Sump Is History

[D.J.]

well im pulling this sump off my tank......and im not gona run another sump period.........

this was a bad idea from day one.........something on something killed my tank........

all corals are alive and inverts are alive but lost dang near all my fish........


so i guess i have a 55g tank that is for sale or trash.....one or the other........


im not sure if the linkia star had something to due with this or if its the sump....but the star is gone and now the sump is too.........


this is a MAJOR set back for me......i know i dont have the money that yall got in your systems but it has taken me a year to get this tank like this and now its gone........

im at the breaking point here and not sure what i wana do.......i dont want to give up but i cant afford to restock and have to worry about this again....


maybe im a bad reefer.....but ive done everything that ive been told and have managed to keep my stuff alive till i added the star and the sump....

i cant say the star did it and i cant say the sump did it.....but im


ill still be at the meeting and will still be buyin the stuff just gota get my survivors outa my main tank and into my 30g and 10g and hope the heck all my coral dont die......it all seems to be doing fine for now thou....

thank you guys for all your help and info and for the friendship......ill be around.......

[taminate]

I am so so sorry to hear. I know my setup isnt half as nice as a lot of ppls, but i would be very upset to say the least also. dont give up.

[hansmatt]

dj, I'm sorry to hear about how things took a turn for the worse. It's hard to lose organisms, but don't take it too personally. Even the best of systems have unexplained events/disasters, many of which we have no direct hand in. I would not be suprised if the death of your starfish was too much for the tank to take. That is the hardest thing to take, the death of your well-cared for pets. We went through a streak of lost fish, including three nice big yellow tangs, which went unexplained. I was pissed, my kids took it pretty hard.

The larger water volumes offered by sumps certainly do act as a buffer to help make changes in tank parameters less harmful to inhabitants. The key to success is stability. Any time we add or lose things is a breaking point in the cycle.

We'll try to cheer you up on Sat.

[D.J.]

thanks matt........it just really urks me that i killed a healthy setup......its not a total lost but enuff to get to me.....

and after yesterday seeing things lookin better and eating and then get up to this its like someone stabbed me.....

im not gona give up.....yet......if it was a total crash then yeah i might of...

brad has offered to help me restock my tank so thats a plus but the money is a negative since i dont have any.....

i might go with another sump but its gona be on a new system and all gona be added at the sametime so i dont have to risk this again...

i should pulled that star when i thought it was dead instead of waiting but read that they sometimes sit like that....so if it was the star dying thats my fault......

guess its a good thing its tax time so i can get things somewhat going again.....

but ill never find another KOLE TANG.....havent seen one since i bought mine........

[odie]

Dang!! What a bummer. I had a similar problem with a planted tank. It was a 75 gallon that was thick with plants that I grew for about 4-5 yrs from bits and pieces and I had 4 discus and rams in it. Well to make a long story short a fertilzer I was using reacted with too much CO2 that purged into my tank from a homemade co2 setup. Fitst it killed my discus and all but one ram and emperor tetras. Plants then had an algae bloom that lasted months. Nitrate thru the roof from the additives and lost most of the plants as I tore it down to start it over.

I was bummed. Wanted to quit. Then I saw a friends tank and fell in love with it again.

The only thing I do now is try to keep things more simple so when things go bad it is easier to chase things down to correct.

Good luck and you will get the passion to do it again. Hope to be able to meet you at the meeting.

Jamie

[D.J.]

yeah im hoping that after the meeting ill have a change of heart.....but it could also make feel like "WHAT MINE COULDA BEEN".....but oh well........


this is the first time i have ever lost fish like this.....ive been doing FW for 10years or better and have never had an issue..

i know SW is more sensative but geeze....i killed them within 48hrs......im a badd reefer....shame on me....

[ZMattie]

Well im sorry to hear about all of you loses.... But keep your head up DJ, theres no point in quiting now... Like ya said youve already got alot of money into your tank. At least your corals are still alive ya know? Id transfer them into your other tanks and let your 75 sit and test it until everything seems OK again!

[D.J.]

the only issue is the only tank that has enuff light to somewhat keep my corals alive has 2 baby puffers and a butterfly in it....which neither of them are reef safe.....

[hansmatt]

55, 75, and 90g tanks are a nice size for most of us. I would love to have a bigger tank, but with that comes more $ in rock, coral, equip, and more time. I would rather have a super killer 90g than a 220 that was barron of life.
Matt

[Afish4u]

Originally Posted by D.J.

thanks matt........it just really urks me that i killed a healthy setup......its not a total lost but enuff to get to me.....

and after yesterday seeing things lookin better and eating and then get up to this its like someone stabbed me.....

im not gona give up.....yet......if it was a total crash then yeah i might of...

brad has offered to help me restock my tank so thats a plus but the money is a negative since i dont have any.....

i might go with another sump but its gona be on a new system and all gona be added at the sametime so i dont have to risk this again...

i should pulled that star when i thought it was dead instead of waiting but read that they sometimes sit like that....so if it was the star dying thats my fault......

guess its a good thing its tax time so i can get things somewhat going again.....

but ill never find another KOLE TANG.....havent seen one since i bought mine........

Kole tangs are always available you just have to ask. Ok for my .02 take the time now to let things settle back down. Something happened to the tank YES. who knows what at this point. Just don't look at trying to move everything out of the tank. You could possibly cause more stress to the corals and what ever else. If a tank is maxed eventually something will fail. Swapping many things around is going to just add stress and possibly create more problems.

Yes you may still lose a few things but on the plus side if there is something that can be passed from tank to tank nothing else will get contaminated. Another plus even if you lose a few corals eventually you will get the tank to turn around and learn from it. Learning from our mistakes is the best thing to ever happen in this hobby. Yes it sucks to loose coral or fish, even if it doesn't seem to end. But that is one of the things that must be accepted in this hobby. Moving things from one tank to another won't help you or anyone else know what happened to the tank and could possibly mean it could happen again because a person doesn't know how to prevent it.

Just like Matt said here changing the volume of the tank alone will cause some effects probably. Let things run their coruse for a little bit of time then you will know whats the next step.

[D.J.]

i know what ya mean aaron.....the moving of corals was just a last ditch effort thats not gona happen......also your gona be ticked at me in abit...are you at home????


i am gona go up to a 90g system since that will still fit on my stand.....but its gona depend on price.....i have MORE than enuff rock to stock a 125g but not sure if i want to go that big.......yet....

[condiman]

Thats the only thing I can think of is that by adding that much new water caused it to go haywire.

[hansmatt]

I vote on the starfish, either via nitrates or a toxin. The solution to pollution is dillution.. adding the extra volume perhaps even slowed the process, and maybe even saved some of the corals. Extra water, unless there was something wrong with the parameters (not likely) should not have caused any issues. Many softies are tolerant, even thrive, in dirtier tanks (xenia for example), while the metabolism of fish is a bit quicker, and may not be able to respond to acute changes in water parameters.

[taminate]

so, i have a question- is everyone saying that a dying starfish can damage the whole tank?

[odie]

Newbie warning again!! But I have read about sea apples and such that when they die or even frightened will "self explode". Any chance that you had an odd creature that could have poisoned your system??