Firemanreefkeeper
Active Member
This might be a long winded post so please be patient. If all things are, or were, equal then why have most of my acros died?
First the back story. I had several acros, some high end, some basic that looked ok to me, that I had in a 75 gallon tank. They were by no means gigantic but some were softball to volleyball sized that were well established in that tank. The 75 gallon tank was just shy of 2 years and things were growing well. It was my first tank and I didn't plan things very well. I just threw some rocks in and had basic equipment to run it. Every time I wanted something new or extra I had to retool or reconfigure the cabinet, tank, rocks, ECT to fit it in. The cabinet was a mess with this, that and everything else crammed inside leaving me no room to maintain anything. That was problem one. Number two was my rock configuration left little room for placing new coral or room for it to grow. Everything looked crammed in and very crowded. It wasn't the look I was going for. The biggest problem was the pests I had in the tank. I had aiptasia, spirobid worms and vertimid snails everywhere. If there was a thread on here with a solution, trust me I tried it and nothing worked.
I decided to save my pennies for a new tank and carefully plan everything out so there would be no cramming, the rocks would look good and there would be room for growth, and there would be no pests. I started buying parts and pieces and building my new tank.
I had a tank that I used to observe new fish in. I didn't treat with any medicine or copper or anything like that, I used it to watch the fish for a few months before they went into the display. It was a 34 gallon frag tank. That tank had everything the 75 gallon tank did but sand, a skimmer, and a UV sterilizer. I decided to buy a t5 fixture and use it as a holding tank for my coral since it was established and ready to go. It was a good way to watch my frags to make sure they were pest free and have something to look at while I transitioned to a new tank.
I began fragging everything I had that I wanted to keep. It ranged from zoes to the acros. I left them in the original 75 gallon tank on racks until they healed up before I sent them to the frag tank. That was late December of 2018 into the early part of January 2019. Once the frags made the move I added dosers, a reef bright strip light and extra powerheads. The coral never missed a beat and continued on like nothing had happened after they were moved.
December 8th of 2018 I ordered Marco flat rock for my new 80 gallon tank and started it in a trashcan full of water in my garage. I did the redsea starter kit and threw in 2 dead shrimp. I followed the kit adding this or that when needed but mostly left it alone. While the rocks were cooking I was building the rest of the new tank and taking care of the original 75 and watching my frags in the 34 continue to grow well.
February 23rd of 2019 I placed the rocks from the trashcan into the 80 gallon brand new tank and filled it. I let it run empty until March 15th before I felt it was safe, based on testing, to capture my clowns from the 75 and add them to the new 80. Water quality was always good so I began moving a fish, that I could catch, every 3 to 4 weeks from the 75 to the new 80 until June 29th of 2019. I caught the last, hard to catch fish, then drained the 75 and sold it.
I kept the light from the 75 gallon tank and moved it to the frag tank since it was a better light. In August of 2019 I added a Zoe frag and an acan from the frag tank to the 80 to see how it would do. Nothing out of the ordinary was noted so next month I added 2 more zoes and another acan. They are still fine and growing slowly but still growing.
November 8th of 2019, the pump in the frag tank takes a dump on me. My plan was to wait a full year before adding the acros to my new tank but the pump died and we all know how fast things go south without filtration and flow. Sicce had just revamped their website, they lost my warranty registration, asked me to do this and that, blah, blah blah. That's a different issue for another thread. I decided to move everything out of the frag tank into the 80 while I worked on getting the parts to fix the pump. I figured it was close enough to a year that they should be fine. It leads me back to my question, if all things are equal then why are my acros now dead?
I'm going to give an equipment list, light schedule, flow, maintenance, anything I can think of to see if I'm missing something that maybe one of you sees and can help me out.
The frag tank had..... 34 gallons, measured 36 by 18 by 12, bare bottom, 15 lbs rubble rock, one bio brick in sump, a skims up22 sump, a sicce SDC 7.0 return pump, no skimmer, no UV, a tunze ATO, a kamoer doser for alk, 2 mp10s, both were on the bottom of the tank and pushed water along the front and back of the tank before they hit the opposite wall and were dispersed making flow indirect and random. Aquatic Life T5 LED hybrid 36inch fixture with 2 b+ and 2 coral+ bulbs 10 inches above the top of the tank turning on at 11am then off at 6pm. No LED lights, just the reef bright strip light, 8am to 8pm. 2 fish, a 6line and a bristle tooth tang, 15 hermits, 12 trocus snails. A single carbon reactor, one sock, no chaeto, 4 gallon water change every 3 days no exceptions. Alk was 8.2 to 8.5 thanks to the doser, calcium 440, magnesium 1330, salinity 35.5, no ammonia, no nitrite 2ppm nitrates, 10ppb phosphates, temp was always at 80. Sock was changed every 3 days with water change. Coral was on a frag rack that was a pvc frame 4 inches off the bottom.
