Myka's 69 SPS Tank 2015

[Myka]

I'm wondering if this persistent bacterial growth may be due to my using a very small amount of live rocks (only 28 lbs...very porous). I bought a couple liters of Siporax in October, maybe it's time to get that online. I dosed 3 mL Coral Snow last night (80 gallons net), and it seemed to knock the bacteria back a bit this morning, and there is better PE today than yesterday.

Tank is looking very nice Mindy. Have a happy new year 2016! :beer:

Thanks Sahin! Happy New Year to you as well!

 

[rburns24]

-
I have 1 liter of Siporax in a Zeovite reactor I added about 3 1/2 weeks ago to a 65 gal and
the top part of the inner cylinder that holds the siporax has the same kind of strands as in your pic
in post 459(not as dense, but otherwise, identical), so maybe your idea of not having enough rock
is correct. I don't have any of the strands on my rock.(of which I have a fair amount)
-

 

[reefmutt]

The last time I saw that white fuzz, it was in an sps display tank with basically no fish, using various Zeo products and uln. The more the owner tried to drop nutrients, the more that stuff came on.. It seemed the cleaner the water, the happier that stuff was.....

 

[reefmutt]

Mindy, I just asked my friend what he did to get rid of that algea.. He said heavy skimming, multiple water changes and Carbon...
That doesn't really jive with having super low nutrients already so sorry for the confusion.. Not sure this helps at all.....

 

[Myka]

Matt, you think that's an alga, not a bacteria?

-
I have 1 liter of Siporax in a Zeovite reactor I added about 3 1/2 weeks ago to a 65 gal and
the top part of the inner cylinder that holds the siporax has the same kind of strands as in your pic
in post 459(not as dense, but otherwise, identical), so maybe your idea of not having enough rock
is correct. I don't have any of the strands on my rock.(of which I have a fair amount)
-

That is interesting and worth noting, though I wouldn't describe this fuzzy stuff as strands.

I added another 3 mL dose of Coral Snow tonight along with the usual 3 drops Sponge Power. The CS seemed to help a couple nights ago, so maybe a few shots in a row will crack it.

 

[reefmutt]

I think I would sooner describe that as algea than bacteria.. Pretty tough to tell in the pic.. Can you get a better macro pic?

 

[rburns24]

-
If you happen to have some, you could double dose Zeozym without any negative
effects. When I was using Zeovit, I found it much more effective than Coral Snow for
cleaning the rocks or the sand.
-

 

[Myka]

The Coral Snow kicked the crap out of the bacteria/alga last night. It knocked it back by about 50%. I woke up to the skimmer overflowing this morning and a bubbly mess in the sump though. I didn't clean the skimmer between the CS dose on Saturday night and the one last night. The water is slightly cloudy today like there is still some Coral Snow in the water, and there may be since the skimmer puked all the CS residue out from the earlier dose.

I think I would sooner describe that as algea than bacteria.. Pretty tough to tell in the pic.. Can you get a better macro pic?

I will give it a go later today when the lights are on better. The previous photo was taken with pumps on too, so it's slightly blurry.

-
If you happen to have some, you could double dose Zeozym without any negative
effects. When I was using Zeovit, I found it much more effective than Coral Snow for
cleaning the rocks or the sand.
-

I have a lot of (old) Zeovit products, but no Zeozym. Thanks for the idea though!

 

[scrapz]

To me that looks like an algae also. I contracted that strain in my QT after purchasing a frag locally from another person who also ran zeo, coincidence?

It's not too bad and my turbo snails eat them. Doesnt seem to bother the coral either.

 

[Myka]

To me that looks like an algae also. I contracted that strain in my QT after purchasing a frag locally from another person who also ran zeo, coincidence?

It's not too bad and my turbo snails eat them. Doesnt seem to bother the coral either.

I don't actually run Zeo, I just use a few products that I like. This "fuzz" is not eaten by any of my clean up crew which includes Turbo Snails.

I think I would sooner describe that as algea than bacteria.. Pretty tough to tell in the pic.. Can you get a better macro pic?

Sorry, the previous pic was a cell phone pic.

Here are some macros. It scrubs off very easily. In some of the photos it looks colored (greenish/brownish), and it is not. It is translucent white. It is individual hairs up close, and looks like fuzz when viewed farther back.

 

[Myka]

Remember this maricultured Acro from the last page? It's coloring up again quickly. If you look on the bottom left there are pink highlights. It looks a lot like a Sunset Mille, but a bit different. The color isn't as yellow-golden in person as in the pic, it's more of a rust orange, pretty cool color actually.

 

[reefmutt]

Looks like algea to me..
Nice golden red highlights.!

 

[basser1]

Myka, here's a thread I found where the poster had a similar problem as yours.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2293052

I think they quit dosing, lessened their light schedule, blasted the rocks and water changes. Hope this helps

 

[markalot]

Sponge Power does smell kind of carbony.

I'm dosing vinegar and have the same thing on a lot of rocks, to me it looks bacterial but I really don't know.

Love the pink highlights on the milli, hopefully it ends up being spectacular.

 

[Myka]

Looks like algea to me..
Nice golden red highlights.!

If that's the case, I hope it just cycles out. I'll stoke up the Prayer Reactor.

Myka, here's a thread I found where the poster had a similar problem as yours.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2293052

I think they quit dosing, lessened their light schedule, blasted the rocks and water changes. Hope this helps

Thank you for the link. Those pictures look different than mine. That looks like little foraminiferans you get when you have low flow.

Sponge Power does smell kind of carbony.

I'm dosing vinegar and have the same thing on a lot of rocks, to me it looks bacterial but I really don't know.

Love the pink highlights on the milli, hopefully it ends up being spectacular.

Well that is true, Sponge Power does smell a bit vinegar-like. Even so, 3 drops per day of vinegar wouldn't do much. I'll cut out the SP for a week and see what happens. :beer:

 

[BigJohnny]

That's definitely bacteria. I get the exact same thing when I dose too much Microbacter7.

 

[Myka]

Last night I added a big male Pintail and a really nice Carpenter's Wrasse to my QT. The Carpenter's Wrasse has really nice coloring and was eating at the LFS, but it's in very rough shape. I give it 50/50. They'll both get a FW dip today.

So I skipped the last two nights of Sponge Power dosing, and that along with the two doses of Coral Snow seem to have knocked the bacteria (alga?) back quite a lot (60-70%?) compared to last weekend. Today is WC day, and now I think of it, I've also been dosing Prodibio BioDigest which is due today, and I will not dose it.

That's definitely bacteria. I get the exact same thing when I dose too much Microbacter7.

Well that's what I was thinking, but these guys are making me doubt myself. :lol:

 

[Myka]

I've been meaning to swap some bulbs around...

Old arrangement (all ATI):

Blue+
Blue+ (dusk/dawn bulb)
Coral+
ABS
Blue+ (dusk/dawn bulb)
Blue+


New arrangement (all ATI):

Coral+
Blue+ (dusk/dawn bulb)
Blue+
Purple+
Blue+ (dusk/dawn bulb)
Coral+

I wouldn't call it "natural" looking, but it seems easier on the eyes. I haven't run a purple bulb in many, many years - I used to think they looked way too pink, but today I'm liking it. Go figure. I'll see how things adjust in the next month.

I'm also thinking I'll buy a strip of blue LEDs soon. The plan from the beginning was to run the ATI dimmable 6-bulb that I have now, and a strip of ReefBrite XHO blues on each side of the ATI so I could get the blue from the LEDs and run more "white" bulbs in the ATI so I can get the most PAR out of it. A local buddy here tested some XHO strips in the LFS (I'm guessing they are 24" from the surface) and he got some wild PAR numbers - in a plot you could see where every LED was above. Major hot spots, and that's 24" high! So I'm rethinking this plan. I've heard people say the ReefBrite Tech strips aren't so bad because they use more, lower wattage diodes. That makes sense. I'm thinking though, that I might want to pick something with optics on each diode. I know a local guy that would build me a custom strip if I wanted. Maybe I'm being fussy. What do you guys think?

 

[markalot]

Hmmm, I was thinking of switching to something similar. Right now I'm equal blue and coral (Geisemann versions). That combo is recommended by ATI for the 6 bulb fixture.

 

[mhucasey]

I've been meaning to swap some bulbs around...

Old arrangement (all ATI):

Blue+
Blue+ (dusk/dawn bulb)
Coral+
ABS
Blue+ (dusk/dawn bulb)
Blue+


New arrangement (all ATI):

Coral+
Blue+ (dusk/dawn bulb)
Blue+
Purple+
Blue+ (dusk/dawn bulb)
Coral+

I wouldn't call it "natural" looking, but it seems easier on the eyes. I haven't run a purple bulb in many, many years - I used to think they looked way too pink, but today I'm liking it. Go figure. I'll see how things adjust in the next month.

I'm also thinking I'll buy a strip of blue LEDs soon. The plan from the beginning was to run the ATI dimmable 6-bulb that I have now, and a strip of ReefBrite XHO blues on each side of the ATI so I could get the blue from the LEDs and run more "white" bulbs in the ATI so I can get the most PAR out of it. A local buddy here tested some XHO strips in the LFS (I'm guessing they are 24" from the surface) and he got some wild PAR numbers - in a plot you could see where every LED was above. Major hot spots, and that's 24" high! So I'm rethinking this plan. I've heard people say the ReefBrite Tech strips aren't so bad because they use more, lower wattage diodes. That makes sense. I'm thinking though, that I might want to pick something with optics on each diode. I know a local guy that would build me a custom strip if I wanted. Maybe I'm being fussy. What do you guys think?

You may be able to use the Euroquatics "Blue Pop" T5 replacements to get some Royal Blue without hotspots. That is, if they ever release the dang things. They were supposed to be released by now.