Timmmysli's NPS journal

[timmmysli]

Hi all,

After lurking around for many months I figured I might restart a TJ.

System Objectives: Slow change over to NPC's with lots of learning in between lol

Display System:

Strike up Date: Feb 2009

Display Tank: 240ltr total volume 700mm x 700mm x 400mm

Display Lighting: Cree xpg DIY system

Refugium: Refugium just restarted on 14th March 2010

Refugium Lighting: 140w Equiv energy saver


Support systems:

System Water: Natural salt water

Display Water circulation: 2x 6.045 Tunze nanno streams

Return Pump:Quiet one 3000ltr

Skimmer: DIY Pyramid with 2200ltr pump

Evaporation Top Up:Auto topup


Chemical Support:

Calcium Addition: Damprid

Alkilinity Addition: Bicarb

Other Dosing Maintenance: Magnesium, reef actif and marin elements

Current Water Chemistry:
Nitrates: zero Titration kit lol
Phosphates: Zero Titration kit lol
Alkalinity: 9-10
Calcium: 400
Salinity / Specific Gravity: Too high 1.028
Magnesuim: Raised due to algae probs


Images:

 

[timmmysli]

And more:

So I have had a few different sun corals in the wier for a few months just to see how they would go before switching over.

So far I've only purchased one healthy sun coral colony and the rest have been rescues lol with a total collection of 5 very small pieces now.

Once I'm happy with the rock work I'll move over the corals into the DT.

At this point my intention is to only keep suns and other similar corals until I have a firm understanding on how the tanks reacting to the extra bio load. When I'm happy with the health of the existing corals I'll start to slowly move onto harder to keep corals.

 

[oldreefer76]

very nice start

 

[biloulou]

very nice start

+1:thumbsup:

Is it a Balanophyllia, the pink coral on the third picture?

 

[timmmysli]

Thanks for the welcome Oldreefer76 and Biloulou

I think you could be correct Biloulou, the pink coral does look like Balanophyllia but I'm not up to scratch on npc names at this point. My lfs buys in coral with names like "pink small polyp clearish" lol so it doesn't help

I've been fighting a spread of caulerpa brachypus in the last few months. Yesterday I stripped most of it from the DT and add as much of it as I could to the sump which now has a 120w lamp over it 24/7. As you can see most of the rock is white as I switched my DT rock with rock I've had in the sump. I really don't want to but a tang just to keep the tank looking pretty but it nearly seems like the norm at this point.

In regards to food sources can anyone suggest some good inverts that might add larvae to the system on a regular basis. I currently have a pair of clowns spawning like clock work which I figure will help the system out in the long term. I was thinking of adding cheap glass shrimp with the hope they would release pretty often. Something cheap lol

 

[elmafioso52988]

Nice tank. Love the sun corals.

 

[timmmysli]

Tomorrow I plan on transfering over the corals, all 5 of them lol

Heres a full tank shot

And the fav sun corals showing some growth with lots of little polyp's showing up. I haven't had any spawns yet but I have read a hobbyst's comment that he was turning all flow off in his tank for 3hrs or so to induce a spawn, this was done every 10-15 days. I will have to give this a go to see if it works. At this point I'm still attempting to nurse the corals back to full health but I'll give this technique a try.

 

[timmmysli]

So I've moved most of the corals over to the DT.

Can anyone help with the ID of the bright orange coral, I have only been able to feed a few polyps on this coral since I bought it 2 weeks ago. It doesn't seem to be enticed to come out as easily as the others.

 

[timmmysli]

So I have a problem with my yellow sun corals and really need some advice, please

I keep finding a brown/black substance on the outer rim of the heads. Each time I clean it off I find dead tissue underneath. I'm cleaning it off each time I find it but the problem seems to be getting a lot worse very quickly.

I've been trying to nurse the particular coral back to health over the last month with daily feeds of mysis, I'm feeding each head twice a day and roughly 2-3 mysis max over an hour each time.

Any idea's on whats going wrong?

 

[stunreefer]

Is it cyanobacteria?

I would probably give it a dip in an Iodine based dip in case it's a bacterial infection of some sort.

 

[timmmysli]

It's definitely not cyanobacteria.

It seems to be fairly hard and it doesn't come off easily. When I remove it tissue from the coral seems to peel away with it.

