I feel unsuccessful.

[Sandroni]

This is a very time consuming hobby and requires a lot of dedication and knowledge. I knew when I saw my first reef tank video I was hooked. It has been a great year of learning and the time to set up my tank was arrived. Cut to now, I have lost 2 fish, am returning 3, and lost 5 frags. I am very stumped as to what I can possibly be doing wrong. I am trying soo hard to stay confident and tell myself not to give up because I truly love this hobby. My question is, how can I be successful should I start all over again?? Can someone help me do this step by step?
Angela

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

My question is, how can I be successful should I start all over again?

What I do is pound my head on the desk for a while till I feel better. Then I rember its not that tough and ignore the silly talk on the interwebs and just go back to the basics. Its often forgotten that were dealing with nature and in the end it'll take it course if we let it.

Whats up with the tanks?.

 

[Jason mack]

Im Sure lots can help you on here .. first they Will need too know a little more background and Your tank paramiters and any other info you can provide

 

[Sandroni]

What I do is pound my head on the desk for a while till I feel better. Then I rember its not that tough and ignore the silly talk on the interwebs and just go back to the basics. Its often forgotten that were dealing with nature and in the end it'll take it course if we let it.

Whats up with the tanks?.

I have a biocube, fully cycled. I got my first pair of clowns a month ago, they died last week. Maybe there isn't enough bacteria multiplying?

 

[Sandroni]

Im Sure lots can help you on here .. first they Will need too know a little more background and Your tank paramiters and any other info you can provide

pH: 8.0 Nitrate: 5 Nitrite: 0 Ammonia: 0 Salinity: 1.025 Temp: 78 Phosphate: .25

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

I have a biocube, fully cycled. I got my first pair of clowns a month ago, they died last week. Maybe there isn't enough bacteria multiplying?

its possible yes kinda. Also possible its not great water or the tank wasn't as ready as we hoped. RODI etc etc. Enough air in the thank? Dry rock to start?

Its such a complex system we put together the variables are endless. Back in the day, they called the first fish sacrificial.

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

pH: 8.0 Nitrate: 5 Nitrite: 0 Ammonia: 0 Salinity: 1.025 Temp: 78 Phosphate: .25

pic? skimmer?

 

[Sandroni]

its possible yes kinda. Also possible its not great water or the tank wasn't as ready as we hoped. RODI etc etc. Enough air in the thank? Dry rock to start?

Its such a complex system we put together the variables are endless. Back in the day, they called the first fish sacrificial.

Yep, and I have dry rock and enough air, I can add a powerhead to be sure

 

[Sandroni]

pic? skimmer?

Skimmer I have, not running yet because it needed a new air stone but I ordered one thurs.

 

[reefwiser]

The hard part with aquariums is that we see these beautiful tanks that people show on forums and we don't see the hard sweaty things it takes to get it like that. Many times tanks have really hard times and what is shown on forums is only the good times. There are only a very few threads that I follow that let hobbyist see the hard times of tanks. When you set up a tank you are working on creating a balance of animals and water chemistry that is on a knife's edge most of the time and you have to put into place practices like water changes,water testing, filtration and animal selection that takes a lot of learning to get the proper balance. Going really slowly is not something that most people coming into the hobby want to do they want that prefect tank right away and not two to three years down the road that it takes in real time. So slow down and work on getting your tank stable slowly. The chemistry of small tanks can change fast since there is so little water volume. So while many beginners have small tanks it can be tough if you don't take it slow and get things stable in a aquarium.

 

[Frop]

This is a very time consuming hobby and requires a lot of dedication and knowledge. I knew when I saw my first reef tank video I was hooked. It has been a great year of learning and the time to set up my tank was arrived. Cut to now, I have lost 2 fish, am returning 3, and lost 5 frags. I am very stumped as to what I can possibly be doing wrong. I am trying soo hard to stay confident and tell myself not to give up because I truly love this hobby. My question is, how can I be successful should I start all over again?? Can someone help me do this step by step?
Angela

Ya don't worry my tank doesn't have the best track record either. Basically just keep on keeping on. Check out the forum and slowly learn what could've gone wrong to prevent it from happening to the next frag.

