How to stay motivated when tank dies

[Chaseme08]

Alright peeps I need some positive motivation im so upset and demoralized right now. My tanks been running for over a year. Ive picked up a bunch of coral for our meet ups that all took off. For the first time ever my sticks started encrusting and a bunch of other stuff was taking off!

Then this past week everything and I mean everything started to wilt and die. All my sticks... gone all my chalice gone... the only things barely hanging on are the zoas and mushrooms.

Ive done everything trying to keep this tank happy and it just nuked itself. No idea why either my parameters are all great!

Im just so beat up on this and sad about the whole situation

 

[NoOneLikesADryTang]

Sorry to hear about this - it’s one of the toughest parts of this hobby.

Do you know your parameters?

Have you checked your equipment? Sometimes a housing can crack and potentially start leaching in to the tank.

 

[Waterlogged]

I'm sorry to hear that man. I know it probably doesn't help now, but I think we've all been there at some point. Things are flourishing and either there's a power outage, equipment failure (usually a heater), forgot to turn on/off a switch, a simple math error or some unknown event that we'll never figure out. It's a complex system and a hundred points of failure that aren't all within our control.

My last big hiccup was 9/2/25 when almost half my fish died overnight. There'd been no recent additions or changes. Water was cloudy, but parameters were solid and no blips on apex that offered a clue. ICP was unrevealing and sick fish got better in less than 24 hours making it less likely an infectious issue. Took several weeks, but corals finally showed the stress and lost several colonies.

My only advice is hang in there and figure out what the silver lining will be for u. For me it was resetting my fish stocking list so I could add some fish I wouldn't have been able to keep without the losses. Keep up with the maintenance, avoid any big changes and ride it out. KISS method prevails during the bad times. If you happen to figure out what the problem was share it with others so they can learn too.

When its up and going well again lemme know and I'll give you some replacement frags

 

[evolved]

Unfortunately, set backs are a part of this hobby. Those that have been in it >5 years have certainly overcome at least one. In the 16-17 years of my tenure, I've dealt with several untraceable events where I lost numerous corals from the same "thing".

Here's where I'd recommend starting (checking for the thing you can control):
Do an ICP of both your DT as well as a suitable one for your RODI.
Meanwhile, I'll definitely echo the above, check/inspect all of your equipment, especially everything with a magnet. Check all of your impellers in every pump; cracked or compromised magnets are a classic source of "weird" losses. Don't forget any probe or heater holders with magnets, too.

And also recognize that we're trying to mimic biology in a closed system, and that's hard! There's all kinds of bacterial and/or viral issues that you can't test or inspect for, and sometimes you just have to wait for stability on the other side of the event. Just keep the routine maintenance going.

Lastly, this is where the community of your best reefing friends come in - it's wonderful to do simple frag trades with others, and then you can always have a "backup" of most of your favorites.

 

[Chaseme08]

I appreciate all of you! i was in the dumps on this and really heartbroken seeing my favorite frags slowly turn white. I tried everything multiple test and everything within normal parameters. Then out of no where Aquaholics had a recommendation lets test copper and I should send in a test to icp. So i did the icp test should have results today. Now the copper... it came in hot meaning something was leaching copper into the tank. i took apart every pump, wave maker and gyre they all looked great. Then out of no where by pure luck i looked up from below and saw something on the underside of my octo aquatic frag rack... picked it off and it started flaking away.... it was a bolt that stuck to the frag rack magnet when i was storing it and its been slowly rusting for months.

I pulled the frag rack and cleaned every single bit of rust i could find. I then started running cuprisorb double dose and for the first time in 3 weeks last night i saw some coral getting color back. I'm not going to say im out of the woods but it seems like its going in the right direction. I moved some coral to my little nano to try and save but i think the damage is done. I like the point that this gives me a chance to change up the tank and i plan to do that with knowing what works where. again i appreciate all of you and the help with staying motived on all this.

Just incase some of you have these corals and are willing to trade and sell here is what i lost

Green Slimer Acro
Candle Acro
Blue and green birdsnest
myagi tort
green acros
rainbow acros
rainbow favia
pocillopora coral
gold hammer colonies...
Wili wonka hammer
green hammer
splatter hammer colony
dunkin colony
one of my favorite space invader pectinia
blue chalice
hologram hammer
among other chalices.

 

[1ocean]

wow..sorry to hear ..thats why I leave all magnets out of the tank/sump//
Hey if you want some zoas, let me know..
Next month I will be tearing down the 300 to put up the new tank so I will be fragging a lot..
Making a 60x30x18 sump out of the old 300..seam is letting go..
We will not be at the march meeting...I am replacing the underlayment on my house myself...

 

[KLC]

It happens. A few years ago I lost almost all of my acros to an RTN event in about 2 days. Then through the generosity of a few fellow azfrag members I got the tank repopulated with corals, then I had a bout with AEFW. That’s all been quite a while ago now, the big tank is now my FOWLR and the corals all thrive in the lowboy.

We put so much effort into our tanks, so when something devastating occurs we feel like weve lost a family member. But keep on keeping on, you will be better prepared for the next event whatever/whenever that may be.

I’m actually kind of glad I moved corals out of my tank, I love my fish and can keep those that I normally wouldn’t be able to otherwise.

 

[Chaseme08]

wow..sorry to hear ..thats why I leave all magnets out of the tank/sump//
Hey if you want some zoas, let me know..
Next month I will be tearing down the 300 to put up the new tank so I will be fragging a lot..
Making a 60x30x18 sump out of the old 300..seam is letting go..
We will not be at the march meeting...I am replacing the underlayment on my house myself...

Absolutely please let me know or send a direct message when your fragging some corals would love to see if you have some of the ones i lost in the dieoff! New tank thats exciting! its a bummer the tank is failing but gives you a chance to change it up thats sort of what i was telling myself through all of this.

 

[Chaseme08]

It happens. A few years ago I lost almost all of my acros to an RTN event in about 2 days. Then through the generosity of a few fellow azfrag members I got the tank repopulated with corals, then I had a bout with AEFW. That’s all been quite a while ago now, the big tank is now my FOWLR and the corals all thrive in the lowboy.

We put so much effort into our tanks, so when something devastating occurs we feel like weve lost a family member. But keep on keeping on, you will be better prepared for the next event whatever/whenever that may be.

I’m actually kind of glad I moved corals out of my tank, I love my fish and can keep those that I normally wouldn’t be able to otherwise.

Talking with everyone this is just part of the process from the sounds of it. I'm happy things are on the right path now but it hurts to see all that hard work die.