Path to recovery, and 3 weeks growth.
- Thread starter MammothReefer
- Start date
MammothReefer
Active member
Thanks!
The system is 90% sps, running 2 tanks a 15 gallon frag, and a 65 display that share a common sump. Lighting is radiums, and flow is a mix of a couple vortechs and some small modded tunzes. My params as of this weekend are running at
1.026 Salinity
380 Calcium
9.184 Alk
1400 Mag
8.37 PH
0 Phophsates
0 Nitrates
Usually my nitrates and phosphates are a little higher, and my alk is now trending around 9.5 and holding steady. I keep an online log, it's a bit manic but you can check it out here
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AiJkwwBTLCi7dG12ZFhsTXBGTUFZellSWTZ3QkhiLVE
MammothReefer
Active member
No pictures this month. Work has been a mad house. Frag tank is actually still sitting exactly where it was when I took that picture 30 days ago. Haven't finished welding the stand. Tanks in this weird spot where it's doing well, and poorly at the same time. Over all increase in growth, some pieces however have declined colours are washed out, I saw a resurgence of AEFW that I was battling whenever I could spare a moment. Which has resulted in returning back to dipping my corals when they are found. Which is something that always has me worried since some corals don't take well to it. So far no looses for dipping however I did loose my Green Efflo/Soli from Copps. It was over ran, and just gave up even after I knocked them all off.
I also got hit again with a double whammy and my mild Red Bug issue became an epidemic. I broke down earlier last week and intercoptered the tank. I am now red bug free.
I am still dosing Zeo's Flatworm stop. Up to 44 days now (so almost halfway threw the treatment). Still seeing flatworms, Thomas Phol suggests that I start adding K-Balanace to the mix. I'm wondering if I am having a potassium deficiency due to the washed out blue corals, and some of my encrusting montis not being 100% at the moment. I happened to have a bottle of K+ from Aqua Craft. I'm going to start dosing that in very small amounts (as I don't have a K+ test kit), until I get the K-balance. I figure if I'm going to give the product a chance I should do so on there terms that way if it works I can say this is what i had to do to get it to work, and if it doesn't I can say I did everything exactly how you specified and it still didn't work.
On another note I had some other troubles in stability land. I accidentally mixed up a batch of calc in my alk jug. The jug was empty but I guess there was enough residue to throw off the mixture. Within the days following my alk spiked up to 10.2 from 9.2. I wasn't sure what the issue was and tried to adjust my dosage. Once I figured it out I also noticed my calc had plummeted. I tossed the batch remade it, and now things are back on track and seem to be actually on the rise as my "pre-botch up" alk/calc demand doesn't appear to be sustaining my levels at this point. However I am still low on calc (310). So I did a 25% water change this evening to try to get things back on track and will follow up with manually dosing calc to get it where it needs to be starting tomorrow.
On the equipment front. I replaced an MP10 with a used MP40 I picked up here on RC. I just needed to rebuild the wetside which was rather simple and only cost about 15$ for the parts and some shipping. The Corals seem to appreciate the extra flow as. I'm seeing an increase in PE on the right side of my tank now. With that said I do miss my once interesting hodge podge of tunze/vortechs as now have the standard mp40 on either end w/an mp10 on the back wall. Which is fine but as overall flow is really great but I don't have that directional flow like I did before, time will tell which better suits the corals that aren't directly in the path of the pumps now. On the plus side I have 2 tunzees, and an mp10 I can move over to the frag tank when it's setup.
I'm getting ready to replace my ballast for my lights. I just need to rewire the lamp sockets for the ends. I picked up a used Bluewave 7 (again here on RC). I'm looking forward to running my radiums on the proper ballast and comparing it to the ARO ballast I've been using.
On the dosing/controller front. I picked up a Probito GHL stand alone doser. Had it for a day, didn't like how it functioned and sent it back. (thank you aquacave). I've instead picked up an APEX which I'm going to use to replace my AcJr. It will let me dial my dosers in to the second w/the osc function which will allow me to control my dosing to the point of 1.1ml/60. Which I think will as precise as I could need. The web features are also pretty neat. I have it plugged in and hooked up over the net, but I haven't ported anything over from my acjr just yet.
So here's to looking forward to next month to take some progress photos. Hopefully everything keeps growing and I get some of my colour back.
