Mhucasey's SPS obsession

+1 on rich,especially regarding fuel and sump cleaning.
From what i read there is still time to act so i'm sure you won't have any losses
 
mhucasey said:
I'm very happy with them too, I wanted a pink acro bit then the blue caught my eye as I passed the tank and I skidded to a stop! The Store owner talked to me about the blue corals I was drooling over, then my rational mind asked "but will they hold their color?" He pointed out that the ones I was looking at were freshly fragged and then pointed to another, more intensely colored group of frags that had encrusted. I had to have one then!

Oh, and if you are ever to visit southern California, let me know, I'd love to meet you in person!
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Thanks, if I ever visit S.Cali I will contact you. You're most welcome to my humble home if you ever visit London, UK. :)

mhucasey said:
So I have been wondering what is up with the corals and the tank and as stated before, I was convinced that there was some metal poisoning from Aluminum shavings. I couldn't find much about Aluminum's negative effects on aquariums, and my LFS owner said he hadn't seen much in the way of toxicity from Aluminum either.

I was staring at the acros tonight wondering why they just seemed "Off". There are still issues with some only showing partial PE, and some spots that look "burned". The colors looked wrong too. I finally figured it out - the acros are bleached! They are bleached like they would look if I did a massive overdose of Zeospur. There is still coral pigment, but when you look up close, the subtle dots and pinstripes of the zooxanthellae are gone.

I have Zeospur, and I've felt that it was an overrated product mainly because it didn't do almost anything to the acroporas in the tank when I used it. When I first got it I used it at 20% strength and got nothing, each time I used more and more. Eventually I was up to double strength! Still not much of a change, most corals still had visible zooxanthellae, but shortly after dosing there would be a reaction from the corals like they had been stung, pulling polyps mostly in, mesenterial filaments out. Once I had a mega overdose by accident, I was not paying full attention to what I was doing and added .5 OZ rather than the 5MLs I was intending, and the corals actually expelled pretty much all their zooxanthellae and looked a lot like they do now. I haven't added any Zeospur in months, mainly because I saw pretty much no positive effect.

What causes this when using Zeospur? Well, very little research has been done on this but copper causes the expulsion, but alone you need so much copper that you would kill the coral. In the presence of Zinc, however, much less copper is needed. I didn't add any Zinc, but that doesn't mean that another element couldn't have the same effect when combined with copper. I use FM Elements at about 2/3 the weekly dose one dose a week, Sunday morning. FM Elements contains copper and is already formulated to "gently" reduce the amount of zooxanthellae in the coral tissues. It is possible that the Aluminum that was in the water from he shavings combined with the trace copper I added with the Sunday morning dosing of FM Elements, causing a big zooxanthellae expulsion event.

Until I receive something to bind metals(LFS out of Polyfilter, had to order online), The corals are continuing to be irritated by the metals and are getting a little cooked by too much light. I will feed pappone tonight and reduce the daylight tomorrow to compensate, hopefully that will save the couple of corals that are struggling a bit. Luckily the new corals are doing just fine.
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0.5oz Zeospur2??? Ouch! I bought a bottle of Zeospur many years ago when I briefly dabbled with Zeovit but only used it once or twice and didnt really like the effect.

I'd carry out a few successive water changes; something like 15% every other day for at least 10 days. That will balance things out a bit and also deal with any other potential water issues.

If you have any CoralVitalizer and SpongePower (and dont have Aiptasia) I suggest dosing them as they do help the corals recover. But dont go out an buy it; only worth it if you already have them.
 
jackson6745 said:
You should look into a good amino additive. Aqua vitro fuel is decent, and I still like acro power. They will definitely help a bleached coral recover, but you will likely get a cyano bloom which isn't a big deal. I don't think the amino is the cure but it will help.

Given the situation, I would consider taking a shop vac to the sump and drain it completely. The water change will only help the system, and suck out any metal shavings that might still be in there.

Also, it's a good thing that you didn't spend big $$ on that cool red frag. It's nice but it has a red shadow ;)
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I actually just ran out of Acropower yesterday. For the price it seems to at least not be a blatent cash grab, but all I have noticed when using it is slightly better polyp extension. If I used it regularly, I got faster algae growth on the glass and cyano. Definitive improvements due to using it have been missing for me. I have seen much clearer results from milk and honey dosing.

