that sucks man , its frustrating when you work hard on something and it doesnt go well. what happened to the fish?


sometimes it just helps to walk away for a bit , maybe doing to much even if intentions are good isnt good for the new tank.

if your in a place now where the tank isnt enjoyable and results arnt going good then id take a breather and put the tank on auto mode.

dont buy new fish for a good while and let the system mature and just focus on the corals in there for a bit.

theres a few hard lessons to this rock , one is its filthy and filled with all kinds of dried up organics (crab claws/urchins/sponges etc) , adding any kind of bioload to this rock (pukani/fiji) when its first introduced creates big problems and the minute saltwater hits this rock the chemical reactions start , you can stay on top of it but it def becomes an issue wth the more fish you have.

good luck buddy and chin up my bonsai had to be shut down for similiar reasons i had a mass ich outbreak that wiped out half the pop and rebuilt the tank two times from hydroid infestations ....that tank got shut down at the end of the summer and i went for the last year and a bit with no display just tanks for the corals.

feeling better these days so started a display and frustrations are minimal this time around so far:)

That's terrible that you lost your fish again. So heartbreaking!
I would go with what reefwars says, leave the tank fishless for a time, corals only.

I would shut it down and watch an empty tank for a while.
It could give you a different perspective from present problems, jmo.
I'm doing that with mine for only a week so far and already thinking about a better future tank setup.
Lifting the nagging maintenance burden from the shoulders could be a well deserved break.

agreed fishless sounds like a good idea. or just let it run without fish, corals or lights for a few months and forget about it. wait until your desire returns. good luck!

Me three:mrgreen:

Me four...:smile:
Maybe a few shrimp and crabs, but no fish, for at least 3 months. But we do want to see the corals again.

Ugh. :( Go fishless for awhile. My 50 had a single Blue Eye Cardinal in it for the last year before I decided to stock it up a few months ago.

Yikes :frusty:

What happened ?

I like the idea of you going fish-less for a bit to stabilize your tank
Then you could exchange the crap rock with some LR

Chin up bud
You know you want to keep doing it :lol:

PS, I'm kinda getting there with my tank .. the whole idea of a total reset. Remove the junk rock and start with real rock
Little tank for frags, maybe a tank for the fish ... let it stew for a bit while I have a breather and calm down as I'm kinda ****ed about my tank
Maybe even another tub of LR for cooking ....

Brad sorry to hear about the losses of your fish, how are the other fishes doing?
I was trying to read through your journal quickly this morning. Did you get rid of the cyano?

Thanks Chris. I have a pair of clowns and a Leopard wrasse left. Yes, cyano let a while ago, just chmicleaned it.

:-(

:hug:

So, new month, but not posting a pic. Looks just like last month but without fish.

Started VSV dosing last weekend, overall impressed. However, while the NO3 was cut in half, PO4 went up. Skimmer took out tons of gunk, especially compared to what it did WITH fish. This last week gave twice as much skimmate.

This tells me the following.. excess bacteria were created via dosing. They used half the nitrate available, and a corresponding amount if PO4. Not sure what the ratio is, but P should have dropped over the week. It went up 20%.

So it appears that the rock is leaching faster than dosing can remove it. Not surprising.
I'm ordering a couple boxes of real rock and will rebuild once I get it and cure it. Maybe I can finally get some growth out of the corals.

It'll be fun! (riiight)

I think you just happened to discover another one of the many no-win situations in this hobby. Dead rock is awesome but dead rock sucks! Live rock is awesome, but live rock sucks! You just have to decide which is the lesser of the suck, I guess.

I'm not getting the part about live rock sucking?? Always been really happy with any I've bought.

Hopefully your luck hold! If not, aiptasiaX and flatworm exit works wonders !

Hopefully :) I've never actually had a red planaria in all my time in, and aiptasia have never been an issue for me. If I get a couple, easy enough to deal with for the benefit of real rock.

