Enigma's 40 Breeder Reef

[NanoTopia]

@NanoTopia . . . I forgot to mention that I almost had a flood (stuffed a little too much in the weir).

 

Overflows scare the #### out of me, but mine has worked quite well now for almost a year, no wet floors, knocking on wood. I use a CPR overflow with a Tom aqualifter to keep siphon, so far they have done their job.

 

 

Looks like you opted to go through all the BS at the beginning so that the rest of the tanks life will be problem/pest free, good move Get it all out of the way now, sit back and relax later...

 

Hope things turn around soon Shelley.

[Enigma]

Overflows scare the #### out of me, but mine has worked quite well now for almost a year, no wet floors, knocking on wood. I use a CPR overflow with a Tom aqualifter to keep siphon, so far they have done their job.

 

 

Looks like you opted to go through all the BS at the beginning so that the rest of the tanks life will be problem/pest free, good move Get it all out of the way now, sit back and relax later...

 

Hope things turn around soon Shelley.

 

 

The bonus to going through all of the crap now, is that the tank is not so heavily stocked that I'm afraid to get aggressive in dealing with the pests. If my livestock investment were bigger, I'd be a little more worried.

 

I do definitely need to get a coral/invert QT up and running. Every pest in this tank has come from new coral additions.

 

At least the pests give me something to focus on for the time being now. I caught myself browsing fish last night. Thankfully I've got a good rapport with the manager at that LFS, and he was able to navigate me away from the fish tanks for the time being.

 

The siphon systems make me very nervous, but this overflow system doesn't worry me too much. While my Mexican Turbos could fully block the flow, they're too big to get into the weir. The overflow can handle three times the volume of my returns. There is ample room in the sump if my return pump quits to handle all of the water that returns to the sump. It *should* be okay.

 

I am going to rig up a water-on-the-floor sensor, though.

[Enigma]

I hacked a polyp off of my off my watermelon zoas last night. Turns out the aiptasia was actually growing on a polyp. The zoas got an iodine dip, followed by a H202 dip before being returned to the tank. They look okay today.

 

Flatworm exit works for the flatworms in my tank: at the recomended dosage. I had a lot more of them than I expected, and I'm thankful that their little carcasses didn't nuke my tank. It has been an hour since I treated it, so I guess everything is okay.

 

The corals dipped in the H202 for bryopsis are doing well, and the broyopsis has turned white. Bryopsis is in my sand, however. Not sure what to do about that. Another 4ml of H202 was added to the display last night, with no change to anything in the display. I'm going to up the dosage a little: to 5ml starting tonight.

 

I got two new corals today. I did an errand for a local reefer (moving building materials for him in my truck), and he compensated me for my time with a war coral and a very cool green and purple plating monti (I think that's what it is?). Those corals got an iodine dip and an H202 before being added to the display.

 

I've started to build my topup system. I have the break out box for my Apex, one float switch, and an aqua lifter and tubing. I need two more float switches (availability is an issue, as it turns out).

 

My fishies are doing well. I'm getting impatient to add them back to the display.

 

Oh, the frogspawn I burned with buffer is looking much better today. it looks like my Duncan may be done losing heads, too.

[Enigma]

Crap!

 

All of my cerith snails are dead. As it turns out, a Google search of "flatworm exit cerith snails" returns plenty of hits where cerith snails (and nothing else) have dropped dead after Flatworm eXit usage.

 

My Nassarius are happy (and very well fed after this turn of events), as are my Mexican Turbos. I'll be following up with another does of FE in a few days. I'll hold off replacing my Ceriths for a little while.

 

5ml of H202 tonight. Started dosing with Tech M. Burnt frogspawn looks much better, but not yet 100%. Mohawk pally is producing more heads. Green birdsnest is starting to turn green again (H202 dip made it turn brown). Kenya tree has exploded in size.

 

Oh, I bought more fish. An adult black flase perc and two Bangaii Cardinals. They're in the qt/ht. I'll extend my Paraguard treatment a week. Still not sure if I'm going to keep the Chromis. Everyone is getting along right now.

[badpanda07]

Did your overflow quiet down? I have the super nano on my 40 and it was stupid loud at 1st, I put a little of that magic lube into the elbow and pushed the air vent a good 2-3 inches in there. Im super jealous on the your overflow return system, I went with overflow on the left and return on the right and I thought to myself "man that looks good" but now im wishing I wouldve done what you have going on.

