Please read through post as there are a few questions at the end and pictures. Thank you everyone for your help, Jeff
It's never good when your wife calls you crying and the first words out of her mouth are ...."your tank".... then silence.
She heard the tank (29g Cube) blowing air due to a low water level so she decided to fill it with the 1 gallon water jug under the tank. Well, it turns out the water jug was pre-mixed 2-part ALK. She poured 1500ml Alkalinity in at once and the tank instantly became chalky white!
As fate would have it, I set up a new frag tank (22x16x8) as a second tank only 2 days ago. She did well with guidance over the phone to first move all my frag plugs and ranks over and then any rocks with corals carefully to the new tank. It was all by feel as the tank was blinding white.
I luckily had a break at work at that moment and drove 30 minutes home. In 20 mins at home I moved the remaining rocks and all coral to the new tank. I did a 50% water change 5g at a time. EXTREMELY close call as if I didn't have this tank you can only imagine what would have been lost. By the time I got home, I unfortunately lost my six-line wrasse, 5 peppermint shrimp (bought yesterday and friday!), feather dusters and all my snails. Damn aptasia survived. The corals are doing well and my 5yr old clown that was lying on its side on the sand bed are doing OK. I'm sure there's going to be loss as the frag tank is super crowded (pics don't do justice), only 2 days old and lots of corals broke during the transfer.
Things I learned:
-This was my fault, not hers
-Teach those in your house a few basics about your tank or at least to call you before pouring liquids into the tank
-Label all containers well
-Install your top off that's been sitting in the box for 6 months
-If you can, have another tank for emergencies
-Crisis management and creating a new tank-scape may be stressfull and sad, but can also be fun (or challenging is a better word?)
What I'm doing now and questions:
1. I have since done multiple water changes and will continue to do so daily. Is this the best way to get my ALK down (above chart levels right now). I don't think adding calcium to have it drop will work well, especially with the water changes.
2. I removed all coral and rocks from the tank (except 2 large base rocks set well in the sand bed). During this move LOTS of debris/detritus/dirt/etc was disturbed and when settled created a large layer on top of my sand. I therefore siphoned this away and may have got carried away with the cleaning as I vacuumed deep into most of my sand bed (1.5").
Will this cause spikes and cycle the tank? Should I be testing the water daily or give it a few days as I'll be doing water changes anyway and nothing of life is in the tank?
3. Most of my base rocks that didn't have coral on them are now in a separate 10g tank that I bought today with a power head for flow. Do I need a heater or is room temp OK for the live rock for now?
4. Any other advice or things I should be thinking about during this time. I want to make sure everything is right before I add my livestock/corals back.
5. Stay tuned for a new tank thread...
Tanks on 4/11/14
Tanks 4/13/14
It's never good when your wife calls you crying and the first words out of her mouth are ...."your tank".... then silence.
She heard the tank (29g Cube) blowing air due to a low water level so she decided to fill it with the 1 gallon water jug under the tank. Well, it turns out the water jug was pre-mixed 2-part ALK. She poured 1500ml Alkalinity in at once and the tank instantly became chalky white!
As fate would have it, I set up a new frag tank (22x16x8) as a second tank only 2 days ago. She did well with guidance over the phone to first move all my frag plugs and ranks over and then any rocks with corals carefully to the new tank. It was all by feel as the tank was blinding white.
I luckily had a break at work at that moment and drove 30 minutes home. In 20 mins at home I moved the remaining rocks and all coral to the new tank. I did a 50% water change 5g at a time. EXTREMELY close call as if I didn't have this tank you can only imagine what would have been lost. By the time I got home, I unfortunately lost my six-line wrasse, 5 peppermint shrimp (bought yesterday and friday!), feather dusters and all my snails. Damn aptasia survived. The corals are doing well and my 5yr old clown that was lying on its side on the sand bed are doing OK. I'm sure there's going to be loss as the frag tank is super crowded (pics don't do justice), only 2 days old and lots of corals broke during the transfer.
Things I learned:
-This was my fault, not hers
-Teach those in your house a few basics about your tank or at least to call you before pouring liquids into the tank
-Label all containers well
-Install your top off that's been sitting in the box for 6 months
-If you can, have another tank for emergencies
-Crisis management and creating a new tank-scape may be stressfull and sad, but can also be fun (or challenging is a better word?)
What I'm doing now and questions:
1. I have since done multiple water changes and will continue to do so daily. Is this the best way to get my ALK down (above chart levels right now). I don't think adding calcium to have it drop will work well, especially with the water changes.
2. I removed all coral and rocks from the tank (except 2 large base rocks set well in the sand bed). During this move LOTS of debris/detritus/dirt/etc was disturbed and when settled created a large layer on top of my sand. I therefore siphoned this away and may have got carried away with the cleaning as I vacuumed deep into most of my sand bed (1.5").
Will this cause spikes and cycle the tank? Should I be testing the water daily or give it a few days as I'll be doing water changes anyway and nothing of life is in the tank?
3. Most of my base rocks that didn't have coral on them are now in a separate 10g tank that I bought today with a power head for flow. Do I need a heater or is room temp OK for the live rock for now?
4. Any other advice or things I should be thinking about during this time. I want to make sure everything is right before I add my livestock/corals back.
5. Stay tuned for a new tank thread...
Tanks on 4/11/14
Tanks 4/13/14
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