 

[Jason mack]

Patients is the key too success !! Ooohhhh and R2R is our life line ... too help , for knowledge, and for advice !!!!!

 

[brandon429]

The hidden trick for you in nano reef rebooting is to exchange frequency and volume of water changes in the place of testing for things and letting the tank sit there. Sitting there is a luxury if things are working out. If not, straight work will force a reef to run.

When you are busier it's less fun, so in time we shift to automations to be able to slow the work a little

And that introduces more failure points but the automation usually outpaces loss agreed...to get back in tune all you need is feed and water changes and stable basics like temp and salinity control. With those factors, you will be reset.


All you have to do to make corals grow is shine a known coral producing light on the them, change large weekly amounts of water and feed well--

old nanos you can search out still do that

Feed each coral as a spot feed using an injector system instead of just dumping the days feed up top.

Change up...take a days feed and pestle it down to small portions and shoot it all onto a hammer coral, move around the tank.

All you have to do to command coral growth is shine the right light, target feed, and change lots of water exchanging the hands off mode for the hands on mode. Fish come last

Don't work my about restocking up to max until you get control of the reef part by feed and water change sustained for months, not days. A change in reefing

Add fish back to a known growing coral system, expect to take a couple three mos waiting on adding more fish back. Kick the coral back int0 shape first.

Clean the whole tank out and skip cycle reassemble it, our sandbed rinse thread here at R2R shows many examples

 

[Quah]

Have you had a diatom bloom? Can you rule out disease? What did your corals do when you put them in there? How long has the tank been set up?

 

[cbear44]

Looking at the build thread you may not have enough biofiltration with just a few small rocks. It looks like you added 3 fish and inverts rather quickly so it may have outcompeted the biofiltration capacity.

Did you put anything in the "media chamber" setup? If you don't want to add more rock, consider adding matrix or siporax in the media chamber to significantly increase the surface area for bacteria. You might also want to consider adding Dr. Tim's One and Only to try to give the biological filtration a boost.

The other thing that is really tough in a nano is managing salinity. How stable is your salinity? Topping off water is critical. Being a 1/2 g behind on topoff in my 270g system isn't a problem but that same thing in a 14g can stress everyone out.

What is your water change schedule? Are you using RO/DI? The algae outbreak suggests nutrients are also coming from somewhere.

Patience - I think that you'll get it stable. That being said nanos are a challenge which is why it's rarely recommended for a beginner

 

[cbear44]

pic? skimmer?

Build thread is here

http://reef2reef.com/threads/14g-biocube-reef-build.272508/

 

[prsnlty]

@cbear44 is correct. I can grow a reef @29+ gallons but it's toast if under 29g. Lol

I also agree with what he/she is telling you. You'll be fine, it take a lot of patience to get through it but R2R members have your back [emoji12]

 

[Lionfish Lair]

This hobby is crazy. Sometimes I do everything "right" and it all falls apart. Then, there are tanks where it should NOT be working, and yet it is. We may draw up a map for where we want to go, how we want to get there and what we'll see at the final destination, but Mather Nature is driving and she doesn't always take directions well.

Hang in there, work the problem as you're doing here now and you'll succeed.

 

[Frop]

This hobby is crazy. Sometimes I do everything "right" and it all falls apart. Then, there are tanks where it should NOT be working, and yet it is. We may draw up a map for where we want to go, how we want to get there and what we'll see at the final destination, but Mather Nature is driving and she doesn't always take directions well.

Hang in there, work the problem as you're doing here now and you'll succeed.

bahaha exactly. next thing you know someone will be coffee dosing at it will grow sps jk

 

[saltyfilmfolks]

bahaha exactly. next thing you know someone will be coffee dosing at it will grow sps jk

it does. I drink coffee and grows sps.

Skimmer I have, not running yet because it needed a new air stone but I ordered one thurs.

Oh thats jus a baby.....How did you cycle it? Bottled bacteria?

And as you can see, your definitely NOT alone.