[d'Espresso]

I have flat worm issue too but was hesitate to use FE

[Enigma]

Did your overflow quiet down? I have the super nano on my 40 and it was stupid loud at 1st, I put a little of that magic lube into the elbow and pushed the air vent a good 2-3 inches in there. Im super jealous on the your overflow return system, I went with overflow on the left and return on the right and I thought to myself "man that looks good" but now im wishing I wouldve done what you have going on.

 

Thank! I'm very pleased with my return system, and I would absolutely do it again. I researched my return system quite heavily though, and I got feedback from some very experienced reefers.

 

My overflow is a different story. I didn't research it very well at all. I really don't like it. It is still noisy, and if the pipe gets clogged I'm in trouble. Next time I'll do a Bean Animal overflow.

 

I'm reading your thread (though I haven't posted to it). The nice thing about your set up is that you don't have an overflow weir in the middle of your back wall. It makes for a very clean look. I like it.

[Enigma]

I have flat worm issue too but was hesitate to use FE

 

I've gone homicidal on the pests in my tank. They aren't too bad yet, and I've read all of the horror stories. I'd rather deal with smaller quantities of pests now, then huge populations of them later. My livestock investement at this point is around $500, so it isn't huge by reef tank standards. If I loose a bit of my investment I'm okay with that. I'd rather lose a little now, instead of a lot down the road.

 

My coral pre-introduction dips have become really aggressive, and I'm setting up my coral QT today. Every pest (algaes, fireworms, and flatworms) in the tank came in with corals.

 

I only saw four flatworms before I used FE. I'd guesstimate the carcasses I saw floating in my tank at 100+. I was shocked! I knew I had more than I saw, but I wasn't expecting those types of numbers.

[Enigma]

Found a little, white, bi-lobal flatworm on the glass of my tank around 2 hours ago. I figured I would try to kill it. Double the FE dosage had no effect on it, so I chickened out and removed it from the tank.

 

While I was watching it (and chanting in my head "Die! Die!") I watched it eat three copepods. Interesting.

 

I have a huge pod population in this tank right now. HUGE. I expect I'll see more of these guys. Once the fish are back in the display I'm sure they'll reduce the pod population in no time, and as a result will halt the multiplication of the flatworms.

[Enigma]

Dinos.

[NanoTopia]

Your dipping corals like monti in Iodine ? What is the strength you are using? I am using Revive, strength as recommended.

 

Good news on the bryopsis, I'm scared to try H2O2 in my tank, just too much invested. Speaking of invested, I picked up a ORA German Blue Polyp Digitata yesterday, haven't decided where to put it as of yet. real estate is getting non-existant.

 

Keep us posted Shelley, looks like things are slowly turning around, be patient.

 

 

 

Dinos.

 

Dinos

 

Caused by the die off of FW's maybe?

[Enigma]

Your dipping corals like monti in Iodine ? What is the strength you are using? I am using Revive, strength as recommended.

 

The monti came out of the same tank as my bryopsis carrying "frag zero". There is no way anything from that tank will ever go into my tank again without being thoroughly decontaminated. It's worse than unprotected sex! (not really, but my point is made).

 

While I do feel a tiny little bit guilty, my fear overrides my guilt.

 

I use Seachem Reef Dip. 5ml/gallon. The monti got a single five minute dip. Then it went into the H202 dip. I'll be adding a Flatworm eXit dip to my process, too. But, as I'd just treated the tank, this one didn't get that dip.

 

Good news on the bryopsis, I'm scared to try H2O2 in my tank, just too much invested.

 

Here is the latest on the H202 treatments:

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...t&p=3952188

 

I'm working on my backup plan in case it all goes bad. My livestock investment is minimal at this point, my fish aren't in this tank yet, and my snail population is low. This is the one time in this tank's life where I'll have the opportunity to get aggressive.

 

If I had your tank, I'd be a lot less willing to experiment.

 

Speaking of invested, I picked up a ORA German Blue Polyp Digitata yesterday, haven't decided where to put it as of yet. real estate is getting non-existant.

 

Lovely! I can't wait to see it (pics on your thread yet? . . . I'll check. )

 

Dinos

 

Caused by the die off of FW's maybe?

 

Ah! Maybe. I hadn't considered that. The dinos popped up on the sand right next the "Frag Zero," so I blamed the frag.

