My humble SPS journey - Shallow 80g

[joshky]

Josh,is that a pink lemonade on top of that acro island?

It is, unfortunately right now it's mostly just lemonade... maybe a bad batch at that. I had a small, minor, terrifying mishap when I first purchased the new anemone and ran into a problem that I didn't even know existed. I almost lost the pink lemonade.

Ok so little story.

As I was acclimating the anemone to the tank and giving it time to get its foot secure onto a small plate I put on my sand bed, I noticed some transparent slime coming from the tentacles; not from the mouth, which is a normal stress response. I siphoned what I saw with a turkey baster and went back to getting the anemone situated and the flow back online, when you have a freshly shipped anemone like the one I purchased it can take a while for it to attach. It probably took 2 hours before I had the flow back up to a respectable amount, sometime during this time I believe more of this slime may have been released and got caught in the center of the pink lemonade. Later that night I noticed the pink lemonade sliming more than normal which at first, I figured wasn't a big deal, but as I inspected things further I distinctly saw the center of the pink lemonade being more of a beige coloration, polyps, skin and all; the tips also had this weird texture to them, like they were fuzzy and mesenterial filaments were sticking out. It was a stress response that I've not encountered before. You can imagine that I thought of worst case scenarios that entire night and hated myself.

I believe it was caused by the transparent slime coming from the magnifica, and I believe that the slime was a nematocyst response from stress. I don't think the nematocysts were at full strength, sick anemones I imagine don't have very strong nematocysts which is why they often aren't very sticky when you receive them. For over a week the PE on the pink lemonade was lackluster, but no STN occurred and it's making a full recovery right now. I am starting to see color return, the yellow is coming back in the center and I can only imagine the pink will be soon to follow; right now as I look at it, it has the most PE I've ever seen at night. I'm very optimistic about a quick recovery and getting it back to how it used to look. Here's a top down photo of it a couple weeks before the anemone mishap. The pink lemonade was the only acro affected from this event, the rest were already ticked off from other issues like me reaquascaping.

 

[kevlow]

It is, unfortunately right now it's mostly just lemonade... maybe a bad batch at that. I had a small, minor, terrifying mishap when I first purchased the new anemone and ran into a problem that I didn't even know existed. I almost lost the pink lemonade.

Ok so little story.

As I was acclimating the anemone to the tank and giving it time to get its foot secure onto a small plate I put on my sand bed, I noticed some transparent slime coming from the tentacles; not from the mouth, which is a normal stress response. I siphoned what I saw with a turkey baster and went back to getting the anemone situated and the flow back online, when you have a freshly shipped anemone like the one I purchased it can take a while for it to attach. It probably took 2 hours before I had the flow back up to a respectable amount, sometime during this time I believe more of this slime may have been released and got caught in the center of the pink lemonade. Later that night I noticed the pink lemonade sliming more than normal which at first, I figured wasn't a big deal, but as I inspected things further I distinctly saw the center of the pink lemonade being more of a beige coloration, polyps, skin and all; the tips also had this weird texture to them, like they were fuzzy and mesenterial filaments were sticking out. It was a stress response that I've not encountered before. You can imagine that I thought of worst case scenarios that entire night and hated myself.

I believe it was caused by the transparent slime coming from the magnifica, and I believe that the slime was a nematocyst response from stress. I don't think the nematocysts were at full strength, sick anemones I imagine don't have very strong nematocysts which is why they often aren't very sticky when you receive them. For over a week the PE on the pink lemonade was lackluster, but no STN occurred and it's making a full recovery right now. I am starting to see color return, the yellow is coming back in the center and I can only imagine the pink will be soon to follow; right now as I look at it, it has the most PE I've ever seen at night. I'm very optimistic about a quick recovery and getting it back to how it used to look. Here's a top down photo of it a couple weeks before the anemone mishap. The pink lemonade was the only acro affected from this event, the rest were already ticked off from other issues like me reaquascaping.

