Mhucasey's SPS obsession

[mhucasey]

Ha! So true about the crumbs. I never realized how slovenly my kids were until my dog died.
In Quebec, where I live, there is an odd and unexplained social phenomena that takes place every July 1st. It's called moving day.
No one can come up with an answer as to why, over the years, everybody moves on the same day, here.
Movers charge twice as much on this day, you can't find a truck anywhere..
Unfortunately, because many apartments have 'no pets' clauses, it is also pet abandonment day. The spca usually base about 600 animals on average in its care but after July 1st, that number triples!
It's quite disgusting, really..
Anyways, it may be a good time to look for a new dog.....

Three of our dogs are rescues. There is no better feeling than rescuing a dog

 

[Wazzel]

I bet you have to clean up crumbs off the floor now too
I grew up with dogs and couldn't have them for a long time because my ex was allergic. I didn't realize how much I missed them!

I have been trying to weasel me a new border collie. Wife finally agreed. Now I just need to find a ABC breeder that is local. No way am I going to buy an AKC BC. I had once for 13 years and have really missed him. Right now we have a rescued dog, and two rescued cats. Figured I could get me another pure bread BC since of the 3 dog and 2 cats we have had since we have been married only 1 has been a pure bread purchased from a breeder. All the others have been rescues. Our first cat was rescued from a parking lot as a kitten.

 

[mhucasey]

I have been trying to weasel me a new border collie. Wife finally agreed. Now I just need to find a ABC breeder that is local. No way am I going to buy an AKC BC. I had once for 13 years and have really missed him. Right now we have a rescued dog, and two rescued cats. Figured I could get me another pure bread BC since of the 3 dog and 2 cats we have had since we have been married only 1 has been a pure bread purchased from a breeder. All the others have been rescues. Our first cat was rescued from a parking lot as a kitten.

It's pretty awesome to rescue an animal if you can, but you should first and foremost get the animal you want. Keep an eye out for rescue organizations that specialize in border collies,you may get lucky. Our last rescue is Woody, he is a purebred mini Doxie, was one year old, already neutered, and a brindle to boot. Thats easily 800-1000 dollars from a breeder. We rescued him for 75bucks and he is the sweetest little pup ever

Good luck on convincing the wife either way - Border Collies are a really good breed!

 

[mhucasey]

Update:
It's been a busy week at work, I have a new report and keeping him occupied while executing my projects has made for very little "Pop on to Reef Central" time:lol2:

The cyano has almost run its course, and corals are doing better and better. My bubble tip anemone was not, however. The oral disc looked like tentacles were gone and it was shrinking.

According to the internets, that means it is starving - so I moved it and the rock it was on to the flubber tank to give it some time away from the clowns. I will plead some level of ignorance here - I had bubble tips and I have a giant purple long tentacle and they just grew and grew and I never fed them. I just hit them with light and let them make their own way. I'm feeding the bubble tip and it seems to be doing better.

The location where the bubble tip was was essentially under the end of the T5 fixtures, so I think it was getting enough light, but now I want to borrow the par meter to see whats what. With the shallow tank and 12 bulbs I was worried about too much light, but now I'm wondering about the drop off of light at the ends of the tank where the fixtures do not cover.


Here are some pics I took tonight:

You can see one of the last little patches of cyano in this pic. The rocks are really clean now:

Hopefully Ill have some pics of my recovering bubble tip by the end of the weekend, crossing my fingers....

 

[biggles]

I love those last pics Matt, i hadn't realised how cool your rock work was until i saw those pics :thumbsup: there's way too much empty space on that scape though buddy........
Glad the cyano is abating finally, pain in the bum that stuff is. :hammer: I hope your BTA pulls through, i saw two 'green based rose bubble tipped anemones for sale a while back - $450 each :crazy1:

 

[mhucasey]

I love those last pics Matt, i hadn't realised how cool your rock work was until i saw those pics :thumbsup: there's way too much empty space on that scape though buddy........
Glad the cyano is abating finally, pain in the bum that stuff is. :hammer: I hope your BTA pulls through, i saw two 'green based rose bubble tipped anemones for sale a while back - $450 each :crazy1:

450 bucks? Yikes! They range from 50-100 bucks here, some amazing colors but they are usually pretty small. As for the rock work, lots of space to fill with yummy acros!

 

[cugly]

Are you getting coralline growing on the bottom already Matt?
It looks like its coming along nicely

 

[mhucasey]

Are you getting coralline growing on the bottom already Matt?
It looks like its coming along nicely

Yep lots of little pink dots cover most of the bottom. Once the cyano is finally banished from a spot the coralline has taken over. The last few patch es of cyano are pretty small now, and only in the very center and a little patch on one side of the tank.

 

[Reefvet]

Today's water test results: Mg1440, pH 8.28, K: 395, Total Iodide: 0.06, PO4: 0.00, Ca: 450, KH: 8.6.

The KH and Ca are both up a bit high so I will be reducing the dose of each by 12%.

Now that it's been a month have you dropped your Alk and Ca ?

If Mg is still at that level you should have plenty of coraline everywhere.

I hope your BTA pulls through, i saw two 'green based rose bubble tipped anemones for sale a while back - $450 each :crazy1:

450 bucks? Yikes! They range from 50-100 bucks here, some amazing colors but they are usually pretty small.

