da1001's dead tank update

[da1001]

_{35% water change completed}

_{changed out the filter floss}

_{scrubbed the Pico Skim tube clean}

_{turkey basted the rockwork}

_{vacuumed the gravel and worked it around a bit}

_{popped a couple hundred Phosguard beads in a media basket and tossed it in chamber 2 (maybe 5 ml worth)}

_{went to the LFS, didn't find any corals I wanted this time}

_{fed the demon fish, LT 2.0, he is doing great}

 

_{The Acan is about 90% receded/dead...the Ric is doing great although the water blew him around a bit when I was adding it back in but I flipped him back down on the sandbed and he was happy again. I was 95% rdy to buy an awesome orange/blue Acan for $30, then I saw a rainbow monti for $20 and I almost got that but I decided to save my cash for when they finally get in some frogspawn. They have a guy who keeps coming in to the LFS and saying he is going to bring in a crap ton of it for store credit, but I am still waiting on him to get his ass in gear. They had an awesome purple/green hammer that looked like a mini frogspawn but they wouldn't sell it to me. -.-}

 

_{That was my evening!}

[da1001]

I just realized why my birdsnest has been looking so fluffy lately. Its got NINE sub branches growing off of the 2 main branches it originally had when I bought it, each one about half a centimeter in length. I never noticed them because the polyps were always covering them but I peeked in there after the light had gone off and they had all retracted and that's when I saw it.

 

I'll have to remember to get a pic some night, but I am spent for tonight. Need to hit the sack and start my recovery from a week's worth of early mornings thanks to the time change.

[reefernanoman]

FTS? I must have missed it somewhere. Did you get rid of the flat worms? I got those suckers too. They look nasty when I disturb them and they start moving around by elongating their body. Yuck.

[Slowtwitch]

_{35% water change completed}

_{changed out the filter floss}

_{scrubbed the Pico Skim tube clean}

_{turkey basted the rockwork}

_{vacuumed the gravel and worked it around a bit}

_{popped a couple hundred Phosguard beads in a media basket and tossed it in chamber 2 (maybe 5 ml worth)}

_{went to the LFS, didn't find any corals I wanted this time}

_{fed the demon fish, LT 2.0, he is doing great}

 

_{The Acan is about 90% receded/dead...the Ric is doing great although the water blew him around a bit when I was adding it back in but I flipped him back down on the sandbed and he was happy again. I was 95% rdy to buy an awesome orange/blue Acan for $30, then I saw a rainbow monti for $20 and I almost got that but I decided to save my cash for when they finally get in some frogspawn. They have a guy who keeps coming in to the LFS and saying he is going to bring in a crap ton of it for store credit, but I am still waiting on him to get his ass in gear. They had an awesome purple/green hammer that looked like a mini frogspawn but they wouldn't sell it to me. -.-}

 

_{That was my evening!}

Have you checked out Saltcritters? They are a sponsor here and just added a ton of cool hammers, torches and octospawn to their site.

[da1001]

FTS? I must have missed it somewhere. Did you get rid of the flat worms? I got those suckers too. They look nasty when I disturb them and they start moving around by elongating their body. Yuck.

I will have to add a new FTS when the lights come on, I also took a few shots last night in the dark of the sub-branches on the birdsenest which I will upload too. I do still have the flat worms, but their numbers have dropped considerably, they have seemingly decided the glass is not a good place to hang out on anymore and have gone for the rock work instead, but they have left the corals totally alone and on the rocks I cant see them nearly as well, so I allow them to live...for now. BTW, I don't see no stinkin' flat worms in your tank en28so, it looks perty!!

 

Have you checked out Saltcritters? They are a sponsor here and just added a ton of cool hammers, torches and octospawn to their site.

I made it a point last night before I went to bed to remember to check out a few coral sites online today when I got up just to check out their selection and pricing (its finally getting warm enough here to ship them next day without any worries). I had forgotten, so thank you for reminding me Slowtwitch.

[da1001]

I do apologize, the picture quality sucks total bum but I gotta get back to studying soon so you gotta live with what I could salvage from the 2 dozen shots I took.

 

Here is the birdsnest aka seriatopora, look at all them mini branches growing off the two main branches!!

 

And here is the updated FTS:

 

The digitata is smack dab in the middle, birdsnest to the right of it, bottom right front on the sand bed is the candy cane, The brown blob in the front bottom middle is the nearly dead Acan, the Ric wandered a bit last night, you cant really see it but its chilling on the sandbed in the exact center of the shot just in front of the big rock. The Sunny D's are on that left Zoa rock at the front and the big frag rock is behind it with the Whammin Watermelon's and Eagle Eye's on it. And of course LT 2.0 checking out things right above them, he likes chilling and slow swimming in that watery gap above the Zoa rock.

[da1001]

Well, time for a quick update.

 

I just ordered the Joe's Juice to kill my Aiptasia problem right now before it can spread any more. I am hesitant to take out the Acan and just let it finish dying, I keep hoping against hope that it will make a recovery, its my oldest coral and it has a soft spot in my heart. I dont want to give up on it but its about gone, its gone from maybe 1.5 cm across on both heads to maybe .5 cm across on each head and is half bleached and just generally looks like crap.

