Nicks 56 Gallon Saltwater tank

I feel your pain man...sorry to hear that


Glad the others are doing well!

So I concluded a while back that they two fish may have died from electrical currents from my in tank sterilizer that busted. So today I went to turn the lights on for my tank at 12:30, and when I did I wasn't pleased with what I saw...
I had just done a water change yesterday afternoon, and cleaned my canister filer. Apparently there was leftover food/dead copepods in the pipes which got blown into my tank. I had seen it happen before, but wasn't worried as it always gets cleaned up.

Well this time it wasn't okay. My nitrates and nitrites were registering VERY high. My emerald crabs were holding onto a gorgonian (the highest point in my tank) as if trying to escape. The worst part was seeing my relatively new hoevens wrasse laying flat on a rock gasping. The culprits of the spike (besides me...) were the hundreds upon hundreds of dead copepods that were carpeting my sand bed. I only had two hours before class so I ended up changing out 18 gallons. Within the first 5 gallons being changed the hoevens wrasse began swimming. By the time I had to go to class the nitrites were down between 0 and 0.25, when I returned home and checked on it again they showed up at 0.

I got very lucky that I caught it before my fish died. So far everything is doing great. I'll post some pictures up later this week.

WOW

I'm glad you caught it Nick! That would have been devastating!

Thanks Dan. It really would have been crappy, and luckily we had plenty of RODI around. Here's a quick picture I took with my cellphone of the copepods I scooped out

You can see them floating and on the bottom of the bucket they are all over, and below the sand as well.

That's intense!

Woke up today to my chalices looking great and puffy like they did yesterday, and sure enough there were more dead copepods in my tank. The nitrates and nitrites tested out fine, but the ammonia was high, it just hadn't made its way over to nitrites and nitrates yet. Sadly I lost my green emerald crab that I've had for 6ish months :/. I've changed 6 gallons so far and my hoevens wrasse now has his mouth closed at least.

Sorry Nicholas. That really sucks. I'm glad you were on top of it, though, and at least your fish are okay...

Thanks :/. They're doing okay for now, I just changed 3 more gallons and will be leaving to class now. I'll test my parameters when I get back.

More dead? wow this sucks

at least your fish and corals survived..

this is all very unusual..

Hopefully it was just from more of the copepods. I'm assuming the ones that I didn't get out yesterday caused the rise in ammonia. I'll keep testing and hopefully things will stabilize.

Photo update. I took these this morning but had to rush it because my fish were breathing hard do to a bit of ammonia still, so I changed out six gallons, but everything is doing good!

Everything looks really good! Love the pic of the chalice with the sweepers out!

Yeah Nick, your corals are looking great!

Sam_G wrote:

Love the pic of the chalice with the sweepers out!

And I second that, nice pic!

3rd that with the sweeper pic!

Is that a miami hurricance/PP chalice I spot in pic 3?

Whole tank looks great considering the conundrum you had with ammonia the other day

Thanks everyone, just picked up some more coral today , I'll try to get pictures up soon.

mangoman wrote:

Is that a miami hurricance/PP chalice I spot in pic 3?

Believe it or not it isn't. When I got it it was bright green with orange eyes, now it's grey, blue with orange eyes. It's hard to tell but in picture two the chalice to the right of it that is oval shaped is a miami hurricane, it's eyes were closed up though.

PICS!!

WWC Echinata, with green eyes and orange



Rhodactis mushroom, it glows under actinics like nothing I have ever seen before, it's fricken insane. It is far brighter than any other coral in my tank.




WWC valentine chalice


Blonde eyed girl


Vivids riddler (got a deal since part had died!)

Wow some great looking Corals! That heart shaped one is wild. I wonder if it will keep the shape as it grows.

It would be super cool if it did

Nice new corals! I really like the chalices!

Ahh so you're the one who scored the riddler chalice! Very nice corals you got


that mushroom sounds super cool! Does your camera have a RAW setting? you can probably shoot it under actinics that way..

Yeah you posted that after I had picked it up. I'll make sure frags get around as it grows out

and I'm not sure I literally know nothing about cameras. How would I know?

Just some more photos for fun. I was trying to get my hoevens wrasse, I'll try in the morning when it is moving slower.






Now just fun photos.

Hammer coral macro



Chalice macro


acro


Palys


New growth on my acan


Miami hurricane, blonde eyed girl, and riddler


My zoa colony grown from about 25 polyps, and my blue hornets

Great pics Nick, your corals are looking beautiful!

Love the macro shots on the coral! The hammer and chalice pics could make some nice PotMs!

Love the wrasse, too! Wish you could get a better pic. They're soooo fast, though!