markalot
...
I would just carefully break it. Sounds like a spongodes and they grow pretty fast. My favorite prying tool is a rusty paint can opener.
65 DSA SPS Dominant Mixed Reef
- Thread starter aggie13reef
- Start date
I would just carefully break it. Sounds like a spongodes and they grow pretty fast. My favorite prying tool is a rusty paint can opener.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
I would just carefully break it. Sounds like a spongodes and they grow pretty fast. My favorite prying tool is a rusty paint can opener.
Yes, and no matter how careful you are, it will break. Its no big deal, just glue it all in the same pace at the new location and it will grow back together on its own.
aggie13reef
New member
I would just carefully break it. Sounds like a spongodes and they grow pretty fast. My favorite prying tool is a rusty paint can opener.
Thanks for the advice guys, my first mistake in the SPS addiction was adding montis! In a 65 gal I am running out of space quickly. Mark I the frag I bought today came from a colony that looks identical to your Miami Orchid.
markalot
...
Cool, I hope it is one, it's a fun coral. When super happy the tips turn very bright purple/white/pink and the lower stems have a nice purple sheen. Since stirring up all the muck when working on my tank mine has exploded in new growth. It must like all the detritus in the water.
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
That's the curse of certain types of coral- you want them for their looks and hardiness then two years later you just want to clear that weed out! For me it's purple Stylophora:hammer:
aggie13reef
New member
I can see the purple tip on this frag from across the room its beautiful. I have some PE today when I got home from work so it must like the tank alright!
I can already tell that will be the case with my green bird and stylo... Oh well they help fill my tank out at the moment.
aggie13reef
New member
Tonight is water change night and I will probably remove some of the algae by hand as well. Sad to say that our melanurus "Fritz" has died. He was losing weight over the last month and by the other day he was skin and bones. All the other fish in the tank are fat, I would say extremely healthy. He didn't eat last night but other than the weight loss there were no visual signs of disease or parasite. He was full grown when we got him almost 2 years ago so no telling how old he was. He was a wonderful fish though my wife and I loved his personality.
On a more positive note the purple and green acro seems to be losing some of the brown and gaining some of the purple back. The turquoise stag has beautiful blue growth tips. I wish I could get a picture without the blue washout from the lights. Maybe one day I'll buy a decent camera. I will try to post some picture updates this Saturday when I get a little free time.
On a more positive note the purple and green acro seems to be losing some of the brown and gaining some of the purple back. The turquoise stag has beautiful blue growth tips. I wish I could get a picture without the blue washout from the lights. Maybe one day I'll buy a decent camera. I will try to post some picture updates this Saturday when I get a little free time.
aggie13reef
New member
Today when I got home from work I was feeding our birds and I noticed my tank was a little more loud than normal. I then saw the empty ATO reservoir and opened the doors to the stand to see the sump 3/4 full and the skimmer going crazy. This is the first time this has happened and I have been using the ATO for a couple months. The float had to have gotten hung up. The only concern I had was a salinity drop due to the incoming RO, but it was minuscule. SG dropped from 1.024 to 1.023. I will top off with salt water tomorrow and check again. For now the ATO is offline, I will have to check the float and do some tests before I let it go again. Hopefully the SPS don't suffer, so far everything has good PE and seems normal so I am happy.
I am also going to begin using ME coral Ca supplement. It comes in a bag that you mix with 1 gal RO and then dose 100mL/100 gal to raise Ca 10 ppm. I will be manually dosing so I will test a few days and ballpark what I need. As long as I keep it 400-450 I'll be satisfied. Once I run out of this and the seachem reef builder I am going to purchase the BRS 2 part package! I am tight though so I am going to make myself use all of the supplements I currently have.
As for the pictures I didn't get time to mess with any this weekend, but here's a quick shot of the Miami orchid frag before I left for work this morning...
I am also going to begin using ME coral Ca supplement. It comes in a bag that you mix with 1 gal RO and then dose 100mL/100 gal to raise Ca 10 ppm. I will be manually dosing so I will test a few days and ballpark what I need. As long as I keep it 400-450 I'll be satisfied. Once I run out of this and the seachem reef builder I am going to purchase the BRS 2 part package! I am tight though so I am going to make myself use all of the supplements I currently have.
As for the pictures I didn't get time to mess with any this weekend, but here's a quick shot of the Miami orchid frag before I left for work this morning...
