Learning/rebuilding from my epic fail

Glad to see your system is back to running smooth again. I look forward to seeing some close ups of your new pieces.

I had to laugh at myself in agreement when I read your statement about making a bad decision that caused problems. Through the years I have caused most of my own issues because I could not leave well enough alone. Or, i just screw up and do something like mis calculating dosing amounts when making changes.

Anyway, It is good to know all is well. You and Mark can run How to Recover classes for people who crash their systems. Get some new pics up!
 
Great to see an update. Sorry for all the losses but thank goodness it's turning around. How odd the shutdown corals start to wakeup after this ordeal. I hope that Pearlberry takes off for you, what an awesome acro.
 
Flo, Connor, Kevin, Mark, thanks for the positive comments. I am very happy to see the turnaround. It's got lots more to go and yes Flo, some of the 'details' ain't so pretty but everything is looking better.
Here's a coral from exactly a year ago:

For whatever reason, it went 'dark' after I moved it and stayed brown until last week..
Here it is now:

Looking better than it has in a long time..
I'm hoping in a month or two, it'll look like the first shot again.
Here's a survivor starting to return:

Here's what it looked like before the disaster- bottom coral:

So it's coming back from total brown..
A couple corals are looking better than before, oddly enough..
This one is growing fast:

Here it is just before the disaster:

Although, it did have red bugs..
Here's a subtle before and after difference.. first shot before:

You can see the OT in the left and Fiji fruit bowl below... both gone. And the encrusting coral on the right has a nice red to it..
Here's after:

Looking slightly better imo.. except the encrusting coral to the right suffered badly and is still iffy. I'm hoping it'll pull through...
Ok here's a teaser...
It's my bucket full o' Aussie :)
I'll post pics of them in the tank a bit later, although they are all in the fts..

They went in last week..
Next weekend I should have more time as I will be home babysitting the dog and doing some house projects while the wife and kids are in TO for a family Hanukkah party.. the Christmukkah party will follow in mtl..
So, more pics to come..
 
Very beautiful come back Mutt, wish I had those colours you are not so happy with :-) Nice thing knowing everything is back on track.

In your FTS, I can see both fishes I am interesting, yellow pyramid butterflyfish, and a female bellus angel. Can you share your experience's with both of them? If you have to choose one, which one will be?
 
gregkn73 said:
Very beautiful come back Mutt, wish I had those colours you are not so happy with :-) Nice thing knowing everything is back on track.

In your FTS, I can see both fishes I am interesting, yellow pyramid butterflyfish, and a female bellus angel. Can you share your experience's with both of them? If you have to choose one, which one will be?
Click to expand...

Thanks, Greg. Between both my daughters having great hockey games and my tank doing better, I am a happy camper. :)

I have two female bellus angels. One is getting larger and developing longer pointed fins. I assume this one will turn to a male, eventually. The bellus are true planctivors, they virtually never touch or pick at corals of any kind. They will pick on the rocks in and around the scape but spend a lot of time in the open water. They are perfect reef fish.
The pyramid is only slightly less reef friendly. It will only pick at sps when the coral is rtning or dying off for whatever reason (like if a schmuck owner shuts off his ca reactor and shocks the tank causing corals to die!)
I would say they are both completely reef safe and model citizens. They are not aggressive or belligerent. Both are more or less community fish.
The bellus will spend more time in the rocks than then pyramid.
Because it is out more and is more of a bright fish, I would call the pyramid a real 'show fish'- even though they prefer to be in groups, they seem fine in their own. They are not shy or timid by themselves.
Tough question, which I would choose, if I could only have one..
Only being allowed to have one or the other would would suggest a smaller tank and for that reason, I would choose the bellus. It is better suited to a smaller tank. It has more subtle coloration and doesn't get as large.
In a larger tank, where one would be standing back farther to observe the tank, I'd probably go with the pyramid..

And since this is a new page and it's a perfectly good excuse for a pic or two.. here's one of my new aussies... pale but beautiful.. I'm sure it'll look completely different in 5 weeks:

A little closer:

I'm really hoping that as the body darkens, the tips will hold the blue..

And here's a classic shot. OP and PL. Both not quite as bright as they can be but both corals were only partially affected by the alk swing.
 
