Maroon Lagoon V2.0

[Gig 'em]

I feel like I haven't posted a FTS in a while, and I have finally replaced the funky light I had to throw up on the right side of my tank when my Orphek stopped working properly. Wow, what a difference that makes!!! Corals are starting to look really good now that I have lowered my phosphates for over a month.

Red dragon is looking more red again now that I've eliminated the greenish lights on the right

RCA the Hotness mille is looking hot as usual

 

[Gig 'em]

It's been a week full of lighting projects. First I removed my hood and tore out the lights and revamped it. So far I'm pleased with the result, I definitely have more control over lighting intensity and coloration throughout the day.

My current setup running everything at 100% looks the closest to a sunlit reef I have ever seen. It's not quite in line with the current fad of all actinics all the time, but I like the natural look and I'm excited to see the results on coral health and growth.

I also tore apart my Orphek Atlantik and replaced the V1 guts with V4 diodes and board. I can now control this light better too, it will be going over a species specific tank in the future.

Phew! That was a lot of light projects for one week [emoji28]

 

[Pife]

That's quite the under taking. Your dt looks great with the new lights.

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[Gig 'em]

That's quite the under taking. Your dt looks great with the new lights.

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Thanks! I can't believe I was able to accomplish it all so quickly, usually my projects take weeks to months to complete [emoji38]

 

[Pife]

Thanks! I can't believe I was able to accomplish it all so quickly, usually my projects take weeks to months to complete [emoji38]

I totally understand that.

How hard was it to change out the diodes?

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[Gig 'em]

I totally understand that.

How hard was it to change out the diodes?

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Now that I'm done, not so hard. I had to tap some new holes into the heat sink to allow the new board to connect to it. Luckily I have access to the proper tools at work, otherwise I would have had an issue.

 

[Gig 'em]

Snapped some FTSs

 

[Gig 'em]

Couple shots for a short update. Tables have randomly stopped receding. Can't really explain it, just one of those acro pots things where you just shrug and admit not everything can be explained at a hobbyist level. I'm just happy they're done self destructing for now.

Reefwise Lemon drops have been looking good, more yellow everyday

Got a new H. magnifica from River City Aquatics. I couldn't be happier with it! What a gorgeous tricolor specimen. Can't wait to see it in the DT [emoji7]

Tank during the actinic hour

 

[Gig 'em]

Been a while for an update. Things have slowly been recovering. Ripped out some pieces that needed to put today including my dead table I grew from a frag.

I'm hoping whatever the issue was has been resolved now. Colors are slowly returning on corals and I stared dosing Vibrant to knock this annoying GHA.

 

[Gig 'em]

So last night I noticed that there was some salt creep coming down from one of the return bulkheads of my tank. The bulkheads Marineland included with the tank are spigot style so I had hose clamped the return lines to them. I guess the wiggle of the manifold cracked the bulkhead and when I went to check the tubing this happened...

I didn't even pull that hard! I guess I'm lucky it happened while I had the return pump off, but it still made a mess and was not how I wanted to spend my Friday evening as I was winding down to relax with a drink. Two separate trips to HD and Lowe's and I got it repaired with a new bulkhead, reducers, and unions to get it back up and running.

I was a little shocked at how much detritus and junk had built up in my overflow. I had to completely drain it and dry it to get the new bulkhead in. Here's the cup of gunk I drained out of the overflow

I definitely never want to have a bottom drilled tank or deep overflows like this EVER again. Any future build will be drilled in the back utilizing solid bulkheads and plumbing. I should have bought my own bulkheads instead of using the cheap ones that Marineland provided with the tank. Hindsight is always 20/20... [emoji20]

 

[tdb320reef]

Nice colonies! Love the natural growth form!

 

[Gig 'em]

So I've hit a rough patch with the tank ever since I left town for a few weeks on vacation in May and lost a bunch of corals. Still never was able to definitively nail down the cause, and honestly it doesn't seem like the issue has been resolved yet... ~6 months later. I'm still having issues with some SPS. Growth seems to have slowed, colors have slowly been coming back, but I lost my two largest plating colonies and some very expensive "œhigh end" acros.

As a result of the weakened health of my corals and the subsequent coral deaths, I have now been struggling with a GHA outbreak. The stuff is everywhere in my tank now and I pulled out over two full pitchers worth of algae from my tank in October. On top of this, all of my sponge growth died back last month, I assume because GHA exploded and starved my sponges to death. Needless to say I have become discouraged with half a year of struggles and unsolved health mysteries.

I couldn't take the GHA any longer and thought maybe it was compounding my coral health issues by outcompeting them and smothering them. I bought Vibrant and dosed the entire bottle to no avail. Then last week I gave up on hoping Vibrant would work and dosed Fluco 200. The GHA is still there, but I'm starting to think it is at least stunted, if not starting to die. The pH in my tank took a sudden drop and, even with windows open last night, is lower than it has been. This tells me that some big CO2 scrubbers in the tank are taking a hit and microbial activity is starting to break the algae down and drive pH even lower. I assume (and hope) this trend will continue and is indeed indicative of dying GHA. Here's a snap of my pH trends this week:

 

[Piper27]

That sucks I hope things turn around. Seems like you have a good idea about what could be going on in the tank. Could you run a refugium or do you think it would help?

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[Piper27]

Your last fts looked fairly good though, what is happening to your corals that are having issues?

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[Gig 'em]

Your last fts looked fairly good though, what is happening to your corals that are having issues?

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I've tried running a fuge in the sump and it was never very helpful. Probably not enough flow I would imagine. The tank as a whole looks ok, it's just when you look closely at some of the corals and the rock work that you notice something isn't quite right. You know how you can tell by the look of the flesh of an acro that it's healthy or not? That's kind of how it is with a lot of mine.

 

[Gig 'em]

I don't want to be too optimistic and jinx myself, but it seems like things are starting to turn around for the better. The hair algae is getting more thin, hasn't been growing back where it usually does, and may be disappearing slowly.

My sponge might also be starting to recover too. You can tell the dead sponge that is more washed out and transparent and what might be new sponge growth that is more tan color in the shadows there. Hopefully that's a sign that the tank ecosystem is returning to normal

And here are a couple of tank shots just for the heck of it

 

[Gig 'em]

I've felt hopeful about my tank for the first time this week in a long long time. The GHA is mostly gone now thanks to the Fluco treatment, and what a difference that has made on the health of my corals! I performed a large water change this week and it seemed like the next days the colors of my corals was noticeably better. Sponge growth is definitely starting to come back, my feather dusters are starting to pop back up again, and I'm starting to see mysid shrimp in the sump again. I'm hopeful the recovery will continue and corals that have laid dormant for half a year will start growing again. Fingers crossed!

New sponge growth peaking through the dead sponge.

A couple FTS:

 

[Piper27]

Looking better! Definitely less algae. Sponge growth starting back is a good sign for sure.

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[Gig 'em]

My tank continues to not make up its mind wether it's happy or struggling. I had some RTN this past week losing 90% of my SSC and nearly a whole large branch of my red dragon.

I can't really explain the SSC, but the red dragon RTN coincided with my CaRX flow stopping while I was out of state and my alk dropped below 6. The RTN has slowed and maybe stopped now that the CaRX flow has restarted.

On the other hand, coral colors continue to slowly improve. They haven't returned to optimal coloration, but a slow and steady improvement is better than none or reversal.

 

[Piper27]

Two really sensitive corals I'm, even though they grow like weeds small changes will make them peel.

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