Losses (...long post)

re:

"Input on Manderin Goby" 07-15-2008, 01:43 PM
lillys Grandad

I certainly do not want to give idea from above posts that my ReefKeeping "adventures" have been problem free.

Have experienced disasters right out of your worst nightmares.

Shortly after moving inhabitants from 55 gallon to new 125, my beautiful corals began to shrivel up and die off. Large Tridacna went belly up. Anem and rest of inverts began to go. Despite (daily) back to back water changes my water params continued to deteriorate, resulting in me moving all fish back to my 55 gal.

Tank did not take long to turn into a smelly cesspool.

Seeking help here, at LFS and even from Seattle aquarium, eventually discovered Cu was thru the roof in tank.

Cleaning out tank completely did not turn up Cu source.

So started from scratch using a small fortune in Cuprisorb and Polypads I finally got Cu levels in tank to reasonable range. Added 100 lbs of new LR and started cycle. After short period of time Cu levels again skyrocketed and tank again experienced another complete die off. :-[

Just before draining tank once again my return pump quit. Thinking may be impeller problem, I pulled apart to see whats up...and what did I find but a brass sleeve on the impeller shaft (completely corroded up)!!!!

Return pump I using, was a old "pond pump" I had had sitting out in garage for long time...thinking putting it to use and save a few bucks, I wound up spending $$$$$$$, killing off a fortune in corals and other inverts, and much effort and grief. :-[

Once again, after replacing pump and another session of polypads (many) got tank cleaned up, added new LR again... cycled fine...fish went back in tank and all has been well since.


Another,

Late last year my water temp began to slowly decrease. Compensated for by increasing heater temp...did till I decided to check water temp with another thermometer. It was close to 90 degrees. Had been that way for week or so.

I had stupidly put full faith in a digital temp sensor which was slowly failing...:-[

Cost: Hawaiian Flame Wrass, Harlequin Shrimp, mushroom corals and resulting in bleached anems.


Others:

Hippo Tang outgrew tank. Had since very little...was very traumatic to have to move out.

Sailfin Tang, gotten to replace above, died for no reason I could determine.

One Yellow tang over long period of time, shriveled up and slowly starved to death. (was due to not feeding enough green stuff)

Banded Goby - starved to death. Not enough food in sand to stay alive. Was all it would eat. (impossible to catch as sand-sifting only eating habit - had to watch it get more and more emaciated by the day, till did not show up one morning. Was very ugly to watch)

"Prized" Sixline Wrasse just "disappeared" recently.


Also:

Any number of fish returned to LFS because either they were overly aggressive to existing fish, or they would not accept it.


Last, but not least, losing mated pair of perc clowns...but found them happily living in overflow about 3 years after disappearance...



Based on all of the above, "luvreefs" you may want to reconsider your kudo's about my great tank husbandry...:-/

Again sorry about length of post...just wanted to set the record straight...:-[:-[:-[

 

We've all been there at one time or another Scott.

Back before there was such a thing as moonlights, we had to make our own. Mine consisted of a regular lamp socket and a blue party bulb on a timer. Eventually, the bulb burned out and they were out of stock on blue bulbs so I bought a red party bulb. Well, the cyanobacteria that formed due to all of the red spectrum actually killed some of my corals.

One time I bought a tube anemone because he was gorgeous without fully understanding it's care needs. It at 3 fish.

I messed up a pump one time too. Some of my fish were getting HLLE and I knew I was giving them good water quality and balanced diets including vitamins and saturated fats. I couldn't understand it. Well after a month of watching them get sicker and sicker, I put my hand in my tank. The difference this time was that I was barefoot standing in a little water on concrete. That ancient powerhead I decided to re-use rather than spending $20 on a new one was sending massive current through the tank. I luckily nursed those guys all back to health.

Long story short......this is NOT a forgiving hobby. You can do everything correctly in so many areas but all you need is to miss one thing and you can have losses.

 

Oh yes!!!



Happily getting along in 12 gal NanoCube. (was only reason I was "allowed" to get and set up another tank - as had replaced percs with a pair of Maroons after they went AWOL. --- No way the Maroons would let them back in main tank...went ballistic and were tearing percs to pieces before I could pull out just in time.) --- Everyone in family witnessed, so new tank acquisition no problem...;D

 

that is a great story (about the clowns)

 

omard, we have all been there....my list is ALOT longer than yours. Point is u took the time to find out what was wrong and corrected it. That is good tank husbandry.

 

Im glad to hear these things from such an experienced person. I have read many posts and seen many pics that makes it seem that when something bad happens, it is because you are inexperienced or don't know any better. Many people make it seem that these things only happen rarely. I began to get worried when I had a few things go wrong. Thanks for sharing your stories, i learned some things.

 

you know omard, we all go through these times. I've been at this for a while and just recently lost 100 percent of my fish to a cuke nuke so I know how it is. Most people don't realize the challenges we have with this hobby and most (don't like the term) newbies think that just because some of our tanks are gorgeous that they are the only ones that make mistakes and that just isn't true. If you are a reefer that doesn't make mistakes, then you are one of those people that pay another person to take care of your tank

 

And let them make the mistakes (they just don't tell you about them).

 

OK.....I'm a newbie. You're scaring me!!!!