How often do you feel like throwing in the towel

[SDguy]

In your struggling coral do you notice a uniform band of recession with a light film that looks almost like a ring of mucus/slime? I've had this before in my struggling LPS and have seen it migrate into struggling acropora bases as well. This film can be removed but is persistent to return and inevitably chokes out the coral until it's demise.

The SPS got brown jelly. I've never seen brown jelly on SPS before. The euphyllia peeled away, not polyp bail out, but weird white edged peeling. The chalices have been unhappy...spiky. A few melted. Sure, most of the tank looks fine, but everyone knows, you focus on that 5%...

 

[SPSkeeper]

Really sorry to hear this, so heartbreaking. Have you checked for stray current or other unknown factors outside the water column params?

EDIT - never contemplated it and never will, can't leave something your put on this earth to do. Got saltwater running through my veins, hard to get rid of it when things go so well and keep getting better

 

[Henry C]

I've had a few times where I almost walked away from the hobby. The first time was when my daughter(18 at the time) poured bleach into my 150 and into my wifes 55 gallon tank. We were on vacation at the time and she wanted money from me before we left I told her to go get a job. I got a call from my sister who was tank sitting (basically just had to feed and top off the tanks) that the whole house smelled like bleach and that the skimmer was overflowing and everything was dead. Needless to say I threw here out of my house and we didn't speak for 3 yrs. after that. The second time was around three yrs. ago everything in my tank just started dying. Frogspawn, chalices and all of my sps. I took water samples to my local lfs for testing everything was fine but everything was still dying. I eventually lost everything and never really figured out what had happened. I took everything out of the tank soaked my rock in muratic acid in another tank for 4 weeks and then another 4 weeks in fresh water and then another 4 weeks in salt water(testing parameters weekly). I started over again and in Novenber of 2011 I was on a job in Indiana and my tank crashed to due the alk dropping out. So now I have everything written down amounts, frequency and what to test and how to test. My wife and my son Ryan have been taking care of my tank pretty much since June(working in Canada) and went home last weekend and tank looked great. I'll never leave this hobby though i've definetly thought about it. I just love watching the corals grow and the colors of them and the fish swimming is so peaceful. My tank may never be as great as some of the ones i've seen on here but it's mine and it's part of me and to give it up would be like throwing away a piece of me..

 

[Henry C]

also air bourne pathogens can wipe out a tank or make everything in it stressed. Like scented candles, pledge, windex, fabreeze stuff like that can get into the water column and cause serious damage to a tank.

 

[gmoney243]

I'm dealing with the same thing can't figure it out for nothing all tests are spot on it's killing me and all my corals are already dead sucks

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Undiagnosed for a while now. That's the thing... I have no issue fixing a known problem. But when everything double check, checks out OK, then I just throw my hands in the air. All acros are gone. Some chalices too. All euphyllia are gone...

Have you guys thought maybe your waters to clean? Sterile water isn't good. Usually this is the problem if all else checks out. Overskimming and high nutrient export like bio pellets easily causes starving corals

Sent from my Vortex using Tapatalk 2

 

[EpicWin]

every time i start dosing and making things complicated it inevitably leads a downfall in my system.. then the feeling of throwing in the towel

 

[k2parkstar]

Sorry to hear Peter. My chalices have been dying of as well. I'm completely stumped everything else is great. Reef keeping is supposed to be relaxing, unfortunately it can be really stressful watching expensive, beautiful coral bite the dust and there's nothing you can do about it! Peter if your pink ******* is still alive don't forget about me.

 

[wysiwyg]

after my daughter poured a bottle of perfume in my tank killing off 75% of my corals/livestock i almost wanted to give up but i love this hobby to much to just throw in the towel. craigslist and the suppliers on r2r/my lfs helped me bring the glory some what back

 

[bige]

I had my tank perfect. All was dialed in, numbers were great. Heater stopped working, so I bought a brand new finnex titanium heater. In the tank 1 day and exploded. I mean fire, black, bubbling water. That was 2 years ago and things are just now starting to recover. At this point, I'm going to take my tank down, walk out of the room and come back in. And start fresh. Otherwise this sucks and I'm out. My tank is ugly and wont grow anything but algae.

 

[myzislow]

^^That is kind of scary. My finnex titanium has been bulletproof for well over a year now. What model was it if you can remember?

 

[SPSjunky]

I never think about leaving the hobby.Im always thinking baout how to make my reef tank better without making it more complicated. I believe the simpler the setup the better it runs.

 

[myzislow]

The SPS got brown jelly. I've never seen brown jelly on SPS before. The euphyllia peeled away, not polyp bail out, but weird white edged peeling. The chalices have been unhappy...spiky. A few melted. Sure, most of the tank looks fine, but everyone knows, you focus on that 5%...

That sucks man and def. does seem odd. I have never seen brown jelly on SPS before that's for sure. I most definitely can identify with you when it comes to that 5%. Hopefully you figure things out or it randomly corrects itself. Maybe try switching up salt mix and source water?

 

[SDguy]

Water is from my lab. Super pure. I am actually going to switch salt just to see what happens...

 

[Paul C.]

Daily - but never from my tank!

