Starting Over - Round 2

paintballer768

Active Member
Life got hectic and the tank got really neglected. All of my corals are dead except my duncans (I think they are not receeding yet), and my fish, cleaner shrimp, and clam are still alive. Ive been battling ammonia/nitrite/nitrate throughout this whole process and have not been able to get a grip on the downward spiral of the tank. Ive had horrible algae (not normal hair algae, some weird grassy kind and classic cyano) to fight and it comes back daily. So what do I do now? Ive still got my large purple acan colony in the tank and the blue candy canes, which I thought were the only living corals left, but I noticed receeding so those have to go (source of ammonia).
What now? I wanted to quit entirely for a few months, but my parents suggested draining the tank and rock, scrubbing it all down, and resetting it up downstairs (since the MH lights cook my room during the day). This sounds good to me, a nice chance to redo the tank and improve on what Ive learned.
Whats going to be different:
The intake on the left side of the AQ24 has been open all this time and I hardly notice suction. Using the blockers that came with it, Im going to seal half of it up and hopefully create some flow back in the chambers. The pump in the back is so weak too, Im putting my MJ900 on it (it might be a 1200, I forget).
I found my sixline wrasse a few months ago living in the back chambers, off of excess food. Im switching to pellets and really monitoring the mysis I put in. The loose parts like small heads and excess from the cubes dont get eaten at all and rot. Lovely
Hopefully this will happen this weekend, and I can start up my log again.
-Jeff
 

cal559

Member
I'm sure you will beat that tank with the amount of info you know now...
Good Luck and glad to have you back.
 

paintballer768

Active Member
Originally Posted by cal559
http:///forum/post/2923705
I'm sure you will beat that tank with the amount of info you know now...
Good Luck and glad to have you back.

Thanks, appreciate it.
Another thing I found out. This biocube skimmer deal, total garbage. Every 2 days I have to empty it, and I havent really ever noticed much in there but the average gunk. Kinda sucks when you wake up to the top of the lid in the tank and bubbles messing up your LED lights
 
since you had cyano and other algae and water quality issues, i suggest you cut back the amount you feed.
not sure if you know this but it helps if you soak and drain the mysis prior to feeding, as the cubes they are in are full of excess nutrients that cause all sorts of problems if your putting too much in. Also it doesnt hurt feeding every 2 days. The fish will be fine especially with mysis.
You probably already know all that, but i had cyano for a bit and i cut back a lot on feeding and light times and it helped a ton. Good luck to you, your tank looked awesome i hope when you restart it looks just as nice.
 

paintballer768

Active Member
Originally Posted by Freeborder_01
http:///forum/post/2923880
since you had cyano and other algae and water quality issues, i suggest you cut back the amount you feed.
not sure if you know this but it helps if you soak and drain the mysis prior to feeding, as the cubes they are in are full of excess nutrients that cause all sorts of problems if your putting too much in. Also it doesnt hurt feeding every 2 days. The fish will be fine especially with mysis.
You probably already know all that, but i had cyano for a bit and i cut back a lot on feeding and light times and it helped a ton. Good luck to you, your tank looked awesome i hope when you restart it looks just as nice.
Yea the blocks are loaded with soon to be ammonia. I know Im going to cut back, the pellets are a lot easier to keep track of than small bits of shrimp.
Originally Posted by Rotarymagic

http:///forum/post/2923881
Run rowaphos in a bag or reactor and a chaeto fuge..
I run SeaChem PhosGuard and GAC in a bag in the back chambers. It is working (because the phosguard is showing a discoloration), but I dont know how really effective it is. It will be better soon
 

zoie2

Active Member
Hey, paintballer,
Glad to hear you're not giving up. This can be a frustrating hobby. My tank crashed in the first year I had it. (I thought my cleaner shrimp had shed and left it be, he actually died and my levels spiked). I lost some of my favorite coral. I got it balanced and added some more nice coral and 6 months later it crashed again. (somehow, a piece of my chiller fell in my back chamber and the metal from it messed up my water). And again lost good coral.
After the second crash I was discouraged. I maintained my tank, but that was it. I let it sit for over a year. I'm just now getting new coral and getting excited to make it look really nice.
It takes a bit, but once you get going the fun will come back!
 

buffett

Member
welcome back, you had a great looking tank, im very sure that your new set up will difinitely be better than your old one i had the same kind of problem a few years ago, im glad i never really gave up this hobby, keep going lets see some pics of your progress !
 

whisk

Active Member
hey Paintballer, just found this thread. Your tank was very inspirational for me when i first started and im sorry to hear it took a nosedive. im confident you can make a comeback and start anew and refreshed. good luck man!
 
Top