should I just pack it in???

[Delphinus]

I feel your pain. Once the setup starts a downward trend it can be a very tough task to turn things around. This last year, possibly year and a bit, has been one of the toughest on me in the hobby so far and I've been in the game closing in on ten years.

Going to a bigger system is my plan as well, I think the idea has merit, the question is what to do in the meantime. You could consider selling off some stock, it will help in the finances department to get the next system going, but the real benefit is if it buys you some time to limp along in the interim.

I've been battling the same questions myself, and have come incredible close to saying "this is enough" on several occasions. I still haven't ruled it out to be honest, I have a 280g sitting on my basement floor that I was going to develop my basement around, and I'm having the hardest time motivating myself to get on with it.

Hearing that Enmax utilities are going up 21 per cent in July ($21 for every $100 .. not good ... that means my bill is going to go up at least $60) is going to hurt. A lot.

You have managed to make yourself a nice system, hang in there. Sometimes you just need to shake things up a bit. If you're anything like me, you'll miss it if you quit outright. Good luck with whatever you decide.

The other thing to keep in mind is that it's summer right now, and it's easy to think about stopping when it's summer. But for the 18 months of the year that it's not summer, it's nice to have a slice of the tropics in your house to keep your sanity..

[TheReefGeek]

You could sell off all your livestock and live rock, and try keeping a nano for now. That in turn might spike your interest for a larger tank again.

I have found with a bigger tank it is much more difficult to "recover" after things slip away. When my tank crashed from the bad batch of instant ocean salt, and I lost all my fish but one, and 90% of my corals, I almost packed it in. But finally, now, after almost 8 months, my tank is healthy again, and I am glad I kept at it. It was so tough watching a tank covered in hair algae for months and months though. Now if I could just kill off the aiptasia buggers that got a foothold, I would be even better!

Anyhow you could try a nano for a while, just an idea.

[Joe Reefer]

I feel your pain Snappy.

[muck]

Anything I can help with Greg?

[Snappy]

Thanks for your input and ideas everyone. I think the RODI unit is in the cards p.d.q. and I'll see if that helps. I am still leaning towards the upgrade but am not sure what to do with my stuff while the new system is under construction. Seems crazy to sell it off only to have to go buy new stuff when it's done, especially considering I can fill the new tank with what I have. I need to figure out how to store my corals while I setup and aquascape the new tank. Oh yeah then there is the cycling time to consider. Since I have at least 400 lbs of LR, I likely won't be adding much new rock, so I am hoping that the cycle period will be fairly breif. However much of the surface rock is encrusted so that will have to wait.
Any ideas?

[christyf5]

First off, that sucks you're having problems. Tony covered most of what I wanted to say (plus the stupid server crashed last night while I was typing out my epic reply). While chatting on msn he and I have talked each other out of quitting several times over the last year probably. RTN/STN is a bitch.

Secondly, moving tanks is a pain in the arse. Thats nothing new. However, I used all the same rock etc (minus the sandbed though) when switching my tank over and I had zero cycle. As long as your rock is cured, I would imagine you wouldn't see much of a cycle if any at all. Even when I've done tank switches starting with new sand (same rock) I haven't seen a cycle.

Is the new system is going in the same place as the old?? Perhaps you can get some buddies to coral sit for you for awhile while you get everything in order? If you're putting the new tank in a new location all I have to say is "reef meeting!" Lure people with pizza and beer! Us reef nerds are always game for stuff like that (heck, even minus the pizza and beer for me!).

In the meantime, I think the RODI will really help your system and likely you will wonder why you didn't do it before (at least in my case, your tank looks pretty damned good for tapwater). Can you possibly change the flow in the tank or increase it? That might help.

http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2006/6/aafeature2

[Willito]

Man I don't know how you've done it for so long without an RO/DI unit. The corals live and breath through their surrounding, I bet you it's the main cause of all your problems. With the spring run-offs lately, the water is full of inpurities and that can reek major havoc. Get on one of those units right away.

Downsizing won't make you happy, downsizing the content may. The way your tank looks right now, with that many corals, you are bound to reach a point where you will have to get rid of some. There just won't be enought room for all to grow.

[Samw]

I also wrote a post yesterday and the server went down by the time I hit submit.

Anyhow, over the past 4-5 years, I bought dozens and dozens of Acros and several Bird's Nests. I lost every piece of Acro and Bird's Nest. I could never keep them for a length of time. Bird's Nest usually last 1-2 months max. I used RO water from day 1.

Everything changed when I added a UV sterilizer and upgraded my skimmer. I believe the UV Sterilizer has killed off whatever killed my SPS (bacteria, algae, protozoa, etc) and the additional oxygen (measured w/ my DO meter) from the skimmer kept them strong. I've restocked with dozens of Acro colonies and frags. The color and growth that I get now, I have never experienced in the past. I have so many Acros now that I have to eventually sell some off.

Do you have a UV sterilizer? If not, it could be worth a try rather than giving up. The UV hasn't helped too much with my Ick problem though. I introduced a fish w/ ick and other fish also caught it. The ick has been in my tank now for several weeks. However, my fish are all fine. The ick will go away on its own though (w/o casualties) as it always has in the past before I installed the UV sterilzer. I'm waiting for the ick to go away before I start selling my SPS in case people get my tank water into their tanks.

I now use only tap water for my Top-off (Vancouver's tap water only has a TDS value of about 5-8ppm). WRT browning, I do getting browning if too much chlorinated water gets into the tank such as when I am topping off 5 gallons out of my 45G system with fresh chlorinated tap water. The Acros don't die nor have tissue loss though. They color back up in a couple of weeks. There's no browning when the tap water has been sitting in the reservoir for a long time. So that's why I think it was the chlorine that browned my Acros.

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by Snappy

Seems crazy to sell it off only to have to go buy new stuff when it's done, especially considering I can fill the new tank with what I have. I need to figure out how to store my corals while I setup and aquascape the new tank.

Speaking as someone who has wrestled with this very question.. here are my thoughts.

If the system is having problems, keeping the corals is only risking losing them altogether. I ended up selling some, but keeping some that I really wanted to keep. Guess what - they died, but the ones I sold off are still out there. Had I sold them all, those others would be around still. Having them "out there" increases their odds of sticking around. It's more important that these things live, than it is that they live "in our tanks."

I do understand the dilemma though. Sometimes things are rare and hard to come by. The way around this is, keep frags. This has benefits on several levels. 1) We spread the wealth throughout the hobby. 2) With more frags floating around, the odds that pieces will survive are greater. 3) It's way more fun watching a little coral grow into a bigger coral, than it is to have a showpiece coral (or several showpiece corals).

I don't want to be mean here, but I am going to be a bit blunt (sorry). But, your system is PACKED. As corals grow, they shade out their lower portions and block out portions of flow. Thus they're almost self-defeating in a closed system as they get bigger.

Whatever you're most comfortable with is your decision of course, but if it were me, I'd seriously consider the fragging option.

[untamed]

I had to move my tank recently. I fragged everything and distributed as many as I could before the move. I was concerned that I might lose them all during the move, and wanted to ensure they had a chance.

Fortunately for me, everything survived.