Thirsty's SPS journey

[thirst]

Less than a year ago, my tank had just a couple of pieces of SPS (acquired when a fellow hobbyists needed to get rid of some pieces to fumigate his home). But mostly I had some green leathers from when I first started the hobby many years ago. Numerous moves and distance to tank had prevented me from being able to successful keep a tank until when I finally moved where my tank was situated.

A 48x18x22 80 gallon, not the best of dimensions

Then came March of last year. I had a T5 fixture that had been sitting around for while, and found a trade partner to jump start my sps obsession.

From March until June, the collection grew quite quickly, with the tank getting pretty crowded by June.

I relocated all the leathers to a second tank

Tank of leathers

Preview of what's to come:

-Tried to incorporate an exiting hobbyists system w coral.
-Getting AEFW
-tried to quarantine the bugs into a third tank
-successful until I tried to dip, transfer back some pieces from the pest tank
-currently tank has been suffering from pests
-moved homes in mid-December
-trying to cycle a new system to be able to QT the corals

Some light at the end of the tunnel, but still a ton of corals to move and QT

Some pics:

A colony from the aefw tank. Apparently it is impervious to aefw

Tank with pest

Newly cycle tank, with a few dipped pieces for QT

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[macdaddynick1]

how many species do you think you have in there?


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[thirst]

It's been a whirlwind of a year, no idea as if this moment. I'll document and inventory what I've got at some point. For now the focus is to quarantine and rid my tank of these pests.

Speaking of which, does anyone recognize what this might be?

I have aefw, had red bugs but got rid of those... how I have these

Took a video of them

https://youtu.be/Zv7K1uyns5k


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[macdaddynick1]

Thirsty's SPS journey

Black bugs may be .

 

[vuqchu]

Halofolliculina corallasia

 

[macdaddynick1]

Halofolliculina corallasia

In translation to English "Lose All Hope"

 

[watchguy123]

Is there a difference between black bugs and Halofolliculina corallasia

 

[thirst]

So in mid July, I discovered I had aefw...

Anyone who has gone through this can imagine how my heart sank.

At this point I had 2 established tanks running

A 48x18x22 sps tank
A 48x24x20 softies tank

I had recently acquired a 48x30x20 tank (mid June) that was just cycling.. by end of July it was ready to take my sps.

Just got wet 6/20

Using some corals to test out the tank late June

By 7/20 I had moved over all my sps

The plan was to replace the 48x18x22 so that I can dip and transfer over to the new tank.

I found a 60x30x16 and on 7/31 this is how it looked like

By late September I had made good progress. The new tank disease free, but was still losing corals regularly in the pest tank.

Things were going well.. and given how the transfer had gone pretty well... I made the decision to try to transfer as much as I could.

In that decision, I must have missed something... a tissue with an egg.. but I ended up contaminating both tanks.

At this point I felt tired. Endless dipping... I just let things be... if a piece died.. then so be it.

I now had AEFW, and this still unidentifiable bug


Preview:

A new year came a new home with space to maybe best this ordeal



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[sahin]

Sorry man. AEFW are fairly easy to deal with inn my experience. But those black bugs are the devil's spawn.

Are you restarting completely?

 

[thirst]

Im setting up new tanks and dip transferring into clean tank. I am prepared for eggs to hatch, and plan to transfer back as necessary


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[thirst]

With this new space, I was rejuvenated.. to cycle a new tank. To dip and transfer, and ultimately being ready to redip and re transfer.

A few of the pieces that I've moved to the new tank. Tank is still not all that stable.. I kept 2 test frags in for about 10 days. With it and 5 fish doing pretty well, I decided to start the transfer.

Some are just nubs with but a few polyps left to try to save. Some are bigger pieces I'm hoping will pull through.

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[reef80]

Holly mother of demon...black bugs for sure and this is the best quality picture and video that I've seen of it. I've deal with the devils pet before and they are no joke but I've won the battle. I've posted on reeftwo____ about my experience. Don't give up. This is what worked me...revive 4x the strength at 8 mins 1x a week for 6 week straight. Nothing less or they are guarantee to be back for sure...and you will see these suckas die. Be prepare to loose sps at that concentration but you will save many. They are the beg bugs of our hobby but mobilze and decimate sps like termites on a redwood tree and seems indestructible but they can certainly be beat. I believe there eggs are like AEFW but smaller and more scattered like what you see in your video. I almost want AEFW as pets after dealing with these 2 yrs ago. Dannnnng...i literally have PTSD from the picture and video and mentally droppped my phone..sorry for the rant but I wanna forward inform. Don't stop!

 

[thirst]

Yea I am traumatized by these things. I would much rather have aefw!!


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[thirst]

Well I went to check on the tank w pests and saw some pieces really suffering. So I decided that I must move them. It's a lot of pieces so hopefully they pull through!!

Not the ideal, super stable sps tank. But I didn't want to risk infecting anyone else's tank.



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[thirst]

Moved some more pieces tonight. They look very stressed though

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[thirst]

Pearlberry out of water

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[Scorpius]

Doesn't Bayer kill black bugs?

 

[thirst]

It does, but can't quarantine the entire tank


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[thirst]

So now cycling a big frag tank. Loaded it up w rocks and started the cycle 10 days ago

Pretty crude set up, got a ton of rock from another set up, some random skimmer I found

Need to get the tank to be stable enough to keep sps alive so I can move more of my sps


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[thirst]

Got a more sizable skimmer from @kenfuzed, thank you!

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