Is your tank near your kitchen? Looks like it may be. Could there be any aerosol cleaners etc getting in the tank? I would also recommend checking the basics, source water etc. I would also consider a different source for livestock if you continue to have fish die shortly after introducing them. If you are worried about new things dieing just keep things as they are. And don’t feel like you have to spend extra time cleaning things and keeping up. Let things be for a bit.
Debating leaving the hobby. Thoughts and experiences? Pics..
- Thread starter FiveGallonSea
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Servillius
Active Member
Hey reefers,
Been in the reef hobby a couple years. Freshwater lifelong. Started reefing with a nano and soon after planned for many months an upgrade. An unimaginable amount of money later had a Red Sea Reefer 350 running with all mid level-high end equipment up and running. Then came the fish, then came the coral. I think I had beginners luck. My coral were doing amazing and so were my fish. Despite maintenance it's almost like this tank thrived effortlessly.
Over the past 5-6 months there's been so many downs that it's taken everything I had in me. I still keep up with maintenance and my tank is always showroom clean, but because of all the heartbreak I'm looking at the hobby as more of a chore than anything else. Here's a list of things I've dealt with...
-Unexplainable demise of all my euphyllia despite no change in parameters.
-Unexplainable deaths from fish who looked perfectly healthy one morning and were dead in the evening including 2 Potter's Angels, 1 Flame Angel, 1 Blue Mandarin, several Green Chromis and some inverts.
- A beautiful newly acquired Naso Tang that just never acclimated well and starved to death despite all my efforts.
-Recent hair algae on one rock that I fought for one month and looks like I got under control.
-HLLE appearing on my Blue Tang that I raised as a baby the size of a quarter despite always providing nori, spirulina, with a mix of meaty foods with garlic and vitamins.
-I suspect my Flame Angel is getting ill.
-And I feel like I can do water changes every single day and I cannot lower my nitrates lower than 20 when I NEVER had nitrate issues.
My corals never grow, they all start out great for weeks/months and no matter what shrink back and die.
I'm at a loss and I'm getting to the point that I look at my tank with disgust. It gives me anxiety and makes me mentally sick. I love everything about this hobby, but I feel I'm losing the ability to cope with these losses any longer. Reefapalooza is this weekend and I've been excited all year to go. I'm even debating not going.
What do you vets think. Is this means to throw in the towel? Will I get passed this?
Any advice, please.
This is too beautiful to quit.
Someone else said it but my best guess (both fish and corals going is a important data point) is poisoning. Do you smoke in the room? Are you near regular chemical use? Think hard!
HLLE in my experience is prevented with high quality food with lots of variety. I swear by Rods Reef and have seen fish recover within weeks of starting to feed it again.
Whatever the problem is, big enough water changes will fix it (unless it’s a fish disease and a coincidence that both fish and corals are going, in which case you need to fix the fish disease separately). I don’t know what size that tank is, but do the biggest water changes you can. When something like this happens to me I do 30% a day for a week then 30% twice each week until it comes right and keep up until I find the problem. I can’t emphasize the power of water changes when you’re having problems enough.
Yeah, I’d switch to t5 or halide. I’m not opposed to LEDs, but they can be a really bad choice if you’re having problems.
Don’t give up, I promise the satisfaction of systematically finding and fixing it is worth everything!
Vahanyos
Valuable Member
Keep the tank alive! It’s a beautiful set up! Keep it a Fowler for a bit and let it get more seasoned! The itch will come back so fast lol. Get a healthy puffer, he’ll cheer you up for sure!
Ron Reefman
Lets Go Snorkeling!
Reef Squad
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Article Contributor
Tampa Bay Reef Keepers
MAC of SW Florida
After almost 15 years and running 4 tanks (120g reef, 65g shallow reef, 50g cube and 25g frag tank) I was burned out. I had a chiller incident that drove my 120g DT abd 50g cube (they share a sump) down below 60F and killed 98% of my sps coral (65% of my tank). I lost all but one fish. After months of getting things going again, but doing zoas rather than lps or sps to keep it simple, I had a massive algae outbreak. That tooks 2 months to clear up. So I downsized. I quit posting at another website. I sold my 65g shallow reef and frag tank to a fellow club member. But I still felt burned out. So I sold off all the corals in my 120g reef and then separated my 50g cube from the 120g reef. I sold the 120g, stand, sump, pumps and skimmer.
All that work kind of got me going again. So I've decided to keep the 50g cube as a mostly zoa reef and rock flower anemone breeder. I've made a new sump just for the cube and I kept as much coral (all frags and very small rocks) as I needed to make the 50g cube look full. It's still a work in progress, but I'm much happier doing a LOT less work. And a few friends have moved over here to R2R, so I've moved too.
My best advise is to keep the tank going and make it very simple. I saw a number of what I felt were potential mistakes you made with your livestock. Take your time and bring it back slowly. And try to find people to share the hobby with. Find a local club, do more posting here, ask more questions, offer help when you can. If it isn't fun, it isn't worth doing. But everybody gets down some every once and awhile. Give it time.
My old DT system:
20170223_155902 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
And my current rebuild of my 50g cube:
20180622_143629 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
All that work kind of got me going again. So I've decided to keep the 50g cube as a mostly zoa reef and rock flower anemone breeder. I've made a new sump just for the cube and I kept as much coral (all frags and very small rocks) as I needed to make the 50g cube look full. It's still a work in progress, but I'm much happier doing a LOT less work. And a few friends have moved over here to R2R, so I've moved too.
My best advise is to keep the tank going and make it very simple. I saw a number of what I felt were potential mistakes you made with your livestock. Take your time and bring it back slowly. And try to find people to share the hobby with. Find a local club, do more posting here, ask more questions, offer help when you can. If it isn't fun, it isn't worth doing. But everybody gets down some every once and awhile. Give it time.
My old DT system:
20170223_155902 by Ron Lindensmith, on FlickrAnd my current rebuild of my 50g cube:
20180622_143629 by Ron Lindensmith, on Flickr
Similar threads