I've started dosing iodide to the tank (after finding the problem) with the hope it might help. I've actually glued the coral to the rock so I don't think I'll be able to dip it. Could I soak the mysis in some iodide?

The suns have been a bit puffy when closed lately, I'm not sure if thats a sign of over feeding or some sort of stress. It seems like some of the polyps are doing really well with lots of new heads forming and some tissue growth but others have this problem and are dieing off.

Thanks for the reply stunreefer.

 

[suta4242]

I've had that before with really neglected NPS that I've bought, but only when the waters been off. Otherwise they recover nicely. So hows your phosphates? Also make sure your Ca, alk & Mg are in balance.

Could I soak the mysis in some iodide?

Personally I think thats a bad idea.

 

[timmmysli]

The coral in question is a very sick rescue effort with major tissue recession.

My po4 is very low, kits won't pick up anything so I guess it's under what would be deemed as an unhealthy level.

I will check my alk, ca and mg as it has been out over the last month due to a timmer failure on my dosing pumps. I've just boosted it back up but maybe its a bit out still.

Thankyou for the comments I will report back tomorrow

 

[paja4]

IT LOOKS LIKE A Sun CORAL TO ME, I'VE HAD THE SAME COLORED ONE IN THE PAST!

 

[stunreefer]

Personally I think thats a bad idea.

Agreed. Dosing anything to a food is not a good idea IMO as how do you know how much is actually getting to the animal? If it's too much you could OD it, too little will be ineffecitve.

With all my new coral purchases I leave them unattched for quite a while so that I can care for them as necessary, whether it be bucket/tuppereware feeding, dipping, etc. Anyways, you could remove the coral from where you glued it pretty easily, and reglue it once it's back in good health.

Keep us posted!

 

[timmmysli]

Okay heres the water data

Alk 9kh
Ca 420
Mg 1028
Salinity 1.028

So I have some work to do. The mg is too low for such a high salt level. I will slowly lower the salinity down over the next few weeks. I use nsw and its always rather high in my area at around 1.031 on average. To bring down the salinity I will adjust the skimmer to skim out 10-20ltrs every other day and I'll just let the auto top off dose RODI.

All of the corals except the new large red colored sun are eating really well throughout the entire day.

Heres a pic of the Balanophyllia ? This was a full rescue job which I bought for $zero lol The lfs were throwing them out due to their poor state. They seem to be open all day long, unlike the suns they seem to just keep eating. I can feed then twice as much as the suns without any regurgitation of food.

 

[timmmysli]

Feeding time :

The suns in the pic seem to be getting healthier, they were throwing up most of the food at the start but a few months on and they seem to be able to eat more food. I've also gotten the idea that I can't feed too much also which is helping the poor guys out a bit.

If you look at the colony on the left, then look at the base of the highest polyp you can see some of the black stuff I've mentioned. If I scrap or blow it off there will be no tissue underneath. Thats only a small bit normally its about twice that size.

Still working on dropping the salinity, I have already skimmed off 20-30ltrs and dosed some mg.

 

[timmmysli]

So the salinity is down to 1.026 in another week or two I will have it back on track. I seem to be getting a bit of tissue regrowth with the yellow suns which is great. I'm trying to feed everything at least once a day.

So far all my po4 and no3 are very stable at near zero figures which is a bit of a surprise but thats great lol more food. I do use reef actif and I guess that would be helping. The macro in the fuge is starting to kick off and grow so thats good. Interestingly one of my previously brown acro's is starting to colour up slightly.

Next week I might be getting a whole lot of glass/ghost shrimps to add to the tank for a secondary food source for the fish and coral. The hope is that they will survive and reproduce on a fairly large scale.

So far I'm sticking to my plan and I haven't added anything else into the tank. The suns are happy which is great and now I think I'll consider adding something else in but I''m still a bit undecided on what to add.

And to continue the pictoria TJ l lol

 

[timmmysli]

Still growing slowly. I seem to be able to feed these guys twice as much as the suns.

 

[Timeless1483]

Nice work. I think one thing to think about is not dosing and just use your salt mix, and keep you skimmer off for a few days. I don't dose and if I do my suns and dendros all close up, they don't like any dosing. I feed the tank daily and I have no skimmer, just lots of flow, LR, and a secret weapon_orange spotted goby. I do have a bit of GHA, but I switch lights about a month ago and it started then. This is just my experience.

I hope this helps.