What issue would you/have you torn down a tank over?

Have you ever torn down a tank over an issue you couldn't seem to beat?

  • Yes! I have. (Tell us about what issue you faced in the thread.)

    Votes: 225 26.0%
  • No. Thankfully, I haven't.

    Votes: 428 49.4%
  • Nope, but it almost happened. (Share your experience in the thread.)

    Votes: 67 7.7%
  • Not yet, but I'm almost there. (Tell us what you're dealing with.)

    Votes: 74 8.5%
  • If you reef long enough, this will eventually happen to you.

    Votes: 56 6.5%
  • Other

    Votes: 17 2.0%

  • Total voters
    867

BCSreef

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I have never , nor have I considered doing such. There are ways and alternative ways to combats algae, Dino, chrysophytes and other issues and to take all the hard work and patience to get a tank established and seeded to turn around and tear it down or rip clean is plain and simply senseless
I Do realize there are circumstances that warrant such action, but again there are alternatives that often require trial and patience.
Same here.

Except for a leak in the 135 DT 6 years ago. Worse yet, it was 4 days before a 2-week trip overseas. Fortunately, I had an empty 55 and two 40-gallon basement sumps. I cut up colonies and moved them, live rock and other livestock to basement 55 and sumps. Most everything survived but many of the Acros were not happy.
 

FactoryKTMmotocross46

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Combination of invasive Texas trash palys, leathers, particle board stand and a sump that was too small and would overflow when the power went out.
20140724_172735.jpg
 

MasterReef

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I set up my 29 gallon using some sketchy dryrock that I thought I cleaned good enough and it ended up slowly poisoning my tank. First, the cleaner shrimp started molting every two weeks, then once a week, then it died. The rest of the inverts were dropping like flies. My sensitive corals started dying one by one and I was getting a weird algae that looked dark brownish/black. All because I didn't want to break up the Pukani rock that came out of my 210 gallon because I was saving it for a new large aqaurium in the "near" future. Lesson learned; don't do dumb stuff!
 

FurrierTransform

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Occasional lurker here and finally a registered user (as of today). An aquarist at one of the local, public aquariums suggested using seawater, occasionally, over salt mix, to add "vitality." So I did that, taking care to let it sit for a few days (to settle out debris), and did a water change. The result wasn't good, the livestock (thankfully not much) sickened. Not knowing what caused my fish to get sick and die, I opted for a significant water change and waited several weeks before adding more fish; thankfully they did alright. Invertebrates did alright for the most part; bristleworms, tube worms, and limpets all survived. Very sad, especially I had that one clownfish for over a decade! Lesson learned: best to use salt mix and filtered (RO) water for all water changes.
 

Tlledsmar

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Pest snails. Tore down, bleach dipped, bleached the tank. New substrate. They came back...
 

HPfunk

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I killed a bunch of chalices including the documented Reef Hobbits Magazine original BCP Flamethrower colony that I bought for a small fortune. My MP40 exploded an urchin into spaghetti and I had such massive losses and hart ache over it that I shut down a 300 gallon system and sold off everything. I’m more of a coral guy but I had become really attached to my blonde Naso and just couldn’t look myself in mirror or talk about anything aquariums for a few years. I’m just now recovering and trying to start fresh with better techniques.
 

reefsaver

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I've never used RODI filtered water, recent rains have dirtied my collected rain tank water which is my prime means of water changes in my reef. My Zoa's look a little annoyed and I'm in the middle of trying to save a $10 Anthelia that's being overrun with hair algae causing it to die back. I "think" the root cause of my Algae growth is not running an RODI filter. I'm basically a meticulous Tang constantly removing algae out of the tank. The algae at the moment on an Anthelia frag is in a viscous cycle of killing the Anthelia and using it's decay as fuel to further cause the tissue to recede and die back. It's quite a sentimental coral to me, I've dipped it and kept a close eye on it. It's supposed to be an easy Coral to keep so I know something isn't right.
 

jrock flimflam

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Turf algae. Just about killed me. Took months of Vibrant and a routine of manual removal. Before Vibrant it would not come off rocks. With Vibrant I could get a spot loose and then peel and roll it up it up like turf grass.
 

Sod Buster

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Thankfully my ex now. What was left of my bachelor pad tank got moved into her house, I put it in her son's bedroom for a mind expansion showcase. World is a big beautiful place kind of thing. Handful of pennies thrown in really degrades the balance of the ecosystem. Some nice stuff I had a long time perished. She threatened to throw the tank out of the bedroom window after the kill. The stuff that's still alive is in a tank at my neighbors in her basement.
 

