smokythemattman@gmail.com

As title states I am looking for large tank builders. Looking to have an 8x4x4 built and I know some folks in here have some nice large custom tanks. Looking for recommendations!

I suspect this is going to be the case in my tank when my test results come back as well. Fwiw dipping my colonies in antiobiotics seemed to help more than doing nothing but it seemed like a week later the infection/problem would resume. I am hoping my test results are similar to yours. Sucks. Its a new cause of rtn/stn that just in the past couple years has gotten more noticed. I tried adding rock from my other tank, multiple kinds of new bacteria and it didnt matter. Im going to tun a softie heavy tank for a year or so and retest the bacterial makeup. Id be curious if you also did the same

I don't check it as often as other params Ill admit. But I was at the beginning of all this. I used to dose kalkwasser for alk and Ca still was until the end albeit not as much. Ph stayed around 8.1-8.3 depending on the time of day. A few times during a couple upticks in algae I thought maybe it caused my ph to swing more. But it really didnt only a few times did it ever hit 8 that I tested. I didn't test it as religiously as I grew many of the corals from small frags and mini colonies for a while without testing or chasing it. I only started testing it when I started seeing problems to cross things off the list. I just wouldnt have expected the onesy twosey die offs of colonies with a ph swing problem. But I may start keeping an eye on it some more

Welp. Phosphates at .07. Nitrates at 3ppm. Everything else unchanged over the past few days. Swapped out carbon for polyfilter and Ive watched 2 of my last 4 SPS colonies RTN today. Hands down the most frustrating thing is spending 100s on test kits, ICP, even that bacteria test and nothing really stands out. Ive killed corals before due to stupidity. And while it sucks at least I can learn and move on. Ive watched a tank grow from frags and mini colonies to many 6-7 inch plus colonies in 2 years or less time only for them all to waste away slowly over the past few months with me changing nothing about husbandry or feeding and not even livestock in that span. Totally depressing. I have probably read 100 threads of mystery deaths and looked at it all and Im still stumped by it. I am waiting on the bacteria test results there was a delay on their end which they apologized for. I really hope that is the cause so I have some closure. For the life of me I cannot figure out how without any visible pest that this has happened 1 or 2 colonies at a time. But now begins the journey into a soft coral and anemone tank I plan to wait a while before adding a bunch of the frags of some colonies I made that are in my frag tank back into the display. Thanks to everyone who helped. You win some and lose some in this hobby wish I could've figured this one out to help someone else

Fair point that the move could be more of a death sentence. I know that that colony is at least happy/capable of growing well where it is. Yes I meant .05ppm sorry. I have nitrates at around 3ppm right now. I think I am going to leave it there and see what happens once the phosphates come down. I think I am going to remove the carbon and go with polyfilter as that may he a little easier on the system for removing something bad. I think dropping the phosphates back and raising nitrates and swapping in polyfilter in case there a bad contaminate. Anything else I should try right now dont want to go to crazy but dont want to go to little

I would say 90% of it is gha, the normal film algae and sometimes cyano. I wont say I kept a spotless tank but my display wasnt a refugium either haha. It does that is why another culprit is changing nutrient levels from if I did to large of algae removal or if it dying has spiked nutrients or something else. It really hasnt been growing which is bizarre. Serious note would you have room for this red robin colony in your system? I refuse to lose that one or watch it go downhill and Id like it to go somewhere itll carry on and can get fragged up and shared. The rest of the colony is in great shape besides the tips. H-E-double hockey sticks the polyps still extend. I plan on slowly bring phosphates back to around .5 and holding them there. Ive suspected all along this is why softies are exploded but none of the testing really captured a swing or anything that would scare me but its possible I missed it.

