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My Tank Thread
My Aquarium Showcase
So, I’ve recently had one hectic 6 months in my nano. From Tin issues, to a crash to Cyano fighting back to Hair Algae to Spotless. Now, I wanted to show others who are under the same feeling I was ~6 months ago.
So, I hope this helps someone who needs it
So, first off in August, I began losing SPS but my LPS were thriving. I had no idea what was killing them and actually my trio of Clown Gobies got blamed first. This was what the tank looked like during the early stages of the first wipe out of SPS.
I proceeded to grab an ICP - Specifically the Reef Zlements ICP. This then showed me what the issue was and my tin levels were up at 98.10ug/l. This was found out too late and I lost all 3 Acropora colonies I had along with 1/3 of my SPS frags. However, I managed to bring it down to 39.02ug/l in 2 weeks with 2 40-50% water changes. This did result in a somewhat higher imbalance however over the next month everything began to improve after the Tin levels decreased. 3 weeks after, the tin levels were down at 34.56ug/l however I was only doing 40% water changes by this point so it was going down slower as it was leaching back into the water at the same rate. However, a week later and the tin levels dropped more and were down at 19.86ug/l.
One downside was that on November 7th, just as the tin levels had decreased a crash occurred. I believe the crash was linked to what caused the tin levels. Now, first I noticed my corals and inverts were declining heavily;
I believe from the start of the crash, I lost;
Halloween Urchin
Tuxedo Urchin
Orange Eye Chalice
Sunset Millepora Colony
Acropora Selago Colony
Feather Duster Fanworm
Gold polyped Digitata Colony
Stylo ‘Colony’
At first, it doesn’t seem like that much was lost. However I then did a 75% water change as I noticed my wrasses seemed to be going downhill at a rapid pace. This suggested an ammonia spike hence the huge water change. Unfortunately, I did lose a Pintail Fairy during the water change and thought I was going to lose my leopard as she was spinning as though she had ammonia affecting her (luckily she survived). And so after the water change my tank looked like this;
It essentially looked mostly dead and decaying. I unfortunately lost a few animals after the crash, my main ones were;
Green Astreopora (in the bottom corner of the tank)
Red Capricornis (can be seen in earlier photos)
Tropic Thunder Monti
Green Spoingodes Monti
Deresa Clam
So, then due to the lack of animals and bacteria to keep the Cyano in control it wound up taking over and within a few short days my tank was looking like this;
The way I combatted this was through adding many copepods (6 bags of 2-300 every week), and doing a multitude of big water changes. So, I was back to doing 50% water changes and attempting to remove as much cyano as possible. This was a tedious task but after 3.5 weeks, the tank went from that to this.
In this same week, I added a pair of Koumansetta rainfordi to try and remove most of the cyano. This then left me with a hair algae situation a week later. This wasn’t over night as you can see hair algae being grown under Cyano, however it did increase. In the photo below, Cyano is still on the sand but had mainly been removed from the rocks with some smaller patches. I also added many pods (12 bags that have around 2-300 Pods in every week for 2 weeks) which meant the Rainfordi Gobies wouldn’t starve out and competition would be lower with the Mandarin and Griessingeri Goby.
I then left the tank earlier this week for 3-4 days and nothing changed other than on the Sunday, I added a gorgeous Pintail Fairy Wrasse. I believe this may have caused a balance of bacteria and bioload (I find when Bioload is low, the Bacteria has an imbalance - much like when the Bioload is high there is an Imbalance of Bacterium). However, when I returned on Thursday this week my tank went from hair algae heaven to… Nothing!
So, this Saturday I added the tank’s first coral (and clam) in weeks. This was the most fulfilling gift I gave myself this year as it also means the tank is a big fuller.
So, I hope this shows that even if your tank is looking like it’s not worth it, don’t give up! I didn’t and it resulted in a fairly fast turn around. Keep persevering and whilst it’s hard you may find yourself looking at other’s tanks but that’s the best way to do it. You’ll get some great inspiration and then when the tank is doing well you can start filling the tank again!
