What issue would you/have you torn down a tank over?

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Alright! Let's have a new question of the day! Thanks to @Latte for this one!

It seems that the reef hobby has advanced to the point that most issues can generally be dealt with or at least managed. However, we still see threads regularly where some of the pests and problems we face can ultimately lead to a tank tear down (or worse, someone completely calling it quits). Dealing with some of the things we face can be a long and arduous road. What has been your story?

1. What issue have you torn down a tank over?
2. What did you decide to do, and how has that worked for you since?

OR

3. Alternatively, if you haven't had to tear a tank down, what issue do you think would put you there?

@Bacon505's beautiful reef! His reef was featured as our Reef of the Month in November 2021!

 

[acropora4u]

i had to tear down a reef that was overloaded and completely destroyed by aptasia... it was ridiculous... this was 15 years ago.

 

[newbie2014]

Well sort of…….

1. my first tank was a BB sump less 40B. It was meant to be an easy to maintain tank softies and LPS tank. I had to do WC every 2-3 weeks to keep it healthy.
2. Filtration methods: live rocks and carbon
3. Can’t get rid of Xenia completely
4. My trusty 300w marsaqua was getting loud.

So I decided to start over/upgrade the tank.
1. its a 60cube with durso overflow and sump. I convert the overflow to herbie .
2. I put old live rocks in the sump for filtration, along filter mesh and RO s-130 skimmer.
3. Xenia remains. I don’t know how…….
4. One Kessil 360x for light. It’s simple and quiet.

……and I do WC every 3 months.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Everyone knows my story, it's like this thread was made for me

 

[Dcal]

Freshwater- all the time. If ill get an algae problem after some effort to get rid of it I'm always down for a reset especially since i love rescaping frequently and its not that much of an effort

Salt- lucky to say no pests so far besides an absurd amount spiriod worms which i haven't worried about yet

BUT i definitely understand ppl doing resets i cant imagine having to deal with crazy aptasia

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have never , nor have I considered doing such. There are ways and alternative ways to combats algae, Dino, chrysophytes and other issues and to take all the hard work and patience to get a tank established and seeded to turn around and tear it down or rip clean is plain and simply senseless
I Do realize there are circumstances that warrant such action, but again there are alternatives that often require trial and patience.

 

[sp1187]

divorce

 

[Spare time]

When I first started, my second tank become a vermatid paradise (though not as bad as others that I have seen thankfully) and it annoyed me so much that I scrapped all of the rocks and started over again in another tank. That was also the end of live rock for me. Now I never use live rock, QT corals for 45 days, scrub the skeletons of LPS with a rough sponge and a light amount of peroxide, epoxy over the frag plug if I can't remove it, and monitor the skeleton daily. This has allowed me to stop aiptasia, bubble algae, vermatids, and more from entering my tank. Once the 45 days is over, if any pests arrived on the frag (and thus could be in the QT system), I completely empty the QT and rinse it with rubbing alcohol.


The only pest in my tank currently are a few hydroids that I brought in on an emerald carb (I didn't realize what they were when I first brought them into a previous tank that I carried over into my current one) and bristle worms (I made a mistake with one coral lol).

 

[Miami Reef]

Everyone knows my story, it's like this thread was made for me

I do not know the story.

 

[Bubblebass]

Dinos

Completely my fault. PO4 reading 0 and figured monitor was bad since I had this HUGE amount of stringy and bubbly "algae"......so figured I better add some more gfo. Lost colonies of SPS and was more depressed about it all when I figured out what I did.

Older....smarter.....well older for sure. Now I have two smaller tanks. A 45 nem tank and a 40 mixed. Easier, less space and fun. I will get into a larger one eventually. Still love the hobby.

 

[Porpoise Hork]

Not yet, but I'm almost there.​

Been battling massive phosphate leaching with no idea what's causing it in the 75g. For nearly 3 months now I have been doing 50% water changes every 2-3 days along with daily dosing of phosphate RX and am barely able to keep it on the scale. Tests with Hannah, Salifert and Nyos all are off the charts. Source water after mixing is .000 to .001. Tried GFO for a few weeks but it barely made any difference at all. So far I have lost all but my toughest corals due to this.

