o2manyfish - 750g Display Tank, 1500g System with Outdoor Frag Tanks

[Dreamscapesaquatics]

Gotta hand it to ya. Not many people out there than can tell a story like that and have the pictures to back it up. Absolutely amazing. Your an inspiration. Especially today's instant gratification crowd. Thanks for sharing your journey.

 

[ColoredRock]

Gotta hand it to ya. Not many people out there than can tell a story like that and have the pictures to back it up. Absolutely amazing. Your an inspiration. Especially today's instant gratification crowd. Thanks for sharing your journey.

Dave is an amazing individual.. does not sell corals.. Frags and helps out people new to the hobby.. Us in Southern California need to step up when his wife and him jump back in.

 

[Acropora52]

I'm so devastated by your loss and impressed by your conviction and willingness to start anew. I had just found your thread recently after following along on reefcentral years ago. If you were closer I'd be happy to donate some corals to get you back and going. However, knowing how much you've done for your community I know that your local reef keepers will have you back up. Again, so sorry for the losses, particularly the fish.

 

[GBRsouth]

So sorry to hear this. You are an inspiration and I know you will have an amazing system again soon. Hoping everyone near you pitches in to help!

 

[reef_ranch]

Dave!!!!! This is horrible! I’m glad you’re not giving up. And I’m glad I didn’t give you the large kung pao monti back yet. It’s here for you when your ready along with some acro colonies I have growing out. Let me know when you want them and I’ll drive by with them.

I lost a few anthias after a flatworm exit dose as well but it was a 1.5x overdose. Not an 80% dose. I wonder why it was so toxic? Do you think it dropped the oxygen content drastically or poisoned them?

 

[Daniel@R2R]

This is one of those horrible posts. This post is so bad it took me almost 3 weeks to make it. It's all gone! We had a 2 strike catastrophe and lost everything. On Mar 17th we treated the display tank with Salifert Flatwrom exit at 80% dose strength. I added a wooden airstone, turned on all the pumps, add 2lbs of carbon to the tank and thought I was safe to treat. But just 2 hrs after dosing the fish just started falling to the bottom of the tank. Lots and Lots and Lots of fish. Out of about 140 fish maybe only 15 survived. All the angels (Interruptus, Joculator, Pair of Goldflakes, Trio of Flameback, Pair of Golden, Pair of Venustus, Flame, Yellow Belly Regal), most of the tangs (9 yellows, 2 purples, Gem, Black, 1 Hippo, 3 Hippo's with no tails), all the anthias just gone. My wife and I were just devestated. So many fish just falling to the bottom of the tank. We caught as many of the bodies as we could out of the tank and sat to wait and see how things would pan out. This was on Thursday night. On Saturday sometime before dawn the 300gal outdoor sump blew apart at the back corner seam. The sump drained to 3" of water. Then at 5am the Topoff turned on to fill up the system before sunrise. With a 4000 gal a day top off system it didn't take long for it to try to fill the sump back up. But the more fresh water the topoff pumped in the more freshwater got pumped out of the sump and into the tanks - Diluting the salt in the whole system. By Saturday morning breakfast all the corals were bleached. By Saturday evening all the tissue was gone. Display tank, frag tanks, sump, anemone tank - everything but the chaetomorph dead.

Here is a youtube video showing the disaster.

[VIDEO]


The wife and I talked at length and the wife said I can't quit. So we ordered a new 300 gal outdoor sump - this one made of fiberglass - no more worries about splitting. And if you have followed my posts and videos from the past year you all know I hate the 36" deep 560g tall tank we put in as an emergency fix in Dec of 2020.

We are waiting on a quote for the new tank now - We already had quotes for the new tank to be made out of glass. But this experience with a 3 year old glass tank just reminded me of the risks involved with a glass tank. And I am going to stick to acrylic, as I have for the last 36 years.

My fellow SoCal reefers, I am going to need your help to restock the new tank and frag tanks. I'm not going to start collecting anything till we get the new sump in place. And at that point I will start collecting fish and corals. The sump should hopefully be here by the middle of May.

If you are breaking down a tank. If you have large colonies you are thinking of rehoming or getting rid of, if you can hold off till mid May I promise to give them a great home and also use them to share with the So Cal Reefing community in the future. The new tank is going to be big - so starting from frags is not going to work. If you break off a chunk of something cool, let me know. Willing to take as many donations as possible. But also willing to pay for chunks and colonies of coral. It doesn't need some fancy name, it doesn't have to have a high price tag, It just needs to be a pretty coral.


Dave B

Oh man, Dave, I'm so sorry. I'm in to help in any way I can.

 

[Reefbuds]

Your journey is absolutely incredible. Don't know how I missed this thread for so many years. So sorry for your loss, I cant imagine the pain. Good luck to you in the future, if anyone can come back stronger it's you.

