So, after a year of frustration and struggles and wasted money, I am forced to admit something that pains me to admit.
I am a bad reefkeeper. And I would like to not be one. But I don't know where the problem is. Is it the gear? Is it something else? Is it me? (It's probably me). So in the hopes of not being a bad reefkeeper at some point in the future, I am once again asking for your help. But not your donations.
So, first, the barebones facts of the tank. It's a Red Sea Reefer 350 (so 73 gallon display, 18 gallon sump). This incarnation of the tank has been running since about December of last year. Most of the rocks, however, came over from my previous tank, a 55-gallon tank with a Trigger Crystal 30 sump. That tank ran for a little under three years, and was initially seeded with some rocks from my original Biocube 29 that I started back in 2009. All of the rocks currently in the tank are Marco Dry Rocks, seeded both from the older tanks and with MicroBacter.
For lighting, I have a pair of Radion XR15 Gen4 fixtures in an Aquatic Life T5 Hybrid 48" fixture (2x ATI Blue Plus, 1x ATI Coral Plus, 1x ATI Purple Plus). The T5 bulbs are on for 7 hours a day (1 PM to 8 PM), and the Radeons run at full power for 10 hours (12 PM to 10 PM) before going into moonlights (1% power, blue only) until 12 PM the next day. My protein skimmer is a Red Sea RSK-300, and I run a CO2 scrubber on it to keep my PH up - without the scrubber, it can drop down to 7.7 or even lower overnight. Heating is a pair of titanium heater, controlled by a BRS heater controller and my Apex EL, so two layers of redundancy to keep the temperature between 77 and 78 degrees.
The front chamber of the sump is a chaeto refugium, using a Tunze 8831 submersible light. I usually harvest a softball-sized chaeto ball every week. I have about 3-4 quarts of Marine Pure spheres in the sump as well. I don't run any filter socks, in its place I have two filter cups; one holds some of the Marine Pure spheres, the other has a bag of activated carbon and a bag of Cuprisorb. The plumbing in my house leeches trace amounts of copper into my RO/DI water, even when my TDS meter shows 0, so I run Cuprisorb regularly to filter out those trace amounts before they can build up. Before I discovered that issue, the copper was able to build up to detectable amounts while I was running my 55g tank, and it did cause some losses. All water is RO/DI, and I keep it topped off with a Tunze Ozmolator 3155.
For flow in the tank, I have a Neptune WAV pump and a Maxspect XF250, both set on Random modes. Total movement within the tank is about 3500 gph, and through the sump it's about 750 gph with a Reef Octopus Varios 2.
I run three Kamoer X1 dosing pumps, dosing BRS pharmaceutical-grade Calcium Chloride, Soda Ash and Magnesium. I have a Trident on my system, so I adjust my dosing based on my results to try and stay within acceptable parameters. Speaking of, my current parameters are:
PH: 8.0-8.2 (fluctuates throughout the day)
ALK: 10.15 dKh
CA: 427 ppm
MG: 1411
Nitrate: Below 4 ppm as of two days ago.
In terms of feeding and general husbandry, I run an autofeeder on my tank that feeds a small amount of about 5 different types of pellets, 3 times a day. Currently feeding Hikari Marine S, Hikari Seaweed Extreme, PE Mysis Pellets, TDO Chroma Boost, New Life Spectrum Probiotix... I think that's it, though I might be forgetting one. I'll also feed LRS Reef Frenzy about 2-3 times a week, and I've recently started giving a sheet or two of nori per week. I feed my corals when I feed Reef Frenzy, so about 2-3 times a week. For water changes, I do a 10% change every two weeks, using Tropic Marin Pro salt.
For livestock, I have:
And so for my problems: Pretty much everything.
First of all, I can't keep more than the five fish alive. Just in the past year I've lost a diamond sand sifter, a blue mandarin, an exquisite wrasse, a ruby fin fairy wrasse, a Bartlett's anthias, a Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse, a chalk basslet and a Lubbock's fairy wrasse. I haven't observed anything above an occasional half-hearted chase from either the clown or the tang; 99% of the time, the fish (including the newest addition) coexist peacefully. All of the fish, with the exception of the mandarin (which I knew was a gamble going into it), have been eating. There were no signs of disease on any of the fish before they died, and none of the five that have stuck around have exhibited any signs of disease. So I'm not sure what's been happening with the fish.
