Thanks! Fixture is in a hood and distance from water to bulbs behind the plastic splash guard is probably 4-5 inches.
From stupid to less stupid: tank growth
- Thread starter gizmoody
- Start date
Thanks! Fixture is in a hood and distance from water to bulbs behind the plastic splash guard is probably 4-5 inches.
Nikon D7000 with the Nikkor 105mm macro or "micro" as Nikon calls it. This lens is so sharp that portraits can look cartoonie.
A terrible thing has happened: AEFreakinW. After the Interceptor treatment for red freakin bugs bugs these AEFW have increased in numbers to the point that my Six Line Wrasse can't help much and I see bite marks on my Acroporas, similar to the bite marks someone pointed out earlier in this thread. I have read the stories, seen the disasters and a few successes in handling AEFW.
I dipped a few corals that were severely infected in Revive and many AEFW fell off. I tried Flatworm Exit at 1.5X the recommended concentration in the tank. A week later, more bite marks. I have quite a number of Acroporas and even threw out a few that weren't encrusted on rocks. However, today, I decided I was going to shut down my tank. I have dealt with so many issues not including the Red bugs and now these guys with no known treatment to eradicated them completely. But...that would mean they would win so I decided to fight on.
Broke out the Dremel, hammer and chisel and did a partial teardown of the tank. I removed all Acros including those heavily encrusted on rocks, dipped in Revive, checked for eggs, cut off the base with eggs (and tossed, but should have burned!) of what I believe to be patient Zero. The flatworms on patient Zero were unbelievable large, 5-10 times the size of any average AEFW I have seen. I don't want to throw away patient zero. For Acros that were encrusted on rocks, I scraped off and siphoned what was left on rocks and after dipping, re-glued to small pieces of dead rock, something I should do with every coral I get before putting in my tank.
I don't have a quarantine tank or even a real sump (look up Red Sea Max 250 and you'll see why) so all of the acros are on the sand bed or temporarily wresting higher up on rocks. I hope to dip in Revive after one week and repeat every week for 4-8 weeks to make sure that all eggs have been hatched, remaining flatworms are removed and hopefully they will be flatworm free or manageable by my wrasses. I am hoping for the flatworm free option. I have also ordered a yellow wrasse to help.
I felt terrible ripping out corals. I have watched, nurtured and worried about these guys from when they were tiny frags (WTH is wrong with me!) The worst was my favorite, the big Red Planet...that hurt deep down inside somewhere. I may lose a few or all. However, I have to do this. I know many of you have dealt with this or may even have completely torn down your tank and I am really sorry. I think I know how you feel or must have felt.
On the positive side:
1. My tank will hopefully be flatworm free
2. I can reaquascape my tank after the treatments
3. I have now glued all acros that were never on a base to small pieces of dead rock, something everyone should do
4. I either win or lose completely in a few months
5. I have the time to deal with it
6. If all fails, I'll ask Adelle how she sets fire to the rain and set fire to my H2O.
Here are before and after shots:
Before
After
Terrible after photo but after hours of mentally devastating work today, I don't seem to worry too much! Also recently got rid of GSP and a few other corals to free up the sand for a better look. Luckily I did because now I need the space.
If you see any flaws in what I am doing or know how I can do things in better more efficient and less destructive ways, please let me know. BTW I have never seen AEFW on my glass but just did. Siphoned out those suckers faster than you can imagine.
I dipped a few corals that were severely infected in Revive and many AEFW fell off. I tried Flatworm Exit at 1.5X the recommended concentration in the tank. A week later, more bite marks. I have quite a number of Acroporas and even threw out a few that weren't encrusted on rocks. However, today, I decided I was going to shut down my tank. I have dealt with so many issues not including the Red bugs and now these guys with no known treatment to eradicated them completely. But...that would mean they would win so I decided to fight on.
