I noticed this morning that my pulsing xenia and one discosoma mushroom were looking poor. I figured this was from too much turpines in the water form a leather I fragged the other day. It was needing a routine water change anyway so I wasnt too worried about them. I was going to add carbon as well. I figured I'd do one last mod on my DIY kalk reactor to make it easier to fill since I was working on the small tank. I threaded the fitting into the reactor to tight and cracked it in three places causing a good leak. "Oh well", I thought I know how to fix it. I Did the water change and bought some carbon but when I got home I didnt have a media bag. I repaired the reactor and decided to buy parts for a media reactor at lowes while my weld-on set up for the kalk rctr. I got home and built the media reactor with no problems.
This is where all hell breaks loose. When I was installing the new HOB media reactor I pulled a John guest fitting loose and water poured on my coralife timer. It started crackling sparking and smoking. I had my hands full so I had to call in the wife for back up. Needless to say she was afraid of getting electrocuted. I figured it was fried so I went about rewiring and figured why not rearrange the power heads while I am at it. While working on the 30 I went to the 120 and hooked the kalk reator back up. The sump was about 1 1/2 gallons low so I just hooked up and let it slowly start topping off. I didnt realize it was right before eight'o'clock. My kalk pump kicked on and poured kalk slurry into the tank for who knows how long. I came into the room and noticed it was cloudier than ever before and checked it out. I have had minor kalk problems in the past so I wasnt too worried. Ten minutes later the tank was worse and some of the corals were starting to slime out pretty bad. In another five minutes I couldnt see not one inch into the tank. The PH was off the charts dark blue on the Salifert card! By now I realized my tank was crashing and was in panic mode. I was in the process of making new SW and used my RO bin to make another 10 gallons for an emergency 30G water change. I also posted for help on a local Forum because ( no offence) they are real quick to respond. Someone posted to used 10ml vinegar every half hour to get the PH down. I was able ot get the PH down to 8.6 in about 45 minutes and had the water change done after 30. I also just bought carbon so I dumped the whole two pound jug into a filter sock and sumped it in front of the return pump. So far my naso tang is looking at me like she wants out of the cloud and the snails arent falling off the glass yet. I wont go to bed until I can see the back off the tank to see if any colonies are so coated that thye will need turker basted.
So, Long story short.
broke the reactor
fried the coralife timer strip on the 30
Nuked the 120
on the bright side
The reactor is better with the mod
the 30 now has a media reactor
the water in the 30 looks alot cleaner.
another very serious lesson learned.....concentrate on one tank at a time.
I will do another 40G water change in the morning and report any casualties then.
This is where all hell breaks loose. When I was installing the new HOB media reactor I pulled a John guest fitting loose and water poured on my coralife timer. It started crackling sparking and smoking. I had my hands full so I had to call in the wife for back up. Needless to say she was afraid of getting electrocuted. I figured it was fried so I went about rewiring and figured why not rearrange the power heads while I am at it. While working on the 30 I went to the 120 and hooked the kalk reator back up. The sump was about 1 1/2 gallons low so I just hooked up and let it slowly start topping off. I didnt realize it was right before eight'o'clock. My kalk pump kicked on and poured kalk slurry into the tank for who knows how long. I came into the room and noticed it was cloudier than ever before and checked it out. I have had minor kalk problems in the past so I wasnt too worried. Ten minutes later the tank was worse and some of the corals were starting to slime out pretty bad. In another five minutes I couldnt see not one inch into the tank. The PH was off the charts dark blue on the Salifert card! By now I realized my tank was crashing and was in panic mode. I was in the process of making new SW and used my RO bin to make another 10 gallons for an emergency 30G water change. I also posted for help on a local Forum because ( no offence) they are real quick to respond. Someone posted to used 10ml vinegar every half hour to get the PH down. I was able ot get the PH down to 8.6 in about 45 minutes and had the water change done after 30. I also just bought carbon so I dumped the whole two pound jug into a filter sock and sumped it in front of the return pump. So far my naso tang is looking at me like she wants out of the cloud and the snails arent falling off the glass yet. I wont go to bed until I can see the back off the tank to see if any colonies are so coated that thye will need turker basted.
So, Long story short.
broke the reactor
fried the coralife timer strip on the 30
Nuked the 120
on the bright side
The reactor is better with the mod
the 30 now has a media reactor
the water in the 30 looks alot cleaner.
another very serious lesson learned.....concentrate on one tank at a time.
I will do another 40G water change in the morning and report any casualties then.
