Learning/rebuilding from my epic fail

[reefmutt]

Sam,
Here's a post from February 2016.. clearly that alk drop didn't affect the corals too badly!
Not that time.. I had an alk drop about a year ago that really did some damage, though..
Obviously dramatic changes in alk alone won't necessarily stress or kill acros but in combination with some other issue or issues, it can do damage.
I think back then, the corals were in stable conditions for quite some time and the alk was the only instability.. corals did fine. But I bet if nutrients have been shifting and corals are dealing with other stresses, alk swings will not be tolerated.

Last few..










I haven't changed a thing in a couple months in anticipation of being away..
My nitrates have been under 1ppm for about two months. Po4 at .07. Alk between 5.5 and 7.5 but mostly right at 6.5. My alk dropped when I didn't look for a week, the corals really jumped in growth. I have since adjusted co2 and have been stable at 6.5. I increased co2 ever so (ever so) slightly for when I'm gone.
I had been adding lugols for about 2 months 3 drops per day and some potassium but stopped this two weeks ago.. I may continue with lugols when I get back but I wanted to see if anything would look different after not seeing the tank for a week.. Not sure I need to add lugols.
Potassium I've added a larger amount and will test when I get back. I'm not concerned about it very much.. It should stay stable- or at least high enough for a week..
I want to do something about my n.. I'd like to get it up to around 2ppm. Not sure how I will do this with my po4 is. I have added so many fish to the tank, I don't want to add more..... Well... Maybe a couple wrasses... Few more Evansi anthias.. Maybe another bellus.. Anyways, even with the Phosbond in there my po4 is about as high as I would like it..
Maybe back to n dosing..
I may give Koralcolor a go when I'm back and maybe Aquaforest micro e... And maybe coral e as well... That will be a loooong experiment...
Ok! I think I've just about finished his little catharsis.

 

[Sam2832]

Thanks Matt, definetly not what the graphic led me to belive.
Good idea to use a visual support to log the info.

 

[KJoFan]

Matt, I know you've had AEFW in the past and didn't really do anything drastic to eradicate them. Do you still have them? If you do, obviously they aren't devastating. They have shown up in my tank for the second time (or maybe still?) and I really don't want to pull everything and dip and go fallow etc this time. I can't see starting completely over again. So, I'm wondering I guess if they can be tolerated successfully long term in your opinion?

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Hey Bulent, thanks I'm very pleased with that stag. I love the color. Can't wait for it to grow out a bit... then I'll be frustrated by how it's shading everything and I'll want to rip it out! Oh well.. that's reed life!

I have a soft spot for staghorns, but in my tank they limit the potential of other acroporids. I nearly removed my entire A. gomezi colony. I was going to start to regrow it from one of its frags, but could not face the whole process all over again. In the end, I am sticking with my strategy of having fewer but larger colonies with some small ones in between.

 

[tdb320reef]

Sam,
Here's a post from February 2016.. clearly that alk drop didn't affect the corals too badly!
Not that time.. I had an alk drop about a year ago that really did some damage, though..
Obviously dramatic changes in alk alone won't necessarily stress or kill acros but in combination with some other issue or issues, it can do damage.
I think back then, the corals were in stable conditions for quite some time and the alk was the only instability.. corals did fine. But I bet if nutrients have been shifting and corals are dealing with other stresses, alk swings will not be tolerated.

Looking Great!

 

[reefmutt]

Matt, I know you've had AEFW in the past and didn't really do anything drastic to eradicate them. Do you still have them? If you do, obviously they aren't devastating. They have shown up in my tank for the second time (or maybe still?) and I really don't want to pull everything and dip and go fallow etc this time. I can't see starting completely over again. So, I'm wondering I guess if they can be tolerated successfully long term in your opinion?

