62G Starfire Reef [40x18x20]

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by michika

That is one schmexy schmexy fish there.

I wonder how easily they can be ordered in up here? I'd be in for a group order with some locals, depeding on price of course.

not easily enough , the ember blennys can be got from time to time but the super males arnt easy to get and ive yet to get one.

i see them on my list very rarely but i order one everytime and anytime i do its cut from the list , meaning that one of the larger stores who do large orders get it(or a buddy of the supplier)

for an example there may be 100-200 embers available on my list(usualy juvies) but only 3 super males , divide that by 100 stores or people who want them... and its not easy

alot of the larger stores are dropping 10-20g a month with suppliers so i dont think a grouporder of several is gonna do it.

beautiful fish though and my fave for blens

[JDigital]

Well I added a few pieces of SPS from denny a few weeks ago and this is backfiring on me.. again...........

I'm currently losing a Frogskin Acro, Red Monti Cap, Blue Tip Stag to STN, and 2 random frags from Reef Wonderland. A Monti Confusa that isn't STNing yet, but has NO polyp extension what so ever. The only piece still hanging on is a Red Planet I got from Denny. (knock on glass)

I'm at a complete loss as to what's going on in this system. I'm at 9months. There isn't a single piece of SPS that has survived longer than 1 month in my tank. My params are all in good standing these days, I'm doing weekly 10G water changes with H2Ocean salt, I'm careful on my feeding to not overfeed the tank, I'm running HC GFO, I've dialed back my lighting with regards to intensity and also raised the unit another 1-2" off the water level as suggested by others over on Nano-Reef. I've tried varying strengths of flow thinking that I was possibly blowing the tissue right off the skeletons. None of my fish are to blame. The tank is completely free of any algae except for the little bit of film algae on the glass every few days.

I'm AGAIN about ready to shut this tank down and sell it off at this point. Mainly due to the fact of how much money I've been investing and loosing, not because I can't figure it out. I wanted this tank to be an SPS dominant tank with a few pieces of LPS and zoas down along the sand bed but that doesn't seem to be possible. Although my Acans are rocking, but even certain zoas are struggling while others are doing fine.

My only other option besides shutting down completely is to gut the live portion of the tank and restart with ALL LIVE ROCK, no dry rock whatsoever. Every tank I've previously ran has used Live Rock and I've been fairly successful in keeping most SPS (or anything for that matter)

This hobby can really be a struggle sometimes..

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by JDigital

Well I added a few pieces of SPS from denny a few weeks ago and this is backfiring on me.. again...........

I'm currently losing a Frogskin Acro, Red Monti Cap, Blue Tip Stag to STN, and 2 random frags from Reef Wonderland. A Monti Confusa that isn't STNing yet, but has NO polyp extension what so ever. The only piece still hanging on is a Red Planet I got from Denny. (knock on glass)

I'm at a complete loss as to what's going on in this system. I'm at 9months. There isn't a single piece of SPS that has survived longer than 1 month in my tank. My params are all in good standing these days, I'm doing weekly 10G water changes with H2Ocean salt, I'm careful on my feeding to not overfeed the tank, I'm running HC GFO, I've dialed back my lighting with regards to intensity and also raised the unit another 1-2" off the water level as suggested by others over on Nano-Reef. I've tried varying strengths of flow thinking that I was possibly blowing the tissue right off the skeletons. None of my fish are to blame. The tank is completely free of any algae except for the little bit of film algae on the glass every few days.

I'm AGAIN about ready to shut this tank down and sell it off at this point. Mainly due to the fact of how much money I've been investing and loosing, not because I can't figure it out. I wanted this tank to be an SPS dominant tank with a few pieces of LPS and zoas down along the sand bed but that doesn't seem to be possible. Although my Acans are rocking, but even certain zoas are struggling while others are doing fine.

My only other option besides shutting down completely is to gut the live portion of the tank and restart with ALL LIVE ROCK, no dry rock whatsoever. Every tank I've previously ran has used Live Rock and I've been fairly successful in keeping most SPS (or anything for that matter)

This hobby can really be a struggle sometimes..

you know what ive always said.....cough cough **dryrock** cough


dude pull out a huge chunk of the rock and ill give you some actual liverock to replace i have lots , theres something missing and i believe its partly because of the rock and the lack of biological diversity of micro flora and fauna

worth a try right?


if you want to swap it out let me know and swing by my place in the evening we will figure this out for you piece by piece.

[KrazyKuch]

Originally Posted by JDigital

My only other option besides shutting down completely is to gut the live portion of the tank and restart with ALL LIVE ROCK, no dry rock whatsoever. Every tank I've previously ran has used Live Rock and I've been fairly successful in keeping most SPS (or anything for that matter)

This hobby can really be a struggle sometimes..

