My tank mystery solved

So I discovered something infuriating today, but I restrained myself. It is also a relief at the same time because I realized it was not some lack of care by my part. A couple months ago I started having an issue with my sps dying off and some lps. It coincided with a power loss for a couple hours at my house where my tank dropped to about 74 degrees for an hour. I figured it was that manifesting in the death of corals. However, I started noticing cycles of recovery and then more fading. Well it turns out a friend of my fiance has been here a few times with her 9 year old son. Apparently when they are visiting he likes to come down to the basement and see the tank. I have a bin of additives for my tank nearby. Apparently he saw the large bottles of Red Sea Coral Colors for potassium and iodine and whenever he was down here was adding like 1/2 of each of the bottles over a period of a month each time he was here. Once one was empty he added the other one. Apparently he thought this was good as it made them "more colorful". I never check these bottles as I stopped supplementing them a while back and they were probably 90% full. I also only test for potassium maybe two or three times a year so had no idea it was high. I found this out because we came down to see my tank and he asked me if I was going to get more of the coral colors because they were looking white. So....I think it was pretty commendable when I calmly told him he couldnt be in the basement anymore without me there and that he had killed the corals and possibly more would die from him adding that stuff. It made him cry but I felt good, hah. At least I have an answer now.

 

Well about that...After this post I tested my potassium and it was over 1200. I did a 25% water change as thats all I had ready made. I am going to do a 30% change tonight and see if that brings it down. No idea what my iodine is as I used up my kit for it but Ill just assume high. It also would explain why several of my turbo snails died.

Edit: Well who knows how high potassium went. I was reading the Calcium card for my Potassium kit. I'll have to test again but I bet it's off the chart for the K test.

 

Yeah I might have thought that but she was mortified. He is pretty quiet and doesn't mess with stuff generally, though I am extremely irritated about it I did dumb stuff too as a kid where I thought I was "helping". Like the time I surprised my neighbor by taking apart his shed board by board because he said he wanted a new shed. Well I guess he meant another shed to go with that one.