Broke out the Dremel, hammer and chisel and did a partial teardown of the tank. I removed all Acros including those heavily encrusted on rocks, dipped in Revive, checked for eggs, cut off the base with eggs (and tossed, but should have burned!) of what I believe to be patient Zero. The flatworms on patient Zero were unbelievable large, 5-10 times the size of any average AEFW I have seen. I don't want to throw away patient zero. For Acros that were encrusted on rocks, I scraped off and siphoned what was left on rocks and after dipping, re-glued to small pieces of dead rock, something I should do with every coral I get before putting in my tank.
I don't have a quarantine tank or even a real sump (look up Red Sea Max 250 and you'll see why) so all of the acros are on the sand bed or temporarily wresting higher up on rocks. I hope to dip in Revive after one week and repeat every week for 4-8 weeks to make sure that all eggs have been hatched, remaining flatworms are removed and hopefully they will be flatworm free or manageable by my wrasses. I am hoping for the flatworm free option. I have also ordered a yellow wrasse to help.
I felt terrible ripping out corals. I have watched, nurtured and worried about these guys from when they were tiny frags (WTH is wrong with me!) The worst was my favorite, the big Red Planet...that hurt deep down inside somewhere. I may lose a few or all. However, I have to do this. I know many of you have dealt with this or may even have completely torn down your tank and I am really sorry. I think I know how you feel or must have felt.
On the positive side:
1. My tank will hopefully be flatworm free
2. I can reaquascape my tank after the treatments
3. I have now glued all acros that were never on a base to small pieces of dead rock, something everyone should do
4. I either win or lose completely in a few months
5. I have the time to deal with it
6. If all fails, I'll ask Adelle how she sets fire to the rain and set fire to my H2O.
Here are before and after shots:
Before
After
Terrible after photo but after hours of mentally devastating work today, I don't seem to worry too much! Also recently got rid of GSP and a few other corals to free up the sand for a better look. Luckily I did because now I need the space.
If you see any flaws in what I am doing or know how I can do things in better more efficient and less destructive ways, please let me know. BTW I have never seen AEFW on my glass but just did. Siphoned out those suckers faster than you can imagine.
In dealing with AEFW, I took all of my acros off of rocks, dipped for weeks, have wrasses patrolling, and all the other suggestions out there. I did lose a few corals, especially deep water ones due to the stress of the dips. I am out of patience and whatever happens now happens. If they want to eat my acros, then they are going to and I'll have to not have any acros.
However, this was a great time to correct a few mistakes I had made a long time ago that only experience teaches, if you know what I mean. A few that come to mind are:
1. Glue corals to pieces of rocks and then glue that to LF so that they are easy to remove if necessary. I had to cut off so many corals that were encrusted on rocks.
2. While some it's easy to attain, the wall of rocks look is not the only one that can be accomplished. However with my tank's dimensions it is difficult to make a minimalist, island styled rockscape because it all ends up looking like a wall of rocks somehow. When I google Red Sea Max 250 (my tank) I can only find tank photos with walls of rock. However, I got over the fear of removing LR from my tank and took the chance to at least attempt a different look. We'll see if the loss of rocks drastically affects my tank's stability and parameters. I am sure it's going to have a mini cycle now due to all of the rearrangements so maybe I'll know after that.
3. Incorrect placement of corals based on growth pattern. For example, a tabling coral requires a lot of side to side space as it grows, but I didn't know how my corals would behave in my tank. Now that I do, I placed more appropriately.
4. Caps are a pain, so I got rid of most.
5. It is ok to throw out a few frags/corals that never grew or are ugly instead of hoping that it'll become something eventually.
6. A clean sandbed is beautiful. Keep it as coral free as possible.
7. Fish need room to swim. While my wall of rock had many caves the fish cold only swim in front of the rocks. Now with the new arrangement they have less caves but enjoying swimming behind and in front of rocks and corals.
