Reefing failure

[YHSublime]

I read this article on a guy who pretty much crashed his tank, and what caused it, why it happened, and how he recovered. It was inspiring to me, and I thought I'd share with other reefers who may panic about small things like I do.

 

Also took away some important lessons:

 

1) If you are in a hurry, don’t do anything to your system.
2) If you are about to leave the house, don’t do anything to your system.
3) If you are distracted, don’t do anything to your system.

[JR-Tanked150]

lol

[Origami]

Patience, Grasshopper.

 

Sent from my Rezound on Tachyon using Tapatalk

 

 

[kkozak81]

Great article. Thanks for sharing!

[paul b]

I have found that tanks that add kalk are more likely to be in trouble.  I hate that stuff and the only time my tank lookled un healthy was when I added that stuff.  I think they secretly put arsenic or toothpaste with floride in it.

When I go on vacation I remove the water from my reef and replace it with damp sawdust so nothing can go wrong.

[bqq100]

I can relate to that story, but luckily my tank escaped unscathed.  3 weeks ago I was getting ready to leave for a 10 day vacation.  The day that we left, I refilled my ATO bucket and added fresh kalk powder to it.  Long story short: first night away ATO kicked on and must have dosed some slurry from the bottom.  pH shot up to around 8.8 and precipitation locked my ATO float switch in the high position (APEX stopped the dosing before the pH got too high).  10 days without Alk/Ca supplements and without any top off.  Without any top off my low level float switch would eventually kill the return pump, but I was able to override that through the apex web interface. 

[Origami]

Richard Ross opens with, "It's every reefkeepers worst nightmare: opening the front door to the house and smelling the pungent smell of the shore that the Yucatecans call ‘lodo’." I love this opening line, because that's exactly what I walked into when we were moving into another home 2-1/2 years ago. I performed the tank transfer in thirds but tried also to rid my tank of what I refer to as "Outlaw palys" (in honor of our own Steve Outlaw who had a run in with them) at the same time. My guess is that all of the palytoxin thus released triggered the crash. Not a good memory.

 

He follows the first sentence with, "While pleasant near the ocean, that smell in your house means something has probably gone wrong with your reef. As you rush through the house to the tank you hope you won’t find the milky mess of death that your nose is telling you you will find." Exactly. 90% of my SPS colonies were nothing but white skeletons - barely visible through the skim milk-tinted water. I'd also lost several fish. My heart sank.

 

I use kalk, though. It does my pH good. I take a lot of precautions including limiting how much is in the stirrer, how much top off water is available to it, and limiting the flow through it with a peristaltic pump on a controller. If the reactor were to turn over and dump into the sump, I might have a problem, though. I should think that one through.

[howaboutme]

Just read the article, thanks for the link. Another good point is to give some corals that look dead but maybe have an ounce of life to it a chance to come back. In his case, a lot did.

[Origami]

Just read the article, thanks for the link. Another good point is to give some corals that look dead but maybe have an ounce of life to it a chance to come back. In his case, a lot did.

Good point. It only takes one polyp to survive to start it up again (it's slow, but possible). I waited over 6 months (a year actually) before cleaning out the dead skeletons, not so much because I was waiting for growth, but just because it was so "final."

[YHSublime]

I really enjoyed taking away what he learned from his mistake. He was able to not over react (although I'm sure in hindsight and writing the article, it was easier to illustrate an attitude of ease) and not do anything drastic. He learned that he had the tools he needed on hand, and within a year had bounced back to a really nice tank.
 

I often have experiences (especially as of late) that make me want to bow out. In my short time here, I've seen a lot of people come and go, and I get it, the failures can be super frustrating, and I personally, am super reactive to situations, I like quick solutions, and I often put the cart before the horse.

Sanjay Joshi truism is proven again – "the person running the system is the system's single biggest point of failure".
 

Knowing that I control my system is what I love about this hobby. Maybe it's fulfilling some type of manifested God Complex, I don't know. But if something goes wrong, I am equally responsible for it's destruction as I was for its "creation" (or addition to my box of life.) There are some things that our out of my hands, but if that's the case, maybe they don't belong in my tank (Ie. See Maxima Clams, See Mandarins)
 

At the end of the day, it's important to see the obstacles as successes, at least to bettering ourselves in our practices. That, and *grimace* nothing good happens fast in this hobby.

[monkiboy]

 

I really enjoyed taking away what he learned from his mistake. He was able to not over react (although I'm sure in hindsight and writing the article, it was easier to illustrate an attitude of ease) and not do anything drastic. He learned that he had the tools he needed on hand, and within a year had bounced back to a really nice tank.

 

I often have experiences (especially as of late) that make me want to bow out. In my short time here, I've seen a lot of people come and go, and I get it, the failures can be super frustrating, and I personally, am super reactive to situations, I like quick solutions, and I often put the cart before the horse.

 

Sanjay Joshi truism is proven again – "the person running the system is the system's single biggest point of failure".

