My First Softy Tank... which has turned into a mixed reef

[New&no clue]

Is there electricity in the aquarium? Sounds like everything is getting electrocuted

I had my coworker go over with a voltage meter and check the water for stray current (those might not be the right terms) and he said everything looked good. He also added a grounding prob.

 

[boacvh]

Sorry to hear all your troubles. Hopefully you find the cause soon.

 

[New&no clue]

I'm about a week in on my battle with Cyano/Dino, and I've definitely made some progress. Here is what I've done so far;

Last week I started searching on here and other sites for suggestions. I found multiple post on here with the same member answering a ton of questions. I decided to reach out to him directly and he we very helpful answered a lot of my questions and helped me come up with a plan for attack. Because of the multiple deaths from inverts and the goby loss, he suggested doing several small water changes over the next two weeks. He also said that Cyanobacteria and Dino are usually found together. This led me to researching Dino and I found another great article about battling them both as well.

Algae, Cyanobacteria: Red/Brown/Black & Dinoflagellates

Welcome to AquaCorals! The largest Tank Raised Soft Coral Aquaculture facility in the US! Over 100 Soft Coral species are grown on "Real Rock" here

www.aquacorals.com

I decided to combine the help for the member on here as well as the information in the article to create a plan.

On Thursday night I turned the lights off in my tank and planned to do a three day black out. Each day I would siphon the rocks and sand to get out any cyano/dino mats that had formed and do about a 10% water change each time. While doing this I also tested Phosphates and Nitrates each day to make sure they were not dropping to low as I didn't want to fuel the Dino.

Day one of blackout I still had a ton of mats that came back and covered the sand and rocks, day two however there was a lot less, only a couple spots that I siphoned again, and by day three there was nothing left. After day three I turned the lights back on and went to doing water changes every couple of days and siphon the top layer of sand each time. Here are some before and after pictures.

I still have corals that are struggling. My Zoas while doing much better have a large spot in the middle where they seemed to have melted away. My Green Frill Mushrooms have deflated a bunch and still seem upset, although better than they were. I lost one of the SPS on the floating rock and the other is not looking good. The hammers still haven't fully opened. BUT.... the xenias are doing amazing.

 

[count krunk]

this really stumps me. IDK what is going on with your tank. Some of the rock is still very clean looking, so perhaps it is still maturing. IDK if we have really "figured out" dry rock starts.

Your after pictures look better but the befores I wouldn't even consider an issue. Are you close to ATL or ORL? I would love to take some of that xenia off of your hands! I want to get some established in my fuge.

 

[New&no clue]

this really stumps me. IDK what is going on with your tank. Some of the rock is still very clean looking, so perhaps it is still maturing. IDK if we have really "figured out" dry rock starts.

Your after pictures look better but the befores I wouldn't even consider an issue. Are you close to ATL or ORL? I would love to take some of that xenia off of your hands! I want to get some established in my fuge.

The tank is almost a year old (in August) the white floating rock I just added in, which is why it’s so clean. I agree looking at the pictures it doesn’t look bad at all. I didn’t really think it was an issue until things started to die. I ordered an ICP test so maybe that will show something, because right now I’m still kinda lost on the whole thing.

 

[New&no clue]

I really thought I had turned the corner and things were getting better, but then I came home to my urchin dropping all his spines. I’ve heard they don’t recover from this.

I think I had a salinity spike and drop, I was hopping nobody noticed this, but I think my urchin did.

 

[Ziggy10]

Nice looking tank!

 

[H3rm1tCr@b]

Urchins are finicky sometimes, I’ve lost a couple myself.

 

[New&no clue]

Nice looking tank!

Thank you, I seem to be hitting a rough patch at the moment but hopefully it comes back around with time and patience.

 

[New&no clue]

Urchins are finicky sometimes, I’ve lost a couple myself.

I’m hopping it’s just the salinity swing.

 

[New&no clue]

The urchin did pass... and then the bristle worms came out in droves ;Vomit.

I know people say they are good cuc members, but no thank you I have never been a fan. However, I treat them like spiders... I'm going to go into a long story now that has nothing to do with fish tanks so if you want to skip to the next paragraph that's fine, you wont miss anything critical. When I was in college my first apartment was a small studio. There was only 1 window. I couldn't afford an AC unit so the only way to get it to somewhat cool down was to open the window on one side and the door to outside to create a cross breeze. Well the door didn't have a screen so bugs would come in. One day a GIANT spider had set up a web right inside the door, I named him Frank. I had a talk with Frank and said listen I understand spiders are good and eat yucky bugs that we don't like, however, you gross me out. So my deal is, if you stay in your web and eat the yucky bugs who come in I will leave you alone. If you come off that web I will hunt you down. Frank an I co-existed just fine all through the summer and early fall. Until one day Frank was on the wall over my bed... I'm sure plotting to eat me... so I murdered Frank, it was self defense ;Vamp.

