Can somebody convince me that it is a stupid idea to pull the plug on my tank, clean it, disinfect it and start over again with live rock?
So a bit of background.
After many years away from the hobby, the wife and I finally settled down last year and decide to finally assemble a tank again in March.
We had planed on starting it with dry rock to avoid hitchhikers, but for some weird reason we struggled to find it. Even one of Europe's largest distributors was out.
So we went with live rock. As expected we got a few, including bubble algae, aptasia, red planaria and vermetid snails (although vermetid snails and aptasia may have come from a friends reef, our own fault). However, what we also had was a reef then in less then a month could take SPS in and growth them fantastically.
Expecting similar results with dry rock after having seen so many successful tanks online we decide to restart the tank and try to eradicate all pests.
So we got some old rock from a local LFS and cured it and cycled it for almost 3 months.
Once we where ready we transferred everything using as much as the old water as we could to keep parameters as stable as possible.
We changed noting else. Still skimmerless, still natural seawater (the research facilite I work in shares the water intake with the local aquarium. No they don't keep corals, fish ans seals), still automatic 1-2% water changes and a small DIY algae scrubber. We still test every 3 to 4 days (professional habit, since we both do research in aquaculture). Par levels are still the same.
The first sign something wasn't entirely good was that the DIY algae scrubber was not producing nearly as much algae as before (same fish, water changes, everything).
Slowly, the SPS polis started to not extend and eventually started to STN. Within about two months we had lost all of them.
We assumed it was stress from the transfer (although parameters looked the same as before) and gave it some time.
In December we bought a green acro, just to test how the aquarium was doing. 2 days before we were about to leave for Christmas, the back panel of our IM sr80 open up (the plastic held it together, so it wasn't a tragedy). We transfer everything to a 400 l tank, fixed as much as we could and left for holidays (we had someone coming over every second day and a camera so we could check on things).
I was expecting the acro to be completely death. To my surprise it wasn't (although it was brown). We got our replacement tank from the LFS and restarted everything. Filled it up with new water (still natural). More surprising the acro recover most of its color in two weeks. Happy that everything was fine and ready, we order 6 sps frags and a chalice in late January (3 plating montis, two seriatoporas and a stylophora, plus a grenn a purple chalice). All did fantastic for about a month and showed good signs of growth. However, as previous, things slowly started to fade, algae (dinos and some we cannot identify) start to show up and the corals started to STN again. The same pattern.
We have been trying to fix it (thanks again to all that have helped this). Having said that is becoming very frustrating that the same routines and parameters that produced such good results before, keep resulting in dead corals and wasted money chasing a problem we do not know what it is.
I know corals can be successfully kept in dry rock tanks from the begging, I know time and stability are key, I also know that pest will likely come, but as this point can honestly say, it was much easier and rewarding to fight all the pests we had while looking at a thriving reef, then trying to chance a problem we do not exactly know what is, will corals die and money is wasted.
Sorry for the long rant.
Just need to let it out.
P.S. When we had the live rock, I remember reading a comment on Facebook on one of the reefing pages where someone complained about missing looking at all the interesting creatures that were in the live rock. I definitely agree with that. Miss all the small creatures that kept popping up.
A few picture and videos from before
So a bit of background.
After many years away from the hobby, the wife and I finally settled down last year and decide to finally assemble a tank again in March.
We had planed on starting it with dry rock to avoid hitchhikers, but for some weird reason we struggled to find it. Even one of Europe's largest distributors was out.
So we went with live rock. As expected we got a few, including bubble algae, aptasia, red planaria and vermetid snails (although vermetid snails and aptasia may have come from a friends reef, our own fault). However, what we also had was a reef then in less then a month could take SPS in and growth them fantastically.
Expecting similar results with dry rock after having seen so many successful tanks online we decide to restart the tank and try to eradicate all pests.
So we got some old rock from a local LFS and cured it and cycled it for almost 3 months.
Once we where ready we transferred everything using as much as the old water as we could to keep parameters as stable as possible.
We changed noting else. Still skimmerless, still natural seawater (the research facilite I work in shares the water intake with the local aquarium. No they don't keep corals, fish ans seals), still automatic 1-2% water changes and a small DIY algae scrubber. We still test every 3 to 4 days (professional habit, since we both do research in aquaculture). Par levels are still the same.
The first sign something wasn't entirely good was that the DIY algae scrubber was not producing nearly as much algae as before (same fish, water changes, everything).
Slowly, the SPS polis started to not extend and eventually started to STN. Within about two months we had lost all of them.
We assumed it was stress from the transfer (although parameters looked the same as before) and gave it some time.
In December we bought a green acro, just to test how the aquarium was doing. 2 days before we were about to leave for Christmas, the back panel of our IM sr80 open up (the plastic held it together, so it wasn't a tragedy). We transfer everything to a 400 l tank, fixed as much as we could and left for holidays (we had someone coming over every second day and a camera so we could check on things).
I was expecting the acro to be completely death. To my surprise it wasn't (although it was brown). We got our replacement tank from the LFS and restarted everything. Filled it up with new water (still natural). More surprising the acro recover most of its color in two weeks. Happy that everything was fine and ready, we order 6 sps frags and a chalice in late January (3 plating montis, two seriatoporas and a stylophora, plus a grenn a purple chalice). All did fantastic for about a month and showed good signs of growth. However, as previous, things slowly started to fade, algae (dinos and some we cannot identify) start to show up and the corals started to STN again. The same pattern.
We have been trying to fix it (thanks again to all that have helped this). Having said that is becoming very frustrating that the same routines and parameters that produced such good results before, keep resulting in dead corals and wasted money chasing a problem we do not know what it is.
I know corals can be successfully kept in dry rock tanks from the begging, I know time and stability are key, I also know that pest will likely come, but as this point can honestly say, it was much easier and rewarding to fight all the pests we had while looking at a thriving reef, then trying to chance a problem we do not exactly know what is, will corals die and money is wasted.
Sorry for the long rant.
Just need to let it out.
P.S. When we had the live rock, I remember reading a comment on Facebook on one of the reefing pages where someone complained about missing looking at all the interesting creatures that were in the live rock. I definitely agree with that. Miss all the small creatures that kept popping up.
A few picture and videos from before
