Mark's 150 (NanoBox Retro)

[markalot]

According to Electric Imp Blinkup Guide all is ok on this end. I get 3 seconds solid green after blinkup, then green blinking, then light turns off.

 

https://electricimp.com/docs/troubleshooting/blinkup/

 

EI status still green: http://status.electricimp.com/

[teenyreef]

Check to make sure you don't have a space after your login name, that one got me once.

[markalot]

It connected up sometime overnight, everything looks back to normal.

[RollaJase]

Glad your BF issues are fixed, about time I tried to fix mine.

[DaveFason]

A few tips with Bluefish.

 

If for some reason the light goes out...

• Do not start unplugging, reblinking, etc when it goes down - Let it sync again which normally will only take a minute.
• Once you start unplugging, reblinking, trying to change things it will start you all back to square one.
• If you decide to BlinkUp again, CLEAR the wireless signal first.
• Spaces in your password word or user name will not allow you to sync - This happens all so often

[vlangel]

I decided to check in on this tank and wow, what color. I guess your coral are likin' the new lights. Your tank is looking great!

[markalot]

I decided to check in on this tank and wow, what color. I guess your coral are likin' the new lights. Your tank is looking great!

 

They really are. Everything has better color than before I got the lights. Going to try and take some top downs this weekend so I can post a light review for Dave.

[Sk8n Reefer]

Nice, looking good Mark ?

[markalot]

Things continue to improve. KH dropped to near 6 and some corals showed some stress but nothing too bad and I have KH back to 6.5, watching it closely.

 

Hairy Katropora

 

 

This one looks better every week. If only the polyps were a different color.

 

For comparison, here is another frag of it down on the frag rack. Very sensitive to the amount of light it gets.

 

SSC still continues to be a stunner.

 

Red Robin so very slowly getting more red.

 

Lokani showing more purple this week.

 

The KBG is meh, it's been meh since I put it up here. Frags look better.

 

Valida just keeps getting bigger.

 

The millis are very hairy but not one has good color, including the palmers blue. This is Cousin It, which might be pink. A few tips are burnt, maybe low alk, but ironically these same tips have rampant polyp extension.

 

Here is the horrida. If you look closely you can see the sky blue near the tips. It's very nice looking in a few spots but near impossible to photograph and, of course, too damn hairy.

 

This dragon type is doing quite well and quickly growing.

 

Anything with colored polyps really likes the LED's

 

This must be a frag of the blockhead coral I lost. It's behaving the same way, showing hints of good color but not quite getting there. It's under 450 PAR of light now and seems to love it, but no color change yet.

 

Left side shot. The blue stags needed more light and are getting it now and slowly coloring up.

 

A dud, so far anyway. Supposed to be purple and color has improved since putting the hybrid over the tank but still dull. Looks like one new growth branch on the button so maybe it will take off. Whatever it is I'm sure it will soon be to hairy to see the skin.

 

Finally, my predatory starfish are causing issues again. They aren't that numerous but the bigger ones seem to just show up and cause problems when I least suspect it. This is super colorful on top but I noticed a strip of missing skin near the base. Took this top down and sure enough, there's the jackass who did it. He will sit there and not move for days, unlike the other starfish who constantly cruise the tank. I will have to take him out tomorrow.

 

Orchid Stylo

 

[metrokat]

So both low alk and high alk will cause tip burn?

[Veng]

That's still some crazy PE

[MikeTR]

Corals are really looking good man!

[markalot]

So both low alk and high alk will cause tip burn?

 

I do not know, that could be leftover from a few months ago that never grew back. Hard to tell with all the polyps in the way.

 

One has to wonder if the lanthanum is causing the crazy PE, or the daily dosing of MicroE.

[markalot]

If you go to the Apex Fusion site and enter the KH measurement, use the salifert high range setting, and put 6.0 you get a low 6.4 KH reading, however if you look at the scale that comes with the Salifert test kit that equates to a dangerously low 6.1 KH! This means that 3 days ago my KH, according to the kit, was actually 5.8. I'm not very happy.

 

Dosed enough two part to get KH to 6.5 according to the kit, 6.8 according to Apex Fusion. I might have imagined things but within the hour things looked better. I took numerous macros of acro tips and only found damage on 2 corals, however my Red Dragon rtn'ed today, which I kind of expected. It seemed to not like the spot it was in so I moved it and had it out of the water for 10 seconds tops, which may have been too much. Ah well.

 

Pictures later if I have time.

[Veng]

Wait, I missed something. How does Apex Fusion know dKH?

