Downsizing??? Really???

[Capt_Dan]

I am just seeing this morning as to what happened Ron. Damn man I am so sorry to hear this. We put too much time and $$ into this hobby for this to happen, but we all know it can happen at any given time.

I sure hope you don't give up what you love. If you need any help with anything please just let me know.

[Fredfish]

1. take it slow and let your first reactions wear off. You may feel differently.
2. If you run a chiller again, put a temp control circuit on the chiller so that it shuts off below something like 75 degrees.
3. Keep on truckin'
4. a pair of clowns isn't enough for an anemone themed tank. Get a harem.

[Ron Reefman]

Originally Posted by Grayhead

Build some redundancy in your system. A controller would have shut your chiller off. If memory serves me, you are not a fan of them. But even a simple one would have helped.
Sorry to hear about your trouble. I always like that you collect your own specimens. Tagging along to see where you go from here

You are right all around, and now I'm changing my mind! I have a lot of Apex hardware in a couple of boxes in my closet. As I rework this system I will be installing it. Thanks a lot for reminding me. It's amazing what a disaster can do to change your mind!

Originally Posted by JTL

That's the spirit. I know lots of reefers keep multiple tanks but I am not one of them. Just too much stuff to maintain. We keep our house at 80 degrees and my 100g tank stays 77-78. I think I need to get a couple of heaters for the winter months because it is likely to get cooler than I would like. Did you lose the snowflake clowns that you recently purchased?

Thanks John.

There may be stuff alive that is still hiding in the rocks. Just a few minutes ago a very old black & white pajama cardinal came out. I can see a big star and the yellow cucumber. They are both under the rocks but neither of them is moving. I'm about to start tearing into the tanks.

Yes, the 2 clowns are gone. We have already removed 7 dead fish from the tanks. I'll at least do a pair in the big tank in time. I like clowns, so I might even consider a differ type and get a pair for the cube as well. Didn't you tell me you know somebody? Maybe a breeder?

[SFish]

Your always doing interesting stuff Ron. I'm sure you will make your tanks better then before.

[Ron Reefman]

Originally Posted by Capt_Dan

I am just seeing this morning as to what happened Ron. Damn man I am so sorry to hear this. We put too much time and $$ into this hobby for this to happen, but we all know it can happen at any given time.

I sure hope you don't give up what you love. If you need any help with anything please just let me know.

Thanks Dan. I think I have a plan. It will involve my shutting down 2 tanks (in the back bedroom). And some significant changes on the main system. Suggestions are welcome.

Originally Posted by Fredfish

1. take it slow and let your first reactions wear off. You may feel differently.
2. If you run a chiller again, put a temp control circuit on the chiller so that it shuts off below something like 75 degrees.
3. Keep on truckin'
4. a pair of clowns isn't enough for an anemone themed tank. Get a harem.

Fredfish, thanks for the advise. Letting the first reaction wear off is sage advise and already taking hold. So I'm still in, but downsizing a bit more and going a bit more simple and with stronger corals. The Apex will get set up. But since I switched to all leds and all DC pumps, powerheads and gyres, heat isn't much of an issue.

The 125g will have more zoas than anemones. I already have 20 colonies that range from small to5 or 6 inches in diameter. Now I'll be adding more, but probably not high end stuff. Really good fluorescents is way more important to me than fancy names or new to the market. I do have 20 RBTA's, but they are all on the small side. However, they do keep splitting. I feed the rock flowers because they come from deeper water and IMHO do much better if fed regularly (at least once a week). But I tend to feed the RBTA's a the same time. I may have to cut back on feeding the RBTA's!

I'm not sure about more than a pair of clowns. I had a small harem of 3 tomato clowns and 4 cinnamon clowns in a 75g hexagon tank. All were small juveniles when I got them and they seemed fine for 3 or 4 months. But once one turned female, they began disappearing one by one until there was only one male left. Any thoughts? Have you ever had more?

[Ron Reefman]

Here is a small sample of the way the tank looks.

[Fredfish]

Originally Posted by Ron Reefman

... Any thoughts? Have you ever had more?

I have not. I'm just going by what I saw when I did dives on the GBR. Large anemones with a group of various sized clowns in them.

Maybe its a species thing? If I recall Tomato's are more aggressive. The Ripley's aquarium up here has a whole whack of Ocilaris clowns in a large cube tank. They were small at the time though so maybe were juveniles.

I do remember a thread here on RC with an anemone and clown themed tank that had more than a pair.

[Ron Reefman]

Today things are more stable, the water is clear and the skimmer is still making bubbles that don't want to pop and drain from the collection cup. But slief's plan to wipe cooking oil around the outer edge of the inside of the collection cup cover worked perfectly! Thank you for that! This morning the cup is full of foam and some has drained into the remote reservoir, but there is no foam pushing out the vent holes on the top of the cup and the lid is still sitting on the cup, not 1" up of the cup on a cushion of foam.

So dead corals and any bodies I can find will come out today. For now it's a good thing I have a second system so I can move the few sps that look like they might have some slim change to survive.

[JTL]

Ron, is the plan to skinny down to the DT and the refugium tank? Your new sump will be large enough to store some frags if necessary. That is my eventual plan but for the time being I need all my frags in the DT.

