Frustrated

Bleh just lost my fighting conch.

Have been slowly losing the majority of my cleanup crew over the last few months. Algae is still spreading despite nutrient starvation and phosphate reactors. Torch and Frogspawn aren't expanding anymore. Gsp's mat is deteriorating. WTF is going on?

Parameters are damn near perfect. 0/0/0 ammonia/trite/trate ph 8.2 temps 77-80, calc 480, mag a little high at 1600. phosphates 0.

Just getting really frustrated about inverts and the algae. Fish are all doing great as well as the zoas are flourishing in my tank.

Sorry just had to vent I guess.

 

I feel your pain. I'm ashamed to post pics of my tank because of the sad state that it seems to be in. I know without a doubt that you nor I could be accused of bad husbandry. Maybe, some day, in heaven maybe, we will have a perfect tank, I'm gonna keep trying until then though.

 

Sorry about your loss. I am interested how much did you like your fighting conch I am thinking about getting one.

 

I liked him a lot. Mine was always very sluggish though he came in a shipment that got here a day later... damn you usps. He held on for about a month and just kicked the bucket today. I really liked watching his eyes pop out of the sand though.

 

Yeah I think that's what sucks so much about it. I'm in this tank almost everyday cleaning and whatnot and I just can't seem to get it perfect. Homebrewing is my other hobby and I just got my 8 keg kegerator full today so I have that to fall back on I suppose.

 

Have you ever thought of moving to Tampa? LOL But I dont keep a very big cuc, cause they all end up dying. I got tired of wasting money, so I quit buying crabs and snails and everything came to a point where they quit dying. I think they might have been starving or my sally foot was killing them all.

 

psiclone, have you ever tested for copper

 

no I haven't. Probably should.

 

Are you dosing with anything you can't/aren't measuring?

Recently switched salt brands or maybe got a bad batch? (call the manufacturer and see if they have any reports of bad salt...?)

Ever use a red flashlight at night and look for hitch hikers? Crabs, shrimp and worms can kill CuCs and corals.

temp, pH, or salinity swings?

Anything like a cucumber, sea apple, or anemone that could be nuking the tank from a dark hidden corner?

...sounds odd to have major broad spectrum die off for no reason.

My first thought would be a couple major (50-60%) water changes spaced a few days apart. If that didn't help I'd start pulling rock and scrubbing everything down and investigating every nook and cranny in the tank.



Good luck with!

-Doug

p.s. I love my fighting conch. Very interesting to watch - during the day it's buried and you can just see eyes and a trunk, at night (s)he comes out and moves all over the sand bed. Makes a pretty big impact on algae - nothing compared to a large turbo, but still fun to watch.

 

I would definitely suggest putting in a new batch of carbon just in case its a chemical/toxin related problem. Also- as long as things are dying it will cause a domino effect due to spike of ammonia/nitrites. If things are dying quickly- get the dead stuff out of there and keep up with high volume water changes!