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
That purple on the Miami orchid is very pretty!. Don't worry too much about the ATO filling, a little salinity swing like you had won't cause any issues. If you want to save money on the 2-part, I highly recommend making your Alk supplement from plain old Arm and Hammer baking soda per Randy's recipe. I used to buy Calcium Chloride for the other part from Amazon for very cheap too.
aggie13reef
New member
Thanks! With the lights on its a glowing purple, it's awesome! Glad the small swing will not cause any issues. I will definitely look into Randy's recipe, where can I find it? I'm all about saving money!
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
aggie13reef
New member
aggie13reef
New member
Update:
I really love the way the tank looks with the Zoa rock gone, it opened up a nice area up front. A couple things I want to do in the next few weeks is move some coral around. I recently ordered a frag rack and I can't wait to cut some frags in the next few months!
Here is a picture of the area I will focus on:
I want to move the Green stylo down to the lower right side of the rock work and place the Miami orchid frag where the stylo currently sits. My only question to y'all is this is the area with the most intense flow in the tank. Will that be an issue for the Miami orchid?
I also want to move the frogspawn to the left of where is currently sits because it is almost growing into the rock behind it. It might be slightly shaded by the red monti and that is also a concern to me.
My ATO is back up and running and SG is back to 1.024. I mixed up the ME Ca supplement last night and will test for the next 3 days to see exactly what the Ca consumption in the tank is and begin to manually dose accordingly. My plan is to dose Ca in the morning and Alk at night when I get home from work. I know you are supposed to dose with quite a bit of time apart to not cause an unbalance in one, should this plan be OK?
I plan on buying the BRS dosers when I run out of both of my supplements. And I really want to get rid of some of this algae, It is really wearing me out :mad2:
I really love the way the tank looks with the Zoa rock gone, it opened up a nice area up front. A couple things I want to do in the next few weeks is move some coral around. I recently ordered a frag rack and I can't wait to cut some frags in the next few months!
Here is a picture of the area I will focus on:
I want to move the Green stylo down to the lower right side of the rock work and place the Miami orchid frag where the stylo currently sits. My only question to y'all is this is the area with the most intense flow in the tank. Will that be an issue for the Miami orchid?
I also want to move the frogspawn to the left of where is currently sits because it is almost growing into the rock behind it. It might be slightly shaded by the red monti and that is also a concern to me.
My ATO is back up and running and SG is back to 1.024. I mixed up the ME Ca supplement last night and will test for the next 3 days to see exactly what the Ca consumption in the tank is and begin to manually dose accordingly. My plan is to dose Ca in the morning and Alk at night when I get home from work. I know you are supposed to dose with quite a bit of time apart to not cause an unbalance in one, should this plan be OK?
I plan on buying the BRS dosers when I run out of both of my supplements. And I really want to get rid of some of this algae, It is really wearing me out :mad2:
kmcochran0010
New member
Nice aquarium!
aggie13reef
New member
Thank you vey much! I got lucky with the aquascape I just kind of piled until it didn't fall. Now if I could get rid of some of the algae!
aggie13reef
New member
Thanks! It is one of my favorite corals, probably because it started from about a 1 inch piece.
aggie13reef
New member
Today I will do my weekly water change and pull as much GHA and bryopsis as I can. I tested a few things today as its been a while and this is what I got:
Ca - 320 :thumbdown
Alk - 6.4 (not sure whats dangerously low)
Nitrate - 0
Phos - 0 (salifert)
There is no way nitrate and phos are 0 which annoys me, because I am trying to solve my algae problem. I have GFO from when I had my old 37 but I do not want to hurt the SPS because they all look good color and growth wise. I am kind of at a loss when the test kits are showing 0...
As far as the Ca and Alk I have got to get those up. I guess that dosing kit from BRS will have to come sooner rather than later because manual dosing is just not getting it done. The corals all look good even the LPS, so I will keep on trucking along and hope for the best!
Ca - 320 :thumbdown
Alk - 6.4 (not sure whats dangerously low)
Nitrate - 0
Phos - 0 (salifert)
There is no way nitrate and phos are 0 which annoys me, because I am trying to solve my algae problem. I have GFO from when I had my old 37 but I do not want to hurt the SPS because they all look good color and growth wise. I am kind of at a loss when the test kits are showing 0...
As far as the Ca and Alk I have got to get those up. I guess that dosing kit from BRS will have to come sooner rather than later because manual dosing is just not getting it done. The corals all look good even the LPS, so I will keep on trucking along and hope for the best!
Scorpius
Stick Head
Your nitrates and phosphates are showing zero because the algae is having a field day eating it all. Basically you have high nutrient issues being masked by the algae consuming it. Find a way to outcompete it and you'll win. GFO/refugium/algae scrubber/carbon dosing/reduced feeding etc. It takes time.
