Learning/rebuilding from my epic fail

[scrapz]

That looks like a flatworm but a egg cluster.. damn!

 

[Geeray]

That sucks reefmutt, I feel for you.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

That really sucks Matt. I am really sorry. I hope it is not what I fear.

Tony B (UK), TOTM July 2012, recommends camel shrimps as opposed to peppermint shrimps. These shrimps can be destructive in a reef tank, but according to Tony they are very effective. He also recommends a particular wrasse (not one of those Halichoeres genera). I will find out and update my post.

EDIT: Tony B (UK) recommends anampses wrasse.

 

[markalot]

Is that really AEFW? Just landed there?

Good luck, I really hope this doesn't turn into a big deal!

 

[Cyberdude]

Hey reefmutt need you expert advise here. I can't raise my nitrate levels. Stuck at near zero. Phosphates are near undetectable too. I feed 6 times a day and skim very dry. Not sure what else to do. Sps have growth spurts when nitrates are ideal but they have been at zero for several weeks. Should I feed even heavier? Or dose kno3? What do you do to maintain your nitrates?

 

[reefmutt]

Hey cyberdude. I'd say add some fish.
How big is your tank and how many fish do you have?
I have about 35 fish in my tank.. That's keeping n at about 2-3ppm.. With wet skimming and a cheato ball that is growing fairly well, now..

 

[Cyberdude]

55 gallon DT and 20 sump with 8 fish.

 

[Cyberdude]

Sump has an oversize skimmer and giant ball of cheato that I trimmed 2/3 last week.

 

[reefmutt]

Sump has an oversize skimmer and giant ball of cheato that I trimmed 2/3 last week.

How many hours of light on the cheato?
You could cut the hours down..
But I think adding a couple fish would help..
I think dosing no3 should be a last resort..
You could also turn the skimmer off for several hours a day...

 

[nemodan]

Hey cyberdude. I'd say add some fish.
How big is your tank and how many fish do you have?
I have about 35 fish in my tank.. That's keeping n at about 2-3ppm.. With wet skimming and a cheato ball that is growing fairly well, now..

How happy I am, hearing that your cheato is growing now......hurray !!!!.

I do too have been doing wet skimming, Without knowing it. Do you remember ? You pointed me after watching my short movie that it was wet skimming.

Cheer s
Daniel

 

[Cyberdude]

Ya I run the light on the cheato 24/7 I think I could give that a rest. I had no idea they were so efficient. I'll try that and less skimmer. Thanks for the input. Really appreciated.

 

[reefmutt]

How happy I am, hearing that your cheato is growing now......hurray !!!!.

I do too have been doing wet skimming, Without knowing it. Do you remember ? You pointed me after watching my short movie that it was wet skimming.

Cheer s
Daniel

Hey Dan, since killing the cyano, the cheato is growing slowly.. But growing.
I do remember commenting on your skimmer. I'm glad it's working for you.
I have been considering going back to FM Color Elements because I think I remember JBNY mentioning that a couple of his friends found the cheato grew better with trace elements..
I have only been using lugol's, iron and potassium, lately. I may give the color elements a try again.. See if that makes it grow better..

 

[reefmutt]

Ya I run the light on the cheato 24/7 I think I could give that a rest. I had no idea they were so efficient. I'll try that and less skimmer. Thanks for the input. Really appreciated.

Yeah, just start with lighting the cheato for 12 hours.. See where nutrients go..
Wait in the skimmer..
Don't change more than one thing at a time so that you can really tell if it had an effect on the system.
Anytime, cyberdude!

 

[Cyberdude]

Hum mm should I run filter floss and not change it for a long while?

 

[reefmutt]

Not crazy about that idea..
I'd just do the cheato thing to start.

 

[biggles]

Is everything ok with that possible pest thing Matt, i'd get those wrasse regardless considering how prevalent pests are in the aqua and mari industries.

