My 65 Gallon Mixed Reef

[biggles]

Thanks for all the kind words my friends Turned the lights on today and although lots of stuff is still losing tissue i don't think it's getting worse overall so i'm confident there won't be a total disaster.
I don't use the iphone any longer for tank pics since getting a Nokia Lumia 1020 for free on a plan. I only got it for the camera bit so it won't ever see a sim card lol. It takes much higher res shots and is pretty sweet for a camera phone. The snail video was taken using the Nokia btw Sahin
It captures images in JPEG that are 7712 x 4352 - bloody huge !

This is with all the lights on this morning and just cropped and resized. Unfortunately the white balance is still terrible so everything is always ridiculously blue. The yellow tang is grazing on algae growing on the SSC btw........... :deadhorse1:

Speaking of the yellow tang, since i moved the acan thing to the far left he's taken a liking to hanging out under it even if he has to lie on his side to get under it - i moved the magnet up a bit so he could hang out under there easily and he's a happy little camper now lol.

Here's an un blued pic of a golf ball sized SSC frag blowing up, even the orange Pav is losing lots of tissue. Did anyone spot the tiny white acro crab that's moved into the blue acro that will soon be encrusting on the glass if i manage to sort the water out.

He's just right of center in the pic and is 1/4" across including claws. His shell would only be 1/8" in diameter so he's very easy to miss lol. The upper encrusting portion of this acro, top of the pic is losing color and looks like it might start dying in that area unfortunately, you can see the white areas appearing around a few of the corallites in that spot.

Kevin offered to run some tests on the water, i waited an hour for a written summary detailing his findings only to be handed this........... Yeah thanks for that Kevin, that's a big help. :rolleye1:

Kevin did his usual Easter thing, he dresses up as the Easter bunny and goes around the neighbourhood smashing all the eggs parents have put out in the gardens for their kids to hunt for........... He loves Easter........

 

[biggles]

Milli which was pink once dying from the base up, all the pieces of this acro have died from base up tissue loss. Lower left you can see more Pav dying back and lower right the pretty little baby blue frags are losing tips now.

My cool blue stag is melting down just like the other ones did a few months back with radial corallites dying off day by day. The pinky red table lower right is losing tissue fast now so i think it's a goner.

Blue echi pieces either side of two SSC pieces - seriously depressing stuff lol.

This stag on the raft is in trouble and doing the same thing the blue stag is doing losing corallites. Guess who's coming...........

'I missed you biggles............'

Snapped the little bugger just after take off swimming up to the camera box lol. I let him clean my hand for a min - Potatohead and i needed to bond after the long separation.............

The fact that the red flubber corals are looking happy is of zero comfort so don't anyone mention those things. I'm going to try to get a good pic of the clown now so fish pics next hopefully.

 

[cFloor]

I hope your mom is ok.

i'm sure your tank will make a full comeback. You got the skills to bring it all back

 

[Fishy 1]

Those pics are depressing Biggles buddy. But at least you still a so humor left, if you don't laugh you will cry. I did spot the crab and he is a tiny little bugger. The tang does seem to like his spot under the coral lol.
Pick yourself up dust off the dirt and make it better than it was before, you have my full support Biggles and if you need a good talking too I'm sure between bello, Sahin and myself we can keep you going forwards. I don't envy your job of replying to all the posts but if it's easier for you I don't mind if you don't answer my posts:thumbup:Best regards Fishy 1

 

[Bello]

Nice to see you're back, biggles .

With your bloody prologue yesterday, I expected to see a tank full of white dead acros with Kevin sitting amongst them for his dip. Glad to see that's not the case.

The red table looks a bit bad, the millie as well. But I guess they're fragable? It seems the stags have taken the beating rather well. I'd think they'd pull through.

The SSC's and Echi's seem to be badly hit . Hopefully you're able to save a few bits from them

The pics look much better with the Nokia though. I switched file hosting from photobucket to flickr, the pics seem to come out much better.

Glad to hear you're back biggles :thumbsup:

 

[biggles]

I hope your mom is ok.

i'm sure your tank will make a full comeback. You got the skills to bring it all back

Thanks mate, mom is doing well but i'll be visiting her a lot more often from now on.

