peacemaker

I changed the entire sand bed, and this time about 1 to 2 cm thickness. The previous thickness (approx. 1 to 2 inches) had turned a bit greyish at the bottom. I transferred all the corals and the remaining clownfish back to the main tank. Its been a very tiring 2 nights (yes, even for a 1.5 Ft nano), but I'm glad everything is back in control. I switched on the actinics for half an hour, and my corals responded well and started to open a bit. Looking forward to a full and quick recovery.

New scaping. This provides better stability compared to the previous rock scape. I just hope that the beneficial bacteria stay alive. Nuisance crabs have an amazing survival ability. I found 2 still hiding amongst my rocks when they were out of the water for the whole day. Although they do not need water to be alive, the conditions were pretty messed up (dead stuff and water started to smell) before I removed the rocks from the tank.

Thank you all for your kind and encouraging words! Experience is the best teacher... compared to many others, mine is considered a minor setback. Its a valuable lesson though. The rock with my red mushrooms had some sponge like stuff on it, and it didn't do very well. I tried to get rid of it, but it was difficult to completely remove the dying pieces. In the end, I had to sacrifice the mushies by throwing the whole rock away. I picked some pieces that came loose, hoping that they will attach themselves on other rocks.

Hey... how are your zoas doing? Did you give the Lugol's dip a try?

I took the chance and gave my tank a thorough wash. This is the result after the back-aching scrub. I started filling it with bottled distilled water and prepared the salt mix. Had to keep my live rocks out till tmr. I soaked some wipes with saltwater and placed them over the rocks to keep them moist. Hope they last and not give out a bad smell...

The list of casualties are as follows: 1 x Clownfish 2 x Flame Goby 1 x Diagonal Bar Goby 2 x Cleaner Shrimp 2 x Tube worms Some corals that didn't make it: Pumping Xenia Rhodatics I'm just praying hard that my zoas will be fine. They were half opened after they got transferred. The remaining clownfish seems so lonely now, since its mate just died...

Sigh... Murphy's law struck my tank: "if anything can go wrong, it will." I came into the office today with a mild burnt smell waiting for me. The first thing I saw was all my fishes have died except for one clownfish struggling to survive. There was a buzzing sound coming from my power plugs, and after looking at it, a short circuit was the cause for the burning smell. The extension plug behind the tank was damp with water (I'm suspecting splash from my overflow), and it shorted one of my power heads. I'm not sure if electrocution is the reason, but it killed most of my fishes and shrimps. There were a bunch of worms lying dead around my live rocks as well. Ever since I had some issues with some of my zoas melting away, I've always wanted to start over, but never in my mind it had to be this way. I'm quite sad at the loss, but this setback didn't crush my love for the hobby. On a positive note, it actually helped me to get rid of all the unwanted creatures that I've always longed to remove when I have time. I managed to set up a spare tank (I brought it to the office as a standby in case anything happens, which came in handy) and transferred most of my corals. I had a bucket of salt water meant for water changes, so I had to use it for this tank. From past experiences, I've always kept some fresh saltwater in case of an emergency, and it was put to good use. I had a hang-on filter lying around, and with a handful of biohomme and a piece of filter wool, the emergency tank was complete.

Pmed you!

Wow... :bow:

Your rics look bleached... Just kidding! They look absolutely fine. Hope this will build your confidence to get even more! Rics garden!

Nice nano! However, you have too many tangs in a tank this size... you may need to start looking for a new home for them real soon as they grow bigger. Btw, what camera are you using? Oh, and if you could, pls kindly resize your photos... they are huge!

Well... we could start from humble beginnings... like banning keyboard heroes from SRC to make this a better forum to surf in.

Haha... I think your pink zoas might have been from the same colony that I bought mine. I have the same brownish palys sprouting from them. Do they look greenish under actinics?

Nice green zoas! Pls let me know if you plan to frag those.

Hehehe... so you get roasted pigs in the process...? On a more serious note, is this really an issue? Seems like the design of the cabinet has its flaws...

Make that a third, Wow! Rats... everyone's been busy at GO.

Don't give up... try shifting it somewhere else in your tank. It might recover.

Wow... propagating already? That's awesome! ATI is a good choice, you won't regret it.

Thanks for the tips, bro! The scraping-seeding method is pretty cool... I'll give it a try.

You have deep pockets, sir... lovely piece! I wanted to chiong this shipment but got lazy... sigh.

I went to RC to search for a solution and came across this thread. To save you time to go through all the details, he has revised his formula to 7 - 8 drops of Lugol's solution per gallon of RO water. I followed his method with some deviation: I used bottled distilled water for the dip. 4 drops of Lugol's solution I used a small container, so I wasn't sure how much DI water there is. It was purely an estimate. I did not use Salifert's Flatworm exit. (Didn't buy it at the time of the dip) I did not buffer the pH of the dip (lazy lah... ) I did not set my lights to actinic only. I dipped the zoas only once. The rest were pretty much the same. The 2 zoas were closed for a day, and started to open up slowly. Those polyps that were half gone continued to melt. The rest of the polyps that were slightly apart from those badly affected area did better and started to open up fully. I'd say its a success for me in spite of the "discounted" method. Bro Fishtalk gave a tip: just make sure that the polyps are closed before the dip. That way, they will not absorb the dip. Let us know of your progress! Cheers!

Is this true octo...? Looks like frog spawn to me, but I might be wrong. Do you have a powerhead providing flow directly to the coral? This may cause it to retract. I've experienced this with hammers.

You must change your thread title... no longer newbie tank... should rename to Gem tank now!

Nice! I wish I could grow coraline algae like yours...