Islandoftiki's Nuvo 30 Peacock Mantis Tank

[Tamberav]

Cool article!

 

Having owned many animals, including shrimp, crabs, ect. I always thought it was obvious they can feel anxiety. I mean they get scared and run away from things and when a mantis gets scared, it looks like (to me) they try and protect their vulnerable undersides.

 

I mean isn't anxiety and fight/flight response a basic survival instinct?

 

It's good people are proving it using studies and serotonin levels ect. but "the idea that this animal could express some anxiety didn't seem possible" made me giggle. Keep one as a pet and the idea becomes very plausible.

[FlowerMama]

Cool article!

 

Having owned many animals, including shrimp, crabs, ect. I always thought it was obvious they can feel anxiety. I mean they get scared and run away from things and when a mantis gets scared, it looks like (to me) they try and protect their vulnerable undersides.

 

I mean isn't anxiety and fight/flight response a basic survival instinct?

 

It's good people are proving it using studies and serotonin levels ect. but "the idea that this animal could express some anxiety didn't seem possible" made me giggle. Keep one as a pet and the idea becomes very plausible.

 

The idea that we people are the only ones that can express anxiety and emotions is one of the dumbest things smart people could think. It's almost the ultimate statement that shows we're stupid and doesn't show our level of expanded thinking. C'mon, we know we have animals laughing at us all the time. I wouldn't want to know what they'd say if they could talk to us as we know it, there would be soooo much eye rolling.

[Islandoftiki]

Ok guys, I've been having a little issue with my orange plating monti... you know the really fast growing indestructible stuff that grows like a weed? Yeah, that stuff.

 

I'm not sure if it's a slow victim of the ATO failure that happened weeks ago while we were in Hawaii or a victim of the fact that I probably should have dropped the intensity of the lights when I switched from the glass top to the mesh top for the summer. The ATO failure caused bleaching and STN of my Bali green slimer and pink birdsnets, but didn't affect any of the other acros or birdsnest corals. None of the soft corals were affected at all. It looks like my green favia has bit the dust, too. The ATO failure caused a TON of microbubbles to be dispersed into the tank for I don't know how long. The salinity only got up to 1.027, and the rest of the parameters remained within an acceptable range. The corals in direct line of the return were the ones that got wiped out.

 

Here's what's happening. It's slowly bleaching and hair algae is starting to grow on top of it. There are also a few tiny brownish snails on the top surface of it. They're very small, one to two millimeters across like a brown colonisa snail. Not sure if they're a pest or just cleaning up dying tissue. The tissue of the monti is partially bleached, but there are still visible polyps alive and partially extended. There is also a tiny bit of hair algae growing on it.

 

Here's a picture of it, sorry it's a little blurry;I had to take the picture looking down and that causes visual distortion for the camera.

 

 

Parameters are fairly normal, although not my ideal.

 

Alk: 8.7

Calc: 400 (A little low, IMO. I'll bring it back up to 420ish over a couple days)

Mag: 1500 (Slightly high, but coming down slowly from the Kent Tech M treatment a couple months ago)

Phos: 0.03 as tested by my Hanna alk tester. I changed out the phosphate media after that reading.

Nitrate: 10ppm (way high for my liking, did a 20% water change yesterday, will do another tomorrow and every 2 days until it's down to 1ppm)

 

The nitrate/phosphate issue was likely caused by the new batch of krill that I recently got. They're a bit smaller than the last batch and my mantis tends to drop them as she takes her food and they end up getting lost in the tank. Hopefully I can find some larger ones that she can hold onto better like the last batch. Remember, no snails or hermit crabs in this tank to pick up leftover food, although the mantis and the damsel will forage for lost bits.

 

I'd like some opinions on what to do to save the montipora, if it's possible. I've dropped the lighting down by 10% so far. I don't imagine the nitrate/phosphate issue would cause bleaching, I would expect browning from that. I've had this coral for years and it's gone through worse in my 10 gallon tank. So, my thought is the increase in lighting from changing the tank top from glass to mesh.

 

What would you do? Lower the lighting more? Any other thoughts? Just bag it and get a new chunk of it? People give this stuff away for free around here.

