Jedi's Science Reef

[jedimaster1138]

OK while i try to import both this report and the one from January into Excel and make them pretty, i'll post hte highlights from this report here.

 

Unwanted Heavy Metals

Tin (Sn) is high. 5.25. Set point is 0. In January it was 0.

Aluminum (Al) is high, though it doesn't say it's high. It's 14.37. Set point is 0. In January, it was 0

Weird. I don't use Aluminum media or anything and haven't in years. I wonder if I should stick a bag of Cuprisorb in the sump and leave it there permanently?

 

Macro Elements

All looks good. Calcium 465, Mg 1415, Potassium 434 (Set 400).

Bromine is elevated, 72 vs 62 set, but it was in January too, though more extreme. 140 vs 62. Shrug.

Strontium is a hair low. 6.81 vs 8.00. January was 7.56. Whatever.

 

Li-Group

Lithium is absurdly high, 408 vs 200, though not as extreme as in January - 1100.

Molybdenum is similar. 120 vs 12, actually a bigger deviation than January - 23 vs 12.

This seems to be common with Triton tests of US water, or so the internet says. I dunno what to make of it and I'm not sure I care to waste the brain cells on it. Whatever.

 

I-Group

Iodine is high. 123 vs 60 set point. January was spot on.

I dunno, I don't dose it.

 

Fe- group

Iron is elevated. 2.86 vs 0. January = 0.

I haven't used GFO in a few months.

 

Skipping to Nutrients

P = 92. Set = 6. January = 65

PO4 = .283 Set = 0.018. January = 0.199

 

LOL is all i have to say about this section.

 

I don't know if there's anything I truly care about, care to do anything about, or is worth thinking about in this report. The Iodine is weird, but again, whatever. The heavy metals I don't get at all. Maybe some kind of algae isn't present to consume these elements?

 

P and PO4 isn't exactly news. Hopefully the removal of the refugium sand the other day will signal the beginning of the end of P in my reef. I'm holding out hope that was the P storage facility.

[metrokat]

Cuprisorb and polyfilter should take care of the unwanted IMO. No harm trying.

[jedimaster1138]

Definitely seeing better things on the day following a dose of the Red Sea Reef Energy products. PE is definitely more pronounced across the board. Am a fan so far. Still dosing those (mixed together) on even days and KZ Coral Vitalizer on odd days. Always late at night. Also around ~20ml of NOPOX in the evening.

[HarryPotter]

Definitely seeing better things on the day following a dose of the Red Sea Reef Energy products. PE is definitely more pronounced across the board. Am a fan so far. Still dosing those (mixed together) on even days and KZ Coral Vitalizer on odd days. Always late at night. Also around ~20ml of NOPOX in the evening.

 

Using cuprisorb?

 

A single Triton Test is like $50?

[jedimaster1138]

 

Using cuprisorb?

 

A single Triton Test is like $50?

 

$49 yeah if you buy a one test. Price goes down if you buy 3 at a time or 6 at a time. I bought a 3 pack a while back, I think there was a sale. I still have one left. It's definitely useful, just wish it was a little cheaper or there was a subscription type thing.

 

Didn't get the cuprisorb going yet. I have a big hunk of PolyFilter in the closet over the fridge. Just have to get in there and toss it in the sump one night this week.

[jedimaster1138]

Been measuring alkalinity daily. Rock solid at dKH = 8.01 +/- 0.02. So....wooooooooo. Probably why PE and color looks good on a lot of colonies. Brown Planet is still brown but MIGHT be showing some green and red. SSC is still poop gray brown, though has bright red polyps. lol

 

Dosing KZ CV or Red Sea Energy on alternating days.

 

Aiptasia remains a scourge. Big ones, little ones, medium ones. I don't know what else to do short of go into the tank daily with Aiptasia-X. There's big ones in the back that I can't reach if I wanted to anyway. They are ticking off some of the sps and z's and p's. Mostly killed the Eagle Eye colony. Rastas and dragon eyes continue to melt and/or look like poo. Bah. I'd prefer not to try to catch my yellow tang, give it away, and replace it with a Copperband as who knows if the CBB will even eat the things OR that I could catch the YT without breaking half my colonies.

[markalot]

Progress is progress!

[jedimaster1138]

Yeah. Things look better now, that's for sure. PE and color is great, especially on the newer SPS that didn't go through the cycles of alk spikes up and down.

 

I just don't know what else to do about the aiptasia. Literally every day I see dozens more. This morning I spied a new one in the back corner the size of a golf ball and a few at the base of both the goniporas. There's a few dozen small ones encircling the Katropora, which is showing some recession near the aiptasia. BAH.

 

Do I risk a matted file fish? Honestly at this point I don't have a lot of zoas left so, there's that. The big Sunny D colony is the only one that I don't have frags of in the nano (which is also overrun with aiptasia). What concerns me about the file fish is any nipping on LPS, though I could move the acans if i had to, and SPS, which would be a disaster.

[vlangel]

Could you try peppermint shrimp for the aiptasia? They sometimes eat zoas but if you don't have many any way? Of course it sounds like some of your aiptasia is on steroids and I doubt peppermint shrimp would tackle those.

 

I am glad that the tank is turning the corner.

