Casualties

[MadReefer]

Well after that Berlin skimmer issue I had discovered some losses. Rest in piece:

Cap frags- purple, green and orange
Flower anemone
Candy canes
eagle eye zoo frag
Green bubble coral (only a few tips left)
pavona (won in March raffle)
battle scarred purple tang (Second fav fish) :'(

 

[magic]

Mark

Not your month for skimmers! :-\

Bob

 

[MadReefer]

Guess not Bob. Better my tank than Roy's.

 

[Hawkeye]

what are the water parameters?

it almost sounds like your tank crashed -

you list sps
you list an anemone (a hardy one at that)
you list sps
you list zoas
you listed a fish

Go back to the smaller tank- those were the good days!

 

[MadReefer]

Phil, pretty soon I may go to no tank. ???

I always had a problem with SPS need to stay away from them but I am drawn. The zoos were hit or miss; some lived and some didn't. The nem started going down when I cut back on feeding. I tried spot feeding but guess it was to late. No clue what happened to the PT. It was a survivor of lateral line disease and had it over a year. I got it from DeathMagnetic.

 

[Hawkeye]

put the asterina starfish back in!

 

[blange3]

What happened with the skimmer? Sounds like a lot of damage for a skimmmer going offline.

 

[MadReefer]

Bill, the skimmer was offline for two weeks.

Phil, I can drop the Asternia at your place tonight. ;D

I guess the plus side is the water looks great and all the other fish are swimming about nicely. The frogspawn, hammer, cabbage, shrooms and other basic corals seem to be doing better.

The PT must have got sucked into one of the K3's. My son said the pump made a loud noise but the lights were out when it happened.

Should I move the Bubble to a spot with less flow and try to save it?

 

[onefish2fish]

sorry to hear, i know what this feels like.

is it possible your softies released some stuff killing the SPS or the nem died killing the SPS, and the PT didnt get enough oxygen in the battle? skimmers help airate the water. just thinking outloud.

 

[MadReefer]

Jon,
No idea exactly. I am sure no skimmer for 2 weeks and the heat this weekend took a toll. Right now the temp is about 76f using a floating mercury thermometer. I need to test everything else. But always had problems with SPS and zoos.

 

[Hawkeye]

i would try and stabilize the tank - do not add anymore livestock. See if you can get the skimmer working, do a massive water change, then move on. As the tank stabilizes again - perhaps it's just for the best to keep only what you already have in there.

 

[duijver]

sorry to hear about your loss!

Do you really think that the skimmer was the problem? I ran my tank for 4 months w/o a skimmer when I first started. I couldn't figure out how to get it working since it didn't come with a pump.

 

[MadReefer]

Phil, I agree with you about stabilizing the tank. The skimmer is working as of Saturday Night. I hooked up a Mag7 and that boost made a big difference. It hasn't stopped skimming and the air is barely open otherwise it will overflow the collection cup. I don't understand why the booklet says a pump of at least 500gph but they sell it with a 780gph pump. I still plan on fixing the other skimmer with the broken cup and seeing how that works. Hopefully, this week or weekend.

 

[MadReefer]

I always believed in skimmers. Even when I had a fish only tank over 10 years ago. All I can say is that the water looks much more clear now than last week.

 

[blange3]

Hang in there Mark!

Yes, I would try to save the bubble. Try to get it to eat some bits of krill or something similar. I would only move it if it's in a high flow area. Low flow is great for healing, but it's not too strong there is stress involved with moving it as well.

I think the lack of a skimmer contributed to the stress, but generally when you have so many asterinas, you have a fair amount of detritus as well. Try blowing out between the rocks with a minijet or a turkey baster before water changes. How often and how much water do you change?

If you need to borrow a skimmer for a while I have a HOB AquaC Remora you can borrow.

 

[JRWOHLER]

Mark hang in there try to keep it simple and you will figure it out.