My fish tank
- Thread starter mpoletti
- Start date
Tumbleweed
Guest
I say it is still looking good. Did anything good/exciting come in the shipment Friday?
sfboarders
Guest
*drool* Absolutely beautiful! 
xinumaster
Guest
Hi Mark, how did you remove the sand? I just added sand in my tank now I'm thinking of removing it again.
r0ck0
Guest
Interesting, I am planning to remove the sand from my tank this weekend. I have been siphoning it out with weekly water changes but its taking too long. I also want to redo the overflow so I will replace it during this time.
My drastic plan is to remove all the water and save it, remove the rock and SPS corals to a dry holding container, put the fish, snails, soft and LPS coral in a holding tank with the original tank water. Then I will remove all the sand, replace the overflow with a new one, better surface skimming. While the rock is out I am going to rinse it to remove as much detritus as I can. After that I will put it back in the tank, add some of the original water, add some new water, then add the fish and other animals back and put the rest of the original water back. Hopefully if all goes well, the rock and corals will only be out of the water for an hour or less, and most of the original water will go back in the tank.
If it goes well I will post pics, if it doesn't you prolly wont hear from me again. :LOL:
My drastic plan is to remove all the water and save it, remove the rock and SPS corals to a dry holding container, put the fish, snails, soft and LPS coral in a holding tank with the original tank water. Then I will remove all the sand, replace the overflow with a new one, better surface skimming. While the rock is out I am going to rinse it to remove as much detritus as I can. After that I will put it back in the tank, add some of the original water, add some new water, then add the fish and other animals back and put the rest of the original water back. Hopefully if all goes well, the rock and corals will only be out of the water for an hour or less, and most of the original water will go back in the tank.
If it goes well I will post pics, if it doesn't you prolly wont hear from me again. :LOL:
mpoletti
Guest
Now the discussion:
Why did I do it?
Over a 6 month period I had my fair shares of ups and downs. Some people called me stupid when I added a ZEOvit reactor to my tank, but I'm still glad I went down that route. It helped me learn a different method of keeping a reef and my tank's color and clarity did improve.
Then...I got a hold of a bad Alk test kit. My tank was stable (I thought) at 8, but corals were still not doing well. There was tissue thinning and sloe decline of my acros. I went and got a new kit and the tank tested at 14. That means that I was running my tank at 14 for at least a month. Ok, problem solved. Not so much. After getting my alk back to 8 and stable for a couple weeks, I left town for a couple days and my CO2 bottle ran out when I was gone. I came home to an Alk of 4.5.
Lets recap~ Alk 14-No good. Alk stable at 8- better. Alk dropped to 4.5-No good. All within a one month period of time- Really bad
But it doesn't stop there During this time, the montipora species in my tank were also having an issue. Up until this point, Monties have always been bullet proof for me. Mag was fine, other numbers were fine, but I had noticed the tanks overall PH was much lower than ever. The corals slowly lost any signs of polyps and began to recede.
After speaking it out with my wife, a few different people who had broke down and got out in the last year, and some other friends who have made changes to their reef involvement, I decided to change up the tank and basically start over. So I went out and got all new rock, new sand and started to make up a lot of new water. I removed all the corals over a two day period and started placing the new cured rock in the tank. I only kept one large rock in the tank to help seed the tank and so far, so good :|
Why did I do it?
Over a 6 month period I had my fair shares of ups and downs. Some people called me stupid when I added a ZEOvit reactor to my tank, but I'm still glad I went down that route. It helped me learn a different method of keeping a reef and my tank's color and clarity did improve.
Then...I got a hold of a bad Alk test kit. My tank was stable (I thought) at 8, but corals were still not doing well. There was tissue thinning and sloe decline of my acros. I went and got a new kit and the tank tested at 14. That means that I was running my tank at 14 for at least a month. Ok, problem solved. Not so much. After getting my alk back to 8 and stable for a couple weeks, I left town for a couple days and my CO2 bottle ran out when I was gone. I came home to an Alk of 4.5.
Lets recap~ Alk 14-No good. Alk stable at 8- better. Alk dropped to 4.5-No good. All within a one month period of time- Really bad
But it doesn't stop there
During this time, the montipora species in my tank were also having an issue. Up until this point, Monties have always been bullet proof for me. Mag was fine, other numbers were fine, but I had noticed the tanks overall PH was much lower than ever. The corals slowly lost any signs of polyps and began to recede.After speaking it out with my wife, a few different people who had broke down and got out in the last year, and some other friends who have made changes to their reef involvement, I decided to change up the tank and basically start over. So I went out and got all new rock, new sand and started to make up a lot of new water. I removed all the corals over a two day period and started placing the new cured rock in the tank. I only kept one large rock in the tank to help seed the tank and so far, so good :|
Tumbleweed
Guest
Hey Mark nice explanation of what and why you did what you did.
screebo
Guest
Yikes, Mark. Major overhaul. I too have some unexpected fluctuations and condition changes. These affect my acros, millis, montis and even some zoas. I've been a bum about regular testing and as you say, when conditions remain out of optimum range for a "while" things suffer. I know you'll get you tank back to tip top darn soon.
r0ck0
Guest
What did you do with all the coral from before the tank restart? I saw your tank on RC before I was a member of BAR, it was one of the nicest tanks I have seen. No doubt it will be one of the nicest tanks again.
What if anything are you going to do differently with the new tank? What is the biggest change in your method? Are you still using a zeovit reactor and do you dose any probiotics or carbon food sources for bacteria?
What if anything are you going to do differently with the new tank? What is the biggest change in your method? Are you still using a zeovit reactor and do you dose any probiotics or carbon food sources for bacteria?
mpoletti
Guest
r0ck0 said:
Thanks Greg, now its just a fish tank and I'm learning that this hobby should not be a competition, but just a hobby. If the tank grows up, great. If not, that is great too.
Differences this time around? Nothing really at this point. Its like starting over. The corals are starting to respond and the fish are starting to look better once I plugged in the UV. I'm not carbon dosing or anything like that that at the moment. Just taking things slow and deciding what coals I want to keep and/or add.
The corals that I have/had are being help in my shallow system while I decide what to do with them.