My Acro Nursery
- Thread starter maoiwowie
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maoiwowie
New member
@garretm - Thank you. Tank is doing well. Ill try to post more photos soon.
@K.C. - Thanks! I bought the LaMotte S3 because none of the test kits available I felt gave accurate results. I wanted to be sure so the colorimeter eliminated any guessing. The Hanna meters were equally as frustrating because of those lame powder packets. The S3 is much more accurate and the test procedures are easy to follow. But I am also a little color blind and have difficulty with reds and greens. The S3 combines almost every known test for water in one machine so it would have come in handy if you lived in Flint Michigan. That was almost two years ago when I tested multi times in a week. I loved it. Today the S3 is a fancy paperweight. I might test for NO3, PO4, POT, I, and Fe 3 times total this year.
@K.C. - Thanks! I bought the LaMotte S3 because none of the test kits available I felt gave accurate results. I wanted to be sure so the colorimeter eliminated any guessing. The Hanna meters were equally as frustrating because of those lame powder packets. The S3 is much more accurate and the test procedures are easy to follow. But I am also a little color blind and have difficulty with reds and greens. The S3 combines almost every known test for water in one machine so it would have come in handy if you lived in Flint Michigan. That was almost two years ago when I tested multi times in a week. I loved it. Today the S3 is a fancy paperweight. I might test for NO3, PO4, POT, I, and Fe 3 times total this year.
Yeah I don't think most hobbyists realize how inaccurate the average test kit is. Add in the user error factor and you're lucky if you're within 20% of the actual value. I've used several high end colorimeters and they are worth the investment if you need to know the true numbers.
Having been in this hobby for 40+ years I rarely measure anything anymore. I just keep an eye on the corals.
Thanks for the info !
Having been in this hobby for 40+ years I rarely measure anything anymore. I just keep an eye on the corals.
Thanks for the info !
maoiwowie
New member
@rs1831 - That entirely depends on the source. And if you are not too confident on the source, you probably shouldnt make the purchase. I do not buy any maricultured or wild sps. Also when you decide to only buy 1 inch frags to seed your tank, inspecting each frag is much easier. I also only like to buy from fellow hobbyists that share my passion of doing things right. Often this means talking to the seller and seeing how knowledgable they are; and also seeing their tanks and the actual mothers. My last purchase about a month ago was from BattleCorals again. My first purchase over a year ago i didnt dip or quarantine. I didnt the second time around either. But in a way, my tanks are all quarantine tanks with easily removable pieces. Im going to build my display tank someday, hopefully soon.
Battlecorals' Rainbow Sarmi
3 months ago
Today
Battlecorals' Rainbow Sarmi
3 months ago
Today
ForeverNoob
New member
Looks great!
SpSChief85
New member
Try feeding the aiptasia with crushed up flake food, the peppermint shrimp will then go nuts eating the rest, it's kind of like training them to eat it, it works I've had success with it in years prior, currently pestless, right now I am my own worst enemy, killed a dozen or so frags dosing too much carbon trying to lower nitrates, had a bloom and didn't back off my dose... although I've carbon dosed a year or two back with great success, every tank is different and I learned the hard way, too much bacteria with a bloom equals not enough oxygen, sigh like you said live, pay the price and learn.An update...
Finally cleaned the 90. A pain to say the least. I used a 48x48x12 kiddie pool. Taking them out was easy, but placing them back in my 30x30 was challenging.
I knew I had aptasia, but these things are huge! I bought 50 peppermint shrimps months ago hoping they would eat them, but after cleaning i cant find a single one. Ill probably try a Copperband next.
maoiwowie
New member
Thanks for the compliments!
@SpSChief85 - Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, unless all 50 of the Peppermints live under the live rock during the day i think they are all dead and gone. I havent seen any evidence of the shrimp or molts. I am not able to observe the tank at night since im not there. Im sure the nightlife is quite vibrant. What I did try was the Aptasia Eating Filefish. Really cool fish, but another big fail. It likes to taste every kind of sps but aptasia. I even bought a second one after the failed first try, this time from ORA. Again failure. So now I have two Aptasia Eating Filefish that dont eat aptasia... whatever.
Carbon by way of vodka, vinegar? Lots of fish?
@SpSChief85 - Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, unless all 50 of the Peppermints live under the live rock during the day i think they are all dead and gone. I havent seen any evidence of the shrimp or molts. I am not able to observe the tank at night since im not there. Im sure the nightlife is quite vibrant. What I did try was the Aptasia Eating Filefish. Really cool fish, but another big fail. It likes to taste every kind of sps but aptasia. I even bought a second one after the failed first try, this time from ORA. Again failure. So now I have two Aptasia Eating Filefish that dont eat aptasia... whatever.
Carbon by way of vodka, vinegar? Lots of fish?
mannyhernz
Member
Dennis that thing is just crazy!This piece has been with me since October 2014. It didnt look like much. But it is finally showing its color... magnificent!
Today
You have the sps touch man!
maoiwowie
New member
With a tank full of sps sometimes nice pieces simply get lost in the shuffle. I just took this photo for another thread but it occurred to me that this piece came in with a pack of "signature" corals two years ago. Frags often arrive beat up and faded. This one was no different so i probably put it in the back and forgot about it. Its been so long that I cant remember the fancy name anymore.
June 2014
Today. Actinics only
June 2014
Today. Actinics only
Last edited:
maoiwowie
New member
Trouble in paradise. Im bummed that my Icefire decided to STN on me. It took almost 2 years to go from less than an inch to now. I have no idea how long its been doing this, but it looks not to be finished yet. I actually noticed it when i went to take the photo of the Wolverine above. Its been at least a year since any of my other pieces went STN on me. Im only going to move it up to a high flow area and let it do its thing. My only guess that might have started this is that the STN was triggered by the overcrowding. Some SPS that touch each other grow around with no real damage, others that are aggressive will cause a violent reaction on the weaker acro. Many times the STN occurs within the hour for the weaker coral. Even separating the pieces will not stop the STN because i believe the mucus slime of the stronger acro actually spreads onto the weaker branches and stays there for sometime. To stop the spread it must be cut off. Its too late to do that for my poor Icefire. Oh well... its the nature of this hobby. It happens to all of us.
In the 30+ years I've been keeping SPS I've had only one unexplainable STN incident. It is however common that the most experienced reef keepers will have it happen in a system where nothing else shows any stress whatsoever.
Personally I'd have several frags off the colony by now. It's never too late to try and save it.
It is a coral known to quickly suffer from changes in water quality or temperature. Being a deep water coral it's also easily affected by a change in light.
Any chance you changed out that MH bulb recently ?
Personally I'd have several frags off the colony by now. It's never too late to try and save it.
It is a coral known to quickly suffer from changes in water quality or temperature. Being a deep water coral it's also easily affected by a change in light.
Any chance you changed out that MH bulb recently ?
maoiwowie
New member
@ moatdaddy - Thank you! For almost two years my 90 gal, which is my main frag tank, had a Geisemann Infiniti 1x 250 DE with 4 x T5. I upgraded to a Hamilton 1x400 radium with 4 x T5s on March 1, 2016. So this indeed is a recent change. I stopped running GFO because i didnt need it anymore. There was a time that my old dry rock was leaching PO4, but that passed. Between the live rock, KZ zeolites (ran passively in a bag in the sump), macro (Chaeto has all died anyways), and low fish load i never have a real problem with PO4 (.01 to .03 stable, NO3 <2). I also regularly dose Zeostart and Zeobac. I currently feed the fish once every other day of flakes and pellets mixed with Oysterfeast.
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