I'm close to ending my tank, this hobby might be too much for me.

A couple of things:

1) When you broke your rock, you made a mistake. The inner portions of live rock are anaerobic. This is where bacteria live that convert nitrates into nitrogen gas. Anaerobic bacteria can also release sulfur compounds which poison the water. I believe this is what caused your deaths. It would not show up on nitrate/ammonia tests. Next time, do all your rock-scaping and rock breaking before adding any livestock, and then do water changes.

2) You will need a protein skimmer. The sump can wait, but the skimmer really can't. I would also seriously consider running a bag of carbon. This would absorb any organics and harmful chemicals that get released into the water (might have helped during the rock breaking incident).

I would really encourage you to stay in the hobby if you are still interested in it. But I would suggest that you finish your rock scaping, get a skimmer and carbon bag, and then continue to add your livestock.

One further suggestion: Get a small 10g quarantine tank for new fish. Once you get a new fish, put it in the 10g tank and keep it there until it starts eating. Once it eats, treat it prophylactically with either copper or Paraguard. This will kill off any potential parasites (and must be done in quarantine, because these chemicals will kill your inverts and coral if used in your main tank). Only then should you add the fish to your DT. By doing this, I think you will enjoy much more success in the hobby.

 

WVU word...went there and also had a 29 gallon reef tank there last year!!! sucks not to much around there to get stuff...just petco (hate that place) and some little pet store hidden across from dairy mart!! but dont give up bc things can only get better...wait for your water to clear up b4 doing anything else!!

 

Very well spoken and I could not have said it better.

 

I work at the place behind the dairy mart lol. Small world. I go up to pitt for my coral shopping.

 

Nice, we have three WVU alumns on my thread lol. Well I am borrowing a Emperor 280 from a friend and going to try running that to see if it will help me out.

Does anyone have any experiences with this filter?

 

I mostly agree. The only thing I'd comment on here is that breaking up LR in and of itself shouldn't be a danger. But you have to rinse it off (like with old WC water) to get all the newly made rock powder off as well as flush off the anaerobic bacteria that is now exposed and don't let it sit out of the tank for too long.

I've broken up LR from my established tank twice now without any problems.

What i am thinking is that you didn't rinse the rock first... though your fog may very well be a bloom, I think it's also quite possible it is dust from the broken up LR that isn't being filtered out good enough and the flow is keeping it from settling.

just a different take on it...

 

Yes...the marineland 280 is a bit better than what you have now, but not a whole lot better. To be honest, the emperor filters are great for freshwater, but not so great for salt. You really do need a skimmer. Having said that, if the only option is the emperor, you will need to get several filter pads (the ones with carbon, preferably). And you will need to change these every couple of weeks. Only change one at a time, because if you change them all at once you will significantly lessen your biological filtration (because helpful bacteria build up in the filter pads). One thing you will find, though, is that your nitrates will remain high due to the biowheel in this filter. Hence the need to eventually replace it with a skimmer (sorry to sound like a broken record).

 

Patience must be eternal in this sport of reef.

Just relax, this is just the beginning of the endless frustration your tank will bring you... But if you really care enough to take your time and see it through it will be rewarding... it will cost you a lot of money however, this is an absolute certainty.

I have a 20g and have lost over $200 in livestock alone... not to mention all the money I've sank into equipment, rock, sand, filters, food, etc blah, additives... the list goes on....

Definitely get a protein skimmer ASAP, it will save you a lot of headaches down the road.

You will always have to be patient, after that first 3 week cycle, is just the beginning... there is still a lot of maturation that has to go on in the tank, you will have countless algae blooms and critter deaths... this is just how it is... even experienced reefkeepers lose prize fish every now and then...

And then everytime you add something or rearrange something or change anything, something else bad happens... then also just randomly, bad things happen... then one day your return line on your sump fails and there's water everywhere... then your glass cracks... *&% happens.

Sometimes it's clearly a mistake, sometimes it's something that couldn't be helped, sometimes we have no idea why these things happen... just relax and appreciate your tank for what it is... you will never stop adding to it and building it and modifying it and rearranging and growing... it is a perpetual thing... so don't try to hurry up and get it all taken care of right away!

Oh and I started my 20g with a marineland 100 HOB filter... the smallest one they make... no protein skimmer (regret not getting one earlier however, would have made my tank a whole lot cleaner!), no sump, no other filtration to speak of but sand and rock... and it served me well for quite some time... in fact I have it chilling in my sump right now... they are great little filters.

It really requires a lot of mastery to get good at reefing... I'm one year in and just now starting to feel like I have the most basic understanding... (well i thought I did back then, but i was clearly wrong about a lot of things) my tank is starting to come together and look like a "reef"... and I spend about 50-100 bucks a week on my tank easily... and it's still pretty empty i feel like and it's only a 20g!

 

Not necessarily so, I used it on my 20g nano for about 6 months and after a month or two never had a reading above 1ppm for nitrates. No protein skimmer, not even much LR or LS...

[[And I'm not trying to call you out, I've seen a lot of great and really experienced reefers say the same thing, people with tanks much nicer and more well kept than mine... but you tell him not to change out his pads because the bacteria are beneficial, then you say biowheels are bad because they produce nitrates? What do you think the bacteria on the pads are producing? Nitrates. Only anoxic (low oxygen) conditions like deep within sand beds or LR do bacteria break down nitrate... otherwise algae (good and bad kinds) will fix it (incorporate it into their cells) as they grow.]]

I did have a decent amount of nuisance algae tho that wasn't until much later... and forced me to get a skimmer and wish I had done it sooner.

I think the biowheels/bioballs are great... I'd much rather have a nitrate spike than an ammonia spike any day.

 

+1

Skimmer is key, but until you get one, run some carbon, it will clear your water up relatively quickly, but I'd still place it in the "quick fix" category.