Best of luck with recovery. But that is still a beautiful coral. You are getting a true yellow which is so hard to achieve.

I very much enjoy your tank and seeing what can be done with LEDs.

 

[reefmutt]

It is, unfortunately right now it's mostly just lemonade... maybe a bad batch at that. I had a small, minor, terrifying mishap when I first purchased the new anemone and ran into a problem that I didn't even know existed. I almost lost the pink lemonade.

Ok so little story.

As I was acclimating the anemone to the tank and giving it time to get its foot secure onto a small plate I put on my sand bed, I noticed some transparent slime coming from the tentacles; not from the mouth, which is a normal stress response. I siphoned what I saw with a turkey baster and went back to getting the anemone situated and the flow back online, when you have a freshly shipped anemone like the one I purchased it can take a while for it to attach. It probably took 2 hours before I had the flow back up to a respectable amount, sometime during this time I believe more of this slime may have been released and got caught in the center of the pink lemonade. Later that night I noticed the pink lemonade sliming more than normal which at first, I figured wasn't a big deal, but as I inspected things further I distinctly saw the center of the pink lemonade being more of a beige coloration, polyps, skin and all; the tips also had this weird texture to them, like they were fuzzy and mesenterial filaments were sticking out. It was a stress response that I've not encountered before. You can imagine that I thought of worst case scenarios that entire night and hated myself.

I believe it was caused by the transparent slime coming from the magnifica, and I believe that the slime was a nematocyst response from stress. I don't think the nematocysts were at full strength, sick anemones I imagine don't have very strong nematocysts which is why they often aren't very sticky when you receive them. For over a week the PE on the pink lemonade was lackluster, but no STN occurred and it's making a full recovery right now. I am starting to see color return, the yellow is coming back in the center and I can only imagine the pink will be soon to follow; right now as I look at it, it has the most PE I've ever seen at night. I'm very optimistic about a quick recovery and getting it back to how it used to look. Here's a top down photo of it a couple weeks before the anemone mishap. The pink lemonade was the only acro affected from this event, the rest were already ticked off from other issues like me reaquascaping.

Very interesting and informative little anecdote.
Always something to watch out for.
That is something only an experienced reefer would have caught.
And like I've said before, that pl is just about as good as it gets. I'm sure it'll be back to its former glory in no time.

 

[FloformAustria]

It is, unfortunately right now it's mostly just lemonade... maybe a bad batch at that. I had a small, minor, terrifying mishap when I first purchased the new anemone and ran into a problem that I didn't even know existed. I almost lost the pink lemonade.

Ok so little story.

As I was acclimating the anemone to the tank and giving it time to get its foot secure onto a small plate I put on my sand bed, I noticed some transparent slime coming from the tentacles; not from the mouth, which is a normal stress response. I siphoned what I saw with a turkey baster and went back to getting the anemone situated and the flow back online, when you have a freshly shipped anemone like the one I purchased it can take a while for it to attach. It probably took 2 hours before I had the flow back up to a respectable amount, sometime during this time I believe more of this slime may have been released and got caught in the center of the pink lemonade. Later that night I noticed the pink lemonade sliming more than normal which at first, I figured wasn't a big deal, but as I inspected things further I distinctly saw the center of the pink lemonade being more of a beige coloration, polyps, skin and all; the tips also had this weird texture to them, like they were fuzzy and mesenterial filaments were sticking out. It was a stress response that I've not encountered before. You can imagine that I thought of worst case scenarios that entire night and hated myself.

