Thinking about tearing down my tank....

[9supratt4]

I am seriously considering tearing down my tank and selling it all off. It's not the money or the work....it's that every time I look at my tank I get depressed. I have been fighting Bryopsis for a while now. The aptasia is completely taking over. And no matter how much I try and try it all keeps coming back.

Then I get here this morning and my prized Blonde Naso is stuck to the side of my Vortech. My girlfriend took about a year to find the perfect blonde naso...and now it's gone. Why? I have no idea. When I left here Friday, everyone and everything was happy.

A year to year and a half ago I was loving my tank. Everything was great...corals were growing...coraline everywhere...now the tank just looks down right bad!! I hate looking at it...it's just downright depressing!!

I am so upset about the naso I can cry right now....the one thing I always took pride on was happy and healthy fish!!

 

[JRWOHLER]

I feel your pain in so many ways Steve. Must have been some bad air in NJ, well that goes without saying, I lost my naso Saturday morning. By far my favorite fish. I don't know why, was perfect looking if just slightly thin. Add in my hair algae problem which I never fought before and it is pretty similar. I have realized that I need to get off my butt and do some extra water changes etc. It was starting to improve, and my feeling about the tank, until the naso tang thing. Keep with it. I know your rockwork is pretty nice but maybe you need to take some out and cook it and rebuild?

 

[ricwilli]

I felt the same way when I lost 95 percent of my sps's. My tank looked really crappy. I still think it looks like crap. I was going to give up and break down the tank. my thoughts changed after attending a meeting and some of the people their talked me out of it. I'm glad that they did. Now I'm upgrading to a bigger tank.
I would remove all the rocks and cure them by letting them dry up. I know its a lot of work, but it will be worth it at the end. Hang in there.

 

[9supratt4]

I really don't know if I can continue....I've been fighting aptasia for 6 months...bryopsis for at least 3...and now this fish dies. This was the most friendly fish!! it would eat from your hands and even let you pet it if you wanted to. I can't believe how upset I am over this....I've never lost one of my larger fish in the 4-5 years I've been doing this....man does it hurt!!

 

[Xavier613]

I would not give up on the hobby, But perhaps on fixing this situation. Instead of fighting the bryprosis and aptasia and Everything that is wrong, either cook the rock, power wash it ( done it) or some other drastic measure.
I'm sure someone would be willing to house fish and coral you have left or lend you a temporary tank for the time it takes to reset your system, and you will have to start fresh but it is a hell of a lot better than looking at a tank full of that crap. Trust me I did this whole dance before. I got rid of everything, took all the rock out, did a 75% water change, threw away some unsalvageable rock, And scrubbed and power washed the rest. Now my tank is 10x as beautiful as ever without Any of the same problems, and I'm making sure to stay on top of the levels and things that led to the problems I had before.


Its something you love, and its always worth any effort. If you need help, (not sure of your location, I'm inthe south) I am willing, and I am sure others Are too, to help with any labor that needs to be done to save another one of our members!

 

[TanksNStuff]

Sorry to hear about the Naso Steve. It's one thing to lose a fish, even worse when you don't know why.

I think if you took Xavier's advice and just started all over... you will have a beautiful tank running in a few months. You know there are plenty of people around here who will help you out with temporary storage and rebuilding. I'm sure Brandon owes you for all the times he's started over.

If you broke it all down and just got rid of it, you're going to miss it every time you go diving or see another tank.

 

[Gonzapa]

Steve. Rip the BandAid. 2 months and this will be just a bad memory

 

[magic]

Steve, first sorry for the loss. Please wait a little while before you give up. You don't want to sell everything and then have to re buy it when you get the ich again. We have all gone through tuff times with our tanks and and with a little help from our friends we have gotten through them (I've had 2 crashes within the last year(equipment failure and my friend IRENE). If you need any help on a weekend let me know.

Bob

 

[TanksNStuff]

Steve, first sorry for the loss. Please wait a little while before you give up. You don't want to sell everything and then have to re buy it when you get the ich again. We have all gone through tuff times with our tanks and and with a little help from our friends we have gotten through them (I've had 2 crashes within the last year(equipment failure and my friend IRENE). If you need any help on a weekend let me know.

Bob

Bob, please tell me that was a typo. I know you're not wishing he gets ich on the rebuild.

 

[9supratt4]

I don't know guys....I'm still thinking about breaking it down and just keeping the tank and equipment dry.

 

[asonitez]

I've had tanks break, ich breakouts, total sps devastation from power failure. What keeps me coming back is knowing each and every time that I fixed almost everything. I bought a good tank ,got a backup, quarantined.

Fix your Aiptasia problem with Aiptasia eating file fish. My tank had 1 aiptasia every 3 inches and 1 file fish decimated it in a month or so.

