Brew's 187g slice of the ocean

[Brew12]

I do have a mea culpa to own up to....

As some of you know, the divorce has been pretty tough for me to get through. I've really stepped back and simplified my life as much as possible. Up until this past weekend I hadn't tested anything but alkalinity in over a year. I've still done fairly regular water changes but not as often as I should. I've also rarely cleaned the glass. For long periods of time I have barely been able to clean the glass. I've left filter socks unchanged for weeks at a time. Just not good.

I finally decided it was time to try and get the tank back to where it was before the alk spike last fall. This weekend I cleaned the glass and counted my fish. Hard to believe, but I haven't lost a single one since 2019. I tested NO3 and PO4 and both were over range high which is why my SPS are doing so poorly. I did a 30g water change (biggest I'm set up to do) and added GFO and GAC for the first time in over a year. I harvested chaeto for the first time in ages which was so packed in that it had stopped growing and removing NO3. I have been pretty good at maintaining the skimmer, so that was a fairly easy clean.

So moving forward... I need to get larger containers to be able to do larger water changes. I need to put together a true mixing station so I can get away from buckets. This weekend I will be cutting out a bunch of the dead coral and trying to get that cleaned up. And that purple slimer.... it is bullet proof. It desperately needs to be cut back again.

I tried to take a picture this morning but the lighting was still too blue. I'll try to get a picture posted soon.

 

[Brew12]

Quick phone picture

 

[Brew12]

Well, the disaster is complete. I left a heater running for too many years and it failed. Not sure I could have saved anything in the tank, but it was the end. I think every bit of SPS I have is now complete gone. #honestyinreefing
That said, it is time to restart the tank. Unbelievably, I haven't lost a single fish the entire time I've neglected the tank. Maybe even more unlikely is that all 3 BTA's and all 3 sea urchins are alive. I still have some zoa's and a hammer coral along with a few other non SPS that I'll try to keep as I move forward.
One huge problem I've had that I think contributed was my inability to do a large water change. Basically, anything above 30g took way too much effort. Pre-divorce I would put that work in, but I couldn't bring myself to do it this last year. So, I ordered 55g containers and finished putting together a real mixing station last week. I was hoping the containers would make it in time to help save some SPS, but they were delayed by over 2 months.

My skimmer hadn't been cleaned in so long the impeller jammed a few weeks ago so it has been offline. The glass in my tank hadn't been cleaned in forever, either. Can't say I wanted to see what was going on.

But, the skimmer is clean, the glass is well on its way, powerheads are cycling threw vinegar soaks. New heaters are on order and a new return pump as well. Don't really need the calcium reactor anymore so it is offline and the plumbing removed. I plan on doing a 50g water change (roughly 30% estimated water volume) each of the next 4 weekends to start slowly improving water quality without shocking the system. In the future, with my 2 old 35g storage tanks and my new 55g mixing tank I will be able to easily perform very large water changes if needed. Should have done this years ago.

I don't want to remove too much dead coral because it does provide a lot of structure for the fish. Once I'm happy that the water conditions are where they need to be it will be time to start over with SPS. First... the BTA's need to come out, but I'm in no hurry.

Hope everyone is doing well!

 

[Fudsey]

Sorry to hear about your tank but glad to see it's now on the mend.

 

[Bo.]

Glad to see you renewing the interest again and not dropping it! I'm sorry for the losses, but it's about how many times we get up, not how many times we fail. Been through similar, and totally get letting things slide for a bit.

 

[Eagle_Steve]

Well, the disaster is complete. I left a heater running for too many years and it failed. Not sure I could have saved anything in the tank, but it was the end. I think every bit of SPS I have is now complete gone. #honestyinreefing
That said, it is time to restart the tank. Unbelievably, I haven't lost a single fish the entire time I've neglected the tank. Maybe even more unlikely is that all 3 BTA's and all 3 sea urchins are alive. I still have some zoa's and a hammer coral along with a few other non SPS that I'll try to keep as I move forward.
One huge problem I've had that I think contributed was my inability to do a large water change. Basically, anything above 30g took way too much effort. Pre-divorce I would put that work in, but I couldn't bring myself to do it this last year. So, I ordered 55g containers and finished putting together a real mixing station last week. I was hoping the containers would make it in time to help save some SPS, but they were delayed by over 2 months.

My skimmer hadn't been cleaned in so long the impeller jammed a few weeks ago so it has been offline. The glass in my tank hadn't been cleaned in forever, either. Can't say I wanted to see what was going on.

