Tank is in a funk, need some ideas.....

BBG millie, glowing more but still NO polyp extension. This one used to be shaggy....


Another mille that looks good, but no polyp extension. Another one that was super shaggy....



Colored tips showed up a few days ago...



This is one of the ravaged ones, but slowly color is coming back around the edges. I aint giving up on this one....



Joe's rainbow starting to get sheen...


This one looks decent....


THis one also shooting up some growth. It was looking really green, which it does under high nutrients. Base has lightened up quite a bit. Love this acro...



My bonsai has a DEEP color. Polyps still very retracted. This used to be my canary coral and usually the base browns under high nutrients...


Last one for now. Anacropora. Glows in the dark. All of a sudden all kinds of growth tips showed up out of nowhere.



All pics taken under 12-13Kish lighting, straight out of camera. They are under LEDs so I apologize about the funky colors....
 
dg3147 said:
Sent you a bit of this....report back results please. I think i saw results on the montiporia plates within 3-4 days. Maybe aim for a NO3 of 10-25. (make sure your test kit is functional. An expired kit can read zero all the time).

<a href="http://s774.photobucket.com/user/david_gutkin/media/D41956CD-B2BE-4B84-A59E-5103C29419C6.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i774.photobucket.com/albums/yy22/david_gutkin/D41956CD-B2BE-4B84-A59E-5103C29419C6.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo D41956CD-B2BE-4B84-A59E-5103C29419C6.jpg"/></a>
Click to expand...

By the way, a big special thanks for sending me some nitrate! Very kind gesture and much appreciated:beer:
 
Thanks. That Mille that was ravaged also is looking better. Body is getting some glow back and evening out but still no polyp extension. That Mille used to be so shaggy you couldn't tell what the base color was. So far so good. Every day that goes by it gets a little better. I'm due to refresh the GFO but I am going to halve the last dose since phos is running pretty low now (0.03) as of a few days ago. Will keep things updated. Maybe some more pics in a couple more weeks!
 
So far, what do you think caused the improvement? Was it the large water change? The NO3? Tincture of time?
 
dg3147 said:
So far, what do you think caused the improvement? Was it the large water change? The NO3? Tincture of time?
Click to expand...

Who knows. My guess is time is the biggest factor. Things continue to improve but still no polyp extension. Since things are growing again and colors are dramatically better I'm just going to stay the course. Last night I got up in the middle of the night for some hydration and checked out the tank. Some acros had some long feeders out so that's promising. My chaeto is totally overgrown and I tested my parameters this morning, NO3 still 0 and phos was 1 ppb which as far as I'm concerned is darn near 0.

I have noticed a huge drop in phosphate since starting the nitrate dosing, but I can't say for sure if it's the NO3 dosing or the Prodibio system taking hold. It happened pretty suddenly so I believe the NO3 dosing at least is playing some part.

I may discontinue GFO use for a while and see what happens.

For those interested in the NO3 dosing, I made a cocktail of 40g NaNO3 to 100ml RO. I started dosing 2ml per day and now I'm up to 2-3 times per day. I also started adding Pohls, acropower and sponge power, which I was adding back when things were going great precrash.
 
rovster said:
I also started adding Pohls, acropower and sponge power, which I was adding back when things were going great precrash.
Click to expand...

Which Pohls did you dose? Xtra or Xtra Special?

And how do you rate Acropower for SPS colours? I dont care for its effect n polyp extension...my corals always have good PE.
 
sahin said:
Which Pohls did you dose? Xtra or Xtra Special?

And how do you rate Acropower for SPS colours? I dont care for its effect n polyp extension...my corals always have good PE.
Click to expand...

Well I currently have NO polyp extension lol. Can't say much about the acropower. Before my crash things were looking phenomenal. I usually rotate the supplements. Acropower is the goto middle of tho road. When things start to pale I'll go heavier on the Pohls Xtra. When nutrients are higher I may switch to Coral Vitalizer. No rhyme or reason just do it by feel and how the tank looks.

The Pohls Xtra definitely works. I initially used it on my 30 when I was truly ULNS and corals were pale as heck. Never seen them that way in my current tank although when I first started it it was close.

Colors now are decent. Not rich but by no means pale. The blue tips on my tricolor are getting pretty sick. Here is a phone pic from yesterday...


