Tank crash set back?

[DOJOLOACH]

About how long can it take to recover from a tank crash? I've had two tank sitters take care of my tank and usually salinity goes wonky or a fish dies.

 

Reason I ask is because I am trying to write down why I have failed to keep a reef tank in my 2 years in the reef hobby. Not once have I had any lps or sps thrive.

[sublunary]

I guess first question is what do you mean by crash?  When most people say "tank crash" they mean something so bad that the tank needs to be pretty much started over from scratch.  For example, my first tank crashed because of a multi-day power outage - 80% of what I had died, I saved what I could, and had to get all new rock/sand/everything and start the cycle from the beginning. 

 

Salinity swings or single fish dying sounds like smaller issues.  Not having coral thrive sounds like more systemic isuses.  We'd need a lot more info on your setup, parameters, etc to help troubleshoot. 

[DOJOLOACH]

Ok I suppose I'm dealing with smaller issues. I was keeping my tank at 35 PPT salinity with redsea salt. But gradually switched to coral pro salt over a month period and at33ppt. I've had husbandry issues with a snowflake moray and overly aggressive red pistol shrimp. I think at this point my issues might be no3 and po4 related mostly.

 

Do people keep a head count on their cleanup crew everyday? I'm talking a 40b

[I'm Batman]

Takes about 6 months to recover in my opinion from a so called “crash.” That could be from die off, algae, Dino’s, any event that causes your tank to go out of wack. Took me almost two years after moving to get things back where they wanted to be. 
 

I can also say that if you haven’t had LPS or SPS thrive in two years, it can be cause by many things but first eliminate salinity fluctuating, poor/ too much lighting or quality of top off water.

I can give you an example of all three where I didn’t have the right product I needed and once acquired, solved my worries. 

 

Personal experience, it only takes about a day for my 20g to evaporate and skyrocket salinity if it’s not kept topped off. 

 

It might be time to invest in an auto top off. I use auto aqua. 

[DOJOLOACH]

1 hour ago, I'm Batman said:

Takes about 6 months to recover in my opinion from a so called “crash.” That could be from die off, algae, Dino’s, any event that causes your tank to go out of wack. Took me almost two years after moving to get things back where they wanted to be. 
 

I can also say that if you haven’t had LPS or SPS thrive in two years, it can be cause by many things but first eliminate salinity fluctuating, poor/ too much lighting or quality of top off water.

I can give you an example of all three where I didn’t have the right product I needed and once acquired, solved my worries. 

 

Personal experience, it only takes about a day for my 20g to evaporate and skyrocket salinity if it’s not kept topped off. 

 

It might be time to invest in an auto top off. I use auto aqua. 

What do you recommend for testing water (3rd party)? How about par meter rental? 

 

Icp tests are spendy

[I'm Batman]

Par meter rental is a good idea too. Thank bulk reef supply for that one too!!

[DOJOLOACH]

On 9/8/2020 at 7:31 PM, I'm Batman said:

Par meter rental is a good idea too. Thank bulk reef supply for that one too!!

Curious what you think about 3 ppm nitrate and .05 phosphate. I've finally gotten my tank to this level for a few weeks now. 

However now my green star polyp is pissed and not out. Any advice if I should add nitrate?

[mcarroll]

On 7/24/2020 at 9:49 PM, DOJOLOACH said:

About how long can it take to recover from a tank crash? I've had two tank sitters take care of my tank and usually salinity goes wonky or a fish dies.

 

Reason I ask is because I am trying to write down why I have failed to keep a reef tank in my 2 years in the reef hobby. Not once have I had any lps or sps thrive.

If you travel a lot, it's possible that you need a different hobby.  Or that you need to set up your tanks differently to account for your being gone a lot.  Cut out the dependence on a tank sitter.

 

It's also possible that you're just going too fast for your experience level.  Go slower.  Keep fewer fish and fewer corals.  Make it easier on yourself until the tank is really rolling on its own.

 

Also, what are you using for source material?  Any books?  I always recommend reading a good book or two to supplement the knowledge base!  (Check out my reading list thread for suggestions.)