Chrisq0904
New member
This is a little heart breaking. Your tank was beautiful when I stopped by. It really sucks that this happened. Coughfirethecleaningladycough
Rovster's Custom Reef Savvy build......FINALLY!!!
- Thread starter rovster
- Start date
rovster
New member
Thanks guys. At this point I'm pretty sure introducing those pieces from the other tank is the reason. There was no other reason for this to happen. All my SPS were improving and all were happy and some that were struggling were coming around nicely. I'm convinced it was that. What a stupid move on my part. All that just to save a couple of cheap frags. Should have thrown them away! It was not the microbacter. It was not me over complicating things E. I was not carbon dosing, just weekly waterchanges and heavy skimming Viejo. Oh well. This afternoon I get home to assess the carnage. Big water change scheduled and have another 40 gal of RO ready to make more salt water. Seems the cloudiness is almost gone as well. Thanks for the positive remarks. As far as I'm concerned this is just a 6 month set back! There's already a few changes I want to make as far as corals and placement
Ryanaquarium
New member
It could be also bad batch of salt, my friends tank crashed after a few water changes and it was the salt mix he was using . Sorry for what happened stuff always happens for a reason.. Good luck
rovster
New member
Not a bad batch of salt. This was premixed and I had done a previous WC out of the same brute.
I can almost assure that it was some kind of nasty bacteria I brought over from the other tank. When I left for the weekend, I left about 40 gallons of freshly mixed saltwater in a brute. I left my pump I use for water changes in there as I usually do. When I got back today, I opened the lid and that water was all cloudy and had slimy strands everywhere, much like the strands I observed in my ghetto tank.
Bottom line is I lost a ton of acros. 32 are dead white and a bunch more are teetering on the edge. At least a few more look like they won't make it like my miami orchid colony and my frogskin. I also lost a bunch of hard to find frags, some of which really stung. Some are easy to find so that's a plus, and some I had just grown attached to. Lost my minicolony of Mikes WD tenius which was a huge bummer, RIP. My shrimp and most snails died as well. All montis and non sps seem to be hanging in there. Also put in a large bag of carbon. Fish seem unaffected.
Carnage...
I did a 15 gal water change and plan on a few more this week and then I'll start tapering off.
Thanks to all that offered water and help either via this board or that texted me personally. At this point all I can do is ride it out and see what happens. I figure if in 2-3 months if things start to look good I'll start restocking again. I'll keep this thread updated and still plan on making this build epic!
I can almost assure that it was some kind of nasty bacteria I brought over from the other tank. When I left for the weekend, I left about 40 gallons of freshly mixed saltwater in a brute. I left my pump I use for water changes in there as I usually do. When I got back today, I opened the lid and that water was all cloudy and had slimy strands everywhere, much like the strands I observed in my ghetto tank.
Bottom line is I lost a ton of acros. 32 are dead white and a bunch more are teetering on the edge. At least a few more look like they won't make it like my miami orchid colony and my frogskin. I also lost a bunch of hard to find frags, some of which really stung. Some are easy to find so that's a plus, and some I had just grown attached to. Lost my minicolony of Mikes WD tenius which was a huge bummer, RIP. My shrimp and most snails died as well. All montis and non sps seem to be hanging in there. Also put in a large bag of carbon. Fish seem unaffected.
Carnage...
I did a 15 gal water change and plan on a few more this week and then I'll start tapering off.
Thanks to all that offered water and help either via this board or that texted me personally. At this point all I can do is ride it out and see what happens. I figure if in 2-3 months if things start to look good I'll start restocking again. I'll keep this thread updated and still plan on making this build epic!
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usingthejohn
New member
Sorry to hear. If I may ask, what happened in the other tank that necessitated you needing to save frags? As I started my tank as well, I would like to learn what lessons can be shared.
Sorry for this go around, but I know you'll have exponentially more success next time
Sorry for this go around, but I know you'll have exponentially more success next time
rovster
New member
Well the other tank was my original tank that I transferred from. I did leave it running for some time. It had some bubble algae and some algae in there so I left it with snails and a couple of emerald crabs. My plan was to use that tank as a cycled QT as a stepping stone for any new fish. I scaled back on water changes but still did them, just not weekly. That tank had a few frags that I wasn't sure I wanted and a few corals that I had for sale. After a couple of months of running without fish, it started to get REALLY clean. I was getting ready to stock it with fish and then BAM, went cloudy. I was not dosing anything in that tank, just the waterchanges and cleaning the skimmer cup.
I tried a few water changes and it would not get better. I started getting some long white strands of bacteria and the tank ended up crashing. All the SPS in there went white, and the zoas and GSP were looking OK. Those are the frags I tranfered over. My theory is that what ever nasty bacteria was brewing in there made it over and I basically seeded my new tank with it.
Logically, I knew there was bacteria that would make the transfer, but everything I knew about reefing told me that my biofilter would be able to handle that small amount and it shouldn'e be a problem.
Lo and behold, I pretty much introduced a plague into my tank. Truthfully, I didn't think that was even possible. Aside from that, all my levels were in check and super consistent, and all my acros were doing amazing all showing signs of growth and coloring.
My initial thought was that maybe one of my dosers got stuck on and I created a precipitation event. Turns out that wasn't the case and it was in fact a bacterial bloom.
usingthejohn
New member
You mentioned "long, stringy bacteria": do you recall If it had 'bubbles' at the end? Agaon, as I'm also learning, but it sounds like possibly dinoflagellates? Either way, whatever it was, I'm sorry you lost so many sps pieces. Your tank was amazing in such a short time
rovster
New member
Dinos are usually brownish/or tan colored. Bacteria are white, and it literally looks like long strands of white snot or mucus. Its unmistakable. Don't know if you've ever seen an acro slime, but it looks like that. Dinos have a snot like consistency, but are not white. Hope that helps.
I only saw strands in my previous tank and also in my mixing brute. I'll try and post a pic of my mixing brute later.
usingthejohn
New member
Yes that does. Thank you very much.
Chrisq0904
New member
Well when my frogskin, tricolor and setosa that I got from grow out I can give a frag or each if you want. I know you told me you didn't want montis but if you want a piece of the X factor I can give you that too. I also have a pink digi that has been doing great in my tank. Just lmk
