Huge mistake made! Please help!

[StephDaReefer]

So I made the biggest mistake ever, please help. It’s actually a couple of mistakes. So I recently upgraded my fluval evo 13.5 stock light to a kessil a80 tuna blue. I had no idea what settings I should do, I had the intensity at around 60% and color at 40%. Then an lfs employee said I should start at the dimmest setting and gradually go up from there but for almost a day the intensity was way up and my corals did not like it and we’re semi closed up. I then got a timer for the light that same night which works fine however I accidentally unplugged my heater and didn’t notice because it was around night time, I went to bed and woke up to the tank being at 70 degrees. I immediately turned the heater back on and added another small 10w heater to help turn the temp up faster but it took about 6 hours for the temp to go back to 78%. During the day my corals got worse and worse and now they’re completely closed up and looking horrible. My firefish was swimming really low in the afternoon then I came home from work in the evening and saw my emerald crab eating him, R.I.P. My nasaurius snail is now hanging out on top of a rock instead of in the sand bed. I’m not sure if the sandbed got really cold and affected the firefish and the nasarius snail. I’m not sure what to do now, should I just wait it out? Is the new light maybe upsetting the corals? I’m worried this mistake is now causing my tank to completely crash to the point of no return. 

 

btw I checked all my water parameters and they’re fine

salinity: 1.024

ammonia: 0

nitrites: 0

nitrates: 5 ppm (just did a water change 2 days ago.)

ph: 7.8

phosphates: 0

calcium: 420

 

if you have any advice please leave a comment. And before anyone comments saying I should have a controller for everything. I’m on a college budget which is all spent on my tank. I wish I can afford all that good stuff but I’m working with what I got.

Thanks in advance!

[1967type1]

At this point the best thing you can do is just wait and see. The light probably isn’t messing with the corals as much as the huge temp swing. Sorry about the fire fish they are one of my favorites. Just leave the light alone the 60-40 settings you have it at are fine for now. What kind of corals do you have? Softies? Or SPS? I’m assuming you pulled the dead fish out of the tank. 

[StephDaReefer]

1 minute ago, 1967type1 said:

At this point the best thing you can do is just wait and see. The light probably isn’t messing with the corals as much as the huge temp swing. Sorry about the fire fish they are one of my favorites. Just leave the light alone the 60-40 settings you have it at are fine for now. What kind of corals do you have? Softies? Or SPS? I’m assuming you pulled the dead fish out of the tank. 

I actually put my intesity down to the dimmest it gets. About 10-15%. Sorry I’m not very precise. I couldn’t afford the kessil controller so I’m just going by the turn knobs on top of the light.

 

i have only soft corals and lps.

 

and yes that’s the first thing I did when I saw him in the hands of the emerald crab. He was my first fish so it was pretty down about it. 

 

Thanks so much for the advice. I truly appreciate it. 

[1967type1]

It’s all good we all make mistakes. My very first tank I had I accidentally topped off with salt water for a few days and also killed my fire fish. But as for the light all I have is a evergrow Black box with two knobs one for white and one for blues and it’s just fine you don’t need a crazy light but they are fun.

[Clown79]

I'd say starting the lights at 35% would be good. Slowly increase it by 3-5% a week.

They are already used to led lighting so I think 15% is too low.

 

The shock of the lighting would cause corals to close up but the heat dropping and then quickly being increased may be the cause of the other issues.

 

 

[StephDaReefer]

8 minutes ago, Clown79 said:

I'd say starting the lights at 35% would be good. Slowly increase it by 3-5% a week.

They are already used to led lighting so I think 15% is too low.

 

The shock of the lighting would cause corals to close up but the heat dropping and then quickly being increased may be the cause of the other issues.

 

 

That’s great advice, thank you!

i will start my lights at 35% then update in a few days.