frustrated

[undertcontrolj]

This hobby is so freaking frustrating. It seems like about everything 2 months my tank jsut wants to up and die on me. i dont understand why this is. I mean it is to the point of wanting to quit. But i love it so much. The thing is that i have a pic tank 2.5 gallons that goes along just find. Very little maintenance. All i have are corals so there should not be anything crazy going on. Anybody else every go through something like this?

 

[ai-reefer]

you need to give more details, pictures etc...

but

in life

Energy and Persistence Concur All

you need to find peace in your life to create peace in your reef

 

[DMBillies]

I once had a very wise reefer tell me that if I ever got my tank exactly the way I wanted it, I better take a picture that very minute...

In all honesty, although they are affordable, they say that the smallest tanks are the hardest to keep happy because even very small changes can throw them out of whack. I'm not sure of your maintenance schedule, what you do, what you use for filtration, etc. to comment on exactly what you are doing, but I do know that a 2.5 gallon is a juggling act.

On the upside, a small water change can fix a lot of problems because you change out so much water. On the downside, even something as simple as not topping off for a couple days in a row can cause problem.

 

[commonstranger]

I have to agree with everything Brian said. Keep your head up and take notes on what your doing, any changes you make, in the past when something what went wrong what you believe caused it and try to learn from it. If you posted more detials of your problems than people could probably give you better answers. Keep reefin !!!

 

[Mikeyjer]

Like it was mentioned already, smaller tanks are harder to maintain since you have to have everything just perfect for it to thrive, it does not give you any room for mistakes like a larger tank can handle. Water changes will help, but depending on what's going on in your tank right now. I would give you those same corals I've given you before if they die on you, just let me know!

 

[sandalscout]

I guess I better not mention that my wife's 2.5 gallon with maybe 3 pounds of rock, a heater, PC lights, and a very small eheim pump have gotten one water change in 5-6 months, NEVER get's feed, and looks better than any of the other tanks!

 

[supertech99]

my nano is now being transplanted into my 55 because of abrupt changes that drive me crazy! I could not take it anymore. It has been a expensive process but I will happy to no longer have a nano! I feel your pain on crashes! My biggest problem was people messing with the a/c in the house and getting big temp swings and stuff going wacko after that.

 

[Fanof49ASU]

My best performing tank was a tank I kept in the garage and ignored. Temp swings were very common and I never did water changes.
But....I never had fish in it.
It was basically holding rock and a few corals for my 'new tank'. All of my params were exactly the same (when I got around to checking them). Coralline algae growth was phenomenal!

 

[undertcontrolj]

Well not real sure about my parameters. Was not checking them. Water changes once a week. No fish. Few blue leg crabs and a emerald crab. Majority of corals are mushrooms. Everything else just seems to melt away. Frogspawn retracted never to come back. Mushrooms seem to be just barely hanging on. Looks like they are melting. I have heard that these small tanks are very hard and i am feeling the pain of it. I have been considering moving into something bigger hoping to stem this problem. Any opinions on the 29 gallon that is for sale on here.

 

[SRT80]

I once had a 10 gal. setup with a pair of clowns and inverts (snails, crabs, and a couple peppermint shrimp). I did a 2 gal. water change once a week. Never dosed anything. Did small FW top offs in the morning and evening. I would stick to 10 gal or larger. Like everyone else says though, bigger the better. You get more room for corals, fish, and can make a more natural lookin' setup. That's my opinion...

Steve

 

[leezer]

I've got a 3 gallon tank that has been up for about 2 months now. I have around 3 pounds of LR, 6 pounds of LS, and a slew of mushrooms, zoas (7, maybe 8 kinds...anywhere from 8 to 35 of each kind), branching hammer, toadstool (about 2 inches around), 5 headed candy cane, GSP, and a red monti cap. It has been going pretty strong, with growth on everything. I top off the tank with freshwater at least daily, if not twice daily. I do 3-5% water changes at least 2 times a week, sometimes up to 4 or 5 times a week. I've just started feeding some cyclops/brine to the candy cane and hammer coral. I have also be using reef builder/reef buffer depending on the pH with my freshwater top offs.

As for filtration, I took out the stock filter material from the HOB and filled it with LR rubble. Then I went to Kohls and grabbed a half dozen of the little fake socks for trying on shoes and put about a tablespoon of carbon in it, tied off the top, and dropped it in with the LR rubble.

I have to say, the only thing I'd do differently would be to buy a nano that can accommodate a glass top to reduce evap.

 

[Mikeyjer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13592355#post13592355 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by leezer
I have to say, the only thing I'd do differently would be to buy a nano that can accommodate a glass top to reduce evap.

Then you would put up with heating issues....Evaporation is normal and good for air exchange....

 

[leezer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13592770#post13592770 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Mikeyjer
Then you would put up with heating issues....Evaporation is normal and good for air exchange....

