Mark's 150 gallon

The great reversal of fortune continues, like magic. Now frags in here are doing better than in my 40, which is what I expect. Stylo frags have started to encrust, all of them, on queue. The Valida which was showing the deteriorating tips has suddenly reversed and is recovering.

I am not yet 100% satisfied with the progress but I think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The slimer bases have sharp edges and I hope will start to encrust soon, but the teal stag bases show no change. It hasn't been that long and the teal stag was never a good encruster for me so no panic, just observing.

Can you guess which piece was not dipped? How about that.
L9GG0Lkh.jpg


Valida showing the area in front that is now improving.
twlAlohh.jpg


I show this because of the cool bright green glow of the KBG frag (one of 3 frags I have of this, all coloring up quickly). The top of the test acro, on the right, has rtn'ed even after the Bayer dip. Screw the test acro, it must have been harmed prior to me getting it.
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Since this is my first Hawkins echinata I can't get enough of it. This blue/green stub can be seen from across the room.
vIj2UCth.jpg


Stylo ... at full speed this should take over the frag plug less than a month. Back before the tank had issues I would cut the stylo, glue to frag plugs, and they would be mostly covered by the time I got gumption enough to take them to the LFS. It's amazing how much one can take for granted until everything goes wrong.
ceBYRvPh.jpg
 
Very nice, Mark!
I'd chop the head off that test frag.. The base looks so juicy and healthy..
Hope the recovery continues!
 
Thanks everyone, so far so good.

NO3 = 2.5 (Salifert)
PO4 = .03 (Elos Pro)

Someone stole my nutrients! My sketchy tracking of feeding shows that I have backed off coral food a bit. Very heavy last Sunday and a small pinch every other day. Fish feeding fairly consistent at 3 times daily.

Perhaps the Matrix has kicked in, or maybe the Walt Smith Fiji mud (shhh, didn't tell anyone, fool and his money and all that) in various plastic containers is helping to reduce nitrates. Or, none of the above.

MicroE didn't arrive today and I didn't decide to add 3 drops daily.
 
Hey Mark, now that things seem to be back on track, did you ever pinpoint exactly what started some of your problems in the first place? I skimmed back into your thread a bit, and at one point you said you switched back from the Aqua forest to your old salt. Do you think that may have been the catalyst or did you start to see some problems before that? I only ask because at least in my local forum, a few people have switched over to using Aqua forest and parts thereof of the system, (I don't use it, so I'm not up on how the entire system works). I think they are using the probiotic salt, but don't quote me on that. Anyway, glad things are back on track.
 
tmc1313 said:
Hey Mark, now that things seem to be back on track, did you ever pinpoint exactly what started some of your problems in the first place? I skimmed back into your thread a bit, and at one point you said you switched back from the Aqua forest to your old salt. Do you think that may have been the catalyst or did you start to see some problems before that? I only ask because at least in my local forum, a few people have switched over to using Aqua forest and parts thereof of the system, (I don't use it, so I'm not up on how the entire system works). I think they are using the probiotic salt, but don't quote me on that. Anyway, glad things are back on track.
Click to expand...

Howdy, I have not pinpointed the exact problem, not sure I ever will.

Problems started before the salt switch, so I don't think the salt was involved at all. I switched back because I needed a lower KH salt to do larger water changes. I used their Reef Salt which is dirt cheap and available via Amazon Prime. I do plan to use it in the future once I move back to smaller weekly water changes.

I had a small Alk spike along with a PO4 spike that may have been the primary cause of the latest acro problem but I can't explain why easy to grow SPS, LPS, and the acros all suffered over months, with the tip burn and base recession being the climax of the event.

In my 4 short years of reef keeping, going back to my first 40 gallon breeder, tap water, no reliable tests, and plenty of lost corals, I never had the purple stylo die on me. Why this time? Poci's, Stylos, montis, birds all suffered significant damage and death. Other corals that died or receded: Acans, blastos, letptoseris, euphyllia (Gold Torch, Hammer, Frogspawn), Duncans.

