Great just what i needed

[duke62]

So i wake up this morning to a overflowing skimmer and ATO with kalk added empty and corals looking bad. They have all lightened and red planet STNing along with several others and my joe the coral colony has lightened up so much you cant even see the blue. Skimmer was pretty full the night before since i havent cleaned it since monday and ALK shot up. From the splashing of the overflowing skimmer water was on the floor which set the ATO off. If its not one thing its another and my red planet which was forming a beautiful colony is dying along with several other SPS. I cant do a water change now because i have no one to bring my water buckets up the stairs. This sucks.

 

[noelskii]

Why didn't you empty the skimmer cup when you saw it full the night before?

 

[KurtL]

I've heard so many people lose they're entire tanks because of auto topoff systems

 

[noelskii]

I've heard so many people lose they're entire tanks because of auto topoff systems

Also, if you have a controller, you can set your ATO to turn off if the PH in the tank gets too high/low.

 

[Awibrandy]

I'm so sorry James!!! I wish I could help, but both my shoulders are now shot. Do you have a python hose, and a water pump? I hooked up a pump to my python to help with my w/c. It worked even when I had the ro/di in the basement....

 

[duke62]

No i dont have a python hose I wasnt expecting a overflow of the skimmer it was fine at 1am when i went to sleep. I woke up at 730 to a overflowing skimmer. My water level does not change in my sump so i have no idea why it overflowed

 

[prattreef]

Sorry to hear this James. I have never been comfortable with ATO systems for just this reason. Perhaps this will provide a little solace:

http://www.reefsmagazine.com/forum/reefs-magazine/66910-epic-fail-anatomy-disaster.html

 

[Awibrandy]

No i dont have a python hose I wasnt expecting a overflow of the skimmer it was fine at 1am when i went to sleep. I woke up at 730 to a overflowing skimmer. My water level does not change in my sump so i have no idea why it overflowed

PW carries the Mr. Lee one. Makes water changes so much easier. I took the end off, and stuck it onto a water pump. I use it to drain the tank too. I disconnect where 2 parts screw together, suck on the opposite end of the hose drow it in the shower, drain the amount of water I want to take out. Hook it back up to the other piece that the pump is connected to then fill the a bucket with ro/di water add salt, then I use a MJ pump to pour new water back into the sump which then goes into the DT via the return pumps.

 

[greengny]

Duke, I'm working in Plainview today and tonight. Not sure where you are but I'm available at any time to carry buckets of water. It's my specialty.....just ask my ex-SO. Just let me know. John

 

[duke62]

I wasnt crazy about ATOs either but its alot easier onj me not having to bend down and fill up the evaporated water and not dragging up a gallon of water from the basement everyday. If people knew i had surgery on my back and need another one so whatever is easiest on my back i am doing. not going to drive myself crazy every few weeks seems like something else

 

[duke62]

Duke, I'm working in Plainview today and tonight. Not sure where you are but I'm available at any time to carry buckets of water. It's my specialty.....just ask my ex-SO. Just let me know. John

Thanks but my son will be home at 3. making water now

 

[greengny]

Ok. Good luck bud.

 

[MeanGreenEyes]

I'm really sorry to hear! Once you get everything stabilized and if you head to Brooklyn, let me know. I can frag the birdsnest I bought off of you at the swap and frag whatever else in my tank that you're interested in to help you restock. No charge. Keep your head up! Don't let the b.s. defeat you!

 

[edd]

duke, my ro is in basement, i drilled 3/8 hole through corner round moulding through floor and slipped the 1/4 out put upstairs. when your done just slide excess back down.

 

[FearsomeB]

Some of the ATO systems can be set to turn off automatically if the pump runs continuously for too long (the JBJ ATO, for example). You could probably do something similar with a controller. I use the JBJ and it's a pain in the rare case that you're relying on the ATO and find out that it shut itself off and needs to be reset - but as long as you check your tank frequently it's not really an issue.

 

[duke62]

So a few corals still STNing slowly,carls candle light,red planet,2 millis,couple of random acros. I have done 3 5 gallon water changes but i cant figure out exactly what causing them to stn. My caps and montis are fine which are the first to show when Alk is off and my PH really didnt raise that high or the ALk for that matter considering i have had alk swing before where it shot up from 7.5 to 10.4 in a 24 hour period and my corals were fine. I also dont think i had that much water in my ATO probably around 2 gallons but alot of kalk at the bottom of the container. At this point i am not considering that it is the fault of the skimmer over flowing and alk swing. I am leaning towards this refractometer calibration fluid that i have been using. I have had a few frags slowly STN in the past 3 or 4 weeks and around 2 months ago i used this calibration fluid and when i calibrated it it said my salinity was at 1.029 so i started to lower the salinity over this period till 3 weks ago when i was at 1.025 well i had a LFS check out the salinity and i bought distilled water and it loks like my salinity is at 1.020. My corals were doing alot better when i was using distilled water to calibrate and im going back to it. hopefully these corals will not STN much more and will hold on till i raise my sality again to where they were flourishing. i think the skimmer over flowing was a bit coincidental

 

[PeteTheGreek89]

Wow man that's crazy! I dnt understnad why! I hope they pull threw! GL and keep us posted with what happens

 

[duke62]

so i was just informed on another site that the calibration fluid batch was a bad batch. If this is the reason my corals are slowly STNing what now. Do i raise my salinity up faster now? do i call sybon and make a formal complaint. if anyone is using this solution its batch number is r1go1320

 

[KathyC]

This was the answer to a similar question on RC by Randy Farley Holmes:

The evaporation replacement with salt water is a perfect way, IMO. It is gentle and slow, just by the fact that no one evaporates more than 4% or so daily, and often 1-3%, so that raises salinity by that amount each day.

So with 2% evaporated daily to go from a sg of 1.020 to 1.025 using seawater with a sg of 1.0264 (35 ppt seawater) will take about 9 days.

 

[duke62]

so kathy use salt water in my top off? is anyone held responsible for my corals dying?