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Mark's 150 (NanoBox Retro)


markalot

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I am continously amazed how much work goes into running a sump, automating dosing/top off and seting up a controller. Well done Mark. Makes me feel like I am still playing in the sand box.

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MEN - Montipora Eating Nudibranch.

 

I would not know of the awful song It's Raining Men if my daughter did not have some dance game on the PS3. Perfectly bad song for this occasion.

 

I looked with a flashlight last night and as expected the population is exploding. It appears they infect the entire right side of the tank, mostly on rocks that were in the 46 bowfront. I'm so effing happy. I'm formulating a plan to see what I can save and how many I will have to move to my 29 gallon and for how long.

 

MEN spotted on: Green cap, purple cap in the back right, a big one. Green encrusting, forest fire digitata, orange digitata, Elkhorn Monti. I suspect they are also at the base of my German Blue which explains why it's not encrusting.

 

I think the digitatas will be fairly easy to save by moving cuttings to another tank. I have a love hate relationship with the monti caps so I might just throw them all out. I would really hate to lose the spongodes, undata, and sunset.

 

So these ####ers have been in the 46 for how long? And since they are so hard to see the bowfront glass distortion did not help one bit, did it? And the colors? I had the best colors in the 46 by far.

One other thing I noticed, as if this wasn't enough, is that I have a got a number of digitate hydroids that are stinging the base of a few acros. These should be easy enough to cover up.

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Oh no, so sorry Mark :(. Hopefully you can eradicate them without any losses.

 

I posted more above, but no chance, losses will be heavy. Once they are obvious it's really too late and radical fragging begins.

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I posted more above, but no chance, losses will be heavy. Once they are obvious it's really too late and radical fragging begins.

Again, so sorry to hear. Things were looking so good as well :(.

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When are you starting the FW dips?

 

FW dip does not kill the eggs, and once you can see the nudis you can count on millions of eggs in the system. I would have to commit to regular freshwater dips and I'm not going to have my entire free time revolve around this. I would rather they eat every damn monti in the system and then slowly starve and die while I point and laugh.

 

But I may make a more rational decision after pondering it for a few days.

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FW dip does not kill the eggs, and once you can see the nudis you can count on millions of eggs in the system. I would have to commit to regular freshwater dips and I'm not going to have my entire free time revolve around this. I would rather they eat every damn monti in the system and then slowly starve and die while I point and laugh.

 

But I may make a more rational decision after pondering it for a few days.

 

In my experience, they lay their eggs directly on the montis. I actually cured a 125 gallon system of MEN (filled with montiporas) by standard dip and a scrub brush to the underside of each colony (plating) or the dead portions and bases of branching types.

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In my experience, they lay their eggs directly on the montis. I actually cured a 125 gallon system of MEN (filled with montiporas) by standard dip and a scrub brush to the underside of each colony (plating) or the dead portions and bases of branching types.

 

Thanks for the info, I need the encouragement at this point. :)

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Thanks for the info, I need the encouragement at this point. :)

 

Honestly, MEN are a joke compared to AEFW in my experience. Take all your montis at once, dip them, scrub them, give it a week and do it again. That is all it took for me.

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Well,

 

The big monti rock with the Xenia on it is dead. The monti were infested with MEN on the underside, even though the top looked great. My purple / red monti was also infested so I removed it but broke a piece off, dipped, scrubbed, and placed on the frag rack. I'd like to keep a piece of it alive.

 

The entire right side of the tank has changed except my big spongodes / green cap rock on the very right. I could find zero evidence of MEN, this rock was from the 40, so I decided to hang onto it for now.

 

I'm going to bring back big bird on the back right. It's unkillable so I've kept fragments around just in case, and now's a good time as any to grow a big out of control coral to help me forget about the missing monti's.

 

The one on the right in this old pic.

 

y25q.jpg

 

Any way, I tossed or fragged most monti's. Remounted my elkhorn and german blue digitata, and my red polyp green monti that has not grown in 6 months. The rest of the tank looks clear for now. I can see the underside of the red cap on the left side and it's healthy, so fingers crossed the problem had not spread much past the rocks from the 46.

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Woke up this morning to a PH of 7.71, but the corals looked fine, the problem was part of the carbon bag I threw into the sump got caught in the pump intake for the skimmer, so the skimmer was basically dead all night and not sucking in much air from the outside.

 

Did I mention I now have a hose running to the small window in the basement to bring in fresh air? It does not to as well as the co2 scrubber, but it keeps PH between 7.8 and 8.0 which is fine by me.

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I took a few more pics last night, none turned out great.

 

Trying to get a pic of the cardinals schooling in and around the slimer.

 

zVJwRL.jpg

 

The still brown but healthy acro is in this shot.

 

3i1rSY.jpg

 

You can see here where I covered up the digitate hydroids that may have been stinging the base of this coral. They mostly came out at night. Mostly. Damn slimer has put on another 1/4 inch since I last looked. I'm going to need a bigger set of tools.

 

BEhcMv.jpg

 

What's left of Big Bird, now mounted in the back right corner. This was a branch I placed near the green torch while I decided what to do with it. Look how many growth tips have formed. This thing will fill up the corner in no time.

 

s0zLYK.jpg

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More pics. Actually got to relax in front of the tank for a change, only thing that needed my attention was a refill of my topoff container.

 

 

J0SfBd.jpg

 

3KsDRq.jpg

 

This encrusting monti was near the MEN monti I removed, so I'm keeping a close eye on it. Pale area was shaded ... oh and look, blue clove polyps. :|

 

6O2klH.jpg

 

Katropora is growing as fast as the slimer. Over the plug and onto the rock already.

 

G7Jt5L.jpg

 

Green tipped bird. The orange on the branch is very flighty, and it will sometimes turn brown for no apparent reason, then color back up a week later.

 

GMMECF.jpg

 

Frag rack with 3 unknown birds, includign one that looks better than my big so-called Bird of Paradise in the first pic above.

 

gWouEB.jpg

 

View from the chair. Torch is stinging my green Acan again. Thin stripe hermit is doing his A L I E N impression.

 

aGZHcY.jpg

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Hunting around for some good growth shots. I need to be more consistent with my photo angles and positions so this is easier for me.

 

Slimer, July 5th to Aug 8th. First pic still has skin damage from being in front of the MP40 in the 40 gallon. No issues healing right over the dead spot.

 

MymquJ.jpg


NE9WEd.jpg

 

 

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Good grief. The Katropora is growing faster than the slimer based on these pics. I can't believe how much new growth this has in just one month.

yCxJvA.jpg

8rOTUs.jpg

 

I just went down to check on the color balance of the last pic here. The blue/purple in the polyps is so intense under my LED's, especially during ramp down, that you literally can't focus on it. I kind of capture it in the pic above, but not intense enough.

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Yet another photo dump.

 

Why do the coral colors look better from the side?

 

iJKEdY.jpg

 

Everybody tried to photo bomb this one.

 

xBZ7kD.jpg

 

36oXxW.jpg

 

The SSC is finally starting to show more color.

 

sAJ35f.jpg

 

Was finally able to capture the blue of these tips. Really outstanding blue, but the rest of the coral constantly looks stressed. Oh, and look, a Poci has landed on the left edge of the rock. :mellow:

 

VLoNc8.jpg

 

The multiple new growth tips on this milli are showing red. :)

 

ZsztuD.jpg

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NorthGaHillbilly

Tank looks great! I usually am not a fan of the long skinny tanks, but your scape makes it really look good. How many of the cardinals do you have?

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