Got this email today....

[ronnie]

And - it has been a month. Just long enough to for the nitrates to creep up from overstocking and overfeeding and kill everything.....

 

[Speg]

Definitely all your fault!

How dare you send him frag plugs with nitrates buried deep within like a time bomb!

On a sidenote - how about a shot of your frag tank?

Oh, and this:

As soon as my wife gets home I'll get those pics. Her camera phone actually works..mine doesn't

 

[Harry_Y]

If sounds quite odd to me.

I have gotten frags from all over and have never had any type of issue like that

 

[ronnie]

Can I get his phone number?

I've got some ocean front property in Arizona for sale cheap! :wink:

 

[Speg]

Here's some pics of my nano and the frag tank as of a few minutes ago! My nano used to be prettier but I fragged a bunch of the coral in it

 

[Reef lvr]

Thats just crazy man...Dont lose any sleep over it...Not your fault at all.

 

[Jpurpz831]

maybe the fish are commiting suicide because this guy is so stupid

hahahahahaha and he has close to 18 fish in a 80 gallon that is alot i have about 10 in a 200 gallon and i think im pushin it

 

[revhtree]

Let's don't start flaming someone please. They may come and want to be a part of the community. Maybe not now.

 

[Rayzback]

High nitrate frags at low discount prices.....awesome! Seriously, it's in no way your fault. My guess is that he re-aquascaped his entire bioload heavy tank for da new frags.... stirring up 2 years worth of trapped diterus in the substrate.

 

[phi delt reefer]

High nitrate frags at low discount prices.....awesome! Seriously, it's in no way your fault. My guess is that he re-aquascaped his entire bioload heavy tank for da new frags.... stirring up 2 years worth of trapped diterus in the substrate.

+1 - established sandbeds = ticking timebomb.

 

[Speg]

Let's don't start flaming someone please. They may come and want to be a part of the community. Maybe not now.

I agree.

 

[drainbamage]

Let's don't start flaming someone please. They may come and want to be a part of the community. Maybe not now.

this is what I was going to say-this person seems to have a genuine problem in their tank, and while blaming Speg is unfair, I think he made a good move in pointing this person to R2R. If he comes here now with how many people saying "he's stupid, he smokes crack, etc" I for one would walk away without even asking for help. Considering the second email speg put up, the person does know something (most uninformed would say "white" or "daylight" not "10-15k") and perhaps is just having problems. Not knowing the details of testing when you've relied on a fish store to do the testing doesn't make them dumb, just means they haven't spent nearly the time as many of us on here have.

I doubt anyone would blame 12 frag's in a 80 gallon tank with a crash-that the maitenance person MIGHT have (remember, it's hearsay and/or conjecture when the person is saying what someone else has told them) is besides the important issue of fixing the problem.

 

[fsn77]

I can understand feeling bad for the buyer who's tank is suffering, as I am much the same way if something goes wrong when frags leave my tanks and go to someone else who suddenly has a problem. However, I can't see how this is the least bit your fault. Looking at those few pix you posted, it at least appears to me that you use a good number of ceramic plugs / disks (perhaps they aren't ceramic though). If hobbyists have set up entire tanks using man-made ceramic rock and DIY rock without issue, I don't understand how anyone would conclude that a dozen or ceramic frag plugs (or any frag plugs) coming from a healthy, established system caused a nitrate spike large enough to harm an 80g tank. Even if they were a problem, assuming that your frags have healed and grown onto the frag plugs some, it seems much more logical to conclude that if there was an issue with those frag plugs, it would have killed the corals long before they were shipped.

 

[Friday Night]

Corals. fish. car. grandma's walking stick....

used = "as is sale"

Its a rap

 

[sowellj]

I'm being blamed for causing deaths. Please read the email and tell me your thoughts! I don't have any more information available than what's in the email so far.

Well, I haven't got back to you due to an alarming issue. I have had my tank for over 2 years with a dozen and 1/2 fish with some 5 year old corals; it has been detected/concluded that some of the corals we received from you may have some major nitrate issues. It has killed all but 3 fish and wiped out most of my corals. I can't quite pin it on your frags/disks (seem the most likely candidate) but it had been narrowed down. After 4 water changes of 25%, we have started to bring it to 20ppm. We can't explain it...yet, but I have several time coral breeding folks checking it out. With this being said - have you ever a problem with those disks or the corals? Like I mentioned to you, I never saw them open and was wondering if we had a lot of the water you sent spiked in nitrates? I never dumped your water in, but didn't test it for hi levels of toxicity. So, I know you may deny it, but my fish store manager comes twice a week to maintain it....thoughts?

Sounds like garbage to me. Fish are extraordinarily tolerant of high nitrate levels, so even if the plugs caused this it should have no effect on the fish. Secondly, I don't see how a frag plug could physically leach nitrate. DISCLAIMER -- my opinion -- the fish store manager messed up and is looking for a scapegoat.