Learning/rebuilding from my epic fail

[aikenreefkeeper]

Matt,

I have been following along for a while. Do you ever sell any of your frags? I would be interested after my tank matures a little more.

Thanks,

Dean

 

[reefmutt]

Matt,

I have been following along for a while. Do you ever sell any of your frags? I would be interested after my tank matures a little more.

Thanks,

Dean

Hey Dean, sure I would sell frags but it is illegal to ship corals over the border without cites permits, so I can only sell to Canada.
Cites stands for certificate for the international trade of endangered species. Something like that.. it's expensive and I don't think just anybody can apply..

 

[markalot]

Gold medal tank Matt!

So sorry about the hockey team.

Seriously, it's a flat out joy to see pictures of the tank, everything looks fantastic.

 

[glaukos]

Man this thread and the tank is way more worth of totm or any kind of other title:beer:
We could make an entire encyclopedia about our hobby from the pics and info included,in this thread. Both the quality of the pics and the state of the tank's inhabitants are top notch:inlove:

Contains inspiration,motivation,infos,ideas to follow or copy and all of these come from a great,down to earth and always polite guy:beer:
Having guys like you and threads like this is such a privilege bud!!!

Keep it up and i want some royalties,in case the encyclopedia thing happens

 

[kainic]

Contains inspiration,motivation,infos,ideas to follow or copy and all of these come from a great,down to earth and always polite guy:beer:
Having guys like you and threads like this is such a privilege bud!!!

Soooo true!

 

[Pife]

Holy crap. I need that Robin hood! Is it a local piece? (vs reef raft) Thank you for the pictures /inspiration. I be doing reef stuff this weekend specifically because of your pictures. My wife will be thrilled. I'll have to show her your pictures to make her understand. Great photos.

 

[reefmutt]

Man this thread and the tank is way more worth of totm or any kind of other title:beer:
We could make an entire encyclopedia about our hobby from the pics and info included,in this thread. Both the quality of the pics and the state of the tank's inhabitants are top notch:inlove:

Contains inspiration,motivation,infos,ideas to follow or copy and all of these come from a great,down to earth and always polite guy:beer:
Having guys like you and threads like this is such a privilege bud!!!

Keep it up and i want some royalties,in case the encyclopedia thing happens

Mike, thank you very much for those very kind words.
When I read this, it totally made my day.
Thank you, my friend!

 

[reefmutt]

Gold medal tank Matt!

So sorry about the hockey team.

Seriously, it's a flat out joy to see pictures of the tank, everything looks fantastic.

Mark!!! Don't get me started!! Shootouts.... not sure they should have shootouts in a medal round.. but what can you do??
Our boys have also lost the gold.. but what an intense game. The German team is seriously good.
Thanks Mark!

Soooo true!

Sergi, thank you very much!

Holy crap. I need that Robin hood! Is it a local piece? (vs reef raft) Thank you for the pictures /inspiration. I be doing reef stuff this weekend specifically because of your pictures. My wife will be thrilled. I'll have to show her your pictures to make her understand. Great photos.

Hey Brandon, the Robin Hood came from Fragbox, in Toronto. I'm not sure if it's a rr piece or not... I could check with Fragbox..
It didn't look half as good until it really started growing.

 

[reefmutt]

So a little nutrient update and a comment about aefw..

Did n and po4 test yesterday..
After a week of LC dosing and continued potassium nitrate (seachem flourish nitrogen) I have been able to keep n consistent at around 7ppm.
My final Elos test gave me .16 and the Hanna egg gave me .22.. so perhaps a slight reduction in po4- or just margin of error but since both tests showed a very slight reduction, I will continue with same LC dose for at least another week.. just to see if it continues to reduce or stays the same..
I have established a trend with the egg and had consistent results with it compared to my Elos HR test kit so going forward, I am comfortable using it until I get more Elos kits or refills..

