Gnome

The chromis had been at the store for a couple of days. There were 5 total and 2 of them are in a store display still swimming around. One other went with a customer and LFS owner says she has not said anything about the fish dying. Unfortunately I don't have a way to QT so fish have to go into the tank. I felt really bad about the picassos since I had won them in a drawing at the fish store and I really didn't want to lose them. I'm curious though that if something was introduced to the tank why it didn't bother the Pajama Cardinal or the Carpenter Wrasse and now a black and white clown is swimming about, quite happy. Also didn't bother any of the clean up crew including a cleaner shrimp, snails, crabs, etc.

A sponge in the bottom and some filter floss plus a bag of purigen.

72 Gal with sand, rock, zoas, rics, candy cane, palys, sun polyp, scolymia coral, and mushrooms. CUC consists of nassarius snails, a couple of bumble bees, certh snails, blue legged crabs, cleaner shrimp, emerald crab and a red crab (small). Current fish are black and white clown, carpenter wrasse and pajama cardinal. Remora Pro hob skimmer, 2 koralia 3 and a Cascade 800 canister filter. Since the day my tank cycled water params have been consistently good (zero ammo, nitrates, nitrites and phosphates. SG 1.025, calc 440, PH 8.2 temp 78-81°). Everything in the tank appears healthy and there are no apparent problems. June 27 I added two Blue Reef Chromis to existing pair of Picasso clowns, yellow watchman goby, pajama cardinal and carpenter wrasse. A few days later I found a blue chromis dead. A couple days later the other blue chromis died. A few days later one of the picassos died followed a couple days later by the second. Then the yellow watchman goby died. None of the fish had any marks that would indicate an attack and I found them before any crabs or snails started their cleanup. There were no signs of stress or illness before they died. During this time everything else in the tank showed no ill effects including the pajama cardinal and wrasse. I moved in a black and white clown that had been in my 29gal bio cube and he is still in the tank and doing well. July 23 I put in a Brazilian Gramma and I found him dead July 28. Again, water params test good and all the other critters and corals are doing well. None of the fish have shown any aggression towards each other and everything is getting along quite well. Why are certain fish dying while others are healthy? There are no signs of disease or stress and everything is eating well until sudden death. I have seen no indications of any predators such as a mantis and have checked the tank a few times in the middle of the night. This is bugging me since there is nothing obvious and only a few fish have died while everything else in the tank is in good health. There is good water flow throughout the tank and the spray bar from the canister keeps the surface agitated. Any ideas? Everything in the tank has been purchased from LFS.

I wonder how the fish will react to this type of environment. They will be deprived of all of their normal visual references and apparently will have no hiding places or safe place where they can rest and not feel threatened. Will they be disoriented and skittish?

A very nice tank Paul. My tank is absolutely a desert compared to yours (of course mine is only a couple weeks old (whistle) ). The reef bug didn't bite me until I was 70 and a new salt water store opened up in town.

I'm anxiously awaiting more pictures as your project progresses. What a great idea you've got. Also, a bit of Goo Gone will get rid of the sticky residue from the bar code stickers on the pipes.

Sure is a pretty tank but I'll be danged if I'd keep it in the garage. I want my tank out where I can see and enjoy it all day.

Thanks for the info Biomekanic. At the moment I'm trying to keep the tank as simple as possible and still maintain a healthy environment for the inhabitants. The tank has cycled quickly and ammonia, nitrites and nitrates have been holding steady at zero for several days now. I did feed kind of heavy and checked ammonia later and it didn't spike. All other parameters are right where they should be except calcium which is a bit low at 380. I've now got everything moved from my 29 gal and have a CUC going along with my pair of Picasso Clowns and a Carpenter Wrasse that I just put in today. The rock is stacked so there are a myriad of tunnels and holes for water flow and hiding places. I have diatoms on the sand and a lot of green algae showing up on the glass (especially on the back glass). I may have to cut back on my lighting a bit. I do have some questions though: 1. Water flow. As can be seen in the picture I have 2 Koralia #3, one on either end angled towards the back of the tank. A Cascade 800 cannister filter which by itself creates considerable water movement, and a Remora hot skimmer. And for the age old question, how do you tell when you have enough water movement? Does anyone have a link to a video which would show a tank with optimum water movement? I know it must be hard to describe or capture in a still photo. 2. How do you know or tell when a Remora skimmer is operating at max efficiency? Mine is still "breaking in" but there seems to be a pretty steady flow of bubbles and it will collect maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch of gunky, yellow water a day. Should it be collecting more water or less? 3. What sort of CUC would be adequate for this size tank (60 gal of water)? I have 10 small blue legged hermits, 11 Cerith snails, 12 Nassarius snails, 1 emerald crab, 1 red crab and 1 cleaner shrimp.

