spsfreak100
Active Member
Recently I attached a 30 gallon refugium to my 90 gallon sump. After finally picking up some chaetomorpha from Dave B., I went to homedepot to buy a 60wt 3,300k Halide. I set it up, and all went well for the first few days. I then come home one night to find the ballast and bulb in the sump. The halide could have just fallen in the tank as soon as I got home, or it could have been in the tank for over 9 hours. I immediatly turned off all appliances and take the halide out of the water. The bulb had turned dark black with a thick black substance running down the side of the ballast. I then observe my corals- a total wreak. I lost a few corals from RTN from this event- An A. formosa and an A. nobilis. I then come to notice that all my corals are bleached. Not one coral had full coloration to it. I then panicked and did a 20 gallon waterchange along with running carbon 24/7 with skimmer on full blast. On the second day, the corals looked worse. I saw no polyp extention and all corals had an extremely pale coloration to them (dispite the fact that all fish and other invertibrates were fine). I then continued a 10 gallon waterchange on the 3rd day, a 5 gallon waterchange on the 5th day and another 5 gallon waterchange on the 7th day. I then started to see some slight improvement- I began seeing some polyp extention. On the 10th day, all corals were showing polyp extention, but most corals have turned completely brown. On the 17th day, the corals had full polyp extention with some returning color. On the 27th day, the corals had almost full coloration and full polyp extention. I also noticed a rapid increase in growth at this time. Many of my corals expolded, forming new buds throughout the branches. This is by far the most growth I've received yet.
I attached some pictures of one of the corals which got hit most badly. Here's a picture of the coral within 31 days:
Here's a picture of the Capricornis on 12/10/03:
As you can see, the coral has little polyp extention, very pale coloration and has started to recede in some areas (note the edges of the coral).
Here's a picture of the Capricornis on 12/17/03:
As you can see, coloration has started to return as with some better polyp extention.
Finally, here's a picture taken today (1/8/03):
As you can see, there's a slight ring of growth (about 1/4") around the capricornis. The coloration has also enhanced greatly. It's recovering quite well, as with all the other corals. Moral of the message: Buy a GFCI unit!
Graham
I attached some pictures of one of the corals which got hit most badly. Here's a picture of the coral within 31 days:
Here's a picture of the Capricornis on 12/10/03:
As you can see, the coral has little polyp extention, very pale coloration and has started to recede in some areas (note the edges of the coral).
Here's a picture of the Capricornis on 12/17/03:
As you can see, coloration has started to return as with some better polyp extention.
Finally, here's a picture taken today (1/8/03):
As you can see, there's a slight ring of growth (about 1/4") around the capricornis. The coloration has also enhanced greatly. It's recovering quite well, as with all the other corals. Moral of the message: Buy a GFCI unit!
Graham
