I have followed this tank since my nano-reef addiction started! I am happy to see it looking so great!
I never say this... but def a TOTM in the works PurpleUp!

Thanks! TOTM would be cool, but getting rid of this red turf algae would be priceless. I read this turf algae is so tough to get rid of bc it cannot be starved out, by reducing nitrates, phosphates and silicates. So I've been reading MEXICAN TURBO SNAILS are THE way to eradicate it. My urchin doesn't roam the entire tank and becomes annoyed (doesn't eat) when I relocate him by force. Checked ReefScavengers.com and Mexican Turbo Snails are out of stock. Too lazy to drive to the LFS. Where else can I get em?

BTW, my pulsing xenia froze white in my frag sump after swapping to a new Phoenix 14k. Hope it comes back. I DIG XENIA, especially the blue variety.

Hey Purp.... I had the same red wire algae (still have a tiny bit). Tried everything...nothing worked very well for me.
Except:
Trim it as short as possible with some small sharp scissors. My wife calls them cuticle scissors. Now get you one or two STARVING Turbos and they WILL eat it. Found that Turbos from the LFS are usually hungry. After they have been in the your tank awhile they get fat and lazy. Do the trade you for another one thing with your LFS. Remember….it has to be trimmed super short though. Worked for me....good luck.

Mark

I love how this tank has gotten cleaner and cleaner as it goes on. Great job!

your tank is looking awesome, congratulations. those growth shots are intense, everything looks really healthy and happy

Thanks Mark. I'll try that as opposed to plucking it like I do now. ONE BY ONE. What about all of the trimmings floating about the tank? Won't they re-attach and wreak havoc elsewhere? I suppose if the Turbos keep workin, new growth will be limited. Damn, I remember 1 year ago wondering if I should pluck a few pieces of wiry red algae I saw on a coral. I believe I even commented on it in this thread somewhere. Shoulda woulda coulda. Now it's outa control. At least it's not hurtin the livestock.



Thank you much. If it's not one thing, it's something else though. There's always an issue to deal with or an enemy to fight in the reef. My dream is to have nothing else to worry about but water changes. Fat chance.



It's been getting cleaner bc I've been moving corals OUT. lol. Should be the other way around. Ah, but I think I should be able to do away with the 2 Koralias once the MP10 becomes available

ha yeah i know what you mean. I solved a GHA problem that i was having but now i am having arugments with patches of cyano bacteria. god knows what it will be next, maybe exponential coral growth?

+4 Turbos today. Prepared w/ cuticle scissors if they won't eat the red turf algae as-is. I'm expecting them to knock everything over in the process. After they're done here, I'm sure they'll appreciate my newly re-cycled biocube 14.

Won some acans on eBay this morning. These guys should add some COLOR

If those orange ones are even 1/8th the color of that picture they would be super nice!! Those are some nice (soon-to-be) additions!

WOW....talk about a splash of color!!! Those are going to be amazing in your tank.

nice acans!

OMG... Sooo nice!

I think I just drooled a little


My yellow tang tore up the red wire algae in my tank...not that I am saying get a tang lol

GLAD YOU ALL LIKE MY ACAN PICKS! There were too many to choose from so I just snatched up the ones everyone else bid on. Sniped them with 5 seconds remaining. LOL. Hope they don't get lost in the mail and more importantly, hope they're truly WYSIWYG.

Super clean water and stable params have given me more confidence. Man, it's never been this good. Now that my new equipment and plumbing is completely dialed in, I can now focus on collecting coral. I think all I have left to buy equipment wise is an MP10.

BTW: The 4 turbo snails have given the red algae a clean close shave. They don't eat it down to the rock like the urchin, but they get pretty damn close.

Lastly, I haven't spoken much about the plumbed frag bin. After I switched to a Phoenix 14k, corals literally fried. Only took one night of new light. Lost the few SPS frags I put in there, 2 green slimers, idaho grape, orange monti, unknown green monti. Good thing I have all of those pieces still in my display. All of the softies are fine, except for the xenia which took 1 week to recover. As soon as I noticed, I placed 4 sheets of screen over the top to slowly acclimate. Learned my lesson.