The new 80 gallon tank..... 80 gallons, measures 48 by 24 by 16, starboard bottom but bare, about 65 lbs of Marco flat rock 10 to 12 inches off the bottom at the highest point, one bio brick in sump, trigger 34 sump, abyzz return, Eshopps 120 skimmer, pentair UV, tunze ATO, kamoer doser for alk and calcium but the calcium one is off as water changes meet the demand, 4 gyre pumps, 2 on the back wall near the sides that push water forward into the front wall where they deflect and create an indirect and random flow. The other 2 are on the sides at the top and pulse to create surface waves. In actuality, they do almost nothing up there, I own them so I use them. Aquatic Life T5 LED hybrid light 48 inch fixture with 2 b + and 2 coral + bulbs 12 inches above the top of the tank turning on at noon and off at 6pm, 2 kessil ap700 lights that are basically really expensive night lights as they run at 2% 8am to 8pm, then moonlight until midnight, fish, 2 tangs, 3 anthias, 2 clowns, 2 wrasse, 1 baslett, 45 hermits, 15 trocus snails. Carbon and GFO reactor but I only run the carbon, the GFO is empty, 2 filter socks, chaeto, socks change every 3 days, 8 gallon water change every 6 days no exceptions. Alk is 8.2 to 8.5 thanks to the doser. Calcium 420, magnesium 1330, salinity 35.5, no ammonia, no nitrite 2ppm nitrates, 4ppb phosphates. Temp is 79.0.
I have the luxury of owning a par meter with a group of friends. I parred out the original 75 and it was 80par at the bottom, 220 at the top. The frag tank was 200 on the rack where all my corals were, that includes the zoes and acans. The new 80 gallon tank is 225 on the top rocks and 120 to 150 at the bottom with the t5 only, which is why I say the kessil lights are just big night lights. If I run them they increase the par readings beyond 250 which is fine but with everything dying I wanted to rule out that as a variable.
The small differences are the gallons of water, the skimmer, the UV, the pumps creating flow, the size of the fixture, the starboard base, chaeto, and number of fish.
The zoes and acans are growing, happy, and healthy. The acros started losing color then skin from the tips all the way to the base. Some frags started after 2 weeks of being moved others are just barely hanging on but have almost suffered the same fate.
If anyone has any ideas on what is the reason for my acro deaths please let me know as I built this tank to be stick dominated and it's just dead. I'm ready to sell off everything and get out because I'm afraid to buy more acros and kill them.
First the back story. I had several acros, some high end, some basic that looked ok to me, that I had in a 75 gallon tank. They were by no means gigantic but some were softball to volleyball sized that were well established in that tank. The 75 gallon tank was just shy of 2 years and things were growing well. It was my first tank and I didn't plan things very well. I just threw some rocks in and had basic equipment to run it. Every time I wanted something new or extra I had to retool or reconfigure the cabinet, tank, rocks, ECT to fit it in. The cabinet was a mess with this, that and everything else crammed inside leaving me no room to maintain anything. That was problem one. Number two was my rock configuration left little room for placing new coral or room for it to grow. Everything looked crammed in and very crowded. It wasn't the look I was going for. The biggest problem was the pests I had in the tank. I had aiptasia, spirobid worms and vertimid snails everywhere. If there was a thread on here with a solution, trust me I tried it and nothing worked.
I decided to save my pennies for a new tank and carefully plan everything out so there would be no cramming, the rocks would look good and there would be room for growth, and there would be no pests. I started buying parts and pieces and building my new tank.
I had a tank that I used to observe new fish in. I didn't treat with any medicine or copper or anything like that, I used it to watch the fish for a few months before they went into the display. It was a 34 gallon frag tank. That tank had everything the 75 gallon tank did but sand, a skimmer, and a UV sterilizer. I decided to buy a t5 fixture and use it as a holding tank for my coral since it was established and ready to go. It was a good way to watch my frags to make sure they were pest free and have something to look at while I transitioned to a new tank.
I began fragging everything I had that I wanted to keep. It ranged from zoes to the acros. I left them in the original 75 gallon tank on racks until they healed up before I sent them to the frag tank. That was late December of 2018 into the early part of January 2019. Once the frags made the move I added dosers, a reef bright strip light and extra powerheads. The coral never missed a beat and continued on like nothing had happened after they were moved.
December 8th of 2018 I ordered Marco flat rock for my new 80 gallon tank and started it in a trashcan full of water in my garage. I did the redsea starter kit and threw in 2 dead shrimp. I followed the kit adding this or that when needed but mostly left it alone. While the rocks were cooking I was building the rest of the new tank and taking care of the original 75 and watching my frags in the 34 continue to grow well.
