NicLongman
Active Member
- Joined
- Jul 25, 2017
- Messages
- 170
- Reaction score
- 76
I will post links to previous threads so you understand if you want to read what happened.
I just want to say thank you so much to everyone who helpede through my first tank crash. The problem started with my tank seeming to be cycled...well it wasn't. There was brown diatoms and green hair algea, to me that says complete cycle or almost (but ehatbdoni know, I'm still a noob. Anyway, I got a cleanup crew and away they went eating and cleaning... About a week earlier I had put 2 damsel's in to see if they would survive and to help cycle the tank. Anyway, about 10 days go by and the tank has less algea so in my noobie excitement I added 1 Yellow Tang. The tank looked great and everything was good, levels were stable and everything was happy. (Oh yeah there was coral added same time as the first two fish). About 2 weeks later I again in my noobie haste and excitement, added a powder brown Tang......and again everything is looking good. Levels are good. Seem to be stable even though I know a tank isn't mature and stable stable for about a year. So about another 2 weeks later I was in the cities and really wanted clowns, so I got 2 and added them. Again everything seemed fibe. Then another 2 weeks later I got the anemone.....I know I know It was a rookie mistake that made me learn my lesson on patience. Then everything went to hell. I don't know if it was the anem that put it over the edge or if it was a dead snail I didnt notice but either way..... CRASH. Remeber, I thought the tank was cycled...at least after the algea bloom and stable levels. Anyway, added the anem and boom... levels all over the place, wake up to the tangs and clowns all dead, yeah that was really disappointing. I was really kicking myself for not putting them in the smaller 30g I set up about 2 weeks after I set up the main 75g, and I was toying with the idea that day, but at the time they didnt show any signs and i didnt want to stress them even more than the spike in ammonia did and then it was after i shut off the lights they all of a sudden died.
So I did end up moving the nem and corals all to the smaller tank, it really helped I think, at least with the corals. The nem went downhill from there and the sps went up like a flame faster than i could blink...poof. I only had 2 frags so it really wasnt an issue at the time for me....there are only 3 or 4 corals that i would have been mad about becuase i spent alot more than i should have on them and they are all my favorites. Lemon Drop St Thomas, Dill Pickle Bounce, and my green hammer. As the days went on i ended up loosing 99% of my cleanup crew i have 1 snail and 2 or 3 hermit crabs...this surprised me as usually inverts and such are the first to go from what ive researched and heard. Day after day the nem looked worse and worse....it was shrinking to nothing. I was kicking myself for being so stupid as to buy it because now im just killing it. I felt so bad...i mean its not like a coral its alive...and i know coral is too it just feels more like an animal of sorts....so i heard that they can do more harm then good in a tank if its dying, so after more days and days of it looking worse and worse I finally decided to take it out and put it in a bucket to quarantine it and let it die because nothing i did helped, and everyone told me it was dead or dying or wasn't any saving it, so i thought this the most humane thing to do. I hate killing things or watching things die...which is odd becuase i live on a farm and have to deal with that yearly because animals get old, or hurt all the time (i own a breeding, show and training stable) trust me...freak accidents happen. So I ended up calling my husband and told him I didn't want it to suffer so to add fresh water to the bucket to let it go quick. Well, I get home from school (im going to be a therapist) and see the bucket still sitting by the tank, after asking him about it because it still looked alive to me he said "yeah, i put a cup of water in it" . OMG, i told him to fill it with water...so heres me thinking that i made it suffer more, so I said F-IT and put it in the main display tank. Im telling you in all honesty this thing was a skeleton.....barely anything left of it, hopefully i have a photos to show...im sure i do. So as all this death and distruction was going on, I had done 2 large water changes and followed everyones advice and it really wasnt making progress....i mean levels were starting to even out but still not great...nitrates were 40+ ppm nitrites were elevated slightly, ph was down the drain and ammnia was fluctuating up and down. I finally saw a couple posts about how it sounded like it hadnt finisshed cycling yet when i was posting at the time. So i just stopped. I stopped testing, WC, etc . i just left it. the nem is still a skeleton and i thought was dead....the tank was empty so i left it thinking the amonia from it decaying would help the cycle if it was dead. BOOM....now the 30g crashes, which would be on time with about 2 weeks after the main crash. I literally had no choice both tanks were testing not good, one with low ph, amonia spikes and nitrates. the other with high ph, nitrites, and nitrates. which to choose. I took everything and put it in the main display, which had the high ph....it was a gut feeling that felt right so i did it, and I got lucky becuase it paid off to transfer again. The tank was unstable for a day or two then the diatoms started then the algea, cycle is nearing the end which was a sigh of relief.