Beautiful acan frags Purp!

Sorry to hear about the frag tank losses.

06.05.2009 FTS


06.16.2009 FTS

Cleared the lower left of mushrooms and zoas to make room for the new acan arrivals. It also exposed a 2nd level of rock real estate, where I can mount 2 more acros. The new white platform on the upper right is slated for a superman and morning star monti (and perhaps another acro).

Looks great!!! Really looks like all of your Stonies have really turned the corner. This thing is going to be back up to your old standards SOON. Great husbandry.

When do you get the new eye candy?

Man, they have turned the corner. Big time. Took one year (after our move into this new home) to get things back in working order. Actually now I'm getting better growth and color than ever before. Redbugs are all I worry about now. Hope they never come back, but the paranoia is making me slow to buy more acros. Right now there are only 2 in here, but I can easily add 5 or 6 more. I'll be acquiring a few more pieces in the comings weeks from scottyreef. Let's see if he's willing to give me the good stuff

My acans are on route via FedEx! Should be here tomorrow morning.

I've been following your tank for a while now and I agree that it looks probably it's healthiest. I definitely remember the red bug incident and I'm sure it won't happen again. I always dread getting them with Acros as well so I've been pretty selective in who I get corals from. Sometimes it's a roll of the dice and snake eyes come up

It's really great to finally hit that sweet spot with a tank. Being on my 3rd tank now, I feel like the current one I have is finally running smoothly and the growth has been 1,000 times better than the previous ones. Always seemed like I was battling something in them - vermitids, neomeris, etc.

Seems like you definitely have the tank hitting its stride again.

Anxiously awaiting FedEx delivery. A pic to pass the time...

THEY'RE HERE!

super sexy corals

Woweee....turned out pretty darn close to those Ebay pictures....actually look better under your lighting

Thanks! Keeping them on the frag rack for a while so I can direct feed them easier.

They look great as advertised bro!

If you don't mind me askin'... What did ya pay for them? You can pm me if you'd prefer bro.

Things are looking amazing for sure!!!

Not at all. Approx $300 for the lot + taxes and S/H, which brought it to $350+. I figured that was a deal, considering I've seen similar (if not inferior) acans selling at various LFS's for $30-40 per polyp. Amazing deals can be found on eBay if you are willing to buy in bulk. It's the only way to justify the cost of overnight shipping.

ON ANOTHER NOTE: GET READY FOR ROUND 2 >>> MONTIPORA EATING NUDIBRANCHS!@#!

I've sucked out TWO over the last 24 hours with a turkey baster. The only thing I can think of - since it has been at least 2 months since I added my last montipora - that they either hitch hiked on one of the turbo snails I added, OR their eggs survived REVIVE dip and finally hatched 2 months later. [And no I didn't dip the snails]. I've resigned myself to the fact they there is no possible way to avoid pests unless one refrains from buying coral or a QT is set up (and you are willing to keep new coral in QT for at least one month). Looks like I'm ordering some LED lighting for the the old BC14, soon to be called QT14.

So in the past 2.5/3yrs since I've been reefin, I've battled flatworms, zoanthid eating nuds, redbugs, and now the nastiest of the nasty: Monti Eating Nudibranchs. So far, I've beaten them all, but this time I intend to do it without losing any of my montis dammit. Running to target to buy an LED flashlight, so I can go hunting for some eggs. Worse case scenario, I pull out the monticaps for a couple of months. Only the idaho grape has encrusted onto the rock.

As I've said before, there's always an enemy to battle in the reef.

Message to the few people who have messaged to trade some coral: There's been a slight delay. IT'LL BE A COUPLE OF MONTHS AT LEAST!

Hopefully I don't find any more. FAT CHANCE.