I believe it was caused by the transparent slime coming from the magnifica, and I believe that the slime was a nematocyst response from stress. I don't think the nematocysts were at full strength, sick anemones I imagine don't have very strong nematocysts which is why they often aren't very sticky when you receive them. For over a week the PE on the pink lemonade was lackluster, but no STN occurred and it's making a full recovery right now. I am starting to see color return, the yellow is coming back in the center and I can only imagine the pink will be soon to follow; right now as I look at it, it has the most PE I've ever seen at night. I'm very optimistic about a quick recovery and getting it back to how it used to look. Here's a top down photo of it a couple weeks before the anemone mishap. The pink lemonade was the only acro affected from this event, the rest were already ticked off from other issues like me reaquascaping.

aha good to know!
coral looks amazing in any case!

i am too afraid to place a anemone in my tank! :uhoh2:

Cheers

 

[joshky]

Best of luck with recovery. But that is still a beautiful coral. You are getting a true yellow which is so hard to achieve.

I very much enjoy your tank and seeing what can be done with LEDs.

Thanks! It is indeed a true yellow and I'm not sure whats so different about my setup that allows me to bring out those pigments.

Btw I have 8x54w t5s, nothing wrong with LEDs but I'm not running them.

Very interesting and informative little anecdote.
Always something to watch out for.
That is something only an experienced reefer would have caught.
And like I've said before, that pl is just about as good as it gets. I'm sure it'll be back to its former glory in no time.

Yes there's always something to make you go crazy. :fun5:


Thanks Matt. :beer:

aha good to know!
coral looks amazing in any case!

i am too afraid to place a anemone in my tank! :uhoh2:

Cheers

Adding a H. magnifica or any anemone from the Stichodactyla genus is no joke and should not be an impulse decision; any anemone really, but those especially. The good thing with the magnifica is once it's in your DT it shouldn't wander after it settles in, but you have to build a spot just for them which is what I did.

 

[FloformAustria]

Adding a H. magnifica or any anemone from the Stichodactyla genus is no joke and should not be an impulse decision; any anemone really, but those especially. The good thing with the magnifica is once it's in your DT it shouldn't wander after it settles in, but you have to build a spot just for them which is what I did.

hope it works! it´s an amazing sight clown fish and an anemone!!!

 

[kevlow]

Thanks! It is indeed a true yellow and I'm not sure whats so different about my setup that allows me to bring out those pigments.

Btw I have 8x54w t5s, nothing wrong with LEDs but I'm not running them.



.

Sorry about that. I got your info mixed up in my head with Mike. With good husbandry all types of lighting can produce good results, IMO.

Is this PL getting alot of PAR? If so, do you know how much?

I have a Piccachu acro that at best is light green. I think I might be lacking PAR to bump it over to yellow.

I would love a PL in my system if I could maintain the colors that you are getting. If it would just turn light green then I will pass on adding it.

 

[plyle02]

Josh,
That is same yellow I am yielding, always great to see them true colors of the original PL. Great update man

 

[tripleS]

beautiful tank and coral josh btw how is matrix can you show your current sump pic

 

[MichaelW]

This is how I wish my pl would color. Mine is yellow but has a slight green shimmer to it. And my polyps are a little more purple than that nice pink. This one is textbook.

 

[joshky]

hope it works! it´s an amazing sight clown fish and an anemone!!!

Thanks Flo!

Sorry about that. I got your info mixed up in my head with Mike. With good husbandry all types of lighting can produce good results, IMO.

Is this PL getting alot of PAR? If so, do you know how much?

I have a Piccachu acro that at best is light green. I think I might be lacking PAR to bump it over to yellow.

I would love a PL in my system if I could maintain the colors that you are getting. If it would just turn light green then I will pass on adding it.

I don't know specifically but I would say it's getting pretty high par, the light is probably 11.5" above the PL. I think light spectrum has a lot to do with bringing yellows out too, but that may not be as important as really high PAR. I will say one thing, I've never had this piece go really green on me, even when it was more green looking it still looked yellow.

Josh,
That is same yellow I am yielding, always great to see them true colors of the original PL. Great update man

Awesome Perry! I just need mine to heal back up.

beautiful tank and coral josh btw how is matrix can you show your current sump pic

I don't have a photo right now, I'll try to get one sometime today for you and might add a few more photos into the mix.

This is how I wish my pl would color. Mine is yellow but has a slight green shimmer to it. And my polyps are a little more purple than that nice pink. This one is textbook.

