Red Sea reefer 250 - Mixed reef!
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Chrille26
Active Member
My tank has officially crashed!
dang, this is not a forgiving hobby, lots of money and hours spent disappearing in front of your eyes as you try to mitigate the issues.
All the fishes are well, other then that its a barren wasteland.
Back to the drawingboard, I might do a softietank for a forseeable future.
I am not giving up though!
dang, this is not a forgiving hobby, lots of money and hours spent disappearing in front of your eyes as you try to mitigate the issues.
All the fishes are well, other then that its a barren wasteland.
Back to the drawingboard, I might do a softietank for a forseeable future.
I am not giving up though!
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OP
Chrille26
Active Member
Decide on what to do.
I have been doing alot of thinking. Thoughts such as shut it down, sell the hardware and find something else to do.
But also thinking about a plan of action for bringing the tank back to life! I have my healthy fish, the tank is well established and proven to be able to keep SPS alive. When it looks good it brings me and the family alot of joy.
I tested my params today after weeks of letting the tank idle.
SG: 1,025
Alk: 10,2!
NO3: 10 ppm!
PO4: 1 ppm!
mag: 1290
Cal: 420
There is some work to be done but not too bad after all. I decided on doing a larger waterchange to try to bring some balance and just siphon out alot of detritus and crud.
Most dead corals are removed, some almost dead are left with hopes of recovery.
I wont add anything new at this point, the tank is still running above 84f so its basicly a deathsentence to add new corals.
My next move is adding a fan to cool down my water and also just keep replaceing the water at about 20% at a time until it is stable.
More desert then reef:
Black clown still enjoy hosting my still living duncan:
My golden Euphyllia is just a sceleton, more corals are following. My toadstool is still showing polyps though:
My Caulastrea is still alive, but deflated and skinny, still have hope though!
Hope I can get this back on track!
I have been doing alot of thinking. Thoughts such as shut it down, sell the hardware and find something else to do.
But also thinking about a plan of action for bringing the tank back to life! I have my healthy fish, the tank is well established and proven to be able to keep SPS alive. When it looks good it brings me and the family alot of joy.
I tested my params today after weeks of letting the tank idle.
SG: 1,025
Alk: 10,2!
NO3: 10 ppm!
PO4: 1 ppm!
mag: 1290
Cal: 420
There is some work to be done but not too bad after all. I decided on doing a larger waterchange to try to bring some balance and just siphon out alot of detritus and crud.
Most dead corals are removed, some almost dead are left with hopes of recovery.
I wont add anything new at this point, the tank is still running above 84f so its basicly a deathsentence to add new corals.
My next move is adding a fan to cool down my water and also just keep replaceing the water at about 20% at a time until it is stable.
More desert then reef:
Black clown still enjoy hosting my still living duncan:
My golden Euphyllia is just a sceleton, more corals are following. My toadstool is still showing polyps though:
My Caulastrea is still alive, but deflated and skinny, still have hope though!
Hope I can get this back on track!
SeaDweller
2500 Club Member
Sorry to read about your crash. I think a lot of things lead up to it and whatever your family member did or didn’t do was the proverbial straw...
dinos, no N and P in the water, using additives to rid of algae...
don’t give up.
dinos, no N and P in the water, using additives to rid of algae...
don’t give up.
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Chrille26
Active Member
Thank you! Yes there was alot going on at the same time, especially for a tank not even a year old. I was chasing quick fixes for several issues, while the summerheat came in hard raising the watertemp well above optimal.
I will take a step back, let the tank stabilize and start over with the basics.
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Chrille26
Active Member
Corals recovering?
Things are slowly turning around. I have done two major waterchanges as well as cooled the water down to a perfect temp at the moment, and right now I am seeing polyps extending and opening for the first time in a long while!
Params today before water change:
Sg: 1.025
Alk: 9,6
Po4: 1ppm
No3: 10 ppm
Mag: 1270
Ca: 420
Bleeched and thought to be dead Euphyllia showing polyps.
Zoas showing some colour!
Edges of almost dead Monti a brighter green.
Duncan
Things are slowly turning around. I have done two major waterchanges as well as cooled the water down to a perfect temp at the moment, and right now I am seeing polyps extending and opening for the first time in a long while!
Params today before water change:
Sg: 1.025
Alk: 9,6
Po4: 1ppm
No3: 10 ppm
Mag: 1270
Ca: 420
Bleeched and thought to be dead Euphyllia showing polyps.
Zoas showing some colour!
Edges of almost dead Monti a brighter green.
Duncan
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Chrille26
Active Member
In other good news! Just went to do some work in sump, only to see a infestation of red planaria flatworms.. Why all negative aspects of reefing hit me at once I dont know, but its just another thing I need to deal with.
Actually discussed draining and selling today, but will give it some more thought.
Actually discussed draining and selling today, but will give it some more thought.
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Chrille26
Active Member
I took a drastic measure today. I removed my refugium, just tossed all Chaeto I could grab, tossed the basket and removed all liverock rubble. Uninstalled the lightfixture and all. I cleaned off the live rock and put it back together with my bioballs.
I siphoned as much detritus and crud I could but I ran out of time to get it all done so I will be doing another waterchange tomorrow, then Ill also clean the sump fully and remove all leftover detritus and Cheato.
