Kat's Ol' Max

[metrokat]

Good morning

[Mariaface]

Did a huge chunk of coralline get eaten off the overflow during these photos?

[metrokat]

Did a huge chunk of coralline get eaten off the overflow during these photos?

Eaten, scraped, chipped off. That overflow is an acrylic piece, the rest of the false back wall is smoked glass. Coralline is hard to get rid off on acrylics so it is such a sore sight when the rest of the back wall is clean.

[metrokat]

I epoxied in a piece of rubble to that cave/hole. It left a little opening and what do you know, the Baslet snuck back in there!

 

Here's Kramer. He's enormous.

 

And the lights got properly installed now. Except for the ugly ass electrical connections on the back wall, this could have looked so much better. I ordered a filtration cover from Stevie T, should be here Friday. Then you won't see any of the pipes and things at the back.

[Alex B]

Kat thanks again for the foods!

 

The nutricell works great. Whatever your secret sauce is though, it's awesome. My acros go nuts when I feed it. You might have to hook me up with that recipe!...lol... How much of the nutricell should I be using in my 70 gallon?..I've been using about half of a 1/4 teaspoon measuring cup.

 

Going to order some this week along with a couple other foods.

[metrokat]

Good Morrow people of the Reef.

 

Operation dip, swirl, swish was somewhat done yesterday. The fuge rocks were dipped in a bucket of less salinity water. Also washed out the wad of chaeto I've had for over 2 years. FW are considerably less, but still ever present. Gnarly fuge is gnarly.

 

Oh here's that little starfish I like. It was having a meal with the bristle worm in the neighborhood.

 

If you look past the hair algae you can see Dingbat the 2nd hanging out on the Nepthea. Speaking of which, the leather is gimongous. I'm afraid of fragging and nuking the tank with toxins. Any suggestions to minimize that?

 

Darth Maul Porites looks purrdy

 

And my Xenia forest. Just because.

[jedimasterben]

I'm afraid of fragging and nuking the tank with toxins. Any suggestions to minimize that?

You run carbon, you'll be fine.

 

 

Or you can just send it to me

[metrokat]

Kat thanks again for the foods!

 

The nutricell works great. Whatever your secret sauce is though, it's awesome. My acros go nuts when I feed it. You might have to hook me up with that recipe!...lol... How much of the nutricell should I be using in my 70 gallon?..I've been using about half of a 1/4 teaspoon measuring cup.

 

Going to order some this week along with a couple other foods.

You're welcome Alex. Secret sauce is secret, . Naw, it's a mix of all the dry corals foods I feed.

-Reef roids

-Nutricell

-De-capped brine eggs

-Reef Chilli

-Reef cleaners filter formula

-TLF phytoplan

-TLF zooplan

 

Nutricell - The food is extremely fine so a little has a lot. 1/4 tsp mixed into a solution and target feeding the corals will be best. Start with once a week, then add more days as needed and if your tank can handle the nutrients.

[metrokat]

Oh, I should explain all the algae you see in this picture. Benny just pinged me with OMG YOU HAVE ALGAE!

So the GHA is on the acrylic parts of the fuge mostly for some reason. On the side walls and the back, and will cover the front if I didn't clean it. There is a little bit on the rocks but the green there is mostly all caulerpa with some turf algae in some areas. The GHA seems to be of 2 varieties in there, the kind on the walls and the other kind that grows on my macros. You can see that on the clump on the right.

The dark green on the back right is my Chaeto chamber.

 

[jedimasterben]

Oh, I should explain all the algae you see in this picture. Benny just pinged me with OMG YOU HAVE ALGAE!

[markalot]

Lots of picture updates, I was shocked and pleased.

 

So my Katropora has browned a bit but is growing like crazy. I shifted it over to be more under one of my Razor clusters which will raise the par from 300 to near 400 or so, we'll see if that helps. Probably higher phosphates than it likes as well.

[jedimasterben]

Lots of picture updates, I was shocked and pleased.

 

So my Katropora has browned a bit but is growing like crazy. I shifted it over to be more under one of my Razor clusters which will raise the par from 300 to near 400 or so, we'll see if that helps. Probably higher phosphates than it likes as well.

