Another tank update that isn’t full of good stories and growing corals unfortunately.. The last couple of weeks have been a little rough with the tank. I’m going to forego the categorical news in past updates and get right down to the problem.
Even though I’ve been down this salt path before, this time around I’m experiencing a whole different side of things and am certainly way more observant, maybe to my own detriment. Regardless, I refuse to start freaking out and know that starting a saltwater tank is like walking into a casino, it’s always a gamble. Sometimes you leave with more, less, or no money at all but was probably a lot of fun doing it. So let’s get on with it.
I noticed a few days ago that my meteor shower and bizarro cyphastrea were closed up, which I thought was a little odd due to the fact it stays open day or night. Upon closer inspection I noticed my blasto looked way off and most of the heads were halfway closed up. It was then that I noticed the razor blade on the sand being propped up by the blasto. There was a little “pile” of orange sand where the blade was touching the sand. I removed the blade and siphoned out a half cup of sand where the orange was.
As of yesterday multiple corals were starting to look bad. When I came to the conclusion that something was off by the number and different types of corals showing symptoms I decided a full round of testing was necessary. All params came back within normal ranges with no spikes. Funny thing is I’m almost more ticked that my GSP has been closed up this whole time, and we all know how hard it is to kill GSP most of the time. But most of all I think if I lose more than a couple corals I’ll be most upset about the prior 8 months that I’ve seen come and go and the frags that have now become tiny mini colonies.
I have decided to go back to the routine I had back in July/Aug/Sept which was dosing kalk in ATO and doing 12g-16g water changes every week and that’s it. During this time I saw the best growth and was having no issues. I don’t want a hard reset on the tank but a soft reset might be in order here.
Over the past two weeks I have been doing too much too fast and haven’t been very patient with things and I felt an immediate need to do something but work has had me tied up and today is the first day I’ll have some time to piddle around and investigate a little further, but will for sure get a water change in at some point.
I undoubtedly think that what is happening is a water quality issue and that maybe the razor blade and the “rust” is what is causing the corals to be ticked off. This morning, everybody looks unhappy and I just don’t want to lose more than what I currently think I might be. Here is a small list of things that even an untrained eye could pick out as being not right:
Cyphastreas (both of them)
One branching frogspwan
All GSP
Some Zoas
LT plate coral - one of my favorites
Duncan colony
Montis - both of them - one branching and one plating
If it were bugs or pest I would expect only certain species to be affected, but it’s multiple differing corals, which tells me water quality.
I hate the fact that there are so many variables tucked away in such an umbrella problem that you’d need to be a professional investigator to pinpoint the culprit with any kind of precision or accuracy. Green water? It’s algae, easy enough to figure out and fix. Brown/red/green stuff on sand rock? Dinos or diatoms, identifiable and customizable plans of action. But the whole tank looking sick? Forget about it. Try as you might, the chances that you can whittle it down to one or two things and reverse them to stop the process is almost impossible. Which is why I’ve decided that maybe the best thing to do is revert back to what I was doing when the tank was “thriving” and just keep it simple.
If anyone has had the same experience I’d love to hear about it and whether or not you were able to turn things around and/or if you even figured out what the problem was to begin with. Hell, even if you have a decently educated guess on what the problem was I’d take that, too.
Thanks for reading and I will post another update soon enough that will hopefully have better news and that things are on the mend.
I've crossed-posted this to reach as many folks as possible to increase pool of experience I can draw from.
Even though I’ve been down this salt path before, this time around I’m experiencing a whole different side of things and am certainly way more observant, maybe to my own detriment. Regardless, I refuse to start freaking out and know that starting a saltwater tank is like walking into a casino, it’s always a gamble. Sometimes you leave with more, less, or no money at all but was probably a lot of fun doing it. So let’s get on with it.
I noticed a few days ago that my meteor shower and bizarro cyphastrea were closed up, which I thought was a little odd due to the fact it stays open day or night. Upon closer inspection I noticed my blasto looked way off and most of the heads were halfway closed up. It was then that I noticed the razor blade on the sand being propped up by the blasto. There was a little “pile” of orange sand where the blade was touching the sand. I removed the blade and siphoned out a half cup of sand where the orange was.
As of yesterday multiple corals were starting to look bad. When I came to the conclusion that something was off by the number and different types of corals showing symptoms I decided a full round of testing was necessary. All params came back within normal ranges with no spikes. Funny thing is I’m almost more ticked that my GSP has been closed up this whole time, and we all know how hard it is to kill GSP most of the time. But most of all I think if I lose more than a couple corals I’ll be most upset about the prior 8 months that I’ve seen come and go and the frags that have now become tiny mini colonies.
I have decided to go back to the routine I had back in July/Aug/Sept which was dosing kalk in ATO and doing 12g-16g water changes every week and that’s it. During this time I saw the best growth and was having no issues. I don’t want a hard reset on the tank but a soft reset might be in order here.
Over the past two weeks I have been doing too much too fast and haven’t been very patient with things and I felt an immediate need to do something but work has had me tied up and today is the first day I’ll have some time to piddle around and investigate a little further, but will for sure get a water change in at some point.
I undoubtedly think that what is happening is a water quality issue and that maybe the razor blade and the “rust” is what is causing the corals to be ticked off. This morning, everybody looks unhappy and I just don’t want to lose more than what I currently think I might be. Here is a small list of things that even an untrained eye could pick out as being not right:
Cyphastreas (both of them)
One branching frogspwan
All GSP
Some Zoas
LT plate coral - one of my favorites
Duncan colony
Montis - both of them - one branching and one plating
If it were bugs or pest I would expect only certain species to be affected, but it’s multiple differing corals, which tells me water quality.
I hate the fact that there are so many variables tucked away in such an umbrella problem that you’d need to be a professional investigator to pinpoint the culprit with any kind of precision or accuracy. Green water? It’s algae, easy enough to figure out and fix. Brown/red/green stuff on sand rock? Dinos or diatoms, identifiable and customizable plans of action. But the whole tank looking sick? Forget about it. Try as you might, the chances that you can whittle it down to one or two things and reverse them to stop the process is almost impossible. Which is why I’ve decided that maybe the best thing to do is revert back to what I was doing when the tank was “thriving” and just keep it simple.
If anyone has had the same experience I’d love to hear about it and whether or not you were able to turn things around and/or if you even figured out what the problem was to begin with. Hell, even if you have a decently educated guess on what the problem was I’d take that, too.
Thanks for reading and I will post another update soon enough that will hopefully have better news and that things are on the mend.
I've crossed-posted this to reach as many folks as possible to increase pool of experience I can draw from.