 

Knowing that I control my system is what I love about this hobby. Maybe it's fulfilling some type of manifested God Complex, I don't know. But if something goes wrong, I am equally responsible for it's destruction as I was for its "creation" (or addition to my box of life.) There are some things that our out of my hands, but if that's the case, maybe they don't belong in my tank (Ie. See Maxima Clams, See Mandarins)

 

At the end of the day, it's important to see the obstacles as successes, at least to bettering ourselves in our practices. That, and *grimace* nothing good happens fast in this hobby.

dude... you need some kind of column in a reefing magazine or a blog. you have an awesomely entertaininga nd intriguing way of telling a story and/or providing your opinion. i'd like to see what you could do with non-reefing related topics. thanks for the quick read per the original link - i learned a few things.

Edited November 12, 2013 by monkiboy

[YHSublime]

 

 

dude... you need some kind of column in a reefing magazine or a blog. you have an awesomely entertaininga nd intriguing way of telling a story and/or providing your opinion. i'd like to see what you could do with non-reefing related topics. thanks for the quick read per the original link - i learned a few things.

 

Haha, thanks. As I get older, I find I have a harder time communicating in person, as my thoughts run faster than my mouth. Writing it down allows me to edit, and only sound halfway crazy! Glad you were able to take a piece away. 

[zygote2k]

I just had a heater cook a tank to 92 degrees. This killed all of the corals, shrimps, snails, and half the fish. This happened on the 4th.

It's a 75g tank and I vac'd the gravel until it ran clean and removed all of the dead things with a 50g w/c. Skimmer pump also died.

I went there on the 11th and the water parameters are pretty much back to normal- no ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate. Remaining fish happy and skimmer/heater now back online.

I'm going to re-introduce coral next week.

 

I think cleaning the substrate is what really helped with the resiliency of this tank.

[paul b]

Thats why I use two heaters, if one sticks on, it will not overheat the tank.  It has also happened to me and after it happens once, I learn to do something else.

[Origami]

I just had a heater cook a tank to 92 degrees. This killed all of the corals, shrimps, snails, and half the fish. This happened on the 4th.

It's a 75g tank and I vac'd the gravel until it ran clean and removed all of the dead things with a 50g w/c. Skimmer pump also died.

I went there on the 11th and the water parameters are pretty much back to normal- no ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate. Remaining fish happy and skimmer/heater now back online.

I'm going to re-introduce coral next week.

 

I think cleaning the substrate is what really helped with the resiliency of this tank.

Glad to hear it's coming back.

 

Thats why I use two heaters, if one sticks on, it will not overheat the tank.  It has also happened to me and after it happens once, I learn to do something else.

I have three heaters that I stage (through my controller) to come on at slightly different temperatures. All are, individually, undersized for the most part. The operating theory is that if the first heater can't pull the temperature up the next will kick in. This also smooths out the temperature rise a little bit and reduces any wear and tear on the next two heaters.

[sachabballi reef]

I just had a heater cook a tank to 92 degrees. This killed all of the corals, shrimps, snails, and half the fish.

what brand heater Rob?

[sachabballi reef]

unfortunately too many of us know that smell first hand...it was my turn almost a year ago....Thanksgiving 2012.  Heater brought down my entire tank...had a few survivors....like the 10 yr old maroon gold stripe that is so mean an apocalypse couldn't kill it...and my first ever coral, a colony of green palys...but nems and all other corals and most fish were gone...

 

I am hoping this years vacation is a different story with the apex. fingers crossed.

 

Honestly I think the other important thing was these two things:

 

1. my forethought served me well. I had most of what I needed to deal with the disaster on hand – mixed salt water, DI resin, salt mix, carbon, a big canister with a clean pleated cartridge and vinegar. Without those things, this disaster would have been much worse. I can’t imagine how I would have felt coming home to coral soup but not being able to do anything about it because the LFS were all closed.

 

2. My family was particularly helpful on the discovery of this disaster. Essentially, they asked if they could help, were politely told no, and then got out of the way. I am so lucky to have Libby and Kalin both understand what ‘focus’ means, and to know the best thing to do when someone is focused is to leave them alone so they can get stuff done.

[ErikS]

 

1) If you are in a hurry, don’t do anything to your system.

2) If you are about to leave the house, don’t do anything to your system.

3) If you are distracted, don’t do anything to your system.

I can pretty much vouch for all of them.........and no matter how careful it seems one is it's likely to happen again, just accept it.

 

1) Yep, that seems to be a recipe for disaster &/or near disaster. My most common & recent was forgetting to turn the ATO back on after working on it or a related part. Most recent was coming home after work & seeing the return spewing bubbles............#$%^&* that's not good. Lucky for me it's a small pump area & Eheims are tough as nails.

 

2) Again, yes. Made the mistake of cleaning/replacing/checking everything the day before going on vacation..........turns out one of the newly cleaned parts failed = oops. Now I do it far enough in advance if something goes wrong it's caught early & not when returning after a week.

 

3) I say this & #1 go together - it's often when something else distracts you that you get in a hurry = not good.

 

What I've learned in countless years? Soup is going to happen.......accept it & try to prevent it the best you can. Also there is no such thing as "foolproof", no matter how many backups something can & will go wrong.