I'm scared of New Tank Syndrome

[Mark Waltermire]

I have set up my 72 gallon bowfront reef tank over the course of the last few months. The tank is about 4 months old now and I've had coral in it for 2 months now. I know though that some people are saying how you should not try to keep acropora in a tank that is less than 1 year old because it all seems to die off.

I bought the tank used with sand, lights, sump, heater, stand, and return pump. I filled the tank up 2 inches in the beginning with RODI water to kill off any bristle worms as I don't like the look of them and didn't want to mess around with them on this tank.I started off my tank with 40 pounds of live rock and 45 pounds of BRS reef saver rock. I soaked the BRS rock in water with Lanthanum (III) Chloride for a week until I measured the water and got 0.00ppm phosphate on my hanna checker. I then started off the tank cycling with a dead firefish, and then added 2 black and white clownfish a week and half later. Everything was going good and after about 3 weeks later I added a yellow clown goby. Over the course of this time I added a skimz sk181, carbon, GFO, a couple of t5 lights to supplement the current LED's that were on there, an Apex, neptune DOS, and some Chaeto.

Then at the beginning of November was when everything changed. I bought a friend of a friends 120 gallon reef tank as well as his 40 gallon breeder with a couple of corals in it too. The 120 had 2 water changed in the 8 months before I bought it and both of them were once I showed interest in purchasing the tank. I tried to set up the 40 gallon tank to house all of the coral so that I could acclimate the corals to my "pristine" water before shoving them into the tank. I'll attach a picture of all of the buckets of coral that were in my bedroom when I tried to do this and needless to say it was too much coral for a 40 gallon tank so I put what was left over into my 72. I then did large water changes from my tank to the 40 for about 3 weeks and added some more of the corals into my 72. In the process of this most of the corals were already attached to live rock so I was forced to revamp my aquascape in order to accommodate. My clownfish really liked the cave of BRS rock on the right of my tank so I removed a lot of the live rock that was in there and replaced it with the coral covered rock, which wasn't ideal but needed to be done. With the tank came a couple of eels that I traded into my LFS as well as one melanurus wrasse that I added to my 72. I have low Ph in my tank so I also added a CO2 scrubber to the tank and when I purchased the tank I added his mag 12 onto my 72 as well as his DIY LED/T5 hybrid lighting. This results in about 250ish par at the top of my tank and 75-80par at the sand bed running 2 Blue+, 1 Coral+, and 1 Purple+.

Now onto the good part. So here I am at the end of December dosing 60ml and 45ml of BRS soda ash and calcium chloride, respectively in order to maintain good alk and calc. I'm using Fritz Reef Pro Mix and using a BRS 7 stage RODI pump with booster pump as I'm on a well. My tanks parameters are as follows:
Temp - 76ºF (swings about .3ºF during the day)
Salinity - 1.025
Ph - 8.05 during the day and 7.90 at night (might be a bad ph probe as I have a CO2 scrubber)
Ammonia - 0.00
Nitrite - 0.00
Nitrate - 0.00 (don't know why this stays so low [tested with salifert and API])
Phosphate - 0.00-0.03 (I haven't replaced the GFO or carbon since I added the corals)
Alkalinity - 9-9.5 (still playing with dosing)
Calcium - 480ppm
Magnesium - 1500ppm (tested with NYOS and Red Sea)
Potassium - 380ppm
Iodine - 0.06
Iron - 0.00 (funny considering we're on a well, but ours is a deep water well) I'm going to begin dosing iron most likely soon to help raise that number.
Strontium - don't know but am looking at getting a test kit

Since I added the initial batch of corals that wouldn't fit into the 40 gallon tank I've transferred over most species of coral so that if it's in the 40 then it's also in the 72. The 72 does have a few things that the 40 doesn't but they just weren't happy in the 40.

I have not lost any coral yet and have only hurt a chalice in the whole move, but it's recovering slowly. I did add a purple tang in mid November because I was able to get him for $120 and he'd been in his own tank at the fish store for a month so I knew that he wasn't going to die on me right away from disease. I added a goniopora and trachyphyllia right before christmas from the LFS and then a frag of pink Acropora Millepora 2 days ago. Some of the SPS does appear to be growing but since nothing is a small frag except the mille I just added I can't really tell much growth. Obviously something is consuming the calcium and alkalinity that I've been adding though.

