Neil's 75g Reef

[nbgen12]

What would you recommend for a 75g tank + 29g sump setup? I definitely want to get one I will be happy with, and will be effective when I eventually upgrade to a 120 - 150g tank down the road.

[nbgen12]

So, I still see the blenny and firefish itch on the sand/rock from time to time during the day(more than a normal fish). Not seeing any other symptoms really. I'm beginning to wonder, could this be flukes? No white spots showing up, no nothing. It's tough to try and treat fish you have no idea what you are trying to treat them for.......any thoughts?

[matt]

Neil, any traces of ammonia or nitrite showing up? Maybe there are other stressors in the water that the fish are dealing with and the scratching is their outlet???

[nbgen12]

Nope none of either....

 

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[nbgen12]

frustration=100%

 

Each passing day, I'm becoming more and more frustrated everytime I come home to the tank. You can add expletives in there wherever you'd like. Today I get home from a long day of seminars, class, etc to see the a couple of the sps are beginning to STN. I cannot figure out what is going on(add more expletives).

 

Fish have parasites, can't keep SPS alive(other than birdsnests)....thank god the zoas and LPS still look great and are growing....otherwise i'd be about ready to tear this thing down for good and go find something else to spend my time on. Sometimes I wonder why I love this hobby so much when I come home from a stressful day to only get more aggravated.

 

Here are the parameters of this god forsaken tank.

Salinity: 1.025

PH: 8.1

Alk: 9.9

Ca: 440

Mg: 1500

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 2

TDS of RODI water: 001

 

Additional info:

All the SPS I've gotten has been over the last month or so, which I started with only 2 bulbs on for the duration of my 10 hr photoperiod for the first 7 days. After that, I've turned on all 6 for 1 hour for the next 5 days, followed by 2 hours for 5 days.....I'm currently at 4 hrs and should be moving up to 5 hrs tomorrow. I don't think they are getting burnt by the light...is there too little light?

 

I've inspected all of the STN'ing corals( 2 milles, 1 garf purple bonsai, 1 pocillopora) for any flatworms....anything at all. Nothing.

 

I cannot figure out for the life of me what the deal is, all I know is it is really upsetting for the amount of effort I put in.

 

Originally, I planned on just tearing down the aquascape, moving the fish to QT and getting them treated while leaving the DT fallow with the coral still in there. After this evening, I'm leaning in the direction of putting the fish in the 20g QT, putting the corals into the 40 breeder I have laying around, and nuking the tank with hydrogen peroxide, and just start this thing over. No parasites. No nothing. Going to pull the sand from the DT and fuge, and go with new sand in the fuge, and possibly either a very, very tiny amount of medium size sand...or possibly barebottom.

 

I could really use some opinions, ideas, and thoughts about this situation right now. It would certainly be appreciated

Edited September 26, 2012 by nbgen12

[STEVE]

Sounds exactly like what I was going thru. I lowered my Alk down from 10.5 to 8 stayed up on my waterchanges every Sunday (25 gallons, 120 total system) Added a carbon reactor, and I switched from MH's to T-5's. I took all the sand out of my fuge and 90% of it out of my DT. I added 2 additional power heads and a Sea Swirl for added circulation. Dont know if what I did "fixed" anything, but the tank looks like a new tank and all of the corals look great! Good luck, if there is any thing I can do to help, let me know.

[Der ABT]

What did you use to calibrate your refractometer. Maybe have someone elsr check it. Keep your alk as constant as possible.

 

Do you have a grounding probe may be some stray electricity

 

Learn how to use photobucket as pics help diagnose things like how the sps dies. Bottom up top down or bottom up all at once etc

 

Stick it out we have all been there

[STEVE]

Good point Evan, I use both a cheap need point style salanity checker and a refractometer.

[nbgen12]

Thanks guys. I have an ATC refractometer which I use a 35ppt refractometer calibration solution to calibrate. I also have the Neptune apex with the conductivity probe, and everything seems to read right around the same exactly salinity. Even the swinging arm hydrometer reads close to the same spot.