The tank became increadibly couldy which I anticipated, just hope it wont hurt any inhabitants.
The reason why is because my refugium was 80% Cyano at this point, also home to flatworms and Valonia.
I siphoned as much detritus and crud I could but I ran out of time to get it all done so I will be doing another waterchange tomorrow, then Ill also clean the sump fully and remove all leftover detritus and Cheato.
The tank became increadibly couldy which I anticipated, just hope it wont hurt any inhabitants.
The reason why is because my refugium was 80% Cyano at this point, also home to flatworms and Valonia.
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Chrille26
Active Member
Still keeping my nose above the surface, but just barely. Keep changing a couple of gallons of water every few days, feeding sparingly and keeping it stabe.
The surviving corals are actually perking up a little!
The surviving corals are actually perking up a little!
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Chrille26
Active Member
Slow and steady this time.
Its so funny seeing how I mention in the first post of the thread how I am going to go slow, but still end up making the same misstake of rushing.
I clearly added too much too fast which disnt cause the crash but made it worse then it had to be.
Tested my params today, and I am still cruising steady right now.
My alk is still a little high but I am not doing any right now, so it should stabilize.
Sg: 1.026
Alk: 9,2
No3: 10 ppm
Po4: 0,25 ppm
Ca: 440
Mag: 1200
Its so funny seeing how I mention in the first post of the thread how I am going to go slow, but still end up making the same misstake of rushing.
I clearly added too much too fast which disnt cause the crash but made it worse then it had to be.
Tested my params today, and I am still cruising steady right now.
My alk is still a little high but I am not doing any right now, so it should stabilize.
Sg: 1.026
Alk: 9,2
No3: 10 ppm
Po4: 0,25 ppm
Ca: 440
Mag: 1200
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Chrille26
Active Member
At the beginning of the thread when I first started I posted about a baby hermitcrab that came in on the liverock.
Well, today I found it again, it has been disguised as a snail all along so I havent seen it, but it has grown super big!
Super fun to find out it survived all the ups and downs.
At the beginning of the cycle:
Today:
Well, today I found it again, it has been disguised as a snail all along so I havent seen it, but it has grown super big!
Super fun to find out it survived all the ups and downs.
At the beginning of the cycle:
Today:
What do you feel was the cause of this ? Your friend over feeding? I left town for 7 days and left dad to take care of tank. What a mistake. Left with phosphates at .07 and nitrates at 10 came back with phosphates at .40 and nitrates at 50. I ask him what the heck did he do he said I only did what you told me. I just shook my headMy first real knockdown in this hobby!
Yes, sometimes a fish die with or without visible reason. Same goes for corals, less then optimal conditions can hurt a coral but they can also die for no apperent reason. This have happened to me a couple of time through this build thread.
But whats happening to me right now is something different. I went on a 5 day trip and left the care of my tank to a family member.
When I came home from the trip the tank looked like this:
Most corals bleached or dead. Thankfully all fishes made it through.
I immediately did a 20% waterchange to try and reduce the nutrients and the imbalances that occured.
Today is a week later, sadly I am still removing sceletons of dead coral.
I did another 20% waterchange and cleaned the skimmer, changed GAC, harvested Chaeto and siphoned out alot of detritus.
The inhabitants are far from habby right now but I am not giving up, I will keep up with husbandery and try to save as much as I can!
Acan, Favia, Birdsnest:
The struggle continues.
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Chrille26
Active Member
Thank you, appreciate it!
I dont know for sure, I think it was a mix of high nutrients, alk swing, high temp and maybe even something more. I think we had a similar experience with a relative overfeeding and probably just dumped all the food at once so the fishes didbt have time to grab it all before it settled in the rocks and substrate.
Its a big and expensive lesson learned.
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Chrille26
Active Member
Since the parameters have been stable for a while now I decided to add some new frags to get some life and movement back into the reef. It will also motivate me further to keep a close eye and stay ontop of maintenance.
A neon green hammer:
A Blastomussa:
A green / pink hammer:
And some long polyp green star Polyps:
A neon green hammer:
A Blastomussa:
A green / pink hammer:
And some long polyp green star Polyps:
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Chrille26
Active Member
Things are still looking good, the params seem stable and the new additions still seem to be happy and well.
It not much and I have a long way to go to make a full recovery but well get there.
Also check the recovery on this Montipora I never thought would pull thru at one point!
And today:
It not much and I have a long way to go to make a full recovery but well get there.
Also check the recovery on this Montipora I never thought would pull thru at one point!
And today:
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Chrille26
Active Member
Finally my nutrients are going down!
Doing 2x waterchanges and feeding sparingly are showing results.
As a reward I treated me to a new coral, one who actually likes the water a bit dirty, a fuzzy Rhodactis with green base and blue polyps.
Freshly dipped but opening.
At the side of the reef.
One hour later.
Thats it for now.
Doing 2x waterchanges and feeding sparingly are showing results.
As a reward I treated me to a new coral, one who actually likes the water a bit dirty, a fuzzy Rhodactis with green base and blue polyps.
Freshly dipped but opening.
At the side of the reef.
One hour later.
Thats it for now.
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