know this because it was over-flowing and when I dumped it a thick white slurry poured out... bummer bummer bummer all this right before my birthday... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yauger November 19, 2008 Author Share November 19, 2008 hey Chip, in your posts you mentioned somthign about shutting off your lights until the water clears... is this because the light swings the pH further up? this is the only thing I forgot to do before I left for work... wonder if it will be okay if the lights come on at regular hours? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Origami November 19, 2008 Share November 19, 2008 Man, I had hoped this would never happen to me but hey I'm not always perfect... I have been under the weather lately and my reef has taken the hit for it... my kalk reactor pump (CHIP Speacial reactor, MJ400 inside the reactor) impeller died on me so I went out to buy another one. good so far but since I have been without a kalk mixing pump for about a week now I thought it would be a good idea to turn on the new pump to mix the kalk since it had been sitting for about a week now. that would have been okay for about 20 minutes but me in all my sickness decided to go to sleep... when I woke up around 4am this morning I hearn a syphon noise coming from my fish room and upon further investigation I found my entire system cloudy to the point I couldn't see 1" into the tank... Now being in the reefing hoby for many years and reading threads about others dosing way too much kalk I did similar procedures to CHIP, I pumped all excess water from my sump out to level out my water and then walked away... hard to do but seriously there is nothing I can do about it right now. I did a status check on my fish and they all were swinging around uneffected however blinded by the thick cloud of kalk... this comes at a bad time since I just transfered all my corals back from a buddys system while mine was being upgraded... bummer I hope I didn't lose anything I really love (basically all of my fish and corals!!!) I hope when I get back home from work today the ph is stabilized and the water is clear so I can begin to syphon out the excess kalk... from the looks of it I had dumped about 4 cups of kalk into the system thankfully my ATO return is right next to my skimmer intake so my skimmer had pulled out more than 2 cups already.... I know this because it was over-flowing and when I dumped it a thick white slurry poured out... bummer bummer bummer all this right before my birthday... Sorry to hear it, Josh. Let me know if there's anything I can do for you. Betcha feel like a beer this morning, don't you? Heck, it's five o'clock somewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yauger November 19, 2008 Author Share November 19, 2008 yeah tell me about it, I had almost called out from work because of this... but then I remembered there is nothing I can do about it right about now except wait it out and assess damage later on... If I did drink right now would be a good time to have one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeanCallan November 19, 2008 Share November 19, 2008 NOOOOOO!! I was waiting to see these sweet corals you've been telling me about! Hopefully everything will turn out OK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yauger November 19, 2008 Author Share November 19, 2008 NOOOOOO!! I was waiting to see these sweet corals you've been telling me about! Hopefully everything will turn out OK thanks bro, yeah I was happy to see all of my corals back into my system... now this happens... bummer should have known better cause I'm always yelling at my brother about messing with his kalk reactor. should have taken my own advice... the worst part is that I just purchased new corals a week ago and they were pieces you can't find anywhere now a days... oh well what can you do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yauger November 19, 2008 Author Share November 19, 2008 I think I need to get rid of my DIY reactor and opt for a GSA or a deltec kalk stirer to lessen the chanes of this happenening. on top of that I'm getting tired of replacing my MJ400 impeller every 6 months... anyone have a Kalk Stirer laying around to sell me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flowerseller November 19, 2008 Share November 19, 2008 Sorry to hear josh, and so close to your birthday and all. I'm not sure how your system pumped so much in at once but mine was due to a limpet sticking or pushing my float down causing the top off pump to run until MT. I'd like to suggest for the future that you figure your average evaporation per week and add slightly more (10%) kalk than you will need for just that week. It will be a saturated mix. It will not allow your tank to become super cloudy in a failure and cause you to recharge your system weekly which is far better than say, monthly. There is just no possible reason to add 4 cups to a reactor unless the math works out to that per week. KALK does go "bad" whether you understand it or not. But that's another whole thread and "argument" anyway. hey Chip, in your posts you mentioned somthign about shutting off your lights until the water clears... is this because the light swings the pH further up? this is the only thing I forgot to do before I left for work... wonder if it will be okay if the lights come on at regular hours? YES, just dial into your ACIII and shut them off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yauger November 19, 2008 Author Share November 19, 2008 that might be difficult to do since I no longer have my ACII up and running, getting a ACIII was on my list for birthday presents... now it seems like I should have gotten it much much sooner... so what now? how much damage can happen if my lights do kick on? the pH swing usually isn't but a couple of points between day and night for my system... is there anything else that can happen? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yauger November 19, 2008 Author Share November 19, 2008 okay so I called my wife and she will be making the trip home during lunch to turn my lights off before they come on... oh boy shes not too happy with me since the contractor building our bathroom cut coners on installing the medcine cabinet and faild to use dry wall anchors!!!! yikes the darn cabinet fell down when she was brushing her TEETH!!! man I'm uber upset now.