Advice on a soft restart, I need a mentor.

[laezur]

I am devastated, I’ve just had a tank wipeout lost all my fish. One butterfly to ich and two clowns to brook.

I’m running the tank fallow for the next two and a half months and then I’m going to sift restart. All that remains in the tank is some coral, inverts and rock.

I have a multitude of GHA and cyano problems that I now need to deal with during my fallow period. If like some advice on all the things I should be doing in the next few months to get this in tip top shape and an amazing place for new fish down the road to live.

A mentor would be brilliant lol if someone wants to DM me and we can shoot the **** on a daily basis and work my way through this.

I’m going to drop a few hundred $$ I’ll hopefully have in July on every piece of kit I need to succeed, and get the show back in the road.

What should I be looking out for, what will make my life easier and keep my reef healthy?

Thanks.

 

[laezur]

No takers I see haha

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

Did you quarantine your fish?
What size tank?
How long was it running before you lost your stuff?
How did you initially set up your tank for cycling? fish in? bottled bac?
Any media from any established tanks put in at the start to seed the bac population?
The best starting point is to know what you want, know how to test for the requirements of that want, and have a general idea of how to get to where you want. testing is crucial. I love testing. I rarely do anything when i get the results but i just love testing.

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

cobberband butterfly fish reeeeal finicky eaters. did something die first which caused an ammonia spike, that is often times the way an entire tank crashes. did you have a sea cucumber? so many questions

 

[ClownSchool]

Did you quarantine your fish?
What size tank?
How long was it running before you lost your stuff?
How did you initially set up your tank for cycling? fish in? bottled bac?
Any media from any established tanks put in at the start to seed the bac population?
The best starting point is to know what you want, know how to test for the requirements of that want, and have a general idea of how to get to where you want. testing is crucial. I love testing. I rarely do anything when i get the results but i just love testing.

My wife makes jokes that I should have a lab coat for testing day.

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

also once your inverts have eaten all the food source that is currently in the tank (algae, lingering detritus, GHA you speak of) they might start to die without any new introduction of a food source, something to think about

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

My wife makes jokes that I should have a lab coat for testing day.

i legitimately set up a test station that spans about 15 square feet of table, floor space and simply just can not be bothered during this time.

 

[D3DPrintedThingz]

also OP don't let me scare you away if 'no' or "i don't know" is the answer to any of my questions - I started from 0 knowledge, just like the rest of us. I am not looking to talk down or belittle, just want to help and felt bad for you when I saw the 'no takers?' post lol

 

[laezur]

Did you quarantine your fish?
What size tank?
How long was it running before you lost your stuff?
How did you initially set up your tank for cycling? fish in? bottled bac?
Any media from any established tanks put in at the start to seed the bac population?
The best starting point is to know what you want, know how to test for the requirements of that want, and have a general idea of how to get to where you want. testing is crucial. I love testing. I rarely do anything when i get the results but i just love testing.

Fish were pre quarantined by the LFS, I probably should have taken those precautions myself but opted not to. Next time, I will.

Tank has been running 10 months before the crash, it’s a Red Sea reefer 170. Initially setup in a smaller tank, no bottle bac just good old fashioned patience with cycling. After about 2 month I moved everything over to this 170. I used live rock and dry rock mix.

Aim is to get my tank clear of algae, remove the cyano and get it looking clean. I still have some coral, including SPS thag probably won’t make it now, but if I can keep it going I will.

I’m running Bubble magus curve 5 and live rock in sump for filtration with a filter sock. Also have a bag of GFO running in there at the moment.

Longnose butterfly it was, survived about 2 months and then got hit with ick.. no fish introduced when it showed up must have been in the tank already. Removed him, he died in treatment tank. Yesterday morning clownfish started showing signs of brook. I asked the fish medics, they agreed. Nothing has been introduced, those clownfish I’ve had since they were babies 10 months ago. They died last night within 24 hours of showing symptoms

 

[dvgyfresh]

Maybe create a new build thread and ask some questions in the forum , we can all be a collective mentor lol , there’s nothing that your going through that someone else hasn’t already gone through, hard to give help without pics / history of tank / parameters a build thread accomplishes that

 

[Cali Reef Life]

I know your feeling I lost most of my fish when I first started to parasites now I qt everything and treat with copper. I also bought a used 10 gallon coral and invert tank that I qt my corals and snails for 45 days.

I also lost half my corals last year from dosing the wrong supplement and a test kit breaking. I am now going strong with 6 new fish almost done in qt and over $300 worth of coral in my qt tank. You can only improve from your mistakes. I have the 90 gallon redsea reefer which is 1 year old but livestock came from my other tank which was 3 years old.
Keep it going and have plans on beating the mistakes you made it in the past. Be proactive rather then reactive! Happy to help give advice even though I'm just an intermediate refer.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Give tank a good water change and add ruby rally pro (reef safe) treating for 45-60 days and at day 30, one quick siphon for any dead cysts or tromonts and add even a black molly as a test fish before restocking.

 

[Celestion]

Run it just reef no fish for 6 months

 

[laezur]

T

Run it just reef no fish for 6 months

Thata the plan! Not quite 6 months though

 

[ReefGeezer]

Give tank a good water change and add ruby rally pro (reef safe) treating for 45-60 days and at day 30, one quick siphon for any dead cysts or tromonts and add even a black molly as a test fish before restocking.

How did I miss this? Is it Plan A now after a wipe-out? Really reef safe with Formalin in it?

 

[ZombieEngineer]

1. Set up a quarantine tank or buy fish that have already gone through medicated quarantine.

2. Set up a means of nutrient export. Refugium, algae turf scrubber, carbon dosing, and/or gfo or lanthium chloride all work.

That's pretty much all you need to do to fix the problems you listed.

 

[vetteguy53081]

How did I miss this? Is it Plan A now after a wipe-out? Really reef safe with Formalin in it?

Rally is a broad-spectrum treatment for parasites and pathogenic bacteria and a safe alternative to harsher medications like copper. Being safe for fish, coral, and invertebrates- and being highly recommended as a bath and acclimation treatment- Yes I recommend. In addition to formalin which is low content, it contains acriflavine, aminoacridine,

 

[undermind]

I am devastated, I’ve just had a tank wipeout lost all my fish. One butterfly to ich and two clowns to brook.

I’m running the tank fallow for the next two and a half months and then I’m going to sift restart. All that remains in the tank is some coral, inverts and rock.

I have a multitude of GHA and cyano problems that I now need to deal with during my fallow period. If like some advice on all the things I should be doing in the next few months to get this in tip top shape and an amazing place for new fish down the road to live.

A mentor would be brilliant lol if someone wants to DM me and we can shoot the **** on a daily basis and work my way through this.

I’m going to drop a few hundred $$ I’ll hopefully have in July on every piece of kit I need to succeed, and get the show back in the road.

What should I be looking out for, what will make my life easier and keep my reef healthy?

Thanks.

Hey @laezur I think having a mentor is an excellent way to go, and can be a lot less confusing and conflicting than the buffet bar approach. I would be down to work with you one on one. I went through a similar situation not too long after I set up my latest tank. I ran a fallow period and then built out improved QT processes during the wait.

I've been reefing for 25 years now. I'm not a master and have a lot to learn myself. I run mixed reef and SPS systems and take a fairly holistic approach (but do enjoy new tech). DM me if you like