[jedimasterben]

Cut your lighting by 50% and keep an eye on what happens. You raised the intensity far too quickly when you got the R420R and are more than likely just starting to see the consequences from it IMHO. Are you running the normal or wide reflectors? If you have the normal ones, I would consider the wide.

 

EDIT: Looking back, it has been about 5-6 months (seems like less lol), a little longer than I'd think that it would take for you to see those signs. I would still lower intensity and consider doubling feeding.

[metrokat]

Tiki, to me it seems like a combination of issues that hit the coral.

 

ATO trouble could have started it. The lighting inte sity added to the stress. I've had adverse effects with high mag with Kent tech M on my SPS for that reason I will never try to raise mag suddenly again.

 

Phos is not all that high and would not have caused bleaching but high nitrates over a long period affects calcification of stonies.

 

I would also check really closely for montipora eating nudibranches. Those snails that you can't identify could very well be nudis.

 

If you do have MEN, a Bayer dip works or a FW dip for up to 10 seconds. Note that the coral will for sure lose color with a FW dip but it bursts the cell membrane of the nudibranchs.

[Islandoftiki]

Cut your lighting by 50% and keep an eye on what happens. You raised the intensity far too quickly when you got the R420R and are more than likely just starting to see the consequences from it IMHO. Are you running the normal or wide reflectors? If you have the normal ones, I would consider the wide.

 

EDIT: Looking back, it has been about 5-6 months (seems like less lol), a little longer than I'd think that it would take for you to see those signs. I would still lower intensity and consider doubling feeding.

 

I'll cut the lighting back more and go crazy with the feeding and extra water changes. A handful of corals started really slow STN after the ATO incident. Two of them were a total loss, the other recovered.

[Islandoftiki]

Tiki, to me it seems like a combination of issues that hit the coral.

 

ATO trouble could have started it. The lighting inte sity added to the stress. I've had adverse effects with high mag with Kent tech M on my SPS for that reason I will never try to raise mag suddenly again.

 

Phos is not all that high and would not have caused bleaching but high nitrates over a long period affects calcification of stonies.

 

I would also check really closely for montipora eating nudibranches. Those snails that you can't identify could very well be nudis.

 

If you do have MEN, a Bayer dip works or a FW dip for up to 10 seconds. Note that the coral will for sure lose color with a FW dip but it bursts the cell membrane of the nudibranchs.

 

The nitrate issue is new, and I really suspect it's the small krill that I got. I think bits of it are getting lost in the back of the tank. I used to have really big ones that I could just feed Betty one single krill and she would consume it, but these little ones are harder for her to hold onto.

 

I'll look for nudis. Unfortunately, it's going to be about impossible to take this coral out as it's bridged itself across multiple rocks. If it's a total loss, it's not a huge deal as I can a nice large replacement piece for free. This stuff is weed-like.

 

I should also say that, despite the fact that this isn't a valuable coral, I think this is a good exercise in problem solving that will be useful in dealing with future issues that might involve some of my more expensive SPS.

[metrokat]

I understand. The nitrate issue, new or not would have further added to the stress.

[Tamberav]

Keep us updated imo, this is good learning for me I only ever kept the easy SPS. I want to have my tank ready for the hard stuff at the next swap come fall. When I add Ivy my CUC will also go bye bye... I think I may make a DIY algae scrubber since I plan to have more fish than you.

[Islandoftiki]

So, the lights were cut back to 60%. I'm going to be target feeding reef roids and I'm using AcroPower as always.

[Islandoftiki]

Good news...

 

Things are looking really great in the tank with the exception of the plating monti, but it's looking a little better.

 

Alk is holding dead steady at 8.7 as usual.

Calcium is up to 460 where it was a month ago.

I didn't test mag, it's always higher than average.

Nitrates are down from 10ppm to 5ppm.

Phosphates are holding a .02ppm; I changed out the media today (1 tbsp of RowaPhos)

 

I've been spot feeding the monti and dosing a little extra AcroPower since I'm doing 15% water changes every two days.

 

I skipped feeding Barney and Betty today since the Barney is seriously fat and Betty can easily go days between feedings.

