removed all my fish, now what?

Victoria M · May 23, 2017

I removed all my fish with the intent to bleach everything. Now I am afraid to do it. Heres s what is happening...
Neomaris was ruining my tank. 10 year old mostly softy tank. 180 gallon. Three weeks ago everything started going haywire. toadstool closed up and started shedding mucous daily, BTA closed up, tuxedo urchin died, yellow watchman goby died, yellow tailed damsel got popeye. I did some large water changes, and the sliming got worse. I was convinced my newer water change system was not well cleaned and contaminating my tank so cleaned it all up. Then I thought the sliming soft corals kinda look coated in dinos. Maybe that is the issue. Then realised most of my snails are on the sand closed up. And found 2 of my brittle stars 60% gone, can not find the others. Dinos fit the bill? And In the last few months I realised my RO membrane died prematurely, while at the same time did some frag trades for the first time.
Either way nothing has been able to stop this neomaris from slowly taking over in the tank. I felt bleaching was my only choice?

Smo · May 23, 2017

Bleaching sounds a bit drastic without knowing more about what is going on. Is the RODI system back in order? Anything unusual in your water parameters. Could something have died and added toxicity to the water? I would take it slow and work to reestablish some stability.

Victoria M · May 23, 2017

Thank you for the reply. The bleach plan was to kill the neomaris...

Victoria M · May 23, 2017

And the the plan was just moved up to today due to all the weird stuff happening. I was not very clear sorry.

Smo · May 23, 2017

Have you tried increasing Mg and reducing Ca?

Victoria M · May 23, 2017

no. But last summer, when I stopped using kalk in my ato the neo died off to a few sprigs. it went crazy when I started doing regular water changes again.

Smo · May 23, 2017

I believe it feeds off calcium, light and is not normally easy to grow. Also would not explain all the issues you appear to be having. Are you sure something else isn't going on?

brett_schn · May 23, 2017

Diatoms live off silica I know which u could have bc ur ro membrane died

Victoria M · May 23, 2017

I am pretty sure the latest issues were separate from the neo.

Victoria M · May 23, 2017

I think you are right.

Smo said:
I believe it feeds off calcium, light and is not normally easy to grow. Also would not explain all the issues you appear to be having. Are you sure something else isn't going on?

Victoria M · May 24, 2017

Smo said:
Have you tried increasing Mg and reducing Ca?

I have not had to supplement much at all using Salinity salt, especially while using kalk. I am switching to reef crystals for my next water change. Already planned this. I just thought "why am I spending so much on salt when the tank is just crap anyway!!!!" but your post made me realise switching to lower calcium salt may be a good idea.
I have never chased numbers. A consistent small range has been my goal. my last test I recorded was mg 1400, ca 500 salinity was 1.028. All done at a great salt water store, Salty Critter, and closely matched my tests. All of my tests show a trend towards the high end since switching to Salinity over a year ago. The neo problems predates salt changes. I have emailed with WWM Bob Fenner, he says the same thing you have said. That neo prefers reef quality water.
As I said before, the neo died back to a few sprigs when I stopped using Kalk in my ATO. Then over the winter it went crazy. I added an AI hydra in January, and started doing biweekly water changes and the neo grew all over a rock, not visible from the front of the tank. I got up on a step stool to pull a few sprigs I saw growing and found a huge growth of them.
I dosed my tank with peroxide instead of bleach. All of my BTAs are coming out, all the sliming corals showed no slim yesterday and and the toad stool has has also stopped sliming. The hammer has extended it s polyps too. The neo of course shows no change but I did not expect it too.

Smo · May 24, 2017

Sounds encouraging. Need to be patient and take incremental steps.

Victoria M · May 24, 2017

thank you for taking the time to help me. I do appreciate it.

Victoria M · Feb 6, 2019

NY_Caveman said:
Excellent write up @atoll !

Agree with this. I also had my first H. Magnifica in the early nineties. It was only a 55 gallon standard aquarium. The anemone was placed pretty low in the tank under a 250 W Metal Halide bulb. It stayed there and was quite happy. A couple years later it went on the move. I was overdue on replacing my bulb and as soon as I did, he stayed put right under, but higher up in the rock work, for a couple of more years (until I had to break the tank down).

Rarely fed it, but my Clarkiis would jam food in its mouth when it was too big for them. One of my favorite marine critters ever.

I wonder how they do with LED. and my tank is deep.