wildbill79's Reef - Lettin' It Grow Out

[wildbill79]

The algae on the yuma pic looks a bit like byropsis to me--not a good thing. But there's a feathery looking caulerpa out there too that kinda looks the same? I'm not great at macro id's.

After more research, I am about positive that it's bryopsis. I pulled the yumas out and took the rock down quite a bit. I need to do more. I didn't want to stress them out too much. I think it may have spread to another rock too. I may just pull that rock out. I am stressed and a little pissed. I will continue to work on it.

[owenj]

After more research, I am about positive that it's bryopsis. I pulled the yumas out and took the rock down quite a bit. I need to do more. I didn't want to stress them out too much. I think it may have spread to another rock too. I may just pull that rock out. I am stressed and a little pissed. I will continue to work on it.

Bryopsis is a pain dealing with it in my cube tank right now. Looks like people have had success beating it by dosing Tech M.

[wildbill79]

I read a little about that last night. When you raise your magnesium, even if it is only by 80ppm per day, will it have a negative impact on corals?

[cnseekatz]

I've raised my Mg with Kent Tech M to levels that are no longer measurable with my test kit. It hasn't killed my bryopsis, nor has it negatively impacted any of my fish/inverts/corals.

 

The only thing it's done has caused the bryo to get a bit more bushy. It's not spreading, but it's also not dying.

[wildbill79]

I've raised my Mg with Kent Tech M to levels that are no longer measurable with my test kit. It hasn't killed my bryopsis, nor has it negatively impacted any of my fish/inverts/corals.

 

The only thing it's done has caused the bryo to get a bit more bushy. It's not spreading, but it's also not dying.

 

If you can get it to the point where it isn't spreading, could you then introduce lettuce nudis to suck the life out of it? Seems like that may be a pretty good play if you could contain it.

[owenj]

I've been reading that you need to get Mag at least to 1500 to affect bryopsis. Thread surfing has shown people using it all over, 1500 to 1800s. Doesn't sound like it usually affects the corals so long as you raise it gradually.

[wildbill79]

I've been reading that you need to get Mag at least to 1500 to affect bryopsis. Thread surfing has shown people using it all over, 1500 to 1800s. Doesn't sound like it usually affects the corals so long as you raise it gradually.

 

I have effectively got rid of it from the rock that the yumas were on. It jumped to the larger rock the the Setosa is on now. Really small. I am going to keep breaking the rock until I think it is contained. If it pops up somewhere else, I will try to raise Mg. I will try to post pictures tomorrow.

[wildbill79]

So, I think that I took care of the rock with the Yumas on it. No more bryopsis that I can tell. There is only a little of the rock remaining on the Yuma on the left. The other Yuma came off of the rock completely. They are not very happy right now.

 

http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/wmaldridge/media/YUMAS_seperated.jpg.html'>

 

New Zoas that I picked up last weekend. A little over exposed, but the color is right. No ID on them.

 

http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/wmaldridge/media/goblins038942.jpg.html'>

 

http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/wmaldridge/media/goblins02389420384344234.jpg.html'>

 

Setosa growing a little, but not encrusting yet.

 

http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/wmaldridge/media/setosa029842034.jpg.html'>

 

Time to trim the Dragon's Breath.

 

http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/wmaldridge/media/dragonsbreathe2348273423.jpg.html'>

 

http://s1177.photobucket.com/user/wmaldridge/media/dragonsbreathe203842034245565.jpg.html'>

 

I will be doing a water change this afternoon. Heading to the LFS to see if they have anything new.

[wildbill79]

Not a great deal going on. I think I have most of the bryopsis under control, which is good news! I picked up a new frag of zoas. No idea what they arebut they are pretty nice. Couldn't get a shot of them tonight. Took a few shots though.

 

Shot of the zoas from last week.

 

 

Blastos growing new heads on all sides.

 

 

Jedi Mindtrick starting to encrust.

 

 

Pretty terrible pic, but the Superman Monti is starting to grow flesh again.

 

 

Here is an FTS from tonight.

 

 

Will post more later. Thanks for looking!

[wildbill79]

Got a call from my wife today. She was freaking out that all of the brittle stars were out and eating Del Fuego(our Firefish). He hadn't been seen for a few days, which wasn't all that uncommon. Lately our Clown Fish has been picking on it, especially at feeding time. It had been getting more skiddish and hadn't been coming out that much. I guess he either starved or the brittle stars ganged up on it.. RIP Del Fuego! I will be going with one fish from now on. We may get another clown, but we will have to see.

[kimberbee]

Poor Del Fuego

 

Sorry to hear about your fishie.

[LongDoggy]

Cool tank! Tagging along to see the progress as it fills in.

Sorry about your loss. I too have lost my goby and firefish. I only had luck with the clown, so I added another. They get along great! If you have one and its been solo in your tank for a while, it is likely a female. Buy the smallest male of the same species you can find, get a quarantine floating basket and float the new male in the tank for a week. Then release and watch. In a few days if there is no fin nipping they will probably pair. Mine did and I love watching them.

[owenj]

Aww, sorry about your firefish I'm on a bit of a losing streak myself, ugh.

[wildbill79]

Cool tank! Tagging along to see the progress as it fills in.

Sorry about your loss. I too have lost my goby and firefish. I only had luck with the clown, so I added another. They get along great! If you have one and its been solo in your tank for a while, it is likely a female. Buy the smallest male of the same species you can find, get a quarantine floating basket and float the new male in the tank for a week. Then release and watch. In a few days if there is no fin nipping they will probably pair. Mine did and I love watching them.