Hey buddy that sucks man well heres some help read this and this will help alot with your monti eating nudies treating with Potassium permanganate

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-09/eb/index.php

Article Quote

Potassium permanganate

Potassium permanganate is a strong oxidant with diverse uses, from explosives to water treatment. It can remove iron, sterilize water and disinfect crops, and is used to treat parasites and bacterial/fungal infections of fish in aquaculture. It is also used in dilute solutions of 10mg/ml to remove freshwater snails and eggs from freshwater planted aquariums by dipping the plants into the solution for 10 minutes (Andrews, et al 1988). It reacts with any organic matter including algae, bacteria, fish, particulate and dissolved organics, and organic bottom sediments (note: it is quite effective at killing algae on rocks (Todd, pers. comm.)). It is not a material to be used without caution. High quality potassium permanganate is available commercially at chemistry, pool and water treatment purification sources. I used different strengths, most of which were stronger than those used to dip freshwater plants, because I did not see a strong enough initial reaction from nudibranchs placed into the freshwater concentration. It could very well be that lower dosages are effective and safer to use than the stronger concentrations and longer durations I used. More work would be required to determine if lower concentrations would be effective, but I did not have enough coral fragments or nudibranchs available to expand the scope of the trials.

I have used dosage levels from 5-20 times higher than the freshwater snail dip concentration for durations 9-21 times longer. Only at the 200mg/l concentration for 120 minutes did some coral fragments not recover. In fact, five of the 16 fragments did not live, establishing a "pseudo"-LD50 for Montipora in potassium permanganate. This is a very flimsy LD50, composed of only 16 fragments, not all of which are even the same species of Montipora. Still, it is a start. I have asked several other aquarists to confirm and/or expand the information on coral survival and nudibranch mortality. Some of their findings are communicated below.

I have found so far that 50mg/l for 90 minutes is a dosage level that kills 100% of pest aeolid nudibranchs and their egg masses on four species of Montipora. I believe that this is probably a very stressful dose level despite 100% survival of treated corals (n=49). I believe that a lower concentration or a shorter duration is probably still effective, but I do not have enough nudibranchs or coral fragments to expand the scope of the trials. I urge others to help provide more data about this treatment. Photos of corals directly after treatment and 24 hours later are shown (Figures 8-10).


Figure 8. Figure 9. Figure 10.

A local aquarist found his colonies of Montipora to be colonized by pest aeolid nudibranchs (Todd, pers. comm.). He also found them on the walls of the aquarium and on the egg crate in his fragment tanks. Surprisingly, he found a nudibranch near a lesion on an Acropora and believed it to be consuming two specimens of that genus. The identity of the nudibranchs has not yet been confirmed, but they were visually distributed as a typically appearing outbreak population on his Montipora colonies. He decided to isolate Montipora colonies in one tank and then use a volumetric approximation of the 50mg/l dose for a 40-gallon aquarium with sand, corals, fish and other snails present. During the course of treatment, he removed two fish that appeared to be in distress. The removal of the fish caused a small amount of the treated water to be displaced and move into an overflow and into another tank below it (accidental treatment) containing other species of fish and coral.

Even this small amount of treated water had surprising effects within a period of about 10 hours at the low concentration of the accidental treatment tank. He reported that all the fish died rapidly. Xenia and Anthelia “melted” and died rapidly. Pocillopora damicornis and Seriatopora hystrix sloughed their tissue. In both the treatment and accidental treatment tanks, errant polychaetes died, but small “feather worm” polychaetes survived. Stomatella snails, a largely unprotected species, survived. Larger and smaller species of Trochus survived, although the larger species were clearly stressed when initially exposed in the treatment tank. Perhaps their operculums effectively kept out the KMnO4 treated water. A Sarcophyton were clearly stressed, but Sinularia were apparently unaffected. All zoanthids, Aiptasia and Psammacora were unaffected. Turbinaria reacted acutely to the first exposure, but then recovered fully as though unaffected. All pest aeolid nudibranchs had disintegrated and all egg masses had vanished.

