kalkwasser left on tank crash :-(

[plack]

I had 2 auto top off failures so I decided to top off directly through the kalkwasser I had the water pumped slow but instead off turning it off I turned it on and then left.
Well it was 9.7 PH and all white. I have done a 100%drain best I can got the fish out the best corals out in cold saltwater (did not have any ready yet.
I am going to replace all of it asap with tap water as I have no frigging choice.

Please understand I am just trying to vent I will probably go to a fish only tank or downgrade soon as I have have not has allot of sucess But one heck of allot of learned from failures. I am NOT a natural born reefer :-(

Paul

 

[Myteemouse]

Oh so sorry to hear it!!!
This has been happening ALOT to people lately. AOT problems and KALK overdose
Salinity swings,...
I wish I new a fail safe way to stop this..
I just had my skimmer overflow and dump 3 gallons of water into the stand but the tank is safe??

 

[Myteemouse]

BTW, what kind of ATO do or did you have??

 

[plack]

Tunze osmolator failed due to electronics. Bulk reef supply failed due to bad transformer. Fish all dead, all sps taken to a friends tank.

 

[akunochi]

Tunze osmolator failed due to electronics. Bulk reef supply failed due to bad transformer. Fish all dead, all sps taken to a friends tank.

Really? That is surprising for the tunze to fail. I;ve heard nothing but great things. This is one reason why I keep my kalk on an old school IV drip. That way it is constant and an ATO failure would just net me with a wet floor and lowered salinity.

I'm sorry to hear about your crash. If you do restart I'm sure we can get you some stuff as it grows out.

 

[JoshF]

Sorry to hear about this. As Myteemouse said, there's been a lot of this lately... I'm just getting back into the hobby and it's a little disturbing that your Tunze unit failed AND a BRS unit failed at the same time. For now I'm just dripping Ro/DI water to top-off, but would like a "fail-safe" ATO. It almost seems like such an animal doesn't exist!

Best of luck salvaging the pieces. It's a great opportunity for a little rest from the tank and figure out what fantastic aquarium you want to set up next!

Cheers, Josh

 

[DolphinLVR]

Plack I am sorry to hear of your losses!

I havent even started on my build and when I hear of things like this, i have to sit back and take a look at what i am doing. With all of the electronics involved with the tank setups, its very hard to even predict or even plan for what may or could go wrong.

 

[gas4544]

Paul,

I am so sorry for your loss. I do not think that any of us are natural born reefers. Reefkeeping must be one the most challenging "hobbies" there is.

Do you need any salt to mix new saltwater?

Gary

 

[Myteemouse]

I made two ATO's my self and they are soooo simple so less things to break and less complications

 

[plack]

The Tunze failed a week or so ago It decided to keep adding water and because the sump is large the alarm was not set for it to go off quickly and the salinity went down. It had the green light on like it was full of water and the red blinking light like the pump ran dry all at the same time????

I decided I would use the BRS one but noticed the transformer light flickering and the solenoid did not open so I could not use it.

I decided after a while to top off with some Kalk this morning. I run water thru an ONLY DI unit straight into the kalk stirrer and I was being carefull to NOT have it on full blast and was turning the valve slowly and double checking the ph level's and water output speed while I did this.

So when I was happy with the Kalk top off I THOUGHT I turned the valve manually off. I DID NOT CHECK TO SEE THAT I HAD MISTAKENLY TURNED IT THE WRONG WAY.I did not notice until I saw my tank Completely white watered down milk colored and turned the kalk water off then saw the ph was 9.7

I had some older water left over from the last salinity dump and it was cold but the ph was better so I grabbed the Biggest corals and put them first into this water. Later I found out it was at 1.030 so I must have added some salt to it sometime? It was quite cold but it was there or in the 9.7 ph tank.

All is now out of my control I fixed what could be fixed and done what could be done!

My tank is now currently empty with all new water just waiting for it to clear up. I also could not get my eheim refigium feed pump to start so I accidentally broke the ceramic shaft getting it out. So it's beendrained reffilled but no pump for it currently. Maybe tomorrow?

Imagine having (2) 5 gallon buckets full of coral just stacked against each other for the 5 mile ride down the road to a friends tank- I am very thankfull they even got the opportunity to be in another tank within hours. They went thru allot. I don't really expect allot to survive but some of the really big nice ones would be nice if they survived.

 

[trido]

Sorry to hear about this Paul. I know you've been working very hard htis year to build your tank up to your satisfaction.

FWIW.......If this ever happens to anyone. First thing, ADD VINEGAR. It loweres the Ph and helps to nutralize the effects of the kalk. This happened to me once and I was able to save my reef and all of my fish by adding near three cups of vinegar over the course of an hour accompanied by a huge WC.

Here is a quote form the artical I recenly posted. IMO something every reefer using Kalk should remember.

I took 150 gallons of water out of the system, put 150 gallons of new water right in, and started filling the container with RO so I could mix more saltwater. That 150 gallon container I keep filled with mixed saltwater had been helpful before, but at that moment it was critical. Sadly, the pH barely moved. I remembered that vinegar would bring down pH. I had a little vinegar in the house, and it brought the pH down, but not enough, so I rushed out to the store to by more. I believe all in all I added a full gallon of vinegar to the system before the pH dropped to 8.6, and some of the fish looked less dying than they had before. I then added new carbon,

Paul, if there is anything I can do to get your tank in working order, remember, I live just around the corner.

 

[tamarindthai]

sorry to hear about the problem,,hang in there Paul,,,when you get to stable again,,i got some starter frags and frags for you,,,FREE,,just say when.

 

[BCT182]

Plack I haven't alot to offer but if you need sand to seed or chateo I'm here to help.

 

[barrierreefcf]

Hey Paul sorry to hear about your misfortune If you need some free SPS starters give me a weeks notice and we'll set a few display frags aside for ya.

On the ATO issues. For anyone interested out there the Tsunami Auto Top Off unit is the unit we have used for about 15 years. I have only had one fail mechanically and that was most likely because it took a bath in saltwater. A great, reliable unit.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Paul, this sickens me to hear of your losses. You have been trying so hard to get it going right. On ATOs, the one I like best is the JBJ due to it turning off if it runs too long. Has to be manually reset. The best safeguard I have yet seen.

Be sure to get all the detritus out that will continue to accumulate and tank stable before putting anything back in. The die off will continue for quite some time. At least you will be able to get a terminated cure that other long term issue we were chatting about.