surgicalsense Posted January 26, 2012 Share Posted January 26, 2012 This cap was a coral I bought back in October. It was not healthy at all when I bought it, and I was half expecting it to die early. Before the tissue recession began, it was growing and I started to think the coral was going to completely recover. I don't think the lights can be blamed in this instance, since it had done so well up to this point under the Sol. I was really thinking a nudi snuck in on a newer coral. But there was literally no evidence of it. I've had montis before, but I had never seen one where the underside was complete skeleton (it was like this when I bought it) and the topside was healthy looking. Either way, we'll see how the fragged piece does. I have a monti digitata in the tank too, and it was been growing since I introduced it. It colored up really nice too since I added it. I'm hoping this was a fluke. Shame about the monti. Hope it comes back. I had a purple rim, but when I purchased it I asked about my lighting and they said it would be okay anyways, long story short. The tissue was turning light brown also and the purple rim faded. Happened within a month or the purchase. I placed it in my friends tank since she has the right lighting for it. So far it has bounced back. I hope I can get another one very soon. I am upgrading my lights this weekend. Link to comment
pschom Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 I just traded in a monti cap that I grew from a less than 1" frag to a real nice looking piece. It wasn't looking good. Polyps weren't coming out at all. Lost it's rim too. No clue why. Maybe it was stressed from the move. I still have a frag of it left. See if it comes back. Link to comment
Chris George Posted January 27, 2012 Author Share Posted January 27, 2012 After fragging my monti cap and using putty to secure it to the rock, it immediately turned stark white the next day directly around the the putty. I'm talking pure white within a day, perfectly outlining the putty. I had no idea that corals didn't like direct contact with reef putty. But admittedly I've never had much sps. I quickly pulled it off and fragged it two more times where there was no white skeleton. I placed all 3 pieces (including the piece that had white skeleton) in 3 different parts of the tank by just shoving them into the rockwork (no putty). All 3 are doing well now. The piece with the white skeleton has even had some tissue regenerate. While I still have no idea what caused the initial tissue recession of the original large piece, I'm 100% confident the putty caused the problem the on the new frag. It's possible the putty caused the problem with the original piece too. When I initially added the piece to my tank, the part touching the putty was already dead, but the tissue started to spread out and the coral started to encrust the putty. Shortly after that, the tissue started receding. I should've taken new pics already, but I didn't want to lose the piece so I just quickly fragged it again. I'll keep the progress on the frags posted here. Link to comment
pschom Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 IMO I don't think putty caused the problem. I've stuck caps with putty several times and nothing happened. I've seen what your talking about on another thread a while back. It was worse, but same thing. I think the person thought there was a worm attached to the underside, but they weren't sure. Same thing happened to theirs. I think moving any coral around too much stresses them out so they don't do well, especially if there is already something else going on with it. It's hard for me to think of them as animals...even after being into this stuff for a couple years. What kind of putty was it? Link to comment
Chris George Posted January 27, 2012 Author Share Posted January 27, 2012 The second issue was clearly the putty. I really wish I would've taken pics. There was a perfect ring of white around the putty. It was spreading quickly too. I removed the frag and putty, and the white recession stopped on a dime and now colored tissue is growing back. The first issue I had I'm still unsure of. It was this putty: http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/store/reef-e...ns-wonders.html Link to comment
Chris George Posted January 27, 2012 Author Share Posted January 27, 2012 I just found this article explaining that epoxy can kill sps tissue near the epoxy. Looks like it has something to do with how hot the epoxy gets when first kneaded. Sounds like my white ring of skeleton could've actually stopped and everything would've been fine, but I was in save mode after it looked like I was going to lose a very nice piece altogether. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-01/gh/index.php Here's a quick quote so you don't have to search the whole article (although it's a good read on fragging): "When using putty epoxy on SPS corals, it's important to recognize that all covered coral tissue will die, and also that while curing, the putty will heat up and kill any tissue very close to the edge of the epoxy. In some rare instances the dying tissue can form a front of diseased tissue that will travel up the fragment, killing the entire fragment. The probability of this can be minimized by keeping the coral fragments' base cool by placing them in a bath of tank water that has good circulation from an airstone or a small powerhead. " Link to comment
pschom Posted January 27, 2012 Share Posted January 27, 2012 That's crazy. I have a pretty nice monti cap that definitely has putty all over it and it's growing daily. Lol it's even spreading over the epoxy above it that's left over from something else. Link to comment
Chris George Posted January 27, 2012 Author Share Posted January 27, 2012 My original piece started spreading over the putty too. The problem arises when you first mount it. The putty is hot when it's kneaded and soft. The heat directly touching the coral tissue is what causes the harm, which can then spread into a full-blown necrosis. I believe that is what happened to mine the second time. Because there was a month's time between buying the original frag and when I first noticed the recession, I'm not totally on board with it being the problem the first time. Link to comment