As for the frag, i saw the exact piece in person and that is a pretty accurate picture of it, but that was the most colored up piece in the batch. Its unusual but it didn't get me excited when I saw it in person. I much prefer the two frags I got. they are doing well as of last night:
New%20Corals%20012415_zpshl3xfzda.jpg
 
glaukos said:
+1 on rich,especially regarding fuel and sump cleaning.
From what i read there is still time to act so i'm sure you won't have any losses
Click to expand...

When I cleaned the sump and found the metal flake, Completeley cleaned out all the debris. i am worried that smaller flakes might have been sucked up by the return pump and shot into the tank. I've looked carefully and not seen any, but who knows? Im trying to not act too rashly and cause a new issue with a "fix" right now.
 
sahin said:
Thanks, if I ever visit S.Cali I will contact you. You're most welcome to my humble home if you ever visit London, UK. :)



0.5oz Zeospur2??? Ouch! I bought a bottle of Zeospur many years ago when I briefly dabbled with Zeovit but only used it once or twice and didnt really like the effect.

I'd carry out a few successive water changes; something like 15% every other day for at least 10 days. That will balance things out a bit and also deal with any other potential water issues.

If you have any CoralVitalizer and SpongePower (and dont have Aiptasia) I suggest dosing them as they do help the corals recover. But dont go out an buy it; only worth it if you already have them.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I was using a medicine cup with mL and OZ markings and I filled to 0.5 OZ, which is roughly 3X the max dose for the tank:( Nothing died but there were some stressed out corals.
As for what to do now, I have the new Two little Fishies Ultrasorb arriving tomorrow and it will suck up all heavy metals in short order. At this point Ive gone almost a year without a water change and I'm more worried about new issues a water change could bring compared to the minor amount of dilution the change would accomplish. The tank isn't dying or anything, it actually looks pretty good all things considered:
Full%20tank%20012415_zpstwoezcsl.jpg
 
I got the poly filter and ultra sorb yesterday afternoon but by then most of the corals showing stress we're looking better already. I put the absorbers in anyway and everything is looking really good today. The snails seem more energetic but that could be my imagination- they are good indicators for metal poisoning though and a few did die during this event.
 
mhucasey said:
I got the poly filter and ultra sorb yesterday afternoon but by then most of the corals showing stress we're looking better already. I put the absorbers in anyway and everything is looking really good today. The snails seem more energetic but that could be my imagination- they are good indicators for metal poisoning though and a few did die during this event.
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Good that things are on the mend and looking better. :thumbsup:
 
Two or three corals went a little brownish, the rescue corals were in the worst shape though. Crossing my fingers on those two frags.
 
I cross them too for you buddy:)
Brownish is never a problem...white-ish as we say dead on the other hand is:p
I'm sure you will color them back in no time

How is that new red love doing?
 
mhucasey said:
Here is what is strange: That spot has claimed more acros than any other spot in the tank, bar none. I have had multiple acros STN right there:

I have tried different flow patterns with the thought that it was a dead spot but it consistently seems to be dangerous for SPS. The water is moving there but its more laminar then on the left side.

I had a blueberry millie there for over a month and a half about 2 or 3 months ago that also RTNd.
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I have a few spots like this in my tank - it seems like no matter what I put there it just doesn't do well. Sorry this is happening to you but I'm glad I don't have to feel like the lone ranger anymore.:uhoh3:
 
Oldude said:
I have a few spots like this in my tank - it seems like no matter what I put there it just doesn't do well. Sorry this is happening to you but I'm glad I don't have to feel like the lone ranger anymore.:uhoh3:
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Stick a softie there and be done with it :)
 
Oldude said:
I have a few spots like this in my tank - it seems like no matter what I put there it just doesn't do well. Sorry this is happening to you but I'm glad I don't have to feel like the lone ranger anymore.:uhoh3:
Click to expand...

It's pretty strange especially since I have changed the flow pattern in the tank several times. Perhaps more people have a "death spot" and just don't notice the pattern, it's good for me to know someone else has this sort of issue. Now to find the "grow" spot!!!:)
 
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