8. Quarantine, quarantine, quarantine.
9. Etc.
Anyway, here is my previous tank setup:
New tank setup (crappy shot but better ones to come as my patience returns to shoot in manual mode):
In these pictures the old setup looks better but in person, the second looks awesome with more space. I'll have to take photos at another angle. If the corals do grow, now they have space to do so. Let me know what you think!
However, this was a great time to correct a few mistakes I had made a long time ago that only experience teaches, if you know what I mean. A few that come to mind are:
1. Glue corals to pieces of rocks and then glue that to LF so that they are easy to remove if necessary. I had to cut off so many corals that were encrusted on rocks.
2. While some it's easy to attain, the wall of rocks look is not the only one that can be accomplished. However with my tank's dimensions it is difficult to make a minimalist, island styled rockscape because it all ends up looking like a wall of rocks somehow. When I google Red Sea Max 250 (my tank) I can only find tank photos with walls of rock. However, I got over the fear of removing LR from my tank and took the chance to at least attempt a different look. We'll see if the loss of rocks drastically affects my tank's stability and parameters. I am sure it's going to have a mini cycle now due to all of the rearrangements so maybe I'll know after that.
3. Incorrect placement of corals based on growth pattern. For example, a tabling coral requires a lot of side to side space as it grows, but I didn't know how my corals would behave in my tank. Now that I do, I placed more appropriately.
4. Caps are a pain, so I got rid of most.
5. It is ok to throw out a few frags/corals that never grew or are ugly instead of hoping that it'll become something eventually.
6. A clean sandbed is beautiful. Keep it as coral free as possible.
7. Fish need room to swim. While my wall of rock had many caves the fish cold only swim in front of the rocks. Now with the new arrangement they have less caves but enjoying swimming behind and in front of rocks and corals.
8. Quarantine, quarantine, quarantine.
9. Etc.
Anyway, here is my previous tank setup:
New tank setup (crappy shot but better ones to come as my patience returns to shoot in manual mode):
In these pictures the old setup looks better but in person, the second looks awesome with more space. I'll have to take photos at another angle. If the corals do grow, now they have space to do so. Let me know what you think!
Front top angled view of new layout:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6858187678/" title="front angle by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7135/6858187678_db12eaa890_z.jpg" width="640" height="317" alt="front angle"></a>
Left angled shot:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6858187562/" title="left2 by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7097/6858187562_657b4ffba0_z.jpg" width="640" height="408" alt="left2"></a>
Right angled shot:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6858187476/" title="right 2 by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7185/6858187476_4f2ecb4bb4_z.jpg" width="640" height="388" alt="right 2"></a>
Left side:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6858187416/" title="Left by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7217/6858187416_8d63a03640_z.jpg" width="563" height="640" alt="Left"></a>
Right side:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6858187302/" title="Right by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7188/6858187302_349c716deb_z.jpg" width="570" height="640" alt="Right"></a>
I have got to take better pics to get those fish in focus but don't want to use flash Any suggestions?
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6858187678/" title="front angle by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7135/6858187678_db12eaa890_z.jpg" width="640" height="317" alt="front angle"></a>
Left angled shot:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6858187562/" title="left2 by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7097/6858187562_657b4ffba0_z.jpg" width="640" height="408" alt="left2"></a>
Right angled shot:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6858187476/" title="right 2 by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7185/6858187476_4f2ecb4bb4_z.jpg" width="640" height="388" alt="right 2"></a>
Left side:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6858187416/" title="Left by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7217/6858187416_8d63a03640_z.jpg" width="563" height="640" alt="Left"></a>
Right side:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6858187302/" title="Right by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7188/6858187302_349c716deb_z.jpg" width="570" height="640" alt="Right"></a>
I have got to take better pics to get those fish in focus but don't want to use flash Any suggestions?
