I will try to keep this from being long winded. I will try just to include facts and keep the emotion out of it.
My system:
180 gal DT
Basement sump - 150 gal rubbermaid stock tank, external Bashsea Skimmer, 1 GFO reactor, 1 GAF reactor, Bashsea bio reactor (big tall thingy with red plastic beads that look like pasta. Reminds me of a lava lamp and I love to watch it.
5 stage RODI unit (I just added 2 more stages)
Water source is drilled well which is likely spring fed.
2 Kessil Ap700
1 Kessil 160
Apex unit with EB832, 1 dosing pump for Bionic 2 part calcium and magnesium.
Trident unit
How many lbs of live rock: I don't know. A lot. Rock in DT along with extra in sump
Former system:
Used 90 gal DT with sump. Came with aged rock which I used and added some new.
This rock along with some new rock was added to the new 180 gal DT. New sand with handful of old sand from 90 gal was used on set up August 2018.
History: The 180 gal was well stocked with fish. The usual tangs (yellow, tomini, sailfin - all went in together. no issues) 1 fox face, a pair of osc. clowns, coral beauty, royal gramma, 3 anthias, 3 blue green chromis, 3 springeri damsels. 1 blood shrimp, hermit crabs and lots of various snails.
We were struggling to get detectable nutrients so more fish were added: 1 flasher wrasse and 1 long nosed hawk fish November 2019, 1 Bally Lubbocks wrasse and 2 bengai cardinal fish December 2019.
As for corals, a neon green Ausie cabbage leather, a special finger leather, small frag of green kenya tree, 5 mushrooms, 4 florida ricordia, 1 yummy, 1 2-headed duncan and a healthy elegance coral (the light of my life). I also had a small Ausie toadstool frag and 3 rock anemones.
I had been unsuccessful with 2 montipora frags and 1 small acropora. They were purchased in the spring of 2019. Although they had been growing and encrusting, they died that summer when alk spiked to 9 with 0 nutrients. I then changed salts from Red Sea Coral Pro to Aquavitro Salinity.
Now, here is the hard part. I was an absentee tank owner from January to end of March. The owner of the LFS where I buy all my fish, corals and supplies was hired to tend to my tank once a week. My daughter was in charge of making sure I had top up water for the ATO, make the water change water, and feed a little frozen food once a day. I also had an auto feeder that fed 3 times a day.
My fish store guy is very obsessive and would bring his own equipment to check and double check the salinity level of my water change water. He would adjust it as needed. The salt water was made and heated 1 or two days before his scheduled visit. A power head kept it circulating the whole time.
Parameters
January 27 to Feb 3 Alk Min 7.62 Average 7.83 Maximum 8.2
Calcium Min 413 Average 421 Maximum 432
Mag always around 1247
PH Min 7.78 Average 7.86 Maximum 7.96
Temp is always between 78F and 79 F
Red slim had been starting to appear in January. Nothing major. I had my skimmer skimming dry in an effort to increase nutrients. On January 14 my tank guy reported that phosphates were higher than he would like to see them, especially with some red slime. I can't remember the exact number but they were something like 0.2 with a Hanna Checker. Nitrates with salifert were 5. The Duncan coral was not as extended as it should be but everything else looked fine. He dialled in the skimmer to skim a little more wet.
Jan 28 visit: Phophate was 0.00 with hanna checker
nitrates were 2.5 ish
Duncan was more extended and everything else looked good.
Feb 11: Tank looks good
Cyano is less than last week
elegance and rock anemones fed
Phosphate 0.00
nitrate 2.5ish
Here is where is starts to fall apart.
Feb. 18 Alk Minimum 7.88 Average 8.12 Maximum 8.3
calcium minimum 372 Average 402
Magnesium 1247
Salt 0.026
Ph 7.81 Average 7.9 Maximum 8.01
Temp always between 78F and 79F
Phosphates 0.02 with Hanna checker
Nitrates 2.5
The usual skimmer clean and temp and salinity of water change water was checked and a 20% water change was done.
On the morning of February 19 my daughter messaged me that she thought I had a fish that wasn't doing well. It was a chrome that was hanging out in the corner of the aquarium swimming straight up and down.. She said all my fish were "acting weird and not swimming around like crazy when I usually feed them."
5 days later on Feb 24 she removed a dead cardinal fish and saw a dead anthias stuck in the rock work. We also noted that there were 5 other fish missing.
On February 25 my fish guy removed two rotting bodies of anthias from the work work. He did an ammonia test but as luck would have it my ammonia kit was expired. He felt he read a trace of ammonia with an expired salifert kit. We felt maybe a big turbo snail died and perhaps caused an ammonia spike and killed the anthias that were sensitive. And if my clean up crew were short on numbers that why the bodies didn't get eaten. This was just a guess. He did a water change with what water I had there.
On the morning of Feb 26 all the fish were either dead or struggling to breath on the bottom of the tank. My daughter removed the dead fish. I contacted my cousin who went up the net day with salt water from the LFS and removed more dead fish and about 20 big snails. He informed me there were dead bristle worms as well. Ammonia was now 0.5 with a new salifert test kit and nitrite was 0.05.
