first major livestock catastrophe: the aftermath

Well, a few weeks ago my montipora started dieing. It took a few days for my dad to tell me (I was at school) and that may have cost us. All told we lost over half of the montipora and one really nice yellow tang.

From best I can tell, the breakdown seems to have spawned from poor husbandry. After our water numbers started looking good, we just stopped testing. Water changes were frighteningly infrequent. I added a bunch of coral a few weeks before the breakdown. It doesn't seem to be a DSB or pest problem as I originally thought, because massive water changes have stopped the damage. My soft coral had some bad days, but they all survived. It could have been a lot worse.

I don't remember who, but somebody said 55g was a difficult size for a reef. Especially after this ordeal, I concur. You have to run it either as an undersized equipment-intensive. full-blown reef or an oversized nanoreef. We don't really want to spend a fortune on equipment originally designed for larger sized reefs to make it more automated, but we barely have the time to do the work involved in what is essentially a giant nanoreef, with me being at school and my dad being a workaholic.

I guess the moral of the story is that poor husbandry will come back to bite you eventually.

 

Sorry for your losses.... That sucks man....

 

sorry to hear that, hope all goes better in the future

 

Sorry to hear of your loss, this hobby is frustrating at times and a drain on the bank account. I dont know what your planning to do, but maybe you can try a fish only tank. Its alot easier to take care of and low maint. Just a thought.

 

Sorry for your loss man..My motto is get back up on the horse....