I also got hit again with a double whammy and my mild Red Bug issue became an epidemic. I broke down earlier last week and intercoptered the tank. I am now red bug free.
I am still dosing Zeo's Flatworm stop. Up to 44 days now (so almost halfway threw the treatment). Still seeing flatworms, Thomas Phol suggests that I start adding K-Balanace to the mix. I'm wondering if I am having a potassium deficiency due to the washed out blue corals, and some of my encrusting montis not being 100% at the moment. I happened to have a bottle of K+ from Aqua Craft. I'm going to start dosing that in very small amounts (as I don't have a K+ test kit), until I get the K-balance. I figure if I'm going to give the product a chance I should do so on there terms that way if it works I can say this is what i had to do to get it to work, and if it doesn't I can say I did everything exactly how you specified and it still didn't work.
On another note I had some other troubles in stability land. I accidentally mixed up a batch of calc in my alk jug. The jug was empty but I guess there was enough residue to throw off the mixture. Within the days following my alk spiked up to 10.2 from 9.2. I wasn't sure what the issue was and tried to adjust my dosage. Once I figured it out I also noticed my calc had plummeted. I tossed the batch remade it, and now things are back on track and seem to be actually on the rise as my "pre-botch up" alk/calc demand doesn't appear to be sustaining my levels at this point. However I am still low on calc (310). So I did a 25% water change this evening to try to get things back on track and will follow up with manually dosing calc to get it where it needs to be starting tomorrow.
On the equipment front. I replaced an MP10 with a used MP40 I picked up here on RC. I just needed to rebuild the wetside which was rather simple and only cost about 15$ for the parts and some shipping. The Corals seem to appreciate the extra flow as. I'm seeing an increase in PE on the right side of my tank now. With that said I do miss my once interesting hodge podge of tunze/vortechs as now have the standard mp40 on either end w/an mp10 on the back wall. Which is fine but as overall flow is really great but I don't have that directional flow like I did before, time will tell which better suits the corals that aren't directly in the path of the pumps now. On the plus side I have 2 tunzees, and an mp10 I can move over to the frag tank when it's setup.
I'm getting ready to replace my ballast for my lights. I just need to rewire the lamp sockets for the ends. I picked up a used Bluewave 7 (again here on RC). I'm looking forward to running my radiums on the proper ballast and comparing it to the ARO ballast I've been using.
On the dosing/controller front. I picked up a Probito GHL stand alone doser. Had it for a day, didn't like how it functioned and sent it back. (thank you aquacave). I've instead picked up an APEX which I'm going to use to replace my AcJr. It will let me dial my dosers in to the second w/the osc function which will allow me to control my dosing to the point of 1.1ml/60. Which I think will as precise as I could need. The web features are also pretty neat. I have it plugged in and hooked up over the net, but I haven't ported anything over from my acjr just yet.
So here's to looking forward to next month to take some progress photos. Hopefully everything keeps growing and I get some of my colour back.
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MammothReefer
Active member
So I broke down and took some photos this weekend. Not much progress on the tank it's self. Frag tank still sitting empty, my lease is expired I'm not sure if I'm going to move so I'm a little hesitant to expand the tank at this point. Still haven't installed the new ballast, and I've had the Apex running for weeks now without anything hooked up to it. HA. I have some side work that is taking up my time, between that and nice the weather It's really hard to spend more then "what's necessary" on the tank at this point.
Some good, well great news.. It looks like at this point I am pest free. It's still early to tell but It's been a over 3 weeks since I last any AEFW, and I finished a round of interceptor treatment this month so all my red bugs are gone. I don't know if it was the addition of a potassium supplement (I used K+ though Phol suggested his K balance) with the flatworm stop, or if it just finally kicked in, or if I got lucky and broke the cycle when I got fed up and started dipping my acros again. (the ones I knew could take it and showed ANY signs of ever been attacked). Since then not a single bite mark, or aefw coming off when I blast with my maxijets. Other good news hit a bit of a milestone. I'm up to an all time high for this tank of 120ml of alk/calc a day which compared to when I started this journey after the RCSP mess is a huge difference. In 5 months my demand has increased from 30ml-120ml! This more then anything make me really want to get the frag tank online to double my water volume, and get the apex going to minimize my swings during a 24 hour period.