Blue Hornets
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/7009716575/" title="Blue hornets by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7079/7009716575_3a6cb47e56_z.jpg" width="640" height="286" alt="Blue hornets"></a>
Bellina (?) polyp extension
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6863602956/" title="Bellina by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7055/6863602956_4f01de917c_z.jpg" width="640" height="348" alt="Bellina"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/7009716575/" title="Blue hornets by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7079/7009716575_3a6cb47e56_z.jpg" width="640" height="286" alt="Blue hornets"></a>
Bellina (?) polyp extension
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6863602956/" title="Bellina by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7055/6863602956_4f01de917c_z.jpg" width="640" height="348" alt="Bellina"></a>
Here is the same Bellina with AEFW bite marks from a few months ago. None now!
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6776782805/" title="ugly acro by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7021/6776782805_243f5c14aa_z.jpg" width="640" height="494" alt="ugly acro"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6776782805/" title="ugly acro by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7021/6776782805_243f5c14aa_z.jpg" width="640" height="494" alt="ugly acro"></a>
Thanks Rehab. I appreciate it. Can't wait for corals to grow into that rockscape! Dipped the acro that had the worst AEFW problem complete with eggs and not a single AEFW came off. Seems like all of the steps I took may be working. I probably shouldn't have said that...:headwallblue:
This is what happened when a coral fell on this birdsnest...pure calcium carbonate.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/7025307795/" title="DSC_4002 by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6092/7025307795_178edcff28_z.jpg" width="589" height="640" alt="DSC_4002"></a>
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/7025307795/" title="DSC_4002 by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6092/7025307795_178edcff28_z.jpg" width="589" height="640" alt="DSC_4002"></a>
Corals are starting to grow again and gain some color original non-brown color back. :lmao:
Hawkins
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/7025308057/" title="DSC_4005 by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7234/7025308057_fefdc8d422_z.jpg" width="640" height="398" alt="DSC_4005"></a>
Montipora
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/7025307837/" title="DSC_4009 by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7089/7025307837_97e136774e_z.jpg" width="640" height="291" alt="DSC_4009"></a>
Acropora - originally a light to medium blue but turned completely brown...tips are turning blue
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6879206460/" title="DSC_4013 by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7277/6879206460_e591962430_z.jpg" width="640" height="409" alt="DSC_4013"></a>
Hawkins
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/7025308057/" title="DSC_4005 by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7234/7025308057_fefdc8d422_z.jpg" width="640" height="398" alt="DSC_4005"></a>
Montipora
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/7025307837/" title="DSC_4009 by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7089/7025307837_97e136774e_z.jpg" width="640" height="291" alt="DSC_4009"></a>
Acropora - originally a light to medium blue but turned completely brown...tips are turning blue
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/64417019@N03/6879206460/" title="DSC_4013 by djgreenmonkey, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7277/6879206460_e591962430_z.jpg" width="640" height="409" alt="DSC_4013"></a>
scotties82
New member
that pic of the jawfish is amazing. great tank
fishguy597
Member
Thats a bummer about the aefw. Your tank will rebound from it with a little deligence.So many people have gone through it including myself. Have you thought of trying that flatworm stop from zeo?
Charley Diesing
New member
Sorry about the AEFW! 
How do your tangs do? What are the Dims of the Red Sea 250?
How do your tangs do? What are the Dims of the Red Sea 250?
daveonbass
New member
I like the new look better. Congrats on winning the battle with aefw. Tank looks great.
I haven't heard about the zeo product but will definitely look into it. Do you use it? Does it work?
Sorry about the AEFW!
How do your tangs do? What are the Dims of the Red Sea 250?
Tangs are happy since they are tiny. I had planned on upgrading soon and would have at least a 120g tank for the tangs but that's not going to happen. I recently sold my Powder Blue Tang so that he gets a bigger home while he is still young. The Blue hippo tang will go soon also.
The dimensions are (LxWxH) 38 x 21 x 26.2". 65g.
Thanks! I wish my corals could grow faster to fill in the tank a bit. I have no idea what to expect.
I hope the AEFW stay down!
