Thoughts on over skimming

StirCrazy · #1 10-21-2009, 04:08 PM

well, this sucks, how are the corals doing now? it always sucks when we loose stuff, but for the most part I would rather lose fish than corals, even though I would still be choked losing fish I had a long time.

as for deciding weather you stay in or not, this is a relitivly minor setback, if the corals and rock is fine, you can do a big water change to speed up the stability. It sounds like you have figured out what caused it and it is a preventable issue so there shouldn't be a repete. when my heater stuck on and wiped out everything, including my rock (was nutrent pluged after the crash) I almost stopped also, as it would have cost about 5 to 7K to replace the corals, rock and fish to exactly how they were, so I know how you feel.

Steve

sphelps · #2 10-21-2009, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StirCrazy

well, this sucks, how are the corals doing now? it always sucks when we loose stuff, but for the most part I would rather lose fish than corals, even though I would still be choked losing fish I had a long time.

Thanks Steve, the corals are doing fine, well some of the LPS are still unhealthy but basically this little disaster had no effect on the corals or inverts.

To me it's not about the money, but some things can't be easily replaced. The seahorse and lion together were, without a doubt, the center piece of this tank. The lion could be replaced with some effort on training a new one but the seahorse will be especially hard to replace since I haven't even had another importunity to buy a mate since I purchased the original. As far as I remember it was a special captive bred type from Australia and from my experience the only type worth keeping and the only type I will keep. In particular everything in the tank was chosen around the seahorse and to loose that particular piece of livestock results in the tank making little sense to me now. It also just sucks to loose stuff like this when you're making efforts to improve the tank.

StirCrazy · #3 10-21-2009, 07:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sphelps

To me it's not about the money, but some things can't be easily replaced. .

sorry wasn't trying to make it about the money, for me that wasn't the issue either I was just trying to show the size of loss I had. for me it was about the corals, I had a tri color milli that was almost 24" dia and about 3 other very large corals which would have been impossible to find in that size. I can relate to losing the showpieces of the tank you designed yours around a couple fish, I did mine around corals and my fish were secondary. Anyways now you have the opertunity to change a few things or find something else you wanted that maybe wasn't compatable with what you had... always got to look at the bright side, is my way of thinking.

Steve

golf nut · #4 10-23-2009, 12:27 AM

We learn daily, I have never been a big supporter of reef controllers but prefer to stick with PLC's and let a reliable source program it, I have a controller in the works that will give me a bunch of programs to choose from but am still paranoid that during selection there may be a glitch that I may be unaware of.

Stephen, take the issues that you find,use you resources to find a solution and let them know, the industry will be better for it.

sphelps · #5 10-27-2009, 02:59 AM

Both nitrate and phosphate are up slightly, previously both were at undetectable levels, now they are some what detectable.

Nitrate: somewhere between 0 and 1ppm so we'll say 0.5ppm
Phosphate: around 0.01ppm

I've also been feeding more and I've noticed a slight improvement in LPS health. Seems to be working.

mr.wilson · #6 10-27-2009, 03:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sphelps

Both nitrate and phosphate are up slightly, previously both were at undetectable levels, now they are some what detectable.

Nitrate: somewhere between 0 and 1ppm so we'll say 0.5ppm
Phosphate: around 0.01ppm

I've also been feeding more and I've noticed a slight improvement in LPS health. Seems to be working.

It's strange the nitrate and phosphate would climb even though you aren't feeding fish anymore, and the bioload is subsequently lower. You must really be feeding those corals.

sphelps · #7 10-27-2009, 04:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr.wilson

It's strange the nitrate and phosphate would climb even though you aren't feeding fish anymore, and the bioload is subsequently lower. You must really be feeding those corals.

Well yeah and I got two new fish I'm currently training and two originals that survived so overall I'm using quit a bit more food. Plus it's not much of an increase, before it was without a doubt zero on the test kit, now it's just barely showing a possible detectable concentration.