As for AEFW, Rakie recently pmed me concerning them and I figured I’d answer his question here instead of pm since I think they are a pretty common occurrence these days and everybody has had some passing experience with them..
My tank has been set up for something like 5 years.. part of the time it was getting a leak repaired, so since the repair- beginning of this thread- around
3 years now, I have only been AEFW free for maybe 6 months-1 year.
So, for at least the past 2 years I have had aefw in the tank.
I also had aefw in my previous tank. In that tank I treated them like the plague. I set up a qt system, removed all sps, dipped inspected, dipped again etc... We all know the brutal routine. At the end, I was aefw free and down about 60% of my corals.. only to have the tank decimated by bobbit worms a year later..
After taking in a tank full of sick and dying acros from a friend’s tank who was tearing down for renos at home, I dipped everything but didn’t manage to keep the aefw away.. I have had aefw ever since. I documented all of this waaaaay back in the many pages of this thread.. somewhere...anyways, I do not fear aefw like I used to..
I think they can be managed.
I think it was Sanjay (amongst others) who have used coral basting to control them.
Several years ago I read Greg Timm’s (oldude) TOTM write up where he said he had added an army of peppermint shrimp to deal with his aefw and never saw them again.
After reading this and other anecdotes about their effectiveness, I have personally watched peppermints eradicate eggs from infected sps colonies and I’m pretty convinced I’ve seen them eat adult aefw as well. The eggs are easy for them to find. Adult worms not as easy, but if they do come across one, they seem to eat them.. there is no doubt in my mind that peppermints can completely control aefw eggs in any exposed area in a reef.. maybe if there is a dead patch that develops in the interior of a large colony and eggs get deposited there, peppermints may have trouble finding them..
I have seen aefw infected acros get signs of infection in my tank and then have the marks go away..
I have also recently had a couple colonies get fatally damaged by them.
At the moment, I have 2 leopard wrasses, a melanurus wrass, 3 springeri damsels, a golden Pygmy angel and a pyramid butterfly who ALL pick at either the bases or bodies of my acros.. I don’t know what they are going after but I hope it is (at least sometimes) flatworms and eggs..
The melanurus recently matured and now eats any and all shrimp in the tank so I am currently peppermint shrimp free which I am not happy about and I have seen a resurgence of aefw.. BUT I still see some corals get infected and then heal up..
I have to catch my melanurus so that I can add peppermints back to the tank.
I firmly believe that peppermint shrimp are the single most effective method of controlling aefw in an sps tank- they also eradicated every last bit of aptasia I once had..
Problem is that peppermints like al sorts of anemones and some lips as well. I am not able to keep any other anemones- not that I would particularly want to as they take up a lot of sps real estate!
I don’t keep scans any more either because the peppermints were eating them.
So, currently I do have aefw and they are doing some damage but not widespread damage.. yet. I certainly need to get peppermints back in the system sooner than later to keep things under control..
I’m not sure if the damsels, wrasses or angel and butterfly are helping or not but I have recently seen one of my corals recover from aefw and I have seen a another coral succumb to them..
If I can’t get the melanurus out soon and if I see the aefw spread, I’ll start blasting the corals with a powerhead to knock the adults off the corals.

 

[Wally.B]

Great Summary Matt. Helps Lessen the fear of AEFW.

I do have some Aptasia in my Kitchen tank and have been treating the ones I can reach with Aptasia X. Stuff works but they continue to pop up here and there since you can't get them all.

Peppermint Shrimp sounds promising.

 

[sensei]

Thanks Matt for posting Rackies answer here.
it helps us learn!

regards

 

[martinphillip03]

Matt, talk about coral porn. I would compare your coral shots to Hustler magazine, I would compare Andrews coral shots to a 1950's Playboy.

Marty

 

[Stickboy97]

Do you have a recent full tank shot, found the last one in like Oct.

Also, do you let your corals just grow around each other & "work it out"? I have several frags that have grown in directions I wasn't expecting and I was going to frag some pieces that are about to touch... but your tank is awesome & it looks like the corals work around each other.

thx

 

[Rakie]

Thanks Matt! Sorry for the late response.. I've been swamped, not even enough time for a water change

 

[sbreefer]

Matt, I love the top down flik. Your acro collection is impressive.