 

[glaukos]

So, since my last red slime treatment, I started dosing some nitrate which was keeping it at bay but just barely. My cheato was rotting in my sump and nutrients were pretty high...
I took Daniel's advice and changed out my cheato but also decided to do some iron dosing and also took Bulent's advice and started using a new Seachem product called Phosbond. Phosbond is a hybrid of Phosguard and gfo. It's more efficient than the aluminum oxide in phosguard but not as aggressive and not nearly as dusty as gfo.
My plan was to hopefully help the cheato along with the iron, lower the po4 a bit with the Phosbond, begin adding more food instead of dosing nitrate (as per Luca's advice) and then dose the tank AGAIN with a cyano killer. This time I used Blue Life Cyano RX.
I also left the product in the system for longer before adding Carbon and restarting the skimmer- 4 days.
As of yesterday, the cyano is completely gone from my system. The last few treatments did not eradicate it. Now it's completely gone... Hopefully for the foreseeable future!
My current numbers are N: 2ppm and po4: .11
Considering the last few times I tried to kill of the cyano, I had mini nutrient spikes, I think the new cheato is actually kicking in now that the cyano is gone.
Both bubble algea and bryopsis have also slowed down a bit.
I've been harvesting bubbles, so they don't look so bad. I have noticed that after removing bubbles, the yellow and purple tangs and the Fiji foxface go in and begin yanking at popped bubbles and whatever else gets uncovered..
I have to say, I am still really happy with the colour, growth and general health of my corals.
It's time to start removing corals that I am not crazy about to make room for the ones that I want to keep that are growing.
This will be tough!!! But I have no choice. I can't keep all the pieces I have stuffed into the tank..
Here's a couple random shots from yesterday.
Fts.. Will begin to change significantly as I start moving colonies..

Centre area.. My favorite section atm.. But will change a bit..

Clam shot!

Three musketeers from Raja are all growing well..

Random shot..

Deep water corner.. These guys are basically in the bottom front of my tank..

I'm finding that my shots are needing more and more warming up in post production. Even with my camera set in 10k (which is max) they are coming out very blue..
I have more but no time to post them.. Maybe soon..

Man how many things i love in those pics:inlove:
Great job matt and thanks for sharing:beer:
It looks awesome now and it will look even "sicker" when those corals get huge!

How many pumps do you have in there?

 

[reefmutt]

Is everything ok with that possible pest thing Matt, i'd get those wrasse regardless considering how prevalent pests are in the aqua and mari industries.

Hey Andrew, I removed that coral, another one with visible aefw like the one I pictured and a third coral that I think was 'ground zero' for the aefws. I dipped them all and for about 5 flatworms.. I have yet to see any eggs. I really think the pep shrimps are effective egg eaters but not adult worm eaters. The flatworms must be able to crawl from one coral to another from tie to time. I am far from an infestation.
During my recent relocating and removing of corals, I didn't find any on the corals I handled... I'm going to keep an eye out..
Yes.. Since I live wrasses, I will add to my pair or leopard wrasse that already have. Although, I'm not sure they actually help at all...

Man how many things i love in those pics:inlove:
Great job matt and thanks for sharing:beer:
It looks awesome now and it will look even "sicker" when those corals get huge!

How many pumps do you have in there?

Hey Mike! Thanks! I recently removed some medium size pieces and chopped another big piece back, so there is (once again) some growing to do..
I have 3 maxspect gyres and two tunze streams.
They are all running on various programs as well as being in timers so they they shut off from time to time. I find this really randomizes the flow patterns..

Ok. I'm trying a photo from Flickr.. See if this works..
Photobucket seems to be working again... After the sight was down for several days, they seem to have solved their 'issues'..
Anyways.. Let's try this..
Here's Furiosa.. I figured it needed a name.. Growing like crazy..
https://flic.kr/p/DwnjcE
what!?! Photobucket is the only frickin' site that works properly!?!?
Ok... Back to photobucket...
Gimme a few....