 

[FishTruck]

There is no way you are giving up, and despite these legendary disasters, your successes are just as legendary. So, look on the bright sides.
1. finally - you can get the size tank you always wanted without the hassle of trying to keep everything alive - and take time with the aquascape to make it exactly what you always wanted.
2. flatworms are probably dead
3. you have lots of excellent equipment that did not get damaged, and apparently, a really cool spouse that seems to share an understanding of what makes life interesting - if not always easy
4. you can check off all those "if I had to start over... I would ( )" items
5. You have earned some serious rescue corals from the community. I'll avoid tossing in the trash my fast over-growing stuff (variations of monti-caps, styloporas, and birds nests), thus... can send you some fast growing mass to at least test the waters this summer. Shipping from Chicago - so wait for good weather.

Just.. dip everything for flatworms for God's Sake... and next time try a six line wrasse - LOL! (sorry, couldn't resist)

 

[JumboShrimp]

We all thank you for sharing your amazing story!

 

[o2manyfish]

New tank design has been approved and the tank is off to production. Anticipated arrival in July.

 

[ColoredRock]

what are you going to do for the stand.. 80/20 .. im back on the road but happy to help.

 

[reef_ranch]

Whaaaaaaat?? 10’x4’x30”? Monster tank Dave! This is exciting!

 

[NowGlazeIT]

New tank design has been approved and the tank is off to production. Anticipated arrival in July.

Your a legend

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Dave!!!!! This is horrible! I’m glad you’re not giving up. And I’m glad I didn’t give you the large kung pao monti back yet. It’s here for you when your ready along with some acro colonies I have growing out. Let me know when you want them and I’ll drive by with them.

I lost a few anthias after a flatworm exit dose as well but it was a 1.5x overdose. Not an 80% dose. I wonder why it was so toxic? Do you think it dropped the oxygen content drastically or poisoned them?

The amount of flatworms and toxins released from them on a tank that size was fatal. I read he used 2lbs of carbon. But salifert instructions state 1lb per 50 gallons

 

[Cary Hover]

New tank design has been approved and the tank is off to production. Anticipated arrival in July.

Nice! I went with two overflow boxes when they built my 450. That gave me 4 return tubes that I split into 8 right as they dump into the tank. Love the 36-inch height of mine but kind of hard-to-reach bottom. Can't imagine a 48" tank height and having to reach the bottom. Can't wait to see it set up.

 

[o2manyfish]

Nice! I went with two overflow boxes when they built my 450. That gave me 4 return tubes that I split into 8 right as they dump into the tank. Love the 36-inch height of mine but kind of hard-to-reach bottom. Can't imagine a 48" tank height and having to reach the bottom. Can't wait to see it set up.

Cary,

The 560g was 36t and I couldn't reach the middle of that tank with the height of the tank on the stand and the width of the perimeter bracing. The new tank is 48" from the front to the back and only 30" tall with a small 3" splash rail edge.

Dave B

 

[o2manyfish]

The amount of flatworms and toxins released from them on a tank that size was fatal. I read he used 2lbs of carbon. But salifert instructions state 1lb per 50 gallons

That is correct, the instructions do say 1lb per 50 gallons. With a 560g tank that's 11lbs of Carbon. That's almost 2/3's of a potato sack worth of carbon. No way to reasonably put 16 filtersocks worth of carbon into the display tank and get the water to flow through the carbon. I started with 2lbs of carbon and had another 20lbs of carbon sitting here to be able to change it out. But the massacre occurred in under 2hrs. No chance to change carbon or do a water change (which is recommended at 24 hrs). I'm not the only person to have this issue. Lots of people have used the product with success and some people have had similar experiences to mine. I thought I was doing what I could to mitigate the risks. And sadly I don't know what the issue was to prevent it happening again (for someone else).

 

[NowGlazeIT]

That is correct, the instructions do say 1lb per 50 gallons. With a 560g tank that's 11lbs of Carbon. That's almost 2/3's of a potato sack worth of carbon. No way to reasonably put 16 filtersocks worth of carbon into the display tank and get the water to flow through the carbon. I started with 2lbs of carbon and had another 20lbs of carbon sitting here to be able to change it out. But the massacre occurred in under 2hrs. No chance to change carbon or do a water change (which is recommended at 24 hrs). I'm not the only person to have this issue. Lots of people have used the product with success and some people have had similar experiences to mine. I thought I was doing what I could to mitigate the risks. And sadly I don't know what the issue was to prevent it happening again (for someone else).

Yea man I’ve been there. I let my flatworms get out of hand and my tank took a huge hit when they started to die off. I like you didn’t have enough reactors on hand for that amount of carbon but I was able to perform three 30% water changes in 36hrs saving me a lot of livestock but not everything made it.

 

[o2manyfish]

what are you going to do for the stand.. 80/20 .. im back on the road but happy to help.

Going to have a steel stand welded. Basically the stand will be a 8x3x32t rectangle with a 1' overhang on the front and sides of the stand. Would still love to do something super creative. This is not going in the center of the house which was the original plan, but we are putting it in the fish room - opposite wall the 400g was on.

220/221 Whatever it takes

Dave

 

[NowGlazeIT]

I live close enough to you to lay a hand but unfortunately I don’t have any colonies.