Gilliroo

Ew. Sounds like the stuff on nightmares. Should I keep the cat away from the tank at night, lest she get swept in by a long tentacle? So.. If I do see an evil meanie in there at 4 am, how do I catch it? I mean, after I stop hyperventilating and shrieking? Gillian

Ok, now I am getting a little creeped out. I had a couple of small fish disappear without a trace a few weeks ago. Could the monster have eaten them??

No, that's the weird thing- the skeleton is totally clean. Just bare skeleton. I've seen that brown and stringy thing before, and that's definitely not going on. The other corals that I've lost have been candy canes, and really hardy ones at that. We've had them in other tanks for about a year and they've grown like crazy. They're all just skeletons now, and I noticed a couple of tiny remnants of the fleshy tissue had settled onto the bottom of the tank when I cleaned it out. It was like something ripped them apart. Gillian

Thanks for all of the suggestions about my cyano problem. I've continued to monitor tank conditions, and everything seems pretty stable and normal. And after a big tank clean-up, the cyano problem seems to be pretty mild, actually. Just a couple of small pinkish spots (silver dollar sized) that appear and disappear with the light cycle. Sooooo...I'm starting to wonder if it's not tank conditions that is making stuff in my tank disappear. Like I said, the zoas are fat and happy. The ricordia and other mushrooms are doing well. The acans look like they're rebounding. The cyphastrea looks stable. Torches holding steady. But stuff keeps on disappearing. Is there some sort of coral-eating monster living in my tank?? For instance, I have (had) a cool branching frogspawn that had nine heads. One by one, they have disappeared. Yesterday I had two left, fat and happy and fully extended. Today there is one lonely branch still looking fat and happy. It's neighbor is totally gone- nothing but skeleton. There's nothing nearby that could be stinging it. Could I have some sort of giant worm or crab in there that is devouring corals while I sleep? The fish in the tank include a yellow tang and a blue tang, an algae blenny, an engineer goby, a blue damsel, two false percs, and a pseudochromis. For inverts, I have a bunch of hermits and mixed snails, three emeralds (at last count), two cleaner shrimp, two peppermint shrimp, an orange spotted star and a purple spotted star (both reef safe according to Nick at Rose City), and a large striped brittle star that was in another tank of ours with no trouble. Could there be something else lurking in there? I can't think of what else would make a healthy-looking coral vanish overnight. Thanks for the ideas! Gillian

Yes! More CUC never hurts, right?

Thanks guys! I've been increasing the frequency of my water changes, shortening the light cycle, and feeding every other day. I feed Isaac's pellets and some nori. I haven't fed any frozen foods for a few weeks because I was afraid that might be adding phosphates. One thing I've noticed is that my aragonite sand came with some shells and shell pieces mixed in. Over time, these have been working their way to the surface as the sand settles around them. I keep sifting them out where I can because I prefer plain, smooth sand, but I notice that the cyano seems to be concentrated in the areas where these shell pieces settle. Could they be leaching phosphates? Thanks! Gillian

No temp spikes, and the filters in the RO system are new. We changed them when we started having problems. Possible that one of the fish that "jumped" died in the tank and we couldn't find it, I suppose. I'm quite sure that nothing died in Kendra's tank, since she only has 3 fish in it. We have been doing extra water changes, just in case. As for tests, yes, it's possible that one or more of them are bad. We do have multiple tests from different companies, though, and I've tried at least a couple of them. Perhaps I'll take a water sample to a LFS, just to be sure. Thanks for the ideas. Keep them coming! Gillian