Those pics are depressing Biggles buddy. But at least you still a so humor left, if you don't laugh you will cry. I did spot the crab and he is a tiny little bugger. The tang does seem to like his spot under the coral lol.
Pick yourself up dust off the dirt and make it better than it was before, you have my full support Biggles and if you need a good talking too I'm sure between bello, Sahin and myself we can keep you going forwards. I don't envy your job of replying to all the posts but if it's easier for you I don't mind if you don't answer my posts:thumbup:Best regards Fishy 1

Hey buddy, no point being all poopy about things lol. I was removing a dead frag today and Lefty the crab was 4" away removing algae AND acro tissue from a coral. I got the chisel and hit him dead on - it bounced off him and he started crawling away so i lost the plot basically and started stabbing the crap out of him as he ran for his life. He finally ended up lying upside down in an acro so i went to get the long tweezer things and when i return he's bloody off again and going into a hole. I tried to grab him but he escaped yet again.
I have come to the realisation that Lefty must have got the Wolverine adamantium treatment at some point because he's bloody invincible. I'm thinking a spear gun might work but i'm worried it will just bounce off the bastard and go through the glass........ i need some drastic options so suggestions would be helpful. A railway detonator glued to his shell would work and then i could hit him with a hammer and see what happens....... i need options so let's get our thinking caps on.

Nice to see you're back, biggles .

With your bloody prologue yesterday, I expected to see a tank full of white dead acros with Kevin sitting amongst them for his dip. Glad to see that's not the case.

The red table looks a bit bad, the millie as well. But I guess they're fragable? It seems the stags have taken the beating rather well. I'd think they'd pull through.

The SSC's and Echi's seem to be badly hit . Hopefully you're able to save a few bits from them

The pics look much better with the Nokia though. I switched file hosting from photobucket to flickr, the pics seem to come out much better.

Glad to hear you're back biggles :thumbsup:

Hi mate, no major wipe out just a never ending die off slowly but surely. The glass needs cleaning every day again so the nutrients are still sky high in the water.

Pink table is stuffed, losing all the tips down.

This thing is about to have a major tip loss, color goes and then the tissue starts to follow. This is what keeps happening day after day to most of the acros - really driving me nuts.

I particularly like the positioning of the yellow tang in relation to the banggai in this fish pic.............. takes flare to capture such moments. :lol2:

I'm going to try a video of the tank with the Nokia so i'll post the vid as soon as i get it done and uploaded.

 

[Fishy 1]

Hey buddy it is annoying that you have a indestructible super crab in your tank you asked me to put my thinking cap on and with such a indestructible super crab we have to go to the big guns and this is what I came up with.
Option number one.

Option number two.

Option number three.

option number one is my preferred plan. We have to move fast as he could become stronger

 

[Fishy 1]

Kevin has had a interesting Easter as these photos show

 

[biggles]

Lol thanks for the suggestions and pics mate. I had to re stick the arch rock after my fit of stabbing as i hit the rock work hard enough to shift the whole front rock away from the back rocks lol - that's how tough Lefty is !

The video doesn't show it at all but at least 70-80% of the acros in this video are losing tissue either at the tips or base. The two largest stags on the raft have given up and started to RTN since i took this video about 5 hours ago. Everything just goes downhill at varying rates every day.

Something is critically wrong with the water, carbon makes no difference. 5 or 6 acros seem relatively unaffected which seems to indicate they're more tolerant of whatever thing it is i'm missing. I ordered salinity calibration fluid from the US - i have no confidence in any test results atm lol. The bright green stag was shooting new growth tips when the salinity read 1.028 and since dropping to 1.026 it stopped and everything went from very sulky to STN. Still getting lots of fine green algae on all the glass every day but not on the rocks much and the sand is clean. I expected a GHA bloom when i took the sump section off line as all that pollution feeding the slimy algae and GHA down there must have gone into the water. It can only get light in the display now so i'm stuffed as to why i'm not seeing a bloom other than the daily glass greening.

I think i'm going to try using artificial salt for the first time as i don't trust any LFS's water anymore either lol. What do you guys use, hopefully i can get it here in Aus. The video is pretty shaky because i stood back 6 ft and used the zoom thingy on the Nokia 1080p HR video phone - it's pretty bloody good for a phone camera all things considered.

 

[Fishy 1]

Do you think we need bigger weapons against the crab:what: he must be tuff to survive all that lol. Is the acros tissue loss slowing?. But as for what do I use in my tank, that's an interesting subject as I use natural saltwater!!! I would not use it with sps but for softies it works well and they seem to love it
But I do have to watch where I get it from.

 

[Bello]

Nice video biggles :thumbsup:, the Nokia seems to be doing it's bit.

