47 Column Mixed Reef

[aaron1987]

Things seemed to be getting better for a bit but then additional corals started exhibiting symptoms. Pokerstar, Rainbow, and Sunset montis are all toast. My cyphastrea is browned out and has lost a ton of flesh but seems to possibly be stabilizing? I have yet to see any polyp extension from it, though. Setosa may have pulled through, seems to have healed up over some of the lesions but I'm not seeing PE from it, either. Some of my LPS (acans, favites) also seemed to start having a hard time again so I moved them to friends tanks after an iodine dip. Too early to see if that will help or not. I emailed Fenner at wetweb and he stuck by his initial diagnosis of an allelopathy saying this sort of thing can take weeks to heal up. The fact that it's still spreading is what has me concerned, though.

 

 

If things continue and I have a total loss, I do have a backup plan. It's name is peninsula and it will be 48x24x24 or 36x30x24 (leaning towards the latter). I do like new toys

[animalmaster6]

Sorry about all the losses

 

A peninsula would be sweet!

[bitts]

well on a bright note. was just reading the new marine fish & reef's artical on flashers.

 

that pic of yours is better than any they had. lol

[Weetabix7]

So sorry to hear of all the difficulties that you've had.

I am greatly surprised to hear that an allelopathy incident could take weeks to recover from.

Can you post the link where he said that?

I was surprised to hear about the Cloves allelopathy as well, but found it very useful information, esp since I like and keep various types of Cloves.

Hope to hear of improvements before long.

[aaron1987]

Been a long time since I've updated this thread since life has been happening (graduation, starting my big kid job, buying a sailboat, etc) but throught I should give an update.

 

To say things are going well would be an overstatement. The aquarium move was pretty rough this time but things are slowly turning around. I'm hesitantly optimistic. My cyphastrea has yet to extend any polyps but is very slowly regaining its blue color and over the past couple days i've noticed some polyp extension on monti's I thought were finished. That's about where the good news ends... most of my Acropora was lost (torts are the sole survivors, and theyre still rough, along with the green slimer).

 

Weetie, I don't have time to find the posting on WWM but this was his email response to me:

 

Subject: Re: Tissue Necrosis, Discoloration, and White Excretions on

SPS/LPS

 

I figured I would follow up. Per your advice I removed the clove polyps

entirely and changed out my carbon in my media reactor.

 

<Good moves>

This seemed to help

in the short term (at least nothing was immediately getting worse). But

despite my best efforts, whatever is afflicting my tank has continued to

spread amongst my SPS, despite the cloves being out of the tank for about

2

weeks at this point.

 

<These "events" often take weeks to resolve>

 

I have noticed that the LPS that showed symptoms

earlier seem to be recovering; the spread is limited to SPS. I have

attached

a photograph of the most recent victim.

 

<Looks slimy... reacting to...>

 

The montiporas that 'caught'

whatever this is have since died (With the exception of a M. Setosa that

is

recovering). One acropora has survived (although it is much drabber now)

but

several appear to be on the way out. Any further ideas?

 

<Is not something... "catching" as in a biological disease (infectious,

parasitic), but a biochemical "burn"... stabilizing, optimizing the

environment is the only salvation here, along with patience, time going by.

Bob Fenner>

 

Given that I am beginning to see polyp extension from corals I haven't seen in months, I believe this may be the beginnings of 'recovery' which would make the time frame from allelopathy to now in excess of 2 months. I hope no one else has to experience something like this, the toll monetarily and on my enjoyment of the hobby has been tremendous.

[bitts]

its funny that Ive been wandering how things had been going. its great to hear that the worst may be over. heres hoping that it is.

[d'Espresso]

everything gonna BE ALL RIGHT SOON!

[animalmaster6]

Glad to hear things are getting a little better

[bitts]

Any news.

[aaron1987]

More of the same, sadly. Nothing really new to report as of yet. Nothing appears to overtly be getting worse but not really any improvement, either.

[animalmaster6]

Hopefully things will get better soon.

 

Glad to hear things aren't getting worse though.

[bitts]

Just keep at it. These things take time. tank is recovering from a massive event. The fact you have it stable is impressive.

[bitts]

just checkin in. hope all is well.

[TheNordCelt]

just checkin in. hope all is well.

So sorry to hear about your run of luck dude, good luck with the recovery.

[aaron1987]

Well, I listed what's left of the setup for sale on my local reef club forum today. I just can't dedicate the time and energy needed to make it recover. I'm either selling the whole lot or saving the hardware to build a 24x24x24" or 30g. Leaning towards the 30g now but we'll see -- I don't really want to fork over the cash for a new tank stand sump and plumbing right now. Ideally, I'd find something used and my equipment could 'plug and play' so to speak, letting me start over from scratch.

[animalmaster6]

I hope you get another tank. Your 47 was so awesome.

[bitts]

this is very sad news this was one of the most fantastic tanks on the board much like tigsh's & helfickchick's.

Aaron please let us know when you start your next tank. we will all be waiting for it.

[aaron1987]

Who knew hardware was so difficult to sell?! Still have everything, limping along in seriously sorry shape. If nothing else this has been a fascinating study in things dying in an unexpected order.

 

I do nothing but top offs these days, I have no idea what my parameters are but don't really want to. I know it's bad enough my rics are dying finally (although it could just be the really old bulbs!)

 

The part that i find interesting is the fact that my Crocea clam and RBTA are chugging along and looking happy as well, a clam. Considering their fragile reputation this was.. unexpected. The other survivor is my Pocillopora, in fact, I think it may have gone sexual again. Filed under nuisance and unkillable.