Chris George Posted February 12, 2012 Author Share Posted February 12, 2012 Look who's been coral shopping! I promise that when all of those zoanthid frags are placed that there will be no more visible eggcrate in my tank. Is this a blue tort? My ability to ID acropora is pretty rookie. Vivid does not label their sps tank, and I forgot to ask. This is a new shot of my old acan. I've moved it to the sandbed, no longer directly underneath the AI Sol. It has opened up much more and looks great. Link to comment
Builder Anthony Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 certainly is a nice acan Link to comment
Chris George Posted February 12, 2012 Author Share Posted February 12, 2012 certainly is a nice acan Thanks. It looked nothing like this at the LFS when I got it back in December. I've started spot-feeding it Arcti-Pods and pellet food this week. I've already noticed that it got larger. Link to comment
urbaneks Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 Chris - Just looked through your entire thread. This is a very nice build and it looks like you have a great scape to build on. Thanks for sharing your tank here. Link to comment
Chris George Posted February 12, 2012 Author Share Posted February 12, 2012 Chris - Just looked through your entire thread. This is a very nice build and it looks like you have a great scape to build on. Thanks for sharing your tank here. How funny, I JUST posted to your thread about making my own equipment panel inspired by yours. Thanks for the kind words! I'm actually thinking of reducing my scape even further. The two rocks in back/right of the tank will come out, leaving just the front rock and arch structure. I'll move the entire arch structure over to the right, leaving a large open space in the middle for clams, acans, and zoanthids in the sand bed. Any thoughts on that? Link to comment
urbaneks Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 How funny, I JUST posted to your thread about making my own equipment panel inspired by yours. Thanks for the kind words! I'm actually thinking of reducing my scape even further. The two rocks in back/right of the tank will come out, leaving just the front rock and arch structure. I'll move the entire arch structure over to the right, leaving a large open space in the middle for clams, acans, and zoanthids in the sand bed. Any thoughts on that? I think the open tank will be great but once your SPS starts growing in you will run out of real estate quickly and be looking to get some more surface in there. Just my guess. I love the look of the open tanks plus it just helps with the flow. I think your plan has a good vision to it. Can't wait to see an update on both the scape and the equipment panel. I'm subscribed to your thread now. Let me know if you have follow up questions on the equipment panel. Link to comment
JR! Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 Chris - Just looked through your entire thread. This is a very nice build and it looks like you have a great scape to build on. Thanks for sharing your tank here. took the words right out of my mouth. amazing tank man. Link to comment
d'Espresso Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 Awesome build! Imma going to pay attention to this one, so please updated more often with pictures and detail. Lol Link to comment
Chris George Posted February 13, 2012 Author Share Posted February 13, 2012 Awesome build! Imma going to pay attention to this one, so please updated more often with pictures and detail. Lol Thanks for the kind words and will do. Look for some updates this week. I'm going to try something new with my rock work. Link to comment
748S911 Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 beautiful reef, and great build. Link to comment
pschom Posted February 13, 2012 Share Posted February 13, 2012 Reshaping in the biocube was a PITA. With this shallow cube it's actually kind of fun. Looking forward to pics of the new scape! Link to comment
Neto Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Great looking tank! nice work on the stand too! Link to comment
21093r53 Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Weird... My cap didnt like the sols either... Makes you think... thats because mh>LEDs for sps. Link to comment
Chris George Posted February 15, 2012 Author Share Posted February 15, 2012 thats because mh>LEDs for sps. There could a million and one reasons that his cap didn't make it. Blaming the lights for a loss of a coral is premature until we start seeing a pattern of them doing poorly under LEDs. Mine on the other hand has recovered nicely and is growing faster than any other coral in the tank. I bought my first blue-ish sps, so I'll keep track of the color. I know a lot people claim LEDs are poor at retaining blue in sps. Link to comment
Chris George Posted February 22, 2012 Author Share Posted February 22, 2012 More pics. - Blue Mille I got at Vivid last Friday. Sorry for the bad pics. I didn't realize they were out of focus until later: - Pink Stylo from Vivid: - my old orange monti cap all healed up. You can see it encrusting onto the surrounding rock: - Some Joker palys from Mr. Coral: - New front FTS with the updated rock work: - Side FTS: Link to comment
coloagro Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Love the plumbing and rockwork! I love these shallow reefs' --I'm debating which direction to go with my main build! Looks great keep it up! Link to comment
Chris George Posted February 23, 2012 Author Share Posted February 23, 2012 Love the plumbing and rockwork! I love these shallow reefs' --I'm debating which direction to go with my main build! Looks great keep it up! Thanks a lot! I had so much fun at the building and designing stage that I already want to put together another tank. Since I don't have any space for that, let me know if I can help you out with any of yours. Link to comment
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