 

[RogerWilco357]

yes me to in 2010 aefw wiped out 10 of my colonies all mother size 7x10 inch sized pieces nice tabling acro all dead, but went fish only for 2011 then started over in 2012 have some nice size deep water acro like 7x7 inch colonies about 10 colonies now and lost my Red dragon last month and now my red tabling acro has some part turn white not sure what gives but may sell off my corals to deal with this before i loose them all ..think its that old tank syndrome and may need to take the rock out dip in acid and strip the tank down and rebuild full zeo in effect will see how this plays out ..but yeah never fun loosing thousands of dollars in any hobby just seems that reefing well you can loose it all over night ...lol

 

[bige]

^^That is kind of scary. My finnex titanium has been bulletproof for well over a year now. What model was it if you can remember?

At the time, they only had one kind. But different sizes. Mine was the one for 50 g. What really ticked me off was aquacave said there was nothing they could do. I contacted finnex and they said that my heater was part of a bad silicone batch. They sent me a new one and $75 for my trouble. I just threw it away and have been without a heater ever since.

 

[Big E]

Just some observations/comments--

1. Ive noticed a lot of times that tanks that are packed wall to wall with corals crash more often. I remember a time when the Tank of the Month honor was like the Madden cover for athletes. I'd have to guess you're running on a finer line, when a tank is packed with livestock (fish & corals).

2. The technology, chemicals, bacterial products now available make it easier to start a tank up fast & fill it up. It used to be that it took 4-6 months & you waited for tanks to mature. Everything is accelerated now..........people buy many corals at once & add so many over a short period of time they hardly have a time to adjust.

3. Because of the advancements I mentioned above, mixed reefs are more popular than ever now, but if you think about it......if certain coral species don't thrive in the ocean together why do we think they'll thrive in our small boxes? They have specific needs & thrive under certain conditions and some species won't do well in close proximity.

4. There are so many additives, foods, ect. out there now that it boggles the mind................half the time you don't know what's in that bottle you just dosed your tank with.

5. We're bombarded daily with new lighting technology, export chemmicals, bacteria & everyone wants to take their tank to that next level without these products having a proven track record.

6. When things start to go wrong people over react & start changing multiple things at once to try to fix something only to make things worse. Whenever I realize I'm going into that type of reactionary mode I try to step back and think about what I'm doing.

I know a lot of you guys are seasoned vets like Peter, but sometimes I wonder if were all to some degree victims of all the advancements in the hobby & pushing the envelope a bit too much.

On a smaller scale than the problems some are having----
I've lost three frags of the Ice Fire echinatas that all had encrusted bases & yeah, I'll probably try another, but sometimes I have to realize that that coral doesn't like my tank conditions. All my other acros are fine, including deepwaters.

The old adages still apply.................go slow, be patient. If it's not broke don't fix it. If you can't measure it don't put it in your tank. Quarantine livestock.

I've got a mixed reef but on a smaller scale, some zoas, LPS, but mostly acros so everything I do is mainly to make things right for my acros & I can tell the other corals don't do as well. My acros are thriving the others............well.......... they survive. I just got rid of a big 8" fiji yellow leather because anything I put dowstream from it in the front corner of my tank died.......a goniopora, acro frag, yuma, ect. I finallly got smart & dumped the fiji leather. I run carbon, do water changes...........all that good stuff. but it didn't matter.

 

[fsu1dolfan]

I think we all at some point deal with issues that seem terrible. I have had my tank since 2007. I went slow, read everything, and my first reef tank was awesome. I had my algae issues, bouts with aiptasias, nuisance corals that were beginner corals, bad tank mates, fluctuations in parameters, etc. etc. My worse issue to date almost made me start over.

Last year a did a re-aquascape and really killed too much of my live rock in the process. Also my parameters were outta control. My corals that were growing for years all started peeling and died over a few months. After getting things somewhat stable, it was like a re-cycle algae, diatoms etc. It was terrible and now i am anti hermit crabs so it was really hard to get rid of.

Finally beginning of this year, things were starting to look up and i changed my RO/DI source from distilled. Over a 4 month period cyano took over my tank and started choking out things. I went on a binge of corrections until i realized (and people's help here) that it was the water. 2-3 months later and my tank is the nicest it has been in a full year. Mind you i still have hair/tuff algae but my corals and fish are thriving. I even just ordered some corals...first time in a year!!

Honestly, starting over would have been ideal but i have learned alot of things along the way.

1) Appreciate when things are going good!! Even a small break out out aiptasia or hair algae is not the end of the world.

2) Water Changes are important. I truly dont care what any enthusiast/pro/god says! Things in my tank are always better after water changes.

3) Sometimes let things fix themselves. Don't freak out over numbers and drastically change things...more harm than good can happen.

4) Sometimes things just die! Zoas melt, sps recede, chalices fade...sometimes these things just happen. Don't over react unless the whole tank is showing bad signs.

5) Don't buy expensive corals or touchy corals. There have been 5 different corals that have made it through this terrible past year. Torch, Hammer, My Orange/pink Cap, Blasto’s, and Bam Bams. I just bought another cap mix (red and green) and some more zoas. I am not planning on spending a ton and probably will not deal with many sps.

6) Consistency! Water changes, dosing, husbandry!!!

7) Lastly, I am hooked and will always have some kind of saltwater tank. Even if it is just some softies, a few LPS, and mostly fish….I NEED A TANK!


Good luck with you tank problems – I truly hope you get things where you want them…because as frustrating this hobby can be…it can also be amazingly rewarding!!