My 210 FOWLR Turned Reef

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Attempted to kill some aiptasia today with lemon juice. I would call it a partial success, though time will tell if I end up with even more baby ones. Seems like the ones I didn't pump a ton of juice into are still alive, just agitated. The ones I really got good are dead I believe.

Also, I got my Sailfin out!!!! Had to move some rock around, but all in all it wasn't too hard. He is now residing in the refugium. Chevron and Bellus are now in the display getting settled for the night and without the Sailfin shouldn't get any grief from anyone.
 
So I finally think I am ready to talk about it....

I made an epic mistake the night I put the Chevron and Bellus into the tank. Biggest mistake of my saltwater "career". I didn't do any sort of acclimation when transferring the two fish. My QT is kept at approximately the same temperature and all water changes come straight from the display, so I didn't mess with acclimation. I wish I would have.... I scooped each fish out with a container(I don't use nets whenever possible because it is way harder on fish and stressful when they are stuck in there) and poured out almost all the water before sliding them into the tank. Bellus angel is really small so it was easy. The Chevron tank got a bit stuck and I panicked a bit and dumped the Chevron and the remaining cup or so of water into the tank. I didn't think too much of it. Well I woke up the next morning and WOW! All of my SPS were bleached and my skimmer was overflowing like crazy! I freaked! I didn't have any extra water ready, but I changed my carbon and put in a bag of Chemipure. I started making water and also started to get tap water ready too. I ended up doing about 70 gallons of WC over the next day, but still the next morning the corals looked even worse. All LPS looked totally fine. I have since done some more water changes and now the corals seem to be remaining about the same. The plating montis, green slimers, and milleporas seem to be the worst hit of them all. Some don't look too bad, but you can tell they all are stressed. Today I was seeing better polyp extension though, so hopefully it will continue to turn the corner and get better and I won't lose too many corals. I am going to continue to do some sort of water change daily for now and slowly back off once I see things getting back to normal.

Talk about a learning experience. What a stupid mistake. Just didn't think that little cup of water would be significant in a 250 gallon system, but it is. Warning to everyone out there, be careful.
 
I will be the first to admin I am horrible about acclimation. Esp inverts. I need to start doing a better job of that....

I hope you do not lose anything.
 
Well I haven't lost anything so far and everything seems to be turning around a bit. I see growth on a lot of corals that still look bleached and crappy, so that is a good sign. Hopefully everything makes a full recovery.

The lemon juice doesn't seem to be working, I think it just pissed off the aiptasia and made more babies. Ugh. Going to go to the store and get some peppermints and hope they don't eat any corals.
 
Is it possible that there was copper in the water? as I dont see how one cup could change anything unless there was a HUGE difference in parms...
 
My LFS uses copper/salt in their fish systems -possible. The corals and LR are on another system. Hopefully all will work out for ya.

Your not the only one suffering from rookie mistakes, I just lost half my stock to Herbtana - it killed the Ich but killed the B+B too. Came home from 2 weeks down south to ammonia + nitrite. My R/O units been runnin' ever since trying to change out as much water as possible. It's rated at 100gal per 24hrs but more like 80gal so runnin' it all day only gives me like 40 gal or less than 20% W/C's. As of yesterday ammonias gone and nitrite is .025 - Nitrates @ 80ppm - also lost trumpet coral, riccordea, 2 sea fans, encrusting, gorg ,superman monti, and a staghorn.

I shoulda known better than have someone else treat anything while I was gone - stupid!
 
Kevin8888 said:
Is it possible that there was copper in the water? as I dont see how one cup could change anything unless there was a HUGE difference in parms...
Click to expand...

Guess I didn't mention it, but yes there was copper in the cup of QT water that went into the display. Everything is starting to come back color wise and I am actually noticing some good growth on a few corals, so maybe I wasn't changing enough water before either and some trace elements were lacking.

I need to change my halide bulbs, it has been a year as of Feb 27th, but I think I am going to wait a few weeks to let everything recover a bit more before stressing them out again with new intensity.

I am also considering adding an mp10 to the end of the tank with the mp60, the top part of the corner doesn't get any flow and corals up there don't do too well. I don't want to have another mp40, nor do I need one, so I may try the mp10 even though it's 1/2 inch glass and 10's are rated up to 3/8ths. I have heard mixed reviews, but quite a few people have had success.
 
Otherone said:
My LFS uses copper/salt in their fish systems -possible. The corals and LR are on another system. Hopefully all will work out for ya.

Your not the only one suffering from rookie mistakes, I just lost half my stock to Herbtana - it killed the Ich but killed the B+B too. Came home from 2 weeks down south to ammonia + nitrite. My R/O units been runnin' ever since trying to change out as much water as possible. It's rated at 100gal per 24hrs but more like 80gal so runnin' it all day only gives me like 40 gal or less than 20% W/C's. As of yesterday ammonias gone and nitrite is .025 - Nitrates @ 80ppm - also lost trumpet coral, riccordea, 2 sea fans, encrusting, gorg ,superman monti, and a staghorn.

I shoulda known better than have someone else treat anything while I was gone - stupid!
Click to expand...

Yikes! That's no good. If a 100gpd unit gives you 80gpd don't you have 80gpd? Where is the other 40 gallons going?
 
nonstophoops said:
Guess I didn't mention it, but yes there was copper in the cup of QT water that went into the display. Everything is starting to come back color wise and I am actually noticing some good growth on a few corals, so maybe I wasn't changing enough water before either and some trace elements were lacking.

I need to change my halide bulbs, it has been a year as of Feb 27th, but I think I am going to wait a few weeks to let everything recover a bit more before stressing them out again with new intensity.

I am also considering adding an mp10 to the end of the tank with the mp60, the top part of the corner doesn't get any flow and corals up there don't do too well. I don't want to have another mp40, nor do I need one, so I may try the mp10 even though it's 1/2 inch glass and 10's are rated up to 3/8ths. I have heard mixed reviews, but quite a few people have had success.
Click to expand...

Then it was definatly the copper, but its good that there wasnt enough to kill everything off. If you want the powerhead to mount on thicker glass you can buy a stroger magnet for the back plate maybe?
 
nonstophoops said:
Yikes! That's no good. If a 100gpd unit gives you 80gpd don't you have 80gpd? Where is the other 40 gallons going?
Click to expand...

Glad to hear your tanks recovering, and ya technically it's approx 80 gal per day @ 60psi but rated at 100 gal per day as per manufacturer probably at 70-80 psi or the opposite I'm pretty new to the make your water thingy. I don't have the whole storage thing worked out just yet. I have 1x 40 gal tub which is pretty much all I needed for 10% W/C's and top-offs - this situation is getting re-thought. I wasn't prepared for a system crash. Fortunately the tank re-cycled pretty fast with a lil' help from 4 units of chem-pure elite as of yesterday - 0 Ammonia, 0 Nitite, 40 ppm Nitrate, PO4 .05 hopfully will be able to start restocking corals next week.
 
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