Wow Lee, you sure are thorough. I’ve answered the questions you asked to the best of my ability. Thank you so much for taking the time to help me figure this out so I can avoid it in the future. Also, I thought it might be of use to let you know that my current tank chronicle is linked in my signature and it’s only about 6 pages long but includes a bunch of pictures of the tank, sump, livestock, and other equipment.
How old is your tank? The current display tank and sump are 7 months old
When did it originally cycle? Well, I used to have a 60 gal acrylic tank that I tore down to drill the tank and add an overflow. I did that and began the cycle of that tank in January of 2007. I had that tank running with fish and corals until I transferred ALL of the contents of the 60gal to my current 90gal AGA in October of 2007.
What is the size (dimensions and gallonage) of your display? It’s a standard RR 90gal 48x24X18 with one overflow.
Does the gallonage include the volume from the sump and any refugium? No, there is a 39 gal sump w/ 3 chambers (skimmer/return/fuge)
Does the gallonage include or exclude the inside contents (rock, substrate, decor, etc.)? The gallonage does not include the LR, LS, etc… The above are volumes of empty DT and sump.
Do you use carbon, skimmer, mechanical or other chemical filtration? Pls list all. If you have a skimmer, how was it sized? The only filtration I have other than the LR/LS (bio) is a Octopus NW-200 Skimmer and a filter sock. The sock is washed out about 2x a week. I chose the skimmer because was a good size (physical dimensions) for my sump design and was recommended to me as a great “bang for the buck”.
Do you have or use a refugium? Yes, it is 1/3 of the sump (about 10.5gal volume when running). It contains LS, LR, a cantaloupe size ball of Cheato (growing slowly under a 5100k PC light), and a ton of various types of pods.
Provide an outline of your system.
What is the total circulation for your display tank? (return flow rate, and inside power heads -- not the rated flow but the actual flow to the best of your calculations. [NOTE: each foot lift is one ft of back pressure, each elbow is 1 foot, each 10 feet of plumbing is one ft.]) I have a Mag 9.5 return coming from the center chamber of my sump up to the DT. The overflow is rated at 600gph max and I’m just under that considering plumbing and head height etc… It provides a great deal of the DT circulation. In addition to that I have one Korallia 4 (1,200gph)and one Korallia 3 (850gph) pump in the DT for circulation as well. I’m sorry I don’t know the actual flow rates of the Korallias, just the rated flow.
List all specimens/marine life (that is visible) & sizes in the tank (fish, inverts, corals, clams, snails, crabs, shrimp, etc.). Paired Ocellaris clowns (1.5 & 1.75”), Hippo tang (2.25”), Orchid Dottyback (2”), Yellow Watchman Goby (1.75”), Neon Goby (1”), 3x Chromis (1.5”), and a Bar Goby (3”), 2 adult skunk cleaner shrimp, 1 adult peppermint shrimp, 2 Fighting Conch (1.5 & 1.25”), The following snailsl and crabs are standard adult size: approx. 10 Nassarius snails, approx 10 Cerith snails, approx 4 Astrea snails, 3 scarlet reef hermit crabs, 2 emerald crabs (1”), spaghetti worms (2x?), bristle worms (I removed 12 last night and I’m sure there are many more). Softball size colony of Galaxia coral, 2x baseball size colonies of Green Star Polyps, Plumb size colony of Xenia, Toadstool with plumb size head when open, approx. 25 head candy cane coral, 5 head green/purple branching frogspawn, baseball sized colony pink tonga frogspawn, plumb size bright green birds nest, softball size brown/purple birds nest, 8+ Kenya trees (2-4”), 9 Florida Ricordea (1-1.5”), approx 25 misc. mushrooms (various sizes), misc. Zoanthids, misc. button polyps, Montipora cap in orange (2.5” round), Monti cap superman (size of thumb fingernail).
Tell me about your live rock (if you use it). Where did it come from (sea), what is the weight or volume, describe its at first and current condition and appearance, etc.? If you bought it online, how was it shipped (in newspaper, under water, how was it kept wet, etc.). I’ve collected it from various LFS and craig’s list over the last 4 years. It is of various types and I don’t know how to distinguish between them well. Most are light and a lot are flat. .I have some tonga. I has quite a bit of coralline on it but I recently had a brown algae outbreak about 2+ months ago and got it under control (almost entirely) through a ton of water changes and manual removal/siphoning. I picked it up over time from about 6 places so I’m not sure of the weight but I’m sure it’s got to be 100+ lbs.
Do you use a quarantine tank and procedure? Ugh. Unfortunately I don’t. I know it’s a very good idea and I in fact just ordered a heater to set up a 10gal that empty in my garage now.
