Newbie's New Tank Log
- Thread starter Myka
- Start date
Myka
Reefing since '93
The corals looked 100% better after doing a 10% waterchange and NOT adding the SeaChem Liquid Calcium even though the calcium was at 370. Finally got the Kent Liquid Calcium and dosed it up to 425. The alkalinity is now at 9 again. So everything is much happier. The Giesemann bulbs don't look much different...but the reflectors sure helped! 
The Palythoa polyps haven't looked good since I have had them...don't know why. Not too concerned. lol
My Purple Firefish that was in QT for 3 months up and died for no apparent reason. He looked great 6 hours earlier and ate as usual.
Thanks for asking!
The Palythoa polyps haven't looked good since I have had them...don't know why. Not too concerned. lol
My Purple Firefish that was in QT for 3 months up and died for no apparent reason. He looked great 6 hours earlier and ate as usual.
Thanks for asking!
Myka
Reefing since '93
Well, my tank has been in the care of a friend for the last 3 months. Note to self: Don't do that again! Hahaha! She did a good job for someone who doesn't know a thing about saltwater, and I thank her very much for trying!
A couple of my corals are bleached out. I haven't figured out for sure why. I know the temperature was fluctuating a lot daily going from 80-85 in the hottest part of July. So that could be it. I switched to new (higher quality) bulbs, and it's possible they burned the corals a bit. So that could be it. The tank was dirty as heck...detritus everywhere. So that could be it. The skimmer wasn't cleaned (aside from the cup) for the 3 months. So that could add to the dirtiness problem. The salinity was going in large swings from about 1.026-1.032. So that could EASILY be it. So I dunno...?
My Pagoda is the worst...all light tan colored now except for the part of it that curls down under itself. So I'm wondering if it was getting too much light where it was (about 6" away from my T5s). I moved it a bit lower and it's looking better, but that might be from a bunch of other things that have since improved in the tank as well! My Palythoa polyps are badly bleached and shrunken even though they did multiply. They were also really close to the lights, so I moved them down on to the sand. My green star polyps were about 50% receded, so that sucks. I think they were getting too much light and too much flow. But DANG they have nice coloring! Haha! Everything was all looking a bit blah.
So, I've been controlling the temperature at 79-80 for the last week. I've done 2 waterchanges sucking out as much detritus as possible. I've cleaned the skimmer and powerheads. I cut out an hour of daylight (since the days are getting shorter on Earth I figure so should my tank). I re-arranged the corals and powerheads a whole bunch so that the flow is less direct, and the light isn't hitting the more sensitive corals so hard. I've started using SeaChem Reef Plus at 1/3 dose as I've heard good things from experienced SPS reef keepers about it. I've also started using Selcon and Kent's Garlic Extreme. I've been target feeding a bunch of the LPS corals as well to give them a boost.
The Stomatella snails have reached near-plague proportions. Obviously my tank is making enough algae for them to all survive...however I can't even see a trace!
When I came back I added a few nice corals:
Australian Duncan Coral frag - woo hoo! Only 2 heads though..not fully extending yet.
Monti - green plating; size of a nickel. Pretty good polyp extension.
Monti - lavender plating with bright purple polyps; about 2" by 1". Tiny polyps...
Monti - orange encrusting; size of a nickel. I'm getting awesome polyp extension.
Galaxea - we'll see if it gets itself banned by using it's sweepers. So far so good. About 4" round.
I also added a "pair" of Bangaii Cardinals. The pair does not seem to be a pair though. The bigger one is picking on the smaller one a bit, but not too bad. I'm waiting for a couple more Bangaii's to add so that hopefully a pair will form. The smaller one hasn't been looking too good the last few days. He's been eating quite well until today he didn't eat at all. I've been stuffing him full of frozen mysis (the only thing they'll eat, although I've gotten the bigger one to nab a couple of Formula One pellets) soaked in Selcon in hopes that being well fed will help him. Today he was looking like crap all clamped fins, and off color, and hiding. So I caught him and put him in a FW and Prazi dip. A 2mm clear parasite type thing fell off him, so maybe that was the cause of his stress. He didn't cope too well, and I had to take him out only 6 minutes in. He didn't look good when I put him back in the tank either. The lights are out right now, so I can't see how he's doing, but I don't expect him to be alive tomorrow morning. Poor guy.
I'll post some pics once the tank is looking a bit perkier.
A couple of my corals are bleached out. I haven't figured out for sure why. I know the temperature was fluctuating a lot daily going from 80-85 in the hottest part of July. So that could be it. I switched to new (higher quality) bulbs, and it's possible they burned the corals a bit. So that could be it. The tank was dirty as heck...detritus everywhere. So that could be it. The skimmer wasn't cleaned (aside from the cup) for the 3 months. So that could add to the dirtiness problem. The salinity was going in large swings from about 1.026-1.032. So that could EASILY be it. So I dunno...?
My Pagoda is the worst...all light tan colored now except for the part of it that curls down under itself. So I'm wondering if it was getting too much light where it was (about 6" away from my T5s). I moved it a bit lower and it's looking better, but that might be from a bunch of other things that have since improved in the tank as well! My Palythoa polyps are badly bleached and shrunken even though they did multiply. They were also really close to the lights, so I moved them down on to the sand. My green star polyps were about 50% receded, so that sucks. I think they were getting too much light and too much flow. But DANG they have nice coloring! Haha! Everything was all looking a bit blah.
So, I've been controlling the temperature at 79-80 for the last week. I've done 2 waterchanges sucking out as much detritus as possible. I've cleaned the skimmer and powerheads. I cut out an hour of daylight (since the days are getting shorter on Earth I figure so should my tank). I re-arranged the corals and powerheads a whole bunch so that the flow is less direct, and the light isn't hitting the more sensitive corals so hard. I've started using SeaChem Reef Plus at 1/3 dose as I've heard good things from experienced SPS reef keepers about it. I've also started using Selcon and Kent's Garlic Extreme. I've been target feeding a bunch of the LPS corals as well to give them a boost.
The Stomatella snails have reached near-plague proportions. Obviously my tank is making enough algae for them to all survive...however I can't even see a trace!
When I came back I added a few nice corals:
Australian Duncan Coral frag - woo hoo! Only 2 heads though..not fully extending yet.
Monti - green plating; size of a nickel. Pretty good polyp extension.
Monti - lavender plating with bright purple polyps; about 2" by 1". Tiny polyps...
Monti - orange encrusting; size of a nickel. I'm getting awesome polyp extension.
Galaxea - we'll see if it gets itself banned by using it's sweepers. So far so good. About 4" round.
I also added a "pair" of Bangaii Cardinals. The pair does not seem to be a pair though. The bigger one is picking on the smaller one a bit, but not too bad. I'm waiting for a couple more Bangaii's to add so that hopefully a pair will form. The smaller one hasn't been looking too good the last few days. He's been eating quite well until today he didn't eat at all. I've been stuffing him full of frozen mysis (the only thing they'll eat, although I've gotten the bigger one to nab a couple of Formula One pellets) soaked in Selcon in hopes that being well fed will help him. Today he was looking like crap all clamped fins, and off color, and hiding. So I caught him and put him in a FW and Prazi dip. A 2mm clear parasite type thing fell off him, so maybe that was the cause of his stress. He didn't cope too well, and I had to take him out only 6 minutes in. He didn't look good when I put him back in the tank either. The lights are out right now, so I can't see how he's doing, but I don't expect him to be alive tomorrow morning. Poor guy.
I'll post some pics once the tank is looking a bit perkier.
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