HOB 40 Breeder***Update 5/6.... New Growth Pics!

[Roshan8768]

I have been having some issues with the corals in this tank... I believe largely due to too much light. However, I have a feeling that there may be some water quality issues and salinity/temp instability as well. Hopefully I can get these issues figured out and on the way to being resolved while I'm home for Spring Break.

 

The state of the tank when I got home wasn't too pretty, plenty of algae of all kinds and most of the corals where either closed up, pissed off or dead. Here's some of the Caulerpa that I pulled off the rock work:

 

 

The "cleaned up" tank

 

 

 

Here are some of the corals that seem worse for the wear:

 

Palys:

 

 

GSP:

 

 

Xenia... or the nubs that are left:

 

 

Zoas and pissed off candy cane:

 

 

Anemone's

 

 

 

Devil's hand and Rock Flower nem:

 

http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/Roshan8768/media/temporary_zpsf4868a6b.jpg.html'>

 

Mushroom's and dying Duncan to the left:

 

[Roshan8768]

The first thing I did when I got back was check all the common water paremeter issues.

 

I got:

 

temp: 78

sg: 1.024

pH: 8.0

NO3: 0-5

NO2: 0

NH3: 0

dKH: 7

Calcium: 420

 

Nothing too out of line, so not sure if there was a water quality issue that was resolved over time while I was away. The fish are all extremely fat and happy, but my corals are slowly but surely kicking the bucket. I am planning on taking in my water later this week to my LFS and having them check for any nasties in it as well as check my Mg and Phosphate levels as I don't have test kits for those.

[markalot]

Just looking at clues from the photos.

 

The Palys are partially open and still stretched, leaning toward the light. Did these look like this before?

 

If phosphates were high the Xenia would have taken over the tank. They appear to be suffering from either too much light, or a salinity swing. It's possible the Razor is too bright over the middle. Did you look into getting the new 120 degree reflectors or removing the reflectors that come with the light?

 

How did you acclimate with the new light?

 

Have you confirmed the light is off for at least 8 hours, if not 12? I had a timer get stuck once on my horribly rigged setup and my blue lights were on for 24 hours. Things slowly started to decline until I figured out what was going on.

 

Duncans are hard to kill. Did something munch on it? How often are the fish fed?

 

Just ideas, nothing solid.

[Roshan8768]

Just looking at clues from the photos.

 

The Palys are partially open and still stretched, leaning toward the light. Did these look like this before?

 

If phosphates were high the Xenia would have taken over the tank. They appear to be suffering from either too much light, or a salinity swing. It's possible the Razor is too bright over the middle. Did you look into getting the new 120 degree reflectors or removing the reflectors that come with the light?

 

How did you acclimate with the new light?

 

Have you confirmed the light is off for at least 8 hours, if not 12? I had a timer get stuck once on my horribly rigged setup and my blue lights were on for 24 hours. Things slowly started to decline until I figured out what was going on.

 

Duncans are hard to kill. Did something munch on it? How often are the fish fed?

 

Just ideas, nothing solid.

 

I'm pretty sure the palys were open before, this is the best FTS I have from before.

 

http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/Roshan8768/media/temporary_zps68996e4d.jpg.html'>

 

I know for a fact that my lights were going off when the timers were designated for, because no one gets sleep if they stay on past 10. Fish fed twice a day 5 days a week. I started the lights @40b40w, and worked up to 75b40w over the course of 2 weeks.

 

I did a 7 gallon w.c. today and got my water tested, everything looks good on an ELOS set. I turned the lights down so they peak @ 35b30w. Also picked up an anthelia to see if it was the butterfly munching on stuff... we'll find out soon enough

 

[Roshan8768]

Unfortunately, the butterfly was munching on the xenia and GSP- It definitely went after the new anthelia frag I put in there. It definitely ate all my aiptasia though, so that's a positive.

[Roshan8768]

I've had the lights dimmed for a while now and everything is slowly responding and going back to normal. Here are some older shots from a week ago.

 

Dusk:

 

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FTS:

 

http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/Roshan8768/media/temporary_zps96b61340.jpg.html'>

 

 

The Culprit...

 

http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/Roshan8768/media/temporary_zpsda0536c1.jpg.html'>

 

Was traded in for this guy:

 

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I've had him for a couple of weeks now and he doesn't look noticeably skinnier than when I got him so he must be getting enough to eat off the rocks. I observed him eating frozen cyclops at the store, but he has yet to take to it in my tank.... hopefully he will do that soon, but for the moment it seems that my pod population can support him as I still see a bunch of the buggers flying around in the chaeto I have in the AC110. I'm not a huge mandarin fan so far, cool looking fish but it spends a lot of time in the darkest corners of the rock work where the pods are hiding I guess.

[Roshan8768]

Things are looking a lot better, will have some new pics up soon!

[venturalvn]

Any luck on the cyano? If so, what have you changed? I've been battling some cyano in my tank since I moved and I realized that it's in direct sunlight for a portion of the day when I'm not home and the sun passes over a certain spot of the house. I think this may be my reason for some cyano and hair algae.

 

What have you been trying to do differently?

[Roshan8768]

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As you can see the tank for the most part has recovered pretty well. The anemones are bleached, but I am feeding every other day so they should be looking better soon. I want to get more corals, but am not sure if I should try anything other than softies as this tank has hardly produced any growth out of my LPS and the few SPS that I have tried before. Any suggestions?

[markalot]

Pictures!

 

So for growth, do you test Alk and Ca regularly? If you keep Alk fairly stable and calcium in range the growth should follow. LPS grow slow, that's one reason I find them rather boring. The bigger the polyp the slower they grow IMO. Some sticks might do well, especially Seriatopora (birdsnest). As the tank gets older things will be easier and easier to maintain, at least in my experience.

