180G Office Reef Tank

[freezetyle]

lots of brightwell Microbacter 7 could help to skip the wait time for the sponge.

[wmcinnes]

Velvet wiped out my 90g. Its awful! I wish you the best of luck!

[daplatapus]

Originally Posted by gridley

Really sorry to hear about this. I'm far from an expert, but in a situation like this would it not work to do daily water changes in the QT? Running a filter sponge for several weeks is great, but . . . it does not seem like you have many options.

Agreed.
When I'm doing the tank transfer method for MI, I have no filter for almost 72 hrs but do a 100% WC every 3 days. Depending on bioload in the QT there isn't enough time to elapse for the ammonia levels to reach high enough to be detrimental and definitely not enough time for it to turn into Nitrate. Stick an ammonia badge in there for a bit of safety and don't get complacent with WC schedule and you should be ok.

[JDigital]

Well, just a bit of an update.

The exodus of my fish stopped. The final count was 5.

1x Powder Blue Tang
1x Blue Throat Trigger
1x Sailfin Tang
2x Clownfish (sorry Brett )

Everyone that is left in the tank has been doing well ever since. Leopard Wrasse, 2x Diamond Gobies, Foxface Lo, and a Axelspot Hogfish.

The tank has not and will not be seeing any fishy additions until the end of March at the earliest to be certain that the remaining fish are completely in the clear.

I have also decided to setup a 20G Q-Tank for any future additions. 20G High tank, Koralia Nano, Aquaclear 50 HOB Filter and 50W heater.

Besides the fish loss, I have been struggling lately with my Wall Hammer coral. One of the heads has been melting away and recently my Pagoda Cup has started to loose heads as well. It has been a bit confusing as to why, but a couple days ago I realized I had over looked one thing while trying to figure out what could be causing it. My Salinity! I have a feeling my skimmer had been skimming quite wet, which has slowly been taking SW out of my tank to only get replaced with RO top-up water.

It dropped to 1.018 from 1.026. I did a 25G change yesterday which brought it up to 1.021. I also added extra and the evap in the last 24 hours (till the point where my ATO kicked back in, has raised it up to 1.024. Unfortunately I think it is probably too late. The wall hammer isn't look to happy today, and the pagoda is surely on its way out.

This tank has been quite frustrating. Of all the tanks I have kept in the past, I've had more things go wrong with this one that all my other tanks combined it seems. I've always read that large tanks are easier to keep/maintain, I'm personally not sold on that idea yet.

On the bright side, I am starting to see a large amount of Pods, Sponges and other various filter feeders growing in my "refuge" on the glass. I say "refuge" because there is no Sand, no Mangroves, No rock really (only small rubble), and a small ball of cheato that doesn't really grow.

Ohhh this hobby!

[JDigital]

April Update:

I still ended up loosing my wall hammer, pagoda cup, and torch coral. I tried to do what I could to save them but it was too late really.

Things have really turned around lately with the tank though. I have replaced the 2 clownfish back in mid march and I've got 2 tangs in QT right now.

I've decided to go down the softie coral route with this tank with coral that is simple and easy to maintain. I had added a large rock of Green Star Polyp, a good size Toadstool Leather, 3 Maxi Mini Nems (came on the same rock as the Toadstool).

Besides those additions, my zoas have been doing well ever since I added them to the tank. Red Mushrooms are getting HUGE too.

I really think the soft coral route is the way to go with this tank. I'm really liking the look of it and the motion it provides is nice. I'll leave the SPS headaches for my tank at home.

[michika]

Sexy! Especially that last photo.

FTS?

[MCC]

don't give up !!!

i agree with you, i kept nano tanks all my life, and now i started a 'bigger' tank - 60 gallons. I know its not as massive as yours, but I been having issues as well.

i guess with nano tanks if you keep up with the water changes then it helps fix whatever problem it is quickly as there isnt much water to replenish/replace.

I have lost some fish/corals too!

but keep at it... i kind of waiting out for my two ich invested tangs to either make a somewhat recovery or die. Either way I plan to stop adding any fish for a while, and focus on corals. I haven't tried sps as i m not confident enough yet to take care of them.

[JDigital]

Originally Posted by michika

Sexy! Especially that last photo.

FTS?

Best I can get with my cell phone.

[michika]

Its coming together well!

Did you ever end up dosing anything for your sponges like the Brightwell additives?

[kien]

great 'nem shot! Tank is coming along nicely. There's nothing wrong with wanting to limit ones SPS headaches.