I know there will be a hundred questions some of which I couldn't answer, but I HAVE to start somewhere. I'm open to any advice you might have...
4-5 years ago, I had a beautiful tank that was thriving. The tank is 48x24x28 with a remote DSB and Fuge, and separate sump. Everything was growing good, water parameters always in check, I mean you really could on a weekly basis take pictures of the tank and see the difference in growth. I have always had mostly softy corals because I like the way they look, and they are the most forgiving that I know of.
The big crash happened when I went away on vacation. I had everything setup and had a good system for keeping stuff cool, and a competent person looking after the tank. Although they had minimal fish tank experience I went over the quick version of maintaining a tank for a week, and left town. I know my family didn't mean any harm when they unplugged the swamp cooler the same day I left thinking they were saving me money because after all who needs the house cool when no one is there...
When I got back, the first thing I smelt was something wrong. The tank was over 90 degrees and had been that way for a yet undetermined amount of time. It was cloudy, and virtually everything was dead, or dying. I saved what I could did water changes and surveyed the damage over the next several weeks...we dubbed the crash the Mexican meltdown.
90% of my corals were gone. Even the leathers. Frog spawns, mushrooms, xiena, nothing really made it. There were a few items left, but not much. Honestly, I didn't even test the water parameters when I got home. I just changed the water over and over.
the water quality slowly came back to a measurable amount....meaning it wasn't so bad that the tests maxed out, and stuff was still living in the tank. The couple of fish that somehow survived were looking happy again, and the tank seemed to be stabilizing once again.
I have never gotten water parameters back to perfect or even good by anyone's definition. By my own admission, I didn't keep records of what they were, so I had nothing to go off of. I have always been the type of guy that listens to the tank and its inhabitants on how the water is vs hoping that the test I'm taking of the water is accurate, not outdated, or any of the many other variables when testing water. My no3 has been higher than I ever remember it being, as with the PO4.
My water was green, and I was told by several people that it has to be an algae bloom from the initial crash, and that it was self sustaining once it got going. I was told to use a UV light to kill the bloom, and did so. To date, even after years of running it and changing bulbs on a regular interval, nothing has really changed. Anything I do to it might slow it down, but within a couple of weeks its right back where it was. I have done water changes, sometimes a couple times a week to no avail.
I was told that it might be my salt, so I switched, currently using seachem reef salt. I have not seen any real pros or cons to using it, it just seems like another bucket of salt. I was told my RO unit must be running a bad set of filters, I have swapped those several times on regular intervals, and have changed the DI resin as well. The TDS coming from my system is well within spec, gets tested regularly
I had high PO4 and out of control hair algae, so to battle the PO4 I simply setup a reactor and that was supposed to take care of the problem again. It did, but I always have to run the reactor, the po4 never just goes down and stays there. The hair algae is gone however, so I guess it did work somewhat
While I am able to get the PO4 down, no3 is always high. Ive tried different tests, new skimmer, sugar dosing, and even a reactor. The first thing I did was the deep sand bed plumbed separately. It never seemed to do anything. I also had my fuge there, and even though I thought I had good light and the right flow, growth was minimal. Next thing I did was buy a no3 reactor. I think the reactor was working its magic, but I have not been doing the tests to know for sure. Either way, I know they weren't low like I want them to be, and the green water has only gotten worse. Algae is growing so quickly that it actually has clogged the line to the n03 reactor on several occasions.
I recently acquired a corner tank and it was a running system when I took it down. I had saved all the water, rocks and sand with the tank. I didn't test any water parameters on it when I set it up months ago, its just been sitting in the corner waiting with nothing in it. I was just this week assembling the light that I had purchased for it months ago with the new bulbs that I bought for both this tank and the main tank.
My next mission was to change out the sand bed in the main tank. Its not sand anymore, its full of some sort of tubeworm type organism. and quite hard to the touch in most places. in speaking to some of my friends in this hobby, we agree that the sand bed must be holding onto the carnage of the mexican meltdown and leaching that back into the tank at a regular interval. I bought bags of the live sand and had this afternoon scheduled to drain a lot of the tank and make the switch. Before I could even start at the scheduled time, I noticed that 2 of my nice fish, 1 powder blue, and 1 yellow tang were both dead, and my purple tang and soho were looking really bad. I quickly grabbed tubs and pulled water out of the tank followed by all the rock to get the remaining fish that were still breathing out of that tank and into the other. They were really really bad and I took no time to acclimate them to the new tank. I knew the guy that the other tank came from and had to assume it was better than where they were. So far they are looking a little better, and still swimming, but time will tell if they are ok. I have 3 other small fish that are MIA and at this point presumed dead.
So this weekend, I have the following planned:
New sand bed disposing of the sand that is currently in the tank entirely.
Thoroughly cleaning everything that I can reach to rid myself of algae.
New media in carbon reactor
New media in PO4 reactor
Get NO3 reactor back online and functional
New bulb in UV filter
Disable remote sand bed
New bulbs in Maristar unit (using 250 DE phoenix 14k and 1ea atintic &blue plus ATI t5 lights)
I am also looking at doing an almost complete water replacement. I am looking for the pros and cons to this. I have heard some people do this with great success and others say its a disaster
Other things to consider...I do have some corals that are still alive, and lots of live rock. The new corner tank cant house all of it, so I was looking at putting it back into the main tank with the new sand. Any issues with this?
