Well, I found the source of my drain pipe clog

[d2mini]

R.I.P. Boy George :sad:

I had a feeling when I didn't see him the day I came home from my trip.
I think I'm going to have to secretly name the koi on my arm that I was getting during his demise "boy george".
What's weird is my tank is only 5 months old but I never lost a fish until last week when i bought that small yellow tang and he died on day 3. Then i go away for the weekend and my six line dies. Even my cleaner shrimp that I got before everything else is still going strong. I don't know if BG got stuck in the overflow after he died or if that was the cause of his death since I wasn't there. And the diatoms I've had in my tank for 2 months are driving me crazy. It's all just bumming me out. :grumble:

 

[Ashlee]

Aww that sucks, he was such a stud.

 

[dustin_P74]

sorry to hear about loss, i think he died in the overflow because he wouldnt have been able to get back there if he was dead

 

[ccCapt]

Sorry about the losses. Sucks when any fish die.

What's weird is my tank is only 5 months old....

And the diatoms I've had in my tank for 2 months are driving me crazy. It's all just bumming me out. :grumble:

Now I understand being bummed, but you shouldn't really be suprised. You know you pushed it setting up your tank. You add lots of corals fast. Added the yellow tang, which you know is not meant for a small tank like yours. And you recently had a bout with flatworms I believe. If you treated the tank, that only added to the problem.
A tank simply needs time to get established. There are countless chemical actions and reactions happening. Water parameters are far from stable. The filtration system needs to develop. Every piece of rock, pipe, plastic and glass that comes in contact with water will grow algae or bacteria and will all become part of the filtration system. Your tank was pushed and unfortunately your seeing the results now. Every tank goes thru a development stage...there is no getting around it.

Sorry for the lecture.........but the old saying goes "nothing happens fast in a reef tank except disasters".

 

[mennazeher04]

Hey ccCapt, what size tank should a yellow tang be put into? I have a 120 gal and I was thinking that size is pretty good......from what I was told from my LFS.

 

[dustin_P74]

75 gallons minimum

 

[d2mini]

Sorry about the losses. Sucks when any fish die.

Now I understand being bummed, but you shouldn't really be suprised. You know you pushed it setting up your tank. You add lots of corals fast. Added the yellow tang, which you know is not meant for a small tank like yours. And you recently had a bout with flatworms I believe. If you treated the tank, that only added to the problem.
A tank simply needs time to get established. There are countless chemical actions and reactions happening. Water parameters are far from stable. The filtration system needs to develop. Every piece of rock, pipe, plastic and glass that comes in contact with water will grow algae or bacteria and will all become part of the filtration system. Your tank was pushed and unfortunately your seeing the results now. Every tank goes thru a development stage...there is no getting around it.

Sorry for the lecture.........but the old saying goes "nothing happens fast in a reef tank except disasters".

Nah, it's true. But i never had this problem with my last tank. It was 3x the size though so it took a lot longer to add things.
And I did wait weeks or a month or more in between adding fish just like everyone says. The tang (which was no larger than 2", btw) was the first fish i added in a couple months. The only other fish i have is a small clown and a firefish. Never thought about corals effecting the water quality much.

Some enlightening suggestions from my local forum were....
1) I changed salts... twice since I've had the tank. Oceanic to D&D and back to Oceanic
2) I added a fuge a couple months ago with chaeto
3) I added a phosphate reactor back when i had the flatworms, but the pump it came with is crap and hardly ever works so I gave up on it over the past month or so.

All of these could be contributing to my diatoms.

 

[wontonflip]

Sorry to hear about BG....beautiful fish, too! At least you got a nice pic of him.

 

[yote]

Hate to hear that Dennis.

 

[stagofdoom]

Sorry to hear about that. If it makes you feel better I have lost all but two fish in the last two weeks.
Which is 5.

 

[d2mini]

Sorry to hear about that. If it makes you feel better I have lost all but two fish in the last two weeks.
Which is 5.

That would never make me feel better. Sorry, man. Hope you get that figured out!

So my plan is as follows...

1. Stick with the Oceanic salt for now, no more experimenting.
1a. Continue with at least 10% weekly water changes. Or should I do more %?
2. Don't add ANYTHING. No fish, no corals, no nothing. Maybe a few nerite snails though.
3. Get the phosban reactor working. New pump. Fresh carbon.
4. Cut lighting down to 10hrs/day
5. Try playing with skimmer
6. Trim my chaeto

Am i missing anything?

 

[RyanG]

Sorry to hear about your losses Dennis. Your plan of attack is sound. The key to everything is stability as you know.

 

[Bifferwine]

Boy George was a superstar. He will be missed.

 

[parrotchute]

Bummer Dennis, I loved the photos you had taken of Boy George.

 

[yote]

Try cutting the lights completely off for 3 or 4 days and see if that wont give you a head start on the diatoms.

 

[d2mini]

MY DIATOMS ARE GONE!
No more brown stringy stuff, no more green hair aglae, no more sad corals.
My water is bright and clear now!
Woohoo! :^::bounce:

 

[dustin_P74]

gratz

 

[Bifferwine]

So...that means that you're in for POTM this month I presume?? :)

 

[Altohombre]

so in less than two weeks all your diatoms and green hair algae are gone? Diatoms I can understand, but green hair algae?

 

[d2mini]

So...that means that you're in for POTM this month I presume?? :)

Well, maybe if I get off my lazy butt and actually take pics.

so in less than two weeks all your diatoms and green hair algae are gone? Diatoms I can understand, but green hair algae?

I had them for close to 2 months. But all of sudden over the course of about a week everything disappeared. The only thing left is some small patches of leftover green hair algae where it was really thick.