I have two of every test kit just to be sure, all checked out. Triton test showed the very high PO4, was that it?

Perhaps it was general instability of multiple parameters combined with a small KH swing was what did it?

I hurt my back and maintenance + feeding fell off (Nov-Dec), was that it? Either starvation, lack of trace elements, or both? I was able to feed daily to keep my Anthias healthy, but no water changed for over a month (a long time for me) and a reduction in coral feeding. I was in a lot of pain for a few weeks, it's all a blur.

Unfortunately I don't think I will ever know. I do believe I have an acro pest I will have to deal with, but I'll have to evaluate once everything else is showing good growth and health. Frankly I'd be happy if I could keep every coral but acros at this point, just to get some confidence back. If the acros decide to do well, fantastic. :)
 
drawman said:
I'll be listening in to see how you like the Micro E. I just placed an order for some last night.
Click to expand...

It will be interesting to see IF I see anything. I'm a little worried about over dosing but from what I understand these traces get used up quickly. Maybe a good idea is to dose for a couple of weeks then run another Triton test.
 
markalot said:
It will be interesting to see IF I see anything. I'm a little worried about over dosing but from what I understand these traces get used up quickly. Maybe a good idea is to dose for a couple of weeks then run another Triton test.
Click to expand...

I was overdosing the Micro E for well over a month, without issues. When I discontinued for a week to switch over to my homebrew is the only time I saw stress. I am dosing both the MicroE(7 drop) and my Manganese supplement at full dose now.
 
I don't believe overdosing at the addition rate (few drops day) is much to worry about. There have been lab studies where these trace metals were introduced that far exceed levels found in natural habitats with no I'll affects to the coral. A note of caution here, however, is that some toxic strains of dinoflagellate require these high levels of trace metals to proliferate.

The way I understand it, and I am by no means an expert here, is that the corals have transport mechanisms (picture a bus) where these metals pile in and get distributed depending on what metabolic functions require them. Be it to repair oxidative stress or enzyme functions. What's interesting is that these trace metal demands change and seem to self regulate in the absence of each other. The real mystery is if the coral host can manipulate "what gets on the bus" or if it is simply what the bioavailability is.
 
Imo, Micro E is a product that is going to create the pastel look in corals. If that's your goal then go for it, but I'm skeptical it's going to promote growth or health for anyone that is just using this product alone outside of the complete AF system.

The copper it contains could very well be suppressing, killing, or causing it to expel the zoo in the coral. The foods and amino acids in the mix are there to supply the coral with what it needs because the zoo can't perform it's normal function of producing the amino acids and other nutrients it would normally provide if it's thriving within the coral.

It's nothing revolutionary as Zeo has products that do the same thing"¦"¦"¦"¦.you're essentially starving the coral to manipulate the amount of zoo it carries. I would be careful about dosing as you can have some bleached corals on your hands.

I haven't seen that Micro E contains trace metals/elements"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦"¦I believe that's the A,B,C & K strong supplements.


Coral E
Highly concentrated and nutritious food for corals.Contains omega-3 and omega-6 fatty
acids, unique highly concentrated and nutritious food for corals. Extract from selected
zooplankton, amino acids, vitamins and carbohydrates. Product does not contain
phosphates and nitrates. An addition of copper sulphate reduces the development of
zooxanthellae and increases bright pastel colouring in SPS corals.
Dosage: 1 drop per 100l (27 US gal.) of water every day when light is off.
 
Hey markalot, i would recommind to remove this metal things holding your hoses in the sump. They always get rusty. I saw some threads in German Forums with strange Problems possible causing by rusty metal in the sump.
 
Thank you for that clarification Stef............I didn't see any other E product listed in their guide for Sps.

I now do see a small blurb further down in the micro element section for Micro E.

I guess that's their all in one to compete with all the other brands out there now that contain the trace metal slurries.
 
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