Nice Matt. Glad to see that tank is finally getting back to its masterfull state. Sucks that is happened , but like everything in the hobby. You live and learn.
Jorge
 
reefmutt said:
Thanks, Greg. Between both my daughters having great hockey games and my tank doing better, I am a happy camper. :)

I have two female bellus angels. One is getting larger and developing longer pointed fins. I assume this one will turn to a male, eventually. The bellus are true planctivors, they virtually never touch or pick at corals of any kind. They will pick on the rocks in and around the scape but spend a lot of time in the open water. They are perfect reef fish.
The pyramid is only slightly less reef friendly. It will only pick at sps when the coral is rtning or dying off for whatever reason (like if a schmuck owner shuts off his ca reactor and shocks the tank causing corals to die!)
I would say they are both completely reef safe and model citizens. They are not aggressive or belligerent. Both are more or less community fish.
The bellus will spend more time in the rocks than then pyramid.
Because it is out more and is more of a bright fish, I would call the pyramid a real 'show fish'- even though they prefer to be in groups, they seem fine in their own. They are not shy or timid by themselves.
Tough question, which I would choose, if I could only have one..
Only being allowed to have one or the other would would suggest a smaller tank and for that reason, I would choose the bellus. It is better suited to a smaller tank. It has more subtle coloration and doesn't get as large.
In a larger tank, where one would be standing back farther to observe the tank, I'd probably go with the pyramid..

And since this is a new page and it's a perfectly good excuse for a pic or two.. here's one of my new aussies... pale but beautiful.. I'm sure it'll look completely different in 5 weeks:

A little closer:

I'm really hoping that as the body darkens, the tips will hold the blue..

And here's a classic shot. OP and PL. Both not quite as bright as they can be but both corals were only partially affected by the alk swing.
Click to expand...
Thank you Mutt for your detailed answer. You helped me a lot. One last question. Did your bellus angels saw any aggressive behaviour, towards your anthias?
 
milsaltnewbie07 said:
Nice Matt. Glad to see that tank is finally getting back to its masterfull state. Sucks that is happened , but like everything in the hobby. You live and learn.
Jorge
Click to expand...
Yes indeed.. live and learn! Thanks Jorge. My tank never stops teaching me a lesson

gregkn73 said:
Thank you Mutt for your detailed answer. You helped me a lot. One last question. Did your bellus angels saw any aggressive behaviour, towards your anthias?
Click to expand...

No problem, Greg. I don't find them overly aggressive. On occasion, they'll head right into the anthias or the cardinals and they will scatter but then the angels will just keep swimming. Kind of like a dog chasing pigeons in the park. They seem more interested in just seeing the little guys fly all over the place.. not interested in doing damage.

FloformAustria said:
those are some nice corals mate! :bigeyes:

keep those pictures coming!
Click to expand...

Thanks, Flo! :)

Pink matrix.. not fully recovered but not too bad..


Another new Aussie: again, I'm sure it won't look like his for long..
 
Awesome new pieces!

I would like your opinion on the PL. I see a few that are predominately yellow with some pink tips and green base. Most seem to have your coloration of green with yellow on the tips. Is this a different strain? ; or is it a lighting issue [ as in too low par] or a trace element issue?
 
Reefs are resilient -- There will always be the "oh crap" moment when something goes wrong, and an inevitable loss or two -- But your tank is bouncing back beautifully already :)
 
Hi Matt

Nice pictures those last ones. I lost several weeKS of reading. I am kind of feeling "what is going on". I read on these last postings that "you are recovering...". Happy to hear that. But looks like you and Biggles had problems. I will need to go back in your thread to see what happened.

I still need to find the Matt's thread (California Matt). To check how is he doing.

Let see if I have the energy to post an update of mine.

Best my forum friend!!!!
Daniel
 
Last edited:
Hi Matt,
Great scores indeed, that pink one had me at the edge of my chair :) Seems like a re-bound is in the works. Every one of us has these moments, I am still recovering myself from alk spike and tip burn, started with one, then 5 others followed suit, like the flu being passed around a home, ugh... Glad to see things heading in the right direction, and kudos to you for staying strong and hanging in! Best regards :)
 
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