Second, most corals don't last long. In almost all cases, the pattern is the same: The coral goes into the tank. Within days, flesh begins to recede. Coloration fades and bare skeleton begins appearing. Springs of slimy, cyano-like algae begin covering the coral. And then there's nothing left. Some corals have survived; I have about six colonies of zoas that seem to be doing OK, though certainly not really growing either. There are 3-4 colonies of acan lords that have persisted with regular feedings, though again, not really growing. There's a toadstool leather that is doing fine. A couple of goniopora colonies that are doing alright. There's a blasto colony that did well for about a month, but it's currently in the process of dying. A couple of chalice corals that were doing fine, but have recently started both experiencing the same pattern. I had three torch corals and a frogspawn, but the frogspawn melted off of its skeleton three days after coming into the tank, and one of the torches recently did the same after having been in the tank for about 3 months. And a whole mess of acropora, montipora, bird's nests, porites and similar corals that begin with that pattern within 3 days of entering the tank.
Finally, the sand is hideous. It's constantly covered in red slime, ranging from a thin layer to a thick mat. The only time it's gone away was when I had my sand sifter. I vacuum the sand whenever I do a water change, and I've had the powerheads angled down towards the sandbed to try and keep the sand agitated and prevent the mat's growth, but that does nothing. I could use Chemiclean and I'm sure that would work, but in the past whenever I've used it it's led to a bryopsis outbreak... fluconozale then knocks out the bryopsis, but then the cyano comes back. So I end up right where I started, not really addressing the root cause (whatever that might be).
I'm just about at my wit's end with this. I've spent probably close to $1,500 in livestock over the past year, and more than 2/3 of that is now buried in my yard or sitting as skeletal remains. I'm not planning to get out of the hobby or anything - I've been doing this for almost 12 years at this point, and I love having a tank - but I'd really like to be carefully cultivating a beautiful thriving reef rather than constantly pruning out dead things and feeling like a failure because another fish died. Any help or advice would be appreciated.
I am a bad reefkeeper. And I would like to not be one. But I don't know where the problem is. Is it the gear? Is it something else? Is it me? (It's probably me). So in the hopes of not being a bad reefkeeper at some point in the future, I am once again asking for your help. But not your donations.
So, first, the barebones facts of the tank. It's a Red Sea Reefer 350 (so 73 gallon display, 18 gallon sump). This incarnation of the tank has been running since about December of last year. Most of the rocks, however, came over from my previous tank, a 55-gallon tank with a Trigger Crystal 30 sump. That tank ran for a little under three years, and was initially seeded with some rocks from my original Biocube 29 that I started back in 2009. All of the rocks currently in the tank are Marco Dry Rocks, seeded both from the older tanks and with MicroBacter.
For lighting, I have a pair of Radion XR15 Gen4 fixtures in an Aquatic Life T5 Hybrid 48" fixture (2x ATI Blue Plus, 1x ATI Coral Plus, 1x ATI Purple Plus). The T5 bulbs are on for 7 hours a day (1 PM to 8 PM), and the Radeons run at full power for 10 hours (12 PM to 10 PM) before going into moonlights (1% power, blue only) until 12 PM the next day. My protein skimmer is a Red Sea RSK-300, and I run a CO2 scrubber on it to keep my PH up - without the scrubber, it can drop down to 7.7 or even lower overnight. Heating is a pair of titanium heater, controlled by a BRS heater controller and my Apex EL, so two layers of redundancy to keep the temperature between 77 and 78 degrees.
The front chamber of the sump is a chaeto refugium, using a Tunze 8831 submersible light. I usually harvest a softball-sized chaeto ball every week. I have about 3-4 quarts of Marine Pure spheres in the sump as well. I don't run any filter socks, in its place I have two filter cups; one holds some of the Marine Pure spheres, the other has a bag of activated carbon and a bag of Cuprisorb. The plumbing in my house leeches trace amounts of copper into my RO/DI water, even when my TDS meter shows 0, so I run Cuprisorb regularly to filter out those trace amounts before they can build up. Before I discovered that issue, the copper was able to build up to detectable amounts while I was running my 55g tank, and it did cause some losses. All water is RO/DI, and I keep it topped off with a Tunze Ozmolator 3155.