Always wear gloves in tank No airborne contaminantes we dont even use air fresheners and the tank is quite isolated I have glued frags but I use the same IC gel alot of us use

Thats a good idea lemme try listing it out. Yes probably since end of Jan/Feb is when it took a turn. One of the main "things" was the algae in the tank was due for some removal. Wasnt an infestation but the glass needed a clean on some sides. I never really like doing large water changes or changes. I did a small cleaning and removed some algae. Lets say a 5% water change. A couple corals probably were on the decline around here like 1 or 2. Chalked it up to just an isolated incident or something since so many others were fine. A couple more pieces started looking rough. Double checked refractometers Double checked heaters Bought new reagants for hannah testers for alk, phos and nitrates New reagants and old tested similar Removed a bit more algae thinking maybe low nutrients 1 by 1 a few more declined Started doing more frequent small water changes, ICP test, suspected angelfish, Rechecked everything same as above I ordered a new RODI 5 stage. New mixing bucket Checked equipment for rust No stray voltage Lighting settings same (i debated tuning them down a bit but didnt want the stress) Once i got ICP test i ordered iodine strontium and cuprasorb for the aluminum Dosed more ca Dosed 1/2 recommended doses for I and SR Added some aminos Around this time a little over a month ago Id say things started to get worse I was still doing small water changes every week or so Stopped doing them Past week or so Ive rechecked my test kits and now ordered the bacteria test. SPS still slowly deteriorating. Performed 5% watee change. Double checked thermometers/heater Upped feedings and such to increase phosphate Algae hasnt been growing nor corals About to add much more carbon have not much more to lose for SPS

@YHSublime I never ran a skimmer on this tank hehe. I dont really have a high bioload and I was gona keep an eye on nutrients. They always were pretty low and manageable. The nitrates though has me wondering. Some days the corals that are struggling do worse day to day then other times with nothing really changing. It is really bizarre. I wondered and still do if my changing levels of algae maybe have been causing nutrient swings that sneak in between testing. But nothing has grown the past month really. Micro or macro algae or SPS corals. I have slowly added some neo nitro throughout the day to try to get it to the 3-4 range. I double checked equipment even tho the ICP test showed nothing bad in that department and double checked thermometers. All looks good there. I may just massively up my carbon sitting in the sump. At this point there not much to lose in terms of SPS. Its just so weird that many corals and still some SPS thrive while others 1 by 1 or sometimes 2 at a time just waste away. Unless those were just the hardier ones. Which could be the case as the bigger older colonies just now in the past few weeks got worse. Like people grow red plating montis in just about anything... same with green slimer. H-E-double hockey sticks i grew them to large colonies from frags in a couple years. Just cant seem to figure out what Im missing. The not knowing why is the worst. If I dosed wrong or a heater died at least id have closure and learn.

I have 2 Hannah alk test kits and both come between .1 of each other. I suspected bad reagants early on and replaced some. I was double checkin myself with reefescapes and would be within .1-.2 of my Hannahs. Now nitrates is something I suspect could be the problem. My chaeto and algae has stopped growing and theyve lingered between 1-2. I wonder if they are to low. How fast do you think I could raise them up? Also good point about the flow. Its not like the colonies die from the inside out which I learned the hard way is usually lack of flow.

I slacked on sending it out was trying to wait a few weeks to see if anything else changed. I think the test results should come back by end of this week or next week. Not the best picture but here you can see a little bit of the tips stripping/peeling off. That colony grew to that size from being smaller than the 4 inch tile it is on. In 2 years.... only thing thats changed for it was it gets slightly more indirect flow as far as positioning. The hawkfish used to sit on it daily and it never cared even lol. As soon as that thing takes a turn for the worst I am moving it. Refuse to kill such a big colony

I am still at a total loss about my issues. SPS continue to slowly decline. I believe I am about to sell my last remaining large colony of SPS as I dont think I could stomach watching that one die. The colonies I have fragged have been hit or miss with their status. My parameters havent really changed at all. Temp is 80 Salinity 1.025 Nitrates are 1 Phosphates are .14 (tried to raise them a bit thinking maybe nutrients were low) Alk is at 7.2 Ca 420 I even bought a new RODI a few months back. Anyone had anything an ICP test doesnt show cause problems I should test for? Ive stopped water changes, I was doing some small ones weekly to try the dilution is the solution approach but nothing changed. Ive kept some carbon in and cuprasorb. Angelfish occasionally nips but it really only goes for the algae on the dead tips. Im still wondering if my flow isnt enough? That is really my last guess at this point.

