what should i do

[joefish84]

well ive had some rather bad luck over the break

my octo is not doing well in my 75

my reef tank has lost the majority of its corals and the rest look like crap...

so what should i do... i know tonmo is going to be biased to one of my ideas but i want some suggestions

idea 1

keep the octo in the 75 and the reef in the 200 system... keep growing corals and losing money everytime i go out of town and keep paying a high electricity bill for something that i think is amazingly beautiful...

or
idea 2
move whats left of my reef into the 75 and just have a smaller reef tank get t5 lighting and make my electrical bill cheaper and move the octo into the 200 system(which would require octo profing the whole thing)

or
idea 3
now this one might be too much for me to handle but i might be willing to do it for a while if someone convinces me...
take my reef tank and turn it into a fowler in my 75 gallon and say hell with corals for a while and just have a fowler tank that would actually look pretty good with my fish and make the 200 my octo tank...

anyway i would love to keep things like they are if i could but as much money that i put into the reef tank im beginning to think that if i put the same amount or less into a 75 it would look alot better and make the 200 a better home for the octo... so please give me some input here cause im at a loss and i really want both because ive been keeping reefs for over 6 years now and i love them but i dont know if i should just do the 3rd idea and start up the reef again later down the road which would be a hard step for me

 

[DHyslop]

Wait until your octo kicks it before you make any sweeping changes to the systems.

I would be hesitant to make any changes until you understand exactly what caused the nitrogen excursions in your tank. What are the details of your filtration system and how big is the little guy now?

Dan

 

[joefish84]

well the octo is in a 75 with about 30 gallons of water in a sump. ive got the overflow going into a fluval canister modified to house a crapload of carbon that then overflows into the main sump and is picked up by the diy skimmer then circulates for a while in the 55 gallon sump and back up into the tank through dual returns... the little guy has a mantle lenght of about 4 inches legs about 10 stretched out. i wasnt going to make these changes until the octo or the reef died but i just wanted some other keepers of marine life's opions on what they would do if they were in my position

 

[cthulhu77]

I guess I am somewhat confused. If you love the corals, why would you get change them over to the 75? Does the experience of keeping them validate the high energy cost?
The octopus is not doing well...but sounds like he should still fit into a tank that size, so I would be looking at parameters rather than drastic solutions at the moment. Test kits are only so good.

Hope all this untangles for you...

greg

 

[joefish84]

well ive done all i can for the little fella and these are just options that will come up when hes gone yeah i love the reef tank and the octo but its more of a matter of where each goes... ive decided that no matter what im not getting rid of corals so scratch number 3 but im still considering putting my next octo in the 200 instead of the 75 cause the next octo im getting is going to be a briarieus instead of a bimac and cost is not the issue because im switching to t5 lighting on the reef tank which is almost half the cost of running metal halides and with the same output

 

[joefish84]

i just want yall to vote for option 1 or 2 whichever has the most i will probably do because if it stays the same as it is then i wont have to do anything and if i switch the two then i just have to octo proof the reef tank and switch the lighting... not a problem... just work... anyway please pick one and tell me...

 

[DHyslop]

well the octo is in a 75 with about 30 gallons of water in a sump. ive got the overflow going into a fluval canister modified to house a crapload of carbon that then overflows into the main sump and is picked up by the diy skimmer then circulates for a while in the 55 gallon sump and back up into the tank through dual returns... the little guy has a mantle lenght of about 4 inches legs about 10 stretched out. i wasnt going to make these changes until the octo or the reef died but i just wanted some other keepers of marine life's opions on what they would do if they were in my position

If you're just running carbon in your canister, where do you have biological filtration in the system? I'm sure your skimmer is exporting a bit of ammonia, but it seems from this you're relying on your rock, sand and tank walls for denitrification?

Dan

 

[William Tyson]

how bout this, keep in mind that it is verry biasd. once mr octo dies, move all you high light loving corals to the 75, im guess you have MH on your reefs, put one of the MHs on your 75, with lots or pretty coral. then with your 200, turn it into a fowlr, and keep a Cuttle.

 

[Nancy]

Before you do all this planning for the future, you need to find out exactly what caused this to happen and what you can do to prevent this from ever happening again.

Nancy

 

[joefish84]

i know what happened now the returns clogged so the water in the main tank just brewed and caused the chemicals to rise... unfourtunatly the person taking care of the octo didnt notice that they were and so nothing was done... i know im going to switch the two tanks now

for the filtration in the octo tank ive got live rock and the canister only acts as a trickle filter it doesnt have a top and the water flows down into it over the carbon and then overflows out through the sponges and over the sides...actually works pretty well.

 

[Nancy]

Last year one of our octo keepers had to go away for a week, so he had someone to feed his bimac every day, and also another tank expert to come in and check the water quality and make sure that everything was OK in the tank. This seemed to work - he had no problems and his bimac probably enjoyed the attention.

Nancy

 

[joefish84]

thats a good idea... my landlord was taking care of him and hes got a reef tank so i figured everything would be ok but every christmas something in my tanks dies.

2 years ago
all corals...
last year
all fish...
this year
most corals...
a few fish...
and kash...

figures