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Reefer 350


HarryPotter

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So my TDS was 8, time to swap DI resin. When I took out the cartridges, they were like under 1/2 full. And I pack them tight. I think it melted into the water somehow........ anyone!?   🤯?  One more reason to send in a triton test. 

 

Trying a 3 part BRS resin- Cation, Anion, then mixed. If this doesn’t get better performance, time to get a spectrapure 99% membrane. Or a booster, I guess. I actually had the extra DI canister laying around from when I got this used RODI system. He had a bunch of prefilters.

 

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I just finished watching that BRS video on how DI resins crap everything back out when they get exhausted. The three stage DI approach should help a lot with your bad well water problem. I added a second RO cartridge on my system and it's made a big different in how long things last, too.

 

I have no explanation for the missing resin, though. I've never heard of it melting.

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8 hours ago, teenyreef said:

I just finished watching that BRS video on how DI resins crap everything back out when they get exhausted. The three stage DI approach should help a lot with your bad well water problem. I added a second RO cartridge on my system and it's made a big different in how long things last, too.

 

I have no explanation for the missing resin, though. I've never heard of it melting.

 

If the issue is the C02 in my well water (which I believe it is), this resin layout won’t actually reduce cost or anything, just extend time slightly because it’s 3 canisters rather than 2. 

 

Our water pressure is 40-50 PSI, BRS did not reccomend a second membrane without a booster pump taking that up to 70+. Water efficiency doesn’t matter to me given it’s a well, whatever I don’t use from the well kind of goes right back into it 🙂

 

Missing resin- CSI. I have no idea; if the canister was like 1/8th empty, I could attribute that to bad packing on my part. But 1/2 empty? Something happened. I am sending triton today, so will have absolute tank water details within a week hopefully. 

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Ah, I didn't realize you didn't have a booster pump. And yes, I just meant that with three resin cannisters you won't be changing them out as often.

 

As for the missing resin, it must be aliens.

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8 hours ago, teenyreef said:

Ah, I didn't realize you didn't have a booster pump. And yes, I just meant that with three resin cannisters you won't be changing them out as often.

 

As for the missing resin, it must be aliens.

 

Did another WC, Alk is super stable at 8 with me testing daily. But corals aren’t improving 😞 gonna be a long haul.

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Yea ... make sure to double check the other params but just keep it steady and eventually things will improve.  You have some zombies that are already dead most likely ... I know this was when I wanted to quit but it will improve again.

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DSFIRSTSLTWATER
1 hour ago, HarryPotter said:

 

Did another WC, Alk is super stable at 8 with me testing daily. But corals aren’t improving 😞 gonna be a long haul.

Just remember that nature always finds away. Sorry you're having to go through it. I hope I never experience something like this...sounds like it's super frustrating.pulling for your tank man 🙂

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15 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Just remember that nature always finds away. Sorry you're having to go through it. I hope I never experience something like this...sounds like it's super frustrating.pulling for your tank man 🙂

 

Yeah, it freaking stinks. So discouraging to lose colonies you've grown for years. It'll come back, in time. Of course my dads response to seeing me down is offering half the acros that come in this weekend for his tank. Might take him up on a few frags, as much to see if the water quality is good and if I am just fighting the "zombies" (good description of the pale traumatized corals) 

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DSFIRSTSLTWATER
3 minutes ago, HarryPotter said:

 

Yeah, it freaking stinks. So discouraging to lose colonies you've grown for years. It'll come back, in time. Of course my dads response to seeing me down is offering half the acros that come in this weekend for his tank. Might take him up on a few frags, as much to see if the water quality is good and if I am just fighting the "zombies" (good description of the pale traumatized corals) 

Well keep your head up. It'll get better. 👍

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Are you still seeing more rtn? Or things are just sad looking? It’s been almost 2 weeks, I’d think if anything was gonna die, they’d probably be dead by now. So what you have left is just gonna take a bit of time to nurse back to full health. 

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3 minutes ago, micoastreefing said:

Are you still seeing more rtn? Or things are just sad looking? It’s been almost 2 weeks, I’d think if anything was gonna die, they’d probably be dead by now. So what you have left is just gonna take a bit of time to nurse back to full health. 

 

Kind of both; dead spots on colonies making slow progress, zero color anywhere.  Most stuff that isn't white has okay PE, so it could come back in time. 

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The heater failed my “equipment check” , since I couldn’t see it’s temperature reading. It is also controlled by apex cutoff, but still I like the redundancy. Vinegar time. May throw in the PP4s too, they’re solid coralline as well.

