[MtnDewMan]

Hi Everyone,

For those of you who have been following my recent problems with my tank, I wanted to provide an update. On the upside, I believe it is healing. Slowly but surely. On the downside, I have lost some coral (and still losing some) that have been upsetting. You will see by the pictures below the "new look" of the tank. You can see some coral are unfortunately absent from the pictures.

So what do I think caused the problems? I think it is one or many of the following:

1. I nuked my refugium to rid my system of flatworms. I believe after doing so, I allowed too many dead flatworm toxins into the system, thus helping to poison the tank. (I thought I had isolated the refugium sufficiently doing this, but maybe not).

2. When nuking my refugium and releasing toxins, I believe I may have partially nuked my main sand bed in the process. Thus making my main tank less effective in processing the bioload and nutrients. I don't see near as many worms and critters in my system as I used to.

3. I have not seen my sea cucumbers in quite some time. I fear that during this episode I also lost them and they in turn released toxins into my tank.

4. I had a PFO pendent recall a few months back and with the new pendent, I was afraid I was allowing UV to escape (I don't know why it would, but on the safe side, I went to a reflector with a single ended bulb in it's place)

5. And above it all, I was introducing very dirty topoff water as my membrane on my RO filter was "gunked" up pretty good. What was coming out was three times what was going in on the TDS scale. After a long flushing, it came back to normal levels, but I am sure I topped off PLENTY of dirty water into the tank (creating some algae problems and slime problems).

Soooooooo ... What did I do to help solve the problem?

1. Water changes

2. RO Unit flushing

3. Lots of skimming

4. Patience, even if it means losing coral along the way due to stress and RTN events.

5. Patience ... haha

So here are the pictures. It is not a terrible site, just a big upset to the system.











Thanks for listening ... not many people understand this hobby as much as you all do.

[FISHme]

Chuck, tank still looks good but I know how it must feel (like crap ) , right ?
I was a bit worried about my system lately . Things just not quite right . Slow growth, cyno, brown algae, one bleach, and some rtn I believe on my orange monti. What I did was bust apart the monti aand fragged it into about 10 frags. 160 gals water change over the past 4 weeks and dosed with chemi clean.
The monti frags are kicking ass, the brown algae is gone, the coralline is growing rapidly again (it was fading away , fast ), the cyno is gone and the tank hasn't looked this good in a long time .
I hope the same success to you Bro !!!!!

[zhenya]

You lost some corals?Doesn't look like you missing any j/k.

It is very upseting I'm sure,Chuck. From reading your post I gathered some very useful information,ie. don't mess with a good thing is one of them and second,all the patience in the world that you can master-use it.I'm sure your tank will be(still is btw)as beautiful as ever in no time,Chuck.

[MtnDewMan]

Yes, very upsetting ... I have lost at least 6 very nice pieces of coral and on the verge of losing a few more ... Things will turn around for sure, but not after the pain ends ....

FISHme ... glad things are turning around for you ... I hope you have continued success.

[Reefland]

I share in all of your pain because we are going through some troubling times ourselves with our reef. We have had similar problems, algae infestations, bleaching corals due to the nutrient build-up from introducing dirty filtered water and most likely a drop in levels due to some sand bed stirring when I was taking out rocks to scrub them clean of algae.

After getting some new RO/DI filters yesterday the TDS from our "filtered" water went from 65 to 5 so I performed a 5 gallon water change and plan to do another one today or tomorrow. The algae is gone and the tank is looking better but...

I guess it's all bound to happen from time to time and we can only limit the effects by staying completely on top of our systems and system maintanence.

Regards,

[scubadude]

Glad to hear that your tank is back on the upswing Chuck! I as well have been goint through the same list that you posted as one of my pumps for my closed loop that was hooked inline w/my chiller locked up on me and my tank temps went up to 90 This has been almost a month ago, and that is the reason why I havent posted pics of my tank lately....I have been playing doctor, so I feel your pain bro!

[almostdiva]

Chuck,

Sorry to hear about your losses -- I know how much time you have invested in your tank. Would putting any of the failing/stressed pieces in quarantine help or hurt at this point? I know many people say moving corals isn't smart. I guess what you said about patience is right! (not being the Queen of Patience myself, I sympathize...).

Good lessons for us all.

Rebecca

[Reefland]

Chuck,

I was reading your thread again and was wondering what you nuked your refugium with help rid the flatworms? Did you try to reduce the amount of die-off you were going to encounter with them by syphoning them out as they were dieing off?

Just wondering,
Scott Z.

[Elmo18]

GAAAH! I hate flatworms I know I have some in my two tanks.

I'm sorry for your losses Chuck, but I'm sure your tank system will regain its health.

Will you be at the meeting on the 26th? I might be at work, but if not, I will probably need a ride to Mercer Island

I really want to do the website for it, but I know you're not leaving that post right?

Check out the website i'm making for the National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) here at the UW.

http://students.washington.edu/nscs/

This might get me a chance to be more involved with PSAS.

Thanks,

Elmo

[Reefland]

Hey Elmo!

That page you are working on looks pretty good! One suggestion though on your Flash Intro.

