Ron Reefman
Active member
Things looked a little better last night when I got home from the SWFMAS dinner, but this morning the tanks are all milky and everything is dead. I'm seriously considering sell out at this point.
Downsizing??? Really???
- Thread starter Ron Reefman
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JTL
New member
Ron survived Irma only to have this happen. I have read accounts of tanks surviving a temp drop so perhaps not all is lost. This does point out how quickly things can turn in this hobby. One bad thermostat in a heater or chiller can mean disaster. I don't run a chiller and at this point I don't even have a heater but this serves to remind me to get two smaller heaters instead of one large one.
Illegitimi non carborundum
Illegitimi non carborundum
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Ron Reefman
Active member
First let me say thank you to the words of support. I really do appreciate them. :thumbsup:
Second, yesterday's 5am comments were due to 2 things. Seeing the tank with sunny leds on and way, WAY too many, very bright white skeletons. To call it depressing is an understatement! And second, I had a club banquet to attend on Friday night (I'm on the BOD) and then Saturday was our big Reef Conference. So my time was jammed up and my priorities were in conflict and confused.
So here I am on Sunday morning. My tank was 60 to 70% sps and 95% of them are dead. All my fish, shrimp, sea stars and cucumber are dead. About 75% of my snails are dead.
The good news is, all 20 of my RBTA,s, all my rock flower anemones, all my zoas, the 3 softies and 2 lps corals are still alive... struggling some, but alive and looking a bit better this morning compared to yesterday.
I've done 100 gallons in water changes (it's a 200g system with 2 tanks and a sump). I'll do more today. I'm running my skimmer very wet and I've added charcoal to my Next Reef reactor. I've tested for ammonia and nitrate and both have stayed at zero or very close to it. The tank was very white yesterday, but it's more like very hazy today. I will continue to work on it. I expect to pull all the very dead corals and toss them. There are a few sps that still fluoresce small spots, so they will get moved to my shallow reef tank in hopes for a comeback.
Now this is still a very moving and flexible plan, and I'm VERY open to ideas and suggestions (even encouragement!). I will convert the 50g cube to a mostly sps tank with a few exceptions. The 125g tank will be anemones, zoas, mushrooms and anything simple that fluoresces good color under blue leds. I'll get a pair of clowns for the big tank and 3 or 4 algae eaters (probably small tangs, but again, very open to suggestions) and put them in both tanks. Probably some cleaner shrimp because they tend to be more visible in the tanks. Everything else, snails, crabs, sea stars, cucumbers and who knows what else, will get collected by me in the Keys or along the SW Coast of Florida from the Gulf of Mexico. This hobby does play into part of my pleasure of snorkeling and obviously, collecting.
The goal will be a simpler tank. The 50g cube of sps is a goal, but it could go away. That would alleviate the need to dose alk and Ca. I may well run without the 1 hp chiller... since it is currently defective! But I'd like to due away with it anyway. It's a holdover from my old 180g & 75g tanks (see the start of this thread) and lots of MH lighting. Now that I'm all leds and DC pumps, the tank runs cooler. But we do let the house get to 83 -85 degrees in the dead of summer. But that's 6+ months away. And I have a 1/3hp chiller on the 2 tanks in the back bedroom. I'm seriously contemplating those two tanks going away. So I can repurpose the smaller chiller.
I had already bought the glass to replace my current sump with a bigger unit that will include a refugium. I was also planning on swapping the better skimmer in the back room tanks with the somewhat fussy skimmer in the main tank. But that's part of why the bigger sump, so it will fit. And that also could be more reason to shut down the 2 back room tanks. I can live with a frag rack at the side of one or both of the main tanks, so the back room frag tank can go away as well. It's part of the 2 tank system back there with the 65g shallow reef and the 25g frag tank.
Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, criticisms or whatever, are more than welcome. They are encouraged. All you can do is add to the confusion that is clouding my mind already! :uhoh3:
Thanks for reading my rant!
Second, yesterday's 5am comments were due to 2 things. Seeing the tank with sunny leds on and way, WAY too many, very bright white skeletons. To call it depressing is an understatement! And second, I had a club banquet to attend on Friday night (I'm on the BOD) and then Saturday was our big Reef Conference. So my time was jammed up and my priorities were in conflict and confused.
So here I am on Sunday morning. My tank was 60 to 70% sps and 95% of them are dead. All my fish, shrimp, sea stars and cucumber are dead. About 75% of my snails are dead.