For flow in the tank, I have a Neptune WAV pump and a Maxspect XF250, both set on Random modes. Total movement within the tank is about 3500 gph, and through the sump it's about 750 gph with a Reef Octopus Varios 2.
I run three Kamoer X1 dosing pumps, dosing BRS pharmaceutical-grade Calcium Chloride, Soda Ash and Magnesium. I have a Trident on my system, so I adjust my dosing based on my results to try and stay within acceptable parameters. Speaking of, my current parameters are:
PH: 8.0-8.2 (fluctuates throughout the day)
ALK: 10.15 dKh
CA: 427 ppm
MG: 1411
Nitrate: Below 4 ppm as of two days ago.
In terms of feeding and general husbandry, I run an autofeeder on my tank that feeds a small amount of about 5 different types of pellets, 3 times a day. Currently feeding Hikari Marine S, Hikari Seaweed Extreme, PE Mysis Pellets, TDO Chroma Boost, New Life Spectrum Probiotix... I think that's it, though I might be forgetting one. I'll also feed LRS Reef Frenzy about 2-3 times a week, and I've recently started giving a sheet or two of nori per week. I feed my corals when I feed Reef Frenzy, so about 2-3 times a week. For water changes, I do a 10% change every two weeks, using Tropic Marin Pro salt.
For livestock, I have:
- Tomini Tang
- Pink Skunk clownfish
- Springeri Damsel
- Elegant Firefish
- Forktail Blenny
And so for my problems: Pretty much everything.
First of all, I can't keep more than the five fish alive. Just in the past year I've lost a diamond sand sifter, a blue mandarin, an exquisite wrasse, a ruby fin fairy wrasse, a Bartlett's anthias, a Carpenter's Flasher Wrasse, a chalk basslet and a Lubbock's fairy wrasse. I haven't observed anything above an occasional half-hearted chase from either the clown or the tang; 99% of the time, the fish (including the newest addition) coexist peacefully. All of the fish, with the exception of the mandarin (which I knew was a gamble going into it), have been eating. There were no signs of disease on any of the fish before they died, and none of the five that have stuck around have exhibited any signs of disease. So I'm not sure what's been happening with the fish.
Second, most corals don't last long. In almost all cases, the pattern is the same: The coral goes into the tank. Within days, flesh begins to recede. Coloration fades and bare skeleton begins appearing. Springs of slimy, cyano-like algae begin covering the coral. And then there's nothing left. Some corals have survived; I have about six colonies of zoas that seem to be doing OK, though certainly not really growing either. There are 3-4 colonies of acan lords that have persisted with regular feedings, though again, not really growing. There's a toadstool leather that is doing fine. A couple of goniopora colonies that are doing alright. There's a blasto colony that did well for about a month, but it's currently in the process of dying. A couple of chalice corals that were doing fine, but have recently started both experiencing the same pattern. I had three torch corals and a frogspawn, but the frogspawn melted off of its skeleton three days after coming into the tank, and one of the torches recently did the same after having been in the tank for about 3 months. And a whole mess of acropora, montipora, bird's nests, porites and similar corals that begin with that pattern within 3 days of entering the tank.
Finally, the sand is hideous. It's constantly covered in red slime, ranging from a thin layer to a thick mat. The only time it's gone away was when I had my sand sifter. I vacuum the sand whenever I do a water change, and I've had the powerheads angled down towards the sandbed to try and keep the sand agitated and prevent the mat's growth, but that does nothing. I could use Chemiclean and I'm sure that would work, but in the past whenever I've used it it's led to a bryopsis outbreak... fluconozale then knocks out the bryopsis, but then the cyano comes back. So I end up right where I started, not really addressing the root cause (whatever that might be).
I'm just about at my wit's end with this. I've spent probably close to $1,500 in livestock over the past year, and more than 2/3 of that is now buried in my yard or sitting as skeletal remains. I'm not planning to get out of the hobby or anything - I've been doing this for almost 12 years at this point, and I love having a tank - but I'd really like to be carefully cultivating a beautiful thriving reef rather than constantly pruning out dead things and feeling like a failure because another fish died. Any help or advice would be appreciated.
When do you instruct in the proper ways of accomplishing what it is you talk about?
