Crash Recovery

[ShAgMaN]

This isn't an emergency...mods feel free to move this if necessary - I just wanted to let you know what’s going on with my 150 gal. tank and say I'M BACK!

My last posts here were likely on the tribal blenny fiasco I endured. I finally caught the sucker, but that's around the same time my tank went downhill - fast. My SPS were already damaged pretty good, but then all my zoas and palys started closing, and a few months later I had lost everything but my gorgs and some lps - zoas/palys are still closed but making a comeback.


Long story short...er, I have narrowed the crash down to the following:

1. Tribal blenny ****ed off enough coral to start a toxic release that for whatever reason didn't show on my testing of parameters (I only tested at the beginning of the crash...I know, I know). I don’t think this was likely the cause.

2. I was messing with elevating my Ph during this time and there were definitely swings in Ph - very likely had something to do with ****ing off coral - but it doesn’t answer all questions.

3. Possible bad salt added (contamination) - every time I did a water change, I lost coral or fish the next day. I was using a batch of coral life salt (which I've never used before) during the time of crash. Additionally I noticed a yellowish tint in the buckets I mixed with the last water change I made with the batch...which ended up taking out my yellow and blue tang and huge sixline- SUCKED!!!! I'm leaning to this being the root cause.

4. I have been using concentrated phyto, chromo, and zoo plankton that was a few years old (kept in the fridge), and although this probably wasn't the cause of crash, I tossed them just in case....I stopped feed coral a while ago, but still could have had something to do with initial issues.

5. There are other dosing factors but none relevant to what happened. I ran carbon as soon as issues started.

Bottom line, I should have:

Did my research on tribal blennies before adding him to my tank.

Not messed with my Ph!!! It was consistent, which is what’s most important.

Noticed the salt issue earlier, ditched the "bad" salt, and increased water changes.

Tossed the concentrated phyto earlier - looking back at this it was cheap and foolish.

Other problem was leaving home during Christmas for over two weeks. My SPS were already toast, but I probably could have save a lot more lps.

I'm bummed on losing thousands of dollars in coral, however slowly but surely I will be back...


IN FACT, I AM BACK.

My tank is looking a lot better, just trying to get rid of a hair algae outbreak (and what appears to be some bryopsis starting patches) and get my palys back to norm. I'm dosing Tech-M which has worked great in the past and will start using BRS GFO tomorrow...I had been using chemi-pure elite.

Anyway, it's nice to be back. Look forward to talking to you guys again.