..............help!!!!!!!!!!!

njbluefish

Member
I just got home and found out I left my RODI running for five hours. It filters about 40 gal an hour. I have a 110 with a 40 gal sump.
Temp 58
Sal 1.013 if that
Fish are sluggish
coral....well you know how that goes....all closed
Mushrooms sliming
I am screwed......screwed
I have every darn heater in the tank as we speak.
I have dumped about enough salt to mix 50G in my sump
I added some salt to the main tank
Added an air stone to the main tank.....get some air in the water
Added some PH8.3 seachem ph-up stuff
What next.........and ideas short of drinking and watching my hobby go down the drain.
Temp of 58............all of the water had to be replaced 3x over
Will anything live............am I done?
Help please
 

wangotango

Active Member
Whatever you do, do it slowly. After my ATO went supernova my SG dropped to about 1.012, but I brought it up over the course of 8-9 hours with no losses. That temp would be a big concern to me.
Hope things work out.
-Justin
 

sac10918

Member
Yeah, I would definatley bring the temperature up ASAP, but slow down with the salinity and such. Don't do anything too drastic, you dont want a swing in the other direction. Fish can live at lower salinity (since we hypo them). Did any of your inverts survive?
I think your corals will come around once you get everything back to normal. Just dont do anything to rashly or it might make things worse...
 

njbluefish

Member
I put some salt in the sump.....a few scoops in the main tank. I know that was not that great...but the sal was 1.008 that is like tap water. The temp is now 63 and rising....I have five heaters in the tank to bring that temp up. I will not add any more salt....wait and see what is going on in an hour or two.
This sucks......if it was not 8G's worth of stuff I would just hang up my hat.
BTW............it appears that all of the worms in the rocks died and came out....they are scattered around the tank. That alone will bomb the tank IMO.....I don't know.
Any thoughts...........
 

vayapues

Member
Wow, that sucks. I am so sorry.
PM me if everything dies. If you need a scoop of sand, a live rock, or a coral frag or something, I will mail it to you. Perhaps a few others can as well, making your loss a little easier.
 

bigmac

Member
I've had it happen a few time using a powerhead controlled by a float switch (what was I thinking)...I took everything back to norm asap. That said, a powerhead pumps a lot faster then a 40gph RODI unit. You might want to move a little slow.
FWIW, I did it twice and never lost a thing other then my pride having my wife watch me clean up the mess.
You might want to spend 20-30 bucks and buy a hose bib timer like the one pic below. Its a great way to top off your top off drum or set your RO unit on a timer. I can set it to run from 1 to 360 minutes. I had a buddy who use it to top off his system..This one cost me about 15.00 at HD a few year back
 

njbluefish

Member
thanks guys......I just feel like a ass for this move. It is so hard to see my fish and corals that I had for 8+years in a state of ....well...they are in great shock. I have managed to bring up the temp to about 64-65
We will see......it is a slow process, but I am not one to give up. I have a feeling that the tank will cycle like mad...all of the worms in the rock have bailed and died.
My MTC skimmer is working overtime. I have never seen the skimmer work this hard. Good thing....it is a dual 3" air stone....4ft model. Rated for a 300+gal tank. overkill...but I have a feeling I am going to need it.
What should I expect.....anyone have this happen?
 

spiderwoman

Active Member
When your temp is that low, your salinity drops too, so you have to keep that in mind when you raise the temperature, the salinity will raise on it's own. You don't want to dump a lot of salt right now so you won't overdo it when the temp goes up.
Sorry for your mishap :(
 

bigmac

Member
my thougth is that you want to get things back to acceptable range asap...IME, keeping the range less then that makes it worse....but then, what do I know.
 

njbluefish

Member
thanks guys......I just feel like a ass for this move. It is so hard to see my fish and corals that I had for 8+years in a state of ....well...they are in great shock. I have managed to bring up the temp to about 64-65
We will see......it is a slow process, but I am not one to give up. I have a feeling that the tank will cycle like mad...all of the worms in the rock have bailed and died.
My MTC skimmer is working overtime. I have never seen the skimmer work this hard. Good thing....it is a dual 3" air stone....4ft model. Rated for a 300+gal tank. overkill...but I have a feeling I am going to need it.
What should I expect.....anyone have this happen?
 

njbluefish

Member
Thanks all.............I have learned a large $$$$$ mistake. I noticed a few fish that did not make it so far. I think at this point I would be happy to stay in the game and just build on what I have left. I have lost a great deal....and I don't know what is to come, but can tell you that I have learned. Nothing can undo what is done, but I can help those who need the advice. (don't run your RODI in your sump) Sad to say I know what I did wrong....not proud of it....in fact it sucks. Funny as I said the other day....I would like to have another tank that is fish only. Well....I just might have that with my reef tank. The fact is that I put my heart into my tank as I know a great deal of you also do.
Thanks guys/girls who took the time to post.
BTW............temp is back to 70 and my sal is 1.018
I am in somewhat of a safe zone considering what I did. I will take my tank apart to route for the dead ones....see how my readings are in the morning.
Thanks guys,
Mike (NJbluefish)
 
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