Learning/rebuilding from my epic fail

[reefmutt]

I'd happy to have some of your sleepers matt
They will wake up eventually...they are in good hands!
Sometimes i just scratch/cut some of their tips just in case their "growing" mechanism wakes up.Some times it fails but some times it works
What brand of gfo did you use?

Hey Mike, like you, I have had limited success with cutting or scratching sleepers. But I got this one to really wake up by clipping all the tips. You can see the new growth that I got in this one:

Love the pics Matt, seriously a beautiful tank.

I'm with you on the sleepers... It's funny how much this hobby has taught me about patience, but when it comes to brown or just generally under-performing acros I have NO PATIENCE. Maybe I do, I mean I haven't evicted mine yet... but I've thought of it so many times.:fun2:

It's a tough call, Josh! I always have to tell myself that there was a reason I bought it in the first place. I didn't buy it because it was boring, brown and ugly..

 

[reefmutt]

So recently I had a small brush with a slow disaster.
About a 3 weeks ago, I started to notice a slow increase in alk- up to 8. I adjusted my co2 production on the carx and wondered why I was having to reduce production but I just assumed it was a slight anomaly.
This coincided with a poorer than normal cheato growth.
Over the past few months, my cheato has not grown very well at all but more recently it has practically stopped completely.
Last week, I noticed this on my Oregon tort:

And a couple other corals were getting burnt tips..
After adjusting my co2, I thought I'd see a reduction in alk but it stayed stable. So, now I was really beginning to wonder why demand had slowed so much.
Then, I was talking about my poor cheato growth on Andrew's thread and maxx mentioned that high magnesium levels will cause cheato to stop growing.
This gave me an epiphany.. slowed growth, odd growth in some tips and 0 cheato growth...
I did some tests... something I had neglected doing for the past few months just out of being busy and lazy..
Well, I discovered that my ca had crept up to 500, mag had crept up to 1500 and my k was at 430.. not sure this is playing a role here but maybe.
About two years ago, I had dosed magnesium to deal with bryopsis. It didn't really effect the growth of my cheato but it did produce some tip burn/odd tip growth.
I assume the high calcium along with high mag has really made my cheato unhappy and it also seems to have made my whole tank unhappy.
I have since dramatically reduced co2 and let my alk drop to 6.5 and am now buffering to keep stable at 6.5dkh.
I have also been doing a 10% water change every day this week.
Tomorrow, I will test ca and mag again and see if they have dropped.
I will keep my carx dialed way back and buffer manually until I get ca down to 390-400 and then I will is the carx to bring alk back to 7..
I'm glad I finally checked!
I had bought that maybe it was my mitratus butterfly exposing acro tips but I've watched him long enough now to know that he does not do any real damage to the corals and rarely 'tastes' a coral more than once at a time.
Here's a couple mitratus shots..






He's a very cool fish but I must admit, he has reduced pe on a few acros.

 

[milsaltnewbie07]

OMG. WOW
Matt your tank just get better and better man. Seems new pictures are always better than the last. Also your fish collection is to die for. Specially that mitratus. Wow. It makes be want to get a huge tank and just load the crap out of it.

Also on a side now funny thing you mentioned about your tank stopping alk consumption. Mine seemed to do the same. I was dosing 54 ml of 123 a day to keep alk at 7.0 -7.4, but out of no were it dropped in the 5s. So i slowly began to up it. I ended up going to 80 ml a day to maintain 7.7, which is a perfect spot for me. Then suddenly, i noticed some stressed sps, so i checked and BAM 9dkh. Right away my ASD milli rtd, and 2 other millis. I dropped dosing to 60 ml and nothing 9 again. So i started to do water changes to get it down. Currently , im down to 40 ml a day to just keep it under 8. Calcium is 380, and mag is 1280. Which is were i usually run it at. Phos and No3 undetected. Soo im breaking my head thinking of what could have caused it. Anyways good land keep them.coming
Jorge

 

[reefmutt]

Hey Jorge, thanks!
It's always something with these reef tanks!
I swear, I almost always feel as though I am running a fine line between chaos and just barely balanced.
For once I'd like to be able to say 'oh yeah, it's all dialed in.. I can just sit back and enjoy!'
I'd really like to get to that point.
I wonder what caused your initial drop in demand. Obviously once your alk jumped up, the tank has had to adjust and start growing again.. I'm sure in a couple weeks, demand will be back to its original 54 ml..

