Mark's 150 gallon

[Big E]

Mark, I suspect your ssc went due to all of the instability from your zoa adventure and subsequent tear down.. And the playing with po4 additions..
The tank is in nutrient and chemical turmoil, I think..
I think you are on the right track with more food.. But don't go crazy too quickly.. Up the quantity over a month or two..
And imo, don't add anymore po4.
It's been my experience (I know not everybody's) that naturally occurring nutrients- from organic inputs like food and fish make the corals happier than inputs of pure po4 or no3.
I know you want to get the tank back on track right now, but try to go a bit more slow...
I know.. Easy for me to say from my armchair...
Also, curious.. What's holding you back from using interceptor?
Hang in there Mark!

This is a GREAT post.............nothing more needs to be said. It is advice to anyone running an SPS system should pay close attention to........many excellent points.

Mark, some of those coral look shutdown to me.........You dipped the lokani if I'm reading right & now it's doing better? The ones that struggle are the "canary" corals, they show first signs of what's to come. Maybe you have turned the corner so some of that may be behind you.

I think you said it best, that there could be more than one source of the problems. Corals are tough and very adaptable..........how else could they have survived for millions of years? In our closed systems once these off kilter variables get too far out of whack the corals are stressed allowing pests, bad bacteria, algae, ect. get a foothold that normally wouldn't be a problem.

I would dip any of the smaller pieces that aren't doing well and see how they look in about 7-8 days.

Think "Occums razor"..........the simplest solutions are usually the correct ones.

 

[markalot]

This is a GREAT post.............nothing more needs to be said. It is advice to anyone running an SPS system should pay close attention to........many excellent points.

Mark, some of those coral look shutdown to me.........You dipped the lokani if I'm reading right & now it's doing better? The ones that struggle are the "canary" corals, they show first signs of what's to come. Maybe you have turned the corner so some of that may be behind you.

I think you said it best, that there could be more than one source of the problems. Corals are tough and very adaptable..........how else could they have survived for millions of years? In our closed systems once these off kilter variables get too far out of whack the corals are stressed allowing pests, bad bacteria, algae, ect. get a foothold that normally wouldn't be a problem.

I would dip any of the smaller pieces that aren't doing well and see how they look in about 7-8 days.

Think "Occums razor"..........the simplest solutions are usually the correct ones.

Hi Ed, thanks.

I want to present my thoughts here without seeming to argue. I'm not sure I'm on the right track and taking it all in.

Some of those acros are still suffering from the pally damage, including that shut down milli on the right. It's brutal, but some are recovering. I've got multiple frags of the same corals (yea, I have a problem) and one will be doing fine while the other is near dead. I think it's fair to say this might also be a pest of some sort, which would also fit the hit and miss nature of the problem, but it doesn't explain (at least to me) how some acros can recover without any intervention.

The Lokani was dipped 2 months ago and that's when I put it on a new disc.

Here is an example of an acro that was heavily damaged and has since recovered without me doing anything.

You can see the coraline on dead tips (thanyou strontium!) :rollface:

Under my blue flashlight this has gone from nothing to now a nice solid green.

Another curiosity is the Red Robin. In this picture look at the health of the right branch. It has been this way for almost 2 months now after the rest of the coral was injured by whatever. It was this coral going south that caused me to snap and pull all the damn pallys out of the tank. You can see the tip is starting to darken (I wouldn't call it red yet, but this is a start). The remaining coral does look better and under my blue flashlight is slowly gaining a soft glow.

This has not been dipped but can be, easily. Call me a fool for waiting but I'm curious, kind of challenged really, to see if this can recover without intervention.

 

[markalot]

Here's a good one month comparison.

Jan 22nd

Today, Feb 21st.

 

[markalot]

A few more since I took a bunch of topdowns.

Lokani a few weeks after dipping, Jan 22nd

Today, rotated 45d counter clockwise.

The big valida is pretty much unchanged except for the improved health of the front branch.

The slimer is the first to respond to anything, and it loves food.

The teal has had better color, and note the brown at the base. If I have to cut the base it gets a dip.

The tips, which consistently grow like this when I dose Spongepower.

When I broke the front branch I purposely glued it to the other side of the tank to see how it did and for future frags. Lower par and seems to be healthier. Base is uncrusting, slowly.