[jedimaster1138]

Could you try peppermint shrimp for the aiptasia? They sometimes eat zoas but if you don't have many any way? Of course it sounds like some of your aiptasia is on steroids and I doubt peppermint shrimp would tackle those.

 

I am glad that the tank is turning the corner.

 

Thanks. It's amazing what low nutrients and stable alkalinity can do for SPS.

 

I've had half a dozen peppermints since the tank started, except for the few times I bombed the tank with Interceptor to kill red bugs, though I refreshed the peppermint herd multiple times since. They live in the left cave and come out in the dead of night to scavenge. Judging by the size of the infestation, they aren't eating any aiptasia or they really need to get dramatically hungrier.

 

Speaking of the dead of night, I've looked for the berghias in the middle of the night. I haven't seen them. I am working on the assumption that the various hunter killer wrasses have uh, hunted and killed them.

 

I suppose I could get a bunch more peppermints and pray. That's the easier solution with little or no chance of coral nipping.

[jedimaster1138]

So this is happening again, yay.

 

Late July...

 

 

Then fully recovered and got all polyp-y and fluffy.

 

Til now. This started late last week. Significantly worse than last time in so much as some areas have dumped everything. BAH

 

 

I removed the poly-filter the other day. Don't know if that's at the root of it or what. Oddly, lots of other corals look markedly better. Red Planet and Strawberry Shortcake look much less like poop. There's actual non-brown color to them. So. I don't know.

 

dKH is rock solid between 7.75 and 8. No idea about nutrients. I don't dose NOPOX more than a tiny amount once a week, though I haven't in a while since this started again. I bet nitrate is very low, if not undetectable and phosphate is...well who knows. Maybe i'll test later. BAH

[metrokat]

I know you said you don't have pests but it looks like pests did that.

[jedimaster1138]

There are no pests that I can see with my eye or magnified. Shrug.

 

Unrelated, the purple stylophora is growing like gangbusters. So yay!

[metrokat]

Break off a branch of that pissy coral and examine with a magnifying glass

[markalot]

Picture isn't big enough to see anything, where are the full size pics?

 

Purple stylo never stops.

[jedimaster1138]

Break off a branch of that pissy coral and examine with a magnifying glass

 

I'm actually going to frag it anyway in hopes of saving it. Plus there's a branch creeping up on something else.

 

Picture isn't big enough to see anything, where are the full size pics?

 

Purple stylo never stops.

 

Yeah those were phone pictures.

 

You guys made me paranoid so I took some pictures with the big boy camera. I don't see any red bugs. Now i'm really paranoid though and am trying to figure out if i can see AEFW. Mutter.

[jedimaster1138]

Have some resolution.

 

[jedimasterben]

Photobucket doesn't seem to allow a direct image link to the original size, still only looking at like 800x600 here on NR, doesn't even take up 1/6 of my monitor

 

http://s82.photobucket.com/user/jedimaster1138/media/120g%20Reef/IMG_4190_zps8yqfqqzk.jpg.html <- that links to the full size image.

[metrokat]

What are we looking at? the picture is still small.

[Chris L]

Do you have any large soft corals near it.....like toadstool?

[markalot]

What are we looking at? the picture is still small.

 

You and photos, I tell ya. Go to link, hit magnifying glass in upper right after image loads, and then right click and open in new tab for the actual full size image.

 

I don't see anything like AEFW damage but one branch is showing some physical damage, looks like a polyps or small branch has been ripped away leaving an empty hole.

 

This link might work. http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j277/jedimaster1138/120g%20Reef/IMG_4190_zps8yqfqqzk.jpg~original

[metrokat]

 

You and photos, I tell ya. Go to link, hit magnifying glass in upper right after image loads, and then right click and open in new tab for the actual full size image.

 

I'm adorable. Photography challenged, but adorable.

[jedimaster1138]

Do you have any large soft corals near it.....like toadstool?

 

I don't even have any soft corals in general.

 

Another interesting point i neglected to make last night. I have 2 colonies of this coral. The one pictured is the first / bigger one. About...9 months ago or so there was an inadvertent fragging of a baseball sized piece. I wound up mounting that piece about 2 feet away on a completely different rock structure. It's going through the same decline as this one. So. Yeah. Make of that what you wish.

 

I'm adorable. Photography challenged, but adorable.

 

Well i'm glad SOME people understood what i was trying to do :-P

 

You and photos, I tell ya. Go to link, hit magnifying glass in upper right after image loads, and then right click and open in new tab for the actual full size image.

 

I don't see anything like AEFW damage but one branch is showing some physical damage, looks like a polyps or small branch has been ripped away leaving an empty hole.

 

This link might work. http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j277/jedimaster1138/120g%20Reef/IMG_4190_zps8yqfqqzk.jpg~original

 

A couple branches aren't just retracted now, they have completely dumped their flesh. There's also various algae, including cyano (booo) growing on a few of the least healthy branches. So that's awesome. I'm for sure not seeing any AEFW eggs, so that's good. Bah. I dunno.

 

Ride it out I guess.

[jedimasterben]

What corals are doing well in your tank? Might be good to just stock up on those

[markalot]

Seems to me there are only a few assumptions that can be made to explain this.

 

• Some sort of predator
• Some sort of contaminant
• Water is depleted of something this acro needs to grow
• An unmeasured parameter swung big time, harming the coral