Failure IS(n't) and option...

[m0jjen]

So i've had my up and downs in this hobby. Pretty much every tank i have had was set up for a year then crashed or got some horrible dino infestation which took out few 1000$ worth a coral. Weap, breakdown and come back stronger and bigger (litterly bigger every time). Take good precautions. Rethink what i did and make it work better.

So 4 tanks down the road im on my 5th and yet again, dino, cyano, LOADS of corals dead. Hell, even a fish kicked in and waved goodbye. Making me think, what am i doing wrong, repeatably? First year of the tank is pretty much smooth sailing all the time. SPS explode in growth and color. Fat happy fish. Then 10-14 months later **** hits the fan (illustrated below)

Am I any wiser? No not really. What happens in all my tanks is that nutrients bottoms out. And when i say that they bottom out, I dont mean I cant test for them with hobby test kits. They are literally zero

All of my tanks have a few things in common. Large skimmer (this time its probably just plain out stupid big. I use a bubble king supermarine 200 atm), mechanical filtration (previously socks, now clarisea) and the use of siporax passivly. Thats it. Medium to minimal rock and a sandbed. Pretty simple. Never dosed carbon, never used GFO.

Live stock in my current tank (625 xxl with a fragtank sharing sump) is 20ish fish. 3 tangs and rest is wrasses, anthias and similar sized fish.

I feed heavy. When i received the 0 po4 triton i upped the feeding somewhat to 3 cubes of frozen, 2x dose of reef energy A + B and reef roids along with my autofeeder doing its thing once a day with formula one and two pellets.

Yet, 6 months later. My tankwater is stripped. Corals dying, dino all, green cyano all over the place.

I guess this is somewhat of a rant aswell as a search for knowledge. Where does it all go wrong? Why cant i have common problems like "**** my nitrates 120 what do i do?!"

I've even gone a great lenght and started dosing phosphate and nitrates to get a pretty standard 5 ppm no3 and 0.02 po4, that gave me hairalgae :|

Is it time to back things off and just go KISS, skimmer. fish, feed, add corals perhaps? No more fancy pants mechanical automatic filter or ceramic media? Any input and questions is welcomed. I have a number of tritontests that can be shared.

 

[Big G]

Big fan of the KISS approach. I don't run a skimmer . . . . I feed the fish/tank a good mix of frozen cubes with the excess liquid poured off after "slumping" the cubes in the fridge. If I don't the nitrates and phosphates jump up a lot. The mix stays good for several days in the fridge. Of course you mileage could vary.

 

[DanConnor]

I would say when you get to the crappy stage- don't break it down. Stay the course.

I feed my 200 the equivalent of maybe 6-8 cubes frozen a day, and no coral food. Seems good.

What are you doing for ca/alk?

 

[KrisReef]

Maybe only run the big skimmer part time?

 

[Heart of Dixie]

I too like the KISS method with one little change, keep it simple, slowly. We all want a showcase tank and are in a hurry to get there however our little biological worlds sometimes can’t keep up with the pace we set. I also think that we sometimes rely too much on technology and try to solve problems that will eventually work themselves out. You sound determined by the title of your post, Failure is not an option. You have the right attitude, good equipment, thousands of experienced reefers on this site to assist and you have learned what doesn’t work.
Einstein said “we can’t solve our problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”. Start a re-build thread and everyone will be there to assist every step of the way.

 

[ZoWhat]

My grandmother used to say the more you screw around with adding spices to a simple chili recipe.... the more you ended up with a big pot of crappy tasting chili.

K
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[m0jjen]

Big fan of the KISS approach. I don't run a skimmer . . . . I feed the fish/tank a good mix of frozen cubes with the excess liquid poured off after "slumping" the cubes in the fridge. If I don't the nitrates and phosphates jump up a lot. The mix stays good for several days in the fridge. Of course you mileage could vary.

Yeah, skimmer is optional I like skimmers tho. Big tech nerd so i will always have one i guess. Im debating on a downgrade tho

I would say when you get to the crappy stage- don't break it down. Stay the course.

I feed my 200 the equivalent of maybe 6-8 cubes frozen a day, and no coral food. Seems good.

What are you doing for ca/alk?

Never broke down a tank due to pests or algae. We moved alot in the previous 5 years, we bought a house last year so we wont me moving anytime soon So i guess im underfeeding then since my total system is about 180 with a load of 21 fish.

I run a calcium reactor controlled by an apex and alkatronic, KH dead on 8.0 - 8.05

Maybe only run the big skimmer part time?

I think ill downgrade if thats what it comes down to. Big fan of consistancy!

I too like the KISS method with one little change, keep it simple, slowly. We all want a showcase tank and are in a hurry to get there however our little biological worlds sometimes can’t keep up with the pace we set. I also think that we sometimes rely too much on technology and try to solve problems that will eventually work themselves out. You sound determined by the title of your post, Failure is not an option. You have the right attitude, good equipment, thousands of experienced reefers on this site to assist and you have learned what doesn’t work.
Einstein said “we can’t solve our problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”. Start a re-build thread and everyone will be there to assist every step of the way.

Cant say im in a hurry to be honest. But the same results came from my last 3 completely different setups and i cant say that i did anything wrong (Einstein obviously had a point). So question is, why? Its a mather of nutrients so either a higher bioload or a lower amount of filtration.

My grandmother used to say the more you screw around with adding spices to a simple chili recipe.... the more you ended up with a big pot of crappy tasting chili.

K
I
S
S
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I do agree. In Sweden we have saying "Ju fler kockar, desto sämre soppa". Which pretty much means "The more cooks, the worse the soup".


I think we, and especially me setup a tank with a goal and dont concider the journey and evolution. When we start planing a tank we think endgame. What filtration do i want and how should it be designed. The filtration in my case most likely is to big for the first 1-3 year journey it will take and starves biological processes making room for pests.

Once these processes is mature and stable after some years and nutrients gets higher or more visible its probably better to add more filtration than having my scenario of a 0/0 level and having to combat alot of other nasty stuff. So my lesson is probably "dont add what you dont need until you actually need it".

Questions is what i can or should remove. Siporax would probably be a big destabilizer, clarisea could be removed and allow detritus buildup, same goes for skimmer, downgrade or remove. To make small changes id say downgrading skimmer is a valid option. Got a great swap offer to go from a bubble king supermarine 200 to a bubble king mini 180 (with some money inbetween). Seems like a fair course of action to later evaluate?