[Ron Reefman]

The goal is to keep the Cadlight 125g and the DIY 50g cube. And I'll still make the bigger sump/refugium. I have a few surviving LPS and a few sps frags in the other system which I will put in the 50g cube. The anemones and zoas will go in the 125g. If the 50g works out OK, fine. But if I have any issues, it probably could go away as well.

I have 4 good size frag racks with BIG magnets, so I do them in the end of the 125g or the 50g and even in the refugium.

I'm thinking I'll do the rook work using the ones covered in zoas now and as many smaller rocks as I can for the zoas to grow over. Then I can just pull a rock and sell it while I replace it with a new rock! Besides, I love the fluorescence of the corals and zoas are better than sps in that respect anyway.

What do you think?

[JTL]

Just about everything seems to fluoresce better than sps. I am not having much luck with acros but some of the other sps is doing ok. Our zoas are doing well as are the favia, chalice and monitis. We have no acans or blasto and are thinking about a few of those. Have you had those? We we get a frag we immediately take it off the plug and put it on a small rock, which some day will grow on to the larger rocks.

[JTL]

Hey Ron, how's the project coming?

[Ron Reefman]

Yesterday I did another water change and I'm still skimming at a slightly elevated rate. The skimmer is more foam than bubbles and they hold together and last longer than what I'm used to. But the water is very clear now.

I've pulled 90% the dead sps and 100% of the softies. There are a few sps that may recover. So far I haven't found but a few dead fish. The rock flower anemones were all open after just a day or two. The zoas were all open yesterday, and the RBTA's were more open than they have been. But still not as much as normal. I think that's the best sign I have that things are much better in the tank.

I never saw any ammonia or nitrate spike, but I have changed out 100+ gallons of water over the past 5 days. I ordered 2 tangs and 2 lawnmorrower blennies to try and help with some hairy algae in both tanks. Yesterday I also started running only the blue and violet leds. The corals open normally and fluoresce, so they look good, but the algae doesn't get the white/red spectrum it needs to grow. I'll probably run it all blue for a week.

Today I'll do some more rock and coral removal from the 125g. That way I can get the last few sps and lps out of the 125g and move them to the 50g cube. The 125g will be all zoas and anemones. This process will allow me to look for more dead bodies and to rearrange the rock structure for better display of the zoas. My old design was kind of low and flat to allow for the sps to grow up. Now I'll build the rocks up using smaller rocks. That should allow for better viewing of the zoas and allow me to pull a rock every now and then to sell off and replace with a new rock with a new zoa frag. Hopefully this strategy works out OK.

I'll post up some pics of the tank as it is now, with most of the sps and softies out. It actually doesn't look too bad. There are a few pretty nice size colonies of zoas. The hammer and frogspawn are doing better as well. When I get the new rock design done and things get settled down, I'll post up some more pics.

[JTL]

Are you going to qt the new fish?

[Ron Reefman]

I gave up quarantining years ago. Even the stuff I bring home wild caught in the Gulf of Mexico or in the Florida Keys goes directly into the tank. Been doing it that way for 10 years and the only issues I've ever had is aiptasia and flat worms. And both of those infestations came in on frags from local friends I trusted! LOL!

[Ron Reefman]

I prepped the 50g cube by pulling almost everything out of the tank. I'll create a new rock structure and start moving the few sps survivors in the 125g DT and the sps frags from my shallow reef tank into the cube.

I picked up a very small royal gramma, a small purple basslet and 2 small clowns. They all seem to be doing fine this morning. Tangs and blennies will be delivered today.

[JTL]

You sure don't waste anytime restocking What kind of clowns? A royal gramma, black cap purple basslet and two darwin clowns is what I started with. Now after my fluke epidemic I am down to the clowns but plan on getting an african midas blenny and a new royal gramma as soon as my qt tank finishes a cycle. I am also going to do the ttm. In the past I never quarantined thinking the lfs or dd was good enough. I don't think a quarantine would have helped me with the flukes since they did not show up for 2 1/2 months. They may have been on a frag, assuming that is possible.

[Ron Reefman]

I went cheap all the way. The clowns are ordinary ocellaris that were on sale for $12 each. Heck, the royal gramma was $6. But it's really tiny. The blennies and tangs arrived today. The sailfin tang in the big tank and the scopas tang in the cube and a lawn mower blenny in each!

The good news is I stated removing the sps and lps corals that survived out of the 125g tank. When I pulled out a big flat rock I found both sea cucumbers and a couple shrimp (a golden Coral banded and a cleaner. I had 2 of each and they may be alive under more rocks. My big purple star has survived, but the tips of his arms don't look good. If'when I get the chance I'll pull it and keep it in a tank where I can watch over it.

I've started to prep rock (I dill holes for frag plugs) and assemble a structure in the 50g cube and I've moved about 15 corals over. A few are from the shallow reef in the bedroom and one is the big frog spawn from the 125g. I can see this is going to be a fairly long process. It wears me out after a couple of hours and it seems like I've hardly made any progress. Oh, and I just found a green bubble tip anemone I didn't even know I had in Hannibal's 25g tank (the Hawaiian reef lobster).

