Stupid mistake

[sorcerer]

I thought I would post this so maybe someone else will learn from my stupidity and not make the same mistake. This past Friday night I was doing some of my regular checks on the 75G at the house and found that the pH was a little low. Generally this means I need to recharge the kalkreactor, but since it had been a long day and I was very tired I decided to add a little buffer (the usual procedure for me when I'm postponing filling the reactor until the next day) and charge the reactor on Saturday.

Here are the mistakes:

1. Don't try to do anything to the tank chemistry when you are tired and sleepy.

2. always make sure that the measuring cup or spoon you grab is the right one.

3. Test the alk and calc before making any adjustment. (I've been complacent on this since I've been using the kalkreactor)

Being half asleep, tired, and not right bright I mixed way too much buffer. The resulting snowstorm lasted several hours and when it ended my alk was way up and my calcium level was almost non-existent.

As the saying goes nothing good happens fast in a reef tank, but bad things seem to go at light speed. Corals and polyps are stressed to a major degree, clams aren't happy, my shrimp are staying in hiding until lights out, and my macroalgae is almost wiped out. fish are fortunately doing well.

I've spent the last three days doing water changes and slowly trying to bring the alk and calc back into balance. I've lost one clam and a staghorn coral, I've got a scoly, montipora, bubble, and a hydnophora that aren't looking good. I didn't see my fire shrimp at all last night. All of my other corals aren't happy but are looking like they will make it.

Next time I will just be patient and wait until I am rested before doing anything like this again.

What a PITA.

[maffu]

I am real sorry to hear that... I know how you feel about doing things tired.....

I was doing a hoovering session to try and rid myself of cyano last night while tired and stressed.... and most of the first pipe load of suctioned junk ended up on the nice beige carpetted floor!!!!... I pulled the pipe clean out of the recepticle in trying to do things quickly!!

Hope everything stabilises and recovers.

Matt

[wooddood]

sorry to hear walt, and your right nothing happens quick in this but bad things. good luck.

[Cougra]

Ah, I have yet to make a smart mistake, but I've done a lot of similar stupid ones! I am constantly amazed at how quickly things cna go wrong and how long it takes to fix them! Ireally hope that you can get everything back to normal soom and that everyone makes it through!

[Gina]

Sorry to hear that Walt! We have made our share of mistakes also and will probably continue to! We are only human and we strive to do our best but, as the saying goes (stuff) happens!
Hope everything recovers as soon as possible for you!

[sorcerer]

Thanks to everybody for the kind words, a quick update; calcium level is coming up and things are starting to stabilize. My surviving corals and clams aren't looking great but are getting better. I saw my cleaner and pistol shrimp tonight, still haven't seen the fire shrimp.

My brittle star came out and all of his legs are very short now but he is still active. Hopefully things will continue to improve.

Thanks again.

[jks1]

glad to hear things are looking up. I guess it could have been much worse..