So, I hope this helps someone who needs it
So, first off in August, I began losing SPS but my LPS were thriving. I had no idea what was killing them and actually my trio of Clown Gobies got blamed first. This was what the tank looked like during the early stages of the first wipe out of SPS.
I proceeded to grab an ICP - Specifically the Reef Zlements ICP. This then showed me what the issue was and my tin levels were up at 98.10ug/l. This was found out too late and I lost all 3 Acropora colonies I had along with 1/3 of my SPS frags. However, I managed to bring it down to 39.02ug/l in 2 weeks with 2 40-50% water changes. This did result in a somewhat higher imbalance however over the next month everything began to improve after the Tin levels decreased. 3 weeks after, the tin levels were down at 34.56ug/l however I was only doing 40% water changes by this point so it was going down slower as it was leaching back into the water at the same rate. However, a week later and the tin levels dropped more and were down at 19.86ug/l.
One downside was that on November 7th, just as the tin levels had decreased a crash occurred. I believe the crash was linked to what caused the tin levels. Now, first I noticed my corals and inverts were declining heavily;
I believe from the start of the crash, I lost;
Halloween Urchin
Tuxedo Urchin
Orange Eye Chalice
Sunset Millepora Colony
Acropora Selago Colony
Feather Duster Fanworm
Gold polyped Digitata Colony
Stylo ‘Colony’
At first, it doesn’t seem like that much was lost. However I then did a 75% water change as I noticed my wrasses seemed to be going downhill at a rapid pace. This suggested an ammonia spike hence the huge water change. Unfortunately, I did lose a Pintail Fairy during the water change and thought I was going to lose my leopard as she was spinning as though she had ammonia affecting her (luckily she survived). And so after the water change my tank looked like this;
It essentially looked mostly dead and decaying. I unfortunately lost a few animals after the crash, my main ones were;
Green Astreopora (in the bottom corner of the tank)
Red Capricornis (can be seen in earlier photos)
Tropic Thunder Monti
Green Spoingodes Monti
Deresa Clam
So, then due to the lack of animals and bacteria to keep the Cyano in control it wound up taking over and within a few short days my tank was looking like this;
The way I combatted this was through adding many copepods (6 bags of 2-300 every week), and doing a multitude of big water changes. So, I was back to doing 50% water changes and attempting to remove as much cyano as possible. This was a tedious task but after 3.5 weeks, the tank went from that to this.
In this same week, I added a pair of Koumansetta rainfordi to try and remove most of the cyano. This then left me with a hair algae situation a week later. This wasn’t over night as you can see hair algae being grown under Cyano, however it did increase. In the photo below, Cyano is still on the sand but had mainly been removed from the rocks with some smaller patches. I also added many pods (12 bags that have around 2-300 Pods in every week for 2 weeks) which meant the Rainfordi Gobies wouldn’t starve out and competition would be lower with the Mandarin and Griessingeri Goby.
I then left the tank earlier this week for 3-4 days and nothing changed other than on the Sunday, I added a gorgeous Pintail Fairy Wrasse. I believe this may have caused a balance of bacteria and bioload (I find when Bioload is low, the Bacteria has an imbalance - much like when the Bioload is high there is an Imbalance of Bacterium). However, when I returned on Thursday this week my tank went from hair algae heaven to… Nothing!
So, this Saturday I added the tank’s first coral (and clam) in weeks. This was the most fulfilling gift I gave myself this year as it also means the tank is a big fuller.
So, I hope this shows that even if your tank is looking like it’s not worth it, don’t give up! I didn’t and it resulted in a fairly fast turn around. Keep persevering and whilst it’s hard you may find yourself looking at other’s tanks but that’s the best way to do it. You’ll get some great inspiration and then when the tank is doing well you can start filling the tank again!
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