Learning/rebuilding from my epic fail

[FloformAustria]

nice macro shots matt!! can't wait to see the tank in real life ^^

Cheers

 

[Wally.B]

Very informative and interesting article,
Now, I just have to get my shy melanurus wrasse out of the frickin tank before my flatworm issue becomes a real concern.. he is eating any shrimp that goes into the tank and I NEED to get some peppermints in there soon!

Amazing Corals Matt.
Interesting about your Wrasse eating your shrimps.
I got a couple of peppermints last week for my Kitchen Tank for a Aptasia outbreak.
I haven't seen them after I put them in.
Wondering if my Long Nose Hawkfish is eating them. However I've had a cleaner shrimp in there for ages and he's still alive (but much bigger the the peps).
Hoping they are alive since I see no skeletons.

 

[reefmutt]

Thansk again for the reply bud:beer:

Anytime, my friend.

nice macro shots matt!! can't wait to see the tank in real life ^^

Cheers

Thanks, Flo! My reef door is open!

Amazing Corals Matt.
Interesting about your Wrasse eating your shrimps.
I got a couple of peppermints last week for my Kitchen Tank for a Aptasia outbreak.
I haven't seen them after I put them in.
Wondering if my Long Nose Hawkfish is eating them. However I've had a cleaner shrimp in there for ages and he's still alive (but much bigger the the peps).
Hoping they are alive since I see no skeletons.

Hey Wally, I certainly have seen longnose hawks eat shrimp but if yours doesn't know they are food, maybe he won't.
Peps are very secretive even when comfortable but when new in a tank can hide extremely well for a few days..
Look into the crevices after a feed, that's when they are most bold.


So, here's my LC dosing update:
First..
For the past month or so, I have had some cyano building in my frag tank and a bit on the sand in my dt.
I was leaving it alone while LC dosing, thinking that maybe as the LC pulls po4, the cyano would go away- especially since I am dosing kno3 to keep n up around 7-10 ppm.
The cyano hasn't really changed much.. so.. thinking that cyano is so efficient at absorbing p and n, I didn't want it to skew my test results while LC dosing.
Yesterday morning, I added a 300g dose of red slime remover to the tank. My system is 350 gallons.. Today, I woke up to a couple corals having completely browned out......
so I abandoned the treatment, added carbon, did a 10%wc and restarted the skimmer. Once I have more water, I'll do another 10% wc. Probably tomorrow.
Grrrrr..
After testing today nothing has changed much.. n- 7-10 ppm, p- 59 ppb or .18 ppm. alk had dipped a bit from 7 to 6.2 midweek but is back up at 7 after tweaking my carx.
Clearly, the treatment stressed a few corals.. probably in conjunction with the LC dosing.
I really hope more damage is not on the horizon..

I am not sure if the LC dosing was responsible for the dip in alk.. could have been.. however calcium has remained the same since last reading which indicates to me that LC was NOT responsible for the alk drop.
If it had been, I think I would have seen a slight increase in ca after increasing my carx output to raise alk back to 7..
Well.. this week I will continue at a slightly reduced LC dose to maintain my current p reading, as I don't want it shifting anymore for a while..

 

[Stickboy97]

Thanks for the reply earlier. I think after seeing your pics I am going to place my frags a little bit closer to get that filled in look (was spacing them like every 6" of so)

Ever get that full tank shot?

 

[reefmutt]

Thanks for the reply earlier. I think after seeing your pics I am going to place my frags a little bit closer to get that filled in look (was spacing them like every 6" of so)

Ever get that full tank shot?

If you are a real acro whore like me and just can't resist adding new corals, spacing them closer will help enable your addiction.
If your long term goal is to have really nice full grown colonies, then farther is better.
Ive always felt that adding frags close together will eventually force me to space things out but will give me time to really decide which corals I want to keep. The ones that get close and that I don't want or that I kill, by doing stupid things - like I just did- make it easier to remove corals I don't want long term.
My great suharsonoi (or caroliniana) that I grew out from a small piece..
Pictured here is now a brown turd that looks like it will rtn within days...

So, not so happy about that..
Here is a quick and dirty Iphone fts pic..
Unfortunately, I am suddenly too ****ed off and uninspired to get out the real camera..
Hopefully, the damage won't spread..

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Your latest FTS looks fabulous, Matt. If I wanted to count the number of your corals in this picture, I would have to spend a long time in front of my iMac.

Hopefully, "the damage" will be restricted only to the affected coral you mentioned above.

 

[Pife]

Matt your tank is stuffed with coral! I hope the smooth skin bounces back. If it makes you feel any better my urchin went and stole several corals one being my pink cadillac and it's now mia.

 

[janci]

Here is a quick and dirty Iphone fts pic..
Unfortunately, I am suddenly too ****ed off and uninspired to get out the real camera..
Hopefully, the damage won't spread..

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I hope my reef will look also brown once like this one.
Most nasty things in the tank are due to ourselves, tweaking and getting our hands wet.
Hoping for a fast recovery.

 

[Rakie]

It's looking great Matt. Don't fret too much, there's always gonna be a bump in our road.

 

[plyle02]

Matt, your recent coral photos are simply amazing, I cannot express to you how impressed I am with your tank, a masterpiece. You scape is perfect, and you have corals perched everywhere, all I see is colorful corals, no matter what species, they all seem to be thriving. Outstanding Matt!