The good news is, all 20 of my RBTA,s, all my rock flower anemones, all my zoas, the 3 softies and 2 lps corals are still alive... struggling some, but alive and looking a bit better this morning compared to yesterday.
I've done 100 gallons in water changes (it's a 200g system with 2 tanks and a sump). I'll do more today. I'm running my skimmer very wet and I've added charcoal to my Next Reef reactor. I've tested for ammonia and nitrate and both have stayed at zero or very close to it. The tank was very white yesterday, but it's more like very hazy today. I will continue to work on it. I expect to pull all the very dead corals and toss them. There are a few sps that still fluoresce small spots, so they will get moved to my shallow reef tank in hopes for a comeback.
Now this is still a very moving and flexible plan, and I'm VERY open to ideas and suggestions (even encouragement!). I will convert the 50g cube to a mostly sps tank with a few exceptions. The 125g tank will be anemones, zoas, mushrooms and anything simple that fluoresces good color under blue leds. I'll get a pair of clowns for the big tank and 3 or 4 algae eaters (probably small tangs, but again, very open to suggestions) and put them in both tanks. Probably some cleaner shrimp because they tend to be more visible in the tanks. Everything else, snails, crabs, sea stars, cucumbers and who knows what else, will get collected by me in the Keys or along the SW Coast of Florida from the Gulf of Mexico. This hobby does play into part of my pleasure of snorkeling and obviously, collecting.
The goal will be a simpler tank. The 50g cube of sps is a goal, but it could go away. That would alleviate the need to dose alk and Ca. I may well run without the 1 hp chiller... since it is currently defective! But I'd like to due away with it anyway. It's a holdover from my old 180g & 75g tanks (see the start of this thread) and lots of MH lighting. Now that I'm all leds and DC pumps, the tank runs cooler. But we do let the house get to 83 -85 degrees in the dead of summer. But that's 6+ months away. And I have a 1/3hp chiller on the 2 tanks in the back bedroom. I'm seriously contemplating those two tanks going away. So I can repurpose the smaller chiller.
I had already bought the glass to replace my current sump with a bigger unit that will include a refugium. I was also planning on swapping the better skimmer in the back room tanks with the somewhat fussy skimmer in the main tank. But that's part of why the bigger sump, so it will fit. And that also could be more reason to shut down the 2 back room tanks. I can live with a frag rack at the side of one or both of the main tanks, so the back room frag tank can go away as well. It's part of the 2 tank system back there with the 65g shallow reef and the 25g frag tank.
Any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, criticisms or whatever, are more than welcome. They are encouraged. All you can do is add to the confusion that is clouding my mind already! :uhoh3:
Thanks for reading my rant!
Build some redundancy in your system. A controller would have shut your chiller off. If memory serves me, you are not a fan of them. But even a simple one would have helped.
Sorry to hear about your trouble. I always like that you collect your own specimens. Tagging along to see where you go from here
Sorry to hear about your trouble. I always like that you collect your own specimens. Tagging along to see where you go from here
JTL
New member
That's the spirit. I know lots of reefers keep multiple tanks but I am not one of them. Just too much stuff to maintain. We keep our house at 80 degrees and my 100g tank stays 77-78. I think I need to get a couple of heaters for the winter months because it is likely to get cooler than I would like. Did you lose the snowflake clowns that you recently purchased?
I am just seeing this morning as to what happened Ron. Damn man I am so sorry to hear this. We put too much time and $$ into this hobby for this to happen, but we all know it can happen at any given time.
I sure hope you don't give up what you love. If you need any help with anything please just let me know.
I sure hope you don't give up what you love. If you need any help with anything please just let me know.
1. take it slow and let your first reactions wear off. You may feel differently.
2. If you run a chiller again, put a temp control circuit on the chiller so that it shuts off below something like 75 degrees.
3. Keep on truckin'
4. a pair of clowns isn't enough for an anemone themed tank. Get a harem.
2. If you run a chiller again, put a temp control circuit on the chiller so that it shuts off below something like 75 degrees.
3. Keep on truckin'
4. a pair of clowns isn't enough for an anemone themed tank. Get a harem.
Ron Reefman
Active member
You are right all around, and now I'm changing my mind! I have a lot of Apex hardware in a couple of boxes in my closet. As I rework this system I will be installing it. Thanks a lot for reminding me. It's amazing what a disaster can do to change your mind!