Now onto my question is there anything that pops out that I've done wrong during this tank build that I should be scared about as I don't want to cause new tank syndrome to my corals? I've had tanks for about 8 years now, but never have had corals live (even kenya trees), but I didn't know what I was doing. I am only 18 years old though and am open to learning all sorts of new information from people who know what they are talking about. And no my parents didn't pay for anything except a clownfish, clown goby, and some DI resin. My BRS was also a birthday present, but I've payed for everything else using money that I've earned.

Here are some pictures as things came along.

 

[Mark Waltermire]

I should also add that I added an MP40QD for flow. When I initially set up the tank it did have some Dino’s, but they went away after a few weeks. I also did go through a little bryopsis battle at the beginning of December, but caught it early enough that adding more snails and some crabs was able to get it back under control so that it looks like it does now.

 

[Jason mack]

It sounds to me like your on the right track ..did you add any bacteria .. dr Tim’s or so .. I might have missed that .. other than that I’d say if your this far already your probably past the worst of what might have been NTS .. maybe get your nitrates up a tad !

 

[jda]

When you are growing coralline like crazy on the glass and new "spots" appear all the time, then you pretty well set to keep the the harder SPS. It is not impossible before this, or anything, but definitely much harder.

If I was to start a new tank right now with established live rock and a cup-full of sand from my current display, this would be about 6 weeks. If I started with a sterile tank with dry/dead rock, then it could be up to two years. This all just depends on the situation.

FWIW - the mille in the second individual photo looks like it has some STN from the bottom. If this is not just poster-error looking at a photo, then this is a pretty common symptom of a new tank. That Millepora is many times more difficult to keep in a new tank that everything else that you posted.

 

[Mark Waltermire]

It sounds to me like your on the right track ..did you add any bacteria .. dr Tim’s or so .. I might have missed that .. other than that I’d say if your this far already your probably past the worst of what might have been NTS .. maybe get your nitrates up a tad !

I did not add any bacteria as I bought the Red Sea kit, but by the time it came I was already experiencing dino's and my tank had progressed to the point where the red sea directions told me to add a CUC. This is why I never actually went ahead and added the bacteria.

When you are growing coralline like crazy on the glass and new "spots" appear all the time, then you pretty well set to keep the the harder SPS. It is not impossible before this, or anything, but definitely much harder.

FWIW - the mille in the second individual photo looks like it has some STN from the bottom. If this is not just poster-error looking at a photo, then this is a pretty common symptom of a new tank. That Millepora is many times more difficult to keep in a new tank that everything else that you posted.

I have never been able to grow coralline so I guess I will just have to wait and see. The person who had the tank before me told me when I bought it that it was the only one of his 3 that just would not grow coralline so we will have to wait and see what happens.

I don't think that's STN on the bottom. The frag is 2 days old off the mother colony and I watched the LFS cut the frag for me. I was then the one to glue it onto that rock and I used superglue with accelerator and I think I might have burned the bottom a little bit because I know that superglue drying is an exothermic reaction. It looked white on the bottom 3-4 rows of polyps since about 12 hours after adding frag. Since then in the past 36 hours it has not spread any further. I hope it is not STN, but will not be too frustrated if it does end up now making it since I only paid $10 for it. The guy working at the LFS said that his piece of that mille is actually growing green on the new growth so it might be a rainbow mille, but I am still prepared for it to not make it.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

What’s the new tank syndrome you are afraid of?

 

[Dana Riddle]

Every tank is going to mature in a different manner. I have started dozens of tanks using oceanic live rock, and a protein skimmer and Caulerpa/Chaeto for nutrient export. Corals were added as soon as the algae exhibited some growth. Must have been doing something right as the Porites corals grew and Pocillopora damicornis spawned. As luck would have it, the new lab's tank continues to have issues with diatoms (started with dead rock and no algae) although only Acropora specimens and a Blastomussa are showing negative allelopathic symptoms due to the diatoms.

 

[Mark Waltermire]

What’s the new tank syndrome you are afraid of?

