175g Bow-Front + many beers and tears (many pics)

scmountain

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Long overdue update:
I had severe hip reconstruction late April so most of this time has been prepping for surgery and then recovering. luckily the tank is darn near self sufficient. but here are the highlights:

May 4th: We had a spawning event!!! ( At the time I didnt know what was happening)
late at night I look over at the tank and suddenly there are THOUSANDS of pink eggs floating around, I thought a nem had gotten blended in the Nero. And the room smelled so "fishy" you would think you were standing on a pier during low tide.

Being less than 2 weeks post-op I was panicking because I couldnt do anything! No massive water change, nor climb in there to skim out all of these "bits." Luckily my brother was in from Oregon to help my wife take care of me, so we threw in as much filter floss and carbon that we could. Turned the skimmer on and did a tiny WC.

Not more than 10 minutes after the eggs appeared, the tank was completely white. Looked like 180g of milk under blue lights, you couldnt even see the closest rock structure 4" from the glass!

I was 100% sure I was witnessing a "nem nuke" and that the tank was toast.

Sadly I didnt take any photos (too much panic) until the next day, this is how cloudy it still was after 12h of skimming/filter flossing.

Shout out to my brother for helping and bailing the skimmer cup that night and all morning. It would fill every hour, and boy did it STINK!
After much research and talking to LFS, we realized we witnessed broadcast spawning!
 

SynDen

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Thats kind of kewl and kind of freaky at the same time. Did everything pull through after that? Hows the hip now?
 

scmountain

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PSA: CLEAN YOUR LIGHTS

Working from the couch, and I get that unmistakable "Electronics on fire" smell, coming from the tank, of course.
I now see one light is off, rush over and luckily was able to pull the plug from the now smoking light.


I bought these lights used and they were well cared for, but once I popped open the unit, the problem was clear. These heat sinks are completely gunked up thus no airflow.


The fan was melted


Cleaned each unit thoroughly and soldered in a new fan on each:
 

scmountain

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Thats kind of kewl and kind of freaky at the same time. Did everything pull through after that? Hows the hip now?
I only lost my trigger during this event so that was a huge relief.
The hip is doing well, Just got off of crutches last week so now just lots of PT!
 

scmountain

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Lost one of my big nems earlier this week :cry: and its "sibling" started to follow suit.
After some sage wisdom from @MuralReef believe it to be a blended baby rainbow split was killing my RBTA's.
Big water change, and a crap ton of carbon later. Things look back to normal!
The chemical warfare has subsided for now.... until the next rainbow split finds a Nero3
 

flagg37

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Sorry I’m so late to this but did you find out what it was that spawned? I’ve had my trochus snails spawn but no pink eggs. Just milky white substance.
 

scmountain

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Sorry I’m so late to this but did you find out what it was that spawned? I’ve had my trochus snails spawn but no pink eggs. Just milky white substance.
99% certain it was my RBTAs based on the pictures I have seen and fellow reefers who had the same event occur that exact night.
No babies ever popped up, was told it would be highly unlikely to see any
 

scmountain

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Those huge red BTA are amazing. If you ever part with one please let me know.


Sent from my iPhone using MASC - Marine Aquarium Society of Colorado
Thanks, the movement they provide is unreal! I'll let you know next time they split... and they will haha
 

scmountain

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Sadly lost the last of the giant RBTAs this weekend. Not sure why as water params were all normal. The original nem was almost 15 years old so I am not sure if it was just EOL because all of the Rainbows are happy and healthy or chemical warfare from them???

Wish I would have taken more videos and better photos! At times there would be almost 4 contiguous feet of nems and tentacles hypnotically dancing...

Here is one last look at what used to be three nems all with oral discs bigger than 18"
Imgur video: https://i.imgur.com/NM5R8Yc.mp4





With all of the big boys out, the silver lining is I can re-scape the tank!
Pics to come!
 

scmountain

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Santa thought I had actually been keeping up on my tank maintenance.... bahahahahahaha


Now I can tell her "Honey it is OK, I have a gift card....."
 
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