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Old 04-17-2021, 05:27 PM
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Recently I went through my worst tank crash to date. I have had a few throughout the years where I had mass coral die off, others brought on by not being able to maintain my tank (hospital for 6 days after a heart attack) and one through outright tank negligence.

This time due to a combination of factors through work (I work 12 hr shifts) and excessive overtime and ongoing medical issues (getting old sucks) and generally neglecting my tank it crashed over a period of 5 days I lost all but 2 fish all but one coral and left with a massive hair algae explosion. Ironically my snail population has bloomed and my glass is loaded with snail egg trails.

I have been slowly putting my tank back in order after much pondering as whether to continue with the tank or not, start fresh or buy a new tank or leave the hobby totally. In the end I decided that as long as I have fish and inverts alive that I would give them a fighting chance but it hasn’t been easy or fun making choices and I did struggle with depression and a sense of loss before deciding to move forward but we will see what the future brings.

This hobby loves to send you through the wringer that’s for sure.
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Old 04-18-2021, 10:05 PM
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I feel your pain Dearth. I went through a crippling crash where I lost the majority of my SPS a year and a half/two years back. I decided we both needed our space and I let the tank do what it was going to do for 6 months. After that I started to put in the effort and got it humming again.

Our freshwater tank is similar to what you described though. We have some hella old fish and I can't bring myself to change the tank up until they are no longer with us. That could be another decade at this pace lol!
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Old 04-19-2021, 07:35 AM
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Sorry things are a little rough right now. Glad you’re not throwing in the towel though. What would we do without our tanks to drive us crazy?
Hope things get better soon
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Old 05-02-2021, 01:58 PM
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Well 2 weeks after my mega crash I did get some bright spots in my tank 2 fish I previously thought had died showed their faces on the same day my Wheelers shrimp Goby and another goby I can’t remember the name of plus my pistol shrimp made a rare appearance as well. Add to that two coral I had thought were killed showed signs of life yesterday.

My tank isn’t out of trouble yet but things are looking up adding a little bit of joy to an otherwise bleak situation. Just placed an invert order with J&L so I am getting 1% happier.
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Old 08-16-2021, 01:18 AM
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Well my tank was well on its way back to recovery and then I ended up neglecting my tank due to working a ton of overtime and having a mild case of depression(let’s hear it for side effects of heart attacks life long depression) and I had my first good look at my tank a couple of days ago and it has left me wondering if I should start fresh, get out of the hobby or bite the bucket and upgrade my tank to a newer model(this one is almost 15 years old).

While my tank isn’t crashing there is a serious case of algae and patches of cyano and just general neglect. I am however in a position now where overtime is no longer an issue and I can start looking at options to revive my system and let me tell you it’s a very daunting task and somewhat scary as well.

Should be an interesting couple of weeks anyway as I decide the future of my tank and hobby.
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Old 08-16-2021, 07:34 AM
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Hey Dearth, greeting from Campbell River BC, you should think about starting fresh, like getting a new tank, something like the Red Sea Reefer, not bigger but smaller and manageable and easy to maintain. Sometimes starting fresh and getting a new tank promotes a new source of excitement that can motivate and inspire you again, I have been in the hobby going back to the mid-70s then saltwater in the mid-80s, and today I am still passionate about the hobby whether it is just relaxing and enjoying my aquariums, I have 8 reef aquariums only one of them is a planted freshwater tank, or just doing routine maintenance. My secret is Passion for the hobby, Simplicity keeping simple equipment & technical, Stability for all parameters. For the sake of your health and time working, try to avoid sensitive fish & corals, there are many beautiful tanks out there that have a simple setup that requires very little work and can bring much satisfaction for you. Wish we could be much closer, then you can come and visit my tanks and be inspired. Take care of yourself and even if you have a slight glimpse of a small flame then you will overcome and be inspired again. Regards ken
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Old 08-20-2021, 11:30 PM
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Well I decided to keep my current tank however down the road I would like a new tank but as nobody in PG sells reef ready tanks and have no interest in even ordering them I am stuck with either going to the Lower Mainland or Alberta to pick one up and neither option excites me.

I will be working on my current tank over the coming weeks as I will have more time now and I am actually getting excited of the prospect of restocking my tank and having something to stare at during our long winter months.
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Old 10-26-2021, 02:20 PM
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How did the rebuild/refresh go?

I'm looking at doing the same for my little 33g fish only system that has been seriously neglected. It didn't start out fish only, but a crash that happened a while back made it one and then I lost steam. It's been pretty neglected since then and I have to do some long overdue cleaning/maintenance.

I've had a 130g tank build half finished for a while and I'm finally starting to get back to that. My wife and I had our second baby in 2020 and I've just been way to busy.

Did you consider a Waterbox tank? I think they drop ship the larger tanks right to your door when you order them from a store.
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Old 10-28-2021, 03:02 AM
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I added several fish about 2 months ago and lost 1 to stress right away and lost three more to other issues in my tank but I still have 9 more fish all of which are doing well. I’m thinking of doing a coral order before it gets cold again which will only be softies as my tank is setup for softies (low maintenance low stress usually)

Overall I’m pleased with its recovery and I’m going slow no sense in rushing and getting another die off due to impatience
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Old 07-10-2022, 03:52 AM
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I have found that after my tank crashed I have had a hard time reinvigorating myself to properly fix up my tank. I had another partial tank crash that killed 3 fish. We have no idea how it crashed but it did.

After that I just kind of let my tank do it’s own thing while still doing basic maintenance on it.(water replacement, glass cleaning). I am trying to find the motivation to redo my tank but I still struggle with the idea my tank is gonna crash again.

I have 3 shrimp 3 fish and 2 coral and several snails and surprisingly a couple of crabs still kicking around.

I am not interested in leaving the hobby but I’ve also hit a wall of sorts and trying to figure out how to did myself out of this funk.

For those of you that went through a tank loss how did you motivate yourself to get back into the grind.
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