Mark's 150 gallon
- Thread starter markalot
- Start date
markalot
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Thanks Matt. Give it another month, not sure I'm going to escape without losses.
The tank is not 100% healthy, some acros showing stress, so a full battery of tests this morning.
KH 6.7 - Alk usage on the increase.
Calcium 450 - slightly overdosing
Nitrate ~ 3 - No Xenia to consume nitrate
Phosphate 33 - .1 PO4 - high as expected, but not horribly high. Doing daily dosing of PhosphateRx, 1 drop Hanna REAGENT EXPIRED
PO4 might have been higher. Not too fussed with a powder expiring.
Salinity 38. Lowering it back down.
nemodan
New member
Hi Mark
That tank looks fantastic and there is no 100% healthy tank at all. I have many mojano. Same story. 3 small ones came in a small rock. They looked soo cute. Now a have many, more than I really like to see. But because my tank is so filled, they compite for space. I also have my share on that competition. From time to time I add to them Aiptasia X that kills or reduce their propagation.
Excellent tank and Excellent job !!!!
Enjoy it.
Best
Daniel
That tank looks fantastic and there is no 100% healthy tank at all. I have many mojano. Same story. 3 small ones came in a small rock. They looked soo cute. Now a have many, more than I really like to see. But because my tank is so filled, they compite for space. I also have my share on that competition. From time to time I add to them Aiptasia X that kills or reduce their propagation.
Excellent tank and Excellent job !!!!
Enjoy it.
Best
Daniel
aikenreefkeeper
Member
Hi Mark,
You have a really nice tank. I just found your thread. I will be following along.
Dean
You have a really nice tank. I just found your thread. I will be following along.
Dean
markalot
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Thanks Dean and Daniel.
The tank has turned the corner and growth is exploding again. Let me review how I think things happened and how I avoided and long term damage.
PO4 measured .1 when I finally got around to testing. Had this been two years ago I would have freaked out and adde GFO, killing most of my SPS. THis time I simply started doing drops of PhosphateRx. 1 drop daily, or 2 drops every other day. I know it slowly reduces PO4 so no thinking required, and I know I can add it daily even if PO4 is low without doing any harm. Sure enough the acros started to regain health and now my healthy take indicator has gone on a bender. I don;t call this the crazy bird for nothing.
Besides the purple stylo losing most of two lower branches my Lokani started to STN and the big Valida showed broken and patchy skin. This happened over 3 or 4 days when the Xenia had vanished but the daisy polyps where still disintegrating. I suspect PO4 rose rapidly along with who knows what else. I tested PO4 after the Lokani had lost some skin and started PhosphateRx a few days BEFORE I tested. I know, sorry for the lack of accurate tracking, but time is limited these days.
Here's the Lokani. You can see the lower left of the base is a hard edge and is starting to grow back now. The lighter areas are where the skin died off.
Here's damage (flashlight) to the Valida. It's already starting to heal but still looks pretty bad. Skin underneath is still healthy, only the skin near the tops looks to be effected.
That's about all the visible damage ... fingers crossed this is over!
The Slimer and Miami Orchid are battling to take over where the daisy polyps used to be.
This green cap was a small mass of mostly brown nothing, covered in Daisy polyps. Good grief.
Lokani frags never showed any stress. These are so cool looking.
FTS.
markalot
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Just drop it into first chamber of the sump, no sock. Skimmer is in second chamber.
I have no target PO4, one of the ideas I abandon when I was having so many issues. So below .1 is probably the safe target but unfortunately I don't know where it normally sits or how high it got during the dieoff.
markalot
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I thought things had stabilized and I got lazy with Alk testing ... and it spiked to near 12. Damage is so far a lot less than it could have been. I lost the Sarmentosa, a wild caught, but the wild horrida is still doing ok, but just ok.
Here's how things look.
The big Red Robin is looking fine, just a little brown.
The Red Planet (ORA plug) is not so red but I haven't killed it yet.
This is the cool mint/purple tipped unknown. So far unphased, and maybe a slight loss in color.
I've hacked this to bits but all the purple stylo did is use the extra KH for more growth.
Surprisingly the hawkins did the same thing, as did all the birds beside it.
Unknown green on the frag rack is unstoppable.
This is the wild caught Horrida. It's not as healthy as it was and may be in a slow decline. I'm worried but nothing I can do except keep things stable.
Amazingly the Orange Passion frag hasn't shown any issues. I should have waited until after the Foxface cleaned it off.
In the picture above with the Foxface you can see a brown frag of Palmers Blue milli and down on the rocks below an almost dead Undata, which was looking really nice just before the spike. Damn undatas are the best looking monti so of course they die easily. It's still has some green and a few polyps so I'm holding out hope.
The OP has graduated off the rack and onto the rocks. We shall see, but me and tenuis have a tenuous relationship.
Here's how things look.
The big Red Robin is looking fine, just a little brown.
The Red Planet (ORA plug) is not so red but I haven't killed it yet.
