Pete's 280 log

[ReefEnabler]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13647817#post13647817 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
The redbugs could explain the closed up millis I was drooling over, actually. Once I treated my tank, it made a huge difference with several corals.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Still a gorgeous tank, even if it is an itchy one.

Marc, I thought based on the info on your site that redbugs only infect smooth skinned acros, not millis?


Sucks pete, I hope you are able to keep it under wraps.

My millis have not been showing much polyp extension on the shadowed side, kinda has me worried because of what Marc said

 

[psteeleb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13648584#post13648584 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kar93
Sorry to hear the bugs are back, Pete. Hopefully, they'll be gone soon enough. Instead of pulling out the Crabs and Shrimp etc. would it be easier to quarantine and dip the corals seperately?

If it wasn't for the large staghorn.

Actually the hardest part about doing the intank will be removing the hermits. Seems like larger shrimp fair pretty well at least mine did last time, but then again there could be a residual build up issue.

Also on Qting, I'm not sure that leaving a tank fallow of acroporas has proven to be effective with red bugs, from what I recall there was some speculation that they prefer acropora but they may not be entirely limited to them in the event there are not any available. In other words some people think they can survive on other SPS and somewhere I read a thought they may even survive on some LPS.

I'll go whole tank again, I consider my last treatment as pretty successful. I doubt that this is a respawn from my previous infestation, as that was a year ago and I take tons of flash close up pictures to closely inspect the corals on a monthly basis.

The mille's seem to be a bit closed up, compared to normal as Marc points out but that could be I'm late on a water change or red bugs. It would probably be very difficult to see them on a Mille unless the polyps were fully retracted. Last time I know they were mainly infested on the blob but also had some on my tort and stags.

I'll probably start pulling hermits tonight when I get home in hopes that I can find some intercepter to d a treatment on Friday. I'll pretty much do the same routine as last time.

- Shut down skimmer
- Remove carbon and GFO media, but leave hooked up for total system flow
- 1 large pill crushed and mixed with water poured into high flow area of sump
- let run for 14 hours and take pictures of progress
- turn on skimmer and add carbon
- water change
- repeat in about 5 days

 

[psteeleb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13649315#post13649315 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ReefEnabler
Marc, I thought based on the info on your site that redbugs only infect smooth skinned acros, not millis?


Sucks pete, I hope you are able to keep it under wraps.

My millis have not been showing much polyp extension on the shadowed side, kinda has me worried because of what Marc said

thanks Ryan - I'm not too bothered by them, as a matter of fact if I was a little more convinced they help keep AEFW's under control I'd keep them as I'd rather have red bugs then AEFW's any day.

And I am convinced they go after more then smoothed skinned acros, but I think they prefer them so given a choice you will se them on a smooth skinned acro first.

 

[melev]

Agreed. They are well known for the deep-water acros (which are smooth-skinned and a good example), but the bright green "Scripps" stag didn't extend polyps until I treated my tank. That coral is A. micropthalma, and looks like this:

One guy reported (and posted pictures) of Red Bugs on his Frogspawn.

 

[psteeleb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13648796#post13648796 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BigJay
Next time you drop by we'll take a close-up look at my coral frags. I don't have any really big colonies for pests to hide in, so it shouldn't be too difficult to search.

Yes, Marc has a sixth sense about these things. Didn't he just find evidence of a mantis shrimp in Servo's tank? Marc is officially the "reef whisperer". Maybe that's why DaveJ loses a big dollar acan in his tank every time he picks on Marc. :lol:

I hadn't heard about the mantis in SERVO's tank, but still, the reef whisperer" fits Marc to a tee. I wouldn't normally mention that he talks to his fish, but I swear they listen to him and understand :eek1: kind of spock spooky :lol:
pun intended

 

[melev]

While I was visiting Ryan, I was looking in his tank after enjoying his super-awesome swimming pool (if only they lived closer, I'd be nicknamed dolphin-boy for my ongoing presence - LOL ). I saw a 2" green mantis doing rotations in an area near the top of the rockwork, and Ryan thought I was kidding around. He was stunned to see that guy in his reef, who made no effort to stay hidden any longer. It was a pretty little guy, but we know they aren't reef-safe.

How to extract it from a 400g reef full of SPS - priceless.

 

[psteeleb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13650520#post13650520 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
While I was visiting Ryan, I was looking in his tank after enjoying his super-awesome swimming pool (if only they lived closer, I'd be nicknamed dolphin-boy for my ongoing presence - LOL ). I saw a 2" green mantis doing rotations in an area near the top of the rockwork, and Ryan thought I was kidding around. He was stunned to see that guy in his reef, who made no effort to stay hidden any longer. It was pretty little guy, but we know they aren't reef-safe.

How to extract it from a 400g reef full of SPS - priceless.

Wow - and he hasn't added any rock for some time, at least as far as I know. I wonder if it even dates back before his move to Tx. I totaly agree on his pool, but he should have spent about $1.95 more to add a big skimmer and there you go :lol:

 

[melev]

Nice. I think that was my job that day. He kept calling me VorTech, but I didn't get it.