[badpanda07]

I just recently did the h202 method on my bryopsis and WOW! I dumped some in at 3 am and by 6 am it was already dull and when I got home from work at 4pm it was ghost white, my corals looked very upset but the next day they were all 100% again, my clown and my mandarin showed no signs, hermits,crabs,snails,shrimp, and scallop are all alive and kicking also. One thing I did notice that seemed strange was that it burned all the tips of my aptasia and some of the smaller ones died. I did make the mistake of not removing my chaeto in time and I think thats as good as gone.

 

Just a quick recap on my experience, I didnt measure anything I just closed my eyes and poured I would say I put maybe 100ml into about 50 gallons.

[Enigma]

You're braver than I am!

 

I'm working with a pretty conservative dose. The bryopsis is still spreading, but I did finally get die-off from the systemic treatment yesterday.

 

I've dosed 7.5 ml the last three days. I did take one day off dosing (Tuesday).

 

I have a little patch of cyano, now.

[Enigma]

I have two zombie cerith snails! Two of them have come back from the dead.

[Enigma]

 

 

 

 

 

[NanoTopia]

Tank looks fantastic E, rocks are squeaky clean and the livestock looks healthy and happy. Well done!

[Enigma]

I should really take the time and effort to pull out my good camera to take tank shots.

 

Anyhow . . . The fish are back in. I've made some new coral and cuc additions. I should do up a livestock list. I'm planning on drilling the rock so I have better places to put the SPS. I don't want to perminantnly affix anything at this point, as the rocks are going to need to be pulled and get an H202 dip.

 

I have a week off in a couple of weeks, and I may devote a day to the bryopsis battle. The systemic dosages @ 7.5ml a day aren't cutting it. My time is in such short supply that it is winning.

 

Tank looks fantastic E, rocks are squeaky clean and the livestock looks healthy and happy. Well done!

 

I was just wondering why I never take photos when everything looks happy. A couple of the corals look slightly depressed today, and my BlackBerry doesn't catch all of the GHA and bryopsis. Sadly, it doesn't catch all of my colors, either. The Green birdsnest is about 2/3s coloured up, and it has regained almost all of its flesh. Polyps are fully extended, and it is looking really good.

[NanoTopia]

So did the H2O2 treatment work as well as you hoped then? Tank looks pretty clean to me.

[Enigma]

So did the H2O2 treatment work as well as you hoped then? Tank looks pretty clean to me.

 

Nope. IMO it has been a dismal failure. I'm still dosing every day. The GHA has slowed and shorter, but the bryopsis is growing strong. I think I noticed another nasty algae in the tank on one of the snails. The name escapes me at the moment (the green "wormy" one).

 

The cyano is gone. The dinos are gone. It is going to take a lot of manual time and effort to eradicate the rest, unfortunately. I'm just not sure where the time will come from.

 

I'm working on a 60 gallon system in the basement as a holding system in case I need it: for the livestock in this tank. I'm very close to dumping a litre of H202 into this system!

 

Edit: Neomeris is the green "wormy" algae. I'm not 100% sure yet, though.

[Enigma]

Well, it isn't very clean right now. But, here goes . . . Pics from my good camera.

 

 

Tank shots: August 4, 2012

 

 

 

 

Sadly, nothing has made its home in this cave.

 

 

 

Fish Shots: August 4, 2012

 

Tiger (from Golds)

 

 

Tam (from Golds)

 

 

Nemo (from Red Coral)

Nemo's colors really are that gorgeous. I love the black "dusting" on him.

 

 

No name (Big Al's)

 

 

 

There are also three green chromis in the tank, but they're impossible to get good shots of. They aren't permanent residents (I keep saying that).

 

The fish namer (wearing shorts over his pj pants, and Kleenex stuffed up his nose)

 

 

Coral shots: August 4, 2012

 

Note that the "From" names are members of another forum, where these photos were first posted.

 

From reefwars

 

 

From reefwars

 

 

From Snappy

 

 

From reefwars

 

 

From sphelps (this one is green, but looks quite brown in the photo)

 

 

 

 

From Red Coral

 

 

From Piscies

 

 

From Snappy

 

 

From Snappy

 

 

From sphelps (Snappy's orange mushie is in the background)

 

 

From sphelps (colours off in photo)

 

 

 

For those of you in Canada . . . The "Snappy" indicated above is Greg from coralmaster.com

[tennis20]

The tank looks great! Any updates?

[NanoTopia]

+1

[metrokat]

How is the Red Sea Max treating you?

[NanoTopia]

Any updates Shelley??

 

Missing your posts