Things I have done and made no difference: Backed way off on amount of food given. Near constant large volume water changes, shifted from dry to wet skimming. Removed 2/3 of macro algae in sump. Completely drained sump and cleaned all detrius. No dead fish or inverts. Cleaned sand bed (crushed coral base) to the point of no silt getting sucked out at all.

Water parameters are all within spec except the phosphates.
Alk 8
PH 8.4
Cal 430
Mg 1350
Temp 77.3 - 77.6 (night time/day time)
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 0-1
Phosphates .99 (flashing on Hannah ULR)

Phosphates will drop to .10 with daily dosing of Phosphate RX on Hanna and if I skip a day they are back up to .5 and then .99 flashing by the 3rd day of not dosing. 50% water changes make almost no impact it seems as well...

I'm almost to the point of annoying the wife and setting up a temp tank for the few fish I want keep along with a few corals, selling everything else and completely restarting it with all new rock/sand.. Buuuut then I'd have new tank woes all over again... ;Shifty

 

[shwareefer]

1. What issue have you torn down a tank over?
Parvocaulis parvulus. SLow growing and pretty but if you ignore it, it will imbed deeply in all calcium surfaces. Nothing I had or tried ate it. Maybe tangs would like it but the tank was too small for tangs.

2. What did you decide to do, and how has that worked for you since?

Inhabitants were healthy but all the rock had to go to a dark place. Fragged everthing and it's in my frag tank awaiting my next build plan. Still have a few frags sprouting this stuff and the only solution has been to chip the rock away beyond the root. Over all it has worked out great.

 

[Crabs McJones]

I do not know the story.

Post in thread 'Crab's 75 Gallon Roller Coaster Of Emotion' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/crabs-75-gallon-roller-coaster-of-emotion.551660/post-7213356

In a nutshell, experienced thousands of dollars worth of coral death and could not determine the root cause. Tried every test. Changed every filter several times, checked par, checked equipment for stray voltage, changed salt brands, ect...could not figure it out. And it got to a point where my mortgage was more important than my tank and I couldn't at the time afford to keep both, so the tank had to go.

 

[i cant think]

2 years worth of battling cyano… 3-4 rescapes and rockwork changes. Finally started to beat it, luckily I didn’t lose many if any animals in the rescapes.

 

[Saltysocks]

After beating dinos honestly the only thing that could make me teardown a tank would be a new one..

 

[Stoney]

I tore a tank down due to the dreaded old tank syndrome. It was about 7 years old at the time and the only thing that stood out was a lot of detritus. Started getting similar symptoms of corals wasting away for no obvious reason in the new tank that I moved the rocks into. Threw on a UV sterilizer and within a week, corals were looking way better.

Its inevitable for these closed systems to turn into microbial soups which suffocate/infect coral. Skimmers help long term but they're so sensitive to water conditions and arent very efficient. I know it's expensive but I genuinely believe UV is the key to a lot of those mysterious issues people face. I consistently notice better polyp extension and higher alk/nutrient consumption when using UV.

 

[Lbrdsoxfan]

divorce

This. Otherwise, nope.

 

[Snoopy 67]

Nearly, An explosion of Blue sponge in my 250 just had to be stopped.
I tried vinegar, fresh water in a syringe to no avail, cutting did nothing, so I wound up removing rocks 1 or 2 @ a time & went with forceps. A real PITA since it was embedded into the rocks very deeply in spots. A few smaller rocks I just discarded because it wasn't worth the effort. This gave me a chance to open up the rockwork & I even added a few pieces.
I have found it trying to regrow in places & I have tried tweezers but it's hit & miss so I will go with forceps again when large enough to grab.

 

[ReefRondo]

I had a disaster of a tank a few years ago where I just had every case of bad luck going. Stripped it down, sold it and a year later bought a similar tank and all is well.

 

[GHOSTLY]

FW. For some reason its hard. Unless you have co2, high flow, and dose its almost impossible for me to not fo get algae. Thats why I now keep reefs