Yep.. I have an aefw or two kicking around my tank. I think the single best controller of aefw (not cure) are peppermint shrimp. With enough of them- I probably need 25 or so for my 250g display- they keep the aefw eggs completely controlled- or I guess almost completely. If I look hard I can see one or two colonies with bit marks. Some colonies get marks and then they disappear. Sometimes the coral just shows a couple marks here and there. I could probably use a handful more pepps right now to be in the safe side.
Apparently a heavy dose of KZ flatworm stop will actually work..
apparently Wormwood will also work.
This is an interesting read:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2670592&goto=newpost
Maybe my pair of yellow wrasses and my three leopard wrasses help as well but I'm not sure.
When I first got my yellow wrasses, they were babies- less than an inch long.. when they were that small, they were intense searchers and pickers on the acros but now that they are older, they don't hunt in the bodies of the acros like they used to.

 

[reefmutt]

I have a soft spot for staghorns, but in my tank they limit the potential of other acroporids. I nearly removed my entire A. gomezi colony. I was going to start to regrow it from one of its frags, but could not face the whole process all over again. In the end, I am sticking with my strategy of having fewer but larger colonies with some small ones in between.

I would have had a little cry if you had removed your gomezi, Bulent. I love your colony. It's gorgeous!
It's always tough to make the choice between keeping older larger colonies and having that beautiful natural look and keeping all sorts of colorful goodies and watching as they grow out.
I always seem to have a bit of both, so my tank always looks odd..

 

[DiscusHeckel]

I would have had a little cry if you had removed your gomezi, Bulent. I love your colony. It's gorgeous!
It's always tough to make the choice between keeping older larger colonies and having that beautiful natural look and keeping all sorts of colorful goodies and watching as they grow out.
I always seem to have a bit of both, so my tank always looks odd..

Having read what you wrote above, Matt, I have felt that I made the right decision. I value your opinion. Thank you.

I have bought a tri-colour staghorn Acropora frag recently just to make my life a little more complicated.

 

[reefmutt]

Having read what you wrote above, Matt, I have felt that I made the right decision. I value your opinion. Thank you.

I have bought a tri-colour staghorn Acropora frag recently just to make my life a little more complicated.

Glad to hear it!
Well, we wouldn't keep reef tanks if we didn't want a complicated life.

 

[markalot]

I feel like I should post a link and a pic from one of my all time favorite threads showing what a true Oregon tort looks like under 6700K Halide.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2337567&page=13

 

[reefmutt]

Aaaahh. Reeflover... I was a lover of his thread. And that tort.
His purple monster was also sublime.

 

[reefmutt]

Well, it’s been a while since I posted any shots.
My tank is still transitioning onto the fauna Marin products. I am currently using Bak and Ultra Min s and Organic.
Nitrate has been below below 1 ppm for several weeks and many corals have paled out considerably. Po4 is still around .07-.1. I am still working on dropping that down to around .04.
Recently I backed off on the Bak, and started the oganic with the intention of getting n back up to around 4-6 ppm. Hopefully this will bring some intensity back to some of thenpaling corals.
As per usual with any change, some corals are doing great and others are not so great.
Obviously I have taken some pics of the corals that are doing better.
Here’s my red planet and Aussie blue stag..

Individual shots:


Closer..

Here’s another Aussie acro. Green but cool blue polyps and really intense.

Close up..

Another Aussie up close.

This is just some tort type acro which gets more blue under stronger light and more green down lower. Recently I moved it up.

And here’s a neat close up of my red planet, and two other non names. The green is probably tenuis and the blue is growing like a stag.

So there’s my quick and dirty update.
In the future, after I have my n raised up a bit and p under control, i will probably start the color elements and maybe Amin depending on the situation...

 

[Piper27]

Love these pics! That one that you said looks like a tort looks like a gomezi to me, I would love to have a branch of a blue one, one of the ones I have yet to grow.

Sent from my Moto Z (2) using Tapatalk

 

[reefmutt]

Thanks Piper!
Yup could totally be a gomezi. I always associate thicker growth to gomezi but I really don’t know.
Every coral I find that looks remotely like a gomezi and is deep blue, I buy. One day I will have a gomezi like Bulent's!!!

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Nice pictures, Matt.

I really like the green acro with blue polyps. I have been trying to get a small frag of the same coral from an online supplier here for some time.