I have two frags of this, off an old maricultured piece that started to STN. The one in the frag rack looks like crap, but the one on my frag rock under more light and blasted with flow started showing polyps and coloring up. Probably going to be green. :headwally:

 

[markalot]

Another unknown browned frag from the LFS. For 8 months this has been in my tank as happy as can be and yet I just now placed it in the rocks. I think I need to learn to embrace the corals that consistently do well and discard the rest.

My silly named Kentucky Bluegrass. I need to get this in the rocks and off the frag rack, another that always does well ... probably because it's mostly green.

Cousin It.

Red Dragon, much darker and better colored IMO now that it's at about 200 PAR rather than 300.

 

[cFloor]

Very nice Mark, that lokani is awesome! I've been after a piece like that for a while now.

 

[markalot]

Very nice Mark, that lokani is awesome! I've been after a piece like that for a while now.

Thanks, I love that piece as well and it grows well. What's not to like.

 

[rburns24]

-
3rd pic down looks like it will be really nice when it grows out.(nice now, but you know what I mean .)
-

 

[markalot]

-
3rd pic down looks like it will be really nice when it grows out.(nice now, but you know what I mean .)
-

The hairy one? I picture this giant hairball in a year or so, with maybe a hint of orange here and there.

 

[reefmutt]

Thanks Matt, that Lokani is a tank of a coral.

So my little brain can't handle the following data. I have been moving LPS corals into my 40 gallon to save them, and it's worked as all have recovered. I tested PO4 with the Hanna ULR and I get 7 or .02 PO4.

In here LPS continue to struggle and my PO4 is now (31) .1.

Nitrates in the 40 are 10 to 15 ( spiked over 20 after a chemi-clean treatment).

Nitrates in here are around 7 (salifert best guess).

I've made a hard and fast rule for the 40 ... other than a bag of carbon mixed with a little GFO I do nothing. Topoff is timed, as all my topoffs are, with 1 tsp of Kalk per 3 gallons of RODI.

I use an Aqua C Remora loud crappy injection based skimmer and empty the cup maybe weekly, or week and a half. Skimmate is weaksauce. No sump, just a hang on back fuge that I use to hide equipment.

I only have 4 fish in here. A Pygmy wrasse, Tailspot Blenny, Black cap Basslet, and a young tang that will be swapped for another young tang in a few months.

I used to have a huge caulerpa problem but the Tang ate it all.

I have a Tuxedo urchin ... I need one or two of these for the big tank, these guys are hard workers!
The sandbed is very shallow, never deeper than 3/4 inch. The basslet has completely cleared the sand from under the rock structures.

I've been feeding a small pinch of reef roids daily plus a couple of feedings of flake. Glass needs cleaned about every other day, and you can see on the right side what happens if I don't clean for a week.



How does PO4 stay so low in here? :headwally:

Mark, I think the answer is in the physical description of your 40... It is a model of stability.. Simple and stable. Nice and solid parameters and nutrient levels...
That makes happy corals.. Assuming the numbers are within an acceptable range, which they are..
The actual numbers are less important than the stability in the system, imo..

I have shocked and stressed and killed my fair share of corals over the years and I have always been surprised by two things.. The complete randomness of which corals get shocked and the complete randomness of which corals recover.
I have also seen corals sit dormant for months and then die and others that sit dormant for months and recover..
Once your tank has been through hell, I find that it is very difficult to guage the overall health of the tank by the corals that remain in the tank.. Basically because of how long it can take a shocked coral to die or recover.
I guess I'm getting back to the whole turmoil your tank went through...
I think your first order of business should be small changes over a long period of time and patience.
Once you see some good recovery on the healthy pieces and your system has been stable for a while, try adding a couple new pieces and see how they react. Those are the ones that will give you the best insight into how your system is doing..
By the way.. Cousin It looks like it is in great shape!
And that's a nice tank, that 40..

 

[mhucasey]

Mark, I think the answer is in the physical description of your 40... It is a model of stability.. Simple and stable. Nice and solid parameters and nutrient levels...
That makes happy corals.. Assuming the numbers are within an acceptable range, which they are..
The actual numbers are less important than the stability in the system, imo..