All in all i lost a few corals, 2 sps, and 3 or 4 others. out of about 18 idk the exact number which i think was a great outcome. I did loose the 4 fish which was sad, but on the bright side. I learned alot! Like way more than i could have researching. I learned that i got wet....a lot I went through an entire reef and aquarium API test kits. And was dealing with my husband crying that i wasnt paying any attention to him becuase i was so focused on saving my tank and what i had left. I learned to have patience and slow down. One comment really made it click for me all of a sudden...it said "Take a deep breath, Pause, and reset" or something along those lines....thank you whoever said that if you reading this. Also, i got to re-aquascape which was the best part about this entire thing. It looke 100000000 times better now than it did. So 3 days ago, the nem looks a fright if its alive, then its barely alive...literally. So I decide to feed it, and it ate, then i did it again a few hours later, ive been feeding it here and there for 3 or 4 days and OMG its getting better, it looks soooo much better, its mouth isnt GAPING open, its still open but not as bad, and today it actually almost closed and has bubbles again....very very small of course...but still looks happier and healthier...even though a coffin would have done the same. I feel so good that i saved it i fell like i saved a child from death. Im bound and determined to keep everything perfect and not mess around with it more than i have to and accidentally cause something to happen. And to defy what other have told me...im going to prove everyone that said i couldnt save anything and save everything and never let it happen again.
Anem before everything went to hell
before the crash
1st aquascape
anem looking soooo much better now, you can imagine what it was looking like...hopefully it will pull through and continue to recover. its eating in both of these so its not really bubbly
current aquascape ill post below .
AS ALWAYS PLEASE PLEASE ANY ADVICE OR ANYTHING YOU WOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENT PLEASE SHARE WITH ME IM TRYING TO LEARN THE BEST I CAN
I just want to say thank you so much to everyone who helpede through my first tank crash. The problem started with my tank seeming to be cycled...well it wasn't. There was brown diatoms and green hair algea, to me that says complete cycle or almost (but ehatbdoni know, I'm still a noob. Anyway, I got a cleanup crew and away they went eating and cleaning... About a week earlier I had put 2 damsel's in to see if they would survive and to help cycle the tank. Anyway, about 10 days go by and the tank has less algea so in my noobie excitement I added 1 Yellow Tang. The tank looked great and everything was good, levels were stable and everything was happy. (Oh yeah there was coral added same time as the first two fish). About 2 weeks later I again in my noobie haste and excitement, added a powder brown Tang......and again everything is looking good. Levels are good. Seem to be stable even though I know a tank isn't mature and stable stable for about a year. So about another 2 weeks later I was in the cities and really wanted clowns, so I got 2 and added them. Again everything seemed fibe. Then another 2 weeks later I got the anemone.....I know I know It was a rookie mistake that made me learn my lesson on patience. Then everything went to hell. I don't know if it was the anem that put it over the edge or if it was a dead snail I didnt notice but either way..... CRASH. Remeber, I thought the tank was cycled...at least after the algea bloom and stable levels. Anyway, added the anem and boom... levels all over the place, wake up to the tangs and clowns all dead, yeah that was really disappointing. I was really kicking myself for not putting them in the smaller 30g I set up about 2 weeks after I set up the main 75g, and I was toying with the idea that day, but at the time they didnt show any signs and i didnt want to stress them even more than the spike in ammonia did and then it was after i shut off the lights they all of a sudden died.