The Red Table is a goner, more or less, but I think you get them often enough over there don't you?

I highly suspect the makeup water in your system. To the best of my knowledge, tip is caused by,
1. High Alk in ULNS, you are obviously well aware of this
2. Salinity fluctuations, I've never seen this first hand, but have heard it to be a cause
3. Contaminants in water, IMO the most likely suspect.

It could also be the salinity, but once you get the calibration fluid, you'll know anyway. Artificial Salt: I use only Red Sea Regular (Blue Bucket, sourced from the same location as D-D's H2O Salt), because its the only one I can get on a regular basis. Have used it for 5 bloody years, and have never had any problems. Besides, it also mixes to about 7dkh, 420ppm cal, about the same as to what I keep the tank at. You may have to add a bit of ReefSex later though .

I'm still betting on a pollutant being the problem. Have you checked the TDS coming out of the the RO unit? When I had this problem on the drop off, I did a 70% water change, not exactly a brilliant idea, but things did improve long term. How about purchasing another refracto, calibrated at your LFS, if you don't wanna wait for the fluid to arrive?

It's time to kick *** and chew bubblegum, biggles

 

[Fishy 1]

If you know where the crab is staying maybe you could lure him out and then stab the you know what out of him I know I'm a violent little person

 

[Fishy 1]

Bello chewing bubble gum won't help Biggles much lol, but if he plugged the hole were the crab live that be more helpful but I still think the scud missile will work the best and do the least damage

 

[biggles]

I'm still betting on a pollutant being the problem. Have you checked the TDS coming out of the the RO unit?

And with this little piece of advice Bello just saved my tank :thumbsup: If you were here i'd give you a man hug mate :love2:

The RO unit is only a few months old so i thought testing it again was a waste of time Bello but since i'd tested everything i could possibly check i thought stuff it i'll check. I ran some RO into a glass from the unit and tested it - zero ! I knew the RO wouldn't be bad already, bloody Bello i thought lol. Having the TDS meter out i checked the tap water - 0.037 which is around where it was last time i checked. Was about to put the meter away when i thought might as well stick it in the plastic RO drum that feeds the tank - 0.048
I went straight to the other two 25L drums full of made up RO i did two weeks ago and get this-
0.076
0.122

That's right you read those bloody numbers right. :crazy1:

I bought all the same drums as water tight boating storage containers thinking plastic is plastic. I have bought a single 25L storage drum from the LFS and it was sitting full of RO water also made two weeks ago. I stick the meter in and what do you blooody well %%$$# know it reads zerebloodyohhhhhhh !!!!!

I have no idea what is leeching out of these drums but i've been filling the tank with it for a long time and i think it's reached a critical level. Even my dosing solutions are contaminated lol - Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhh !!!!!

So Bello i wish to thank you sincerely mate, you will say it's nothing blah blah blah - shutup and accept you're a legend ! :beer:

 

[Fishy 1]

Gee I also bow down to bello, mate good thinking:thumbsup:

 

[Bello]

Just glad you found the problem, biggles :beer:.

Another thought just crossed mind, because you know well, I'm obsessive... but when did you buy those bloody containers?? I mean, before, when you were using NSW, did you transport it in those containers as well?

Fishy, I'd think if you read this entire journal, the wealth of information here, should put you in a good enough position to do well with SPS

 

[Fishy 1]

Even with NSW? I'd have to upgrade my lighting though and that is not cheap. Did Biggles use NSW when he started?

 

[Bello]

Biggles has always used NSW with his previous SPS tanks and this one as well, so it definitely works. Dunno if there's any difference in the NSW that he gets, and what might be available to you, since you guys live in different areas.

Lighting is definitely gonna be expensive, so have fun with what's manageable right now, and don't rush anything

 

[Fishy 1]

Biggles has always used NSW with his previous SPS tanks and this one as well, so it definitely works. Dunno if there's any difference in the NSW that he gets, and what might be available to you, since you guys live in different areas.

Lighting is definitely gonna be expensive, so have fun with what's manageable right now, and don't rush anything

Let me get this right Biggles uses NSW in this tank!!! Does he add any additives to the water and does he filter the water prior to use?

 

[Bello]

Yep, biggles used NSW on this tank for a long time and things were doing great! However, a few months ago, he switched to RO because of some tip burn. Which is why, it's entirely plausible that the containers, if he used them to transport NSW, could've been leaching crap, and maybe the cause of everything!!!