 

The reason I'm resurrecting this thread is that, while I haven't committed to it yet, I am strongly looking at setting up a new aquarium -- "plug and play" with my current hardware, if you will. If so, I will start a build thread and be sure to link it here. Hopefully, someone can use my experience and dialogue with WWM to avoid or troubleshoot a similar melt-down.

[bitts]

Would love to see another build from you. please do keep us posted if you do one.

[aaron1987]

Summer came and my big plans to set up a new tank faded as summer's hobbies set in. My sailboat needed a new sail, I decided to pick up a road bike, learned to wakeboard and decided I needed one of those, too. My poor, poor discretionary spending account .

 

BUT I didn't bump this just to report 'no progress'. Yesterday I yanked the few remaining pieces of livestock (RBTA, Crocea, clownfish, Duncans, a couple assorted polyps) over to a 10g. All of my rockwork came out and went into a 35 gal Brute to soak in a bleach and water solution. I drained the aquarium and disposed of the sand. Took all my equipment out and soaked it in a vinegar and water bath. I may opt for an additional bath in mild bleach/water for it all just to be damn sure nothing lives. Because (drumroll) I will be setting everything back up from (nearly) scratch. I don't intend to recreate what I had, because, quite frankly, I'm not sure I can -- and it's time to try something a little different.

 

I'll be reducing the overall amount of LR in the setup but retaining the general format of my previous aquascape because there's only so much you can do to 'scape a column -- I want to have a much more 'open' feel to the entire thing this time. I suspect I'll be spending some quality time with a dremel and chisel to get the desired effect.

 

As far as stocking plans, the only things I have definitively decided on keeping are a pair of pearly jawfish. So there will be a sandbed and it will probably be relatively deep. The remaining direction is TBD - I want to do something a bit unconventional so I'm open to suggestions. I'm thinking about a dwarf lion of some sort, although, such a move would necessarily limit the other inhabitants (my hunch is that the jaws would be *relatively* safe from predation by a well-fed lion). My previous setup was fairly low maintenance but i need to take it to another level. I don't want to be submerged to my armpit feeding corals with a turkey baster several times a week again. In college I had time for that kind of thing but the real world is not so kind...

 

As for corals - in keeping with the 'open space' theme, I will be limiting my "pretty sticks" collection, although I've got the gear to support it so I'll probably end up with a few select pieces. I've always been fond of encrusting corals so expect mini carpets, cyphastrea, bright encrusting monti's, polyps. I do reserve the right to go nuts at a future date, though

 

Provided I am content that I've nuked every last living thing on my LR by then, I'll be taking a day of my PTO to get everything in and (hopefully) wet next Monday.

[TheNordCelt]

Good to hear man, I was excited to see an update! On of my all time favorite tanks.

[aaron1987]

Two consecutive baths in decreasingly concentrated bleach solutions should probably do the trick. Definitely overkill, but why not? I'll be pulling the rock, formerly-known-as-live, out to cook off the bleach in the sun, then on to a rinse with tap water and dechlorinator before a final soak in RO. Again, probably not necessary to include the tap water step, but better safe than sorry.

 

I'll also be bleaching out the aquarium, and any tubing/equipment that sees water. Undecided about the merits of doing a bleach-clean of the sand. Might be less headache to just buy new in that department... thoughts?

[phi delt reefer]

Two consecutive baths in decreasingly concentrated bleach solutions should probably do the trick. Definitely overkill, but why not? I'll be pulling the rock, formerly-known-as-live, out to cook off the bleach in the sun, then on to a rinse with tap water and dechlorinator before a final soak in RO. Again, probably not necessary to include the tap water step, but better safe than sorry.

 

I'll also be bleaching out the aquarium, and any tubing/equipment that sees water. Undecided about the merits of doing a bleach-clean of the sand. Might be less headache to just buy new in that department... thoughts?

 

 

spent the better part of last night reading through your thread. Awesome work man - i can only imagine what you will come back with. I would just go with new sand. After all - whats another $40 in the grand scheme of reefing?

[aaron1987]

spent the better part of last night reading through your thread. Awesome work man - i can only imagine what you will come back with. I would just go with new sand. After all - whats another $40 in the grand scheme of reefing?

 

I see you've noticed the one thing I haven't minded during my semi-hiatus . I'll be getting new mixed-grade sand for my jawfish to play in... I'm a bit undecided on depth. As always, the hobby trade-off, ease of cleaning vs. functionality. I haven't ever kept a pair so I don't know what their needs are in terms of burrow size - I've considered pre-making a PVC pipe burrow for them like I did with my BSJ, but my preference is to let them do things naturally. Anyone have experience keeping a pair? I know it's possible that they will simply separate and live in their own burrows, as well.

 

My tentative stocking list:

2x Yellowhead Jawfish

1x Fuzzy Dwarf Lion

1x Oscellaris Clown (maybe a second...?)

 

I'm trying to decide on how to round things out. I'm fond of Blackcap Basslets and I have always wanted a Splended Dottyback... I'm not sure whether those would be liable to leave the lion alone or give it hell. I'm planning on getting a small lion so I don't want it to get harassed to death by a fast-moving, territorial fish. Regardless, I have something of a gap in my stocking, and that is the 'flash of color' element usually supplied by wrasse/chromis/tang/whatever. My inclination is a small group of chromis... Fast and cheap lest they become lionfish lunch but I am interested in suggestions, as well. Whaddya think NR? Help me stock my tank...

[TheNordCelt]

I think you should do a large school of chromis, and let the lion munch on the occasional one and get some sweet predator/prey schooling going on.