DanW's 187 SPS Dominated Reef Journal

[Reefer08]

Hey Ramsey, for what it's worth, my OT has super polyp extensions. So I would suggest you check it for health issues.

Mine is in medium flow, medium light, it's growing nicely too....well for an OT it is.

Thanks Leo. Ill definitely have to look again for parasites. Im praying I don't have aefw. But it seems my torts are the first to be affected with a loss of PE. Im hoping this doesn't take Dan's thread off topic LOL. I have a bad habit of doing that to threads :lol2:


What magnification do you guys use to look for bugs? 3x or higher?

 

[DanW]

Hey Ramzy, sorry I have taking a photo of the OT on my list of things to do but been busy lately. My OT is in a high flow, high light area and I used to get pretty good polyp extension. However I added a bristle tail file fish about month ago and noticed that I lost PE on a few corals :mad2: So I agree with Leo, under good conditions absent any nippers you should have pretty good PE on an OT. I think that if you take some macro shots you should be able to spot any critters. Good luck hopefully is not a pest, keep us informed on what you find.

And about being off topic, as I've said before there is no rudder on this ship

 

[Reefer08]

Thanks for the reply Dan. How is the filefish doing in your tank? Is it eating aiptasia? Ive contemplated adding one to my tank for my aiptasia problem.

 

[DanW]

Thanks for the reply Dan. How is the filefish doing in your tank? Is it eating aiptasia? Ive contemplated adding one to my tank for my aiptasia problem.

The filefish is doing well and I don't see anymore aptasia BUT I've noticed that some of my pieces do not have or have decreased PE :mad2: If I'm going to sacrafice PE it's not going to be for a filefish, so I'm going to get him out when I can find the time.

 

[DanW]

Hi Dan,
I was wondering, does your oregon tort have good polyp extension? I notice mine has very little PE. Im wondering if it prefers lower flow? I have mine in high/medium flow. Im hoping its a flow issue and not AEFW...

Here are a few picts of my OT. I've lost some PE since the filefish addition. I also noticed a few months ago that the color has been shifting to a lighter shade

 

[Reefer08]

THanks for the pic Dan. The OT looks great. Im curious how you plan on capturing that filefish?

 

[aquariumclown]

Dan, I love that you have a nice size colony of OT, not too many people do. I'll try to get a photo of mine, it grows like molasses.

Ramsey, just curious, how long do you run your photo period?

 

[mpoletti]

Dan, what have you been dosing? Did you ever start the Prodibio? Are your nutrients lower than they were?

 

[DanW]

THanks for the pic Dan. The OT looks great. Im curious how you plan on capturing that filefish?

No problem Ramzy, you can see the growth post the issues I had as some of the tips are kinda deformed. As far as the filefish, I've tried netting him but he tends to stay near the rocks and he's just fast enough to dart in before I can get to him. I'll try with a soda bottle this weekend if I can find the time.

 

[DanW]

Dan, I love that you have a nice size colony of OT, not too many people do. I'll try to get a photo of mine, it grows like molasses.

Ramsey, just curious, how long do you run your photo period?

Thanks Leo, I'd love to see a pic of yours. I've got that lightening thing going on with this piece so it would be nice to compare. It started out as a 1" frag and I've only fragged it a few times for friends. Although it's pretty common, I love the royal/navy blue color...well the color it used to be.

 

[DanW]

Dan, what have you been dosing? Did you ever start the Prodibio? Are your nutrients lower than they were?

Mark, since I had those issues 4 - 5 months or so ago I've only been dosing 2 part. At that time I stopped Prodibio trying to get back to basics and I haven't restarted yet. I just put the Ca Rx back online last weekend (tired of hand dosing). My PO4 & NO3 readings are have been approximately the same for as long as I've been testing. My PO4 usually runs between 0.03 - 0.06 (Hanna) and NO3 between 1 - 5 (Elos). Are you thinking the loss of color is because of a decrease in nutrients?

 

[mpoletti]

Mark, since I had those issues 4 - 5 months or so ago I've only been dosing 2 part. At that time I stopped Prodibio trying to get back to basics and I haven't restarted yet. I just put the Ca Rx back online last weekend (tired of hand dosing). My PO4 & NO3 readings are have been approximately the same for as long as I've been testing. My PO4 usually runs between 0.03 - 0.06 (Hanna) and NO3 between 1 - 5 (Elos). Are you thinking the loss of color is because of a decrease in nutrients?

That or a possible low reading of mg. Sometimes the signs of lower nutrients will not show up over night, but more of a gradual thing. Either way, I'd throw in some oyster feast and see how the "canary corals" respond.

 

[Dave's Reef]

Wow Dan, that's the biggest colony of OT I've seen, lol!~ I've just got a very slow grower of a frag that I've had for some time now. Lost my first one and have had the second for several months without much growth... Hopefully it will show some signs of life/growth some time soon.

Despite the lighter shade it still looks pretty nice though!~

 

[DanW]

That or a possible low reading of mg. Sometimes the signs of lower nutrients will not show up over night, but more of a gradual thing. Either way, I'd throw in some oyster feast and see how the "canary corals" respond.

Thanks for the input Mark. My MG is acutally high. It's been around 1500 (Elos) for months now and I can't remember when the last time I supplemented. I use TMP so I think it keeps the MG pretty high (maybe too high?). Terry (Stryker) was over last week and he also said that maybe it was low nutrients. I guess I picking up some of your thoughts (finally) and I fed Oyster Feast 2x over the last week. It appears healthy (although there is one tip that has some algae on it that I'm going to cut off this weekend). From what I can tell, the OT is the only coral that is lightening.

 

[DanW]

Wow Dan, that's the biggest colony of OT I've seen, lol!~ I've just got a very slow grower of a frag that I've had for some time now. Lost my first one and have had the second for several months without much growth... Hopefully it will show some signs of life/growth some time soon.

Despite the lighter shade it still looks pretty nice though!~

Thanks Dave. Yeah, the OT was a really slow grower at first then went though a spell when it really took off. It completely stopped growing during my issues period and recently started showing some growth again lately. Hopefully your's will take off soon!

 

[Dave's Reef]

Thanks for the input Mark. My MG is acutally high. It's been around 1500 (Elos) for months now and I can't remember when the last time I supplemented. I use TMP so I think it keeps the MG pretty high (maybe too high?). Terry (Stryker) was over last week and he also said that maybe it was low nutrients. I guess I picking up some of your thoughts (finally) and I fed Oyster Feast 2x over the last week. It appears healthy (although there is one tip that has some algae on it that I'm going to cut off this weekend). From what I can tell, the OT is the only coral that is lightening.

Just out of curiosity Dan, do you have a Salifert Mag test kit too? I find the Elos always reads higher than my Salifert kit does. I use them both just to cross check one another for issues such as you're describing...

May be worth a try?

 

[Dave's Reef]

Hopefully your's will take off soon!

I hope so too!~

 

[ryshark]

Have you guys noticed that with the elos mg kit, the second step is always the same number of drops? For me the first step will vary but the second step is always 6-drops every time.

 

[Dejavu]

Here are a few picts of my OT. I've lost some PE since the filefish addition. I also noticed a few months ago that the color has been shifting to a lighter shade

Very nice Dan :thumbsup:. IMO it has light due to lower nutrients. My OBT looked the same in low nutrients.

 

[DanW]

Very nice Dan :thumbsup:. IMO it has light due to lower nutrients. My OBT looked the same in low nutrients.

Thanks Brian, I'm going to be increasing/be more consistent with my Oyster Feast feeding.