I would recommend taking a read from this article written by mike from reef builders https://reefbuilders.com/2017/07/08/revisiting-my-elos-tank-after-18-months/

There is a video out there on youtube where he talked about all of this, but I don't know the name of it.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I would recommend taking a read from this article written by mike from reef builders https://reefbuilders.com/2017/07/08/revisiting-my-elos-tank-after-18-months/

There is a video out there on youtube where he talked about all of this, but I don't know the name of it.

You miss my point. What do you consider new tank syndrome.

And why would it be a syndrome if all tanks at some point are new.
To me , it’s just a new tank.
Childhood is not a syndrome.

 

[jda]

I think that you miss his point. A new tank failing to establish and not be a new tank anymore, like the one that Mike Paletta and Dr. Joshi describe, certainly can be a syndrome.

A child that never grows up is a syndrome.

 

[Mark Waltermire]

You miss my point. What do you consider new tank syndrome.

And why would it be a syndrome if all tanks at some point are new.
To me , it’s just a new tank.
Childhood is not a syndrome.

I don't necessarily agree in calling it a syndrome, but that is how the saying goes as I've heard it referred to. I would NTS as the inability to keep SPS corals for at least 6-12 months after setting up the test, especially when starting with a majority of rock that is more than 50% dry. I was also looking for any suggestions from experienced reefers on anything that they can see wrong with my setup that I should try and correct.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I don't necessarily agree in calling it a syndrome, but that is how the saying goes as I've heard it referred to. I would NTS as the inability to keep SPS corals for at least 6-12 months after setting up the test, especially when starting with a majority of rock that is more than 50% dry. I was also looking for any suggestions from experienced reefers on anything that they can see wrong with my setup that I should try and correct.

Ok , cool.
So what Mike is kinda talking about is somthing every one goes through , actually in many hobbies and endeavors. He writes about that a lot.
But IMO , the bottom line, no matter what you know , is to go with your gut. All your brains and all your passions meet there. So, go with it. Over time , it evoles and yea, we make different choices.
But , one you’ve done all you can do , you live with it (the experiment) and see how it does. For lots of Folks this is more about fear, than the science. Thus the question, what does it mean to you.
But the experiment has a distinct personality and set of traits. No matter what you do , no tank is the same. Each matures at its own rate and can be nurtured into doing what we’d like to see, but deciding how much of having a hand in it or just trusting that it will hapen is the root of most folks fear.
Fwiw, I’ve only seen a few that boggle the mind in my few years on R2r. So it’s rare for nature not win out.

My observations of your set up, is the speed at witch it was done. I’d use caution there.
I actually go quite fast in some actions , but that’s surgery(and tank transfer sometimes), and I know it’s dangerous to do. Lol.
So Ie would let it settle and do what it’s going to do.
I’d also embrace the bugs. They cycle through the tank to ime. All kinds of cool stuff that comes and goes and never comes back that some folks would freak out about (my hydroid and hydrozoan collection ), part of the life of the reef is what the old schoolers would say. I started my current big tank with two handfuls if bristle worms , and now I can’t find one.

Beware of the HITS syndrome , and and rember corals eat poop.

A child that never grows up is a syndrome.

Some cultures could call that the path to bodhisattva

 

[Mark Waltermire]

My observations of your set up, is the speed at witch it was done. I’d use caution there.
I actually go quite fast in some actions , but that’s surgery(and tank transfer sometimes), and I know it’s dangerous to do. Lol.
So Ie would let it settle and do what it’s going to do.
I’d also embrace the bugs. They cycle through the tank to ime. All kinds of cool stuff that comes and goes and never comes back that some folks would freak out about (my hydroid and hydrozoan collection ), part of the life of the reef is what the old schoolers would say. I started my current big tank with two handfuls if bristle worms , and now I can’t find one.

Beware of the HITS syndrome , and and rember corals eat poop.

I do agree that the speed I set everything up was definitely rather quick, but when I was doing everything it felt like there were multiple weeks between every chance, especially when it came to adding fish. The only time I become really worried was when I added the purple tang because I knew a lot of change had gone on, but I could not pass on that good deal for him.