Ok, hear goes. Buckle in, it’s a long one.
I started my 1st marine aquarium circa 1982. I’ve been reefing since 1992, successful mixed reef of the day. In and out of the hobby over the decades, but always keeping up with current trends. Current ReefSquad member… I’d consider myself a long term, successful reefer. Heck, I was successfully breeding and raising Erectus and Kuda seahorses in the mid 90’s. Not a newby.
Started a 140g system 3 years ago. Never in my life have I experienced a system as problematic as this one. Current specs: 60x30x18” tank. 2x Kessel AP700 lights. 55g sump, ½ full of healthy Chaetomorpha under a Zetlight E200s. Vertex 180i skimmer. 8x flow through sump. 4x 1900GPH Rossmont Mover wave pumps on waver... 80lbs of Marco Rock, 3 years old, 2x Marinepure Bricks. BRS 2 stage reactor, currently idle.
I can’t keep SPS or LPS alive. None. Even plain old Monti cap just fades away. Clams, same thing, I’ve killed 5 now. Softies, polyps, leathers, zoanthinds, palythoa… they’re fine, but that’s all I can keep. Beautiful 5” ORA Squamosa, dying. 6” bubble coral, dying. 5” Elegance, died a few weeks ago. Buddy of mine keeps giving me purple and orange Montipora Cap frags, growing like a weed in his reef, I keep killing them. Acropora, stylophora, monti digi, heck, I can’t grow pest corals like Pocillipora. Just fade away.
I’ve done Triton tests, nothing out of the ordinary, Lithium a bit low (80ppm). Seneye shows par levels of 550 to 250, depending on depth and placement. Nitrates <25 (Red Sea) Phosphates ~0.1 (Hanna ULR) Ammonia 0 Calcium 420 (Nyos) Alk 7.5 DKH (Hanna) Phosphate 1320 (Nyos) Dosing 25ML / day BRS 2Part on Neptune DOS. Doing 40 gallon bi-weekly water changes with 0 TDS RO/DI and Reef Crystals, mixed to 1.026 (Refractometer). pH ranges 7.4 – 7.6 (Neptune probe) Temp 77.7 to 78.4. I’ve thrown out test kits, recalibrated probes, tested refractometer against known samples, etc… several times now.
Here’s the question: Empty the system, bleach the tank, buy new rock, and start over… or not.
I’m not a quitter. This tank WILL BE successful… no matter what it takes. If successful means a tank full of leathers and zoanthids, honestly, I’m willing to live with that, but there is SOMETHING WRONG… and I sure as heck wish I could figure it out.
Oh… I’ll be at Reef-a-paloosa this weekend… see a guy looks like a mean version of Santa Claus… that’ll be me. Love to talk to you about it in person.
Oh… Reel Reef Rock has a booth… bet they’d sell me some fresh rock
I started my 1st marine aquarium circa 1982. I’ve been reefing since 1992, successful mixed reef of the day. In and out of the hobby over the decades, but always keeping up with current trends. Current ReefSquad member… I’d consider myself a long term, successful reefer. Heck, I was successfully breeding and raising Erectus and Kuda seahorses in the mid 90’s. Not a newby.
Started a 140g system 3 years ago. Never in my life have I experienced a system as problematic as this one. Current specs: 60x30x18” tank. 2x Kessel AP700 lights. 55g sump, ½ full of healthy Chaetomorpha under a Zetlight E200s. Vertex 180i skimmer. 8x flow through sump. 4x 1900GPH Rossmont Mover wave pumps on waver... 80lbs of Marco Rock, 3 years old, 2x Marinepure Bricks. BRS 2 stage reactor, currently idle.
I can’t keep SPS or LPS alive. None. Even plain old Monti cap just fades away. Clams, same thing, I’ve killed 5 now. Softies, polyps, leathers, zoanthinds, palythoa… they’re fine, but that’s all I can keep. Beautiful 5” ORA Squamosa, dying. 6” bubble coral, dying. 5” Elegance, died a few weeks ago. Buddy of mine keeps giving me purple and orange Montipora Cap frags, growing like a weed in his reef, I keep killing them. Acropora, stylophora, monti digi, heck, I can’t grow pest corals like Pocillipora. Just fade away.
I’ve done Triton tests, nothing out of the ordinary, Lithium a bit low (80ppm). Seneye shows par levels of 550 to 250, depending on depth and placement. Nitrates <25 (Red Sea) Phosphates ~0.1 (Hanna ULR) Ammonia 0 Calcium 420 (Nyos) Alk 7.5 DKH (Hanna) Phosphate 1320 (Nyos) Dosing 25ML / day BRS 2Part on Neptune DOS. Doing 40 gallon bi-weekly water changes with 0 TDS RO/DI and Reef Crystals, mixed to 1.026 (Refractometer). pH ranges 7.4 – 7.6 (Neptune probe) Temp 77.7 to 78.4. I’ve thrown out test kits, recalibrated probes, tested refractometer against known samples, etc… several times now.
Here’s the question: Empty the system, bleach the tank, buy new rock, and start over… or not.
I’m not a quitter. This tank WILL BE successful… no matter what it takes. If successful means a tank full of leathers and zoanthids, honestly, I’m willing to live with that, but there is SOMETHING WRONG… and I sure as heck wish I could figure it out.
Oh… I’ll be at Reef-a-paloosa this weekend… see a guy looks like a mean version of Santa Claus… that’ll be me. Love to talk to you about it in person.
Oh… Reel Reef Rock has a booth… bet they’d sell me some fresh rock
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