 

Your tank is sweet! The only regret that I have for mine is not getting the retrofit that you got. I paid the same for an inferior product. I am getting good growth, but every coral responds differently and I blame the lighting for most of it. I was thinking of a Wyoming white. I may get one. My clown is mean though. I still may do it, but I am going to wait for a bit.

 

Aww, sorry about your firefish I'm on a bit of a losing streak myself, ugh.

 

I am definitely on a losing streak with you. Your tank looks good though.

[LongDoggy]

Your tank is sweet! The only regret that I have for mine is not getting the retrofit that you got. I paid the same for an inferior product. I am getting good growth, but every coral responds differently and I blame the lighting for most of it. I was thinking of a Wyoming white. I may get one. My clown is mean though. I still may do it, but I am going to wait for a bit.

 

I was pretty hesitant in buying one, I am a pretty busy man and the idea of carving out half of a Saturday to build a light kit was a tall order. I like plug & play. But I setup the workbench and knocked it out in about 4-5 hours. It had some hurdles such as receiving a busted power supply fan and the wrong LDD driver for one of my channels. The instructions were just OK. Fortunately I inspected and laid it all out ahead of time and discovered the issues prior to ripping apart my existing hood. So after a week setback waiting for the replacement parts to arrive, I then managed to build the DIY. It was actually pretty fun.

I really like that I built it myself, I know exactly how to repair/modify in the future, I know how to build another unit for a future tank, I bought the best LEDs available, and I also added an awesome controller which simulates sunrise/sunset, lightning, moon phase, and is totally adjustable. If I had to do it all over again, I would do the same exact thing; very satisfied and will probably DIY all my future lights. Total spent on my retrofit was $230. Pretty steep, but I spent quite a bit replacing those PC bulbs which I felt were subpar for what I was looking to do.

Wyoming white looks pretty neat. I think one thing to be sure of with clowns is to ensure they are the same species. They can be nasty little bastards. Very territorial.

[wildbill79]

Here is a little update on some new things in the tank and a photo dump.

 

New Torch. Hopefully this will be the last one.

 

 

A couple of small pieces of Jason Fox Special Porites.

 

 

 

Picked up a new Stylo yesterday.

 

 

 

Superman Monti is starting to come back more. Gaining flesh and the blue polyps are coming back too.

 

 

Mounted the Setosa. Hopefully it will be happy here.

 

 

Here are some random shots.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And..... Today's FTS

 

 

Thanks for looking!

[ninjamyst]

Porites is crazy bright and every time I see your FTS, I am drawn to that micro plate.

[wildbill79]

Porites is crazy bright and every time I see your FTS, I am drawn to that micro plate.

 

It's really washed out in the last FTS. I love that little guy. It is doing awesome!

[LongDoggy]

I like the torch. I am on the lookout for an orange torch. I saw an awesome piece I've got my eye on.

Orange is definitely a color I've got to bring out more in my tank.

[wildbill79]

So, I got pretty excited last night because I finally figured out the white balance on my camera. I have been using the preset WB and trying to change it to suit my tank. I read on how to use the manual white balance and it has worked wonders. I don't have to try to filter out all of the blue with Photoshop and now the colors of my pictures are more true to what I see in my tank. Here are a few shots.

 

I picked up a frag of Duncans yesterday and went ahead and mounted them.

 

 

 

JF Special Porites and healing Superman Monti

 

 

 

Even the macros come out with better color.

 

 

Every time I change the water, the Mindtrick Monti does this. It has turned brown and I think that it is getting stressed when I do my water change. Any thoughts on this?

 

 

And finally, the FTS from today. I mounted a couple of things and removed the Sunset Monti and put it on the bottom to see if it will recover.

 

 

Thanks for looking!

[ninjamyst]

have you tested the parameters of the new water compared to old water? it's possible new water has very different alk and when added, causes an alk swing.

[owenj]

I that green plate.

[wildbill79]

have you tested the parameters of the new water compared to old water? it's possible new water has very different alk and when added, causes an alk swing.

That is what I am guessing as well. Alk is the only thing that I test. From water change to water change, alk goes from ~9 to ~7.8-8 dkh. I have a lot of sps and I am yet to dose. I may look into dosing from here on. I will be check my params a lot this week to get a better feel for what is going on.

 

I that green plate.

Thanks! I do too! It is awesome to watch it eat mysis shrimp!

[ninjamyst]

I know with reef crystals, the alk mixes at 11 while my tank is 7.7. If I dump the new water on top of the coral, I would imagine it would be quite a shock. I add new water into the back chambers so that helps thing mix better. I am also working on getting my alk more stable and higher so the alk difference isn't as great. Also thought about mixing in some regular instant ocean salt to lower the alk with new water.

[wildbill79]

I know with reef crystals, the alk mixes at 11 while my tank is 7.7. If I dump the new water on top of the coral, I would imagine it would be quite a shock. I add new water into the back chambers so that helps thing mix better. I am also working on getting my alk more stable and higher so the alk difference isn't as great. Also thought about mixing in some regular instant ocean salt to lower the alk with new water.

 

I do mix my water in the rear chambers. The one thing that I don't do is keep my parameters as close as possible to the new water during a water change…. I definitely need to start dosing. I know thisnis the reason that my carp is brown as well. It was brown when I bought it, but it hasn't gotten any better. I will try to get on it as soon as possible.