xiaoxiy Posted October 6, 2015 Author Share Posted October 6, 2015 Sorry to hear about the SPS! Sounds like not enough nutrients to me, but I'm not an SPS whisperer like some here on NR. Thanks. Kat. Mark. Anyone? Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 10, 2015 Author Share Posted October 10, 2015 ####. The RTN stopped for about 2 days, but started again today. About 1/5th of the base of my Secale colony has RTN'd and 1/4th of my strawberry shortcake frag has RTN'd. dKH - 9 Ca - 420 Mg - 1400 Nitrate - 3ppm Phosphate - <0.05ppm If my SPS RTN out, I think I'm going to keep this tank SPS-less at least until Thanksgiving. Link to comment
kimberbee Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Sorry to hear of your continuing SPS troubles. I'm feeling the same way. If SPS keep dying or getting stung to death by my RFA's, I'm jsut not gonna replace them... Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 12, 2015 Author Share Posted October 12, 2015 Sorry to hear of your continuing SPS troubles. I'm feeling the same way. If SPS keep dying or getting stung to death by my RFA's, I'm jsut not gonna replace them... Yeah. #### SPS. A $40 2 inch strawberry shortcake frag RTN'd over the short span of 2 days. I'm still getting a slow STN on the base of my colony, although it's sparing some tissue as it progresses. *Knocks on wood* Link to comment
HarryPotter Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 ####. The RTN stopped for about 2 days, but started again today. About 1/5th of the base of my Secale colony has RTN'd and 1/4th of my strawberry shortcake frag has RTN'd. dKH - 9 Ca - 420 Mg - 1400 Nitrate - 3ppm Phosphate - <0.05ppm If my SPS RTN out, I think I'm going to keep this tank SPS-less at least until Thanksgiving. Can you frag it? I think someone mentioned super gluing around the RTN area to prevent it from spreading Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 12, 2015 Author Share Posted October 12, 2015 Can you frag it? I think someone mentioned super gluing around the RTN area to prevent it from spreading Unfortunately it's basically gone now. There is still slight STN going on in my tank though. It's interesting cause I have polyp extension and everything, just death around the zone of STN. Is 8.5 dkH too high for ULNS? I'm suspecting that this might be a dKH related issue. Someone suggested that the Spectracide KNO3 I'm using might be contaminated. I think this is less likely as I've been dosing it for the past 6 weeks without issue. On a bright note, my denitration/dephosphating is working quite well. I stopped dosing KNO3 temporarily over the weekend, and despite doubling my feedings, my nitrates dropped from 5ppm down to 1-2ppm. Link to comment
Giga Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Coral slow death is always a pain and we all go through it at one point or another. Wishing for the best! Link to comment
Wretched Posted October 12, 2015 Share Posted October 12, 2015 Super clean tank sir, sorry for the RTN, Levels seem perfect. May I ask what denitrate/phos product you're using? Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 Coral slow death is always a pain and we all go through it at one point or another. Wishing for the best! Super clean tank sir, sorry for the RTN, Levels seem perfect. May I ask what denitrate/phos product you're using? Thanks guys! I use biopellets + mb7 + kno3 dosing. Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 The more I look at the STN, the more I'm suspecting an SPS pest. The spots of STN start as small circles that spread outwards, killing patches of previously perfectly healthy tissue. The STN really only started AFTER the introduction of new Strawberry shortcake, some blue knobby, and some green frag, which I did NOT dip. I'm going to get some Bayer dip later today, and fully dip all my SPS. Should I also dip my non-sps too? Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 Here's what I'm talking about. Any ideas/advice from all you SPS experts out there? image by Xiaoxi Yang, on Flickr image by Xiaoxi Yang, on Flickr image by Xiaoxi Yang, on Flickr image by Xiaoxi Yang, on Flickr Link to comment
Wretched Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Have you noticed any flatworms? It's quite possible. How about some warfare between that Duncan? Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 Have you noticed any flatworms? It's quite possible. How about some warfare between that Duncan? I have not noticed any flatworms, I've been looking but haven't seen anything crawling around yet. While the top-down shot makes it look like the ducan is close to the colony, duncan doesn't come close to touching the colony as they're at different levels (height wise). Link to comment
markalot Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 5 days ago, I pulled my carbon, phosguard, and purigen reactors from my tank and swapped to biopellets + nitrate dosing (about 1 ppm a day). So far, my nitrates have been hovering at detectable levels (slightly above 0). My phosphate test is shot (seachem, reads 1ppm phosphate out as like 0 phosphate), so I haven't been able to monitor my phosphate levels. I plan on getting a hanna LR soon though. Visually, I think my corals are enjoying the extra nutrients in the tank. Everything has great extension, and I'm color is coming back to all my bleached corals. My browned out sps are also developing a hint of purple, and their fluorescence is getting more intense too! Algae wise, I still am dealing with a green cyano (chemi-clean I dosed 1 month ago did NOTHING to it), but it seems to be receding. The patchy spots of hair algae seems to also be receding. Sorry, I wasn't following your thread. Here is your answer, and one I'm constantly fretting about as well. When the biopellets kick in you have to be ready because you can strip the water fast, especially with Nitrate dosing. It's more gentle than GFO but the end result could be you becoming PO4 limited. Have you noticed any change in NO3 lately? Do you measure Potassium to make sure you're not overdosing? I prefer CaNO3 but it should not be an issue under normal dosing IMO. If nitrates start to rise, or stop falling, that is a sign the tank is PO4 limited and very low PO4 will kill acros while low NO3 will make them go pale and eventually kill but over a much longer timespan. Learn to love PO4. It could always be something else, but right now it's probably best to either dose Seachem Phosphorus or turn off the biopellets. I would dose Phosphorus, honestly, so you don't have to start all over with the pellets. Link to comment