 

DerABT-The STN is going from the base up on basically all pieces. My alkalinity has been in the 9.9-10.5 range consistently for about 2 weeks or so. PH swings from about 8.1 in the day, to 7.94 at night consistently. I upped calcium from 410 to 440 over that time. I've also been putting in tech-m for bryopsis to no avail over the previous 3 weeks, and I stopped that several days ago to basically give up that battle for now(its only on the back glass because i've been toothbrushing it off the rock). I don't have a grounding probe....that may be something worth looking into now that you mention it.

 

I'll have to take some pictures and upload them once I get done with some exams this week. I just really suck at taking photos of stuff in the reef tank. I don't know of I just take terrible macros, or my camera is terrible for macros. Either way, I'll do the best I can come thursday night to get some stuff on here.

 

STEVE-I would definitely do what you did, but with black ich and a looong 3 month fallow period, along with bryopsis that won't die from tech-m, I'm thinking I just need to go ahead and sterilize the DT once I throw all the livestock I can into my spare tanks. I'm definitely thinking of going the barebottom route in the DT, maybe even the fuge also like you said.

Edited September 26, 2012 by nbgen12

[STEVE]

WOW !!!!!! This was my tank a month ago. I dosed Tech M also and my sps rtn'd...I thought it was because I overdosed it to around2000...??? hummm???

[nbgen12]

WOW !!!!!! This was my tank a month ago. I dosed Tech M also and my sps rtn'd...I thought it was because I overdosed it to around2000...??? hummm???

 

Sounds like we could possibly be narrowing some things down right now lol. I thought tech-m was suppose to be reef safe even in higher doses??? Welp, I've stopped it as of a couple days ago, and it was much higher than it is now. More than my salifert test which goes to 1600 I believe. Although, once it read more than 1600, I basically didn't add much more than small amounts every couple days because I wasn't sure exactly where it was at.

[surf&turf]

Could be your system is just a little to young for SPS. I see your Nitrates are at 2, what are your phosphates?

 

 

[STEVE]

Since this happened to me, just my opinion, I would start doing some water changes and get that mag down...I dont know what happened in my tank weather it was the Tech M or not, I just know everything started dying when I raised my mag up....oh, and my bryopsis never did die while all this was going on!

[nbgen12]

Surf......could be that the tank is too young at the moment. It's still a week or two from the 3 month mark. My phosphates have been reading 0 with hardly any nuisance algae to suck it up.

 

Steve - the situation you had sounds WAY too familiar to not be a coincidence. I'll make time to do a waterchange tonight and see what happens. If things don't look a little better after a couple 15% waterchanges, I'll drop the ALK back into the 8-9 range and see how the sps reacts. I'm thinking maybe all this will help. If it doesn't, I'll have to go back to the sterlization of the tank plan, to just kill off the bryopsis and black ich, and re-cycle the tank for a month.

[STEVE]

Right now you need to take a breath!!! Slow down. Slow down. Slow down. I just went back and read most of your complete post from the start. Are you using tap water or RO/DI?

 

Your tank is only a month old...not counting when you 1st set it up, SINCE THE CYCLE WAS COMPLETE. I think you are moving a bit fast for your system. This is completely normal for everyone that sets a reef tank, THEY MOVE TOO FAST! I would not do anything except let things settle down, do not add anymore fish or corals at this point. Think about it, 1 month old and you have already had a salinty OD and an ALK od....Things can get damaged quick, but it takes along time for stuff to recover.

[surf&turf]

Right now you need to take a breath!!! Slow down. Slow down. Slow down. I just went back and read most of your complete post from the start. Are you using tap water or RO/DI?

 

Your tank is only a month old...not counting when you 1st set it up, SINCE THE CYCLE WAS COMPLETE. I think you are moving a bit fast for your system. This is completely normal for everyone that sets a reef tank, THEY MOVE TOO FAST! I would not do anything except let things settle down, do not add anymore fish or corals at this point. Think about it, 1 month old and you have already had a salinty OD and an ALK od....Things can get damaged quick, but it takes along time for stuff to recover.