 

[Usernam Invalid]

So recently I had a small brush with a slow disaster.
About a 3 weeks ago, I started to notice a slow increase in alk- up to 8. I adjusted my co2 production on the carx and wondered why I was having to reduce production but I just assumed it was a slight anomaly.
This coincided with a poorer than normal cheato growth.
Over the past few months, my cheato has not grown very well at all but more recently it has practically stopped completely.
Last week, I noticed this on my Oregon tort:

And a couple other corals were getting burnt tips..
After adjusting my co2, I thought I'd see a reduction in alk but it stayed stable. So, now I was really beginning to wonder why demand had slowed so much.
Then, I was talking about my poor cheato growth on Andrew's thread and maxx mentioned that high magnesium levels will cause cheato to stop growing.
This gave me an epiphany.. slowed growth, odd growth in some tips and 0 cheato growth...
I did some tests... something I had neglected doing for the past few months just out of being busy and lazy..
Well, I discovered that my ca had crept up to 500, mag had crept up to 1500 and my k was at 430.. not sure this is playing a role here but maybe.
About two years ago, I had dosed magnesium to deal with bryopsis. It didn't really effect the growth of my cheato but it did produce some tip burn/odd tip growth.
I assume the high calcium along with high mag has really made my cheato unhappy and it also seems to have made my whole tank unhappy.
I have since dramatically reduced co2 and let my alk drop to 6.5 and am now buffering to keep stable at 6.5dkh.
I have also been doing a 10% water change every day this week.
Tomorrow, I will test ca and mag again and see if they have dropped.
I will keep my carx dialed way back and buffer manually until I get ca down to 390-400 and then I will is the carx to bring alk back to 7..
I'm glad I finally checked!
I had bought that maybe it was my mitratus butterfly exposing acro tips but I've watched him long enough now to know that he does not do any real damage to the corals and rarely 'tastes' a coral more than once at a time.
Here's a couple mitratus shots..






He's a very cool fish but I must admit, he has reduced pe on a few acros.

Hey Matt pics look great as always.
Not sure if it's related but was thinking since the interceptor dose to treat the Bugs do you think it could have stunted the growth of the corals dropping your Alk/Calc demand thus causing the alk spike.

 

[reefmutt]

Thanks, looking at the photos on a computer makes me realize I didn't clean the front glass and I think here is a slight film of algea in the glass. They seem there are too many particles.. I'll have to prepare a bit better next time.

Well, I guess I really couldn't rule out that possibility but I feel that the interceptor affects such a small slice of the microfauna. There was not even a blip in nutrients.
Maybe the praziquantel in there played a role..
It's a good question.. my gut says no, it didn't play a role but my gut has been wrong before...

 

[Wrangy]

I literally could not hate you more Matt...


One of my all time favourites that I can't get due to price guess I'll be here and demanding more pics of this stunning fish all the time haha

Tank looks unreal as usual though

 

[markalot]

That is a cute fish. Hopefully you caught the problem with params in time and things recover quickly. Color still looks good!

 

[reefmutt]

I literally could not hate you more Matt...


One of my all time favourites that I can't get due to price guess I'll be here and demanding more pics of this stunning fish all the time haha

Tank looks unreal as usual though

Funny thing is that I'd never really heard of or seen that fish and it was a real impulse buy.. thanks, Dom! Here:

I still have the pair but I got a decent shot of this one.

That is a cute fish. Hopefully you caught the problem with params in time and things recover quickly. Color still looks good!

Thanks Mark.. I'm expecting a little fallout, actually. Several
Corals have browned out considerably and a piece that I had recently dipped for aefw has a section that rtned. I'm not sure it's over yet.. I have another week or two to see the full fallout.
Today ca is down to 420. I am manually adding seachem reef builder twice daily to maintain 6.5 dkh.
Once ca get to about 380, I will start bring up the alk to around 7.5 with the carx..

 

[joshky]

Before my downward spiral my alk demand went way down too, no idea what actually caused it but after my alk demand went I started having cyano grow (which led to coralline to stop growing) on the sand and rocks, then my acros colors started to slowly go to crap. This happened between early July to late August, things are finally starting to come back around after the cyano has mostly dissipated. I wish I knew what specifically triggered this, oh well.

That's one beautiful butterfly Matt, do you think after my acros grow out I could keep one in my tank? I like PE but I would happily sacrifice some for a beautiful fish.

Hopefully your growth picks back up soon, your colors still look wonderful as usual.

 

[reefmutt]

Before my downward spiral my alk demand went way down too, no idea what actually caused it but after my alk demand went I started having cyano grow (which led to coralline to stop growing) on the sand and rocks, then my acros colors started to slowly go to crap. This happened between early July to late August, things are finally starting to come back around after the cyano has mostly dissipated. I wish I knew what specifically triggered this, oh well.

That's one beautiful butterfly Matt, do you think after my acros grow out I could keep one in my tank? I like PE but I would happily sacrifice some for a beautiful fish.

Hopefully your growth picks back up soon, your colors still look wonderful as usual.

Hey Josh, thanks! I'm really liking the mitratus. I'm finding his behavior very interesting and with every passing day I get less and less tense about him actually devouring an acro. He certainly picks incessantly on thebcorals and on the rocks. What I find so interesting is what I see him eat. He's most active on the acros right after feeding the tank. When there are all the particles of food flying around, I find the acros slime up a bit and some extend their meaenterial filaments in reaction to the food in the water (I assume). He likes to eat slime and the filaments. If two corals are going to war while encrusting, he will go pick at the filaments and slime being produced. He doesn't go for polyps all the time, I see him inspecting and often goes for the body of the corals, between polyps. But he never does real damage. He hovers over the corals and hovers below them to pick.
I am beginning to suspect- - and I say this without any real evidence- that he may actually be a possible acro pest eater. I really don't know... but the way he wanders around the acros makes me think he'd enjoy a little flatworm or bug if he were to find one... yes, could be wishful thinking, I totally admit that!
Anyways, my pyramid butterfly and golden Pygmy angel go after coral tissue more than he does.
I do feed the tank pretty heavily, twice a day so maybe that helps as well..