For what its worth I am going through something right now only with SPS that I suspect is bacterial. I am about to send a water sample out to get some bacterial analysis. I watched some SPS colonies that were huge and established just wither away out of no where over a week or so portion. But over the past few months it has been only a couple SPS colonies at a time affected. I would cross off nutrients as a problem source for you. LPS are always one of the 1st the first thing for me to get mad when my nutrients drop to low. Especially the bigger fleshy ones. They always hungry for whatever they can get. I'd crosd nutrients off the list and then do an ICP test and or a test for bacteria. A good bit of us recently with unexplained losses and people suspecting bacterial infections... is strange

@ranger I agree I am quite curious. My tanks only have one coral I got from online sources (my 1st coral) all the rest have been from Wamas members. I've seen others tales of tank wips recently. I like to think I know mostly what I am doing lol but Ive seen some folks on here with remarkable systems get baffled by a bunch of mysterious deaths. Its led to one of my theories that something has changed in our source waters that RODI doesnt filter out and ICP doesn't capture. I tested this little theory of the stressed coral + bad bacteria = dead theory with a piece of the big red monti I had. When i fragged it I made some like really bad half cuts on purpose into a little 2x2 piece. I didn't shred it but I made sure to leave it a couple of little damaged areas on the flesh. I was out of town yesterday and that piece entirely died when I got back today. The frags where I made clean breaks were fine. A few months ago I had some success dipping into an antibiotic mixture but it wasnt 100% it just seemed better than normal. This is all so bizarre because I picked up a couple corals from a tank breakdown one I believe is a pink Cadillac it was pretty rough and its recovered really well the past month. That frag that shouldve died recovers no issue while a 3 year old 10+ inch colony will just up and quit. Been a bizarre past few months for SPS in my tank lol

@ranger I am going to send a test in next week because at this point I have no good guesses left. Appreciate it

Really my last guess is flow. Another theme is its the larger colonies. Maybe when they get stressed from the angelfish nipping or whatever they dont have enough flow and the bad bacteria is able to basically sit and multiply?

Well I thought I had a lead. Then bam out of no where a large plating monti I had growing like a weed has the weird fuzz with stringyness coming off if it eating away at the flesh randomly. Was just fine this morning and multiple 1 inch in diameter chunks are gone. Never saw the angelfish pick at that one and I've been staring at the tank for probably 8+ hours while I worked today. I am beginning to suspect the angelfish nips these corals and there is some strain of bad bacteria that takes hold. Any kind of damage gets caused and the SPS just immediately go downhill. Its very bizarre. I think over the next few weeks I may sell off my SPS and turn the tank into a soft coral and anemone plague tank and let them run amok lol. It sucks when things die when you know why. But this is extremely frustrating as I cannot pinpoint why this keeps happening. Yet again vast majority of other corals including those next to it are healthy and growing...

@ReefdUp so this morning this whole thing took an interesting turn.... before my lights come on the fish are awake for like an hour or so from natural light. 100% saw the angelfish nip 2 of the corals not doing so hot right now. I put nori in the tank and it seems to have worked in distracting it. I usually would put nori before I start working and later in the evening. My guess is the nori isnt there and it grazed on corals. I've lost quite a few pieces slowly over the past 6 months or so and I think this has finally answered it. It makes sense because it was just 1 or 2 corals at a time doing bad not the whole tank. Now I get to rehome a potters angelfish to my frag tank/qt full of soft corals....

I think I am going to watch some as the lights come on. My tank gets some natural light in the morning before tank lights come on. I feed nori daily which is probably the distraction. I suspect maybe the fish grazes in the sunrise and sunset periods when i never really look at the tank. But yes that is much more "open" swimming space. I still cant figure out why its seemingly new growth/tips affected the most though. Its almost like the flesh doesnt grow over faster than algae takes hold.

I value your opinion greatly because of your successes with rehabbing them. I am also curious as to your opinion of soft coral toxins etc? Or if you have ever rescued corals that have been stressed from being eaten. It is definitely possible I just haven't caught it yet. I wonder if the angel mouths the polyps to get their mucuous and thats why it is in areas of growth that seem to die off is weird though. I plan to stare at the tank for like an hour straight tomorrow.

