A few of my SPS

[Myka]

Greg, just add a bunch of bicarb and watch the snow storm precipitate all the calcium out for you. I've done it before (when I caught the problem within hours of it happening), but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

 

[Oldude]

Last sentence....so true!!!
Really hope everything will be ok greg or at least with the minimal losses buddy.

You can never predict/guess when a piece of equipment will fail you
It can be light,pumps,whatever...
Even with regular testing,you still can't ensure nothing bad happens.

Amazing pics btw:beer:

Thanks Mike, I always appreciate your comments.

 

[Oldude]

Greg, just add a bunch of bicarb and watch the snow storm precipitate all the calcium out for you. I've done it before (when I caught the problem within hours of it happening), but I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Never done that before - won't it spike the alk levels and potentially cause more damage?

 

[plyle02]

Hey Greg,
Hope you had a great holiday season and from the look over things, seems as if the new year is bringing some phenomenal colors! Great to see you posting them beauties, glad whatever speedbump of a problem you encountered, that you pushed on past it Thanks for the update, as usually expected, nothing but top notch!

 

[markalot]

Sorry to hear about more trouble Greg, but such is the way I guess. Hopefully everything has turned around!

 

[Myka]

Never done that before - won't it spike the alk levels and potentially cause more damage?

Yep.

Now that I think about it again, and look at my notes, it was alkalinity that was high, not calcium. That tank had low nutrients, but it wasn't ULNS by any means. The system wasn't particularly alkalinity-sensitive. I accidentally bumped the alkalinity doser timer (it was analog) and it was set to "random" dosing. IIRC it was 2 days of "random" and it spiked alkalinity to 17 dKH. The corals were all sliming and I knew something was wrong. I dosed calcium to a theoretical level of 550 ppm, and the tank had massive precipitation very quickly. In an hour the tank had cleared and it sat with calcium at 450 ppm and alkalinity at 11 dKH. I was frustrated at the tank at the time, and I was wreckless, but it worked out ok. I didn't get any burned tips or anything. :uhoh2:

I'm not suggesting you try it. I'm just sharing a stupid story.

 

[Oldude]

Hey Greg,
Hope you had a great holiday season and from the look over things, seems as if the new year is bringing some phenomenal colors! Great to see you posting them beauties, glad whatever speedbump of a problem you encountered, that you pushed on past it Thanks for the update, as usually expected, nothing but top notch!

Thanks Perry same to you. I had a busy but very nice Christmas. Despite the Calcium overdose I am actually fairly pleased with the color of the corals for the most part. Thanks for checking in, your comments are always appreciated.

Sorry to hear about more trouble Greg, but such is the way I guess. Hopefully everything has turned around!

Thanks Mark - I am keeping my fingers crossed.

Yep.

Now that I think about it again, and look at my notes, it was alkalinity that was high, not calcium. That tank had low nutrients, but it wasn't ULNS by any means. The system wasn't particularly alkalinity-sensitive. I accidentally bumped the alkalinity doser timer (it was analog) and it was set to "random" dosing. IIRC it was 2 days of "random" and it spiked alkalinity to 17 dKH. The corals were all sliming and I knew something was wrong. I dosed calcium to a theoretical level of 550 ppm, and the tank had massive precipitation very quickly. In an hour the tank had cleared and it sat with calcium at 450 ppm and alkalinity at 11 dKH. I was frustrated at the tank at the time, and I was wreckless, but it worked out ok. I didn't get any burned tips or anything. :uhoh2:

I'm not suggesting you try it. I'm just sharing a stupid story.

Thanks Mindy that is interesting information. That said I think I will just stick with water changes for now since your scenario was the exact opposite

 

[Oldude]

Here's a picture showing some of the damage I was talking about.

 

[Oldude]

And meanwhile as some corals are suffering major STN others are doing well.
I am sorry this picture is out of focus but it is as close as I can seem to get with this piece that shows the exact colors it's sporting these days. It is a stunner with the blue/purple corallites and fluorescent red/pink polyps.

 

[Oldude]

I am diggin' my efflos and they are growing well. I they give an interesting shape contrast to the "reef-scape"

 

[Oldude]

Man it's hard to get a decent FTS with a crap camera and broken tripod

Man it's hard to get a decent FTS with a crap camera and broken tripod

 

[mhucasey]

Thank you for taking it nonetheless. It's good to see how things are arranged so when looking at closer pictures I have some context.

That being said, dang! Your reef as a whole is absolutely spectacular! There is so much going on its incredible! It's terrible that you have Ben suffering some random losses lately but the rest of the reef is superb!

 

[watchguy123]

In the middle of dealing with your calcium calamity, you somehow manage a picture of your entire tank. Stunning and a dream. Always love your pictures, in particular it looks like your photography is so great with color correction as well. It always looks like I'm staring into your tanks when I gaze at your pictures. Plus, I relate to your screen name, yes I'm an old dude as well. I hope the calcium calamity resolves as smoothly and without complication as possible

 

[Oldude]

Thank you for taking it nonetheless. It's good to see how things are arranged so when looking at closer pictures I have some context.

That being said, dang! Your reef as a whole is absolutely spectacular! There is so much going on its incredible! It's terrible that you have Ben suffering some random losses lately but the rest of the reef is superb!

Thanks very much Matt - yes there is always a lot going on in my reef tanks so I don't get bored. :lol: You should be able to look at my reef for quite a while before you'll see everything in there. :rollface:

 

[Oldude]

In the middle of dealing with your calcium calamity, you somehow manage a picture of your entire tank. Stunning and a dream. Always love your pictures, in particular it looks like your photography is so great with color correction as well. It always looks like I'm staring into your tanks when I gaze at your pictures. Plus, I relate to your screen name, yes I'm an old dude as well. I hope the calcium calamity resolves as smoothly and without complication as possible

Thanks for that great compliment! I try to make the pictures as close to the real thing as possible but they usually fall short. Us old guys need to stick together. :thumbsup:

 

[Henry Colf]

Sorry to hear about your losses. Your tank is absolutely stunning !!!!

 

[Myka]

You have a pretty light fish load Greg? Fts looks great...even with those bald spots on that poor stag.

 

[Oldude]

Sorry to hear about your losses. Your tank is absolutely stunning !!!!

Thanks, kind of you to say.

You have a pretty light fish load Greg? Fts looks great...even with those bald spots on that poor stag.

Mindy I have over 50 fish in there but they are a little camera shy plus when I take FTS shots I am typically focusing on the Reef-scape and corals so I try not to have too many fish in the shot blocking the view.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Amazing FTS Greg despite the recent issues you are experiencing. I have got the same coral as the one shown in post no #908 (I think it is A. copiosa). Some of its damaged branches look exactly the same, but in my case, I suspect that excessive contact with direct water flow may be the culprit. Have you re-orientated your water pumps recently?

You must have trained your fish really well. They must know that they should disappear from the scene when it is time to take a photo.

 

[Oldude]

Amazing FTS Greg despite the recent issues you are experiencing. I have got the same coral as the one shown in post no #908 (I think it is A. copiosa). Some of its damaged branches look exactly the same, but in my case, I suspect that excessive contact with direct water flow may be the culprit. Have you re-orientated your water pumps recently?

You must have trained your fish really well. They must know that they should disappear from the scene when it is time to take a photo.

Thanks very much. Interesting, I have always believed that the stag you are referring to is A.lovelli due to the corallite structure. Pumps remain positioned the same as always so that isn't my issue - it is kind of a fussy coral and doesn't like parameter swings.
Regarding the fish - When doing an FTS I take about a dozen shots and pick the one with the clearest view of the coral-scape. :fun4: