My 65G Shallow Reef Tank

[DiscusHeckel]

Bulent!
Great to see you posting.
The tank is looking perfectly dialed in.
The ice fire is stunning.
I like your Acro crab in the second shot.
Photos are super nice!
Do you watch potassium, these days?

Thanks Matt.

You have sharp eagle eyes. I did not notice the crab before. Having looked at the pictures again I have spotted another crab in the fifth shoot from the top (A. nasuta).

Yes, I test potassium once every few weeks. It varies between 400-420 ppm. I dose FM Ultra Easy K (20 ml) every 7-10 days.

 

[plyle02]

Bulent,
Your son did a great job, wish I could come home from vacation to see that beautiful tank! Your tank has evolved to another level and is looking amazing, and oh yeah, that ice fire is top notch Cheers

 

[biggles]

Absolutely beautiful Bulent, the colors are so vibrant and rich :thumbsup:

This is just gorgeous :inlove:

 

[FloformAustria]

wow Bulent... :bigeyes:

love those new pictures!! thanks for sharing!!! :thumbsup:


Cheers

 

[kevlow]

Glad to see your update again and that all is well. I am always impressed with the coral in the 7th pic. It is one of my favorites on RC. The green skin is really more of a blueish turquoise.
I hope that your schedule allows you to post more pics in the near future. Thanks again.

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Absolutely beautiful Bulent, the colors are so vibrant and rich :thumbsup:

This is just gorgeous :inlove:

Thanks Andrew.

wow Bulent... :bigeyes:

love those new pictures!! thanks for sharing!!! :thumbsup:

Cheers

Cheers Flo.

Glad to see your update again and that all is well. I am always impressed with the coral in the 7th pic. It is one of my favorites on RC. The green skin is really more of a blueish turquoise.
I hope that your schedule allows you to post more pics in the near future. Thanks again.

Thanks Kevin. I might be wrong but the strong illumination prevents stronger green colouration from coming out. The base section that is in shade appears to be slightly greener than the branches. It is difficult to capture such a subtle difference in colouration with a basic camera, which one I have got, but the photo below may show what I am trying to say:

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Bulent,
Your son did a great job, wish I could come home from vacation to see that beautiful tank! Your tank has evolved to another level and is looking amazing, and oh yeah, that ice fire is top notch Cheers

Thanks Perry. I was very pleased with his attitude and dedication. After I had come back, he even phoned me one afternoon while I was at work and asked me if I wanted him to feed the fish. He says he likes the interaction with fish while feeding them by hand.

Having said that there was a necrosis episode on my beloved M. setosa colony. This has nothing to do with him. Before I had gone away, I noticed it and did not do anything thinking that some sand settled on the coral. It turned out that I was wrong. The coral lost quite a bit of tissue and continued to do so after my return. There are ten sections in all where tissue receded. The photo below shows the extend of the damage.

I devised a plan and acted on it quickly. Fortunately, within one week, the necrosis stopped and the tissue around the scarred areas started to regrow. As you can see from the photo below there are no new necrosis as the damaged areas are dark.

 

[Chibils]

Beautiful acros Bülent.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk

 

[maxxII]

Behold the Kraken!!!!



Pics look great Bulent! What do you think was the cause of the tissue recession in the Setosa? What did you do to correct it?

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Beautiful acros Bülent. ��

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk

Thank you very much.

Behold the Kraken!!!!

:lmao: Thanks a lot.

Pics look great Bulent! What do you think was the cause of the tissue recession in the Setosa? What did you do to correct it?

The short answer to your first question is that I do not know.sleep.My answer to your second question is rather long. I hope I will not make you fall asleep.

I did some reading on possible causes, read through my logbook and checked out my photo bank. I shortlisted the following as the possible causes. They are highlighted in three different colours. The green category refers to causes that are theoretically possible, but in practice unlikely. This is because the same situations that occurred in the past (e.g. too much light) did not result in the same effect on the setosa though there were signs of severe stress on this coral. The pink category refers to causes one needs to check first (especially (e)), but in my case I ruled them out. The red category refers to strong possibilities based on the information I recorded in my logbook and the timing of symptoms appearing.

(a) magnesium deficiency;

(b) drop of alkalinity and possibly pH due to (in my case) dosing weak limewater;

(c) dosing too much bacto balance;

(d) too much light;

(e) pest infestation;

(f) dosing too much ZEObak;

(g) dosing too much iodine;

(h) dissolved organic carbon build up (in my case not replacing GAC for two months);

(i) potassium deficiency.

I then took a set of steps to address the issues in the list above. They are summarised as below:

(a) Maintain magnesium over 1280 ppm. This was just a precautionary measure as no ill effect was observed when magnesium dropped below 1200 ppm for prolonged periods. Having said that some reported that low magnesium levels affected some Montipora sp.

(b) Maintain alkalinity over 7.0 dKH. This was again a precautionary measure as no ill effect was observed when alkalinity dropped well below 7.0 dKH. Note that all past drops in alkalinity were gradual over a period of seven days as opposed to a sudden drop over a day or two.

(d) Raise the light unit to reduce light induced stress on setosa;

(h) Add 3/4 (UK) cup of well-rinsed GAC to sump and use it passively. Add a small sheet of polyfilter to sump.

In parallel to the above, I performed the following actions immediately:

(c) Reduce bacto balance dose down to 1.6 ml per day from 2.0 ml per day (this effectively reduced the amount of organic carbon administered to the tank);

(f) stop dosing ZEObak (I dosed ZEObak 7 times the maximum recommended dose per week to counter mild cyanobacteria I had in my tank);

(g) Stop dosing Lugol's solution (I dosed 3 X 1 drop per week in addition to maximum daily dose of Tropic Marin A- elements, which contains among other elements potassium iodide)

Moreover, I re-started to dose KZ Sponge power daily to test out one of the claims on the bottle that says "The recovery of harmed corals is highly improved."

Probably I will never know the true cause(s) of the problem as I did not want to waste time in trying to isolate them. A set of actions I took to counter the suspected culprits in the red category turned out to be effective because the coral was able to start to recover within less than a week.

 

[mhucasey]

I like how your mind works, Bulent:reading:
I analyze in much the same way when things go poorly. Welcome back! Im glad your tank overall did pretty well with you away for a while.

 

[cFloor]

Wow, your acros are looking so healthy! Amazing stuff Bulent

Excellent photography as well

 

[DiscusHeckel]

I like how your mind works, Bulent:reading:
I analyze in much the same way when things go poorly. Welcome back! Im glad your tank overall did pretty well with you away for a while.

Thanks Matt. I was relived to see that the setosa is recovering. It took me for more than four years to grow this coral to what it is today. It would have been too cruel to lose it.

I am going away again in two weeks time for two weeks. This time round my next door neighbour, Ronald, will look after my tank. He is well trained. This year will be his third year in a row. He can even empty my skimmer's cup and dose bacto balance and A- daily with a syringe, but has to use a magnifying glass as he is getting on a bit like we all do.

Wow, your acros are looking so healthy! Amazing stuff Bulent

Excellent photography as well

Thanks for your compliment. I appreciate it.

 

[kevlow]

Love your tank. I hope for a good report when you return from your two week trip you previously mentioned.

Have fun, Good fortune,

Kevin

 

[DiscusHeckel]

Love your tank. I hope for a good report when you return from your two week trip you previously mentioned.

Have fun, Good fortune,

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

Thank you for your compliment. I actually went to my ten-day trip last month, but I am going away tomorrow again, but this time for two weeks :twitch:.

My next door neighbour, Ronald, will be looking after my tank. This will be his third year in a row. I have made sure that he still has his magnifying glass (he is 70+) to be able to read syringes to dose Tropic Marin NP-bacto-balance and A- elements accurately. He will even empty the skimmer's cup using a special syringe and airline tool I made for him last year. When I came back from my vacation last year, my corals looked much more colourful under his care. In two weeks time on my return, I hope to be able to say that everything is still OK.

Cheers

Bülent :wavehand:

PS. My Montipora setosa almost completely recovered. Yay...

 

[plyle02]

Enjoy your vacation Bulent, sounds like a solid plan, look forward to seeing your return Glad to hear the Setosa is recovering
Cheers!

 

[Callum96]

Well well well, come half way round the world and stumble across someone's tank from ten minutes down the road. Love your tank bülent.

 

[joshky]

Beautiful update Bulent, so happy to see you posting your tank again. :beer:

 

[sahin]

Corals looks excellent. Good to see the recovery on the setosa.

 

[markalot]

Glad the setosa recovered! I just looks at the pics from July, fantastic. How about some August pics?