Working my way back in...

[bfliflet]

I can't believe it's been 30 days since I last updated. Lots of things have happened but not much to show.

- Powder Blue Tang decided it was time to stress me out by getting ich.
- Ich took out 1 Watanabei, 1 Maculiceps, 1 Mimic, 1 Lavender and a Royal Gramma pair before succumbing itself.
- Attempted cleaner wrasse/shrimp to keep it from spreading. Helped a little but got behind.
- Changed UV bulbs. Helped a little but continued getting behind the problem.
- Wasnt until I installed Vortex Diatom filter that I got ahead of and ultimately eradicated ich. Took about 3-5 days.
- Went to vacation in San Diego. Brought back some killer high end frags from SoCal. A little disappointed by AquaSD. To their credit they were redoing things. Hoped for more killer frags.
- Lost a couple of frags in transit because Southwest can't read 'This Side Up' and ended up cracking a two frag containers leaving them dry during flight. :-(
- Returned home with no losses at home but several corals looked unhappy from some equipment malfunctions.
- One of my Gyre controllers fried severely diminishing flow. Intensity of LEDs combined with low flow stressed some corals.
- Air pump for turf scrubber shorted out because skimmer cup overflowed. Both lessons learned.
- Switched to 2xWP60s and 2xWP40s that I had previously for more directional flow.
- Finally got my calc reactor somewhat dialed in.
- New corals starting to go through a growth spurt.
- Hauled out 1.5 cups of algae from half of my ATS in 12 days. I am sure DrDNA will be hauling in a good 2-3 cups per week with his monster ATS...

Need to figure out how to take some decent photos as these new corals are starting to look good.

 

[Saltwaternooby]

Wow Brandon lots of bad luck at the same time. Glad to hear you got some nice stuff and things figured out.

 

[bfliflet]

Thanks Anthony. Not bad luck. Arrogance and ignorance in my relatively new setup. My tank dodged some bullets but not all. I guess that's what makes saltwater aquariums impressive to those outside of the hobby. It's also what makes legendary reefers like Tim, Mark and Tom legendary -- the ability to keep life support going for fragile creatures for so long and get the best out of them. I keep reminding myself these creatures want to grow, look great and ultimately reproduce but aquarists keep getting in the way of that desire -- usually through arrogance and ignorance. ;-)

 

[DrDNA]

Hey Brandon, I'm not getting tons of algae yet off my scrubber. It's growing a lot of brown slimy stuff that I've cleaned off a couple times. Just waiting for the green HA to get going on the scrubber! I'm still dosing lanthanum and trying to find the sweet spot with weaning the tank off of it without getting an algae explosion within the tanks

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[bfliflet]

I still dose LaCl from time to time. I find that ATS is great at nitrate removal and it removes some phosphate but wasn't able to keep it low by itself. On my previous 300, I considered dosing nitrate because I think it was the limiting factor in phosphate removal. As to the brown slime, it will become green and thick. On this tank, I added a second ATS on the opposite side of my sump and it went through the same cycle yours is going through. Took about 2 cycles to get thick green. Can also delay harvesting as long as the roots aren't dying (looks like gray hair) or as long as it's not black slime.

 

[DrDNA]

I still dose LaCl from time to time. I find that ATS is great at nitrate removal and it removes some phosphate but wasn't able to keep it low by itself. On my previous 300, I considered dosing nitrate because I think it was the limiting factor in phosphate removal. As to the brown slime, it will become green and thick. On this tank, I added a second ATS on the opposite side of my sump and it went through the same cycle yours is going through. Took about 2 cycles to get thick green. Can also delay harvesting as long as the roots aren't dying (looks like gray hair) or as long as it's not black slime.

Thanks Brandon. I know I can control my phosphates with LaCl but nitrates are a lot harder for me, hence the ATS. I've harvested the ATS once but was mostly brown slimy crap. I'm sure it will start growing a thick green mat soon! As most people know who've seen my fish, I love to feed them. A lot. [emoji1]

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[scuzy]

Reason I quarantine everything just can't have all these these expensive fishes die off


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[bfliflet]

I knew there was a reason I dropped off the forums. Too many judgmental people. @scuzy, you don't even know the circumstances that led to this ich battle. One would think that someone who's been on the forums as long as you have would know there are no certainties in this hobby -- especially in the form of diseases.

 

[scuzy]

I wasn't being judgmental I'm not even saying you did it wrong? If I offended you i'm sorry. That's not what I meant.


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