On February 27th my fish guy did a larger than usual water change with water from his store. At some point I had him unplug the household water softener. We were not sure how to bypass it.
On February 29 my sailfin tang and my yellow tang died. Foxface and 1 clown was left. Both these fish were not expected to live by my daughter as they were in bad shape.
On March 2 the fox face was recovering and ate nori and some frozen. The clown was starting to show interest in food.
March 3, Phosphate 0.02. Ammonia 0.20 before water change with water from LFS
Both fish continued to recover and were eating well over the next week.
On March 10 a water change was done with water made from my house and my aquavitro salinity salt.
The next morning my fox face and clown fish were both dead and dead bristle worms were swirling in the current.
We have since found how to bypass the water softener.
Over the course of those two weeks my parameters did not stray far from what I stated above. Believe me I checked my apex constantly during the day. And watched this all take place from a webcam while feeling totally helpless and frustrated.
I found out that at the end of December my husband had bought the wrong salt for the water softener. I emailed the company and was told that they use a bit of surfactant in their salt that should get flushed out of the water softener when it regenerates. My guess, and this is just a guess, is that it somehow found its way into my water and killed the entire clean up crew and sensitive fish first which lead to an ammonia spike which complicated things further. And each water change after that finished off the already sick fish. Again I have no proof.
I arrived home just before the end of March. I have removed all the dead things I can find in my tank and have moved rock work around to do so. I have vacuumed my sand and moved rock to get behind it. I have changed out 200 gallons of water with Instant Ocean, because nothing has ruled out the salinity salt at this point. I filled a small 5 gal aquarium with water made with my well water through RODI with instant ocean. I put in a couple of test snails and they lived for 2 day, after which I put them in my DT. They died.
What is strange is that my leathers have done wonderfully through all this and have even grown. I have also managed to salve two small pieces of Florida Ricordia.
Sooooooo my question is do I tear this tank down completely and throw away all the rock, drain it and start over again. I have two years of being patient waiting for this tank to mature. Or do I try siphoning out all the sand and doing more water changes and using sacrificial snails as my guide?
Oh ya, a water sample was sent shortly after the fish started dying to MarinLabs for ICP testing. The only pollutant that was noted was Al at 0.0123 mg/l. All other parameters were within range.
I have accepted the loss of life and the loss of $$. But what I am struggling with is where to go from here.
WHAT WOULD YOU ALL DO??
My system:
180 gal DT
Basement sump - 150 gal rubbermaid stock tank, external Bashsea Skimmer, 1 GFO reactor, 1 GAF reactor, Bashsea bio reactor (big tall thingy with red plastic beads that look like pasta. Reminds me of a lava lamp and I love to watch it.
5 stage RODI unit (I just added 2 more stages)
Water source is drilled well which is likely spring fed.
2 Kessil Ap700
1 Kessil 160
Apex unit with EB832, 1 dosing pump for Bionic 2 part calcium and magnesium.
Trident unit
How many lbs of live rock: I don't know. A lot. Rock in DT along with extra in sump
Former system:
Used 90 gal DT with sump. Came with aged rock which I used and added some new.
This rock along with some new rock was added to the new 180 gal DT. New sand with handful of old sand from 90 gal was used on set up August 2018.
History: The 180 gal was well stocked with fish. The usual tangs (yellow, tomini, sailfin - all went in together. no issues) 1 fox face, a pair of osc. clowns, coral beauty, royal gramma, 3 anthias, 3 blue green chromis, 3 springeri damsels. 1 blood shrimp, hermit crabs and lots of various snails.
We were struggling to get detectable nutrients so more fish were added: 1 flasher wrasse and 1 long nosed hawk fish November 2019, 1 Bally Lubbocks wrasse and 2 bengai cardinal fish December 2019.
As for corals, a neon green Ausie cabbage leather, a special finger leather, small frag of green kenya tree, 5 mushrooms, 4 florida ricordia, 1 yummy, 1 2-headed duncan and a healthy elegance coral (the light of my life). I also had a small Ausie toadstool frag and 3 rock anemones.
I had been unsuccessful with 2 montipora frags and 1 small acropora. They were purchased in the spring of 2019. Although they had been growing and encrusting, they died that summer when alk spiked to 9 with 0 nutrients. I then changed salts from Red Sea Coral Pro to Aquavitro Salinity.
Now, here is the hard part. I was an absentee tank owner from January to end of March. The owner of the LFS where I buy all my fish, corals and supplies was hired to tend to my tank once a week. My daughter was in charge of making sure I had top up water for the ATO, make the water change water, and feed a little frozen food once a day. I also had an auto feeder that fed 3 times a day.
My fish store guy is very obsessive and would bring his own equipment to check and double check the salinity level of my water change water. He would adjust it as needed. The salt water was made and heated 1 or two days before his scheduled visit. A power head kept it circulating the whole time.