The bad (well some might call it good) news. I am having problems with 1 coral. I just can't figure it out. For about 3 weeks now I've been struggling with my Sunset Monti. No other monti this is both in my frag tank and my DT so it has to be something chemistry related. I don't have nudis. Basically it won't open more then halfway during the day and it's been slowly bleaching, and now patches of it are receding in random locations. It was the quickest growing thing in my tank went from a pinky sized frag to 6"x8" with many frags larger then the original frag growing in my frag tank I can't figure it out for the life of me.. All other corals are doing rather well I'm really at a loss. Any thoughts? I may start another thread on it.
Anyways on to the photo..colours or a little weird kinda yellow teal..but oh well.
5 Months -
5 Months - Pink Lemonaide
5 Months, 3 months, now - neat piece glad it's growing back. Seemed to have darkened up some but still one of my favorites..need to get the PE back though new pump may be a bit strong for it, can't complain though since it's growing.
Some good, well great news.. It looks like at this point I am pest free. It's still early to tell but It's been a over 3 weeks since I last any AEFW, and I finished a round of interceptor treatment this month so all my red bugs are gone. I don't know if it was the addition of a potassium supplement (I used K+ though Phol suggested his K balance) with the flatworm stop, or if it just finally kicked in, or if I got lucky and broke the cycle when I got fed up and started dipping my acros again. (the ones I knew could take it and showed ANY signs of ever been attacked). Since then not a single bite mark, or aefw coming off when I blast with my maxijets. Other good news hit a bit of a milestone. I'm up to an all time high for this tank of 120ml of alk/calc a day which compared to when I started this journey after the RCSP mess is a huge difference. In 5 months my demand has increased from 30ml-120ml! This more then anything make me really want to get the frag tank online to double my water volume, and get the apex going to minimize my swings during a 24 hour period.
The bad (well some might call it good) news. I am having problems with 1 coral. I just can't figure it out. For about 3 weeks now I've been struggling with my Sunset Monti. No other monti this is both in my frag tank and my DT so it has to be something chemistry related. I don't have nudis. Basically it won't open more then halfway during the day and it's been slowly bleaching, and now patches of it are receding in random locations. It was the quickest growing thing in my tank went from a pinky sized frag to 6"x8" with many frags larger then the original frag growing in my frag tank I can't figure it out for the life of me.. All other corals are doing rather well I'm really at a loss. Any thoughts? I may start another thread on it.
Anyways on to the photo..colours or a little weird kinda yellow teal..but oh well.
5 Months -
5 Months - Pink Lemonaide
5 Months, 3 months, now - neat piece glad it's growing back. Seemed to have darkened up some but still one of my favorites..need to get the PE back though new pump may be a bit strong for it, can't complain though since it's growing.
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MammothReefer
Active member
5 months - finally not "bleached" starting to look very "Bonsai" like in colour but hopefully not in growth.. Time will tell
5 months - I really thought this was going to "plate" like a Red Planet.. It seems to just be growing up and turning into a brick.
5 months - Started off with some good progress.. seems to have tapered off may need to move it.
5 months - Blue polyps coming around, but still brown? Maybe I need to change my ballast for this one to final come around.
5 months - I really thought this was going to "plate" like a Red Planet.. It seems to just be growing up and turning into a brick.
5 months - Started off with some good progress.. seems to have tapered off may need to move it.
5 months - Blue polyps coming around, but still brown? Maybe I need to change my ballast for this one to final come around.
MammothReefer
Active member
nice pics and nice colors
are u still using the FWS ?
Thanks, yes I am. Even though I appear to free of them, I'm going to finish out the treatment as per the recommended dosage. I have 18 more doses left on it.
However it's the only thing that I can possibly attribute to my sunset monti issues at this time. (not the FWS but the addition of potassium) It was the only change I've done to the tank, (and while I know I know better) I don't have a potassium kit. Also if severally retard the growth on my sunset monti for a few months to be free of AEFW I'm "OK" with that. Also the issue with the sunset monti started shortly after I started dosing K+. However I'm not ruling out other possible causes tonight I'm hoping I have to time tear apart my sump clean it out and inspect my heaters for any possible cracks. I also want to get a polyfilter.