 

[SchnitzelReef]

Learning/rebuilding from my epic fail

Well, Brandon you have a point and it just so happened that one daughter and my wife went to the Habs game tonight and my other daughter got a lift to her hockey practice, so I was twisting in the wind! Got into my underwear and took some pics! No, no.. no underwear.. but I could have, if I wanted to!!
Decided to go big in these shots. I usually use medium quality when posting but what the hey! I went all in!
Again, no editing on these photos at all- right off the camera.
Robin Hood

And from the front..

Here's the trio: no name red beast, blueberry wine and OP- up close..

From the front:

Further back..

And a wiiiiide shot of the complete centre section of my reef.

Ice fire

Another wide shot of habanero, 24k and the wave

Got a bunch more..


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Amazing pieces!! The growth structure is awesome. Seems like my acros tend to grow really tight, and don't branch as much.

Are you still running MHs?

 

[bif24701]

You make it hard to even look at my tank sometimes. Lol. Great pictures


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[FloformAustria]

Last batch..
By the way, ph was 8 at about 9pm. Few hours after mh went off. I'll test again in the morning and tomorrow evening.

Blue monster..

From the front..

Couple mixed shots..
Centre reef:

Leftish side:

Little closer..

Tried to get my blueberry wine mother colony with my fisheye..

This red planet is growing well..

Ok! There you go!


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:inlove:

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Every single coral photo without exception looks terrific, Matt. The red planet, in particular, is stunning. I placed mine in a quite bright position (350+ mmol/m2/sec). As a result, I can see green pigments only in sections of the coral that are not exposed to light. What is it growth rate?

 

[reefmutt]

Great Summary Matt. Helps Lessen the fear of AEFW.

I do have some Aptasia in my Kitchen tank and have been treating the ones I can reach with Aptasia X. Stuff works but they continue to pop up here and there since you can't get them all.

Peppermint Shrimp sounds promising.

Peppermint shrimp have their place for sure.. just have to be careful about what other corals you have in the tank.

Thanks Matt for posting Rackies answer here.
it helps us learn!

regards

Hey Jorge, no problem!

Matt, talk about coral porn. I would compare your coral shots to Hustler magazine, I would compare Andrews coral shots to a 1950's Playboy.

Marty

Marty! I never knew you were such a late century soft porn connoisseur! Good to know.. so, you find my photos a little more.. shall we say, raunchy.. I LIKE it!

Do you have a recent full tank shot, found the last one in like Oct.

Also, do you let your corals just grow around each other & "work it out"? I have several frags that have grown in directions I wasn't expecting and I was going to frag some pieces that are about to touch... but your tank is awesome & it looks like the corals work around each other.

thx

Hey Stick, I will let decently grown out colonies meet.. often, very little happens. The corals stop at that point and grow elsewhere. Sometimes, a very aggressive coral will indict serious damage to another.. it that happens, I'll clip them back a bit.. it happens with the red coral I have right up top centre, growing into my OP. It's a serious tough coral and kills anything it touched for about a half inche around contact.
Smaller colonies or frags I try to give them a chance to develop into something before I let them grow into each other..
I will post. Full tank shot.. I guess I haven't done it in a while..

Matt, I love the top down flik. Your acro collection is impressive.

Thanks! Appreciate the comment.

Amazing pieces!! The growth structure is awesome. Seems like my acros tend to grow really tight, and don't branch as much.

Are you still running MHs?

Hey Schnitz, yes.. we'll sort of.. I have 150w Ushio blues that I run for about 5 hours a day- mid day. This on top of 6 t5s and 4 AI Prime led units.
My colonies definitely don't grow as thickly as yours do.. I assume you have more flow..

You make it hard to even look at my tank sometimes. Lol. Great pictures


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Thanks bif! Patience!

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:inlove:

Thanks Flo. You are off to a great start! Won't be long till I'm saying the same about your corals

Every single coral photo without exception looks terrific, Matt. The red planet, in particular, is stunning. I placed mine in a quite bright position (350+ mmol/m2/sec). As a result, I can see green pigments only in sections of the coral that are not exposed to light. What is it growth rate?

Hey Bulent, thank you very much!
I find that when red planet gets going, it is an above average grower.
I have a piece up quite high and another lower down. Definitely the lower one has a bit more green but I'm not sure it grows any slower...
Ok. Gonna post this and hopefully get back with an update..