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Anonymous

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Somedays I think that my life should be held up as a warning to others- today is one of those days :cry: .....

My 385 Ga has been established now for 8 months. I have followed most of the advice on this forum and in the books I have read and am only about 50% stocked. I have had no algae problems thanks to some industrious hermits that I collected and and large PWcs with fresh sea water. I originally intended to have a FOWLR bit the softie bug bit me and I have added some softies and some anenomes, most given to me by people getting out of the hobby. My water tested perfect after my initial cycle and the whole time since, undetectable Ammonia Ni and No. All my livestock was happy and healthy and I had lost only one fish...(a small banana wrasse that disappeared)... Until 10 days ago..and then things started to go wrong...

I bought 2 banded pipe fish from the LFS, one died within 48 hours from presumably stress. A second banana wrasse also disapeared under mysterious circumstances....No more bananas for me.... :cry:

I have an Emperor Angel that was given to me by a friend that was reared in a soft tank from a juvinile. Despite better advice I decided to leave him in as he had a placid temprement and had no history of picking at corals- with a wary eye kept on him.... I geuss that genetics overrules past behaviour at some point... I should have listened to you all.... :oops: :oops:

On Sunday morning I woke to find one anenome upside down on top of some leathery 'shrooms I collected locally. No problem, I thought- I've seen anenomes do this when they are looking for a new spot in the tank.....What I failed to notice was that the Emperor had chewed a hole in the foot... and that my large occi clown was missing. That afternoon, I was doing my weekly maintenance routine and I saw that the 'shrooms had been nuked where the anenome had been on top of them, the white rock underneath was exposed and a whole strip of them had just vanished!! My iridis wrasse, the first inhabitant of the tank (called Number One) was behaving erratically as well. I removed the anenome to QT and last night it was nuked, guts hanging out and dead. ....so was my iridis... :oops: :oops: Water tested as follows: Ammonia- undetectable, Ni- 0.02, No between 5 and 10... all acceptable but higher than normal.. It would appear that the anenome released some poison/ acid into the water when it was stressed and nuked my irisis, occi and 'shrooms...(?)

I have pulled the Emperor and given him away and am doing a 150ga water change today, running carbon as well... next time I wont be so d@mb arrogant!! :oops: :oops:

I am posting this in the hope that someone learns from my mistake :cry:
 
A

Anonymous

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Sorry to hear that. Unfortunately, we all have to learn from our own mistake once a while. :(
 
A

Anonymous

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Sorry to hear about your mishaps. I totally understand. I have lost everything before.

It will be okay! Cheer up!
 
A

Anonymous

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:( Sorry! Are you running activated carbon on the tank? I know that tank is huge but AC may help pull any residual toxins out of the water.
 
A

Anonymous

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Hiya Lawdawg

I am running 2kg of carbon as of yesterday and I did a 700l (around 180ga) water change last night... everything 'seems' Ok this morning, I never realised how poisonous anenomes could be, the damage to my 'shrooms is terrifying. I will take some pics tomorrow night and post them here (outta town tonight).
 

goodisor

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Hi Andy.Sounds like we could team up and let others learn by our bad experiences.When I started with the tank,in my excitement I found a small pretty fish at mission rocks and of course I tossed him into the tank.All was well until a few days later my thriving elephant ears were completely stripped.Turns out I had put a Racoon butterfly in with my corals,much to his delight.Needless to say after much cursing and hours of ambushing I managed to evict the culprit.You live and learn,not so!
 
A

Anonymous

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Ja Goodiser- at least we South Africans will be able to contribute something to the forums- even if it is a list of our mistakes! :lol: :lol:

Did you get my PM reply?
Pity you had no way of keeping that butterfly in a FOWLR system... if you ever get aiptasia, I'll bet he would flatten it in no time! What are you running in your sump? Do you have a refugium and caulerpa in there? I saw from your pics that you had a fair bit of hair algae on the back wall of your tank.
 

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