well I guess I learned my lesson.

[Jcon82]

Hi All,

I've been keeping freshwater tanks, high tech planted tanks and shrimp for over a decade. But my first reef tank has truly humbled me. I waited 4 months before adding my first corals. I didn't start with softies. I started adding LPS (chalice, acans, favia) and then SPS (montis, leptos) a month later. After a succession of Tidal garden and WWC sales I had a fully stocked mixed reef.

Well the reef tank gods decided to laugh at me and after 7 months of rock solid stability, obsessive water testing and conservative all for reef dosing, I believe I had some sort of a mini crash. My Alk became unstable and I could not keep it down. The corals were all growing like crazy and depleted all available nutrients before I could do anything about it. That's when tank took a nose dive.

Fish are fine aside from a wrasse that I haven't seen in a few weeks. Several snails died off and sent nitrate through the roof. Most of my corals are dead and sitting on a frag rack in the shade hoping to come back. I'm literally sick over this and the money lost.

Now I'm left with a few mushrooms, zoas and a leather that haven't opened in weeks. Pulsing xenia and GSP are struggling but I still see polyps. I have a Goni that oddly is hanging in there but has never extended, It was a mystery buy so it may not be that type.

I guess If I can give any advice to people just getting into this its to go slow. Your tank will be new and unpredictable for the first year. Don't put $600 worth of corals in there!

Here's a pic right before it all fell apart.

 

[design.maddie]

Sorry you had to go through this. Keep your head up.

 

[Danroo]

That’s just unfortunate,I’m sure you didn’t do anything wrong and things just went out of control. Sorry for your loss.

 

[blaxsun]

It seems a bit hazy/cloudy in the image.

 

[Jcon82]

That’s just unfortunate,I’m sure you didn’t do anything wrong and things just went out of control. Sorry for your loss.

I think most of it had to do with the high alk mix that the Red sea calculator told me I needed. Everything was growing so fast and I didnt know enough about no3 andpo4 dosing to keep it balanced. I starved my corals and then bombarded them with nutrients from a snail die off while lowering my alk. Its totally my fault,

I didnt understand how sensitive they actually are to parameter changes.

 

[kevgib67]

It sucks to learn the hard way, sorry it was a tough lesson but there is nothing to do but move forward. Your dream reef tank is in the future. I started my first reef tank in the mid 90’s. Not a lot of information to be had like today, it was all trial and error. Learn and move on. Best of luck.

 

[Danroo]

I think most of it had to do with the high alk mix that the Red sea calculator told me I needed. Everything was growing so fast and I didnt know enough about no3 andpo4 dosing to keep it balanced. I starved my corals and then bombarded them with nutrients from a snail die off while lowering my alk. Its totally my fault,

I didnt understand how sensitive they actually are to parameter changes.

Yeah I wouldn’t deal with dosing right now. I just feed a lot more to keep it more. Right now my tanks are also close to bottoming out due to my softies soak up nitrates and phosphates. Mixing reef frenzy and mysis shrimp helped with raising the numbers.

 

[Jcon82]

It seems a bit hazy/cloudy in the image.

Yup, I dont remember if it was the glass or not in that pic But I definitely had a flow issue in the middle. I've since added another pump in the middle and have killer flow now. All pimps on 50% power pointed right at the front glass and nothing is settling on the rocks or sand at all.

I'm also terrible at reef tank photography!

 

[Jcon82]

Yeah I wouldn’t deal with dosing right now. I just feed a lot more to keep it more. Right now my tanks are also close to bottoming out due to my softies soak up nitrates and phosphates. Mixing reef frenzy and mysis shrimp helped with raising the numbers.

I was alternating feeding mysis, reef roids, phyto feast and reef energy 2-3 times a week. All the corals were showing great feeding responses too.

 

[Jcon82]

It sucks to learn the hard way, sorry it was a tough lesson but there is nothing to do but move forward. Your dream reef tank is in the future. I started my first reef tank in the mid 90’s. Not a lot of information to be had like today, it was all trial and error. Learn and move on. Best of luck.

Absolutely. But I think I'll be leaning towards a softie tank now!

 

[Danroo]

I was alternating feeding mysis, reef roids, phyto feast and reef energy 2-3 times a week. All the corals were showing great feeding responses too.

Oh wow that’s a lot of feeding. Did you take any pictures where everything was exploding in growth?

 

[Mr. Roboto]

"My Alk became unstable and I could not keep it down. The corals were all growing like crazy and depleted all available nutrients before I could do anything about it."

These two things normally do not happen at the same time. As corals grow the Alk should swing down, not up. Most of us who have kept tanks for a long time study temp and alk... Thats about it. I am wondering if you simply did more than you should have in trying to chase numbers and adjusting things that shouldnt be adjusted and just left alone.

