TomV
Active Member
Hi folks.
It's been ages since I posted here. I've been kinda flatlining about my reefkeeping hobby for the past year. It has been so disappointing for me.
Now, if you don't want to read my approaching whiny post, stop reading right now.
But, if you're a glutton for punishment or would like to lend an ear to my woes, please read on.
Well, here's the deal. I've been keeping reef tanks for several years now. A couple of years ago, I had 2 awesomely thriving reef tanks. I had the most beautiful fish and soft corals. Everything was going...uh.. swimmingly.
Then it happened.
It was February, and we had a freak ice storm and subsequent power outage. The dolts who run our state power company (PSNH) had even more dolt-ish people contracted to work for them to restore our part of the state to operational status. But these idiots left our town without checking to see if all the streets (namely the one I live on) had power restored. If they had done their job, we would have had power back on, like the REST of our town, in 24 hours. But, nope, that wasn't to be. They didn't get back to us until 2 and a half days later! :waa: So, I got to watch my corals dissolve and all my little friends slowly die.
My tanks have never fully recovered from that. I ended up converting my 29 gallon Reef to Freshwater, and it's been very successful at making fish grow huge! I tried to rebuild the 55 gallon by taking all the live rock from the 29 gallon and combining it. A lot of cleaning later, and a couple months for the parameters to get back to normal, and I was ready to go again. I got 2 Sergeant Major Damsels and they lived TOO long! In fact, one is still living and has grown the size of an adult palm. (Hand Palm, not Tree Palm! ) I got a Clarkii Clown, a Maroon Clown, an Algae Blenny, and a Scooter Blenny. (These were all added gradually and not all at once, OF COURSE!). Things seemed to be going ok. On a trip to Petco, I spied a Purple Tang that had Lateral Line Disorder. He looked miserable to be at Petco and no one wanted to buy him. I made a deal with the manager there and took the tang home for a discounted price. It got to be a good size, most of the lateral line disorder disappeared, and he's pretty much thriving today!
So, there are the good things about my Reefkeeping. Now, here comes the disillusionment.
Well, as far as the fish go, I lost the Scooter Blenny and the Algae Blenny after a year and a half. Kinda bummed me out, but I'm used to fish staying around for a year and then taking off to the Reef in the sky. But, I have NEVER been able to get a handle on my Phosphate and high Nitrate problem. I believe this is why just about NONE of the corals I have bought for the tank do well at all. Every single coral I have bought has dissolved. Hundreds of dollars down the drain each time.
Now, here's the situation. Yes, I use our local tap water. We live way out in the country and I am sure it has something of a nitrate content. However, I used this same water before and my tank was thriving (before the power outage.) I could never afford to go to the store and buy RO water all the time (My tank water evaporates at the rate of a gallon and a half a day!--is that normal? The Saltwater evaporates much faster than the fresh.)
So, I am at a complete loss as to what could be wrong. cnfzd:
Should I go all out and but some kind of RO filter for my water? It would be a huge hassle to go out and buy 10 gallons of RO water each week because the stores that have the water around here never have it in stock consistently. Sometimes you can find it, sometimes not.
No matter how the corals hate my water, the fish are practically thriving in it! I'm at a loss to explain that one. Even the Tang is doing great! Everyone is happy and eats like hogs!
But, the corals won't stay alive! I don't get it! I don't want to spend another several hundred dollars on nice corals just to have them dissolve.
Also, I seem to have a pretty good Sponge and Pod population. The Sponges in my tank are white and are either branching sponges or ball shaped sponges.
I put a AC 500 DIY refugium on the tank and it has done very well. But, the Nitrates WILL NOT go down. I tried some Kent Products to reduce the Phosphates and Nitrates (Stuff you put in a bag inside a chamber on the Fuge) and Chemi=Pure stuff, etc. Nothing seems to work.
I thought it might be the lighting, so I picked up a nice MH light setup off of eBay. No difference with the corals. I was using straight Power Compacts before (in the pre-disaster setup) and the soft corals were multiplying like mad. Should I scrap the MH and go back to straight PC again? I am using a mix now. 100 watts PC, 175 watts MH 14000k.
I want to have what I had before the disaster. But, it seems that at every turn, the corals just die off --- even mushrooms!!
It's disappointing and I am at a crossroads. Should I just give up on corals and run a straight FOWLR like it's been? I desperately want the tons of Shrooms I used to have. And the wonderful big Finger Leather I had. :waa:
Well, if you've read this far, thank you! I hope someone can come along and help me figure this out.
