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

[GillMeister]

I had a sudden explosion of GHA and valonia that had me thinking about nuking the tank. I tried Vibrant as a last resort, and the success I had with that talked me off the ledge.

 

[Pridedcloth3]

Well I'm considering a reboot due to flatworms. Tank is about a year old but completely different stock from when I started. Gonna try some flatworm exit if that doesn't help I'll be moving fish and frags into buckets after frags get a dip in some 1.050 water soak all live rock in the same water then nuke the fuge and tank with straight tap water. Hopefully it doesn't go that far.

 

[Doctorgori]

most of my colonies died after this last vacation…a complete teardown/rebuild is in progress

 

[timry2]

I bought a piece of rock from Petco to add bio diversity to my 180 gallon FOWLR, turned out i added more than i asked for. These tubes covered all my rock in a matter of 6 month. I scrubbed, i removed the rock and acid washed, but was unsuccessful at every attempt. 6 line wrasse didn’t help, snail’s and crabs nor shrimps. They clogged up my 2” overflows, clogged up my pumps so i really had no choice. It gave me an excuse to rebuild and upgrade to a 300 gallon peninsula.
I rehoused my fish in a spare 100 gallon while i acid washed all 300 lbs of rock for 3 days, then soaked in a bleach solution.. I rinsed my rock and socked for a week in amquel. I had to strain and was 500 lbs of sand. Im stills washing the sand. Lesson learned, QT all live rock as if’s a fish. 90 day minimum

 

[Zeuserdoo]

My first foray into reefing was in the 90’s. I had a beautiful 60 gallon. It did well for about 3 years or so and then I developed a cyano problem and nothing I did would fix it. The sand, the live rock and everything else was covered with it. I didn’t have the will, patience, or the resources to deal with it. After almost everything was dead or dying I gave away what I could, trashed the rock and sand, and sold the tank to a kid who wanted to keep oscars in it. Sad times.

 

[Blindzy]

Bubble algae!! Covered every inch of my rock work. Tried everything to get it under control. I ended up tearing it down and started fresh with all new rock.

 

[Greybeard]

Yup.

2002 or so. Had a 240g wall divider system, kinda primitive by today's standards, perhaps, but it was wonderfully healthy... I could grow _anything_ in that tank. 2x 400w halides + VHO actinics, 6" southdown DSB, Precision Marine beckett injector skimmer... Loved that tank.

My father in law fell ill. Wife and I had 4 young daughters, and all of a sudden, I was basically on my own taking care of them. Wife spent as much time as she could with her father. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful she had that time, but for 4 months, I totally ignored my tank. No time to deal with it.

Grape Caulerpa from the sump went sexual, spread to every rock in the tank.

Watermelon mushroom corals decided they _really_ liked the dirty water, and covered everything not already killed by the caulerpa. Including, incidentally, a 7" squamosa clam that I'd grown from about an inch long.

When I had the time to return to the tank, I was simply sick. I used 100 lbs of premium, wet shipped, gulf live rock to fill a ditch in my back yard. Broke down the entire system, sold it all off for pennies on the dollar, and was out of the hobby for over a decade.

This is the only photo of that system that survives, taken nearly two years before it crashed...

 

[Klyle]

No but I'm almost there. Vermetid snails this time... so far in the 2+ year history of my tank, I've had to battle major outbreaks of hydroids, bubble algae, and vermetid snails. Each time, I'm convinced, has been due to poor feeding habits. The ba was an indirect consequence of poor feeding habits, as in high nutrients. But the hydroids and vermetids were directly caused from adding way too much food at once. I'm really hoping I can beat back these dang snails... so ugly!

 

[shwareefer]

No but I'm almost there. Vermetid snails this time... so far in the 2+ year history of my tank, I've had to battle major outbreaks of hydroids, bubble algae, and vermetid snails. Each time, I'm convinced, has been due to poor feeding habits. The ba was an indirect consequence of poor feeding habits, as in high nutrients. But the hydroids and vermetids were directly caused from adding way too much food at once. I'm really hoping I can beat back these dang snails... so ugly!

Bumble Bee Snail

Resides : Rocks and other surfaces Consumes : Vermetid Snails, Detritus, Leftover Fish Food Max Size : 1 or 25mm Origin : South Pacific Availability: Weekly Warnings...

www.reefcleaners.org

 

[Klyle]

Bumble Bee Snail

Resides : Rocks and other surfaces Consumes : Vermetid Snails, Detritus, Leftover Fish Food Max Size : 1 or 25mm Origin : South Pacific Availability: Weekly Warnings...

www.reefcleaners.org

Nice...Never knew these things existed!