 

 

Neo-therm heaters are the best IMO. With a “net” usage of em for about 14 years across all our tanks, never once had a failure. They handle vinegar with no issue,  can’t break like glass ones. 

 

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Also, whatever is effecting the corals didn’t bother coralline. Covering everything per usual, the rock I added a while back is coloring up nicely. 

 

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Continuing equipment inspection (for rust) and cleaning. Pump wise, I have to do the vortech, gyre, and PP4’s separately so the tank isn’t bothered by the low flow. Started with the PP4s. 

 

My skimmer and return pump seem  pretty darn clean, I figure that’s since no refugium light. Never have taken out the return pump; pretty nice. Reef Octopus dc3000 that came with it. Not the diablo model, the older one. Could be much stronger with this plumbing, but not worth replacing. 

 

The 300 gallon’s used Vortech came with a spare wet side, so flow won’t ever need to be reduced for cleaning. 

 

Corals still look like crap, anxiously waiting for the Triton results. (Despite being almost positive that all of this was due to the Alk spike). 

 

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Corals still declining. SEEMs faster now. Millipora colonies look like they have some algae growing on the, which means that I am close to losing them. Considering whether I am done with this tank, I might just let it ride and see what happens, move anything surviving to the 300g, and be done

 

 

Dunno what’s up with this guy, I’ve never seen that. 

mPA4NwS.jpg

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That doesn’t look too good Harry if it is what I think it is, messenterial filament. Which could mean there’s significant tissue damage or some other defensive moves going on here. I’m sure you’ve seen them around areas where you cut frags before. Unless it is doing something else entirely, i.e. working hard to repair damage. 

I’m hoping for the latter. 

 

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37 minutes ago, micoastreefing said:

That doesn’t look too good Harry if it is what I think it is, messenterial filament. Which could mean there’s significant tissue damage or some other defensive moves going on here. I’m sure you’ve seen them around areas where you cut frags before. Unless it is doing something else entirely, i.e. working hard to repair damage. 

I’m hoping for the latter. 

 

 

I am running out hope as piece after piece dies. Compared to my first page.:.: This may be the end to keeping any SPS. Or even this tank. All the time I’ve put in, thosand it hours, pretty much going down the toilet. I’ve always said if a tank becomes more of a hardship/upsetting  than enjoyable, you need to take it down.

 

My once orange sunset montipora colony

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My once rainbow montipora colony

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The huge brown and white “red” cap 

 

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What was once my fastest grower, green tort, seems seems to be saying goodbye 

 

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Dying millipora colonies- yeah, the big ones in the center of my tank.

 

OAdNRae.jpg

 

And of of course my favorite piece of all, that I hoped was spared, now has white tips, no polyps and will probably die any die now. 

 

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Really makes me think about the time I’ve put in, and whether I want to do it again. Yep @ninjamyst, these past months have been hard on us. 

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these photos are devastating.  i know the feeling.  we just got to hang in there.  i am itching to start new with a reefer 525 or something.  if only i can get someone to buy my 350 but there's a big start in the front.  

 

is there any way you can move the SPS colonies to a friend's tank or LFS????  I saved my LPS by moving them to a emergency nano tank.  Tried doing the same by fragging off SPS but they didn't survive.

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4 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

these photos are devastating.  i know the feeling.  we just got to hang in there.  i am itching to start new with a reefer 525 or something.  if only i can get someone to buy my 350 but there's a big start in the front.  

 

is there any way you can move the SPS colonies to a friend's tank or LFS????  I saved my LPS by moving them to a emergency nano tank.  Tried doing the same by fragging off SPS but they didn't survive.

 

I have the recently setup 300 gallon, I could move stuff there. But I was under the impression that this was trauma from the Alk spike, not water quality. Maybe I’ll move over whatever stuff is left and be done with it. 

 

Hey, looking back I’ve shipped hundreds of corals, that are all across the country. All good things come to an end.

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Double check all your test kits, but as long as Alk is stable this is just leftover damage IMO.  Either than or there's a serious contaminant in the water.   If you remember my troubles though it seemed like I could not get anything to live in the tank for a while.   You made it a long time without any accidents, from start to now.  This happens to every SPS keeper at one point or another.    

 

You could try fragging and seeing if that helps anything.    Also might want to dose something known to improve coral health like Phols extra special or even Kent Coral Accel.  Other than that not much you can do.   