So I did end up moving the nem and corals all to the smaller tank, it really helped I think, at least with the corals. The nem went downhill from there and the sps went up like a flame faster than i could blink...poof. I only had 2 frags so it really wasnt an issue at the time for me....there are only 3 or 4 corals that i would have been mad about becuase i spent alot more than i should have on them and they are all my favorites. Lemon Drop St Thomas, Dill Pickle Bounce, and my green hammer. As the days went on i ended up loosing 99% of my cleanup crew i have 1 snail and 2 or 3 hermit crabs...this surprised me as usually inverts and such are the first to go from what ive researched and heard. Day after day the nem looked worse and worse....it was shrinking to nothing. I was kicking myself for being so stupid as to buy it because now im just killing it. I felt so bad...i mean its not like a coral its alive...and i know coral is too it just feels more like an animal of sorts....so i heard that they can do more harm then good in a tank if its dying, so after more days and days of it looking worse and worse I finally decided to take it out and put it in a bucket to quarantine it and let it die because nothing i did helped, and everyone told me it was dead or dying or wasn't any saving it, so i thought this the most humane thing to do. I hate killing things or watching things die...which is odd becuase i live on a farm and have to deal with that yearly because animals get old, or hurt all the time (i own a breeding, show and training stable) trust me...freak accidents happen. So I ended up calling my husband and told him I didn't want it to suffer so to add fresh water to the bucket to let it go quick. Well, I get home from school (im going to be a therapist) and see the bucket still sitting by the tank, after asking him about it because it still looked alive to me he said "yeah, i put a cup of water in it" . OMG, i told him to fill it with water...so heres me thinking that i made it suffer more, so I said F-IT and put it in the main display tank. Im telling you in all honesty this thing was a skeleton.....barely anything left of it, hopefully i have a photos to show...im sure i do. So as all this death and distruction was going on, I had done 2 large water changes and followed everyones advice and it really wasnt making progress....i mean levels were starting to even out but still not great...nitrates were 40+ ppm nitrites were elevated slightly, ph was down the drain and ammnia was fluctuating up and down. I finally saw a couple posts about how it sounded like it hadnt finisshed cycling yet when i was posting at the time. So i just stopped. I stopped testing, WC, etc . i just left it. the nem is still a skeleton and i thought was dead....the tank was empty so i left it thinking the amonia from it decaying would help the cycle if it was dead. BOOM....now the 30g crashes, which would be on time with about 2 weeks after the main crash. I literally had no choice both tanks were testing not good, one with low ph, amonia spikes and nitrates. the other with high ph, nitrites, and nitrates. which to choose. I took everything and put it in the main display, which had the high ph....it was a gut feeling that felt right so i did it, and I got lucky becuase it paid off to transfer again. The tank was unstable for a day or two then the diatoms started then the algea, cycle is nearing the end which was a sigh of relief.
All in all i lost a few corals, 2 sps, and 3 or 4 others. out of about 18 idk the exact number which i think was a great outcome. I did loose the 4 fish which was sad, but on the bright side. I learned alot! Like way more than i could have researching. I learned that i got wet....a lot I went through an entire reef and aquarium API test kits. And was dealing with my husband crying that i wasnt paying any attention to him becuase i was so focused on saving my tank and what i had left. I learned to have patience and slow down. One comment really made it click for me all of a sudden...it said "Take a deep breath, Pause, and reset" or something along those lines....thank you whoever said that if you reading this. Also, i got to re-aquascape which was the best part about this entire thing. It looke 100000000 times better now than it did. So 3 days ago, the nem looks a fright if its alive, then its barely alive...literally. So I decide to feed it, and it ate, then i did it again a few hours later, ive been feeding it here and there for 3 or 4 days and OMG its getting better, it looks soooo much better, its mouth isnt GAPING open, its still open but not as bad, and today it actually almost closed and has bubbles again....very very small of course...but still looks happier and healthier...even though a coffin would have done the same. I feel so good that i saved it i fell like i saved a child from death. Im bound and determined to keep everything perfect and not mess around with it more than i have to and accidentally cause something to happen. And to defy what other have told me...im going to prove everyone that said i couldnt save anything and save everything and never let it happen again.
Anem before everything went to hell
before the crash
current aquascape ill post below .
AS ALWAYS PLEASE PLEASE ANY ADVICE OR ANYTHING YOU WOULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENT PLEASE SHARE WITH ME IM TRYING TO LEARN THE BEST I CAN