But, the skimmer is clean, the glass is well on its way, powerheads are cycling threw vinegar soaks. New heaters are on order and a new return pump as well. Don't really need the calcium reactor anymore so it is offline and the plumbing removed. I plan on doing a 50g water change (roughly 30% estimated water volume) each of the next 4 weekends to start slowly improving water quality without shocking the system. In the future, with my 2 old 35g storage tanks and my new 55g mixing tank I will be able to easily perform very large water changes if needed. Should have done this years ago.

I don't want to remove too much dead coral because it does provide a lot of structure for the fish. Once I'm happy that the water conditions are where they need to be it will be time to start over with SPS. First... the BTA's need to come out, but I'm in no hurry.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Aww man, that sucks.

There is a bright side, I have colonies of sps you are welcome to frags of once you are ready.

 

[jsker]

What a bummer. If anyone can get a system back in shape, that would be you

 

[GBRsouth]

Sorry life threw you a curve ball. But It's cleaned your slate for you to keep the corals you really want!

 

[ksed]

Glad to see you are starting back up again.
What happened with your return pump?
Are you getting the same one again or trying something different?

 

[Brew12]

Glad to see you are starting back up again.
What happened with your return pump?
Are you getting the same one again or trying something different?

It's going strong, just buying another one since my emergency spare (old Sicce) is now in my mixing station. Once it comes in I can clean the Reef Octopus properly and hopefully prevent a failure.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Sorry about the crash and the loss of all your SPS. Glad all of your fish have survived and that this has renewed an interest i the hobby for you, rather than causing you to throw in the towel.

I am looking forward to watching you rebuild the reef. I am sure you will have it running better than ever very soon and you can start growing some SPS again.

 

[Brew12]

A lot of progress was made yesterday. I also found out that my refugium light stopped working at some point. One more thing to add to the list!

 

[Janci]

Glad to hear from you again, although not with the best news.
Sometimes we need a hit like this to see again why we try to keep those animals alive.
I hope you recover swift and stronger.

 

[Dj City]

Hey buddy,

I'm glad to see you have started to shake it off and actively get back to it.

You get to rebuild your reef. You have knowledge and experience so getting back to it should simply be an exercise in refocusing and re-dedicating .

I'm quiet but I'm still around checking up on you from time to time.

 

[SPR1968]

Sorry to read about this Brew, it sounds like it’s all coming back together for you

The new mixing station should make things easier, and if you get chance have a look into fully automated water changes, it makes the hobby so much easier, honestly. I use DOS but there are other options and having done it manually before, I would never run a reef without it again.

Best wishes

 

[Victoria M]

Hugs my friend. This truly sucks but a new start is also rewarding, as you know I have shared my crash and burn too. Looking forward to watching this grow beautiful again.

 

[Brew12]

It was another productive weekend working on the aquarium. I got the refugium light changed out, that was easy enough. My new BRS branded heaters came in so I got both of those in and working. There were problems with all 4 of my gyres and I have 3 of them working. Hoping I can get the 4th one fixed with the parts left over from the first 3. That should be a project for Friday night. Followed that up with around a 50g water change.
While I was working on this the power supply for my ATO failed. Not sure why. Fortunately, I had a power supply that would work so it was a 15 minute fix.

And on a positive note, my green digitata still has some parts that are alive. Even though I'm early in my water quality improvement process it is obviously starting to grow some flesh back.

The plans for this coming weekend are another 50g water change and then getting my GAC and GFO reactors cleaned up, refilled, and ready to go online. At that point I will start testing NO3 and PO4 in an effort to get them into a reasonable range, if the large water changes every week and fixing the refugium light didn't get it down already.

Slow and steady.

 

[drawman]

Hey Brew checking in. Glad to hear the fish all survived and hope things are on the up and up! What do you think of those BRS heaters?

 

[Brew12]

Hey Brew checking in. Glad to hear the fish all survived and hope things are on the up and up! What do you think of those BRS heaters?

They are a rebrand of a high quality European heater so I'm very thrilled BRS is carrying them. I'd consider them a step up from an Eheim.

 

[Brew12]

More progress has been made today. The parts came in that I needed to get the 4th gyre working so that got fixed and is back in the tank. For the first time in months, all of the equipment in my system is working. I should never have let it get so bad!

Today was another 50g water change. I finally did some more testing and my NO3 was roughly 50ppm and PO4 is 3ppm. I think the NO3 will be fairly easy to resolve now that my refugium lighting is fixed. I added some GAC and GFO so I'm hoping that starts to bring my PO4 down and remove any residual toxins from my heater failure. I think that part is good, but I figure the GAC can't hurt.

Hopefully I'll have everything where I want it in a few more weeks. Then I'll look at adding new coral.