 

 

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4 minutes ago, markalot said:

Double check all your test kits, but as long as Alk is stable this is just leftover damage IMO.  Either than or there's a serious contaminant in the water.   If you remember my troubles though it seemed like I could not get anything to live in the tank for a while.   You made it a long time without any accidents, from start to now.  This happens to very SPS keeper at one point or another.  

 

I have Hanna reading 8.0, using two different new reagents. I should get triton results in a couple of days, which will tell me if there is a contaminant. 

 

@markalot should I abandon ship, move everything I can to the 300 gallon? Acropora there look perfect and healthy.  Or will moving them again cause more harm than good? 

 

Frag down my colonies and being them to the big tank? Yeah I’m dosing/feeding as much as I can without taking nutrients too high.

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1 minute ago, HarryPotter said:

 

I have Hanna reading 8.0, using two different new reagents. I should get triton results in a couple of days, which will tell me if there is a contaminant. 

 

@markalot should I abandon ship, move everything I can to the 300 gallon? Acropora there look perfect and healthy. 

Or will moving them again cause more harm than good? 

 

Frag down my colonies and being them to the big tank? 

 

So I just re-read this and you might have to do some massive water changes:

 

Quote

 

Yeah, I had a major dosing mishap, and havent updated here out of shame/guilt/being bummed out. No excuse either- just my inattentivness and distractibility. Set doser to “ON” to clear the lines of air after putting in new solution, got distracted, later went to bed. Certainty the largest hiccup I’ve ever hit with this tank. Of course with the new solutions, it dosed all night. White. 

 

      Alk hit 11.5, if not higher, and corals are NOT happy. Montipora caps, including my huge red one, are shockingly pale. Still alive, not RTN’d, but just a hint of red. Acro colonies surprisingly don’t look bad, having both color and PE. They might just not be showing signs yet, a delayed reaction? Frags are starting to kick the bucket one at a time, lost one really nice big unique frag and a few of my tank-grown ones. 

 

 

That accident, if it ran all night, is going to create some massive chemical imbalances in the tank.  Even though salinity might look ok what is contributing to salinity is probably all wrong at this point.   I would frag and move some to see what happens, but you will need to do a near 100% water change in this tank to help restore balance.  I read you had an Alk spike ...  something that happens when growth changes or Alk is dosed a little too much.    If you've already changed most of the water out then I'm not sure moving anything would help, but fragging and moving some is always a good bet.   I saved my Red Robin because I fragged and moved it to the 40 while the 150 was crashing.   

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I'm very sorry to see the latest update buddy.  When @markalot mentioned that your corals were just walking zombies, I wasn't sure what he really meant.  Now I'm starting to fear for worse.

 

Hang in there, maybe frag pieces that still show sign of life?   Or like @ninjamyst said, relocate.  Although once the skin/tissue starts to peel, the only way to stop from spreading would likely be fragging IME.  I saved a tiny bit of red dragon and a tiny bit of BoP, both were the two largest colonies in my tank at the times when I lost them.  sigh.

7 minutes ago, markalot said:

This happens to very SPS keeper at one point or another.  

sad to read/learn of this last bit.  But it's probably truer than we all wanted.  There are just so many things that we continually have to keep in check, that could just slip one day. and all is lost, sigh.

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1 minute ago, markalot said:

 

So I just re-read this and you might have to do some massive water changes:

 

 

That accident, if it ran all night, is going to create some massive chemical imbalances in the tank.  Even though salinity might look ok what is contributing to salinity is probably all wrong at this point.   I would frag and move some to see what happens, but you will need to do a near 100% water change in this tank to help restore balance.  I read you had an Alk spike ...  something that happens when growth changes or Alk is dosed a little too much.    If you've already changed most of the water out then I'm not sure moving anything would help, but fragging and moving some is always a good bet.   I saved my Red Robin because I fragged and moved it to the 40 while the 150 was crashing.   

 

Ive probably changed 125% to 175% of the water by now (25% at a time, not at once). 

 

I think tomorrow I’ll abandon ship. Move racks to the 300, break apart anything I can save (rip colonies 😓), and let this tank just do whatever it is doing. 

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I want to continue my last post ....

 

Another thing is the micro life in the tank, sponges especially.  SPS need detritus in the water column to stay healthy. If the massive overdose killed a lot of this life then basically this is a new tank, and will be very hard on SPS.  The 300 will have the same problem.  

 

All your lighting should be blue and reduced at the moment.  Enough PAR for SPS to survive and that's it.  Biggles over on Reef Central discovered how well blue light only helps corals heal up.  Reduced stress and reduced feeding needs.   I would unplug a few bulbs in your fixture and only run blue plus, if possible, for a while.

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