DurTBear's 20 gallon mixed reef tank

[DurTBear]

Thanks Ant. Those are all mostly from my display tank. A couple small pieces were from my frag tank. One of my favorite pieces that you don't see here is the ORA Hawkins Echinata. That was also lost in the last couple months.

 

[A_Lee]

Any idea what the calcium and alk swings may have been like?

 

[DurTBear]

I'm not so sure about the Ca because I've primarily been concerned with Alk. I know the Alk has sometimes moved between 7-10 dKH. This was also before I increased my Mag because I didn't realize it was so low for a while. Now that I got my Mag up and stable around 1400ppm, I'm hoping maybe my Ca and Alk will be a bit more stable as well.

 

[DurTBear]

The carnage continues...See if you can guess the coral from the skeleton! So far, the list of lost sps include ORA German green, ORA Valida, Cali tort, C-quarium unknown, sunset monti, rainbow monti, garf bonsai, pink lemonade, incredible hulk, ORA Roscoes blue, Tubbs pink jade, Oregon tort, blue tip tenius, a tabling efflo and a couple other random acros. Also lost a whole colony of nice rics and a devils armor paly colony. I'm at a loss for words...

This was the fastest growing and biggest colony that I had. It was my fluorescent green acro horrida and it just took a nosedive the last few days...ARGH!!!

 

[Cerissa]

sorry to hear that, Durwin!

The tank was looking awesome. Hopefully your tank recovers soon.

 

[bluetang_2000]

sorry to see this happen to you. I have the cali tort from you through dbtc, just let me know when you are ready to restock.

 

[DurTBear]

Thanks Cerissa.

Hey Ron...thanks for offering a frag of the cali tort back. I made a small frag of it before the rest of the colony perished so we'll see if it survives. It's not looking great but you never know!

 

[Elite]

wow that is suck. sorry man.. I'm sure BAR members can help you replace all that when you are ready.

 

[badbread]

Damn Durwin, so sorry to see this...

I have a frag of that green acro horrida, let me know when you're ready for it.

 

[A_Lee]

Hey Durwin, sorry if I missed this but, have you checked whether or not there is electricity in your water? Possibly being leaked from a pump, or heater, or other appliance? Maybe there is some stray voltage in your aquarium ... not enough for you to feel, but enough to be a detriment to your invertebrates?

 

[DurTBear]

Hmmm...I never really thought about that. But how would I find that out?

 

[A_Lee]

I'm not 100% how you might be able to detect a small electrical current. If it is large enough, obviously, you'd feel it. I suppose maybe you can try using a titanium grounding probe to see if it makes a difference; but maybe someone else can chime in with regards to how you can detect stray electricity

 

[cwolfus]

Durwin,

The fact that you are losing rics and palys along with SPS is suspicious. I would not expect rics to have as much trouble with an alk swing, even a swing from 7-10 (though it depends on how fast the frequent that swing is occurring). I would check for other factors including extreme temp swings or contaminants in your water change water.

Overcrowding may also be contributing. Could you set up a temporary tank that is not connected to your other systems to give everything some temporary breathing room until you figure out the problem? I'm sure many would be happy to loan you the equipment.

How often are you doing water changes and where are you getting the water from?

If you have any one of a kind pieces I recommend fragging them now and placing frags with other BAR members so you have a backup.

 

[cwolfus]

maybe someone else can chime in with regards to how you can detect stray electricity

I believe sfsuphysics is the resident expert on salt water and electricity.

 

[DurTBear]

Hey Charles,

I'm doing weekly 10% water changes and I am currently getting my water from Whole Foods in SOMA. I suppose getting my own RO/DI water would be ideal and I've been thinking of getting one of those units. But in all honesty there have been other pieces of equipment that were above it on my list of things to get.

As for setting up a temporary tank, I guess I could try that. I just don't have very much space in my apartmnet and to add another tank would really clutter up my living room. But maybe I'll think about making some frags and passing them around.

 

[tuberider]

Take a volt meter and place the positive end int the tank and the negative in the ground of your electrical outlet, if the unit shows voltage, you've got stray voltage. If you have a heater make sure it is operating or else you risk misdiagnosing your problem.

 

[DurTBear]

Man this sucks...half of my big birdsnest colony that I was going to donate to the Steinhart is gone. It's tissue is sloughing off as it looks like there's all this white, gooey, stringy stuff hanging off of it. Looks like whatever is happeneing to it is taking my ORA turquoise stag with it as it's starting to happen to it too. I'm at a loss for words...don't know what to do...going to go to bed now and I bet the entire birdsnest is gone when I wake up...

 

[xcaret]

You should frag the tips and have someone care for them under DBTC til you can make sure your tank is in the right track again.

 

[Lyn]

So sorry about your troubles Durwin.

 

[DurTBear]

Well it looks like my tank troubles are over (knock on wood). I haven't lost anything in some time now and the sps that survived are beginning to color up again. Things are looking very healthy again so think I might be out of the woods. Since I'm pretty happy about this, I thought I'd post some pics of the lps that's in my tank:

Tubbs Alien Eye Chalice:

Oxypora chalice (I think???):

No name pink chalice:

Spstoners watermelon chalice:

And one of my favorite pieces, the War coral: