What has been your biggest challenge so far?

dzones · Jun 30, 2013

I know we have all faced some real challenges in our tanks. Perhaps we could all share some of them and maybe how you overcame them?

We had a real issue with Aiptasia and an over abundance of little feather dusters in our main 180g reef tank. We tried first adding about a dozen peppermint shrimp and I don't think they even ate one aiptasia. If they did, 2 more grew back to replace that one. We tried the injections of Aiptasia X and such but when you are dealing with a larger tank that is 30" deep it becomes almost impossible to reach even a third of them.
Next we tried some of the Berghia Nudibranchs, I believe we got 6 of them. I saw them go into the tank..and that was it. Never saw them again after that. Round 3 was trying some of the "Monaco" Peppermint Shrimp that are supposed to live exclusively off the aiptasias. And once again, in they went only never to be seen again.
So by now we are into this extraction for a few hundred bucks and further behind than when we started.
Next was the Copperband Butterfly. We got a medium sized one and before putting him into our tank we had him readily eating some Reef Nutrition R.O.E. and frozen mysis. I felt good that whatever happened once he went into the tank he would not starve to death.
He went to town!!
Within 2-3 weeks we could not find any feather dusters OR aiptasias. He is a MACHINE! It has been a few weeks to a month since he cleared the tank out and is doing very well. So far there are no visual signs that he has nipped on anything we don't want him to and he readily eats the frozen food offerings we provide.

Now the next problem area can be tackled - those darn little starfish - we have HUNDREDS of them all over. Harlequin Shrimp here we come! This time I will picture document the before and after.

teddy13 · Jun 30, 2013

hmm which one, I think my worst was my nitrate problem in the 110 deep.. back story this tank was set up bout 7-8 yrs ago. for the last five it has had no livestock at all just filters running so water n sand would stay good.. anyhow all perimeters were good so I start to put fish in it and corals, we would do good for a few days or wks then deaths, nitrates up off the chart. I did water change after water change to no avail.. finally I was told that I should not have an underground filter )was told to use one when initially set up) so here we go thanx to some help from the grown kids, we tear it down and dig the filter out.. again same thing happens nitrates sky rocket no matter what. I changed the filtration from HOB's to cannisters.. dble what was needed for the gallons. nope things do not change.. last it was down to changing out the sand.. ugh what a mess. my loving husband helped with this change and talk about stinky.. I coulda been pulling out ga red clay and it smelled better.. finally this worked and things leveled off.. this problem went on for about 6 months while we trouble shooted it.. thanx to dzones for all the help n suggestions. oh yea and that was like a 4-5 inch bed if not more.. anyhow by now I am hating this tank because I can not reach the bottom of it no matter what so final change.. I took dang thing down put everything into a 93 rimless that I absolutely love and am storing the 110 till I can set it up as a fowl

Sassy Jenny · Jul 1, 2013

Can we talk about those dang Zoa eating nudie brancs! I hate them dang things. Right now fresh water dip every other day and manual removal seem to be the only thing that is working.

SNAKEMANVET · Jul 2, 2013

My biggest challenge is overcomeing ich.I will be qt'ing everything for 10 weeks before going into display.That includes all inverts and liverock.All fish will get treated with cp for a month,then prazi for 3 weeks and thet stay in qt for observation for 3 more weeks and if no more signs of ich,flukes they will go into dt.