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My BC14 . . .

ward827

By ward827,
in Nano Reef Journals

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ward827

ward827

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Thanks all. Almost made it a year without a crash. Unfortunately, part of this hobby. Well, for some. :)

Think I'm going to be 'simplifying' my tank going forward. This forced me to take another look at my tank and
with my zoas still really abundant, the 'less is more' might be the new look. :) Or something like that!

I will be replacing the derasa clam in the future . . . W-

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metrokat

metrokat

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Hi Ward. Read through the tank crash details. My guess is that both the star and the corals caused the problem.

 

A 14 is really tiny to begin with which mean everything that can impact water chemistry or water quality is amplified. It probably started with your palys which caused toxins and killed off the other corals. This could have resulted in a nitrate spike which is caused by dead and decaying tissue, and probably resulted in ammonia. These are toxic to inverts which meant your starfish was affected. It looks like a small but meaty animal so the combined load of the star getting toasted and the corals threw your tank into a tizzy.

 

Have plenty of carbon, this is a must in our nanos especially where close quarters with corals means they will attack each other. You cannot stop this entirely but you can potentially prevent your tank getting nuked.

 

I wouldn't add a star fish in a tank this size.

 

Palys have toxins so do leather corals. Whenever moving or fragging those be sure to have fresh carbon in there.

 

I hope that helped, you had the cause figured out already/

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ward827

ward827

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3/14/13 Post crash update . . .

 

Came down this morning and tank is looking really good! Thank goodness!

Leather is finally open again. All zoas are looking plump and almost all are open fully again. Still a few stragglers.
Duncan never really was affected and is looking his regal self, along with the rock nem. :)
GSP that I got from Serenity Reef has actually grown and is doing excellent!
Chico and Dempsey the clown fish are their normal ravenous selves.

New derasa clam (half off replacement from my LFS) looks amazing and is doing great. I'm looking after him closely.


Clean up crew has awakened and is going to town in the sandbed, back wall and rocks. Where there was stringy

strands of GHA is now clean rock.

 

As bad as it was, I think the crash was a wake up call. Tank is almost a year old and even though I lost some prized
corals, it looks better now and I'm glad everything came out the way it has.

 

Will post a FTS when everything is finally open and ready for a close up!

 

W-

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ward827

ward827

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What LFS did you get a clam?

 

Exotic Aquatics. Ramin is a stand up guy.

I really can't keep anything but a derasa in my tank.

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ward827

ward827

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I'm too scared to keep a clam in mine...

 

I think you'd have no problem if you wanted to keep one.

Derasa is the hardiest of all the clams.

Yes, mine is new but so far is looking great!

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  • 2 weeks later...
Rain24

Rain24

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Aww, sorry to hear about your tank. :(

 

I'm glad the losses weren't as bad as it could have been though. Question for you - do you have any problems with fan noise on your BC14? I'm starting to get really irritated with the noise coming from mine.

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ward827

ward827

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Aww, sorry to hear about your tank. :(

 

I'm glad the losses weren't as bad as it could have been though. Question for you - do you have any problems with fan noise on your BC14? I'm starting to get really irritated with the noise coming from mine.

 

Hi Rain!

 

Thanks. It was a bit dicey for a few days but now things are ok and my tank is actually doing really well.

Not as crowded and learned a lot. :) I've heard about fan noise on these tanks. Sorry to hear. Mine is

still pretty quiet. Might be time to replace or clean the fans on yours. Speaking of yours . . . how's the tank?

 

W-

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  • 4 weeks later...
ward827

ward827

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Yep. It is. I took one yesterday and I didn't like it.
I need Veng's camera to do my tank justice! But in the mean time

I'll see what I can do. It is looking really good, considering. IMO. :)

 

W-

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fretfreak13

fretfreak13

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I also want to mention this to you Serenityreef, the larger the clam you get the easier to care for. The small ones (under 3") need to be fed phytoplankton and don't solely rely on photosynthesis. Without adequate feeding, they rarely live and IMO clams shouldn't even be sold that small!

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ward827

ward827

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New derasa has grown .25". Can see the growth on the shell when it closes up. :)
It is now probably 3.5 inches long. W-

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ward827

ward827

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Camera broken? Internet down for you? Any other good excuse for not posting a picture? :)

 

Nope. :) Hopefully this weekend.

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  • 1 month later...
ward827

ward827

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Quick update . . . Started systemic peroxide dosing tonight.
1.4 mL dose. Will do this daily for a week and evaluate the effectiveness then.
Most everything got pissed off but all inverts and fish seem unaffected.

Emerald crab actually started going to town on some of the GHA.

Will see. Optimistic. Tank got to the point where I needed a little chemical help.

All for now. W-

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