barrierreefcf
Sponsor
Hi Ben,
Chris pointed me to this thread. I'm not exactly how much he shared with you but I thought I'd chime in with a few of our observations as you deal with this terrible tragedy. Like you, I felt sick when I walked in the store and saw all the beautiful corals we have been collecting/growing for years turned white and pastel. I wanted to give up. Only knowing what we experienced the first time this happened kept me sane.
First...I agree with the few who have posted that all heaters suck. After 18 years on the retail side of this I probably have heard or experienced a horror story with every brand/type. Heaters and (IMHO Rios) should be on GFCI. Like Jesse mentioned you want to be careful about what items you combine on a GFCI or a bad heater could shut off your circulation pumps etc.
Second...SPS and clams do not do well with the whole electrocution/stray voltage thing. As many of you know we bought a used sea swirl that turned out it had a hairline crack on an internal fitting. This crack expanded and caused an "electrocution" event in our display. We also had this happen a year ago in a grow out tank when a desk top fan fell into the tank. In both instances clams and SPS were affected the most. We immediately did a water change and added carbon. There may or may not be losses which should be pulled, but be careful. Many sps will bleach completely but as long as they have polyps leave them in the aquarium. It seems as though the zoaxanthellae is either killed or stressed so it leaves the coral. They will recolonize the corals over time. Some will recover quicker than others. It took 4-16 weeks for full recovery amongst the different species the first time. In our case we are constantly adding new healthy corals so some of the zoaxanthellae being recruited may be coming from them but i suspect that as long as you have a few healthy corals it will still take place. The one thing, we think, helps the corals survive as they recruit new algae is increased plankton feeding so they can make up for the lack of energy from photosynthesis. We bumped our feedings of the 3 liquid life products and dosed a couple times with amino acids.
We are now somewhere between 4-6 weeks after our second episode and things are almost back to normal. Hopefully its obvious that the above info is just personal observation and is not meant to be taken any other way.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for your corals to have a speedy recovery with few losses. Feel free to call us with any questions.
Chris pointed me to this thread. I'm not exactly how much he shared with you but I thought I'd chime in with a few of our observations as you deal with this terrible tragedy. Like you, I felt sick when I walked in the store and saw all the beautiful corals we have been collecting/growing for years turned white and pastel. I wanted to give up. Only knowing what we experienced the first time this happened kept me sane.
First...I agree with the few who have posted that all heaters suck. After 18 years on the retail side of this I probably have heard or experienced a horror story with every brand/type. Heaters and (IMHO Rios) should be on GFCI. Like Jesse mentioned you want to be careful about what items you combine on a GFCI or a bad heater could shut off your circulation pumps etc.
Second...SPS and clams do not do well with the whole electrocution/stray voltage thing. As many of you know we bought a used sea swirl that turned out it had a hairline crack on an internal fitting. This crack expanded and caused an "electrocution" event in our display. We also had this happen a year ago in a grow out tank when a desk top fan fell into the tank. In both instances clams and SPS were affected the most. We immediately did a water change and added carbon. There may or may not be losses which should be pulled, but be careful. Many sps will bleach completely but as long as they have polyps leave them in the aquarium. It seems as though the zoaxanthellae is either killed or stressed so it leaves the coral. They will recolonize the corals over time. Some will recover quicker than others. It took 4-16 weeks for full recovery amongst the different species the first time. In our case we are constantly adding new healthy corals so some of the zoaxanthellae being recruited may be coming from them but i suspect that as long as you have a few healthy corals it will still take place. The one thing, we think, helps the corals survive as they recruit new algae is increased plankton feeding so they can make up for the lack of energy from photosynthesis. We bumped our feedings of the 3 liquid life products and dosed a couple times with amino acids.
We are now somewhere between 4-6 weeks after our second episode and things are almost back to normal. Hopefully its obvious that the above info is just personal observation and is not meant to be taken any other way.
I'll keep my fingers crossed for your corals to have a speedy recovery with few losses. Feel free to call us with any questions.
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I'm impressed.
