I had a tough setback about 3 weeks ago
One of my three Ritteri anemones came unattached right after I went to bed. Next morning before work when I checked my tanks, I noticed water on the floor, skimmer overflowing and water cloudy. Immediately saw many dead fish on the sand, then saw the magenta base of the Ritteri on the Tunze 6205. Lost 40 fish, 10 of them were with me for 10-15 years. Two pink skunks and two Rod's black onyx percula were all fine.
I called work and told them I wouldn't be coming in. Gathered towels for the floor, netted out as many fish as I could find, added 8 pounds of carbon to the sump and after cleaning up realized there wasn't anything else to do but wait and see. I went to work a couple hours later, my wife brewed up 225 gallons of fresh saltwater and when I got home the tank was crystal clear, my acropora frags, clam and inverts were all just fine. I changed out the water and found the rest of the dead fish, minus a couple that I found skeletons of within a week or so. If my acropora frags had died, I might have just quit reefing altogether because I was so sad about my fish. I've always taken very good care of fish and rescued many that needed a good home.
I've since added a Klein's butterfly from my 120 that I was taking down for aiptasia control and a big white damsel that jumped from my 300 gallon stock tank that I'm taking down. That damned damsel is digging my deep sand bed making a mess, which is why I never moved him into the tank or he'd be dead too. I'm trying to trap him now to put him in my 200 gallon sump.
I added a couple Kessil Tuna Blue lights for a couple outer edges of rock that needed more light, and I'm getting a frag package from Tim Herman next week, which should bring my spirits up. I'm selling the purple Ritteri to a friend and keeping the big yellow tipped Ritteri with the percula clowns. I'll eventually get a few fish, but right now I'm focusing on growing corals.
Tough to update after stuff like this. I've lost tons of acropora over the years, lost some giant clams, but I've never had a fish loss and that really sucked.
One of my three Ritteri anemones came unattached right after I went to bed. Next morning before work when I checked my tanks, I noticed water on the floor, skimmer overflowing and water cloudy. Immediately saw many dead fish on the sand, then saw the magenta base of the Ritteri on the Tunze 6205. Lost 40 fish, 10 of them were with me for 10-15 years. Two pink skunks and two Rod's black onyx percula were all fine. I called work and told them I wouldn't be coming in. Gathered towels for the floor, netted out as many fish as I could find, added 8 pounds of carbon to the sump and after cleaning up realized there wasn't anything else to do but wait and see. I went to work a couple hours later, my wife brewed up 225 gallons of fresh saltwater and when I got home the tank was crystal clear, my acropora frags, clam and inverts were all just fine. I changed out the water and found the rest of the dead fish, minus a couple that I found skeletons of within a week or so. If my acropora frags had died, I might have just quit reefing altogether because I was so sad about my fish. I've always taken very good care of fish and rescued many that needed a good home.
I've since added a Klein's butterfly from my 120 that I was taking down for aiptasia control and a big white damsel that jumped from my 300 gallon stock tank that I'm taking down. That damned damsel is digging my deep sand bed making a mess, which is why I never moved him into the tank or he'd be dead too. I'm trying to trap him now to put him in my 200 gallon sump.
I added a couple Kessil Tuna Blue lights for a couple outer edges of rock that needed more light, and I'm getting a frag package from Tim Herman next week, which should bring my spirits up. I'm selling the purple Ritteri to a friend and keeping the big yellow tipped Ritteri with the percula clowns. I'll eventually get a few fish, but right now I'm focusing on growing corals.
Tough to update after stuff like this. I've lost tons of acropora over the years, lost some giant clams, but I've never had a fish loss and that really sucked.