 

[BigJay]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13648698#post13648698 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by psteeleb
Not sure where they came from but they could have hitched a ride on one of the 2 montes I recently acquired.

Is it wrong to hope that you got "reef cooties" from DaveJ rather than my tank? :lol: You got monties from both of us.

 

[psteeleb]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13650964#post13650964 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BigJay
Is it wrong to hope that you got "reef cooties" from DaveJ rather than my tank? :lol: You got monties from both of us.

I'll ask him, I need to pick up some black egg crate from him anyway. Better yet I'll just accuse him of it. :lol:

Params from last night

Ca = 560
Alk = 8.0 DKH
Mg = 1500 (I decided to bump it up to see how things respond)

I'll do my routine water change tonight, it's a week over due but things look good. The blob has great colors and decent PE despite the Red Bugs. I tried to get some pictures yesterday but everything I took didn't do it justice. I noticed the liltle Nana colony is starting to color up. The Chips mini colony I relocated looks much happier in it's new location, the brown has already colored in nicely.

I'll start relocating hermit cabs to my 29g and hope to get hold of some Interceptor from my Vet this weekend to do the first treatment.

It seems like I'm getting a lot more detritus lately, not sure if this is a residual effect of raising the ALK levels, or using Kalc or something else.

Ph has dropped slightly, morning low before Kalc dosing was 8.07, the high last night was 8.22. I suspect this drop is due to going with 2 gallons on Kalc water instead of the 3 and supplementing with baking soda. I was running 8.13ish low and 8.26ish high, so about a 0.05 average drop.

I also noticed that one of my GFO reactors has solidified.

 

[psteeleb]

dp

 

[BigJay]

I've the same problem here with the "tank floaties". I agree that it's likely carbonate precipitation from raising my DKH from 7 to 10 over the last week. I've been doing it with an additional 2 tsp of dissolved baking soda every night. I've been assured by Randy that my alk consumption is "normal" because for every 20 PPM of calcium your corals munch, they take roughly one DKH.

Don't forget to boost the alk in your water change replacement can Pete. My current batch of Red Sea Coral Pro has a DKH of about 6.5. It takes 2-3 tsp of baking soda to bring 30 gallons up to 9 or 10.

Good luck making any RO/DI water in this cold. Mine ran all last night and produced less than half of what I'm used to. Did you change the membrane and filters yet? I have a new TDS meter if you need to borrow one for some before/after measurements.

 

[psteeleb]

while ding my water change I decided to try and take some close ups form the front of the tank. Unfortunately my camera is terrible with close ups unless you are about 1" away. It makes me want to get a nice digital Slr and macro lens more and more.

Marcs Mille is looking awesome; it's a light raspberry color with baby blue tips and coralites but I just can't pick up the detail with it about a foot away.

here's Marc's Mille along with other front of tank close up attempts from today

Marc' Mille

here are a couple of my main chips - I know I just posted some last week but it's really starting to get back some purple and blue in the tips so here are a few shots starting with the whole colony and zooming in on the right branch area

zoom in of front edge

right side

right side close up

 

[psteeleb]

here is what's left of my Nana colony - it's just starting to get some color (AKA the factory as it was a haven for AEFW's)

another AEFW casualty - this was another decent prostrata that completely died off except for a tad bit on the base. It's just now starting to but out some fingers after it re-encrusted the the rock base

A very slow growing Turaki (I think that's what it is)

blue tort from the front - I know it's getting boring

Microcladus from the front

Marc's unk acro - still growing nicely

a little better picture of my main prostrata

Marc's crayola

 

[psteeleb]

here is a comparison of Tort's

the left is a true Oregon Blue I got from Mako, the one on the right was sold to me as an Oregon but I believe it may be an ORA blue tort

the smaller ORA Chips

green purple pocillipora

florescent green plate

what I think is a Montipora Confusa - this was a huge colony that completely bleached and died but I found a small 1/4" frag on my frag rack that I had no idea how it got there. The original colony was agout 5" X 12" was mostly yellow with brown polyps

aqua delight

Jay you can make out a little PE on the blue tip stag - it does get real fuzzy at night.

 

[psteeleb]

I added a slide show of some October pictures here:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1502556

 

[psteeleb]

I just happened to go by Ryan's (SERV0) after our clubs BOD meeting today and he gave me a couple nice frags. The tank was a bit murky as I was doing some detritus blasting right before the lights were about to go out but I wanted to get a couple quick pictures up. I'll see if I can get a couple better ones tomorrow night.

A pink with blue tip mille

and an unknown acro that looked beautiful in Ryans tank

 

[psteeleb]

here are some better pictures of the new additions now that they had a chance to get use to their new home

 

[psteeleb]

here you go Jay, night time PE pictures

blue tip stag

prostrata

chips

mako mille

Marcs mille

 

[chrismunn]

did you get a new camera? these pics are awesome!