A second aquarist has also used the potassium permanganate treatment. He also noted variable survival of the corals at the 50mg/l dose level but with 100% mortality of nudibranchs and eggs. He noted that some colonies appeared to have egg masses still attached, but that these disintegrated rapidly after the colonies were put back into a quarantine tank. He also found that 30 minutes seemed to be long enough to cause nudibranchs and egg masses to be killed. He stated that it is the only treatment that he has tried that works on the eggs, but also noted it was stressful to the corals. Once again, I reiterate that while potassium permanganate appears to have potential, the ideal treatment concentration and duration requires more trials and individual variance among Montipora species or their general health may affect the final treatment dosage.

Clearly, this is not a “reef tank-safe” treatment. It appears to be an effective treatment for Montipora-eating aeolid nudibranchs, and perhaps other pest nudibranchs. At least five species of Montipora (four of my species and additional species in the other aquarists’ aquariums) can tolerate and survive a dose level that kills 100% of nudibranchs and egg masses. I do not think that the ideal dose level has been determined, but I do think that this treatment shows promise for treating Montipora parasitized by pest aeolids. There are also nudibranchs and sundial snails (Heliacus spp.) that prey on zoanthids and, while the effectiveness of the treatment on zoanthid nudibranchs and sundials has not been tested, apparently zoanthids tolerate the potassium permanganate treatment. Other coral species clearly are sensitive and have high mortality when exposed to this chemical, so it is not a treatment for all corals.

I urge others to contribute their findings to this body of work. Concentrations, durations, species used and effectiveness should be measured. I cannot stress enough that my trials here are hopeful and, to some degree, successful, but these trials are preliminary and are given here to be used with extreme caution. Do not attempt to treat a reef tank using these methods. All treatments should occur in a treatment tank or container. Before using potassium permanganate, please read the MSDS sheets for potassium permanganate (e.g., http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ipcsneng/neng0672.html), because it can be a lethal compound if ingested, and this is a heretofore unmentioned use of this product. If a better compound is found or a better protocol is found using allicin or potassium permanganate, it should be documented, repeated and recorded. If there are any questions, comments or contributions from others who use the methods described herein or other methods, please contact me at my e-mail address (eborneman@uh.edu).

Thanks Scotty. Interestingly experimental. Looks hopeful but RISKY. I'm not too worried about it, especially since I do not have much invested in montis (yet).

I did spend the last 45mins looking into every nook and cranny under a VERY BRIGHT LED light (5 bulbs - NEW TOY). Did not spot 1 nudi, no egg masses of any type, but I wouldn't be foolish to believe that I sucked out the only 2 nudibranchs in there. And I'll be watching vigilantly. At this point, I won't be removing any montis, at least not until I spot more nudis. I may even wait to see some serious tissue loss before I go to that extreme. May get a wrasse of some sort if that might help me feel better protected. For now, the turkey baster is their only natural predator.

On a brighter note, the night life in this tank is off the chain. To this day, I figured my copepod and tigger-pod population was completely anihilated by Interceptor (meds for RedBugs), but life has found a way to bring em back. If you've never shined a flashlight to your tank at night, I suggest you do so as soon as possible. I saw things I would never see under moonlights or even 250k halides for that matter. Closely inspected my acros and what I may have suspected to be red bugs were in fact little pods! So I'm 99% certain to be red bug free but less than 20% confident that I won't find anymore nudis. Only time will tell...

The moral of the story is QUARANTINE. Spend the extra money to set one up, and be patient before adding new pieces to your tank.

Good grief man . Sorry to hear that you found a couple of nudis plodding around in your tank. Sounds like you may have caught them early enough that you can easily get rid of them if there happen to be anymore

You've definitely run through the gammut of pests and I completely agree with you that pests are just hard to avoid. Between pests on the live rock (vermitids, algae, etc) and pests coming in on frags (AEFW, Nudis, etc.) just seems like it's next to impossible to avoid them unless you just trade or buy from certain people how you know (which they might not even know) are free of them. I have had my fair share of tanks with live rock related pests but never any coral-specific pests....I feel like I'm walking a tight rope while it's blowing 40mph.