Elevate your Mag for the bryopsis. Throw in some urchins for them to start scraping the rock. I got something worse than bryopsis.. Loboplataliya or some crap.. basically brown looking HARD plates growing all over my rock and encrusting like a montipora. Got urchin killed it.

Then Start doing things you DON"T do with your tank... Get a razor blade and clean that coraline off the back wall and from the sides and silicone areas. soak your pumps and get rid of some of that nasty build up. Clean up your sand bed with a siphon hose and remove some of that fish poop and a little sand as well. Get a hard bound journal and your text kit and some tank water and test each and every parameter 3 times. Average the top 2 and use that as your reference.

Do a water change and switch to a regular salt. If you don't have a lot of corals trying Oceanic is a good idea.

Bring your salinity up to around 1.026.

Examine and clean all your pumps and equipment.

Clean your sump and shop vac up all the detrius thats accumulated.

Clean off your salt spray.



I gurantee you that by the end of this process you will feel better about the tank. MY final advice is go to the dollar store and purchase the plastic brush with the thinnest handle and the strongest roughest bristles. During your your water change at "low tide" remove what rocks you can and scrub the hell out of it in the removed tank water rinse it will and replace it. There you just slapped the bryopsis a hard knock and your water chances and elevated magnesium should handle it... if not your new urchins should attack it as well and worse case scenario your agressive brushing and disturbance of it out of the water should kill off a lot of it.



I'm sorry to hear about your tang. I like to remember that we take these animals from the wild and stick them in our glassboxes for our enjoyment. A glass box and great food is no replacement for the ocean but I'm not here to bash. A long lived friend that you made effort to keep alive and that had lived to his age in peace and good health well fed and happy I wouldn't mourn the dead. I'm sure hes swimming some place better.

 

[trivan]

I just read a post on RC how a number if people have had success with TechM for the bryopsis. Just raise mag didn't work for all people. Either method I think it's worth a shot.

 

[magic]

Bob, please tell me that was a typo. I know you're not wishing he gets ich on the rebuild.

It was a big typo! Steve PM me if you change your mind. I was actually thinking about ordering some Marco Rock to redo my tank I don't know if you would be intrested in getting some. Let me know.

Bob

 

[9supratt4]

asonitez....I do a lot of that already.

I can say one thing....the way I am feeling right now...If I empty this tank...it's staying empty....

 

[Sandee]

Oh no! I love your tank!!!!

You know I'm just around the corner from you now (Denville), pls let me help out, either way.

How are those beautiful pink tips? Loved them!!!


Sandee | Sent from my iPhone!

 

[9supratt4]

Oh no! I love your tank!!!!

You know I'm just around the corner from you now (Denville), pls let me help out, either way.

How are those beautiful pink tips? Loved them!!!


Sandee | Sent from my iPhone!

Sandee....I think you have me confused with my neighbor John

 

[Hawkeye]

I just read a post on RC how a number if people have had success with TechM for the bryopsis. Just raise mag didn't work for all people. Either method I think it's worth a shot.

I used two full gallons of tech M (a third gallon mostly used is by my tank) to combat bryopsis. Bryopsis was what caused me to buy a super long stainless steel "claw" tool to manually pull the stuff out. It was so disturbing and growing so fast and overtaking my LR and coral.

After a while though the bryopsis became "brittle" or "white" is the best way i can describe it. I was so happy and yet sad because I threw out whole frags of corals that had been infested with bryopsis. If i had let the tech M solution take effect, I might have saved some frags.

Definitely try it - it should work. Everytime you change water you have to add more tech m. Turbos/mexican or snails are useless.

Aip's growth can be slowed by feeding less. But first thing's first - knock out the bryop, then onward to the aip.

 

[Sandee]

Whoops! Sorry! I took a quick look at your profile and saw EH - I totally forgot Trigger's handle, so! Either way, happy to help!

< say hello to your neighbor John! >

 

[Sunny]

Steve

Hang in there dude. This is not easy I agree. I was in the same situation last year around the same time. The HA was ugly and taking over my tank. I had horrible time tackling ich. I lost my prized purple tang and a lot other fish. I also gave up almost. Then one day, I looked at the tank and said I will not let this tank die. I took a day off next day and cleaned every bit of it. 3 months later I ordered my 350G tank setup.

Reefing is in your blood now. If you sell all, you will be back shortly. You will then look for stuff and feel bad for the decision you made today.

Try Tech M. What do you have to loose? Try a copper band for Aiptesia. What is the worst that can happen, you are ready to quit anyways.

Let me know if I can be any help.

Sunny

 

[reefsandrotts]

StevePm sent