Mhucasey's SPS obsession
- Thread starter mhucasey
- Start date
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Its been a frustrating few months, I have been firefighting the flatworms here and there, but pulling out the colonies for dipping over and over was hard to maintain. I was losing corals randomly, including non-Acroporas, and it made me kind of tune-out of everything other than feeding fish and scraping glass.
In December I started testing the water and found that the phosphate is off the charts high(at one point it was 0.89!!!). I had run out of NP Pro, and couldn't tell how many weeks it had been like that:hmm2
its on a doser).Everything else, however, was in totally normal ranges.
I couldn't test Nitrate because I was out of test supplies and the LFS was out of stock of test kits, and more random excuses... I suspect the big amount of Matrix and Siporax in the slow flow sump finally kicked in and sucked up all the Nitrate and the lack of carbon stalled the removal of phosphate. Anyhoo, there wasn't any kind of algal bloom or anything, so the phosphate number was just slowing down coral growth.
I started dosing nitrate and vinegar, and put some Lanthanum Chloride on a slow dose drip into the skimmer and brought the phosphate down to about 0.2 over a week with no visible change to anything in the tank. Still losing corals randomly, and the dying corals had no flatworms...weird. In fact the flatworms seemed to have mostly vanished. Then one day I turned off one of the silence pumps and couldn't get it started again. After dissassembly, I discovered this:
Yeah...perhaps metal poisoning could be part of my problem:headwalls:
Since pulling the bad pump, and keeping up with the vinegar, and replacing the bulbs, which were 10 months old, the corals started to perk up a bit. Of course the Stylos, Montis, Birdsnests, and LPS had been growing like gangbusters the whole time.
I realized that I need to eradicate this FW infestation once and for all and I need to do a deep cleaning and re-do the reef structure with a little more minimalist approach. I considered going to one tank, but I really love the giant anemone in the Flubber tank and can't bear to part with it.
So I am building a separate system in the garage to house the corals and fish from the SPS tank while I empty it and give it the attention it needs.
Thanks Petco $1per gallon sale! 75 gallons to work with:
Luckily I have Pumps, Heaters, and a skimmer to spare. I can put the SPS reef in bypass and keep the Flubber tank going while I work. I'll finish the plumbing tomorrow and Salt gets here Friday. Ill hang one of the 6-bulb fixtures over it while I have corals in it, and Ill be able to easily dip each Acro(or I might do the potassium kill once the fish are moved back to the cleaned up reef).
In December I started testing the water and found that the phosphate is off the charts high(at one point it was 0.89!!!). I had run out of NP Pro, and couldn't tell how many weeks it had been like that:hmm2
its on a doser).Everything else, however, was in totally normal ranges. I couldn't test Nitrate because I was out of test supplies and the LFS was out of stock of test kits, and more random excuses... I suspect the big amount of Matrix and Siporax in the slow flow sump finally kicked in and sucked up all the Nitrate and the lack of carbon stalled the removal of phosphate. Anyhoo, there wasn't any kind of algal bloom or anything, so the phosphate number was just slowing down coral growth.
I started dosing nitrate and vinegar, and put some Lanthanum Chloride on a slow dose drip into the skimmer and brought the phosphate down to about 0.2 over a week with no visible change to anything in the tank. Still losing corals randomly, and the dying corals had no flatworms...weird. In fact the flatworms seemed to have mostly vanished. Then one day I turned off one of the silence pumps and couldn't get it started again. After dissassembly, I discovered this:
Yeah...perhaps metal poisoning could be part of my problem:headwalls:
Since pulling the bad pump, and keeping up with the vinegar, and replacing the bulbs, which were 10 months old, the corals started to perk up a bit. Of course the Stylos, Montis, Birdsnests, and LPS had been growing like gangbusters the whole time.
I realized that I need to eradicate this FW infestation once and for all and I need to do a deep cleaning and re-do the reef structure with a little more minimalist approach. I considered going to one tank, but I really love the giant anemone in the Flubber tank and can't bear to part with it.
So I am building a separate system in the garage to house the corals and fish from the SPS tank while I empty it and give it the attention it needs.
Thanks Petco $1per gallon sale! 75 gallons to work with:
Luckily I have Pumps, Heaters, and a skimmer to spare. I can put the SPS reef in bypass and keep the Flubber tank going while I work. I'll finish the plumbing tomorrow and Salt gets here Friday. Ill hang one of the 6-bulb fixtures over it while I have corals in it, and Ill be able to easily dip each Acro(or I might do the potassium kill once the fish are moved back to the cleaned up reef).
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
Hey Matthew!!!
Good to hear from you.
Happy to see the reef is still wet and the dogs are still stinky.
Great to see you back Matt
The overhaul and redo with the SPS in the 75gal temporarily sounds like the best way to go to me buddy. :thumbsup:
You were missed around here.........
Thanks guys. I miss being able to fully enjoy the tank and I also miss the good and fun challenges of the hobby. When the tank comes back on-line, I'm considering going back to AIO biopellets and just replacing them on a more regular basis. My only issue with them was when they started to break down.
I had great results when dosing Aquaforest NP pro by drops with the Zeolites but I don't think I want to continue dealing with the hassles that came with them as far as maintaining flow, shaking stones, remembering drops, etc. NP Pro diluted and dosed didn't seem to work as well, but that's probably just my imagination.
I will probably continue to dose Aquaforest A and V, Iodine, and some multi-trace compound like FM colors or AF micro-e. I will use AF salt exclusively, I believe it is head and shoulders above any other salt I've tried. The calcium reactor ran a whole year on 1 20lb cylinder, and it is so steady it's ridiculous, so no change there.
So, a few ideas brewing awaiting a clean canvas to work with. Now that I'm committed the hard part will be to not rush the process
mhucasey
Acros & wieners, oh my!
It's the dead of winter here...it should reach all the way down to 52 degrees tomorrow! There is a 50% chance of rain! I will probably have to wear a jacket!:twitch:
biggles
Premium Member
A big tank with 4 x 400W Radiums in the garage will take care of that icicle problem Kevin, dragon breath melts ice.........:reading:
DiscusHeckel
Acropora Gardener
Nice to see you back Matt.
Happy new year.
Bülent
Happy new year.
Bülent
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