It's been ages since I posted here. I've been kinda flatlining about my reefkeeping hobby for the past year. It has been so disappointing for me.
Now, if you don't want to read my approaching whiny post, stop reading right now.
But, if you're a glutton for punishment or would like to lend an ear to my woes, please read on. Well, here's the deal. I've been keeping reef tanks for several years now. A couple of years ago, I had 2 awesomely thriving reef tanks. I had the most beautiful fish and soft corals. Everything was going...uh.. swimmingly.
Then it happened.
It was February, and we had a freak ice storm and subsequent power outage. The dolts who run our state power company (PSNH) had even more dolt-ish people contracted to work for them to restore our part of the state to operational status. But these idiots left our town without checking to see if all the streets (namely the one I live on) had power restored. If they had done their job, we would have had power back on, like the REST of our town, in 24 hours. But, nope, that wasn't to be. They didn't get back to us until 2 and a half days later! :waa: So, I got to watch my corals dissolve and all my little friends slowly die.
My tanks have never fully recovered from that. I ended up converting my 29 gallon Reef to Freshwater, and it's been very successful at making fish grow huge! I tried to rebuild the 55 gallon by taking all the live rock from the 29 gallon and combining it. A lot of cleaning later, and a couple months for the parameters to get back to normal, and I was ready to go again. I got 2 Sergeant Major Damsels and they lived TOO long! In fact, one is still living and has grown the size of an adult palm. (Hand Palm, not Tree Palm!
) I got a Clarkii Clown, a Maroon Clown, an Algae Blenny, and a Scooter Blenny. (These were all added gradually and not all at once, OF COURSE!). Things seemed to be going ok. On a trip to Petco, I spied a Purple Tang that had Lateral Line Disorder. He looked miserable to be at Petco and no one wanted to buy him. I made a deal with the manager there and took the tang home for a discounted price. It got to be a good size, most of the lateral line disorder disappeared, and he's pretty much thriving today! So, there are the good things about my Reefkeeping. Now, here comes the disillusionment.
Well, as far as the fish go, I lost the Scooter Blenny and the Algae Blenny after a year and a half. Kinda bummed me out, but I'm used to fish staying around for a year and then taking off to the Reef in the sky. But, I have NEVER been able to get a handle on my Phosphate and high Nitrate problem. I believe this is why just about NONE of the corals I have bought for the tank do well at all. Every single coral I have bought has dissolved. Hundreds of dollars down the drain each time.
Now, here's the situation. Yes, I use our local tap water. We live way out in the country and I am sure it has something of a nitrate content. However, I used this same water before and my tank was thriving (before the power outage.) I could never afford to go to the store and buy RO water all the time (My tank water evaporates at the rate of a gallon and a half a day!--is that normal? The Saltwater evaporates much faster than the fresh.)
So, I am at a complete loss as to what could be wrong. cnfzd:
Should I go all out and but some kind of RO filter for my water? It would be a huge hassle to go out and buy 10 gallons of RO water each week because the stores that have the water around here never have it in stock consistently. Sometimes you can find it, sometimes not.
No matter how the corals hate my water, the fish are practically thriving in it! I'm at a loss to explain that one. Even the Tang is doing great! Everyone is happy and eats like hogs!
But, the corals won't stay alive! I don't get it! I don't want to spend another several hundred dollars on nice corals just to have them dissolve.
Also, I seem to have a pretty good Sponge and Pod population. The Sponges in my tank are white and are either branching sponges or ball shaped sponges.
I put a AC 500 DIY refugium on the tank and it has done very well. But, the Nitrates WILL NOT go down. I tried some Kent Products to reduce the Phosphates and Nitrates (Stuff you put in a bag inside a chamber on the Fuge) and Chemi=Pure stuff, etc. Nothing seems to work.
I thought it might be the lighting, so I picked up a nice MH light setup off of eBay. No difference with the corals. I was using straight Power Compacts before (in the pre-disaster setup) and the soft corals were multiplying like mad. Should I scrap the MH and go back to straight PC again? I am using a mix now. 100 watts PC, 175 watts MH 14000k.
I want to have what I had before the disaster. But, it seems that at every turn, the corals just die off --- even mushrooms!!
It's disappointing and I am at a crossroads. Should I just give up on corals and run a straight FOWLR like it's been? I desperately want the tons of Shrooms I used to have. And the wonderful big Finger Leather I had.
:waa:Well, if you've read this far, thank you! I hope someone can come along and help me figure this out.