 

[mattdg]

I have never completely torn down a tank due to pests... unless you count my landlord in Brooklyn as a pest. With that said, I did once have an outbreak of montipora eating nudiranchs. My tank was full of caps and digi. They were the first sps corals I was able to keep, so it was frustrating to have to remove and dispose of all of them. I still believe to this day, that if you get Monti eating nudis, it is best to just get rid of all the montis. They are relentless. After removing them, the tank recovered and all of the acro's thrived. It was sort of a blessing in disguise as I didn't believe I could be successful with all acros, until I was forced to evict the montis. With that said, I Love montipora and years later am happy to have a bunch of them back in my current display.

 

[Obsessed with fish]

Tank was to small, so I had to get a bigger one

 

[The Fry]

Nearly there.... Wanna throw away everything. Golf (my only survivor, black occy) is the only thing preventing me from doing it. She made it. Brooklynella. Killed my frostbite clown. And some medicine i used was apparently not invert safe and it killed my beloved camel shrimp. Rip Polo and Scirocco.....

 

[Derrick0580]

I’ve only torn down tanks due to having multiple hobbies that were both time consuming and expensive. For a while I got into breeding and showing bully style apbt. Seeing how the breeding side would make a profit I chose to go that route. Plus with the money involved with travel and vet expenses the old wallet couldn’t keep up with both and the exwife made me choose one to keep!

 

[725196]

For me t tear down my tank...there would need to be a huge life event, like having to move. The only other reason I can think of is a tank leak...

 

[Edb381]

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!

I dont have any pics to post as this was a tank from 10 yrs ago. But I had a beautiful reef tank with growing coral, gorgeous pink bubble tip anemone with a pair of clowns, damselfish, Mandarin dragonet, anthias, chronic, etc. I left for a medical missions trip and had my (now ex-) husband to watch the tank. Well that didn't happen....the heater went out, tank water got too cold and killed my anemone all my coral, fish, etc. I was told by lfs the anemone had poisoned the tank and that chemical was now throughout my rocks and sand and I would have to tear down my tank, throw all that live rock and live sand out to avoid recontamintating a new set up.

 

[sav_lion]

I was poor, but lived near the ocean. I decided to be cheap and get some "free sand" and live rock for my reef tank from the beach. I quarantined, everything seemed fine, then went on vacation for a week. Aiptasia explosion. I wasn't careful enough with quarantining, or didn't do so long enough.

 

[Sean Clark]

What would make tare down a tank?
Not being organized. I wouldn't be able to handle the chaos. Too OCD.
FYI, just got back from lunch.

 

[bsagea]

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.

This is the same garbage I have been battling! I'm ready to tear down my cube and re-start it in a few months after everything dies off! I have been replacing the rock with fresh live rock and removing it from the frags. No idea where it came from! I can't keep up with it! Definitely ready to throw in the towel on this one for awhile!
bsa

 

[Dakota_reef]

It was after I moved my tank a few hundred miles. I had no livestock losses during the move, and no nitrate spike but still under .5ppm. But I stirred up something bad in the sand bed and every kind of horrible algae you could think of was out of control (1 year tank at that point, water was where it should be, SPS lovin' it, Euphyllias feelin' it, and was finally past all the nasty).

What I failed to realize is that I did NOT shipon the junk from my sand bed before OR after the move. I know I probably could have saved it, but the electricity bill was just too high to keep trying.

It became a very sucessful planted tank after I shut it down until, you guessed it.... I moved again. And I couldn't keep up with the electricity (250w MH reduced to 150w, but to no avail). So I only have my 20gal cube rn while I continue to setup my 150g.

BTW -- This was so long ago, that green Stag cost me $65.00. And it was maybe 1/2" shorter than that.

My favorite part of my tank. This relatively large, thriving pulsing Xenia colony. I fragged enough of it BEFORE this picture to fund getting a 250w MH setup (fixture, bulb, pendant, ballast). It grow like a dandelion.

And here is the first [blurry] Pic when I moved it. This was all the corals and fish back into the main display. I sold the large xenias colony and kept a few heads .

Recreating what this tank was is why I still had a 10gal cube afterwards, up to a 20gal cube, now to be a 150g. So it just took me a while to really dive in again.