Tomorrow will be a difficult day as the stones that are left are well attached to large rocks in the 125g tank.

[JTL]

Progress is good, at our age we need to measure our time

[JTL]

Progress report?

[youcallmenny]

Dang, Ron. Very sorry to hear this happened. Wish I was closer, I'd chip some frags for you. Good luck on the upswing!

[Ron Reefman]

JTL, progress is being made... slowly. Life has been busy the last few weeks. 100% of the dead corals are out and 75% of the surviving sps corals are out. A couple look to be recovering and I'm leaving them in the tank so as not to shock them any more.

youcallmenny, thanks for the good thoughts. Actually, if I end up shutting down the back room tanks, 65g shallow reef/frag tank and a 25g with a red Hawaiian reef lobster, I'll have enough corals to make both the main DT's look OK.

I promise I'll get to photos on Thursday. I have to because I'll be doing auto-x all weekend with the new Toyota 86!

[Ron Reefman]

It's been a very productive 3 weeks since my last post.

Algae and cyano blooms are going away. I've moved the last of my current crop of zoas from the shallow reef (going away soon) to the 125g main DT. I've fragged and mounted all the big lps and sps corals that I had and I've been selling off the frags and some 'extra' rose bubble tip anemones. The 50g cube is more stable with less algae issues.

The sure sign things are getting better happened last night, we had snail eggs hatch! I have about 20 Astrea snails that were collected in the Keys and have survived 'the big chill'. And this morning, besides 75% of the adult snails on the glass, there were also over 70 tiny baby Astrea snails! That may be no big deal to some, but it's the first time I've been aware of it in one of my tanks. And not that long after such a big die off of sps coral, softie corals and all the fish and shrimp.

[ento-reefer]

Hi Ron. I just finished reading through your thread and I loved your write up and your tanks. I am sorry to hear about your chiller mishap, but glad you are rebuilding your 125.

I found my way to your thread from the Reefbreeders forum. I have a 48" photon V 2 and was reading many of your informative advice on settings.

I just purchased a Cadlights Artisian 165 and I can't wait to for it to get here. Have you been happy with your tank overall? I had a 30g Cadlights tank many years ago that was great.

I will be moving the contents of my 95g reef into the new tank once it is set up and settled. This will be my first tank larger than 100g so it should be fun. I will be getting the AI Hydra 26 HD lighting as the tank comes with 3 of these. I am thinking I will also use my photon alsoonce I move everything over. Any tips on setting up the plumbing? Did you use everything that came with the tank? Thanks.

[Ron Reefman]

Congratulations on the new, bigger tank! I'm quite happy with the quality of the Cadlight tank and stand. I did make a couple of improvements though.

I didn't just screw the front supports into the base. I drilled out bigger holes in the stand and added metal threaded fittings. I had concerns about how well it would hold together if I had to remove the braces for work on the sump (which I'm upgrading now). I was also thinking that if the wood got wet, the threads in the wood could get soft. So it was just a small concern and it was easy to rectify with threaded inserts. BTW, my sump was a very poor design IMHO, but it looks like your bigger sump has a much more usable design. I'd be turning that center section into a refugium or moving the skimmer to the center (if it fits) and doing the refugium at the skimmers old section.

And I can't emphasis enough how much the 'drip tray' has been a good thing! I have a remote collection cup for the skimmer and it's inside the stand, but outside of the sump. It's overflowed a couple of times and the drip tray saved a mess. BTW, I'd highly recommend an auto top off for your system if you plan to use the Cadlight skimmer. Mine is VERY fussy about water height. Just slightly low water level and virtually no skimming at all. Slightly high water level and the skimmer runs like a fire hose! That's why my remote collection cup overflowed.

I didn't use any of the Cadlight plumbing as it's metric and I had way more plumbing to do than a basic set up. I have the second tank (50g cube), a chiller (yes, the killer chiller), a reactor for carbon or GFO and an outlet for a hose to pump water out of the system when doing water changes. The Cadlight stuff looks like real good quality, but I needed a lot more and buying metric is just out of the question. I also took the time to order gate valves from Graingers rather than ball valves from Home Depot or Lowes. They are so much better at control and they don't 'freeze up' like ball valves seem to do over time in saltwater systems.

The one thing I let others talk me out of, that I now wish I had gone ahead and done. is drilling an extra drain to feed the skimmer directly. I used one of the existing holes for an emergency drain and now I can pump water into the tank way faster than I can drain water out (without using the emergency drain). I've feed skimmers this way in the past. Not only does the skimmer work well (with a gate valve to control flow), but it adds drainage from the tank so I could circulate more through the system.

If you run into any issues or have any questions at all, feel free to ask here or send me a PM. I'm always happy to share ideas.

BTW, the tank seems to be doing much better now. I just ordered 12 zoas, 2 palys and 2 rook flower anemones from Cultivated Reef while they are doing their Black Friday Sale. My hope is that in a year I'll have a tank with zoas, palys, and anemones everywhere and the 50g cube will be full of growing sps and lps survivors from the Killer Chiller Fiasco!