Randrew215
New member
I've made a couple of big changes in my tank the last couple of weeks. I started using a bubble magus dosing pump (which is awesome) and I epoxied in some SPS corals. I am an idiot and used the green and white epoxy stick instead of super glue gel, despite knowing that it would make my skimmer go berserk. Indeed, my skimmer has been going berserk since Thursday. I removed the collection cup so that I wasn't messing with the tank's oxygenation and am still waiting for the bubble frenzy to subside to be able to dial it back in. I'm doing small water changes daily (~5 gallons) to make sure nitrates are down. This being my first real run at SPS (except for a trial monti frag that has been growing the last few months) I'm not sure how to judge SPS health. Coloration is ~90 preserved, PE is great on some, minimal on others. Since epoxying in the frags on Thursday there are two things I have noticed:
1. All of my protopalythoa are cringing. They have become little puckered versions of their ugly brown selves. That's good because I hate them and have tried everything short of removing rock to eliminate them. They are in various locations around the tank and are all puckered. I have pink palys that are unaffected.
2. My euphyllia are acting crazy. Since I set my tank up my euphylllia have had fairly slow but constant growth patterns whereby large heads split to small heads which grow and divide. For the first time, multiple euphylllia are sprouting multiple heads off the sides. One torch is growing four heads out the base. I've never even had that happen once.
My parameters are pretty solid, but obviously I'm a little concerned because my skimmer is freaking out and my tank is acting abnormal. Do any of these sound like coal mine canary deaths or stress responses or do all of these changes sound like they are for the good? Should I be running a polyfilter along with my rox carbon and water changes until my skimmer gets back online? With so many changes going on, I'm being especially vigilant of my tank right now and I just want to be sure none of these things are indicative of a problem. Let me know what you think.
-Andy
Sg: 1.025
Ca: 410
Alk: 9.2
Mg: 1350
Nitrates: ~5 (I seem to have poor yellow discrimination, so I'm never totally confident in my nitrates)
pH: 8.2
Ammonia and phosphates: 0
1. All of my protopalythoa are cringing. They have become little puckered versions of their ugly brown selves. That's good because I hate them and have tried everything short of removing rock to eliminate them. They are in various locations around the tank and are all puckered. I have pink palys that are unaffected.
2. My euphyllia are acting crazy. Since I set my tank up my euphylllia have had fairly slow but constant growth patterns whereby large heads split to small heads which grow and divide. For the first time, multiple euphylllia are sprouting multiple heads off the sides. One torch is growing four heads out the base. I've never even had that happen once.
My parameters are pretty solid, but obviously I'm a little concerned because my skimmer is freaking out and my tank is acting abnormal. Do any of these sound like coal mine canary deaths or stress responses or do all of these changes sound like they are for the good? Should I be running a polyfilter along with my rox carbon and water changes until my skimmer gets back online? With so many changes going on, I'm being especially vigilant of my tank right now and I just want to be sure none of these things are indicative of a problem. Let me know what you think.
-Andy
Sg: 1.025
Ca: 410
Alk: 9.2
Mg: 1350
Nitrates: ~5 (I seem to have poor yellow discrimination, so I'm never totally confident in my nitrates)
pH: 8.2
Ammonia and phosphates: 0