That was pre cleaning/small water change a week or so ago. The location of most problems has been middle of the tank and right. For the most part the colonies on the left have been quite unphased. Still have no real signs of any issue on any LPS/Softies. No clown gobies. I have a potter's angelfish. I have watched that thing like a hawk for a while. Occasionally maybe every few days Ill see him eye a coral up. Usually it seems he goes for things stuck to them. Ive had him almost the duration of the tank and didnt have problems for a while. It is very possible he has taken bites of things while I am not watching but tbh I am not getting much growth the past few months anyways in general. Some but not like it was. I may rent a par meter. Maybe my lighting has gone goofy as well

It seems to always be places of growth. That is one of the common themes. Typically upward growth, stick tips, monti ridges. Usually the edges look fine as welll as the bases. Below is best I can get to show everything. There are 2 of the wavemakers on each side. The rockwork is a wall style so 2 wavemakers in front and 2 behind.

Will do thanks! Very interested in any new knowledge because it seems conventional thought/teachings aren't cutting it right now for me

Things sort of got better a few weeks ago but the past couple days some more montis are losing flesh. I am at such a total loss about to just make an all soft coral display. My nitrates have stayed 1-2. Phosphates still at .08 has fluctuated between .05 and .12 max over the past month Alk has stayed between 6.8-7 Temp is 78.8 Ca was low in ICP test i have since raised it over a week to 420 where it has been stable. Mg is stable. I dosed a small amount of iodine and did 1 singular small water change of about 10%. Things looked a little better after so maybe that replenished something else but nothing has tested out of the ordinary. Im writing off(sort of) bacterial infection for now but am not sure. Ive dosed a little bit of aminos and microbacter (like half dose) in the hopes maybe as my tank has aged something has just not been replenished. My only guesses right now are flow, lighting or basis ammonia cycle issue (ie somewhere I have alot of detritus or something). I have 3 mp40s set up at opposite ends and 1 mp10. They all run reef crest mode with 20%-90% ramping. I am wondering if that is enough on a 180 with alot of colonies? I have slowly over the months added some more flow but I wonder if its not enough. For lighting I have 4 ai hydra 26s running the AB+ schedule. They are like 8-9 inches off the water. Could be lighting? Maybe but I had SPS growing on the sandbed 6+ months ago so I doubt its that. Anyways I am at a total loss. Still some SPS totally unaffected and the death has gotten much much slower over the past few weeks but I still have to be missing something

One of my issues in my tank is detritus build up that causes ammonia that causes the algae to take it up before the beneficial bacteria. I just started to figure this out by the way and saw on reef2reef the holy grail of what I was suspecting. I forgot like many of us algae loves ammonia even more than nitrogen and phosphate. I definitely have gone to less frequent larger clean ups/tank maintenance. I believe I may have finally figured out why I was losing a SPS or so randomly every month for the past few months. It started with the less hardy ones and eventually began to kill green slimer. I was cleaning out lots of algae lets say every 6-8 weeks, changing water and every time I hit up another area of detritus. I thought back to why I had no deaths really for a year. That was the change. I was getting more algae the past 6 months than ever with no change to phosphates or nitrates. My tank is probably loaded with detritus at this point breaking down and the algae loves it. I used to do more frequent small cleanings and water changes. The big ones have clearly caused problems and I switched a few weeks ago. Now I still have a couple unhappy but some that went downhill over the past few months have recovered. Im now focused more on removing detritus/algae more frequently and adding beneficial bacteria (the algae outcompetes it for ammonia and it dies off with less ammonia to consume). I feel as though I was lucky and since my tank volume is 220 gallons plus I wasnt experiencing a big crash. I have a feeling removing all of your algae and cleaning off the detritus and such spiked the ammonia and killed your fish. Ammonia is really one of the only things that kills fish faster than corals IME. Maybe try what Im trying and more frequent small water changes with removing algae/detritus, adding beneficial bacteria and maybe even some prime once and a while. Sorry its long but I ran into a similar situation albeit slower and that is at this point my most educated guess in my system and maybe yours