I think mine are from December, but that's a good thought. Gillian

I haven't been checking in here much the last couple of months, partly because my tank has been rather depressing lately. Kendra and I have been having issues with both of our tanks, which makes me suspicious. We've both had cyano. We're using RO/DI water with a chloramine prefilter and Kent salt. Ammonia and nitrites have been measuring zero, and nitrates have been low. Ph 8.0-8.2. Phosphates low or undetectable. I haven't been testing for anything else- my bioload is pretty low and I have no SPS. None of my corals except for the zoas look happy, and I've lost a candy cane, a couple of Acans, and even a couple of heads on my branching frogspawn. These are all things I've had for a while, and they previously seemed really hardy. A few months ago, I also lost a couple of fish to ich, but I think that's a separate issue. The ones that survived haven't shown any signs for a few months now. Besides that, a firefish got vorteched, another firefish and a clown goby just disappeared without a sign (probably went down the overflow), and my carpenter's fairy wrasse also went MIA. The tank is tightly covered except for about a 2 inch gap at the back, so I guess we may have had some jumpers with really good aim? Sigh. Anyway, the whole thing is just kind of depressing. Obviously, something is wrong, but I don't know what it is. I don't think I've changed anything in terms of tank maintenance. We had a lot of success with the nano tanks in the past, and those should be a lot harder, I would think. Oh, and the tank has been running since August or September, I think. There's lots of coralline algae. Filtration should be more than adequate, as I'm moving a fair amount of water through the sump, but have a separate loop feeding the refugium slowly. I'm running 8 T5s, and have been cutting back on the light cycle to control the cyano. Not dosing with anything, just doing frequent small water changes. Oh, and Kendra's SPS Solana, which has been running for many months longer than my 90G, is having cyano problems too. It's always been really clean in the past. Bioload very low in there, too. Bah! Any ideas? Thanks for reading my novella! Gillian

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Alex, You can have the small aiptasia farm that's growing in my sump. 1 smallish rock that is growing macroalgae with little baby aiptasia peeking out here and there. Will trade for a clump of your good macroalgae and a tiny bit of clean rubble if you have some. Gillian

I have left the RODI running and flooded the basement several times now. Apparently, I am a slow learner. Dumbest thing- trying to start a siphon by mouth. Eeeeeeeeeew!DOH! Gillian

Thanks, Alex! I will! Gillian

Sure! You can have it if you want it! Anyone have some non-aiptasia-infested macroalgae they can spare? Thanks! Gillian

I picked up a rock covered in macroalgae for my refugium a few weeks ago, and it's now sprouting some of those lovely brown anemones we all love. My first impulse was to rip that thing out of there ASAP, but then I saw a post about someone deliberately growing Aiptasia in a refugium, which made me pause. (scratch) Should I rip it out and start with new macroalgae? Keep it and throw in a couple of peppermint shrimp? I'm not sure how quickly Aiptasia can spread to the main tank- the refugium is separated from the return section of the sump by a 2-wall bubble trap. If the answer is to toss the rock and nuke the Aiptasia growing on the wall, does anyone have some macroalgae they could share? Preferably with no Aiptasia attached? Thanks! Gillian

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Whoa, that's crazy! Isn't the point of titanium heaters that they *don't* explode? Glad it was just in your mixing barrel! Gillian

Hope you don't mind my hopping on here too, Bigjohnwoody, but I need some macroalgae too. I got some a few weeks ago, and I just noticed that there's some aiptasia on it. I need to pull it all out of my refugium before that stuff makes its way to my display tank! Anyone in PDX doing some pruning soon? Thanks! Gillian

Aw, I love that little pico. Sad to see it go! (sad) Gillian

You can always collect the waste water to use for other things- watering the garden, for instance. Or you can do what I did last night and let it collect in a 3-inch puddle on the basement floor. DOH! Sorry, Kendra! Gillian

Hey, kids love photos of ladies in underwear! Here is baby Sascha perusing the latest Victoria's Secret catalogue. And yes, that is an "Organics to You" box in the background. Don't worry, we recycled the box! (laugh) xo, The Resident Hippies

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Hi Grandma Jean! Way to keep it all in the family, LOL! xo, Gillian

Aw, thanks honey!

Isaac at The Coral Mafia had a nice one last time I was in. Gillian