Thank you for the condolences, support and offers. Not necessary though. I have been planning on breaking down my tank for the last 6 months. I figured I would do it around late September to early October... lets just say this speeded up my time line a little. I had some time to cool down and I'm now thinking much more rationally.
First, I have become bad about my reef. Every little thing from feeding my fish to changing filter
socks was becoming more of a chore with my time limitations. I did what was necessary to keep a happy and healthy environment, but I complained about it the whole time. I personally feel that I was becoming undeserving of a reef.
Next, I would like to not make this a "Dialyseas Sucks" fest. I also don't want it to be believed that the Dialyseas was solely the cause of this and for unnecessary rumors to start. As most of you know, the computer on my Dialyseas failed. This took away from me the one thing I relied on most and that was accuracy. It caused a domino effect. Unfortunately, the Dialyseas was the first domino to fall. Catastrophes don't just happen. It is a series of events which lead to catastrophes.
The whole idea behind redesigning my filtration was to reduce the size of my system in the basement to make my son's play area bigger. I went from a 4 foot sump to a 2 foot sump, but the fact that 5800 GPH was going through it didn't change. I had to get fancy with the drains and baffles to keep the sump quiet (we do consider my basement to be a part of our living area) and also not allow for micro bubbles (Anyone who knows me knows that I hate microbubbles in my main display). I needed the
auto top off to keep my levels within 1 inch in order for the sump to perform as designed. When the computer failed, not only did I lose my auto top off, but I also lost my RO/DI system and my automatic 2 part dosing. Working 2 jobs, I'm often away from home for 48 hours at a time. This forced 2 major things that killed me. First, on limited time, I had to go to friends houses with 5 gallon buckets for RO/DI. Next, I had to over fill my sump since I may not see my tank over the next 24 to 48 hours. This negated the purpose of my drain design.
The water level would create back pressure on my skimmer. Becketts are difficult enough to dial in under perfect conditions. Now I had to mess with the back pressure and pressure differences that the pump would draw. It was impossible. So my skimmer would fill up its waste container and shut off. So now over one or 2 days, my skimmer only functioned for a part of it. Not sure how long. I was replacing carbon as fast as I changed filter socks.
My water quality obviously declined and with no auto doser for 2 part, my Ca and Alk dropped tremendously, even though I did manual doses when ever I could. The final nail in the coffin was that I had to then go away for 4 days. My neighbor was only able to do so much.
. If there is anything I can do, you know I am just a call away.