I will have to agree on this point...seems tanks started with dry rock take forever before they can handle sps for some reason!!!

[kien]

Sorry to hear about your issues Josh There's definitely something not right in your tank. That monti cap should be bullet proof! I wouldn't worry too much about the confusa. I've never had major polyp extension out of them but they still thrive.

I don't know much about the frogskin acro. I don't think I've ever had one. Stags can be touchy.

Anyway, swing by and grab some bullet proof red/orange digi and yellow/green birdsnest. I can't seem to kill that stuff!

[JDigital]

Originally Posted by reefwars

you know what ive always said.....cough cough **dryrock** cough


dude pull out a huge chunk of the rock and ill give you some actual liverock to replace i have lots , theres something missing and i believe its partly because of the rock and the lack of biological diversity of micro flora and fauna

worth a try right?


if you want to swap it out let me know and swing by my place in the evening we will figure this out for you piece by piece.

Definitely worth a try, but to do that I will need to pull out my fish as I'm sure to experience a cycle.

Originally Posted by KrazyKuch

I will have to agree on this point...seems tanks started with dry rock take forever before they can handle sps for some reason!!!

Wouldn't be the first tank I've seen this happen on.. my 180G @ the Office had similar issues but I have since decided to not have SPS at all in that tank.

Originally Posted by kien

Sorry to hear about your issues Josh There's definitely something not right in your tank. That monti cap should be bullet proof! I wouldn't worry too much about the confusa. I've never had major polyp extension out of them but they still thrive.

I don't know much about the frogskin acro. I don't think I've ever had one. Stags can be touchy.

Anyway, swing by and grab some bullet proof red/orange digi and yellow/green birdsnest. I can't seem to kill that stuff!

Thanks, the Monti Cap was the first piece to start showing signs. No matter how bomb proof you think those pieces are I'm not adding anymore SPS till I start changing a few things (ie: the rock). No point killing off more frags when I don't have too. I don't want to be the guy that is known for killing Kiens unkillable SPS.

[lastlight]

Sorry to hear Josh. Definitely start with new live rock before you throw in the towel. You've been successful at this before something is not right and it could very well be the rock.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by JDigital

Definitely worth a try, but to do that I will need to pull out my fish as I'm sure to experience a cycle.



Wouldn't be the first tank I've seen this happen on.. my 180G @ the Office had similar issues but I have since decided to not have SPS at all in that tank.



Thanks, the Monti Cap was the first piece to start showing signs. No matter how bomb proof you think those pieces are I'm not adding anymore SPS till I start changing a few things (ie: the rock). No point killing off more frags when I don't have too. I don't want to be the guy that is known for killing Kiens unkillable SPS.

swap a few at a time and then no cycle , come fill up a bucket and take your time swapping them out , when you have a aquascape you like just bring me what ever you dont use. i got a mix of tonga, pukani and god knows what else for liverock lol :P

[JDigital]

I think I have found my new love/hate relationship.. and the love part is hopefully still to come, so as of tonight it's all hate.

ROX 0.8 Activated Carbon.... This stuff caused me to rage tonight.. It's so damn lightweight that even with the valve on my 1.5 Vertex reactor nearly completely closed the flow still caused a mess everywhere when the pump fired up. What a nightmare to clean up with how fine this stuff is.. embedded in the threads of the of reactor, sticks to your fingers, floats right to the top of the reactor, it made it's way into my display tank, sump... EVERYWHERE. After about 1hr or so I finely got it dialed in but it was more effort than I was planning to exert tonight.

Before I pull the rock out I'm going to try carbon on this tank. It's the one thing that I have always used in the past that I haven't setup on this system until tonight so will see how it works out and if there are any noticeable changes.

One coral that does seem to excel in my tank is my Acans so I picked up a few frags from the grand opening of Concept Aquatics today. So many things I wanted to buy but didn't want to risk any expensive stuff till I get this tank sorted out.

I'll get some photos soon.

[JDigital]

One thing I forgot to mention in my last post was that as I was leaving the house this morning for work I looked at the skimmer and made a mental note that I should empty it and clean the cup when I got home. I haven't touch my skimmer in weeks and it had about 1.5-2" of DARK skimmate sitting it in it too. So I felt it was due for a cleaning.


Got home tonight, walked in the door, and the damn thing was overflowing into my sump like crazy... all the skimmate was gone and back into my system. NO IDEA what happened to cause it to go haywire, as I said, I hadn't touched it in weeks with NO problems what so ever. So that sparked me to start mixing up WC water tonight (thankfully I bought a new bucket of H2Ocean along with my new acan frags today). Will do that tomorrow night when I get home from work, ya know, if the house hasn't burnt down or something.