markalot Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 As far as KH, generally 7 to 8 for a clean tank, but acros need food so you should be feeding 2 or 3 times a week and really clouding the water with crap. Feed heavily and export frantically for best results. Always think of every parameter in your tank, even if you can't measure it, and focus on doing whatever it takes to make any change slow and steady. Remember not every acro is the same. My giant slimer is proof of that. I've killed too many acros to mention all the while the slimer has been growing and growing. Look at what the real experienced folks on RC say in the SPS forum, these are folks that have been through the ringer and can provide a tone of expert advice. If I had only listened to them I would have happy living corals, possibly all brown, but ALIVE. Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 13, 2015 Author Share Posted October 13, 2015 As far as KH, generally 7 to 8 for a clean tank, but acros need food so you should be feeding 2 or 3 times a week and really clouding the water with crap. Feed heavily and export frantically for best results. Always think of every parameter in your tank, even if you can't measure it, and focus on doing whatever it takes to make any change slow and steady. Remember not every acro is the same. My giant slimer is proof of that. I've killed too many acros to mention all the while the slimer has been growing and growing. Look at what the real experienced folks on RC say in the SPS forum, these are folks that have been through the ringer and can provide a tone of expert advice. If I had only listened to them I would have happy living corals, possibly all brown, but ALIVE. Thanks Mark. Should I still go through with the dip tonight? Also, this morning happened to be the day where my nitrate test kit ran out. Placed an order for the Salifert Nitrate test kit earlier this afternoon. Shit can't come in soon enough..... EDIT: Also, the amount of KNO3 I'm dosing is quite low. It comes out to about 0.25ppm a day. The nitrates were building up slowly (up to 4ppm) earlier this week. I stopped dosing temporarily on Saturday, and was measuring near 0 nitrates this morning. I re-dosed to 3ppm after I got the 0 reading. Link to comment
markalot Posted October 13, 2015 Share Posted October 13, 2015 Feed very heavily, stop dosing, lower flow for BP if you can, let the tank run dirtier until stn stops imo. Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 18, 2015 Author Share Posted October 18, 2015 The Acro started necrosing again yesterday, so I dipped it in Iodine again and mounted it. On the bright side, coraline is starting to take over my rocks! I've never had coraline before, it would never grow in my previous setup! Enjoy some pics! image by Xiaoxi Yang, on Flickr image by Xiaoxi Yang, on Flickr image by Xiaoxi Yang, on Flickr image by Xiaoxi Yang, on Flickr Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 18, 2015 Author Share Posted October 18, 2015 Look at those acans. They're like that 24/7. Literally hungry little bastards. If anyone is curious about my feeding/dosing regiment for the past week it's as follows: 0.5 ppm KNO3 Daily 1/4th Cube Mysis Daily 1/4th Cube Cyclops 4x a Week BRS Reef Chili 3x a Week 2 Drops Sponge Power 3x a Week 1 Drop Coral Vitalizer 3x a Week Nualgi Daily The only change between my old feeding regiment and my new one is I bumped my Mysis feedings up to daily instead of just 3x a week, and that I bumped the nitrate dosing from 0.25 to 0.5ppm daily. I haven't seen any nutrient spikes yet. I did a massive stirring of my sandbed last week, and it bumped by nitrates up to 5+ ppm. Fortunately my tank processed the nitrates overnight, and I was back down to near 0 the next morning. The sandbed stirring did wonders for my cyano though. It's been gone with no signs of relapse for 3 full days now (it use to come back overnight!). The fact that my tank processed 5ppm nitrates overnight makes me tempted to try upping the BRS Reef Chili feedings to daily. I'll run the tank at it's current feeding regiment for another week, and then make the decision. Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted October 21, 2015 Author Share Posted October 21, 2015 My RSCP Phosphate test kit came in. Phosphates sitting at <0.02. Nitrates <0.05 (Salifert gets in on Friday). I think it's time to feed even more than I already am. Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted November 2, 2015 Author Share Posted November 2, 2015 Things are coloring back up! image by Xiaoxi Yang, on Flickr On a side note, when I tested my waters last week with a Salifert, I was sitting at 25ppm KNO3. God damn API test kit LOL. I'm not too concerned as the corals are still looking quite healthy. Furthermore, the acros are coloring back up well! I did, however, stop KNO3 dosing. I plan on not dosing KNO3 until nitrates drop back down to 5ish. Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted November 6, 2015 Author Share Posted November 6, 2015 Out of curiosity, what do ya ULNS fellows run your ALK at? Link to comment
xiaoxiy Posted November 6, 2015 Author Share Posted November 6, 2015 Got my beam in! Visually, the light output on this thing is INSANE. image by Xiaoxi Yang, on Flickr Here's a preview of the scape. image by Xiaoxi Yang, on Flickr Link to comment
kimberbee Posted November 6, 2015 Share Posted November 6, 2015 Nice, but I'm a little sad it's not food... Link to comment
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