Mhucasey's SPS obsession

[mhucasey]

Nice to see you back Matt.

Happy new year.

Bülent

Thanks Bulent, Happy New year to you as well!

2017 is bringing good news! Welcome back Matt, this forum need reefers like you.
Nice FTS but we need macrooooos!

Thanks, I appreciate it. You don't want to see the corals up close, trust me. In a few months hopefully they will be in better shape for pics

Good to see you around Matt, good luck with the temporary tank!

Thanks Mark, Im hoping it will do the trick!

Hey Matt,
Happy New Year!
Hope you and yours have a great 2017

Thanks Perry, Happy New Year to you as well!

Good to see you back at it.

Thanks! I have some creative energy creeping back in. The tank is still going, its just been stagnant for a while.

Same boat as you several months back. QT tank, Bayer, ad five weeks later I've been AEFW free for two months.

Good to know! The Tank will allow me to rotate stuff around in the meantime so I don't have to try to do too much in one day. The interesting thing is I blasted the corals with straight DI water from the tap last night and maybe saw one flatworm. I wonder if they were poisoned or something. Its really weird...

 

[Acronic]

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:

52!!! Sounds like October to me! I ride my motorcycle until it hits 33! Hell, I'll be ice fishing in my crocks next week in 11f.

I really need to live somewhere I wouldn't die if I was homeless... :hammer:

A big tank with 4 x 400W Radiums in the garage will take care of that icicle problem Kevin, dragon breath melts ice.........:reading:

Nah, Canadian winters balk at 400w radiums. Old man winter is a crabby bastard.

 

[Wally.B]

After dissassembly, I discovered this (picture of burst impeller):
Yeah...perhaps metal poisoning could be part of my problem:

Matt,

I just went thru something very similar, but it was caused by me installing a Mirror into an Algae Scubber Light Chamber. I learned, after hunting for a cause of Coral Die off, that mirrors are made of 4 layers (Glass, Silver, COPPER !! and Sealer paint). When I pulled the mirror out, it was corroded at the clean cut edges, thus Copper slowly leached into my tank and that was the whole reason (Since I found nothing else).

Anyway what I wanted to convey is that I quickly recovered by using Kent Toxic Metal Sponge (which I accidentally stumbled on) because every store in my area didn't have Curprisorb. This stuff will pull out all toxic metals (Not just Copper) and it appears it did work, since it took me a couple of weeks to get Curpisorb so all I had was the Kent Sponge. I did do water changes, but this stuff and Cuprisob will polish any metals that continue to leach from settling on rocks and sand bed, that can be stirred up. Both products change color when they are working. They don't release and are rechargeable (if you are willing to play with acids and bleaches).

I even had my water tested by Triton Labs once I felt things were fine. (Lab results came back squeaky clean of toxic metals), so I had confidence to get new frags into the system.

Happy New Year.
Wally

 

[SawCJack00]

Wow Matt, what a read. I just finished all 138 pages over about a month. I love your tanks, and really hope you get those FW eliminated and get everything back to 100%. One of these days I'll get a tank thread going... We have a cold front here too. Last night it almost got down to 70! :beachbum:

 

[mhucasey]

Matt,

I just went thru something very similar, but it was caused by me installing a Mirror into an Algae Scubber Light Chamber. I learned, after hunting for a cause of Coral Die off, that mirrors are made of 4 layers (Glass, Silver, COPPER !! and Sealer paint). When I pulled the mirror out, it was corroded at the clean cut edges, thus Copper slowly leached into my tank and that was the whole reason (Since I found nothing else).

Anyway what I wanted to convey is that I quickly recovered by using Kent Toxic Metal Sponge (which I accidentally stumbled on) because every store in my area didn't have Curprisorb. This stuff will pull out all toxic metals (Not just Copper) and it appears it did work, since it took me a couple of weeks to get Curpisorb so all I had was the Kent Sponge. I did do water changes, but this stuff and Cuprisob will polish any metals that continue to leach from settling on rocks and sand bed, that can be stirred up. Both products change color when they are working. They don't release and are rechargeable (if you are willing to play with acids and bleaches).