MammothReefer
Active member
5 months - my wild purple blue polyp I donnu what.
5 months - ORA Hawkins.. It's starting to get damaged by my tabling milli/hyacinthus/?
5 months - Good growth, colour is better in person but still brown. I tried to moving it up higher to see if it would improve but it's to big and the only place I had room for it up higher was the back of the tank which hasn't helped it any. It's really hard for me to get a good top down photo when things are so close to the top soooo.. it looks horrible but I swear it's got nice lavender tips, as well as a tint to the brown that makes it a nice looking coral. I hope when/if I do upgrade to be able to give it some better light..unless I switch out my minis for full sized Luminarcs..hmm.
5 months - sand dollar
5 months - ORA Hawkins.. It's starting to get damaged by my tabling milli/hyacinthus/?
5 months - Good growth, colour is better in person but still brown. I tried to moving it up higher to see if it would improve but it's to big and the only place I had room for it up higher was the back of the tank which hasn't helped it any. It's really hard for me to get a good top down photo when things are so close to the top soooo.. it looks horrible but I swear it's got nice lavender tips, as well as a tint to the brown that makes it a nice looking coral. I hope when/if I do upgrade to be able to give it some better light..unless I switch out my minis for full sized Luminarcs..hmm.
5 months - sand dollar
MammothReefer
Active member
5 months, 3 months, now - Sunset.. Sigh.. not sure what's going on here.. need to figure it out. It grew a fair bit I've fragged it a few times to keep it about this size.. now it's just falling apart.
5 months - undata
5 months - Superman (colour looks off in the photo..better in person..fighting all over the place but still trying to grow
5 months - Sanjays Leprechaun beard. Most under rated named piece imop..Can't wait for this thing to table out big (will need to clear stuff out for it)
5 months - undata
5 months - Superman (colour looks off in the photo..better in person..fighting all over the place but still trying to grow
5 months - Sanjays Leprechaun beard. Most under rated named piece imop..Can't wait for this thing to table out big (will need to clear stuff out for it)
MammothReefer
Active member
5 Months - some named hoesmeaki I long forget the name of.. ha. Growing great still want that nice blue back. It's more of a silver/blue
5 Months - Copps Bonsai
5 Months - Mari Papillare (after fragging to now)
5 Months - Another piece that once had a name but I don't recall. Finally growing back after loosing half of it.
5 Months - This was originally, blue polpyed, then it went brown, not it's starting to look tort like and the blue polyps are just now finally coming back. (also my not so Purple, PM frag)
5 Months - Copps Bonsai
5 Months - Mari Papillare (after fragging to now)
5 Months - Another piece that once had a name but I don't recall. Finally growing back after loosing half of it.
5 Months - This was originally, blue polpyed, then it went brown, not it's starting to look tort like and the blue polyps are just now finally coming back. (also my not so Purple, PM frag)
MammothReefer
Active member
5 Months - 500$ Efflo found AEFW on it a few times, finally bouncing back. I think I'm the slowest person when it comes to growing this coral out..
5 Months - These piece finally were growing close enough together I split the plug, the purple turkai on the right (clearly brown) is now finally purple but is still in my frag tank so no picture just yet.. The other on the left I finally mounted in the DT
5 Months - This piece.. I clearly lost some colour depending on the angle you look at it (from this angle it's bad from the front it looks pretty good), but growth wise it's really taking off now. It was the piece that broke the camels back it just kept getting re-infected with AEFW finally I just started dipping it at least once a week... It's growing now again now Hopefully the colour returns to.
5 Months - Slimer. Fragged it a couple times over the past couple months I'm going to cut it down again and glue frags to the base in hopes it will cover over the dead lower half, or just cut that off and remount it.
5 Months - These piece finally were growing close enough together I split the plug, the purple turkai on the right (clearly brown) is now finally purple but is still in my frag tank so no picture just yet.. The other on the left I finally mounted in the DT
5 Months - This piece.. I clearly lost some colour depending on the angle you look at it (from this angle it's bad from the front it looks pretty good), but growth wise it's really taking off now. It was the piece that broke the camels back it just kept getting re-infected with AEFW finally I just started dipping it at least once a week... It's growing now again now Hopefully the colour returns to.