Did you know that FM supplies a product, which is very similar to TM's Reef Actif?

 

[reefmutt]

Hey Bulent, thanks.
Yes. Reef vitality. I have some.
I’ve been playing with a mixture of Fauna Marin’s Reef Vitality and Coral Sprint mixed equal parts with Polyp Lab’s Reef Roids. I’ve been adding a couple pinches of this to the flow of my gyre each night at lights out.
I know it’s not per instructions but I’ve been doing this mixture or similar for many years...
Good luck getting a frag of that coral. I don’t think it’s particularly rare. If you get it, I have mine just about as high as it can get in my tank. With lots of random cross flow.. it seems to like it. Not a super fast grower but steady.

 

[pisanoal]

So I just FINALLY got done reading this entire thread... Feels like it has taken a month and has been pretty much the only thing ive read through on here in a while. What a wealth of information! Matt, thanks for being so diligent in documenting your journey. I have definitely implemented a few things from your thread, and I'm hoping that one day, my tank and thread will be half as impressive as this one. I know you haven't been around in a while so I hope all is well.

-Tony

 

[tenurepro]

Hey - what's the focal length of the lens you shoot with?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[reefmutt]

Hey - what's the focal length of the lens you shoot with?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hey! I have two lenses that I use most often: 100 mm macro and a 15-80mm zoom.
Obviously the real close ups are with the zoom and the rest are with the zoom.

 

[reefmutt]

So I just FINALLY got done reading this entire thread... Feels like it has taken a month and has been pretty much the only thing ive read through on here in a while. What a wealth of information! Matt, thanks for being so diligent in documenting your journey. I have definitely implemented a few things from your thread, and I'm hoping that one day, my tank and thread will be half as impressive as this one. I know you haven't been around in a while so I hope all is well.

-Tony

Tony!! I salute you!!! I bow down to your perseverance and patience to have gone through my whole thread. That is a true honor. My thread is a marathon and a half. I couldn't imagine going through it all.
I sincerely appreciate you doing that! Thanks man!
And thanks for asking about me. I am fine but I am once again supremely frustrated with my tank but trying to not do anything crazy or rash..
As you must be acutely aware, I have run my tank (mostly) with high nutrients and under a mix of mh,t5, led.
But recently I decided to give Fauna Marin a try... AND ditch the mh.
My old set up had 6 t5, 3 x 150w mh and 4 AI Prime.
That was a total pull of around 800w.. and I absolutely loved the light.
So I pulled the mh, added two more t5 and doubled my AI Primes.
Increased the blues a lot... too much.. put many corals into light stress and have now backed off to 6 AI Primes in a significantly reduced intensity..
THEN!!! I adopted Fauna Marin's MINs and Bak to reduce nutrients and started running gfo to pull po4 down..
dropped them too low and stressed the corals even more!!! Arrggggfff!!!!!
I never learn..
So now, I have things stabilized at n-4, p-.06-.08... but it's kind of too late.. corals are both light and nutrient stressed. Some are fine but generally colors are waaaay off and growth is sporadic.....
Even after 4 years of this thread being called "˜learning blah blah' I have not learned...
Since reducing the intensity, some corals have recovered a bit but many haven't or won't.
It is clear however that there are many so many gorgeous tanks with low nutrients - and fewer algea issues- so I am going to stick it out with Fauna Marin.. I am about to start the new MinS and am using organic.
I am also using a mix of reef vitality, Coral Balance and coral sprint. I mix them
Together 1:1:2 for the mixture.
I think it'll be easily 6 months before my tank transitions.. I'm going to stick it out and see...at least through 2019
But right now, I hate the photos I take and I am once again considering putting the mh back!!!!! Even with the aprox 300 w savings right now without them.
I may, down the road, try Fauna Marin's amino mix and the color elements but I'm holding myself back right now.. don't want to change even more...
So this is the main reason for my absence.. frustration... and no decent photos to post..

Well now..... that was cathartic!! deep breath....
Tony, once again thanks for going though my whole thread and sorry for the rant..