I view bristle worms as the same thing. You do good things for the tank, but you gross me out. As long as I don't see you and you don't bother anyone I will leave you be, if I see you though I will hunt you down. So last night I went worm hunting. Obviously there are a ton more still in there, the big ones are too smart and fast to be caught, but the younger reckless ones were easy pray.

 

[New&no clue]

When things started dying I had multiple people suggest stray voltage in the tank. I had a co-work come check it out and add a grounding probe. Well he's not a saltwater guy and he said there was voltage but it didn't seem like much. So I was nervous maybe he missed something and bought my own voltage meter to check. My tank does have some voltage, but it seems it normal for tanks to have some running through it because of all the electrical stuff in the tank. As I was plugging and unplugging equipment I realized what a mess it was. I also don't have anything plugged into a GFCI plug. So I decided to redo all my electrical stuff, get some GFCI plugs and possible some sort of board to hold everything. I wasn't going to replace the outlet as it's behind the tank, but I did buy a couple of these on Amazon.



Next I was going to drill into my stand to mount my power strips but that made me a little nervous so instead I decided to buy some peg board. I found some pink peg board and bought that

12in x 16in Pink Metal Pegboard Tile Fun Size Tool Board Panel

Buy Pink Small Metal Pegboard Tiles Here. Free Shipping Easy to Install Small Fun Size Steel Peg Board Panel. Wall Control 12 x 16 Inch Powder Coated Pink Tool Board Panel for Wall Mounted Storage 30-P-1216PI Lifetime Warranty. Made in USA. Heavy Duty Strength. High Quality. Mounting Hardware...

www.wallcontrol.com

I then split everything in the water in half and ran two GFCI power strips. Each power strip had a heater, and two power heads on it. That way if one trips the other will still be able to support the tank. Lastly I put the lights on a third non GFCI power strip.

It's a lot more organzied and I now know where everything is plugged into, which should make water changes a little easier.

 

[adrianr514]

Look into a grounding probe. Also if you run a heater look into a Titanium heater because that will work as a grounding probe.

 

[New&no clue]

Look into a grounding probe. Also if you run a heater look into a Titanium heater because that will work as a grounding probe.

Really? That’s pretty awesome, it makes sense thought. I did add one that I found on Amazon, but good to know that I could save a plug in the next tank with a titanium heater.

 

[Seffner]

I've been reading through a lot of build threads (even before I joined R2R, and I appreciate the explanations you provide with the posts. I just read through most of this thread (but to be honest, at page 15 I skipped ahead to the last page to see how you were doing and had to go back to see when your algae breakout happened... so much for skipping to the end).

I hope when I start my next move from a FOWLR to a reef tank (I like softies also, that's why I clicked on your thread) my tank is as successful as yours. I can tell you've done your research.

 

[jk_s124]

Just read through your thread. Sorry about your losses and recent problems. I can relate to that feeling of thinking you finally have things running smoothly, and the next day something happens that reminds you that anything at any time can happen. You do have a beautiful tank and will be following along to see more of it!

 

[New&no clue]

Just read through your thread.

I just read through most of this thread

WOW! Thanks for reading through it. I usually read through peoples builds when I'm at work and my boss wants me to do something, I really like to procrastinate. It's funny when I was looking up some of these issues I saw a lot of people hitting a wall around 9 months in. I wonder if it's the reefing God's testing our patients and commitment to the tanks? I'm hoping slow and steady brings it all back in line. I think I caught it before it became a major, issue. Hopefully I can get it back on the right track.

While I'm working on maintaining I would like to take the time to focus on some of my corals that haven't grown much. For example I have this photosynthetic gorgonian that was one of my first corals added and it has grown very little. It looks happy, but just hasn't done much. Below are pictures of the first day on the frag rack and a couple weeks ago.

 

[mmw64]

Hope everything turns around quickly! What kind of a return pump are you using? I have the Red Sea 350 and am using an Eheim 5000. I sometimes wonder if It gives enough flow. Read your whole story. Keep up the good work!

 

[New&no clue]

Hope everything turns around quickly! What kind of a return pump are you using? I have the Red Sea 350 and am using an Eheim 5000. I sometimes wonder if It gives enough flow. Read your whole story. Keep up the good work!

I have a Current USA 6009 which is 1050GPH, however, when I was setting up the tank I was reading that because the stock plumbing is 3/4" and not 1 or 1 1/2" that the flow is really reduced. And while you may have a pump that is rated for higher, because of the smaller piping the friction in the pipe would decreased it a lot. So I added two additional power heads into the tank so I have a total of 4. Now, I'm not a plumber so I could be remember that wrong, but I'm pretty sure that's what people were saying.

 

[DiefsReef]

I think the Tank looks great and really like the re-wire! I think its time to change your name