5 Months - Slimer. Fragged it a couple times over the past couple months I'm going to cut it down again and glue frags to the base in hopes it will cover over the dead lower half, or just cut that off and remount it.
MammothReefer
Active member
5 Months - Aussie Red piece.. Wacked it in half shortly after I got it to make some frags has grown back then some.. much nicer colour now to. Frags are doing "ok" but this coral really needs high light and flow, they don't look nearly as nice as the DT piece.
5 Months - Garf Bonsai, and really cool Monti.. Good growth on both starting to see some color in the bonsai (i've had a hard time getting it to back to the original stunning purple/green) The monti though dispalys a purple rim for my friend whom I got the frag off of. No luck yet. I'd move it up..but It's encrusted petty good.
5 Months - Rainbow Monti (finally getting a foot hold with the sunset crashing)
5 Months - Forgotten named green frag (on the plug)
4 Months - Bubble Gum Milli, and Sunset (or is it sunrise?) Milli had both of these for over a year.. Finally getting traction after so many "grow outs, then die backs"
5 Months - Garf Bonsai, and really cool Monti.. Good growth on both starting to see some color in the bonsai (i've had a hard time getting it to back to the original stunning purple/green) The monti though dispalys a purple rim for my friend whom I got the frag off of. No luck yet. I'd move it up..but It's encrusted petty good.
5 Months - Rainbow Monti (finally getting a foot hold with the sunset crashing)
5 Months - Forgotten named green frag (on the plug)
4 Months - Bubble Gum Milli, and Sunset (or is it sunrise?) Milli had both of these for over a year.. Finally getting traction after so many "grow outs, then die backs"
MammothReefer
Active member
4 Months - Firesomething Monti (glad it's still showing green)
5 Months From Specs to Frags..
What's odd about these is they were all growing really well in my DT. When I setup the frag tank, and moved them over everything stuned. Things that stayed in my DT have grown well, the others have grown much slower.
First is the Top right (under brighter looks it turns an amazing teal. Hoping it will grow to that point again.
Second down from the right (the milli), and second down from the middle (just moved from frag tank.. middle one was being smothered by algae.
3rd down from the left (moved over a month ago)
3 Months - Needs more light to maintain colour, happy w/growth though.
5 Months From Specs to Frags..
What's odd about these is they were all growing really well in my DT. When I setup the frag tank, and moved them over everything stuned. Things that stayed in my DT have grown well, the others have grown much slower.
First is the Top right (under brighter looks it turns an amazing teal. Hoping it will grow to that point again.
Second down from the right (the milli), and second down from the middle (just moved from frag tank.. middle one was being smothered by algae.
3rd down from the left (moved over a month ago)
3 Months - Needs more light to maintain colour, happy w/growth though.
bobdole2nd
In Memoriam
OMG so many axials! So awesome!
MammothReefer
Active member
Thanks! Here are a couple FTS. I have more photos to post as well in the AM
Straight on
Looking into the right cove
Looking into the left cove (and my mess of corals I moved over from the frag tank so the tank can eat the algae)
Straight on
Looking into the right cove
Looking into the left cove (and my mess of corals I moved over from the frag tank so the tank can eat the algae)
Cardiff R33
New member
looking great mate
MammothReefer
Active member
Thanks for the compliment!
MammothReefer
Active member
Well I spoke to soon. Found some AEFW just a few moments ago. Explains why this piece had such bad colour.
http://www.pbase.com/brahm/image/143590960/original.jpg
http://www.pbase.com/brahm/image/143590960/original.jpg
rogerwilco357
Active member
corals are looking good you have alot of nice pieces hope you win the battle with the aefw luckily you have the frag tank to put your coral in after dip and inspection , you have to find the eggs and destroy that nest..good luck it's a battle I have fought and lost over 2010 took a year to get back in this crazy hobby ...
Roger
Roger
flounderfish
New member
I didn't have the best luck dipping mine. I went to the vet and convinced him I wasn't going to be doing anything bad with the prescription of Interceptor. That worked really well. 1 dose and never again. I dosed the whole tank. Dipping only removes the AEFW on that 1 coral.....they are elsewhere...I promise. Esp with that kinda flow
Just make sure all inverts come out. Clams are ok. But Shrimp, Crabs and Snails come out! 12 hours later and you're done. GL