I am open to any opinions or options here. I love the hobby and have a new tank on order but cant bring myself to kill another animal because stuff wont balance out. Please take a minute to post if you have any information
Thanks in Advance
4-5 years ago, I had a beautiful tank that was thriving. The tank is 48x24x28 with a remote DSB and Fuge, and separate sump. Everything was growing good, water parameters always in check, I mean you really could on a weekly basis take pictures of the tank and see the difference in growth. I have always had mostly softy corals because I like the way they look, and they are the most forgiving that I know of.
The big crash happened when I went away on vacation. I had everything setup and had a good system for keeping stuff cool, and a competent person looking after the tank. Although they had minimal fish tank experience I went over the quick version of maintaining a tank for a week, and left town. I know my family didn't mean any harm when they unplugged the swamp cooler the same day I left thinking they were saving me money because after all who needs the house cool when no one is there...
When I got back, the first thing I smelt was something wrong. The tank was over 90 degrees and had been that way for a yet undetermined amount of time. It was cloudy, and virtually everything was dead, or dying. I saved what I could did water changes and surveyed the damage over the next several weeks...we dubbed the crash the Mexican meltdown.
90% of my corals were gone. Even the leathers. Frog spawns, mushrooms, xiena, nothing really made it. There were a few items left, but not much. Honestly, I didn't even test the water parameters when I got home. I just changed the water over and over.
the water quality slowly came back to a measurable amount....meaning it wasn't so bad that the tests maxed out, and stuff was still living in the tank. The couple of fish that somehow survived were looking happy again, and the tank seemed to be stabilizing once again.
I have never gotten water parameters back to perfect or even good by anyone's definition. By my own admission, I didn't keep records of what they were, so I had nothing to go off of. I have always been the type of guy that listens to the tank and its inhabitants on how the water is vs hoping that the test I'm taking of the water is accurate, not outdated, or any of the many other variables when testing water. My no3 has been higher than I ever remember it being, as with the PO4.
My water was green, and I was told by several people that it has to be an algae bloom from the initial crash, and that it was self sustaining once it got going. I was told to use a UV light to kill the bloom, and did so. To date, even after years of running it and changing bulbs on a regular interval, nothing has really changed. Anything I do to it might slow it down, but within a couple of weeks its right back where it was. I have done water changes, sometimes a couple times a week to no avail.
I was told that it might be my salt, so I switched, currently using seachem reef salt. I have not seen any real pros or cons to using it, it just seems like another bucket of salt. I was told my RO unit must be running a bad set of filters, I have swapped those several times on regular intervals, and have changed the DI resin as well. The TDS coming from my system is well within spec, gets tested regularly
I had high PO4 and out of control hair algae, so to battle the PO4 I simply setup a reactor and that was supposed to take care of the problem again. It did, but I always have to run the reactor, the po4 never just goes down and stays there. The hair algae is gone however, so I guess it did work somewhat
While I am able to get the PO4 down, no3 is always high. Ive tried different tests, new skimmer, sugar dosing, and even a reactor. The first thing I did was the deep sand bed plumbed separately. It never seemed to do anything. I also had my fuge there, and even though I thought I had good light and the right flow, growth was minimal. Next thing I did was buy a no3 reactor. I think the reactor was working its magic, but I have not been doing the tests to know for sure. Either way, I know they weren't low like I want them to be, and the green water has only gotten worse. Algae is growing so quickly that it actually has clogged the line to the n03 reactor on several occasions.
I recently acquired a corner tank and it was a running system when I took it down. I had saved all the water, rocks and sand with the tank. I didn't test any water parameters on it when I set it up months ago, its just been sitting in the corner waiting with nothing in it. I was just this week assembling the light that I had purchased for it months ago with the new bulbs that I bought for both this tank and the main tank.
My next mission was to change out the sand bed in the main tank. Its not sand anymore, its full of some sort of tubeworm type organism. and quite hard to the touch in most places. in speaking to some of my friends in this hobby, we agree that the sand bed must be holding onto the carnage of the mexican meltdown and leaching that back into the tank at a regular interval. I bought bags of the live sand and had this afternoon scheduled to drain a lot of the tank and make the switch. Before I could even start at the scheduled time, I noticed that 2 of my nice fish, 1 powder blue, and 1 yellow tang were both dead, and my purple tang and soho were looking really bad. I quickly grabbed tubs and pulled water out of the tank followed by all the rock to get the remaining fish that were still breathing out of that tank and into the other. They were really really bad and I took no time to acclimate them to the new tank. I knew the guy that the other tank came from and had to assume it was better than where they were. So far they are looking a little better, and still swimming, but time will tell if they are ok. I have 3 other small fish that are MIA and at this point presumed dead.
So this weekend, I have the following planned:
New sand bed disposing of the sand that is currently in the tank entirely.
Thoroughly cleaning everything that I can reach to rid myself of algae.
New media in carbon reactor
New media in PO4 reactor
Get NO3 reactor back online and functional
New bulb in UV filter
Disable remote sand bed
New bulbs in Maristar unit (using 250 DE phoenix 14k and 1ea atintic &blue plus ATI t5 lights)
I am also looking at doing an almost complete water replacement. I am looking for the pros and cons to this. I have heard some people do this with great success and others say its a disaster
Other things to consider...I do have some corals that are still alive, and lots of live rock. The new corner tank cant house all of it, so I was looking at putting it back into the main tank with the new sand. Any issues with this?
I am open to any opinions or options here. I love the hobby and have a new tank on order but cant bring myself to kill another animal because stuff wont balance out. Please take a minute to post if you have any information
Thanks in Advance