At one point it states that corals and anemones should not be drip acclimated. Instead, float them for a half hour and release directly into the tank. Is this true? I thought that everything had to be acclimated first.

Thanks for the information and welcomes everyone. Tank is coming along nicely, ammonia and nitrites are both at zero and nitrates are somewhere between zero and 5.0 but pretty close to zero. I've got a good diatom bloom going on the rocks and sand. I put in 6 blue legged hermits, 6 nassarius snails and 6 cerith snails plus a small "red" crab. They're doing well and are busy scouring the rocks and going about their cleanup duties. All the other tank parameters are right where they should be and if the ammonia, nitrites and nitrates hold steady tomorrow I slowly begin to add in stuff out of my 29 gal over the next few days. I want to be careful not to upset the tank balance by adding too much to quickly. I hope I'm doing this right. I don't have any specific plans for certain types of corals other than ones that I have adequate lighting for but I'd like to get some really colorful zoanthids going. I have some nice ones in my 29 gal that I will be moving over in time. I just want to make it an interesting display with a variety of life and color. I'm sure I'll have lots of questions as I go along and I'll post pictures of the tanks progress.

If I run the cannister should I use some of the ceramic bio media as I did with freshwater or would it be best to just use it as a filter. It's a Cascade 800 so maintenance is not too difficult. I'll keep the HOB refugium in mind if it becomes necessary. My plan is just for a nice reef tank with some fish and a variety of corals . My 29 gal is very colorful with lots of coraline so I'd like my 72 gal to eventually have lots of color also.

Here is a picture of the tank as setup now. There are lots of holes and tunnels through the rocks for water flow and so far the water seems to have good movement.

Thank you all for the info. I'm just not sure I want to mess with a cannister as I feel it could be dangerous if not maintained properly and could easily introduce unwanted chemistry into the tank. I have a 10 gallon tank I could set up as a refugeum if necessary and it will fit in the stand under the 72 gal. Is there some good reading on skimmers that might point me to a better one than the Remora? Or maybe some of you have a recommendation? I'm retired and I have an RO/DI filter setup filling a 32 gallon plastic trash can so I have plenty of time and plenty of water for tank maintenance. I reckon it's going to be a bit of an experiment for awhile till I see how the tank is going to function. I'm sure I'll have more questions and I'll post pictures for sure.

I've had a 29 gal Bio Cube running for nearly a year now and have decided to convert a 72 gallon bowfront freshwater to a reef tank. I have 70 pounds of live sand and 69 pounds of live rock in the tank now. I cleaned and cured the rock before I put in the sand and the tank is now cycling. I have two Koralia 3 power heads and will be adding a Remora skimmer hopefully Monday when it arrives. Judging from the movement of stuff on the rocks I appear to have good water movement. Lighting is a Coralife 260W PC with 2X65W Actinic and 2X65W 10K. I will be moving most of the stuff from my 29 gal to the 72 when it is cycled. I'll move some rics, a candy cane, various zoanthads, palys, sun polyp, flower pot, and a few red mushrooms and some rock work. If I can catch them I'll move a fire shrimp and a rose banded goby. I don't plan to run a sump or refugeum and will let the live rock, sand, skimmer and CUC to take care of biological duties (if I've read correctly this is called Berlin filtration?). I know I'll be somewhat limited on a bio load due to filtration but I need to know if there is some sort of formula as to how many and what size fish and other creatures I can safely keep. I do have a large cannister filter I could add in but I don't know if it's advisable or necessary. Would appreciate some ideas for a good setup.