You should make a separate scene for your "loading" animation. In that scene in any of the layers, frame one should include the following script:

if (_framesloaded>=_totalframes) {
    gotoAndPlay("movie", 1);
} else {
    gotoAndPlay("loading", 1);
}

Then in the final frame in the same layer you inserted the firt piece of code, you should add:

gotoAndPlay(1);

This will allow you movie to completely load before trying to play, and eliminate any uneccessay "loading" animation time.

Good work!
Scott Z.

[MtnDewMan]

Thanks Rebecca ... you got that right, patience patience patience. I am heading out of town next week, will be interesting to see which pieces are "lost" during that week ... wish me luck, I am sure I will be down a couple

Scott, sorry to hear about your problems as well. That's too bad. I used lots of red slime remover in the refugium. I must have severely overdosed. I had the refugium isolated at the time and thought I did enough in water changes to counteract things. I should have known something was up when my clown pair in there didn't come out or eat for about 3 days after that. Anyway, I think the kill off was a chain reaction. I thought I got a lot of the flatworms out but by that time it could have easily been too late as they could have released toxins by then.

Live and learn, that's for sure.

Elmo ... If you are wanting the post of webmaster for PSAS, go ahead and nominate yourself. Trust me, it would not hurt my feelings at all ... please don't let it stop you from putting yourself in the hat. See you on Saturday. You may have more time to do more fun things to the site

[Elmo18]

Scott,

Thanks for the suggestion! So if I understand you right, i should make a movie that just says and animates the word "Loading" in some way, while in the background its loading the animation?

Then the actual movie would just be the coundown without the words "loading"?



Chuck,

I definitely would love that position. Will you be running for it as well or obtain a new position?

- Elmo

[Reefland]

That's right Elmo. This will ensure that all frames of your movie have loaded before it actually starts playing.

[MtnDewMan]

Hey Elmo ... I will be running if someone nominates me ... if you want it, I think you should definately throw your name into the hat. No matter what, I am sure I will be involved with the workings of the club somehow

[kevinpo]

Chuck,
Very sorry to hear about your trials

I hope your bio-load is not becoming too large for your water volume. With all your coral growth the water volume has become greatly reduced which doesn't allow as much dilution to occur. IME corals grown up together develop a tolerance to each other over time but when a new coral is added (especially a larger coral) it can cause a nasty chain reaction by the rest of the corals making it seem like the new coral had a disease or was the cause of the event while in reality it was only the trigger. The existing community tries to defend against the invader and ends up nuking everyone including themselves.

I wish your tank a speedy and complete recovery. If any corals I gave you need replacing let me know.

Best regards,
Kevin

[MtnDewMan]

Kevin,

That is yet another possibility. I did not introduce anything prior to this event occuring so if it was what you said, then it was a buildup over time, although right before this happened, it was just beautiful with no problems in sight ... UNTIL I messed with it myself, and that's why I think it was a human error thing on my part. At any rate, yes I lost some nice coral, and yes some that I lost were yours. I do still have that nice blue millepora that is still growing. I did lose salsa boy's blue millepora though ....

I will keep you posted. Thanks again.

[Minh Nguyen]

I think your tank still looks extreemly beautiful (and full) Without you telling us, we won't know.
FWIW, my tank got to be really full with corals start to grow out of the water and so full that water flow was obstructed. A month ago, I took out of the tank 50+ pounds of rocks and a hug amount of corals. This really open up the tank and the rest start to grow like crazy again. My fish really appreciated it. My Gigas also really appreciate the open space where he does not got stung by my Ritteri.
My Gigas is now in the center of the tank, where the rock was removed, with mantel touching front and back wall (24 inches. My tank is 32 inches wide with center overflow of 8 inched) I will have to remove some more rock and turn him sideway a little in the next few weeks.
I will take some picture of the tank this weekend. I only have film camera so I will have to develope the picture befor posting them.
Minh Nguyen

[Reefland]

Kevin,

Since Chuck don't need replacements, you can send some down my way!

Minh,

I was wondering if there are any concerns with reducing the natural filtration capacity after removing 50lbs of rock? "Lot's of liverock" seems to be a common philosophy and I think many people would cringe over the thought of removing that much.

Regards,
Scott Z.

[Minh Nguyen]

Originally posted by Reefland
.....
Minh,

I was wondering if there are any concerns with reducing the natural filtration capacity after removing 50lbs of rock? "Lot's of liverock" seems to be a common philosophy and I think many people would cringe over the thought of removing that much.

Regards,
Scott Z.

Scott,
I got lots of sand in my aquarium. In the back the sand bed is 14 inches and in the front it is agout 10-12 inches. Aslo a 6-8 inches sand bed in my refugium/sump
I still have lots of rock in the tank still. 50 pound is maybe 1/5 of the rocks
I have 40 fishes in my tank but removing this much rock and corals have no impact on my 450g tank.

Minh

[MtnDewMan]

Thanks Minh ...

So clearing out some water movement areas helped your tank? Good thought. I am definately needing to be patient. I am almost thinking about dropping the lighting intensity to a standard ballast in lieu of an HQI ballast to see what the results would be .... hmmmmmmm