Dry for now

[mnreefgeek]

I got home last weekend and stepped into a garage full of stench. I instantly had a really bad feeling what had happened and once I opened the door and looked at the tank, my assumption was confirmed :doh: . All of my SPS stood as skeletons where once proud, although modest, colonies had stood. All fish but 3 were dead.

After going over everything, the only thing that I could find off was that the chiller temp read 99, so it was in a constant on state. Further probing revealed that the water temp was about 80, close to normal.

Needless to say, I am stumped. Taking this as a clue from above saying that I don't have enough time to dedicate to the creatures in my care, I have decided to go on a temporary hiatus until I complete school this fall when i will have more time to dedicate to the tank.

Between now and then, I have some thinking to do.

Although I really love the fuzzy sticks, I think that the time that I have to dedicate to their care is lessening as work and home responsibilities seem to consume more and more of my time. I know that I would never be happy with a tank completely devoid of hard corals, strictly acros may not be in my future as long as I am in my present house considering the amount of space that I can dedicate to a tank.

What could I look at for inhabitants if I were to go with a VHO or T5 set up rather than my 2 x 250 DE in a 48" x 18" tank? Want to eliminate the chiller from the equation.

I am already overkill on flow with a MRT 55 with a penductor, Tunze 6100 and a MJ1200. Think I will eliminate the closed loop here for a couple nanao streams.

Suggestions are welcome as I have a few months to poder over things before I throw any salt into the mix.

Thanks

[loos15]

Pretty much any LPS and softies... although most LPS from my expereince dont like super flow like acros. I feel your pain bro...my acros cause me more painful headaches than my mild run in with palytoxin
You still can put acros under t5. I have seen it work at Reefstock's place...
anyways good luck!

[mtfatwork]

with t5's you should be able to keep just about anything :)

[Turf]

I would agree, w/t5's. But if you looking for low work load then you need to go softies IMO as it will no where near as much checking on levels like calc and alk. But you'll have to get use to looking at softies ;)

[mnreefgeek]

Turf - I tried mushrooms once, started seeing things!

[aka_BigRed]

I would agree, w/t5's. But if you looking for low work load then you need to go softies IMO as it will no where near as much checking on levels like calc and alk. But you'll have to get use to looking at softies ;)


There's nothing wrong with looking at softies ;)- I'm definitely a softy man myself. I think they are just as good as anything else and not so much painstaking work. BTW, I'm running T5's too.

Sorry to hear about the disaster. There's nothing more puzzling than a system melt-down, especially if you can't exactly figure out what went wrong. Hope to see you back once you are done with school.

[csb123]

Sorry to hear about your disaster....that really blows!:frown:

[David Grigor]

Chad, remind me again your tank size ? Where is it located....basement ?