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a big question


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  1. #1

    Default a big question

    Sorry it has been a bit since I have talked to anyone. I have a few concerns since last posted. My tank now over a year old, its 75 gal reef with two 304 fluvals, three power heads, Freedom filter, the large one for up to 300 gal tank and the large prizsm protien skimmer, two 65 watt atinic blue lights two 50/50 65 watt lights and two 250 watt metal halide lights.

    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.

    My tests on phosphates, nitrites, ammonia are 0, nitrates are slightly elevated 1.5<>, have been batteling a bit with sino bacteria but nothing to serious, calcium 440. salinity 1.024, using RO/DI water. Water changes done 1 to two times per week at at least 10-15%. Well I am loosing two cats paws, and s I think it is a staghorn frag, these three all started bleaching out at the same time, but nothing else in the tank seems to be affected by what ever is going on. Have seen a few new critters in the tank, they are some sort of snail without the shell, about the size of a thumb tack head, brown and white stripped and lightning fast.

    When cleaning out the filters there are bi-valves hatching in the containers. I believer these are coming from the food that I am feeding because I have not added anything new in quite some time. I use a micro filter about every other week to polish the water run it for 24 hrs give or take. Whein I change the water I use a power head and try to blow the detruis arround to help vacume it up and from it building up in unwanted areas. Aftere the water change I let the filters run for a few hours intil everything is settled back down and clean them after this step. So why would just this couple species be bleaching out all at the same time and what am I doing wrong? Really confused.

    I had been doing salt water with my mother when I was just a tennager and worked in a fish shop every summer for 8 years growing up. Have had several tanks prior, but all were just fish dedicated, had been away from the tanks for about 9-10 years because of moving around. finaly got settled and got back into the swing of things and started out with a 2 1/2 gal tank. very tiny. then moved up to a 12 gal nano, then jumped to the 75 gal because of needing more room. I never thought that I would get so addicted to the reef and have bought equiptment as I have progressed and the pocket book will allow, so kind of piece milled together.

    I want to add a sump but the stand that I purchased, the doors are too narrow to put one in and I will have to drain the tank down enough to take the center support out with out breaking the tank in the process. I am saving now to have a custom tank built from ground up, but it will be a bit before I get that. It will be my dream tank. I am thinking about doing a bit of house work on the tank and removing the occupants and adding a bit more live sand to the bottom, its not quitet as deep as I would like and the pistol shrimps move it to big mounds in areas and valleys in other places, and also adding a few new pieces of live rock, is this a good ideal to do? 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,. I add iodine about 1/4 capful every three days and trace elements, strongtium/molybdenum occasionally maybe every other month and very lightly. Now that I have written a book I would love to hear from everyone and get your Ideas on solutions to my bleaching corals.

    I also have a low light 29 gal reef and a 55 gal fish dedicated tank all doing quite well.
    Thanks for listening and hopefully some advise on what I could be doing better.
    Diane

  2. #2
    Reef_Angel - Reefkeeper CR Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    Wisconsin Dells, WI
    Posts
    1,591

    Wink Things to consider first!

    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:
    Have a Wonderful Day on the Reef!
    :angel07:...Reef_Angel
    Owner/Administrator

    **If you have a need to phone me,
    PM me and we can arrange for a chat!



    ~*
    Angels do a lot of things, but they will not take away your free will or the lessons you are here on earth to learn.*~

  3. #3

    Default

    Here is a few pica of the tank, just remember the lights were just turned on and when I feed I feed lots of things with the fewest of foods. I can come badk and if I have over feed things are still floating 5 minutes later. just in time to a water change the nest day or at lesst get things up and floating so filter can do its job. This is one way I know I have enough flow in the tank. If I didnt nothing no mater how much I feed would lay on the bottom and rot.
    Here are the pics. Just remember lights were just turned on about half hour before pics.

    IMG 0654 - a big question

    IMG 0653 - a big question

    IMG 0652 - a big question

    IMG 0651 - a big question

    I love all and try to alway start with the smallest of babies that I can. Less stress on the tank. The on theat you see with the curly cues is the largest pisce that I bought, now it is just a breaking wall so the cues cant touch anything else. Hate to lemon juice them but have no other idea how to get them to move. even turned the rock upside down and they just streached around and there they are again bigger than life. they are so imbedded in the rock that there is no way to pull or coaxe them out to move them somewhere else. andy suggestions because they are very toxic and almoxt got the pogada cup in 1 day. kiled two of the green matallic striped mushrooms in a day and I just cnat have something that is that mean to everyone else. Let me know what you think.
    Diane

    The only jumpers that I have had a fire fish gobie gobies in general and 1 royal grammy and that one was 5 months ago other that that it has only been the gobie family that jumps from the tank...The ones that I love seeing in the tank.

  4. #4

    Default

    Jumpers are firefish and gobies, known jumpers!!! I just wish that I has a guard around the tank before they went. No none of my babies are aggressive or at least at tis time I do have 4 different kinds of clowns and for now two inches + play follow the leader, each one has an anemie of its own or the swith now and then. as far as where I had the corals one was up on top left side, one was middle and middle of tank the other was mid to upper on right side just by mushrooms none were by any other stinging corals, the only things right now tht is causing havoic is the curly cues, I have even had two bubble tips actually wrapped around each other for 3 weeks, but now one is one the move. I feed live and frozen, or refrigrated. very seldom do I throw in flakes or anything of the sort. Honestly I think the sino was fromm not having enough broken top water, because when I went to blow off the rock before the water change there was hardly anything sitting on them. Usually I get a bit of waste, but sionce I changed the direction of the flow there wasn't the debris that normally was there. And no basement/I sure wish.
    Thank-you for your info, I hope this helps see what else I got going on.

  5. #5
    Reef_Angel - Reefkeeper CR Member
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    Wisconsin Dells, WI
    Posts
    1,591

    Default

    Your tank pics are beautiful!! Make sure you enter your tank in TOTM as soon as we get it started again. I'd really like to start it now, but would like to speak with Mutts first to make sure she is still interested in running TOTM. It sounds like you are on top of things with your tank! I hope any of the info I provided helped.

    You mentioned 4 different types of clowns. Some clowns like to chase fish as well. You're so right on the firefish being jumpers. As pretty as they are, they always seem to hide a lot or jump reef! My gobies stay pretty mid to low in the tank. I have several types that are reef friendly for my sea horse tank! What a happy bunch!

    Here's an Anemone trick I find helpful when their foot is firmly planted. First I will annoy them by forcing water on the foot area with the baster. If that doesn't work, I will use a low power jet and hold it near them for a bit. They reahlly seem to dislike this, and I have had great success in getting them to move. It doesn't affect them like the lemon juice does. You might
    want to give this a try. Hope this helps! ....Angel:angel1:
    Have a Wonderful Day on the Reef!
    :angel07:...Reef_Angel
    Owner/Administrator

    **If you have a need to phone me,
    PM me and we can arrange for a chat!



    ~*
    Angels do a lot of things, but they will not take away your free will or the lessons you are here on earth to learn.*~

  6. #6

    Default a full shot of the tank

    Here is what the tank looks like now, I am going to be doing a bit a rearranging, one to make a bit more room and to be able to add a bit of new live rock. Everything is really comming along much beter now with all of your advice. Thank you all.
    IMG 06601 - a big question

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