The Boombappers Solana, Boombap!!

[Vincenzo.]

weeeelll, so the good news is that over the last week and a half the corals that had NO color what so ever, started to gain them back. you could tell the monti was green, the chalice was pink, some acan colors....it was all going perfectly.....





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.
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until i came home from work today, as i went to shower i passed the 'man cave' and peered at the tank, i noticed the water was milky as hell...

hopped the baby gate, looked in.....WOMPWOMP, everything is dead. anything that is skeleton based is gone. everything. everything. everything. my prize winning chalice, award winning acans, every sps i had left, my Huge plating monti, is gone. just tissue blowing in the wind.

so wtf is going on?

i tested the water every way possible twice. my cal was a bit low, not much at all. everything reading dayyum near zero. unless i have some crazy amount of dissolved organic matter?

or something died and nuked the tank?

all inverts are alive, hermits, snails, urchin, feather duster, and w/e random inverts, all are good. my 6 line wrasse is fine. mushrooms are fine. zoas are fine... just EVERYTHING else. -tear-

no hammers, soft lps, no nems >nothing of that kind that could get stuck in power head and nuke.

nothing stuck in a power head.




any guesses?

[salvini55]

WOMPWOMP indeed

Its wierd that you say this as I have also lost most of my sps in the last few days! I thought it was redbugs but the red dots were red algea on the dead skeletons. I freshwater dipped an affected coral and no bugs were in sight... Perhaps something in the tap water making it past our RO filters?

[Vincenzo.]

the 2 tanks where flawless. then i move them into 1. and its been a nightmare on my street.

[bitterman]

Vince, I'm so sorry to hear this.

I hope you find a way to recover some way.... I know how painfull this is both physically and in spirit, but keep your chin up.

Is it possible chemical warfare caused your issue?

Bruce

[Hookup]

Geesh man.. that sucks.  I've been very lucky so far... no weird sps issues like that... I do have something chewing on a few of my acros, but i'll dip them during the move and they'll recover...

I hate it when things go all sideways for no obvious reason...

[mikerobart]

It seems like expensive and frustrating set backs are a part of this hobby... everyone has them and they suck. What matters is how you get past them.

The good thing about a small water volume is you can change basically 100%, or if you wanted to cook rock it's not hard to do so little by little.

[Vincenzo.]

Word it sucks. Im mad because what did live was bouncing back. Then poof, gone.

My acans where sooooo nice .. Red &super teal & blue & pink, super red lord with blue mouth, the crazyest red, yellow, orange from OI, purple & teal, super orange with 1 dot of crazy teal, a yellow & green.

last night i did a 100% wc last night, well see when i get home.... I pray each piece has a hair of flesh to grow back.. And omg strawberry fields chalice

I cry with no tears

[Hookup]

i nuked some sps just recently too... a pink brids nest that was softball size... and a unique yellow birdsnest... ;<  I put them into the sump area with a light, but forgot to turn on the light for 12 days...   sps with no light - nice white branches now... ;(

hope some of yours bounce back bud.

[Severum]

That is really terrible to hear. Its sounding more like the Whomp Whompers Solana as opposed to the Boombappers Solana.

I hope there is some sort of living flesh on the corals. I had a couple of really rough looking sps from fragalot thats bounced back nicely now.

[Vincenzo.]

So update....

Water went milky again....now 100% of hard corals dead. Nothing left..

So i think im going to restart. Ill update later ideas.

[smalltownfan]

And i want to get into salt ?

Stop it, you're scaring me !!!!

[Rybren]

Vince,

Sorry man, this sucks.

Are you using RO/DI water and if so, is it 4 or 5 stage?  With all of the runoff and crap getting into the river, the city might be dumping extra chemicals into the purification system to combat it.  If you're using tap water treated with prime or amquel, or only a 4 stage RO/DI unit, it might not be enough to combat the extra chemicals.

Who knows, even with a 5 stage RO/DI unit, the extra stuff may be too much.  Do you know anyone with a well-based RO unit who could get you some water? 

Might be worth a shot.

[Vincenzo.]

ya i have a ro unit. i need to upgrade ( i guess )
.
.
new plan. take out all rock any shrooms or zoas snap the pieces out, put w/e zoas n shrooms &  w/e rubble i have left in a small Rubbermaid w/ heater, power head, light.

cook the crap outta the rock.

siphon out all the sand, save maybe 1/4 cup .... rinse all the rest like crazy.

set my plumbing up to my sump & fuge. get it up and running.

New set up will be going bare-bottom, so i dont have to deal with sand bed anymore, plus it will look sharp.

all sand in fuge with lots of macro

[mikerobart]

Yeah man I am seriously considering going bare bottom just seems so much easier to remove the trap before it breaks down into phosphate and nitrate.

[Severum]

I think we've all been down this round before. If it doesn't kill all your inhabitants, it'll only make you stronger!

This is going to be the Boombappingest barebottom tank around! 

[salvini55]

Who doesnt love a barebottom? eh, eh... 

[johnrt]

"Who doesnt love a barebottom? eh, eh..."

Guess it depends on what in on-top of the 'bottom'. Well, for me. Look, I'm not being judgmental. . . OK, I'll be quiet.

[ramblnpony]

Sorry for all your losses....... This might help. Quote from Last months Coral mag on a much bigger system.

"The calcium reactors have proved to be a significant challenge. As designed, they worked well for a while but would sometimes malfunction and send milky white effuent into the tank. This system is currently being reconfigured and set up with a modified CO2 dosing system that will, we hope, reduce the likelihood of future "milkshake" episodes."

Any chance this is what may have happened with your system?

[RoxyDog]

Aw crap, sorry to hear Vince. 

[bitterman]

Vince good luck with your changes and I hope everything gets better from here on out.

Bruce