Just had crash. PH 11.4

[ser_renely]

Brutal. 4am I hear my ATO sucking air. I knew it should have been mostly full, so something was wrong. I expected water to be on the floor as the hose might have fallen out of the sump. Nope, All the Limewater into the tank. PH 11+. About 10g+ of full potency limewater.

It had been almost 2 years since a major crash, and being tired I don't know if I reacted correctly.

I first added some vinegar to bring the PH to an more acceptable range. I got it to 9.4-8 with that. I didn't want to get it any lower bc I know it will still drop for a while after. I think I put vinegar in too quickly in hindsight, I probably did it over 30 min, probably less.

I then did a water change. I changed about 35g, but I would take 5g out add 5g. I did that to try and slowly bring the PH down the rest of the way and to limit other changes. The other issue is bc the temp of the ocean is 75, so I also went from 80 to that as well. I couldn't heat it fast enough...I figured getting water in was more important?

I guess in hindsight, I moved to fast. It is hard not to, it seems to go against common sense not to.

So far my two Orange Anthias died :( Gutted. My two Clowns, Blenny and Fire fish seem ok so far. Shrimp still there. Snails falling off the walls and all my stars and urchins trying to get out of the tank. My Corals look terrible, obviously. I gather I won't know the damage for a few days, but I think I will lose some...not sure.

Did my fast acting kill the Anthias or save my other fish?

[billdogg]

If it had happened to me (and similar has - thats why I don't have dosing pumps or ato), I would have done as close to a 100% change as I could. Yes, in a perfect world, the water is mixed and aerated for 24hrs prior. Guess what? It's not a perfect world. Did your actions help or hurt? Yes. I would keep going with the water changes until the ph is back to normal. I'll be surprised if anything makes it long term, but you never know. Some of the stuff we keep is surprisingly resilient, so don't give up on anything yet.

Sorry of your mess!!!

[ser_renely]

Thanks. I didn't know if doing a full water change would be the best - double shock. I get the water from the ocean, and its 5-7deg or so colder than my tank.

I have had a similar mess before and my fish made it through. I also have some stuff that I don't think I could have tried to kill anymore ways in the beginning of my reefing and they are still around. Probably thinking - hear we go again. The way life use to be.

My Ph has been 8.7-6 for the past hour, temp is slowly rising to 79 and at 77 atm.

[Richard Reefer]

I feel your pain, I've had this happen to me twice now. I also no longer mix kalk into my top off water.

The first time I panicked and did water changes to drop the ph as much as I could, I think I did somewhere around 50%. I lost most of my snails, clams, and fish.

The second time around I left the tank alone, after 2 days the ph was normal, there was calcium participate everywhere. I blew of all the rocks and cleaned the glass and did a water change afterward. I didn't lose anything that time.

It could have been good luck the second time or it could have not been cause twice the amount of shock, but the system as a whole was much better off.

On the good side of everything I can say both of my Clowns and my Cleaner Shrimp have made it through both occasion perfectly fine.

[jcw]

what's failing on the ATO?

[Richard Reefer]

what's failing on the ATO?

In both of my experiences it was a stuck float switch, once to a large build up of calcium deposits and once to a rather small and mischievous limpet that manged to wedge itself between the float and it's guide.

Needless to say regular cleanings of the floats and a double switch setup was implemented.

[sirreal63]

I am really sorry to hear that. :-(

ATO's fail and that has always been a possibility with any brand. You can go years with no issues but it only takes one time to wipe out a tank. Maybe I am just old school, but the only top off I trust is me. I have seen hundreds of threads of Auto Top Off Disasters over the years, enough to make me stay away from them.

I agree with lots of water changes and quickly. :-(

[ser_renely]

My problem was not an ATO issue per se, but rather I did a water change last night and it/I moved my skimmer slighlty. The out put on the skimmer put water on the top edge of the tank. It then was getting absorbed by a cloth I hang over my stand, tripping the ATO.

So far things look "ok", minus the Anthias. :(

[sirreal63]

That does blow...but had the ATO not been there, everything would still be alive. To each his own, but I prefer being the only one responsible for adding anything to the tank. I don't like surprises. Please do let us know how it works out. I hate to hear of any one having issues like this. :-(

[Blitzburggirl]

That really is terrible! I'm so sorry for you!! I still believe an ATO is a must for a stable tank, and something that is easily managed. The key is that you shouldn't have enough available water to totally trip your levels. For a 12 gallon tank, for years, I kept a half gallon reservoir. For the 180, I usually have about 10 gallons available, enough for a couple days.

I get cold chills and a bit nauseated when I see people that run an ATO straight to their RO/DI.....

[ser_renely]

I will post an update. This is by far the worse tank crash I have had, as the effects of it are sad and strange, even now.

I lost one of my shrimp. He just seemed messed up, and knew there was nothing I could do for him.

It seems my amazing community of brittle stars has been depleted or or they are all hiding. Some of my stars seemed to lose their legs in small segments. I would see a star curled up and then a day later half of its legs were off and its base had moved. Again said to see that. Hope its just a defense mechanism?

My snails are having issues now as well. Not too many but at least 4-5 so far


Of course I am having a large algae bloom and things look different. On a strange note, my corals are fine....go figure.

[Zebodog]

Look into investing in a good controller.

I dose Kalk through my ATO as well and use redundant float switches; the second is positioned about an inch above the first and will shut the power off if it closes. In the event both should fail, I set my Apex to shut off power to the ATO pump if the PH is higher than 8.5.

Given my investment in livestock, it's cheap insurance.

[ser_renely]

I do have a controller. It was a strange incident, that was a fluke, albeit my fault.

I have the RKL, but I need to have a redundant shut off like you did for high PH...I never set it up, bc I was lazy/busy and then forgot....makes me even more mad now.

thanks.

[CJO]

Look into investing in a good controller.

I dose Kalk through my ATO as well and use redundant float switches; the second is positioned about an inch above the first and will shut the power off if it closes. In the event both should fail, I set my Apex to shut off power to the ATO pump if the PH is higher than 8.5.

Given my investment in livestock, it's cheap insurance.

I do the same- one float switch for turning the ATO on and off, another as a failsafe, and using the pH meter as a third failsafe.

CJ

[Uncle Salty 05]

Sorry for your loss.

I use a simple aqualifter on a timer for my ATO and never had a failure/mishap.
Cheap and effective.

[ser_renely]

Adding the PH safety cut off... makes me feel worse to know I didn't have that already in. :(

[KevinBroski]

This story scare the crap out of me. That's why now I have a controller to alarm me when my ph rise. My controller control the time of dosing, plus 2 float switches for safety, still keeping my fingers cross, and continue to knock on woods :)

[langtudatinh01]

well, i guess the way i do ato with kalk is only a 2 gallons of water with small amount of kalk. it is help to stable my PH and supplement to my 2 parts dosing. if the ATO go nut, it would not raise anything much more than the acceptable level. it is simple enough to mix it without a lot of time. i have to do my routine checking everyday anyway so. so sad to hear about your trouble, but dont give up yet. keep on fighting. everything will get better. we all made mistakes in this hobby.

[LivingRoomOcean]

Or run it through a kalk stirrer and a litermeter with some kind of controller my case I use the apex that can just down pumps if ph gets too high ... Always have 2nd and 3rd backups ...