[markalot]

Wait, I missed something. How does Apex Fusion know dKH?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The result shown above is a lie. According to the chart supplied by Salifert a reading of .6 is 6.1 KH, not 6.4 KH.

[markalot]

So here's one of my paranoid picture dump do try and ease my mind. If nothing looks worse in a few days then it's over, otherwise the worst could be yet to come.

 

Here is one of the burnt tips on Cousin It. Polyps still extended but skin burnt off.

 

 

On the other side of the coral the tips look just fine.

 

Sticking with the millis, here is the Rose which looks fine.

 

 

The Palmer's Blue does look stressed, like the tips are almost burnt or at least deformed.

 

A few burnt tips are showing up on the valida as well, but the vast majority of tips have no damage.

 

The SSC is not having any issues that I can see.

 

Nor is the reddish acro

 

Or the horrida, and hey, I was actually able to capture the color here. Look at that blue.

 

Let's get really ugly for a sec. This is one of the blue stag frags down on the sandbed. This section is dead, polyps gone, skin fading.

 

Here is a browned piece up in the rocks. I will have to look again in a few days but polyps are out and skin looks odd but I would not call it thin.

 

Red Robin looks fine to me.

 

Whatever this is looks ok.

 

This needs more light to color up but looks fine.

 

Echinata has browned a bit.

 

Red Dragon is dead, but the peach dragon looks fine. This thing has crazy 1 inch long polyp extension at night, I've never seen anything like it.

 

Katropora not showing any obvious stress.

 

So there, an excuse to take a bunch of tip shots. I will revisit these over the weekend unless things obviously take a turn for the worse. Other than low Alk I can't think of anything else that makes sense, including the changing of lights.

 

 

[Veng]

 

 

 

 

The result shown above is a lie. According to the chart supplied by Salifert a reading of .6 is 6.1 KH, not 6.4 KH.

 

 

 

 

The result shown above is a lie. According to the chart supplied by Salifert a reading of .6 is 6.1 KH, not 6.4 KH.

So it's extrapolating based off of pH?

[markalot]

So it's extrapolating based off of pH?

 

Nah, it's just a simple calculator. I choose the test kit then put the test reading in and it's supposed to do the work of finding the KH on the chart. There's no automation here, it's just a nice way to keep a graph of KH along with everything else the Apex monitors. it also has one for PO4 where you choose the Hanna ULR and put in the number, like 11, and it converts it for you.

 

Unfortunately it appears either Salifert changed their kit or someone was just careless.

[metrokat]

The tips on quite a few of my colonies are odd right now, have been for about 2 weeks. It could be alk but these are also in an area of maximum flow, maybe they are just getting hammered.

Sometimes I think it's because the tips are gearing up to threow out more branches, IDK

[TheKleinReef]

What's potassium at? Whenever potassium was super low for me, tips started to look like they were almost burnt.

[Veng]

 

Nah, it's just a simple calculator. I choose the test kit then put the test reading in and it's supposed to do the work of finding the KH on the chart. There's no automation here, it's just a nice way to keep a graph of KH along with everything else the Apex monitors. it also has one for PO4 where you choose the Hanna ULR and put in the number, like 11, and it converts it for you.

 

Unfortunately it appears either Salifert changed their kit or someone was just careless.

Ahh... Boo. I was really hoping they had developed a new probe so it could be continuously monitored. I need to go develop a dKH, Ca, and Mg probe, I'd be rich...

[markalot]

What's potassium at? Whenever potassium was super low for me, tips started to look like they were almost burnt.

 

I don't trust the test kit so I don't test it anymore. Whenever I tested it was always in the safe range, regardless of how long I had gone without a water change. I have done 2 small water changes and will do some more over the next few days. If something was low it should be high enough now to prevent damage.

[markalot]

The tips on quite a few of my colonies are odd right now, have been for about 2 weeks. It could be alk but these are also in an area of maximum flow, maybe they are just getting hammered.

Sometimes I think it's because the tips are gearing up to threow out more branches, IDK

 

I don't like the looks of the spots, and I know you've dabbled in maricultured corals as have I, which is where I think I picked up the tiny white bugs. Red alert on that pic, looks like a possible bug of some sort (not AEFW, maybe red bug). Added an arrow pointing it out.

 

 

My Lokani displayed the kinds of spots you have. It's not AEFW but some kind of bite mark, or possibly stress. A Bayer dip ended it once and Interceptor has ended it each time it shows back up.

[Arce]

Already texted her about it.