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

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well the ballast I want to use for burn-in is a switchable 1000W MH/HPS.

I guess trimming the light period would be OK...I am more concerned with the high output during the first few hours and having it burn the corals.

red bugs??? don't even say it! I have inspected corals and don't see any bugs though. I would flip out! Keep in mind that I still have PE on all corals. But they have been crazy extended for the past few months and I am just noticing a decrease.

Anything else that could cause it?
 
well Marc, I woke up this morning in a pool of sweat thinking about red bugs...I have also noticed my cali tort sliming from the tips lately. Last night again after I fed the tank, I observed it doing so.

I guess I better read about red bugs and do some examinations. Does the treatment kill other stuff in the tank?
 
yeah looks like from the articles linked through Marc's site that it will kill essentially all crustaceans. Not cool. Of course timing is everything and I am completely wrapped up in a horrible implementation of a new computer system in my store. I am going to pull a couple corals and examine them closely tonight.

Can't get too torqued until I determine that I actually have them. Coral behavior does seem to be matching what I have read so far though.
 
Not good. I would get a few into your quarantine system and inspect very closely. Probably hard to see red bugs in a tank that big:)
 
although my buddy treated his tank and his coral bandeds survived. Not sure I'd take the chance though. I believe a much higher dose is recommended now as opposed to when they first started with the interceptor.
 
Well if I do find bugs, I will have to treat the tank I think. No point in treating corals individually and putting them back into a tank that has bugs. I would try to trap as many shrimp as possible before doing the treatment, and move a bunch of macro into a separate system so I could re-populate with pods.

The real question is the method since it calls for shutting down everything and removing the carbon. I do not want to shut down my skimmer which the method calls for also. I don't mind not having the filtration, but I really like to keep the SW aerated.

Once the treatment is over, I would have to put in more carbon, which is no big deal, but a 25% water change is. I can only hold about 90g of SW right now. I may have to get some brutes to up that holding capacity, although I have a couple spare tanks that are 80g and 100g.

Doing that 3 times over 3 weeks would suck big time though. I don't see any other way though. No need to freak until I find bugs though. I saw more issues with one of my best growing acros...it is usually very hairy and now it has about 1/2PE and some brown tips. Always something dammit!!

The thing that ticks me off is that I am very careful about dipping and acclimating inbound corals using Tech-D, Lugol's, and Flatworm Exit. I guess I may need to add Interceptor to that regimen too.
 
So I did some examining tonight and didn't really come up with any red bugs. The corals that appear to be in distress for the most part had some bleaching. The tips on a couple and the bottoms on a couple.

I did not find anything that resembled red bugs. The cali tort had some minute white specks on it, but under very bright light and with a strong magnifying glass, they did not appear to be bugs. When I swished the coral in the tank gently, those specs disappeared. From what I have read, red bugs dig in and don't get shaken off easily. Anyone know any different?

So I am back to water quality: I did find some cyano behind the rocks in the display and quite a bit in the fuge. I also tested my RO/DI water and found 3ppm TDS. I don't think that is earth shattering, but I do suspect a water quality issue.

Tomorrow I will make more water, clean out the fuge, do some more tank tests, and change out carbon and rowaphos. Once I do that I will watch the tank for a week and see what happens. When enough time has elapsed, I will start changing out my lamps. Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated.
 
Did some testing tonight and didn't find anythin too crazy.

Observations:

PO4 has risen from zero to between .0008 and .0015.

NO3 is zero.

NO4 is between .5 and 1.0 ppm.

So that is not too bad but perhaps indicative of a developing problem. I also found quite a bit of cyano in the fuge.

The question is, would these shifts in water parameters cause reduced PE and bleaching? I also note that the cali tort seems to be sliming from a few tips, and that increases when I feed the tank. I am wondering if there are too many particle in the water. I haven't been using socks or floss except for what is in my multi-media reactor.

I also haven't vacuumed out the sumps or tank in over 6 months. I still don't observe any red bugs, but am suspicious of the minute specks that were on the cali tort.
 
well, it has a slight whitish slime from the tips before I fed. once I feed it increases substantially.

I also note that the ORP is moving higher. I think that may be because I have dialed back the CO2 as there seems to be a correlation between CO2 being on and lower ORP.
 
I'll have to have a good look at my cali's tomorrow. I think the orp probably has more to do with less dissolved solids in the water.

I was also thinking about you air dilemna if you have to treat for RB's. I was afraid of the same thing when I did mine and just removed the collection cup.
 
You can definitely clean out the sump of detritus now. That should be a regular routine, done every few weeks.

NO3 is nitrate, and reading 0 is good. NO4 (sorry, can't seem to recall) is nitrite? That should read 0 as well if it is.

You need to clean the ORP probe weekly if you want an accurate reading. How often do you clean it now?

Corals can slime when feeding, or when sloughing off waste such as what Weatherson is doing with excess aeration a few times a day.
 
I thought NO3 was nitrite and NO4 was nitrate. Anyway, it's the Nitrate that has bumped up to a readable result. Adding a readable result for phosphate plus the growth of cyano and that seems to point to a water quality issue.

I haven't cleaned my ORP probe in the last 6 months. I will do that tonight.

What I am saying about the cali sliming is that it is new behavior and that I did find some specks on it. I just don't know if the specks are bugs or some waterborne material. They were much smaller than I think red bugs are, and the fell off when I moved the coral.

Again, polyp extension on select acropora and a hydnofora (sp?) has reduced to about 1/2 or normal. SOme polyps are retracted entirely. One acropora has bleached tips that are brittle and can be easily snapped off. Some acropora have darkened toward brown, and some digitata have bleaching at the base.

LPS seem unaffected. Fish and inverts seem unaffected. Something is going wrong and I just can't figure out what it is.
 
Allrighty then! Anyway, I am seeing some decline in water quality but I am not sure if that would be responsible for the coral health/appearance issues I am seeing. If it is red bugs, they can wait until I clean up the water right?

I am going to test my SW tonight and rig up extra DI resin on my RO/DI system. This all seems to trace back to the RO/DI not functioning as well as it has been or should. I still can't figure out why since I swapped out ALL filters, membranes etc. but got no improvement in the output. :confused:
 
I really wish I could give some ideas here, but you are outside my comfort zone of advice:confused:
 
No sweat guys! I have considered the leaking around the membrane seal since the membrane output is too high, but I have lubed them and re-mounted, with no change in results. I will be pulling it all apart (again) and adding another DI chamber. I hope I can find the probelm. Maybe it is because I haven't replaced the restrictors?
 
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