I wish I knew the secret, all I can say for sure is it loves light. It would be an interesting experiment to frag a piece and put it on the sand bed in my tank, see what that does for color. After mine is back to its former glory I'm definitely going to give it a shot, will keep you up to date.

 

[joshky]

Small picture update.

Magnifica top down, loving the red undertone through the purple.

Matrix in a DIY gutter guard basket for easy removal to clean in WC, not sure if I'm going to replace it with something better or add a handle yet.

Pink Lemonade, more of a true yellow right now actually, but you can see the polyps are still more of a tan color vs. the last photo of it. I want those pink polyps back!

This one is finally doing something, took a photo to document the pink/purple coming in on the new growth.

BC Ultimate Table, looks like crap right now but it just keeps on growing! It's getting huge.

Overall colors aren't that great right now, some are doing good and others are still adjusting to the reaquascape and previous stress episode that happened when I had to go out of state without much warning. I think in a few more weeks I'll probably have much better colors, they've all been bouncing back really well and I'm starting to see some good improvements so I'm optimistic.

 

[reefmutt]

Nice mag!
That OT is absolutely perfect and the PL also looks great but I'd agree, the others look a tiny bit pale..
Where's your n and p?

 

[joshky]

Nice mag!
That OT is absolutely perfect and the PL also looks great but I'd agree, the others look a tiny bit pale..
Where's your n and p?

no3 2.5ppm - Salifert
po4 0.012ppm - Hanna ULR Phosphorus

I think it's just from the changes/instability, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

 

[reefmutt]

no3 2.5ppm - Salifert
po4 0.012ppm - Hanna ULR Phosphorus

I think it's just from the changes/instability, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Well, Josh, you know how personal experience is so important in this hobby. And how every tank is so different and reacts differently..
My experience with my tank has been that as soon as I get below 4ppm n, my corals begin to fade..
However, I have never had a p level nearly as low as you have. My p has almost always been no lower than .08 and often as high as .17..
I'm really trying to get p down below .08.. I really want to keep it there for a long term period..

 

[joshky]

Well, Josh, you know how personal experience is so important in this hobby. And how every tank is so different and reacts differently..
My experience with my tank has been that as soon as I get below 4ppm n, my corals begin to fade..
However, I have never had a p level nearly as low as you have. My p has almost always been no lower than .08 and often as high as .17..
I'm really trying to get p down below .08.. I really want to keep it there for a long term period..

I've been thinking that I've had low nutrient issues but with small patches of cyano I've tried to dismiss the idea. I do know that when my acros were at their best I had higher nutrients than I do now, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. Most of the cyano has gone by now so I guess I'll try feeding a bit more and see what that does, might add some more fish but I'd like to wait and see what some stability can bring to my tank.

Of course I'll continue to document the tank as it progresses, hopefully I can get some better acro colors for future updates.

 

[FloformAustria]

no matter what you are saying i really like the look of your corals! :bigeyes:

love the anemone!

Cheers

 

[joshky]

no matter what you are saying i really like the look of your corals! :bigeyes:

love the anemone!

Cheers

Thanks Flo. I'm not terribly happy with the colors in my tank, only because I've had them so much better looking in the past. I'm sure given enough time and maybe a few tweaks with my bioload I'll figure it out, just need to leave things alone for the most part and observe right now.

 

[Wrangy]

The tort!! :eek1: oh my god the tort :inlove: :inlove:

Nem is stunning too, the red in it contrasts really well with those lovely tips!

 

[OrionN]

Small picture update.

......

.....
Overall colors aren't that great right now, some are doing good and others are still adjusting to the reaquascape and previous stress episode that happened when I had to go out of state without much warning. I think in a few more weeks I'll probably have much better colors, they've all been bouncing back really well and I'm starting to see some good improvements so I'm optimistic.

Whatyamean "...the colors aren't that great..."?
That is one exceptional color Oregon Tort.