This is the cool mint/purple tipped unknown. So far unphased, and maybe a slight loss in color.
I've hacked this to bits but all the purple stylo did is use the extra KH for more growth.
Surprisingly the hawkins did the same thing, as did all the birds beside it.
Unknown green on the frag rack is unstoppable.
This is the wild caught Horrida. It's not as healthy as it was and may be in a slow decline. I'm worried but nothing I can do except keep things stable.
Amazingly the Orange Passion frag hasn't shown any issues. I should have waited until after the Foxface cleaned it off.
In the picture above with the Foxface you can see a brown frag of Palmers Blue milli and down on the rocks below an almost dead Undata, which was looking really nice just before the spike. Damn undatas are the best looking monti so of course they die easily. It's still has some green and a few polyps so I'm holding out hope.
The OP has graduated off the rack and onto the rocks. We shall see, but me and tenuis have a tenuous relationship.
markalot
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Vivid Rainbow is has been moved to the rockwork as well.
Check out the Lokani and frags. Once again is seems the Lokani is unphased by Alk issues. The only thing that's harmed this coral is low calcium, so far. I mounted on of the frags pretty high on the rocks to see what it does in high light.
Katropora, which needs trimmed badly. Also note nearly dead Palmer's Blue milli. I kept a frag but tossed this and another milli that was dying.
Monster Valida
Unknown milli like acro on the frag rack. It was starting to color a bit when the Alk spiked.
KH is now 8.2 and still slowly falling. I'm debating where to keep it, thinking 8 might be where to lock it in so things stop changing. Planning on getting a FTS tonight along with Nitrate and PO4 test.
Check out the Lokani and frags. Once again is seems the Lokani is unphased by Alk issues. The only thing that's harmed this coral is low calcium, so far. I mounted on of the frags pretty high on the rocks to see what it does in high light.
Katropora, which needs trimmed badly. Also note nearly dead Palmer's Blue milli. I kept a frag but tossed this and another milli that was dying.
Monster Valida
Unknown milli like acro on the frag rack. It was starting to color a bit when the Alk spiked.
KH is now 8.2 and still slowly falling. I'm debating where to keep it, thinking 8 might be where to lock it in so things stop changing. Planning on getting a FTS tonight along with Nitrate and PO4 test.
reefmutt
Active member
Hey Mark, it seems like it took a bit for alk to climb all
The way up there.. probably what mitigated the damage.. things don’t look too bad.. maybe colored down a bit but... not terrible!
The owner of the reef is alway the most critical.
I’ve been meaning to ask you, was the fenbendozole 100% effective in the end?
I keep hearing that eventually, the stuff trying to be eradicated comes back..
How about your case?
The way up there.. probably what mitigated the damage.. things don’t look too bad.. maybe colored down a bit but... not terrible!
The owner of the reef is alway the most critical.
I’ve been meaning to ask you, was the fenbendozole 100% effective in the end?
I keep hearing that eventually, the stuff trying to be eradicated comes back..
How about your case?
markalot
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So far 100%, but the dose in here, while very small, was still big compared to what can be done in a reef with softies. I've been trying to eliminate Xenia in my 40 gallon and I can't. As soon as I get a dose high enough to harm the xenia it also harms my big green leather so I put carbon in to wick it back out.
The result in the 40 has been nothing short of horrific as each slight kill produced so many nutrients that the tank is overrun with algae and I need to do a radical intervention to get it back under control.
As far as things coming back in here, I have this weird smelly tan gunk collecting just at the water line that, for all I know, is Xenia waiting to jump back in. lol, it would not surprise me ... but I have enough fenz to continue dosing for a century, so I dare it to try and make a comeback!
markalot
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I bought the goat dewormer from amazon which, according the the bottle, is a 10x diluted solution. I used 2 drops, nothing happened in a week, so I added 8 more. The Xenia shrank after 2 days and the daisy polyps after 5. If I had to do it again I would do 4 drops and wait a week to see if anything happens.
I do everything via drops, so I can't say what the ml dosage was.
I read a lot of stuff talking about how once added to a tank Xenia would never thrive again. Well, my 40 shows otherwise. A big bag of carbon was able to remove it from the water quickly and the Xenia in there is now expanding and pulsing and spreading again.
markalot
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I took and uploaded the FTS and more photos, then forgot to post anywhere.
Valida has hit the back wall. What a monster.
The Maybe Cali Tort that I did not get a top down of. Rugged acro, very fast grower.
The OP frag now on the rocks where all the algae eaters can get to it. I glued it and then had to wave everyone off while the glue hardened. The Foxface is the most comical, he will not be waved off but will hover patiently until I remove the tongs.
Valida has hit the back wall. What a monster.
The Maybe Cali Tort that I did not get a top down of. Rugged acro, very fast grower.
The OP frag now on the rocks where all the algae eaters can get to it. I glued it and then had to wave everyone off while the glue hardened. The Foxface is the most comical, he will not be waved off but will hover patiently until I remove the tongs.