Couple more phone pics from yesterday. The blue on the palmers mille frag is intense. You can see the slimer base I posted at the beginning of the thread continuing to improve....



Bonsai looks awesome too....hammer still somewhat retracted....


My frogskin is recovering good too. Had a load of STN and was totally bleached at one point. Those stags in the background were totally brown and had a bunch of spots of algae and everything. All that is gone now....
 
I am having the same issues.

I have found that turning off my GFO has helped significantly, although I am still experiencing some issues. It's been a frustrating month.
 
GFO actually helped me, go figure. Checked my phos this morning, it was 3ppb. My GFO is overdue for a change but I'm just going to let it ride. If phos doesn't go up past 10ish ppb then I'm leaving it offline for the moment....
 
Mine is at .02 according to my Hanna checker. I don't know what is sucking all of my Phosphate up - I only have about ... 6-7 frags right now that are SPS, but I do have some large LPS colonies. I think my biggest issue was this was a fresh move - and I think this new reef experienced new tank syndrome - and I found that I had a blenny that went rogue and started eating colonies. Lost about 5 very large colonies... truly heart breaking. A lot of new things to learn when moving SPS.

I have moved probably 4-5 times with the current inhabitants of this tank, never had an issue but this was my first move with SPS - they did not like it.
 
Here are a couple of pics I took yesterday with my iphone. Yes the colors are exaggerated, buy you can certainly appreciate the improvement the appearance of everything....

Here is that sunset monti. The base color is more intense and uniform. Again, no polyp extension. You can also see the lack of polyp extension on the BBG mille in the foreground...



Blue base has totally returned on this rainbow and pokerstar monti combo.....I posted a pic of this initially where all the blue was gone....



Here is my mille that I thought was a gonner. It actually got worse after this pic (previously posted)...




Here is is yesterday. Base color is coming back strong, and is "glowing" again. Also, the areas that died off are starting to encrust again....NO polyps. A mille with no polyps just looks wrong!

 
Assuming no pests, the millepora may take upto 6-10 weeks to recover. I picked up a 4 largish frags of millepora from my buddy a while ago and they looked like the millepora in your photo. One recovered very fast and looks great now. Others are in various stages of recovery. The smallest frag which looked very bad; no polyps and tissue VERY thin, has taken the longest time for the polyps to appear.

Just carry on doing what you are doing; ensure the water changes are done regularly etc.
 
dadummy said:
any consideration, this could have been a side effect from Levamisole?
Click to expand...

Highly unlikely but I guess anything is possible. I did the levimasole treatment in another tank and barely any rock was transferred. There was also a few months of greatness before the initial crash. I suppose this could have been some sort if aftershock to the crash.
 
reason I asked was in the aefw experiment thread, Levamisole came up and there was a post about sps loss months after treatment.
 
Thought I would post an update. Overall tank is looking much better. Went through a couple of weeks where I pegged the nitrate and phos at 0. All the STN iS gone and all the damaged areas are nearly 100% recovered. Colors are rich, almost too rich. Polyp extension is still nil. There is new growth everywhere albeit slow. My chaeto had grown super green and super big. Yesterday I noticed the chaeto started to wither and go pale. Probably due to the low nutrients. This morning nitrates are at 5-10 and phos is 0.03 which is perfect as long as it doesn't climb much more. I suspect the dying chaeto is dumping nutrients back.

I did a 15 gal water change this morning and removed a good majority of the chaeto in hopes that it will recover and start growing again.

I also increasedy lighting intensity a bit because most of the corals were richly colored and leaning in the green direction. I did notice that in the last few days my zoas are looking incredible again which scares me because that's what happened before the last funk started. Hopefully I'll stay ahead of it this time!

Anyone have any more theories on the no polyp extension despite growth and coloring? Probably that flame angel but I've been watching him for weeks now and never seen him pick at anything. It's just funny that all polyps are mostly retracted....milles, all acros, all montis, all birdsnests.

I've also backed off on the nitrate addition. I may have overdid it and it seems there's a delay in when you actually see the rise and effects.
 
Glad to hear things are going better. I would guess something is nipping on the polyps, especially since color and growth has returned. When the corals took a tumble the Angel might have stared nipping on any algae or dead areas and just got into a bad habit. My understanding is they're not really after the corals, they're simply opportunistic and will try anything.

Just a guess though. :)
 
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