I have shocked and stressed and killed my fair share of corals over the years and I have always been surprised by two things.. The complete randomness of which corals get shocked and the complete randomness of which corals recover.
I have also seen corals sit dormant for months and then die and others that sit dormant for months and recover..
Once your tank has been through hell, I find that it is very difficult to guage the overall health of the tank by the corals that remain in the tank.. Basically because of how long it can take a shocked coral to die or recover.
I guess I'm getting back to the whole turmoil your tank went through...
I think your first order of business should be small changes over a long period of time and patience.
Once you see some good recovery on the healthy pieces and your system has been stable for a while, try adding a couple new pieces and see how they react. Those are the ones that will give you the best insight into how your system is doing..
By the way.. Cousin It looks like it is in great shape!
And that's a nice tank, that 40..

Ill second this and add to it that when I had my anemone shredding last year the tank looked pretty normal for several days afterwards. A week or two went by before some corals started showing issues. At the time I blamed several other things but in retrospect I think it took well over a month before the corals shook off the lasting effects. I wouldn't be surprised if something similar is happening to your tank because of the Palys - its making everything more susceptible to damage perhaps. The biggest colonies look the best, perhaps they have more reserves to draw on.

The larger colonies look really good, actually, especially the Lokani and Slimer. Just keep it stable for a while and hopefully the improvements will continue.

 

[biggles]

The guys are right Mark, the corals have been through a lot of toxic trauma so it might take a few months for many to even show signs of decent recovery.
The main thing is to not second guess yourself when you get sick of seeing slow improvement in health, colors and growth of your acros. It's our lack of patience as SPS keepers that leads to many mistakes when time is the only real solution.

The lokani is stunning, i'm very jelly

 

[markalot]

Thanks Matt, Matt, and Andrew.

So new world problem ... my skimmer cup keeps lifting up now that I'm trying to skim a bit drier. I thought it was due to the air holes being clogged so I gave it a good cleaning, including each hole with another trusty dental tool (one with a brush) and yet it's still popping up. Skim scum dripping down the outside ... most unsightly.

Is mine the only skimmer that does this? I've got a neck extender on it because the pump is oversized for the skimmer and tends to overflow without one. Maybe I need to hit up Amazon for a heavy glass paper weight ... if they still make them.

 

[mhucasey]

Thanks Matt, Matt, and Andrew.

So new world problem ... my skimmer cup keeps lifting up now that I'm trying to skim a bit drier. I thought it was due to the air holes being clogged so I gave it a good cleaning, including each hole with another trusty dental tool (one with a brush) and yet it's still popping up. Skim scum dripping down the outside ... most unsightly.

Is mine the only skimmer that does this? I've got a neck extender on it because the pump is oversized for the skimmer and tends to overflow without one. Maybe I need to hit up Amazon for a heavy glass paper weight ... if they still make them.

Is your skimmer one of the DC models? I have a reef octopus Diablo DC skimmer and the cup doesn't move.

 

[markalot]

Is your skimmer one of the DC models? I have a reef octopus Diablo DC skimmer and the cup doesn't move.

No, it's the older XP model with a big bubble blaster pump.

I bought a glass magnifier/paper weight. I wanted one with a fish design on the inside, but no, not paying $30 for a paper weight. :lol:

 

[milsaltnewbie07]

Mark tanks is looking great man. Just take it easy dont go crazy with changes like the pros say. Btw i love that cousin it man.. wow were did u get it from?

 

[mhucasey]

No, it's the older XP model with a big bubble blaster pump.

I bought a glass magnifier/paper weight. I wanted one with a fish design on the inside, but no, not paying $30 for a paper weight. :lol:

Well, what matters is that it works:thumbsup:

 

[markalot]

Totally would have gone for the glow in the dark man-o-war paper weight if it wasn't $40. :bigeyes:

Starting to see some good signs from the increased feeding.

The Horrida is popping new branches everywhere, a first for me. I guess I should have figured with those big polyps it knew how to eat.

LED only pics, exaggerated colors.

This was supposed to me a normal pic but it was too far under exposed, so what the heck. Note the new nubs on the teal stag.

I'm a sucker for the side shot since I don't normally look at the corals from this direction.

Neon Goby has found a new shroom to call home.

 

[mhucasey]

That's some encouraging news!

 

[markalot]

I tested Strontium tonight.

Calcium ~420
Strontium 10, or 5?

It won't happen again, kit is in garbage. I'll never get back that 30 minutes of my life.