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amuze November 19, 2008 Share November 19, 2008 okay so I called my wife and she will be making the trip home during lunch to turn my lights off before they come on... oh boy shes not too happy with me since the contractor building our bathroom cut coners on installing the medcine cabinet and faild to use dry wall anchors!!!! yikes the darn cabinet fell down when she was brushing her TEETH!!! man I'm uber upset now.... That's unacceptable. I'm sure you could fix it yourself, but he's responsible. I'd be more upset that my wife could have been injured due to that loser being cheap. Is he licensed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flowerseller November 19, 2008 Share November 19, 2008 The only thing you can do is to drain the system completely, and refill completely with new premixed water. Unfortunately few, including me, are prepared for that so it's not realistic and often might create a host of it's own problems anyways. Diatom filters can be useful but I would not mess with it. Filter socks are ineffective for the most part. Changing 10g several times will only minutely lower the concentration. Adding vinegar, a decent thought, is also not realistic and very dangerous indeed. I feel the best thing to do is nothing, but make sure you have pre conditioned water on hand to siphon any settlement from the rock work once it clears, remove any death, and watch the sand for caking and twist it gently to prevent it from happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yauger November 19, 2008 Author Share November 19, 2008 That's unacceptable. I'm sure you could fix it yourself, but he's responsible. I'd be more upset that my wife could have been injured due to that loser being cheap. Is he licensed? that I was and still am... this guy has cut way too many corners on my bathroom, thank GOD I have only paid him half for the work so far... he will be fixing everything out of his pocket if he ever wants to see the final payment... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yauger November 19, 2008 Author Share November 19, 2008 The only thing you can do is to drain the system completely, and refill completely with new premixed water.Unfortunately few, including me, are prepared for that so it's not realistic and often might create a host of it's own problems anyways. Diatom filters can be useful but I would not mess with it. Filter socks are ineffective for the most part. Changing 10g several times will only minutely lower the concentration. Adding vinegar, a decent thought, is also not realistic and very dangerous indeed. I feel the best thing to do is nothing, but make sure you have pre conditioned water on hand to siphon any settlement from the rock work once it clears, remove any death, and watch the sand for caking and twist it gently to prevent it from happening. yeah thats what I had originally thought to do... thanks CHIP, might be hitting you up for some replacement frags soon.... this has been a rough day so far I hope things gets better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkiCurtis November 19, 2008 Share November 19, 2008 Man sorry to hear about the cloud .let me know if you need some frags. Curtis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yauger November 19, 2008 Author Share November 19, 2008 Man sorry to hear about the cloud .let me know if you need some frags.Curtis thanks bro, I hope mine surrives this accident... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jason the filter freak November 19, 2008 Share November 19, 2008 darn man thats not cool I have a couple of things once you get back and running smooth Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
m3fan8ic November 19, 2008 Share November 19, 2008 Ouchh Josh how could you let this happen? after all we are all human and capable or making some stupid mistakes. I hope things will workout in your favor and not lose anything. Good luck. Sid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yauger November 19, 2008 Author Share November 19, 2008 Ouchh Josh how could you let this happen? after all we are all human and capable or making some stupid mistakes. I hope things will workout in your favor and not lose anything. Good luck. Sid thanks man, I'm about to call my wife as she is on here way to the house to unpluge my lights... hope things have settled since 4am..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NRehman November 19, 2008 Share November 19, 2008 Josh, Sorry to hear. LMK if you need anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gatortailale November 19, 2008 Share November 19, 2008 good luck. hope your system large enough to survive spike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yauger November 19, 2008 Author Share November 19, 2008 good luck. hope your system large enough to survive spike me too! I have around 150 gallons in my system. you think this should be enough? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yauger November 19, 2008 Author Share November 19, 2008 Josh,Sorry to hear. LMK if you need anything. thanks bro, if I loose some stuff I will be in touch as you have more LE corals like me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yauger November 19, 2008 Author Share November 19, 2008 well good and bad news... good news fish are still alive swiming around like nothings wrong, and the bad news is that you can only see about 8" into the tank.... this is an improvment from 4am when I could only see 1" in, so the wife turned the lights off and the tank is back to being in the dark... I don't get home from work until 6pm so I hope after 14 hours since the OD things are clearing up... I will attempt to create an update as the night goes on... keeping my fingers crossed that my corals are okay... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DDiver November 19, 2008 Share November 19, 2008 Sorry to hear that Josh..i wish u the best of luck.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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