Parameters
January 27 to Feb 3 Alk Min 7.62 Average 7.83 Maximum 8.2
Calcium Min 413 Average 421 Maximum 432
Mag always around 1247
PH Min 7.78 Average 7.86 Maximum 7.96
Temp is always between 78F and 79 F
Red slim had been starting to appear in January. Nothing major. I had my skimmer skimming dry in an effort to increase nutrients. On January 14 my tank guy reported that phosphates were higher than he would like to see them, especially with some red slime. I can't remember the exact number but they were something like 0.2 with a Hanna Checker. Nitrates with salifert were 5. The Duncan coral was not as extended as it should be but everything else looked fine. He dialled in the skimmer to skim a little more wet.
Jan 28 visit: Phophate was 0.00 with hanna checker
nitrates were 2.5 ish
Duncan was more extended and everything else looked good.
Feb 11: Tank looks good
Cyano is less than last week
elegance and rock anemones fed
Phosphate 0.00
nitrate 2.5ish
Here is where is starts to fall apart.
Feb. 18 Alk Minimum 7.88 Average 8.12 Maximum 8.3
calcium minimum 372 Average 402
Magnesium 1247
Salt 0.026
Ph 7.81 Average 7.9 Maximum 8.01
Temp always between 78F and 79F
Phosphates 0.02 with Hanna checker
Nitrates 2.5
The usual skimmer clean and temp and salinity of water change water was checked and a 20% water change was done.
On the morning of February 19 my daughter messaged me that she thought I had a fish that wasn't doing well. It was a chrome that was hanging out in the corner of the aquarium swimming straight up and down.. She said all my fish were "acting weird and not swimming around like crazy when I usually feed them."
5 days later on Feb 24 she removed a dead cardinal fish and saw a dead anthias stuck in the rock work. We also noted that there were 5 other fish missing.
On February 25 my fish guy removed two rotting bodies of anthias from the work work. He did an ammonia test but as luck would have it my ammonia kit was expired. He felt he read a trace of ammonia with an expired salifert kit. We felt maybe a big turbo snail died and perhaps caused an ammonia spike and killed the anthias that were sensitive. And if my clean up crew were short on numbers that why the bodies didn't get eaten. This was just a guess. He did a water change with what water I had there.
On the morning of Feb 26 all the fish were either dead or struggling to breath on the bottom of the tank. My daughter removed the dead fish. I contacted my cousin who went up the net day with salt water from the LFS and removed more dead fish and about 20 big snails. He informed me there were dead bristle worms as well. Ammonia was now 0.5 with a new salifert test kit and nitrite was 0.05.
On February 27th my fish guy did a larger than usual water change with water from his store. At some point I had him unplug the household water softener. We were not sure how to bypass it.
On February 29 my sailfin tang and my yellow tang died. Foxface and 1 clown was left. Both these fish were not expected to live by my daughter as they were in bad shape.
On March 2 the fox face was recovering and ate nori and some frozen. The clown was starting to show interest in food.
March 3, Phosphate 0.02. Ammonia 0.20 before water change with water from LFS
Both fish continued to recover and were eating well over the next week.
On March 10 a water change was done with water made from my house and my aquavitro salinity salt.
The next morning my fox face and clown fish were both dead and dead bristle worms were swirling in the current.
We have since found how to bypass the water softener.
Over the course of those two weeks my parameters did not stray far from what I stated above. Believe me I checked my apex constantly during the day. And watched this all take place from a webcam while feeling totally helpless and frustrated.
I found out that at the end of December my husband had bought the wrong salt for the water softener. I emailed the company and was told that they use a bit of surfactant in their salt that should get flushed out of the water softener when it regenerates. My guess, and this is just a guess, is that it somehow found its way into my water and killed the entire clean up crew and sensitive fish first which lead to an ammonia spike which complicated things further. And each water change after that finished off the already sick fish. Again I have no proof.
I arrived home just before the end of March. I have removed all the dead things I can find in my tank and have moved rock work around to do so. I have vacuumed my sand and moved rock to get behind it. I have changed out 200 gallons of water with Instant Ocean, because nothing has ruled out the salinity salt at this point. I filled a small 5 gal aquarium with water made with my well water through RODI with instant ocean. I put in a couple of test snails and they lived for 2 day, after which I put them in my DT. They died.
What is strange is that my leathers have done wonderfully through all this and have even grown. I have also managed to salve two small pieces of Florida Ricordia.
Sooooooo my question is do I tear this tank down completely and throw away all the rock, drain it and start over again. I have two years of being patient waiting for this tank to mature. Or do I try siphoning out all the sand and doing more water changes and using sacrificial snails as my guide?
Oh ya, a water sample was sent shortly after the fish started dying to MarinLabs for ICP testing. The only pollutant that was noted was Al at 0.0123 mg/l. All other parameters were within range.
I have accepted the loss of life and the loss of $$. But what I am struggling with is where to go from here.
WHAT WOULD YOU ALL DO??