Thanks John.
There may be stuff alive that is still hiding in the rocks. Just a few minutes ago a very old black & white pajama cardinal came out. I can see a big star and the yellow cucumber. They are both under the rocks but neither of them is moving. I'm about to start tearing into the tanks.
Yes, the 2 clowns are gone. We have already removed 7 dead fish from the tanks. I'll at least do a pair in the big tank in time. I like clowns, so I might even consider a differ type and get a pair for the cube as well. Didn't you tell me you know somebody? Maybe a breeder?
Ron Reefman
Active member
Thanks Dan. I think I have a plan. It will involve my shutting down 2 tanks (in the back bedroom). And some significant changes on the main system. Suggestions are welcome.
1. take it slow and let your first reactions wear off. You may feel differently.
2. If you run a chiller again, put a temp control circuit on the chiller so that it shuts off below something like 75 degrees.
3. Keep on truckin'
4. a pair of clowns isn't enough for an anemone themed tank. Get a harem.
Fredfish, thanks for the advise. Letting the first reaction wear off is sage advise and already taking hold. So I'm still in, but downsizing a bit more and going a bit more simple and with stronger corals. The Apex will get set up. But since I switched to all leds and all DC pumps, powerheads and gyres, heat isn't much of an issue.
The 125g will have more zoas than anemones. I already have 20 colonies that range from small to5 or 6 inches in diameter. Now I'll be adding more, but probably not high end stuff. Really good fluorescents is way more important to me than fancy names or new to the market. I do have 20 RBTA's, but they are all on the small side. However, they do keep splitting. I feed the rock flowers because they come from deeper water and IMHO do much better if fed regularly (at least once a week). But I tend to feed the RBTA's a the same time. I may have to cut back on feeding the RBTA's!
I'm not sure about more than a pair of clowns. I had a small harem of 3 tomato clowns and 4 cinnamon clowns in a 75g hexagon tank. All were small juveniles when I got them and they seemed fine for 3 or 4 months. But once one turned female, they began disappearing one by one until there was only one male left. Any thoughts? Have you ever had more?
Ron Reefman
Active member
Here is a small sample of the way the tank looks.
I have not. I'm just going by what I saw when I did dives on the GBR. Large anemones with a group of various sized clowns in them.
Maybe its a species thing? If I recall Tomato's are more aggressive. The Ripley's aquarium up here has a whole whack of Ocilaris clowns in a large cube tank. They were small at the time though so maybe were juveniles.
I do remember a thread here on RC with an anemone and clown themed tank that had more than a pair.
Ron Reefman
Active member
Today things are more stable, the water is clear and the skimmer is still making bubbles that don't want to pop and drain from the collection cup. But slief's plan to wipe cooking oil around the outer edge of the inside of the collection cup cover worked perfectly! Thank you for that! This morning the cup is full of foam and some has drained into the remote reservoir, but there is no foam pushing out the vent holes on the top of the cup and the lid is still sitting on the cup, not 1" up of the cup on a cushion of foam.
So dead corals and any bodies I can find will come out today. For now it's a good thing I have a second system so I can move the few sps that look like they might have some slim change to survive.
So dead corals and any bodies I can find will come out today. For now it's a good thing I have a second system so I can move the few sps that look like they might have some slim change to survive.
Ron Reefman
Active member
The goal is to keep the Cadlight 125g and the DIY 50g cube. And I'll still make the bigger sump/refugium. I have a few surviving LPS and a few sps frags in the other system which I will put in the 50g cube. The anemones and zoas will go in the 125g. If the 50g works out OK, fine. But if I have any issues, it probably could go away as well.
I have 4 good size frag racks with BIG magnets, so I do them in the end of the 125g or the 50g and even in the refugium.
I'm thinking I'll do the rook work using the ones covered in zoas now and as many smaller rocks as I can for the zoas to grow over. Then I can just pull a rock and sell it while I replace it with a new rock! Besides, I love the fluorescence of the corals and zoas are better than sps in that respect anyway.
What do you think?
I have 4 good size frag racks with BIG magnets, so I do them in the end of the 125g or the 50g and even in the refugium.
I'm thinking I'll do the rook work using the ones covered in zoas now and as many smaller rocks as I can for the zoas to grow over. Then I can just pull a rock and sell it while I replace it with a new rock! Besides, I love the fluorescence of the corals and zoas are better than sps in that respect anyway.
What do you think?