[Roshan8768]

Pictures!

 

So for growth, do you test Alk and Ca regularly? If you keep Alk fairly stable and calcium in range the growth should follow. LPS grow slow, that's one reason I find them rather boring. The bigger the polyp the slower they grow IMO. Some sticks might do well, especially Seriatopora (birdsnest). As the tank gets older things will be easier and easier to maintain, at least in my experience.

 

Theres hardly anything in my tank that would use either up. Im pretty sure that my coralline algae is the main alk/cal sink. The hammer frag which I got a year ago as one small head just became two medium sized heads. I have tested both parameters before and I can tell you that they don't change much in between water changes. Maybe I need to try some birdsnest and monti caps

[Roshan8768]

Any luck on the cyano? If so, what have you changed? I've been battling some cyano in my tank since I moved and I realized that it's in direct sunlight for a portion of the day when I'm not home and the sun passes over a certain spot of the house. I think this may be my reason for some cyano and hair algae.

 

What have you been trying to do differently?

A lot has changed since the pic with the really bad cyano. I would say that really cutting back on feeding and about a week of daily 10% water changes helped get the nutrient level under control. I also have more macro-algae and chemical filtration now, as well as a solid skimmer and reliable source of RO water. I have heard about sunlight being a factor in fueling cyano growth, but I doubt its the sole factor. If you can get your water parameters right, it should at the very least improve the situation. Algae is part of owning a reef tank, aggressive removal and fixing your water are your best bet. My tank has definitely gone through several bouts of unsightly algae as it matured, but 3 years in it's a lot more stable.

[Roshan8768]

Picked up a new Acan:

 

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And the RBTAs already look better after a week of feeding:

 

http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/Roshan8768/media/temporary_zps2061e66d.jpg.html'>

[Roshan8768]

Pictures!

 

So for growth, do you test Alk and Ca regularly? If you keep Alk fairly stable and calcium in range the growth should follow. LPS grow slow, that's one reason I find them rather boring. The bigger the polyp the slower they grow IMO. Some sticks might do well, especially Seriatopora (birdsnest). As the tank gets older things will be easier and easier to maintain, at least in my experience.

 

So, I picked up an SPS frag today, some kind of milli I believe. I really don't want to lose this frag to an improper acclimation having to do with lights/flow. I dipped the frag and placed it on the sand bed.... when and how should I be moving it in the future?

 

 

 

 

 

It's at the bottom now, but I'd like to have it up where the second arrow is eventually. Any advice would be appreciated!

 

[markalot]

Watch the coloration on the sandbed. If it stays dark I would move it up and just make sure to feed it with a coral food. This has worked well for me and avoided any acclimation issues. I usually keep corals on my frag rack, off to the side and in lower light, for 2 weeks before moving them. Certainly not the best way to acclimate but I don't have the time or patience to stair step corals up to their final locations.

[Roshan8768]

Same frag exactly 24 hrs later at pretty much the same time under the same lights and camera settings. I think it's looking a lot better already! It was definitely happier before 2:30 P.M. though, and the polyp extension went down as the day wore on, so it's probably still adjusting to my lighting. I'm going to keep it where it is for the next couple of days and try to take a pic every 24 hrs around the same time since I'm going to be at home... hopefully this way if things start to head south and I don't catch it, you guys will.

 

http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/Roshan8768/media/temporary_zps92753d28.jpg.html'>

[Jaden1592]

Alright... so I just did my first water change of the week, took a couple of pictures of some of the corals afterwards.

 

Xenia:

 

 

Leather:

 

 

Not really sure what this one is, hitchhiked in on a zoa frag (the zoas all melted away), and it has grown a little bit since, maybe about the size of a dime now. Any IDs?

 

 

Here it is next to the Xenia for size perspective:

 

Kind of looks like a shrunkin' Duncan coral

[Roshan8768]

Kind of looks like a shrunkin' Duncan coral

Are you alright man? That was from over a year ago haha, the later pics in my thread show how it developed into a plate

[Roshan8768]

So, today my tank looked like this for a while...

 

http://s1303.photobucket.com/user/Roshan8768/media/temporary_zps6789637b.jpg.html'>

 

Because I finally got this guy out!!

 

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In other news.... on account of the frag still looking fantastic, I went ahead and moved it up to it's final location.

 

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Also picked up a green millie as a trade for the wrasse... starting it off on the sandbed

 

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[markalot]

Go go acros!

[Walker]

Where is Mr. Yellow Coris going?

[Roshan8768]

Where is Mr. Yellow Coris going?

I took him to my LFS who will be putting it in their L-shaped display which is about 120 gallons I think. Lot's more room for him to swim around!!!

[Roshan8768]

So yesterday I cleaned out my AC110 and temporarily pulled the chaeto. I then stuffed it full of foam and polyfilter and spent the next hour or so stirring up the sand bed. My skimmer went nuts and pulled out a lot of stuff, and I threw away a lot of the used up polyfilter. I swapped out a new T8 bulb for the fuge and replaced the chaeto. I have also switched back to a reverse photoperiod on the fuge. The water is ridiculously clear this morning...this is the best I've seen my tank since setup. I will try to get some pics that show that shortly...

[markalot]

My cpr hob fuge/skimmer on the 40 keeps clogging up with hair algae which raises the water level and causes the built in skimmer to go crazy. Never have this issue with my DIY fuge. I'm about to take the lights off any go fugeless for a while.

[Roshan8768]

I was playing around with an old P&S camera we had sitting around, but I realized that my phone actually gets better pics.

Photodump!!!







Fun with GSP







TSB shennanigans







Coral shots