[Delphinus]

BTW, I'm not discounting allelopathy as a phenomenon in general, but I am skeptical that it is the cause here. There was a time people skoffed at my suggestions that chemical warfare is happening in our tanks, but nowadays I feel like I'm on the other side of that debate - too often people scream "chemical warfare" or "allelopathy" when something is happening that we can't easily rationalize away. In general, mixed garden type reef tanks do not work well long term because of this. However, I don't really consider what I have to be mixed reefs.

Let me explain myself a little more. At various points in the past 3 years, I have had my tanks completely devoid of corals. The only steadfast inhabitants I've had through this time period now are the fish. I already have the anemones isolated from one another because that I beleive that they will interact without direct contact.

Therefore if it was an allelopathy issue, it should have been impacted by these fallow periods... but it was not. I ran SPS only for the longest time and did well by it until approximately 8 months after I moved. One other thing that I may not have mentioned yet, is that one other thing that leads me to suspect this could be more pathogenic in nature, is that it all started happening after I traded frags with someone. The frags that were acquired in that trade never did well and eventually all perished (despite rampant growth in my other SPS). However, it just seemed that whatever happened to them, would start happening to other SPS, one by one. Until the point was reached where I noticed that all my corals were just not looking the same as before. To an untrained eye things looked great. When the Intermamerican folks came by to deliver my 280g, they made the comment that I had one of the nicest SPS reefs that they had ever seen. I felt honored by the comment but I had this nagging suspicion at the time that things were not right (just based on week to week observations). Within months of that point I had an empty tank, well, basically, a fish-only.

I also think allelopathy would just have a more "random" feel to it. This is rather specific, repeatable and ... I don't know how to say it. "Thorough?" "Complete?" I mean, it's 100%, all you need is to give something enough time.

What worries me is that I'm setting up a new tank, and if it's something that can transfer ... then I'm in a world of hurt. In time, there will be transfer into the new system. Fish will be moved, clams will be moved ... this can't happen without water making the trip with them. If there's something in that water ... I need to find a way to manage that aspect. Well, first to confirm, then to manage I guess.