Latte

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1. What issue have you torn down a tank over?
Parvocaulis parvulus. SLow growing and pretty but if you ignore it, it will imbed deeply in all calcium surfaces. Nothing I had or tried ate it. Maybe tangs would like it but the tank was too small for tangs.

snail1.jpg


2. What did you decide to do, and how has that worked for you since?

Inhabitants were healthy but all the rock had to go to a dark place. Fragged everthing and it's in my frag tank awaiting my next build plan. Still have a few frags sprouting this stuff and the only solution has been to chip the rock away beyond the root. Over all it has worked out great.
Wow! I've been trying to figure out what this stuff is in my tank growing off my live rock. I've only had it up for a few months and there's not a ton of them, they seem to appear for a bit then die off after a few days or a week, then another couple will sprout up elsewhere on the rock. Is this going to become a big issue like it did for you? Is there anything I can do to avoid it? Chipping the rock away isn't really an option with my setup and the scape layout.
Screenshot_20220119-204122~2.png
 

shwareefer

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Wow! I've been trying to figure out what this stuff is in my tank growing off my live rock. I've only had it up for a few months and there's not a ton of them, they seem to appear for a bit then die off after a few days or a week, then another couple will sprout up elsewhere on the rock. Is this going to become a big issue like it did for you? Is there anything I can do to avoid it? Chipping the rock away isn't really an option with my setup and the scape layout.
Screenshot_20220119-204122~2.png
There's lots of species that look similar and I honestly couldn't tell you if they were exactly the same. Many acetabularia do not do well in reef tanks for some reason. The ones I have definitely need a calcium base - they don't grow on the glass or plastics. They may just fade away for you. However if they turn all fuzzy looking on top and then disappear - that's procreation.
 

Rakie

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Never thought the day would come honestly. It seemed like I could combat any obstacle.

But i'm finally going to tear the tank down... No matter what I do, I can't solve my problem. How do I move a tank without dismantling :(

ah well.
 

Labridaedicted

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Never really have taken down a tank over an issue. Broken down nice healthy tanks a few times over the years to move though.

Couple of years ago with the current 180 had a pretty bad crash that had me real bummed out and let the tank run on autopilot for a bit with just the few remaining fish and corals. Now I'm back to actively working on getting things back to an even better state than it was pre- crash. Needed to take a step back after losing those thousands of dollars of livestock though. I'm too embedded in the hobby to ever completely tear things down.
 

Latte

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There's lots of species that look similar and I honestly couldn't tell you if they were exactly the same. Many acetabularia do not do well in reef tanks for some reason. The ones I have definitely need a calcium base - they don't grow on the glass or plastics. They may just fade away for you. However if they turn all fuzzy looking on top and then disappear - that's procreation.
Is there something I should be looking for to determine if they're going to become a problem? It's hard to tell if they get fuzzy before disappearing, they seem to kinda disintegrate over a few days where they look worse and then they're gone - sounds like procreation from what you've described? But how do I know if them existing in my tank is actually going to become an issue I guess? Any signs to look for? Thanks for your help, I really appreciate any info as I've searched a fair bit on this before and couldn't even work out what it was, when I saw your picture I recognised it immediately and knew I had to read your post.
 

shwareefer

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Is there something I should be looking for to determine if they're going to become a problem? It's hard to tell if they get fuzzy before disappearing, they seem to kinda disintegrate over a few days where they look worse and then they're gone - sounds like procreation from what you've described? But how do I know if them existing in my tank is actually going to become an issue I guess? Any signs to look for? Thanks for your help, I really appreciate any info as I've searched a fair bit on this before and couldn't even work out what it was, when I saw your picture I recognised it immediately and knew I had to read your post.
Sounds like yours just aren't lasting. The ones I have, the heads change but the stems stay. That's when they are releasing gametes into the water. They tend to all do it at the same time. Here's a rock of people eaters that I haven't picked apart yet. This algae has looked like this for months, so I don't know what triggers gamete expulsion specifically.

IMG_20220108_172414220.jpg
 

TroutWithLegs

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Yep! More than a few times actually, but most of them were within work scope. Personally, My very first reef tank got torn down because i couldn't beat the algae. I had a 65 Tall (The worst dimenson tank) and had been taking it kinda slow. Folloing all of the beginner rules, but taking my time with it. And as a result, the tank got into the uglies, and never got out. It just got worse and worse. Then the GHA got so bad it was growing in shaded areas and caves. I tried everything, blacking out the tank, a full scrub down and water change to remove all the possible nutrients, and nothing worked. Eventually i decided to pull the plug, sold the few fish and corals I had, and tore it down. After that I also moved and had a better chance to start from scratch with more knowledge and experience upfront and I've been doing okay since then.

For work, I've had a couple of systems i've culled or intentionally nuked because of disease, and it was safer for the facility to cut our losses on them and start from scratch.
 
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