Definitely keep us all posted on how things go with them. I have some caps and encrusting montis if you end up losing some and need them replaced.

Good news, like you said, is that your tank appears to be one heck of a healthy ecosystem. I haven't looked at my tank at night in quite some time and may bust out the red flashlight tonight

Keep your head up....just like in the past I'm sure these will just be a minor "bump" in the road for you.

Tell me about it. Just when everything was starting to go my way too. If it ain't one thing, it's gotta be somethin else. Pests, algae, water quality, etc. Water and coral still look GREAT though, and red algae has quickly become a non-issue.

DAY 3 since spotting the 1st Montipora Eating Nudibranch

Only 2 young ones have been found and extracted so far. No evidence of monti tissue loss. No sight of nudis or egg sacks upon flashlight inspection. Definitely promising but I can't say I'm not worried. It would be a sad shame to lose my sunset monti, among other things. At least we only have a nano-sized issue here and not a 150 gallon one.

Get a nice bright flashlight, wait for 3-4 hours after lights out, make sure the lights in the room are out and have been out for some time, then go hunting.

I have found that monti-munching nudis only seem to go wandering in total darkness. And, frankly, when they are roaming away from montis they are alot easier to extricate.

If you do find the colony hosting them, be ruthless. Scrub the coral with a stiff toothbrush and some strong iodine. Dip it. Don't worry if the coral lives, just make sure the little bastards DIE.

My policy is just to chuck any infected colonies after taking a couple of branch tips to preserve the species in my collection. Better to lose one to the trash can than 30 in my tank, imo.

Best of luck with this, purple. These little guys can be SO evil. Of course, you may have gotten them all and its over. That's the problem with them. You don't know for sure when you are rid of them, you can only know for sure that you have them when you see them.

Agree. Agree. Agree. Funny you say that, I was out hunting last night with a 5X LED flashlight (which I bought from Target JUST FOR THIS PURPOSE). I figure I'll be up late for the next few days. Tonight I'll wait for a few hours of darkness before I shine the searchlight. It makes perfect sense to me that I would get one of these pests. I've had just about everything else. AEFWs are the only things left that I haven't had to reckon with.

I'm thinking to use my stock BC14 w/ PC lighting for a QT, but I don't think I can keep new SPS in there for more than 1 week before they start to brown out.

DAY 4 (after 1st Monti Eating Nudibranch sighting)

Spent a good 30-45mins w/ the LED flashlight last night. No nudis, eggs or larva to be found. Even inspected the sump and frag bins. I read in a few other threads that eggs normally take 4-5 days to hatch, so I'll keep on the hunt for at least another 2 weeks. I figure if there are still any remaining, that I may have identified the pests soon enough to prevent them from causing any real damage. Regardless, I won't be adding any new montis for another 30 days.

ACANS

The acans look gorgeous. I'm tempted to mount them now, but I think I'll wait until I buy a long feeding pipe. Right now I easily slide the mag-float frag rack up to the surface, whenever I want to direct feed em.

CLOWNS

The clownfish just recently started swimming in and out of the rock work, exploring the caves. It's the coolest thing to see them finally do that after 3 years! I may be getting a six line wrasse soon, just cautious about how the clowns might react to it.

Good news so far on the Nudi front

I was just looking back at the pictures of your new Acans and still can't believe the color on those bad boys. I guess I need to start snooping around Ebay more....well I guess I need to find who you bought them from It's always a crap shoot trying to find someone on there that sells corals that look anywhere near what you end up getting. I can see myself getting into Acans again now that the masses have shifted towards Chalices.

Great news on the clowns as well....it's always great to see the inhabitants in our little reefs acting "somewhat" like they would in nature.