February 23rd of 2019 I placed the rocks from the trashcan into the 80 gallon brand new tank and filled it. I let it run empty until March 15th before I felt it was safe, based on testing, to capture my clowns from the 75 and add them to the new 80. Water quality was always good so I began moving a fish, that I could catch, every 3 to 4 weeks from the 75 to the new 80 until June 29th of 2019. I caught the last, hard to catch fish, then drained the 75 and sold it.
I kept the light from the 75 gallon tank and moved it to the frag tank since it was a better light. In August of 2019 I added a Zoe frag and an acan from the frag tank to the 80 to see how it would do. Nothing out of the ordinary was noted so next month I added 2 more zoes and another acan. They are still fine and growing slowly but still growing.
November 8th of 2019, the pump in the frag tank takes a dump on me. My plan was to wait a full year before adding the acros to my new tank but the pump died and we all know how fast things go south without filtration and flow. Sicce had just revamped their website, they lost my warranty registration, asked me to do this and that, blah, blah blah. That's a different issue for another thread. I decided to move everything out of the frag tank into the 80 while I worked on getting the parts to fix the pump. I figured it was close enough to a year that they should be fine. It leads me back to my question, if all things are equal then why are my acros now dead?
I'm going to give an equipment list, light schedule, flow, maintenance, anything I can think of to see if I'm missing something that maybe one of you sees and can help me out.
The frag tank had..... 34 gallons, measured 36 by 18 by 12, bare bottom, 15 lbs rubble rock, one bio brick in sump, a skims up22 sump, a sicce SDC 7.0 return pump, no skimmer, no UV, a tunze ATO, a kamoer doser for alk, 2 mp10s, both were on the bottom of the tank and pushed water along the front and back of the tank before they hit the opposite wall and were dispersed making flow indirect and random. Aquatic Life T5 LED hybrid 36inch fixture with 2 b+ and 2 coral+ bulbs 10 inches above the top of the tank turning on at 11am then off at 6pm. No LED lights, just the reef bright strip light, 8am to 8pm. 2 fish, a 6line and a bristle tooth tang, 15 hermits, 12 trocus snails. A single carbon reactor, one sock, no chaeto, 4 gallon water change every 3 days no exceptions. Alk was 8.2 to 8.5 thanks to the doser, calcium 440, magnesium 1330, salinity 35.5, no ammonia, no nitrite 2ppm nitrates, 10ppb phosphates, temp was always at 80. Sock was changed every 3 days with water change. Coral was on a frag rack that was a pvc frame 4 inches off the bottom.
The new 80 gallon tank..... 80 gallons, measures 48 by 24 by 16, starboard bottom but bare, about 65 lbs of Marco flat rock 10 to 12 inches off the bottom at the highest point, one bio brick in sump, trigger 34 sump, abyzz return, Eshopps 120 skimmer, pentair UV, tunze ATO, kamoer doser for alk and calcium but the calcium one is off as water changes meet the demand, 4 gyre pumps, 2 on the back wall near the sides that push water forward into the front wall where they deflect and create an indirect and random flow. The other 2 are on the sides at the top and pulse to create surface waves. In actuality, they do almost nothing up there, I own them so I use them. Aquatic Life T5 LED hybrid light 48 inch fixture with 2 b + and 2 coral + bulbs 12 inches above the top of the tank turning on at noon and off at 6pm, 2 kessil ap700 lights that are basically really expensive night lights as they run at 2% 8am to 8pm, then moonlight until midnight, fish, 2 tangs, 3 anthias, 2 clowns, 2 wrasse, 1 baslett, 45 hermits, 15 trocus snails. Carbon and GFO reactor but I only run the carbon, the GFO is empty, 2 filter socks, chaeto, socks change every 3 days, 8 gallon water change every 6 days no exceptions. Alk is 8.2 to 8.5 thanks to the doser. Calcium 420, magnesium 1330, salinity 35.5, no ammonia, no nitrite 2ppm nitrates, 4ppb phosphates. Temp is 79.0.
I have the luxury of owning a par meter with a group of friends. I parred out the original 75 and it was 80par at the bottom, 220 at the top. The frag tank was 200 on the rack where all my corals were, that includes the zoes and acans. The new 80 gallon tank is 225 on the top rocks and 120 to 150 at the bottom with the t5 only, which is why I say the kessil lights are just big night lights. If I run them they increase the par readings beyond 250 which is fine but with everything dying I wanted to rule out that as a variable.
The small differences are the gallons of water, the skimmer, the UV, the pumps creating flow, the size of the fixture, the starboard base, chaeto, and number of fish.
The zoes and acans are growing, happy, and healthy. The acros started losing color then skin from the tips all the way to the base. Some frags started after 2 weeks of being moved others are just barely hanging on but have almost suffered the same fate.
If anyone has any ideas on what is the reason for my acro deaths please let me know as I built this tank to be stick dominated and it's just dead. I'm ready to sell off everything and get out because I'm afraid to buy more acros and kill them.