You're quite right. The downsides to live rock are quite easily managed (naturally). I had all manner of pests but all handled with the right fish to help combat. Plus I really like my blue clove polyps :-)

While its nice to sit back and watch/enjoy the fruits of your labors, we both know this hobby can get kind of boring if theres nothing to tinker with once in awhile. Ok ok, you've had it a bit rough this last go but you know what I mean :wink:

I'm sure I can find fun things to tinker with other than the current issues :)

Quick update progress. Carbon dosing is dropping NO3, but not PO4. Using fozdown is helping bring it down, but not a long term solution. Bit the bullet and ordered a couple boxes of Fiji rock, should be here end of the week.
Got my Ca reactor online finally, so no more messing with levels once I get it tweaked to a light load.
On the fish front, I'm going to try and trap the leopard wrasse and leave tank fishless. Not sure how that affects carbon dosing.
Damn, how do we tag someone here lol Denny, any advice on carbon dosing with adding all new rock and no fish?
Assume start from scratch?
Anyway, stay tuned for a new look and some SPS growth, I hope!

What are you using as a carbon source and how much are you dosing Currently?

If you want to play it safe You can start from scratch if you like or cut your dose in half and check the numbers after a week of rock being in ,your no3 numbers will give you an idea if you need to raise or lower the dosage , the small amount of load the fish provide can be replicated using foods or supplements such as amino acids if need be.

Worse case scenario you'll end up with a bacterial bloom if you dose too much and with no fish shouldn't be any harm with o2 levels , after the bloom simply cut your dose back.

If it were me I would continue on with your carbn dosing as your doing and once you hit zero for nitrates cut your dose back to find your maintenance dose With no fish , when fish get added start to rise again slowly week by week then cut down again to find the maintenance dose again with fish.

Keep an eye out for a whitish film on the glass as a hint if it's getting used to far;)

Currently at 1.8ml VSV mixture. Should hit peak soon, NO3 is almost nil, then cut back to maintenance.

Well, my new rock showed up today, and mostly disappointed. I have 2 full boxes of baseball sized rocks. I think there are 3 rocks between the boxes that I can use :(
All very nice rock if I had a 20g tank, but I can't build any kind of structure with it. I'm calling it rubble. Anyone thinking of getting fresh rock, don't order Walt Smith Premium, unless you need a box of baseballs. Very unhappy right now and not sure where to go from here.

Just your luck with this build eh? Sorry to hear that. Keep your head up.

Ya, exactly my thoughts. Not a good year for me. Now I'm out many hundreds of dollars and stuck with a bunch of rock I can't use.

What? Sorry to hear that.... I would they send you a full box of rubbles?

No idea. It's ridiculous. Probably 30 rocks in a 50lb box. Should have been 7 or 8, specifically asked and was told yes, I'd get large pieces. To fully cover how I'm feeling right now, I'd have to go disable the language filters!

I've seen that rock and I thought same thing no shapes to it was really purple but all are round

I can't say this is all round, some nice shapes, but mostly 2lb or less in size. Perfect for smaller tanks I guess, but useless for me. Now I'm stuck with almost 90 pounds that I can't use.

Wow.. I can almost feel your frustration from here. I would be PO'ed too! This hobby is hard and expensive enough as it is.. but when they send you a box that's hundreds of dollars worth of lemons.. well, #$# ^$%#$ @#*& #@$%?!@# $ !

I don't know whether it will be of any help at this point but trying eco reef rock (the guy is from halifax) might be worth a shot. You will be directly dealing with the guy who will be sending you the rocks so you can specifically ask for proper pieces. Those are man made ocean cured rocks and I started with them. Half the rock in my tank is from there.

Ya, pretty much.

No, I don't want any dry/eco/dead rock. Just live.

Technically its live since those are ocean cured for a long time. I didn't face any problem of typical dry rocks. My tank didn't even go through the initial cycle. And he ships like live rock.

Ya, just not what I'm looking for.

Where did you get the rock from? What are they willing to do to make it right?

I have to pursue that before I publicly get into it. The rock came through my LFS via one of our sponsors.

I would get pursuing. to bad mine isn't ready I could have taken a few lbs off you

Currently discussing with Walt Smith, who is suggesting he sent no such order. So this appears to be re-boxed LA rock. Or rather, rubble.

:( that sucks dude. I'd have taken some off ya too, but I'm months away from firing mine up as well.