You shouldnt have to do anything to lower alk or calc. We usually tend to try and find a salt balanced at what we want to be a baseline and use that to be a steady mark, that way with routine water changes and such we are not off balancing what we are doing with a kalkwaser or two part or what ever to raise it to that baseline. Pick a target and stay with it. If you were having high alk issues changing salt over time to something that has what you are looking for would have been better solution.

A one year old tank is about the bare minimum to start with SPS or LPS for that matter for a newbie. Its just hard to look at a tank full of rock and fish for that long. Just my two cents, sorry for the crash, it happens to the best of us.

 

[Lavey29]

"My Alk became unstable and I could not keep it down. The corals were all growing like crazy and depleted all available nutrients before I could do anything about it."

These two things normally do not happen at the same time. As corals grow the Alk should swing down, not up. Most of us who have kept tanks for a long time study temp and alk... Thats about it. I am wondering if you simply did more than you should have in trying to chase numbers and adjusting things that shouldnt be adjusted and just left alone.

You shouldnt have to do anything to lower alk or calc. We usually tend to try and find a salt balanced at what we want to be a baseline and use that to be a steady mark, that way with routine water changes and such we are not off balancing what we are doing with a kalkwaser or two part or what ever to raise it to that baseline. Pick a target and stay with it. If you were having high alk issues changing salt over time to something that has what you are looking for would have been better solution.

A one year old tank is about the bare minimum to start with SPS or LPS for that matter for a newbie. Its just hard to look at a tank full of rock and fish for that long. Just my two cents, sorry for the crash, it happens to the best of us.

This is good advice here and OP I think most of us have been in your shoes too. It's an expensive learning curve but you will finish better in the end now. My tank is night and day different after the one year mark. So much more stable and predictable.

 

[Jcon82]

"My Alk became unstable and I could not keep it down. The corals were all growing like crazy and depleted all available nutrients before I could do anything about it."

These two things normally do not happen at the same time. As corals grow the Alk should swing down, not up. Most of us who have kept tanks for a long time study temp and alk... Thats about it. I am wondering if you simply did more than you should have in trying to chase numbers and adjusting things that shouldnt be adjusted and just left alone.

You shouldnt have to do anything to lower alk or calc. We usually tend to try and find a salt balanced at what we want to be a baseline and use that to be a steady mark, that way with routine water changes and such we are not off balancing what we are doing with a kalkwaser or two part or what ever to raise it to that baseline. Pick a target and stay with it. If you were having high alk issues changing salt over time to something that has what you are looking for would have been better solution.

A one year old tank is about the bare minimum to start with SPS or LPS for that matter for a newbie. Its just hard to look at a tank full of rock and fish for that long. Just my two cents, sorry for the crash, it happens to the best of us.

I was doing weekly 10% water changes with reef crystals. I've since switched to aqua forest salt that mixes around 8.5 DKH. I think if I had not been changing water so frequently the alk would have been more manageable. I just didn't know any better and there are so many resources that make high alk mixes and weekly water changes sound like the way to go

 

[Lavey29]

I was doing weekly 10% water changes with reef crystals. I've since switched to aqua forest salt that mixes around 8.5 DKH. I think if I had not been changing water so frequently the alk would have been more manageable. I just didn't know any better and there are so many resources that make high alk mixes and weekly water changes sound like the way to go

Weekly water changes are generally good for a tank unless you are having trouble keeping nutrients level up. That's not the source of your issue.

 

[Nano sapiens]

Sorry to hear about your troubles, but that's part of the learning curve. It's safe to say we've all 'Been there' in one way of another, but it's worth it to persevere.

Reefmann's comments are spot on, so let them sink in as you continue onward toward your future reef keeping success.

 

[Greybeard]

Sorry to hear about the losses...

It's not an uncommon story. A LARGE percentage of new reefers fail, most exit the hobby within a year or two. There's a ton of information available to the new hobbyist these days... unfortunately, much of it is hype, marketing, overly complicated, or just plain wrong.

I subscribe to the 'keep it simple' philosophy... which is odd, being as how I'm a high tech kind of a guy, APEX junkie, and gear nut .

Oh, I've chased a lot of rabbits down some very deep holes. Triton, Zeovit... you name it, I've likely tried it. Always return to simple. Plain 'ol Instant Ocean salt, Zero TDS RO/DI water, 10% weekly water changes, Kalkwasser to maintain Alk and Calc levels, manually dump in a bit of Magnesium once in a while, and a big Chaetomorpha based refugeum. That's about it. I've even quit using a skimmer, in favor of a doubling the size of my refugeum. Simple, stable, safe.

 

[KrisReef]

The difficulty with stability is confounded by additions of new coral, new fish, etc. Everything we like seems to push the system towards imbalance. Add and watch and wait, go slow and don't be impatient like me.

Good news is that the vendors will be having sales again shortly.

Many of us will always be learning in this hobby.

 

[Jcon82]

Good news is that the vendors will be having sales again shortly.

Do you know of any in particular?

 

[reaper93]

Welcome!!