kien's 150g Room Divider Mixed Reef & Stuff

[kien]

Hello boys and girls! So.. where to begin..

When we last left off, I guess that was back in late June/early July, the reef was in top form, trucking along swimmingly (pun definitely intended!). Everything was nicely automated, fish were happy, corals were happy, all I had to do was sit back and enjoy the tank. Then of course summer rolled around and everything went to hell in a hand-woven basket.

I first noticed a couple of colonies acting funny. One was starting to burn at the tips and one was receding from the bottom. Okay, so something is up, let's check all the parameters. Parameters are all in check. Hmm, strange. Now, being SPS and having seen colonies do this before I figured fine, they aren't happy, everyone else seems happy so I'll just watch them and see what happens. Well, what happened next wasn't pretty. More and more colonies started to decline. Let's check the parameters again just to be sure. Yup, all in check. Maybe the lights? No, not the lights because colonies in both tanks are doing this and both tanks have completely different lighting systems (one is halide and one is T5s). Okay, time to clean the skimmer, the powerheads, return pumps, throw in some extra carbon and do some water changes. Nope, still no change. So, over the course of a couple of weeks colony after colony declined and withered away..











In the end I pulled out over half my collection It was quite heartbreaking actually. Many of these colonies I grew from 1" frags over the course of the year. Also strange is that there was one colony that remained completely unaffected, an ORA Red Planet colony which isn't even mine! Go figure.

So here's what a few hundred dollars worth of SPS death looks like.

[kien]

Of course while all of this is going on in the tank summer is in full swing which meant lots of time outside with the family and a few site trips to Atlanta for business thrown in there. It was a brutally busy summer. By August I decided a major intervention was required and started doing 10% water changes every other day with a 50% water change on the weekend. Let me just say that 50% water changes on a 321g system is not fun!!

By mid August things had started to settle down in the tank and I could see improvement. The remaining colonies that didn't completely kick the salt bucket were starting to get their colour back which mostly all of them had lost. I also noticed a few colonies that had lost their tips started to encrust over them. Like this guy.



Because I was spending so much time trying to fight this "event" I didn't really have much time for other non essential maintenance like algae scrubbing. By this time the tank glass was a spectacular array of algaes. Nothing a few hours of elbow grease can't fix though.

[kien]

I'm not really one to dwell too much on the doom and gloom so to look on the bright side of things, the tank didn't completely crash! In fact, everyone else is doing perfectly fine. Clams are doing well, all LPS, zoas, fish, happy as can be. The few remaining colonies are in recovery mode and starting to come around.

[kien]

As you can see the Reef is still here, the FOWLR is still here and we're back on track.





So what the heck happened? Who the heck knows. Maybe SPS chemical warfare that reached a critical mass, maybe some sort of pathogen like a virus or protozoan. All I know is, whatever it was, it helped to clear much needed reef real estate for me to buy more corals

[Coleus]

wow i really feel your lost. I am very sorry to hear. have you checked your carbon?

[kien]

Originally Posted by Coleus

wow i really feel your lost. I am very sorry to hear. have you checked your carbon?

thanks.. and yes it is the same carbon that I've been using for a year now and the same carbon I'm still using today. Lignite RoX 0.8 carbon, great stuff actually.

[Zoaelite]

I know what your feeling buddy, pulled out a stupid amount of coral over the summer. Tank is still looking wicked, on the bright side now you can beat me to all the nice coral... like usual .

[Delphinus]

Ouch. Having lived through several inexplicable SPS die offs, I feel your pain.

Like I've said before sometimes it's not even really a testable parameter. There's so much stuff at play, when an event happens, our attempts at an investigation can sometimes just be the Texas sharpshooter syndrome. You hope whatever it was is resolved and hope for the best sometimes.

But, like you hinted .. onwards and upwards. Your tanks sure have a good look to them still.

[lastlight]

That is heartbreaking man. Those pics are tough to look at having seen that tank in person before. Great attitude about it all and not only are you not going soft(ie) on us you're plowing ahead with the sps. Not sure there's much I can help with but if you need me to break off anything to kick start you let me know.

[ElGuappo]

sorry to hear about all the issues.. i am a little behind apparently.. also you mentioned one reef and one fowlr tank, can i see some pics of the fowlr tank ??? this looks more like two reefs to me.... yes see triggers and large angels in there but its hardly a FOWLR!

edit:: um just read the title and never mind....

Originally Posted by kien

As you can see the Reef is still here, the FOWLR is still here and we're back on track.





So what the heck happened? Who the heck knows. Maybe SPS chemical warfare that reached a critical mass, maybe some sort of pathogen like a virus or protozoan. All I know is, whatever it was, it helped to clear much needed reef real estate for me to buy more corals