I might be done...but not today

Delphinus · #1 08-26-2009, 02:35 PM

So the water still hasn't cleared as of this morning. I got to thinking, this just doesn't seem like any spawn I've had before (usually I see the spawn, or at least, I'm able to figure out who's done it because they have a "I'm spent" look to them. Nobody has that look.) Plus there's that whole "the sump looked like it was covered in fried egg" thing.

It occurred to me, there's a tiger tail cucumber in the tank. He was a hitchhiker on some rock I bought a year or so ago. So I wonder if it's cuke nuke. I guess the only way to know for sure is take out all the rocks and either I find the cucumber, or I don't.

At least 2 confirmed losses. As of this morning I've seen all the big fish, my tang, rabbits and angels. Who I haven't seen yet are my dottyback and the 2 chromis. But lights don't turn on until 10:30 and it's not unusual to not see these guys in the morning so time will tell.

Completely stunned that nearly a complete container of carbon has not been able to clear up the cloudiness yet. This too, doesn't fit the typical spawn, usually the skimmer goes nuts and pulls it out quickly and it's back to clear within 6 hours or so. Not 36 hours of cloudiness.

At least the skimmer has finally started working again. It's weird I can tell you to the minute when it started up again last night. I'm not sure if it was the carbon that kicked it on or the brittlestars spawning giving the water the right surface tension to start foaming up correctly again.

banditpowdercoat · #2 08-26-2009, 02:43 PM

AHh A cuke. Ya that verry well could be the possibility. I had a cuke once, and the crabs got it, it was oozing stringy mucous stuff too, I took it out before anything really bad happened.

christyf5 · #3 08-26-2009, 02:47 PM

Tony, the cloudiness may not be completely resolved by carbon. I've dealt with my own cloudy tank lately and waterchanges were the only way. Also make sure your ammonia hasn't gone nuts too (I know you know this but...well just covering all the bases). Filter floss may help too.

Aquattro · #4 08-26-2009, 03:09 PM

Tony, for next time, keep some zeo coral snow on hand, it may help with clearing the water. It appears to be some type of surfactant that helps binds organics and allows them to be skimmed out. Not sure how it would work for this, but I use it for polishing, and do notice increased skimmer output.

Lance · #5 08-26-2009, 05:06 PM

I feel for you Tony. Hang in there man!

Phanman · #6 08-26-2009, 05:10 PM

keep your chin up Tony, things will improve im sure. I almost quite myself this summer after i lost 10 sps pieces and 2 fish. Give it time and you will realize your love for the hobby and continue. Dont do anything rash like me, lol.

Delphinus · #7 08-26-2009, 05:28 PM

Thanks guys. Yeah, the problem is I love my fish .. almost too much. I mean it's almost sort of child-like, the adult in me knows that to the fish it's a one-way ticket one way or the other, but you have this hope that when they go, they go due to old age instead of "Ohhhhh, I guess I shouldn't have had that cucumber after all."

(I haven't confirmed that it's cuke nuke but the more I think of it, the more I'm convinced that this is not a clam spawn. It would certainly explain some things. The sump was in way worse shape than the main tank, I noticed immediately when I took the sump offline to check all my pumps that the tank started looking better with the sump offline, and the smell was 10 times worse in the sump. If the thing, say, managed to crawl into a return pipe and got stuck and the force of the water tore it apart, it would all have been flushed down into the sump. The skimmer too, it looked like when you try running a skimmer with freshwater, the bubbles were huge and there was zero foam production for the longest time.)

Coral Snow - great idea, thanks Brad. I do have some kicking around somewhere from when I was running Zeo, I just stopped using it when I stopped the rocks-in-a-reactor thing, I guess it couldn't hurt to add some in.

Anyhow I do apologize for the "I feel sorry for myself" post, and really do appreciate the support and kind words of the community. It really helps to put things in perspective, last night I really was done, this morning, maybe not .. I don't know, but you're right, I'm too far into this now to just walk away from it all.

Zoaelite · #8 08-26-2009, 05:45 PM

Really sucks to hear about your lose Tony, I know it might seem discouraging during the rough times but you just have to remember all of the joy that the tank has given you. That's 6 years of Flame Angel antics, countless new discoveries and I'm sure a whole whack load of bonding time with your kids

! It's impossible to put myself in your shoes but I would continue with that massive tank you have going. With increased water volume comes increased stability and perhaps you could finally get some SPS to grow

! Keep the the tank in ICU for a little while, your much more of a experienced reefer than allot of us here so I'm sure you can pull through. If you need anything at all I'm just over in Douglasdale and would be more than willing to help!

Levi