 

[FloformAustria]

If you are a real acro whore like me and just can't resist adding new corals, spacing them closer will help enable your addiction.
If your long term goal is to have really nice full grown colonies, then farther is better.
Ive always felt that adding frags close together will eventually force me to space things out but will give me time to really decide which corals I want to keep. The ones that get close and that I don't want or that I kill, by doing stupid things - like I just did- make it easier to remove corals I don't want long term.
My great suharsonoi (or caroliniana) that I grew out from a small piece..
Pictured here is now a brown turd that looks like it will rtn within days...

So, not so happy about that..
Here is a quick and dirty Iphone fts pic..
Unfortunately, I am suddenly too ****ed off and uninspired to get out the real camera..
Hopefully, the damage won't spread..

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Brown? WTH Matt... I can't find anything brown in there

Love it

 

[Ucantwin]

Matt, how do you go about getting rid of a coral that has grown to close to another one? I have a couple corals like that and I would like to take out. I worry about cutting the branches off and smothering the base with kalk, as the high ph might effect the coral close by.

 

[illumnae]

How is that suharsonoi anything like turd? If anyone sees turd that colour in their toilet bowl, I suggest quickly going to see your doctor... you might have come into contact with some radioactive material somehow.

Your tank is looking amazing Matt

 

[reefmutt]

Your latest FTS looks fabulous, Matt. If I wanted to count the number of your corals in this picture, I would have to spend a long time in front of my iMac.

Hopefully, "the damage" will be restricted only to the affected coral you mentioned above.

Hey Bulent, thank you! The tank always looks good from far when you can't see the little stagnant corals or old damage or slow growers..
And even I have trouble counting the corals - even when standing in from the of the tank... that's why I don't bother!

Matt your tank is stuffed with coral! I hope the smooth skin bounces back. If it makes you feel any better my urchin went and stole several corals one being my pink cadillac and it's now mia.

Thanks Brandon. Actually my pink Cadillac was one of the corals to shrivel up like a prim and turn brown..

I hope my reef will look also brown once like this one.
Most nasty things in the tank are due to ourselves, tweaking and getting our hands wet.
Hoping for a fast recovery.

Agreed.. I am usually singularly to blame for the death and poor health of corals in my tank.
Below I'll show some before and after shots of the worst affected corals.. it was only a handful of corals. Not a wide spread event.

It's looking great Matt. Don't fret too much, there's always gonna be a bump in our road.

Thanks! Oh yeah.. I have a bump about every 6 months or so. I guess partly because I keep changing my routine.. even though I keep preaching the virtues of keeping things stable and not changing anything!

Brown? WTH Matt... I can't find anything brown in there

Love it

Thanks, Flo.. you will in a minute.

Matt, how do you go about getting rid of a coral that has grown to close to another one? I have a couple corals like that and I would like to take out. I worry about cutting the branches off and smothering the base with kalk, as the high ph might effect the coral close by.

Actuall, I haven't really had to deal with a very large colony yet.. well a large colony that was packed in tight.
Since most of the corals in my tank wee grown from frags, even after the base encrusts and grows out, there is still a weak point there and often you can still crack it off at that point. If not, I usually go to town snipping all the branches down, scrape off as much of the fleshy base as possible and then insert new coral. The new coral will shade the old scratched up base and it usually dies off..

How is that suharsonoi anything like turd? If anyone sees turd that colour in their toilet bowl, I suggest quickly going to see your doctor... you might have come into contact with some radioactive material somehow.

Your tank is looking amazing Matt

your misunderstood my post.. that was a pre treatment pic.. I will post a couple before and after shots in a sec..
And thanks!

 

[reefmutt]

Ok. Here are the two worst affected corals..
The one that most angers me. Before.. as posted above:

And after.. the springeri was most accommodating in taking up his position!

Here's another.. before..

And after..

So, yes definitely not the end of the world.. several other smaller corals have also browned out but not anything I really love, thankfully..
I'm really not happy about that suharsonoi, however...
One interesting and disturbing thing I noticed... when a coral goes brown like this, suddenly the aefw bite marks become dramatically more apparent...
Recently, I added several peppermint shrimp and some yellow wrasses.. I'll have to add a few more peps and I think I'll begin flatworm stop..
I'll still post ongoing (and slightly reduced) LC dosing..
I really appreciate all the comments, people! Thank you very much!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[illumnae]

Oops sorry for the misunderstanding!

 

[watchguy123]

Your ups and downs really help those following along. It’s so informative seeing these changes due to one reason or another. I am usually not brave enough to show my many misadventures but your sharing inspires me to do the same more often.

I constantly am amazed and I guess reminded how diligent and consistent one has to be to achieve a tank full of happy corals.

Thank you for constantly sharing, learning along with you.

 

[Stickboy97]

Man sorry to see/hear about your browning event. Your tank is still amazing! Thx for the FTS.

 

[markalot]

Sorry to hear about the troubles Matt. Hopefully we are both over them for the time being!

 

[tripdad]

Sorry to see your having some problems Matt. This hobby/addiction can be a real test of will sometimes. Hang in there bud, there is still so much in your tank that shines brightly.