Feeling abit overwhelmed. Need help in "resetting" tank

[Uzair Aiman]

Hi. Lately Ive had some personal issues which made me not buy some salt for around 2 months(?), therefore not changing my water weekly and not testing my parameters anymore for the period. All I did was dose my All For Reef everynight with the same dosage, and top off with RODI water.

Im quite lost on what to do now to keep my tank back in check. Im planning on buying salt this week and "resetting" my schedule. My anemone is starting to lose colour, my Digis are also staring to bleach and are not growing, and my clam just died weeks before this post, where my crustaceans started to feed on it. Everything else (Hammer, GSP, Zoanthids) are doing relatively well. Fishes are also doing fine.

Anything I should do first to start off my new schedule to keep things back on track? I need some motivation to do so too, as I seem to have lost some motivation in keeping this tank but I love it and I dont want to lose it. Is a complete reset required? Such as moving the rocks, cleaning everything in the tank etc.

Thanks in advance, any motivation is also appreciated!

 

[Nano sapiens]

I would suggest first determining your current parameters. The results can help determine what actions you need to take. Obviously, something is wrong if you are losing animals and others don't look well (could be chemical, biological, etc.)

As for motivation, it doesn't hurt to examine some of the better examples of successful reef aquariums and imagine that yours could look that way, too, with sufficient effort and acquired knowledge.

 

[Radman73]

Hi. Lately Ive had some personal issues which made me not buy some salt for around 2 months(?), therefore not changing my water weekly and not testing my parameters anymore for the period. All I did was dose my All For Reef everynight with the same dosage, and top off with RODI water.

Im quite lost on what to do now to keep my tank back in check. Im planning on buying salt this week and "resetting" my schedule. My anemone is starting to lose colour, my Digis are also staring to bleach and are not growing, and my clam just died weeks before this post, where my crustaceans started to feed on it. Everything else (Hammer, GSP, Zoanthids) are doing relatively well. Fishes are also doing fine.

Anything I should do first to start off my new schedule to keep things back on track? I need some motivation to do so too, as I seem to have lost some motivation in keeping this tank but I love it and I dont want to lose it. Is a complete reset required? Such as moving the rocks, cleaning everything in the tank etc.

Thanks in advance, any motivation is also appreciated!

No need to reset. Just need to get it back on track. First, stop dosing until you've tested parameters.

I struggled with motivation, still do often, as well(I have moderate to high levels of chronic pain).

What helps is to start with small things. Break maintenance into manageable tasks. Start with testing for nitrates one day, test phosphates the next. If taking a sample to a LFS is an option, do so and enjoy looking at their stock while the water is tested. Find something you'd like to get once your tank is back on track and work towards that.

If you have algae build up on the glass, scrape one panel at a time. Doesn't need to all be done at once.

The main goal is to do water tests though and find out which parameters are off.

Look at some build threads to find inspiration and motivation. Also, know that you are not alone. Setting up a tank is a ton of fun as is getting it going. Then the maintenance can seem to become tedious, especially if other life events pop up.