Disaster Strikes

[Rob_Reef_Keeper]

Well, On Saturday I got a nice green BTA and a purple tang.

On Sunday the BTA walked around the back of the LR. Turned off all the powerheads until the BTA wouls settle.

Woke up Monday morning and I couldn't see in the tank. tank smelled and I took a flash light and found chunks of the new BTA all over the place. It must have went up and over into the overflow then either my skimmer or return pump got it.

Monday night I lost the purple tang, I guess too much stress.

While doing a water change looking for BTA parts I noticed that some of my SPS frags now have RTN. I never had any growth of my SPS frags at all either.

CA is now down to 370.

I dont know what I should do know. Dump the SPS and go all softies or who knows.

Very upset and frustrated since I lost $160 worth of livestock in days.

[Tomzpc]

Damn...sorry to hear it Rob. Things have got to turn around for you soon with the bad luck string that you've been having.

[Rob_Reef_Keeper]

I am leaning towards dumping the SPS frags.

Maybe going with a softy tank. Trying to research colorful softies

[masterswimmer]

Rob,
You're in good shape now. Bad luck like yours comes in three's. You've exhausted your supply of bad luck. The BTA was #2 the purple tang was #3. Now that that's out of the way the softies will look awesome. Good luck.

Russ

[andro]

Rob,

I know the feeling, I lost my anemone a while back because it got sucked into my powerhead, it was a huge 12" LTA so I am sorry to hear about your losses.

-Ian

[WAGERJA]

Rob,
Sorry to hear about your loss. A couple months ago my tank was a fish killing fool, I never did pin down the cause but it's good now. So I know how you feel.
Anyway, to date I have never lost a SPS frag (knocking on wood with right hand, rabbits foot in left and a 4 leaf clover in between my teeth) and on average they grow 1/4"-1/2" a month. I'd be willing to hold any frags that don't have RTN and maybe some that look save-able. If you go to a softies tank I’ll probably buy/trade for the ones I like. Just a friendly offer to help until your water comes back in line.

J

[Rob_Reef_Keeper]

Not a bad idea, maybe someone can take these for a while until I get this tank working again.

Just got to figure out how.

[nine9d]

Sorry to hear that Rob. I really love purple tangs :(

[foxstop]

Sorry to hear about your tank Rob.
I hope things settle down soon.

Brian

[wasp9166]

this brings me to a thought i had, has anyone ever tried putting a screen over their overflow to prevent something like this? ive read of things like this b4 even snails clogging gate valves and such.........so i thought what if you sreened it over to prevent big stuff from going down it?

[skearse]

This is something I've been wondering about, also-I've got return lines in the tank, 1", that I think should be OK with large plastic screens, but I was also curious about covering up the top of the inside overflow box (sorry, still doing it over the wall style!)

[ChrisRD]

I made a top for my overflow out of some thick acrylic I had lying around. It just sits on top of it - I never really fastened it, but that seems to be enough to keep snails and such from going in the overflow. Been working fine for a couple of years now...

[ChrisRD]

Come to think of it, it would be pretty easy to notch a piece of acrylic with a router so it would sorta lock in-place and couldn't easily be pushed off the overflow by a large critter.

[Rob_Reef_Keeper]

I have a Durso standpipe in there. I am thinking of making out of eggcrate a piece for the Durso intake or something to cover the whole top.

[Tomzpc]

Originally posted by Rob_Reef_Keeper
I have a Durso standpipe in there. I am thinking of making out of eggcrate a piece for the Durso intake or something to cover the whole top.

That's what I did when I used a hang-on overflow. I cut a piece of eggcrate that fit snug inside and near the top of the toothed box that sits in the tank and also cut a portion of the eggcrate out so that the U-tube could pass through it. I never had a problem with anything getting in there.

[masterswimmer]

Does anyone experience any probs with anything getting into the overflow on a RR tank?

[Rob_Reef_Keeper]

Guess what now? The hair algae is back.

UURRGGHHHHH.

Somewhere over the rainbow, there is a problem free reef for me..........

[Tomzpc]

Damn, sorry to hear that Rob. I can imagine that you're getting incredibly frustrated with the hobby these days. Hang in there!