I even had my water tested by Triton Labs once I felt things were fine. (Lab results came back squeaky clean of toxic metals), so I had confidence to get new frags into the system.

Happy New Year.
Wally

Thanks for the info Wally! I went with Poly-Filter since I had some on hand, but I'll check out the Kent product as well. I like color change, as it lets me know something is happening, its kind of hard to tell sometimes with the Poly-Filter. Mine turned a dark reddish brown...

 

[mhucasey]

Wow Matt, what a read. I just finished all 138 pages over about a month. I love your tanks, and really hope you get those FW eliminated and get everything back to 100%. One of these days I'll get a tank thread going... We have a cold front here too. Last night it almost got down to 70! :beachbum:

Wow, thanks for reading through!!! The Garage tank is up and running and has the first corals in it, so Im hoping to knock out these flatworms too. Ill hopefully put some pics up tomorrow.

First I pulled all the LPS and Non-acro colonies, some Birdsnests were pitched since they were infested with bubble algae. Then I started with the best/rarest acros, first dipping in a double strength standard coral dip for a minute or two to see if any flatworms came off - if so, they went into a strong Bayer dip for 10 minutes. If no flatworms came off then they went into a regular strength bayer dip for 10 minutes. I then trimmed away any base skeleton and glued them to frag plugs, covering any exposed skeleton with glue. Then they go into the garage tank.

Any exposed skeleton will be cut away and thrown away. Anything shady will be tossed. When I am done I will have all the colonies in the garage tank with hopefully no FWs there. Then I will take the Shallow tank down and clean and sterilize it. Since the rock is plastic, I don't have to worry about ruining its Biological filtration capability. I will rebuild the tank structure and then re-fill it and move the fish back there. Corals only come back if they are clear of flatworms. Anyhow, thats the plan:thumbsup:

 

[SawCJack00]

Good luck with the project Matt. At least you're not "bored" with the tank now you'll have plenty to keep you busy for a while! Please continue to post pictures even while your babies are in the hospital!

 

[reefmutt]

Wow Matt, you are not messing around! Then again, you never did.
Good luck!
Looking forward to the new scape.

 

[Pife]

Sounds like a great approach. How are you maintaining stability in the garage tank?

 

[mhucasey]

Hospital tank is up and lit now, with the first corals in there:

Some of the premium SPS:

The sump:

Matrix/Siporax used for biological filtration, moved live from other system. Skimmer is my backup Eshopps skimmer, two heaters in the tank, 6X39watt sun power for light, Tunze power head for flow.
Everything except the tank I already had

 

[slavetonet]

All the best Matt.
You will beat this in no time.

 

[Scorpius]

Don't be surprised at a total brown out on all your Acro's and a 20% loss is normal. I wish you the best at killing those AEFW. It is doable.

 

[mhucasey]

All corals and fish moved out of the SPS tank, clean up in progress:

Everyone seems pretty happy in the hospital tank:

 

[Scorpius]

Perfect time to fix any and all issues you had before the tear down. Use it wisely. Glad everyone is doing well.

 

[mhucasey]

Perfect time to fix any and all issues you had before the tear down. Use it wisely. Glad everyone is doing well.

Thanks for the support! I soaked all the plastic rock in vinegar and it's like it's brand new! Here is what I have to work with:

Now I need to re-combine into a new scape using epoxy - the plan will be to keep the height lower and have less places where the scape touches the bottom.

 

[mhucasey]

A little test arranging around the dish that holds the Wrasse sand:

From the side:

 

[reefwiser]

I like it Matt [emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Pife]

Very clever way to hide the sand container. I really like the scape too. How are you treating for the space worms?

 

[Wazzel]

Good luck with the rebuild Matt.

 

[joshky]

Wow Matt it looks like I having some catching up to do, I'm gonna try to read it all when I get home from work. Good luck with everything!