Was the rock quarantined or if not, how soon after putting in the LR was fish and inverts added? All new live rock that goes into my tank goes into 5gal buckets to be scrubbed and to cure with a power head and heater for a few weeks (with the exception of 2 pieces that had button polyps and mushrooms on them which I picked up in December of 2007.
What kind of substrate do you use? its depth? how old is it, if it came from another system? The substrate was changed to aragonite when I added the overflow the old 60gal tank. I bought a bunch of those 20lb bags of LS from the LFS. So the majority of it is about 16 months old. I added 1 new bag of the same type just days before the BSJF to make it deeper for him. It’s currently around 3.25” deep.
Foods you use and feeding schedules. [/B]I feed Prime Reef flakes and some sinking pellets every other day and frozen food (blend of mysis and cyclopeez) once a week. Always in the evening.
Since the display was up and running, how much time between adding live rock (LR) and you first putting food into the display? I’m not sure this applies since the LR is mostly years old. I really can’t remember.
Did you feed the LR or any clean up crew before putting in marine fish or your chosen sessile inverts? I really don’t remember but I’d guess that if I threw in a clean-up crew I would have thrown in a few flakes or pellets for them but I wouldn’t have added a crew until the tank was fully cycled.
Do you have hermit crabs? List the kinds of (all) crabs you have. As mentioned above, I have about 3 scarlet reef hermit crabs (those little “reef-safe” ones) and 2 young emerald crabs.
How long have you had this particular fish? (You probably mentioned it before, just to put it all together). I only got him on a Friday and he was dead by the following Wednesday (6 days). He seemed to acclimate well, was eating, dug 3 different burrows and settled in to one, and looked very healthy.
If the fish was recently acquired (6 weeks or less), two more questions: Did you treat it or give it a dip before it went into the aquarium? How did you acclimate it – what procedure? I only temperature acclimated the fish by floating the bag since the fish was kept in a reef tank at the LFS at a very similar specific gravity to my own. I did not give it any dip.
Do you use any vitamins? Fat additives? Any elemental or other additives? Please list all. I only use a 2 part buffer and lugol’s solution concentrated iodine.
Chemistries – you gave some. Do you test for Phosphate, alkalinity, calcium and magnesium? Please give actual current numbers for everything. Have these numbers been changing lately? Tell me how you take these measurements (kit, dip stick, meter, etc.).I don’t test all that often, I use the conditions of the corals to “read” the tank. I test about once a month when nothing unusual is going on (like an algae outbreak etc…) I use the API reefmaster kit and my most recent numbers are KH=6dkh, Ca=330, Nitrates=0ppm, and Phosphates=0ppm.
Water parameters – please give actual numbers (pH and your pH range, salinity or sp. gr. & range, temperature range). Pls tell me how you take these measurements (kit, dip stick, meter, etc.). I don’t yet have my pH probe installed to I can’t give a reading on that, my SG is 1.026 measured with a refractometer, and my temp range is 80-84.
Do you see any of the following in your system: hair algae; micro algae; cyanobacteria growths (red slime algae); dinoflagellate (zooxanthellae) growths; brown algae; diatom growth; slimes; off-colored patches on rock or substrate that are not coralline; etc.? I have 2 small patches of green, thin, cotton-like patches of algae(one on each end of the tank), a little brown algae coating on the Korallia pumps and overflow box, and a thin film of green/yellow algae on the glass that I clean every 2-3 days. No cyanobacteria or any others that I’m aware of.
Water changes (how much and how often).
What is your source water? (Tap water, RO water, DI water, RO/DI, distilled, etc.) I use RO/DI from my unit in my garage to do a 20gal water change every week or every other week at the most.
List what you added or taken out of your aquarium system (living, decorations, and equipment) during the past 6 weeks. Other than the BSJF I haven’t added or removed anything other than taking out 12 bristle worms and a nudibranch but that was after the BSJF died.
Maintenance schedule (equipment maintenance, substrate cleaning, system cleaning, media changes, etc.). What have you done lately? I only clean the glass every few days and maybe once a month I stir up the top ½ inch of sand to siphon out extra detritus while siphoning during a water change. I don’t use any media and I dump out the skimmer collection cup when ever it fills up. I’m getting about 10oz a week right now.
Lighting. Types and hours on each day. I have two 250W 10,000k SE Reeflux halides and two 110W VHO super actinics. The actinics come on at 2:00pm, then the halides at 2:30pm, then the halides go off at 9:00pm and then the VHOs go off at 9:30pm.
Any unwanted things in the display tank or system? Have you noticed any creatures or things you either don't know about, don't know what they/it are, or know something is there that you don't like? Describe and list them. I only have bristle worms which I feel are beneficial and felt were harmless until I suspected that they killed my BSJF and the very rare appearance of a tiny nudibranch.
