Quote Originally Posted by Feddish View Post
Everything has been growing great except a few suicide jumpers, and a power blue tang that never eat from day one, last month lost him. 5 bubble tip anenomies, two currly cues, feather dusters, mushrooms of all kinds, 4 leathers, frogspawn that has five new heads, torch coral that has added about a half inch since I got, candy cane growing great, green fuzzy doubled in size, purple pogoda cup, sun coral, cabbage coral orange branching sponges, zoas of kinds large and small, bubble coral, two maxma clams, cleaner shrimps, Very large green brittle star, orange linka, snad sifting and two other unknown baby serpent stars, 5 clowns, 4 damsels, flame angel, two gobies, two tiger pistols, scallop, snails crabs, cactus coral, acoparas, pulsing zineas(?) spelling bad. yellow star polyps, blueberry gorgians red and purple gorgians, plate coral and like I said every thing has been great.
Wow Diane! It sounds like you have been through the reef and a lot of $$$ as well! May I ask how quickly you have added all of these corals to your tank? I hate to say this, but it sounds like a little much, a little to fast in just a years time. I'm also a firm believer in adding one coral at a time to make sure it has a happy home in the tank. The same rule of thumb should apply to the fish you add with the exception of those fish that do best as a pair. I'd love to see some pictures of your tank, as a picture can paint a good picture just by looking in. Husbandry may be an issue for some of these corals...meaning that some may be unhappy next to the others. It takes time and a lot of reading to figure out which corals are not going to sting each other to death. How far apart is the placement of your corals? You are also mixing soft coral with stonies, and thats ok if they are happy around each other. I might suggest keeping your stonies on one side of the tank, and your softies on the other. Maybe a different reef scape will help.

Help us out a bit, and name some of your suicide jumpers. It would also be helpful to know if you are leaning more toward aggressive fish or reef friendly. Depending on your mix of fish, you may be experiencing some chasers that are causing some of your fish to jump ship. Just a thought. Another thought...check to see if you are having any electrical current issues in your tank. Do you ever feel a tingle when you touch your tank
water? This can be caused by anything from a faulty heater, bad surge protector, to many extension cords, etc. Check everything, as this could be a problem throughout the tank if there is current running through that water. I know first hand since it happened in our tank. It really affected everything in our tank...coral, fish, anemones & all. Everything was cranky, and so was I since I was the only one that felt the current. For some odd reason, Dakar couldn't feel it. He put a voltage tester on it, and finally I proved my case. Funny thing though, he finally felt it when I touched the water and then touched him!! :p Zap!

Quote Originally Posted by Feddish View Post
I feed clyclopeeze, mysis, rofers, tiger pods, coepods, plankton, have a brine shimp hatchery, coral freenzy, reef bugs, treats of oyster, clams, silver sides, and are all fed on alternating days.
On feeding.... It sounds to me that you may be treating your babies a little to much. If you cut back to feeding very lightly once a week or even two, you will notice that your cyano problem will dissipate. Please remember that an established tank will create a lot of it's own nutrition for all your coral. Pods will form naturally and be a pleasing snack in your tank. Look with a flashligh (red lens is best) under your live rock and in the darker bottom areas in your tank when the lights are out. If you see lots of life wiggling around there, you have an adequate supply of naturally occurring foods for your coral. I add Marine Snow maybe once a month, but that's just a personal preference. It helps keep smaller quantities of food in the water column, instead of the foods automatically sinkng to the bottom for your clean up crew to devour. Start small, and then find that happy balance in feeding. You will find it, I promise!! The minute you start to see that cyano bloom peek, back down on the food. It's not being used properly in the tank. Cutting back your lighting period to 6 hours a day until your cyano clears may also be an option for you. I never use any chemicals off the shelf for these breakouts either. I don't believe in them. I have done these things, and cleared cyano within 3 days. Are you feeding live or frozen food? Any live food will hide under those rocks immediately and make more little baby foods in a well established tank while feeding your coral and fish. There's more in that tank than we realize sometimes.

With all that, I'll let some of the geniuses here jump in to help with the more technical side of things. I've always been a "hands on" reefer, and look toward some of the more basic issues that can be resolved by doing a little trouble shooting. I don't change lights, filtration systems, unless all else fails. I can't afford to do that and keep a tank stocked the way I would like. I do believe you would value from a sump though. Do you have a basement, and a great handyman/woman that can make your sump below the tank in your basement?

Never feel bad about writing a book! I do it all the time! :p We appreciate all your questions here. After all, we all learn from each other the best tips and tricks! Best of luck to you! ...Angel :angel1: