OK! Enough chat...Starting a 1000g+ Reef

[KingfishJohn]

Jonathan,

I have two theories about why your LPS keep mysteriously dying.

1) A fish is picking on them. I know you probably haven't seen any do it but this happens way more than you would think.

2) Problem with your water chemistry which lessens the coral's immune system and leads to an infection. At this point, I'd say lack of phosphate is probably a big factor.

John

 

[jnarowe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9030303#post9030303 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by thedude15810
Jonathan,

I have two theories about why your LPS keep mysteriously dying.

1) A fish is picking on them. I know you probably haven't seen any do it but this happens way more than you would think.

2) Problem with your water chemistry which lessens the coral's immune system and leads to an infection. At this point, I'd say lack of phosphate is probably a big factor.

John

Point one is well taken as I happened to check in on the tank yesterday afternoon and noticed the last torch head in full retracted mode. The strange thing is that they do fine for months and then suddenly go. I would think if a fish was picking on them (sailfin) then I would see some trouble develop over time.

Point 2 I disagree with in part. Water chemistry may be the problem, but I believe it is more related to alkalinity swings rather than the PO4 issue. I have discussed your recent post regarding PO4 with some other experienced reefers and the concensus is that PO4 is always available in the tank, whether stored or released for use, and whether the test says zero or not. I feed my tank heavily and have fairly strong though cyclical macro growth. If there was truly no PO4 in the system, I would have no algal growth at all and the tank would probably crash from dying organisms.

As far as my suspicions regarding alkalinity, I have had swings lately due to a failing doser pump allowing syphoning of top-off water into the system on more than one occassion. Prior to getting that doser, I didn't monitor alkalinity enough to have a track record.

I just got in a LiterMeter III which I will install as soon as I can, and I hope that will stabilize the alkalinty...we'll see. I may just be destined to not keep LPS and that's OK too. Perhaps it is using 1000W MH lamps 12" from the water surface too??

 

[jnarowe]

well I just went down to the tank room to check on things and I just can't believe how many little jobs there are for me to do. Stuff is piling up on me for sure. I have been fairly ill the last 4+ days and don't want to put my hands in the system or really even spend much time in the tank room as I hack up a lung.

I think I need to move some corals around too.

I did spot a crab living in the acro that came in as brown in my last shipment. Every time I have pulled out the coral head, that crab finds its way into hiding so deep I cannot get a good look at it. So I am a bit worried since this coral head seems to be not in the best shape. While it has colored up considerably since I got it, the PE is much less than other corals in the system, and there are parts of the head that have reverted to a more brownish coloring. I know some crabs are OK and form a symbiotic relationship with coral, but I have no way of knowing if that is the case in this situation.

So, does anyone have any tips on how to extract this crab without killing the coral? Last time I tried this with a hairy crab, I was not very successful and ended up soaking the rock in FW for a day to kill the crab.

One thing to note: I always place my corals leaning against or laying down on some rock to promote attachment and in this case it worked very well as there is a baby colony already growing by itself on the nearby rock I had leaned it against.

 

[melev]

I would pull out the rock & coral, invert it and just poke through the branches with whatever tool is handy to drop the little guy out of the colony.

 

[jnarowe]

funny guy! Last time I did that I had a 15 minute battle with a hairy crab and he nearly confiscated my fondue fork! :lol:

So you are saying I should probably remove the crab though?

 

[jnarowe]

So I just had a thought..long wait, I know!

One thing I did notice about the torch before it started to die off is that it had been stinging a large colony of xenia. The xenia showed distress in the areas of contact. And while my reading on xenia leads me to believe that it does not have any stinging capability, I wonder if it somehow affected the torch?

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[jnarowe]

Just had another thought...I know, two in one day is really pushing it! :lol:

Cuby2k in another thread brought up how his bubble coral was stung by an anemone, so maybe that is what is happening in my tank with the PLTA? Although I never saw it near the torch, maybe it stung the crap out of it?

 

[sherm71tank]

LTA's can put the hurting on just about any coral can't they? I watched mine take a out a perfectly healthy fish that got a bit to close. It looked like it hurt as well! Instant paralysis!

 

[sherm71tank]

Oh, never mind. It must be that damn Sailfin!

 

[jnarowe]

I am positive it's the sailfin! :lol:

I just had an embarrassing moment:

I had offered up my sea hare to local reefers to borrow and Aaron from the PSAS (he put on the PSAS event yesterday on local diving) came over to get it. Well, we couldn't find it in the fuge, and I think it died! We found some small remains that may have been a mollusk, but I am skeptical of that. I felt so bad he came so far out of his way and I had nothing!

And to top it off, that damn female maroon was laughing the whole time.

 

[gkarshens]

Johnathan, I tried to go back and find it but I give up. What is your coraline cooker called and where did you get it?

 

[jnarowe]

took me a while to find it too.

It's called the Therme Algae Terminator.

 

[adddo]

We need more pic's!

 

[gkarshens]

Thanks!

 

[jnarowe]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9051264#post9051264 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by adddo
We need more pic's!

Yeah? I need a professional photographer! :lol: Unfortunately, it's gonna be a while. Can't help it guys. I am just to buried right now.

 

[Bax]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9040661#post9040661 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnarowe


I had offered up my sea hare to local reefers to borrow and Aaron from the PSAS (he put on the PSAS event yesterday on local diving) came over to get it. Well, we couldn't find it in the fuge, and I think it died! We found some small remains that may have been a mollusk, but I am skeptical of that. I felt so bad he came so far out of his way and I had nothing!

And to top it off, that damn female maroon was laughing the whole time.

Did you move the hare to the fuge because all the algae was gone in the display?

I thought it would munch on macro in the fuge, no?

I am curious as mine will be running out of algae in my 120 soon and I was hoping to keep in the fuge temporarily while I found it a new home.

I am also a little concerned, as my 120display/240 system won't adsorb a sea hare as well as your nano

 

[jnarowe]

Yeah well I did move it for that reason. My lawnmower was actually starting to get thin. I assumed it would have a month's worth of food in the fuge and I am not sure why it died. I think it may be temp. I have to study it a bit, but my fuge feels warm and I need to check that out. I guess that may be why I had the molly fish sticks a few days ago too. Hard tell what came first. Maybe they harrassed it, but I find that hard to believe. Maybe it just died of old age. Maybe its death caused the problem with the LPS...I need some coffee, and an in-house marine biologist.

 

[gkarshens]

Here are a couple more I took when I was there that I don't think have been posted yet:

 

[jnarowe]

Hey thanks Gabriel! I need the help. That mysteri is such a glutton.

 

[jnarowe]

Spent some time in the tank room today. Got the replacement Vortech driver installed and noticed that it had two resistors soldered in differently than the one that went bad. I am interested to know if that is a material change in the driver and will fix the issue, or what.

Cut out about 10 lbs. of halimeda. Not sure if I should let it die in the system so the calcium is freed up or whether that might also release PO4. Also in my readings on the plant, it is suspected in a certain coral disease.

I moved a candy cane head to give it less flow and see if that will improve its health. I also moved a large encrusting monti breaking off a piece by accident. Glued that to the other end of the reef.

Spent some time with my friend the acro crab. At least that is what I think it is. It is very tiny, brown, slightly hairy, and has beady white eyes. It is also smarter than me and I couldn't get it out of the coral. The coral itself is really beautiful and fun to handle and look at closely. Doing so I found another large vermatid that i missed the last time, and I removed him with prejudice. I also noticed a couple holes in the coral skeleton itself that looked ike they might house vermatids, but I did not see any.

I set up my Lieter Meter III yesterday and programmed it for 7g per day as a starting point. Oddly enough, the water level in the sump was exactly where I want it today, so maybe my guess was correct. It is working well but I am a bit surprised that it has no mounting hardware, mounting holes, or any way to attach it to anything. The instructions also say nothing about mounting it. So it is velcro'd to the wall resting on a shelf.

Overall all SPS look really nice and healthy, with strong growth. The colors are very good, PE is excellent, and the maroon seems to be keeping her fat lips to herself.