I'd be interested to see what the temperature fluctuations would really be. Right now, I'd say I fluctuate between 79 and 80. But you're right, the evaporation is normal...but could less evaporation happen and save the heater some work? I don't believe my lights have much of an effect since they are at least 6 - 8 inches above the water. However, I'm thinking of lowering them substantially...so that could change their effect dramatically.

 

[sandalscout]

I too thought this might be a problem, but I have a glass top on my nano, and I think that temperature fluctuations are almost non-existent, and water top-offs are massively reduced. Sure, I only have softies in it, and nothing major, and I'm sure I've gotten lucky, but it is literally a hands off tank that we do nothing with.

 

[leezer]

That's awesome. I'm planning a 2.5 gal for my desk at work with a massive array of LEDs that I built. The heat from them is minuscule compared to pc or t5 lights. But, being at work, I wanted to keep the regular maintenance to an absolute minimum. I think the glass top would help substantially by keeping the water parameters consistent. Mainly going to just have zoas, mushrooms, and GSP in it. I might add a head of hammer coral, but not sure yet.

 

[DMBillies]

I think as long as you don't have "a lot" of fish in the nano you should be able to get away with a top without too many gas exchange problems.

This might be a stretch but I wonder if you might honestly be changing the water too much, filtering too much, or not feeding enough (especially since you don't have fish).

It sounds like most of your stock list would tolerate pretty "dirty" water. So, if it were me I would take out any filtration other than a decent amount of live rock (I don't know if you're running filters now), change only about 10 percent of your water per week (or 20% every other week), and throw a top on there if you think evaporation might be causing temp or salinity problems. If you have no fish my guess is you aren't feeding anything either? It probably couldn't hurt to throw a little bit of food in from time to time.

 

[undertcontrolj]

My tank is a 12 gallon nano so in the back I have 2 sponges, and three other different kind of filters that come in bags, live rock. That is my filters that i ma using. I have been wondering if the salinity has been an issue. I get my water from the critter and when i test it it seems a litle low. So i am about to start making my own. I am also through with the nano very soon. I am getting the 29 gallon that has been for sale on here. So i will have all kinds of questions about how to set that up and right. It will be a while before i get it up and running going to do plenty of research and let it cycle real good.

 

[NeveSSL]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13590449#post13590449 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by undertcontrolj
Well not real sure about my parameters. Was not checking them. ...

Something I'm learning in the process as well... if you want to keep the harder stuff, you HAVE to keep up with your parameters.

Not to be a jerk or anything, but I personally would have a hard time getting frustrated at anything but myself if I was not keeping up with parameters and then wondering why everything was dying. I hope that makes sense in a nice way... again, being blunt, but not trying to be a jerk by any means.

If you're wanting to really do this, I would suggest researching it some more. I do not mean to imply that you're dumb or stupid or ANYthing like that, but really find out what it takes. To be honest, that's where I am now with my tank. My SPS have grown to the point that water changes and a kalk reactor are no longer enough... its time to look into two-part for me I believe... maybe even a calcium reactor eventually.

And like everyone else said, small tanks are not easy at all! Get a larger tank and do some research. I'm betting you'll find where your mistakes were and go "Oh, ok... that makes sense now." And then you'll be back to normal until the next problem occurs... then it'll be back to Dr. Randy Holmes-Farley's articles again.

This is just my opinion, but we have to grow as our tanks do to keep up with their needs. Its kind of like a kid, really. Just as expensive, too.

Brandon

 

[undertcontrolj]

I did check somthings regularly. PH,salinity, and ammonium. They were always in an acceptable range. Great coraline alge growth so I figured cal was Okay. I don't know how the other things good beyhat far out of wack with softies as the main thing in the tank. I do have a question about lights though. I went out of town for a week and just found out that my tank lights did not get turned on for about 3 days. How much damage could this have caused? I mean everything as looking good until I got back from vacation?

 

[Mikeyjer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13600603#post13600603 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by undertcontrolj
I did check somthings regularly. PH,salinity, and ammonium. They were always in an acceptable range. Great coraline alge growth so I figured cal was Okay. I don't know how the other things good beyhat far out of wack with softies as the main thing in the tank. I do have a question about lights though. I went out of town for a week and just found out that my tank lights did not get turned on for about 3 days. How much damage could this have caused? I mean everything as looking good until I got back from vacation?

You'd be amazed how much lights affect the corals. Just a few weeks ago my MH bulb exploded on one side of the tank over a 90g bowfront. One side is still working. On the side that's not working, corals started to open towards the side with lights and the ones that's not close enough to the lights started to die off or recede big time. I was without a light for about 3-4 days before I got my new bulbs in. It took my corals a few more days to get adjusted to the new light bulb. It just started to calm down. I did lose a few pieces during the process though....