 

I went to pick up a new bucket of salt today and the owner of our Uber LFS told me that every purchase over $20.00 gets a free $20.00 frag. So, more SPS for me! It's a little frag of something Australian that is completely unnamed, but I've never seen it before. Mostly green.

 

Pictures are a little dark, but the lights are at 60% for now...

 

 

Here's the new frag. It's only been in there a couple hours and doesn't have full polyp extension yet. Photobucket took away all of the arrow stickers for Father's day, so it's the one to the left of the "Bam!" sticker.

 

 

I should have the nitrates back down to 1ppm or less by the end of the week. Still looking for larger frozen krill...

 

The euphyllias are loving the extra nitrates. They're also going seriously aggressive and stinging some of the mushrooms and implosion pallys, which doesn't bother me at all.

[Tamberav]

Looking good.

 

You said you used Kent salt right? Does it mix up with pretty good Mg? I think I may give it a try when I run out of salt.

[Islandoftiki]

Looking good.

 

You said you used Kent salt right? Does it mix up with pretty good Mg? I think I may give it a try when I run out of salt.

 

You know, I've never checked it for mag when it's freshly mixed, but it's supposed to mix to 1450 at 1.026sg. I have three 5 gallon buckets mixing in the basement right now. I'll check it when I get home tonight.

[Tamberav]

Thanks

[Islandoftiki]

Thanks

 

Ok, so, here's my results from testing newly mixed Kent brand salt mix.

 

Here's a picture of what it says it should be:

 

 

This stuff mixes pretty high in calcum, IMO, but that's handy so I don't have to dose calcium very often.

 

Test kits: Red Sea Coral Pro titration

This batch saltwater has been mixing using an airstone for 24 hours.

 

Salinity as tested by my digital refractometer: 1.026

They don't list Alk on the bucket, but it mixed up at 9.2

Calcium came in at 580 (I'm surprised it isn't snowing in the tank, but I've never had a problem with precipitation on the pump or heater)

Magnesium tested at 1420. I double-checked with a slightly expired Salifert titration test kit and got 1440.

 

For what it's worth, according to the local PNWMAS forum, nearly 70% of the local reefers are using Kent salt with excellent results. One of the big selling points for Kent is that it seems to work well for everyone and it's $35.00 for a box that mixes 200 gallons of saltwater (I think that's at 1.023 though). Anyhow, that poll is old, but I am certain that it's still representative of what local people are using still. People regularly ask what salt to use and it's always met with a flood of people saying Kent.

 

I always thought Kent was not as good because it was so cheap, but I've become a convert and I'm happy with it.

[Tamberav]

Well, I am sold. Thank you for checking Once I run out of salt, Kent it is!

[Islandoftiki]

[Islandoftiki]

[FlowerMama]

I just love how interactive she is. What a gem.

[Islandoftiki]

Mantis shrimp drive-by. (She must do this 50 times every evening)

 

[Islandoftiki]

Stomatopods are so dignified compared to African grey parrots. Our parrot Dory recently learned a new sound. Now our evening activities have degenerated to this:

 

[FlowerMama]

You guys have fun at your house!

[Islandoftiki]

Well, I cheated... I didn't want to wait for the plating monti to recover, and since this stuff grows like a weed, I got a nice couple of chunks from a guy with a 240 gallon tank. He gave it to me for free.

So, there are a few patches of the old stuff still in there that were massively stuck to the rockwork, so we'll see if that recovers, but now it looks like it did 4 months ago and will be back to normal soon. I'm also getting some Idaho grape and some more green monti to add to the mix.

 

[Islandoftiki]

Here's something I haven't really posted before. A top-down shot of this tank. I was doing a water change and had the water drained down a couple inches and realized it was a good opportunity for a picture...

 

 

Everything is back to normal and I'm slowly ramping the lights back up. I've got a couple persistent patches of red cyano that are annoying me, and since I've already been doing frequent water changes, I started dosing ChemiClean the other day. The cyano is much reduced after two days. I re-dosed the tank after this water change.

[RollaJase]

That top down shot, everything is looking great.