 

 

+1

[nbgen12]

Steve-- tank is 3 months give or take a week and has been cycled for almost 2 months. <br /><br />Sent from my MB865 using Tapatalk 2<br />

Edited September 26, 2012 by nbgen12

[nbgen12]

And yeah salinity dropped, but only 2 extra gallons got pumped in. About all of the coral doing badly was introduced after these accidents.<br /><br />Just reread what you wrote steve. You're definitely right...tank is technically a month and half - 2 months old old excluding cycle time<br /><br />I will make sure to keep the the foot off the gas pedal. I appreciate having you guys taking the time to reread from the start.<br /><br />Sent from my MB865 using Tapatalk 2<br />

Edited September 26, 2012 by nbgen12

[surf&turf]

I would also try some of the easier SPS corals. I have some red and green digi, and elkhorn monti frags you can have. Once you see those growing and doing well, add some of the tougher corals to keep.

[nbgen12]

I would also try some of the easier SPS corals. I have some red and green digi, and elkhorn monti frags you can have. Once you see those growing and doing well, add some of the tougher corals to keep.

 

Thanks man! Ive got a few birdsnests which are doing well so far(maybe they are tolerant of the new tank) but for now ill just do several weeks of observation and see how the cookie crumbles

 

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[Ryan S]

You are just moving too fast. I did the same thing. Wait a couple of months and then try SPS. Perhaps the next wamas meeting would be a good target. If you wait until then and grab some sps pieces from members there, that should be enough time for your tank to settle in a bit. Plus members sell frags from their tanks that are really beautiful and priced very well. Examples:

[Fishie]

How deep is the sand bed.....just wondering if large amounts of the initial over dosed materials can settle into the sand bed and then continue to leech back into the tank.....idk just a thought ....maybe stir it up using a turkey bast ...then siphon it out....rinse repeat over every 3 weeks doing it every 5-6 days as an interval and see if that helps....

 

Moving too fast on anything won't help

Edited September 26, 2012 by Fishie

[nbgen12]

Thanks ryan....definitely plan on following your advice

 

 

Nick- my sand bed is only about 1". Been stirring the sand about twice a week since the end of the cycle to keep anything bad suspended. Hopefully time is the answer right now. At least that way i won't be dumping in money lol. I think its time to just get the fish into QT and sit back for a while.

 

I like ryans plan of just maintaining until the next wamas meeting and see how things go from there.

 

I appreciate all the opinions and help, keep it coming if anyone has good stuff to add

 

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[nbgen12]

News is going from bad to worse. I can't figure out what is going on, at all. Parameters still stable, did a 15g waterchange yesterday....almost every coral is looking like total poop.

 

I honestly have no idea what is going on, I never had any problems like this whatsoever on my 55g reef tank I had previously. It's like day by day it is going downhill. Fish are still ok and eating. Stray voltage maybe? Does anyone have any idea what the culprit may be? I'm totally stumped. At this point, whatever happens, happens. Just time to roll with the punches I suppose. Fish and inverts seem ok.

 

At this point, I'm exhausted from school, work and now have this problem on top of it, which I cannot figure out the solution. I changed TDS meters. still 001 on the exit of the RODI.

 

At this point, I don't have the time nor the energy to combat this mystery meltdown. If you want coral to see if you can save the corals I have, they should be salvageable. My number is 703-507-0652...otherwise I don't have other options at this point.

 

I want to go to marine scene and get my water tested, but for what?? I've got all the tests, I've got the rodi with good water quality to mix saltwater.

 

I made a post on Curtis's silicon thread wondering about the silicon I used, but it doesn't state anywhere about having anti mold stuff in it, and I let it cure for about 2-3 days. Soooooooo lost right now

Edited September 27, 2012 by nbgen12

[STEVE]

I think at this time in the game, there is nothing you can really do except ride it out! Dont let it frustrate you anymore...we have ALL been there. What you are going thru is part of the game, just learn from it and move on. pm sent