It's all about availability. I've got a dozen of them I'd just about give away and the LFS has so many they won't take them.

 

[mhucasey]

Now that it's been a month have you dropped your Alk and Ca ?

If Mg is still at that level you should have plenty of coraline everywhere.





It's all about availability. I've got a dozen of them I'd just about give away and the LFS has so many they won't take them.

Yep, I have the alk about perfect, last night it was 7.0. Calcium is 420-430, but I don't worry too much about Calcium. I have indeed had an explosion of coralline algae, once I worked some Strontium back into the mix it took off

 

[cFloor]

Your tank is looking great, I love the layout. Very nice!

 

[mhucasey]

Thanks, its starting to hit its stride...Ill be happier when the frags really start growing!

 

[Reefvet]

It really is looking good ! Clearly your hard work is demonstrated in your results.

Yep, I have the alk about perfect, last night it was 7.0. Calcium is 420-430, but I don't worry too much about Calcium. I have indeed had an explosion of coralline algae, once I worked some Strontium back into the mix it took off

I find this very interesting. You feel there's a direct correlation between the Strontium and coralline growth ?

... Because of the size of the skimmer, I have found that the water changes were not needed as long as I added back the following:
Strontium(added to the calcium portion of the two-part)
Iodine
Iron
Silica(for sponges)

I was adding those additives directly but the Iodine is currently being added using the Fauna Marin colors additives for Blue and Red. I only add a very small amount of Iron, using the Kent Iron and Manganese supplement.
My parameters have been very stable and I rarely test anymore because of it:
Mg:1400
Ca:430
KH:6.7
NO3:2-5ppm
K:420
PO4:0.00

Are you still following this supplementation ?

 

[mhucasey]

It really is looking good ! Clearly your hard work is demonstrated in your results.

Thanks, its been a bit weird, with the big bump in the road that was the anemone suicide and the re-cycling of the tank that happened, but things are getting very stable now.

I find this very interesting. You feel there's a direct correlation between the Strontium and coralline growth ?

I won't take credit for this - JBNY posted some very compelling evidence for strontium being the key missing ingredient. After a couple of months with the high levels of Magnesium, and adequate calcium and Alkalinity, i was getting pretty baffled as to why there was no growth. As I told him, I used to mix it in with my Calcium Chloride in my two part. With the change to the new tank, I inadvertently forgot to add it and had kept that going. Now that I have been adding it the coraline has indeed taken off, I even scraped some off the glass this week:thumbsup:

Are you still following this supplementation ?

Strontium(added to the calcium portion of the two-part) - yes finally:headwallblue:
Iodine - a while back I ran out of Lugols and have been using iodide solutions. I have been adding them but I don't see the same improvement from them as the Lugols, so i will be switching back.
Iron - more rarely now, and I use my own Iron Citrate mixture. About 4 or 5 drops every other week. Likely has no effect. I use less since I run the all-in-one pellets, which have an iron based phosphate absorber in them. Ive been pretty minimally dosing iron for a while. I think many coral necrosis issues can be traced to excessive iron so I'm very concerned about preventing overdoses.

Silica(for sponges) - yes, but the Brightwell's silica sucks. It coagulates when it hits the tank water. I will go back to sponge power by KZ. It lasts forever. My sponge population took a big hit from the drain/refill process for the tanks during the switchover and I think sponges are very important for sps health.

 

[mhucasey]

A question for anyone reading - when you take a coral or piece of rock out of the tank do you find it pretty much swarming with amphipods? I took out a small piece of rock the other day from the SPS tank and I had them squirming on my hands. Any ideas for fish that can take advantage of this free food source that also can deal with a bare bottom tank?

 

[Reefvet]

Thanks for the info on your dosing.

A question for anyone reading - when you take a coral or piece of rock out of the tank do you find it pretty much swarming with amphipods? .... Any ideas for fish that can take advantage of this free food source that also can deal with a bare bottom tank?

I have several Greenline gobies. They are small, hardy, very interesting and fun fish to watch and they'll be fat and happy living on your pods. They'll handle high current, bare bottom tanks just fine. They disappear into small crevices in your rocks for shelter.

 

[glaukos]

Tank looks really good matt,well done buddy:beer:
Glad that your cyano issue is going away!
Great results and quite fast!

As for the fish,personally,maybe i'd go with a pair of mandarin.

 

[mhucasey]

Thanks for the info on your dosing.



I have several Greenline gobies. They are small, hardy, very interesting and fun fish to watch and they'll be fat and happy living on your pods. They'll handle high current, bare bottom tanks just fine. They disappear into small crevices in your rocks for shelter.

Are you talking about the green clown goby? If so, do you have any issues with them damaging SPS(they can make bald patches).

 

[mhucasey]

Tank looks really good matt,well done buddy:beer:
Glad that your cyano issue is going away!
Great results and quite fast!

As for the fish,personally,maybe i'd go with a pair of mandarin.

At one point the tank was swarming with copepods as well and I was thinking a mandarin would be cool, i thought amphiopods might be too big for them to eat. Looks like the larger mandarins will eat amphipods, so that might be a possibility Thanks for the suggestion!

 

[Wazzel]

Looks good Matt.

I agree on the rescue, considering 4 of our 5 land animals were rescues. We tried a breed specific rescue for a BC, but we got a mutt after he grew up. He is a great dog, just not a BC. Funny how you get hooked on specific breeds.