Dude, I don't know why it took me so long to pick up some acans. 1st time acans and 1st time ever buying live corals on eBay. I'll let you know when the seller has more up on auction. You'd save money in not having to pay CA sales tax. His packaging was impressive too. 4X bagged in styrofoam casing AND packing peanuts.

Been staring at the tank all day, lookin for nudis. Still no sign of em. Took some pics to be productive. haha





Far polyp extension. Slow grower though.


Established a good base.


Clown hosting live rock. lol


I can see why nudis like to snack on these.

DAY 5 (since1st Monti Eating Nudibranch sighting)

Still no sight of them and no evidence that they have been munching on coral. And believe me, I would notice even the slightest tissue damage to any of my montis. Quite the opposite, their colors are becoming brighter and they're growing! Every day that goes by without spotting one is just that much more reassuring that all will be okay.

Lighting Period

I'm slowly adjusting my lights to come on earlier, to prevent high side temp fluctuations in the late afternoon. In a couple of weeks, I should have the lights come on at 6:00am sharp, and off at 3:00pm. Right now, the frag bin lights up at 9:00pm, and off at 2:00am. Soon, I'll have that up for 8-9 hours as well. There are 4 units controlled to cool this system - 1 fan pointing to the display surface, 1 fan mounted directly above the sump, 1 IceProbe chiller plumbed into the sump and another into frag bin.

Tank Upgrade

I sent ADA this message this morning:

So randy I'm guessing you still want my Montipora aquituberculata since your tank doesnt seem to have any monti eating nudi's? BTW I'm glad to hear that you dont seem to have a outbreak. Also i got a few frags that i am going to get rid of because they are taking up prime real estate on my frag rack

Of course I still want it, if you can hold it for couple of weeks? Want to make sure I'm in the clear. Seeing your coral list, you'll need a 150G real soon! I think you should get one (so you'll have more corals to trade with me). lol

No i want a lot of coral but i am going to make a lot of frags. Yeah i can hold it for a few more week with no problem. I am not going back to the huge tank no more they are just too much to take care of and to me harder to keep under control. I do have two 40g frag tubs ( they right now just have a carpent nem two onyx and a whole lot of cycled live rock)

PM if you want to drop by anytime next week. Just to peep the stuff have, that you may or may not want. So I can frag and heal em up when we do the trade(s).

Very Nice.
its beautiful

You definitely inspired me to pick up some more Acans, Purp. I love the ones I have, but had to pick up three more....

Ohh Dayuummm you gots some real nice stuff in there again!
just dont get redbugs...again...

Great news on the Monti front then. Glad to hear that you still haven't seen any and the Montis are looking better than ever.

Have you mounted the Acans yet or are they still hangin' in the rack?

Right on, I'll check em out in your thread.

when you free for me to drop by. I will even bring you a free Acro off my frag rack since i need to make room. Also so as i can see what i want so you can frag them up. I am in town until wednesday then i am off to Vegas

Thanks Nate. I can't say I never will get RBs again, but FROM THIS POINT ON, all of my coral is going into a QT for 1 week before touching the water in my display.



Come on down today, if you want! PM'd

Thanks for your concern. For the life of me, I can't understand how those bastards got in here. Last coral I added was the Undata on May 9th - and it was dipped in Revive. I would have seen them on that frag. It was at least 1 month prior to that when I added the ORA acro. The only logical explanation I came up with was that they hitched on the 4 Turbo's I added on June 8th. What was I supposed to do, dip the snails in iodine? So I've been contemplating the odds on me spotting and pulling out the only 2 nudis in my entire system. I don't like those odds, so I figure there could be a few more in there - I just haven't seen em yet. Whatever the case, I know they're not eating and if they do make themselves visible, I'll only be dealing with very small numbers of them.

Anyhow, it's DAY 6 (or 7?) since the first signing of them and not another to be found...

AND YES, I couldn't resist. I mounted the acans on Sat and they've already healed from my greasy grimy hands all over em. Looks much better without an eye sore of a frag rack to stare at all day. I'll snap an FTS in a day or two.