I was away and my nephew happened.

[vetteguy53081]

Nothing a divorce won't fix lol joking.
My water changes should be done with lower salinity than usual correct?
Any recommendations on what salinity I should mix my water to?

When elevated has to brought down GRADUALLY. At 1.028, mix to 1.024 and Add Gradually and you should get 1.025-1.026 but 1.028 is not as terrible as it sounds

 

[slythy]

Sounds like you should get auto feeders and a big ol temperary ATO for vacations and not rely on anyone.

 

[Tamberav]

Did you test magnesium? I lost inverts including clams when my Mag got overdosed. I didn’t see that on the list. That being said, your tank is large and it generally takes a lot of Mg to raise so guessing it’s probably okay.

I have a huge brute on wheels with a lid I set up when out of town for the ATO.

Maybe he did something else he’s not mentioned? Idk… **** always goes wrong when on vacation. Your ATO will suddenly stop working or your whole central air to your house will just quit, etc. **** always happens if I leave.

 

[PharmrJohn]

I honestly thought about that but I live in a pretty rural area where the nearest decent saltwater shop is about 2 hrs away so that was a little out of the question for me. I thought it was idiot proof but turns out it wasn't lol
Hope all goes well for you though

I think you'd be surprised at what an LFS would do. You're absolutely right, 2 hours is a long way, and they'd charge you for the drive out and back. But there may also be another individual in the same general area that is paying for the same service. With me, I'm 40 minutes away and they'd schedule my trip when they go to Olympia (20 minutes away). And I'm willing to pay the price. Big time. Especially taking into account my tank will be about 3 years old and on its way to looking goooooood! So call them up and ask. It costs nothing to do that.

 

[ros3to]

Did you test magnesium? I lost inverts including clams when my Mag got overdosed. I didn’t see that on the list. That being said, your tank is large and it generally takes a lot of Mg to raise so guessing it’s probably okay.

I have a huge brute on wheels with a lid I set up when out of town for the ATO.

Maybe he did something else he’s not mentioned? Idk… **** always goes wrong when on vacation. Your ATO will suddenly stop working or your whole central air to your house will just quit, etc. **** always happens if I leave.

I have not yet tested it but I will shortly I'm assuming not much happened to it thought, won't hurt to test.
But you might be right something else might have happened.

 

[ros3to]

Sounds like you should get auto feeders and a big ol temperary ATO for vacations and not rely on anyone.

Sounds like the cheaper option

 

[ros3to]

Most my goni frags look horrible almost gone

 

[ros3to]

That doesn’t add up…
If half a gallon of Alk solution went into the tank it would def raise it by a lot more than just 0.3dkh

Was the alk carbonate or bicarbonate? What brand?

Alk went up to 9.5 from 8.2-8.3
And I'm using brs bicarbonate

 

[GlassMunky]

hmmm.... with half a gallon going into a 120 system (estimating system volume), that still doesnt seem to add up to me. im wondering if since you said he also poured calcium and magnesium in there at the same time, if there was some precipitation that formed and therefor made it so that the alk didnt raise as much as it should have. according to the brs calculator it would only take around 205ml to raise that much, while half a gallon is 1,892ml.

 

[GARRIGA]

I know 100% WC often promoted but being those parameters don’t seem out of place then perhaps something else the cause which will just remain present post WC such as corroding pump and timing just made it seem deaths due to well meaning nephew taking the easy route. Kids have been known to throw copper pennies in tanks thinking they are wishing wells. I’d eliminate every plausible option.

Sending sample out for ICP before any water changed might help isolate cause.

 

[ros3to]

hmmm.... with half a gallon going into a 120 system (estimating system volume), that still doesnt seem to add up to me. im wondering if since you said he also poured calcium and magnesium in there at the same time, if there was some precipitation that formed and therefor made it so that the alk didnt raise as much as it should have. according to the brs calculator it would only take around 205ml to raise that much, while half a gallon is 1,892ml.

Yes I'm no scientist but that's what I assumed aswell bottom of my ATO reservoir was full of white gunk.

It was more of a freak out momment because I hadn't tested until this morning. My initial thoughts were that my tank was doomed due to all that went in there.

 

[ros3to]

I know 100% WC often promoted but being those parameters don’t seem out of place then perhaps something else the cause which will just remain present post WC such as corroding pump and timing just made it seem deaths due to well meaning nephew taking the easy route. Kids have been known to throw copper pennies in tanks thinking they are wishing wells. I’d eliminate every plausible option.

Sending sample out for ICP before any water changed might help isolate cause.

Icp will be the next step. I've never had one done so it's gonna be a good excuse to do so lol

 

[morris2015]

So to make things short I was away for a whole week and I had asked my nephew to come by to feed my fish and to just make sure my ATO wouldn't run dry, thought it was simple enough but disaster struck, he was shown which water to use, but somehow went out of his way to use things that were "easier" to use.
Those things were about 3/4 gallon of mag mix, (randy's recipe)
And close to 1/2 gallon of alk mix.
I'm assuming these were dumped at the same time in my ato container.
I have just gotten home and have not tested my parameters but I can see a lot of dead coral. My tank is 110g and has only been set up for a year. What is the best possible outcome? What can realistically be done at this point?
Picture of the tank before I left

You could do a huge water change, take the most sensitive corals to another tank or a friend tank or LFS to keep them stable until you get your tank the rails again…..

 

[KrisReef]

I was so scared to leave for this exact same reason so I tried to automate all the dosing so that all he had to do was fill up the container once, the bucket of clean RO water was literally right infront of my ATO.
But that happened lol

What you mentioned is definitely a good idea and will keep it in mind.

I think my wife used my mixed water to fill the top off when I was away for a week. Salinity was high and stuff was not well but she's still with me and she hasn't gotten any better.

Its Just coral. Hows the nephew?

 

[Dom]

Yes I agree the numbers do not look horrible at all. Salinity being the only thing of concern but nothing a waterchange won't fix.
Nems look a little stressed but all of them alive.
Lost 1 small clam and the other seems to have lost it's foot somehow.

Even your salinity isn't too bad. You can add a little volume to the system to correct that.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Hoping the best for your tank and the corals inside of it!

 

[revhtree]

Have things started to turn around?