I've got mine sitting at around 350 peak or so, I've also noticed it a little more brown than I remember. I don't really care to measure nitrate or phosphate, though, so those may be the cause

 

 

Hell, I'm just glad that it's still alive. Kat sent me a red montipora, too, that thing bleached out and kicked the bucket, but the three acros she sent me are all ok.

[Veng]

That's nothing, you should have seem the GHA, green turf, red turf, and cheato I pulled out of my sump yesterday... Algae is suppose to be in your refugium. Makes it easier for your clean up crew to keep your main tank clean. Speaking of, I probably need to post another FTS soon, the tuxedos have really gone to town lately on the turf that had taken hold in the main tank.

[metrokat]

The last measurement I have is 385 PAR for the Katropora. (Don't shoot me Benny) Perhaps the spectrum of light also makes a difference. The coral was smack under the T5s here, only partially getting the spread from the LEDs.

[Cameron6796]

Which freaking coral is the mysterious "katropora"

[MikeTR]

Mines brown too and hasn't grown a mm in 6 months. Whateverata! red bugs prob don't help neither. Shrimps need to cooperate and go in their trap so I can dose finally.

[jedimasterben]

That's nothing, you should have seem the GHA, green turf, red turf, and cheato I pulled out of my sump yesterday... Algae is suppose to be in your refugium. Makes it easier for your clean up crew to keep your main tank clean. Speaking of, I probably need to post another FTS soon, the tuxedos have really gone to town lately on the turf that had taken hold in the main tank.

My rock fuge/algae scrubber area looks wayyyyy worse, mostly from light spill. I also had some GHA growing inside my skimmer, I'll bet it loved it in there

 

In my old 'display' fuge when I had the 40B sump I had a normal CUC in it to keep the 'nuisance' algae down a bit, but since I've got an algae scrubber that works now I can't really do that, so I've gotta deal with it growing everywhere. Not the biggest deal since it's not a display fuge anymore though

[tibbsy07]

Oh, I should explain all the algae you see in this picture. Benny just pinged me with OMG YOU HAVE ALGAE!

So the GHA is on the acrylic parts of the fuge mostly for some reason. On the side walls and the back, and will cover the front if I didn't clean it.

Acrylic is easier to attach to than glass for algae and biofilms, etc.

[metrokat]

So Benny, Mike and Mark have browned out Katroporas. Klein has a pretty Katropora. Y'all should compare notes on basics like temperature, Calcium, Alk etc.

Which freaking coral is the mysterious "katropora"

[metrokat]

Maybe the Katropora expells the zooxanthelea in a new tank no matter what. The second picture was taken 1 month after I got the frag from Zeph, but it had browned within the first 10 days.

 

 

This was my starter frag.

 

 

Let's see how this time lapse shows the color and growth over 2 years.

 

 

 

Edit: not very well, since it only took 3 pictures. pffft

[tibbsy07]

Browning is the increase of zooxanthellae in the coral, which would suggest that they are overpopulating the coral likely due to increased light availability. It's only the expulsion of the zooxanthellae that returns the coral's color ( I assume the first picture is unhappy coral, the second is happy?), or in bad cases, bleaching, right?

[metrokat]

Browning is the increase of zooxanthellae in the coral, which would suggest that they are overpopulating the coral likely due to increased light availability. It's only the expulsion of the zooxanthellae that returns the coral's color ( I assume the first picture is unhappy coral, the second is happy?)

I had high phosphates and the coral browned out. The one on the left is what it looked like when I got it. So was it happy before or after?

[Mariaface]

I'd say the zooxanthellae was happy about the higher phosphates, not necessarily the coral itself. And once the overpopulation triggers expulsion, the coral can start maintaining a better balance.

[tibbsy07]

Looks to me as if it was happy after, not before. Browning = too much zooxanthellae (probably due to the phosphates, as even though they are photosynthetic, phosphates are critical), bleaching = not enough, good color = perfect balance.

 

I say that because the one on the right looks reddish, orange - not brown. That indicates healthy tissue, to me, at least. Unless the coral is supposed to be white with purple polyps, then it's wrong. But that coral on the left looks unhappy to me. Looks semi-bleached.

[MikeTR]

I'll take a par reading tonight. My levels are 8.4dkh / 420Ca /1300mg / 78-79F / .06 PO4 / 1 NO3