Tank disaster.

[StirCrazy]

well after being gone for 2.5 weeks I came home to a huge monti die off, all my caps and all my digitata are gone. acros survived and the LPS went un scaved.

Steve

[Beverly]

Steve,

That sucks :sad: What do you figure went wrong?

[Jack]

wierd :confused:

[StirCrazy]

not sure what happened yet, still investagating. all the fish are accounted for now and the snails and such are fine.

Steve

[Delphinus]

Heat stress?

[StirCrazy]

Heat stress?

thats one idea, but the clam and acros are doing fine, I would have figured they would be more sensitive than my digitata.

Steve

[AJ_77]

Those beautiful caps... sorry to hear that.

:sad:

[zulu_principle]

Could it be kalk overdose or calcium reactor burn ?

Have experienced the calcium reactor burn in on of my monti grow outs and have heard of others that have experienced the same with kalk problems.


Wendell

[StirCrazy]

Kalk overdose isn't a possablility, my reactor was out befor I left. but the Ca reactor is maintaining everything.

Steve

[zulu_principle]

Dont know what you mean by "my reactor was out befor I left. but the Ca reactor is maintaining everything"

Everything ?

[Samw]

I've had Montis die on me during a time when my skimmer wasn't functioning well and I had high nitrates.

[StirCrazy]

my kalk reactor was out of kalk and i didn't wan't to refill it befor i left as I want to make a modification to it. the Ca reactor was running normal though.

Steve

[StirCrazy]

Well, I think I have found the cause. I checked the memory on my thermomiter and the highest recorded temp sence my last reset is 104.9 degrees F. amazing only the monties got wiped out.

Steve

[Jack]

Holy, thats like a hot tub.

[Quinn]

Hotter than a hot tub, I remember if my hot tub hit 104 we were basically only able to put our toes in. It was nearly to the point of turning flesh red.

[Doug]

Does that mean I need to take that beaut of a digita pic from my desktop. :cry: Sorry about the losses Steve.

[StirCrazy]

Hotter than a hot tub, I remember if my hot tub hit 104 we were basically only able to put our toes in. It was nearly to the point of turning flesh red.

104 is the recomended temp for a hot tub, my wife likes it at 112 though.

Steve

[StirCrazy]

Does that mean I need to take that beaut of a digita pic from my desktop. :cry: Sorry about the losses Steve.

well you can keep it there if you like it.. no sence in both of us losing :mrgreen:

you know losing the digi doesent realy bother me much as it is a very ast grower and can be replaced pretty easy but the caps upset me.. they were my favorit corals (along with the milli's) and were quite large so replacing them won't be as easy.

Steve

[Jack]

Your milli died too??

[StirCrazy]

nope my milli's made it.

[Jack]

Okay, it must of just been the way i read your last post. My mistake. You have a really nice pink milli going, if Im not mistaken.

[smokinreefer]

that sucks steve.
i'm sure your tank will recover and look even better than ever!

[StirCrazy]

ya i hope so, but i think this winter i am saving for a chiller. :rolleyes:

Steve

[smokinreefer]

heh,
as much as i've been trying to avoid one, i think i will look into one as well.
any idea as to how much wattage they consume?, i'm pretty tight on power as is.

[StirCrazy]

well a 1/5th horse cooler is about 3.5 amps, a 1/4 horse is 5 amps and a 1/3 (which I think I will need is about 7.2 amps.

Steve

[Troy F]

Do you guys really think a chiller is neccessary here in southwestern BC? I run a 12" fan over my sump and haven't had temperatures over 84*F (I normally keep my reef at or about 78*F). I mean I guess if you have the extra money kicking around they certainly wouldn't hurt and I guess it depends on how hot your house gets too.

Steve, I hope everything turns out all right and for peace of mind's sake; you find the cause.

[StirCrazy]

well during the summer I need 3 fans just to keep my temp under 86 degrees, with two fans I can get as high as 89. (I also have to have my MH lights staggered and only on 4.5 hours each a day) this could be because of my house and I will see how it is in the new house in a few weeks, BUT if I would have had a chiller I woulden't have had a peek temp of ~105 degrees while I was gone, and I wouldent be trying to figure out how I am going to replace a couple of my Caps.

I am not the only one who is having temp problems in the summer as you can see by the thread (in june I think) about tank temps, looks like there are several people trying to figure out ways to keep there tanks cooler.

Steve

[StirCrazy]

Steve, I hope everything turns out all right and for peace of mind's sake; you find the cause.

all my water peramiters are good, but the temp spike of 104.9 degrees F is what I am going to blame. weird how it only nailed the heck out of my caps and digitata, I mean the other corals are showing signs of stress but I anticipate no more losses.

Steve

[Delphinus]

:eek:

That's wild. That's like ... 40 degrees C? That seems hardly plausible that have anything left standing after that. You obviously trust your thermometer though .. so I guess it must be correct.

[sumpfinfishe]

Sorry to hear the bad news Steve :cry:
Those where some really amazing monti caps that you had!
As for temperature, I also had a bad spell of "boiling water syndrome"
a few weeks ago. I had the fans a blow'n and even used cubes in the sump for a few days to help keep things cool.
I lost one mother colony of Digitata, so I'm thinking that maybe this species is delicate to temperature swings. Everything else was a little stressed, but things are back to norm now. I can relate somewhat on the heat situation though, as my tank hit 89 for 3 days straight.

Once again, sorry for the loss. :frown:
On a brighter note though- I guess you can get some monti cap frags back from every islander and a lot of us mainlanders too :mrgreen:

[One_Divided]

Sorry to hear steve, that is crappy luck. I am worried about things like this every day since I don't live in the same house as where my tank is anymore.

104 seems almost unbelievable. I haven't seen my temp jump any higher then 83/84 all summer.