 

[reefmutt]

I know man, just sucks to be processing photos, and see that appear on such a beautiful coral, ughhh.... I had them one time, and I was running zeovit, I had used the basting method for control, that and my corals almost encrusted over the eggs, and bite marks, the growth was that incredible... I find that healthy acros, with lots of flow, and fish that will eat them make it possible to live with them. You just have to add another maintenance program to your schedule, but very doable. Man I tell you after what I went through in the past couple of months, if I found them, no way would I go through the process of cutting, dipping, quarantine, dipping, inspecting, that and having your display acro free. Just a hassle, I am leaving things alone for a good while in my tank, time to just sit back and relax

Thanks, Perry, I agree.. I ain't tearing down the tank.. Not worth it. Most of my acros are encrusting so quickly that I'm not sure how the eggs wouldn't get covered over with new growth. As of yet I haven't found any eggs.. I guess if there were a bald patch on the body of a coral, they could lay eggs there.. Anyways.. I'm watching

Matt.... do you mean the brown flat worm over the Acro ?

I have similar in my tank , at the start, they were in the glass of the tank. I was killing them with my finger every night against the glass. The tank was small (13 G). It wasn't what we have now. Then they disappeared, but I am not sure if it was after I added the six line.

Are those the AEFW ? I will look for pictures on internet , for my education. I read 100 times about them but I can't remember their aspect.

Daniel

I had these ones : http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2279393

Hey Daniel, it's definitely aefw..

That's not Planaria. Planaria generally don't hang out on acro, prefer soft coral and LPS. If you see Planaria on a acro its just passing through. That is an egg cluster. East to confirm, just give it a shot with a turkey baster.

It have been soaked in Bayer and is no more! Was aefw for sure..

The tank looks great. And wherever the rejects end up someone will be very happy! Your rejects are most people's prized pieces!

As for the uploading thing... Flickr or Dropbox would probably work. I went through the same thing with Google. My phone auto backs up all my pictures to Google photos so I figured great! I'll use them! No dice.

That being said, photobucket works fine for me. Maybe time to switch back to an android.

Android schmandroid!!! The entire web sight was down for several days..it seems to be working fine since they got up and running again...

If you are going to fight(I would) the bastards then I advise a yellow coris wrasse and a leopard wrasse(if you don't have one or both already). Those will keep the bastards in check, perhaps a few other similar fish like the exquisite or tamarin wrasses. The yellow coris wrasse is the best at eating pests though, as far as I have found.

Hey Matr, I have a pair of leopards and they pick around a lot. Like I said, I have my doubts that any of the conventional wrasses really do anything for aefw but since I live wrasses, I will add a few more..

That looks like a flatworm but a egg cluster.. damn!

Hey Scrapz.. Just a flatworm... But you know the expression 'where there's smoke, there's fire'... I'll have to be vigilant.

That sucks reefmutt, I feel for you.

Thanks, Geeray!

That really sucks Matt. I am really sorry. I hope it is not what I fear.

Tony B (UK), TOTM July 2012, recommends camel shrimps as opposed to peppermint shrimps. These shrimps can be destructive in a reef tank, but according to Tony they are very effective. He also recommends a particular wrasse (not one of those Halichoeres genera). I will find out and update my post.

EDIT: Tony B (UK) recommends anampses wrasse.

Thank Bulent.. Pretty sure it is what you fear.. I wouldn't risk camel shrimp in the reef.. Wrasses, I will increase my population.. Thanks for the concern and the info!

Is that really AEFW? Just landed there?

Good luck, I really hope this doesn't turn into a big deal!

Thanks, Mark! I actually do not think it will turn into a big deal.. I know what I'm looking for and I have the shrimp as a control.. I will probably have to start blowing the corals with a power head if I see more or increasing evidence of the little monsters.

 

[cFloor]

So sorry to hear you have AEFW. I delt with them a couple tanks ago and was able to eradicate them but it was a huge pain. I've seen very successful tanks with big beautiful corals that had AEFW. I think basting regularly helps keep them in check and the fish will learn to hang near the baster for a snack.

Anyway, your tank is looking amazing regardless. Your scape and your corals give it all the potential in the world. With a little time, this tank will be crazy! Great work