As for my alk drop, I think it was caused by the slow upward swing in my calcium, magnesium and potassium.. I think that as they got higher, more and more corals were becoming unable to properly lay down their skeleton. This is why I started to see improperly formed tips and odd growth. Looking at my Fiji piece that I call the fruit bowl, I think I might lose it. It's in rough shape. I noticed it start to change colour and look bad quite a while ago but chose to ignore it...
I may frag a couple tips that look healthy but I'm not sure it's such a good idea when the coral is in such a fragile state... hm..

Between getting back from vacation in August, getting the dog and the kids doing soccer tournaments and hockey tryouts, I just haven't been giving the tank the attention it needs..
Several corals seem to have been completely unaffected by what happened and are doing fine.. I am hoping that there is not a disaster looming and that in a week or two, things will be back to stable...
Fingers crossed..

 

[Wrangy]

Funny thing is that I'd never really heard of or seen that fish and it was a real impulse buy.. thanks, Dom! Here:

I still have the pair but I got a decent shot of this one.

You're a cruel hearted person you know that Matt! she's looking absolutely gorgeous :inlove:
I wish I could just impulse buy a mitratus lol I don't know how I'd justify the $1200 impulse to Georgia though :blown: :lolspin: I'm having to settle for the poor man's roaps which is c. burgessi lol still a stunner but nothing on Mitratus or Tinkeri! One day I'll have both haha

 

[reefmutt]

You're a cruel hearted person you know that Matt! she's looking absolutely gorgeous :inlove:
I wish I could just impulse buy a mitratus lol I don't know how I'd justify the $1200 impulse to Georgia though :blown: :lolspin: I'm having to settle for the poor man's roaps which is c. burgessi lol still a stunner but nothing on Mitratus or Tinkeri! One day I'll have both haha

:eek1: $1200 holy guacamole!!
I paid $250.

 

[Wrangy]

:eek1: $1200 holy guacamole!!
I paid $250.

hahaha the joys of the "I live in Australia tax", importing and all the rest of the cost adding **** that goes on :headwalls:

 

[reefmutt]

Yep.. we all have our geographical restrictions..
However!!
I'd rather have access to the corals you have access to and have to pay $1200 for a mitratus..
I think you have the better end of the deal...

 

[wheelman76]

Yep.. we all have our geographical restrictions..
However!!
I'd rather have access to the corals you have access to and have to pay $1200 for a mitratus..
I think you have the better end of the deal...

AGREED!!!!!!! Lol

 

[Rakie]

Yep.. we all have our geographical restrictions..
However!!
I'd rather have access to the corals you have access to and have to pay $1200 for a mitratus..
I think you have the better end of the deal...

As a californian, I'm on your side. But grass is always greener isn't it

 

[plyle02]

I am picking my jaw up from the ground right now This is such a sweet tenuis, the photo is amazing, but the coral health and color are superb! All your corals look beautiful Matt, you have to be so stoked right now! This journal is so inspiring, amazing job my friend, the title of the thread shows your humble nature, this is the key to your success! Cheers

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[reefmutt]

I am picking my jaw up from the ground right now This is such a sweet tenuis, the photo is amazing, but the coral health and color are superb! All your corals look beautiful Matt, you have to be so stoked right now! This journal is so inspiring, amazing job my friend, the title of the thread shows your humble nature, this is the key to your success! Cheers

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Hey Perry, thank you very much for the kind words!
After 20 odd years of reefkeeping, I continue to learn in this hobby and I continue to make mistakes.
A couple weeks ago was no exception. When I noticed my high alk and then tested other parameters to find that calcium and potassium were also high, I turned my ca reactor way down. Unfortunately, I turned it down too much and within a few days, my alk went from 8.5 to 6.5. It seems the tank really did not like this..
It started a major brown down and rtn spree that has not stopped. Some corals don't seem to notice but I have lost a few and others look terrible..
I am so angry and disgusted at myself for being soooo stupid I cannot even look at the tank. I feed it, buffer it (in an attempt to bring down calcium) and just make sure everything is running properly. I'm in hate mode right now- I hate myself and the tank and I can barely deal with it.
I know I just have to ride it out and accept what happens but I'm just so disappointed in myself for making such a stupid mistake, I can't really look at the tank.
I am now maintaining the new alk and trying not to change anything and waiting.. and while I wait, I keep kicking myself and watch for next spot of bone white to catch my eye.
I'm just so damn frustrated.
I'm not going to abandon the tank. I'm going to keep it steady and wait..

 

[milsaltnewbie07]

Dang Matt that blows man. Sucks to see such an inspirational tank crash, makes me want to go in a corner and cry. I kinda know what your going through since i to had the same thing happen, but the other way around went from 7dkh to 9 after i increased my doser. I have lost several frags already . Also according to Perry, i was overdosing copper and this did not help. Live and learn . Sorry brother once again.
Jorge