Horror of Horrors

[The Aquarist]

I have to tell you guys, the Reef Central experience has been challenging to say the least. I've learned alot here and helped as many as I was fortunate to be able to, although I've sometimes been knocked for posting what I know to be valid and relevant info.

Far East Aquarist got the info he needed early on in the thread. Water Changes and Carbon. To keep repeating THAT would be redundant and useless.

On the SOURCE of the problem, many people, such as I and Far East Aquarist had a time when the serious awareness of the RIO situation was not obvious to us. I made the case and hopefully others will learn.

Far East Aquarist needs no additional help with his problem. That's been covered. I think the problem's source is FAR more important now. I didn't feel any need to carry it beyond my early post until my input was questioned. This seems to be a common occurance here at RC lately. I don't understand why people can't have their post included on threads without being questioned, told to back off or sometimes, just plain insulted!

My points are relevant. I made them. There is an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the page if anyone finds offense in my relevant response. There is no need for telling people how to post unless they are being abusive.

I have nothing else to add to the thread topic or the lack of satisfaction to my response.

[fishreefoctobreed]

over kill on a point already made is abusive!
threat to your tank, house and self? come on!
you did go a little overboard!

[michaelg]

At this point- 4-5 50% water changes have been made- is that enough- too much? Is it time to just sit back and wait? Unfortunately, the specifics of "do water changes and run carbon" are not real clear. Different situations probably require more of less? We had do significant power outages here in the last 8 weeks, people lost a lot of livestock. While after the damage was over, I did water changes and ran carbon, I really didn't know if I was changing the carbon frequently enough, so I swapped it out every other day- Carbon is cheap relatively....was this overkill? I have never experienced a rio meltdown, but the "black crud" that comes out sounds like it would be some pretty nasty stuff.
Guess the point I am making is- what specifically did you do Aquarist, and what were the results?
Your input I was not questioning- but so many people have had this happen, I could see this whole thread turning into a recap of a bunch of bad rio experiences. Nothing personal was intended.

[The Aquarist]

Originally posted by michaelg

Guess the point I am making is- what specifically did you do Aquarist, and what were the results?
Your input I was not questioning- but so many people have had this happen, I could see this whole thread turning into a recap of a bunch of bad rio experiences. Nothing personal was intended.

michaelg! No personal hard feelings here. I thought this was resolved yesterday though. I'm quite surprised to be called back.

Fortunately, I learned by other peoples mistakes and we all make plenty, so I have many to learn from.

In 16 years of keeping Salt water tanks, I never had this exact experience. The worst similar problem I had was a RIO sump pump failed while I was away for 2 weeks and the entire tank was wiped out. I could have left the manufacturer out of that last sentence, but it is clearly similar and relevant to the thread topic. Not RIO bashing ... details.
I had a tank full of disgusting liquid garbage when I got home. I cleaned everything up, changed all water, ran carbon and didn't change the carbon (Chemi pure) until 4 months later.

What I specifically did to avoid a meltdown, such as the one that started this thread was throw out my RIOs before I got ... yes ... killed and before my tank was ruined. Seriously.

I've been electricuted before, just holding a clip light near an aquarium with water on the floor. I don't mean shocked. I mean electricuted. The clip light was just a regular clip light with electronic connections well insulated, but I became the ground I guess. I felt the electricity running through my body. I wanted to call for help, but I could not make a sound or move any part of my body. It was REALLY scary. I am extremely lucky to be here and posting right now. The clip light left my hand. I'm not really sure what happened, but I dropped it and I'm here. This was many years ago, but a lesson well learned.

I am sorry if I think this ongoing RIO thing is more serious than some others and if I thought it was a key part of the problem we are discussing. If you look back, I'm not the only one with the "powerheads of death" impression. I didn't mean to annoy people. You know what I think of this situation. I posted and some preferred that I should have said something else. I didn't mean to redirect this thread with my comments, but I hope that after this post, I can leave this and all the new RIO threads that will follow behind.

I have seen this threads exact same problem posted several times here at Reef Central. The exact same story. The un named Powerhead and tank condition. Here is how those guys resolved it:

They did a few large water changes and put carbon in their sump. I would guess that 4 - 5 50% water changes is more than enough. My only reason for saying that is that I do not remember the other cases requiring more than 2 or 3 large water changes. Carbon lasts for months. It probably would be better to run it about 5 days and put some new carbon in if you want a clean start. Carbon will not be used up in 5 days though. I know that saying do water changes and run carbon isn't real clear, but that's all that can be said. There is no certified exact recommended info on how much water change is necessary or how long (in days) you should use the carbon. If this was the case, I or some one else would have posted specifics. There just aren't any. The answer is determined by looking in the tank and observing the results of what you have done so far. Maybe more work is required. Maybe not. Beyond that, hope for the best.


Far East Aquarist. Good Luck!

[Far East Aquarist]

Thanks to everyone for their help and advice!

Ok, let me try and summerize this thread - I have done (3) 50% water changes in the first 6 hours after discovery of the problem. I am running carbon but I think it's old and not too effective. The damage done seems to be mostly to the zooxanthellae of the hard corals (my theory is that the soft corals were able to squeeze the bad water out and pump in clean water when I did changes, but the hard corals could not.)

By the 3rd day I was noticing an algae bloom and ammonia and Nitrates were a bit high. From these two facts I can assume that the oil/melted plastic at least killed a lot of the microbes in the tank. The fish seems to be just fine. The corals have expanded again but are very pale (for example my dark blue acro - is a very light sky blue).

To try and reduce stress I am not increasing the photoperiod, nor am I decreasing the photoperiod.

I am stuck in a catch-22, I want to feed the corals more since they have lost zooxanthellae, but the tank seems to be cycling again and I don't want high ammonia spikes.

Any suggestions? (other than patience)

[photobarry]

You probably have lots of organics in you tank right now so I wouldn't worry about feeding the corals a whole lot until your water parameters stabilize.

[Guy W]

Just curious, if so many people have had problems with Rio's why hasn't anyone sued the company or filed a class action against them?

[EricHugo]

It's been discussed, but I don't think anything every came of it. I would certainly be a party to it...I've had three of them melt down in the tank over the years.