 

The sand sifting teeny reminded me to do seems to be helping, along with the tiny bag of Phosguard I tossed in Friday night. I see a LOT less algae at the moment. Hope it stays that way and even improves. If its still around in another week or two, I will add just a tiny bit more Phosguard to the media bag until the algae goes away. I really think it is related to the sand leeching silicates into the water stream slowly but surely. We shall see is this helps it, if it doesn't I guess the time spent fiddling with the Phosguard over weeks on end ought to be the time needed to let it leave naturally.

 

It was nice enough to drive out to the airport with the windows down today so I took along the macro and got some nice shots of the commercial jets coming and going for an hour or two before I headed home, not sure if anyone is interested or not though. If you want to check them out just give me a shout and I will post a few to check out. Might do a side-on tank shot as well so you can see how it looks from that perspective.

 

For now I am just waiting for life to get a little less crazy with work, school, etc. I will continue looking for a frogspawn, maybe a torch or hammer depending on what comes available and probably a good Acan, a good Ric, maybe a rainbow Monti, not sure what else. I will probably check the LFS once a week to see if I can find one. I did check out every coral store online, but I decided I would save myself the next day shipping costs by going the LFS route instead. They usually get in a few of everything imaginable every other month or so, so I will save money going that route and exercising patience.

[teenyreef]

I'm glad the algae is getting better! I'd try moving the scan to a different location. It can't make it any worse, and you never know what might help

At first when I read your post, I thought you were saying you took your macro algae for a ride to the airport with the windows down

[da1001]

LOL, no the macro lens for anyone still confused. Wanted to get some high quality long range shots in and the macro fit the bill to a T.

 

It would have been even nice if I could have brought along a 55-200mm lens but alas, I do not yet have one of those.

[da1001]

OK, I have been studying my arse off for the past few days and it was time for a break. Went to the airport with my camera and took some nice shots of the planes as that is one of my favorite other hobbies. But then I got bored so I went to town on the maco lens and the tank, I bring you my 9 best shots I was able to get before its back to one final session of studying before the final exam Monday afternoon.

 

 

 

Here is the side shot of the tank as promised. I have highlighted in red the Joe's Juice soon-to-be-dead fraker and you also get a nice shot of LT 2.0 finally. He sure ain't losing any weight like the last one was.

 

 

Here is a closeup of the candy cane, I dont think y'all have ever gotten to see a nice shot of it. For size comparisons, I had to move the camera back to fit the candy cane in the shot after I took my Ric pic below.

 

My poor little Acan. -.-

 

Sunny D's, god I love those things.

 

Digitata on the left, birdsnest on the right, took both of them at once because the birdsnest was waving around alot and I couldnt get a good shot of it.

 

The Zoa rock, usually all 60+ heads are open at once but I think one of my snails had just cruised along the bottom half of it so they are still opening up in the photo.

 

Snail....and a flatworm I only just noticed to the right of it. lol

 

Here's the crab that most recently molted, I still got the occasional leg coming out of my rockwork when I turkey baste it.

 

The Ric, back to full size and no coloration lost as you can see.

 

 

Well, thats all for now folks!

[teenyreef]

Wow, everything looks great! I love that candy cane

Have you tried dipping the acan? There's a lot of algae on the plug, too, so maybe try peroxide? Since he's dying anyway it wouldn't hurt to try. And if you haven't dipped before it's an easy way to get some practice without worrying about the consequences Also, I'd try moving him to a spot with higher flow.

[da1001]

Wow, everything looks great! I love that candy cane

Have you tried dipping the acan? There's a lot of algae on the plug, too, so maybe try peroxide? Since he's dying anyway it wouldn't hurt to try. And if you haven't dipped before it's an easy way to get some practice without worrying about the consequences Also, I'd try moving him to a spot with higher flow.

I would try that but I have no dip atm. -.- My LFS was out of it when I checked friday night, I tried cleaning the algae off the frag its on but it wont go away and keeps growing so fast I cant keep up with it. I might try peroxide though, what are the %'s peroxide to water and how long do I leave it in there? I could run to wal mart in a bit and pick up some peroxide. I will move it up to sit on the spot of that empty frag I have on the rockwork, that will be plenty of flow there.

[teenyreef]

Since it's on a plug, I'd try applying peroxide to it directly. Get the regular peroxide at Walmart (it will say 3% on it somewhere). Make sure it's 3%! Take the frag out of the tank, set it on a towel, and use a dropper to put a few drops of peroxide on the algae, avoiding the coral itself. Acans can handle peroxide so it probably won't hurt if you get a little bit on it anyway (and who knows, it might help...)

 

Let it sit for a minute or two - you should see bubbles on the algae. Rinse the peroxide off the frag in a little cup of tank water and put the frag back in the tank. Good luck!

[da1001]

Since it's on a plug, I'd try applying peroxide to it directly. Get the regular peroxide at Walmart (it will say 3% on it somewhere). Make sure it's 3%! Take the frag out of the tank, set it on a towel, and use a dropper to put a few drops of peroxide on the algae, avoiding the coral itself. Acans can handle peroxide so it probably won't hurt if you get a little bit on it anyway (and who knows, it might help...)

 

Let it sit for a minute or two - you should see bubbles on the algae. Rinse the peroxide off the frag in a little cup of tank water and put the frag back in the tank. Good luck!

Well I did know about the 3% thing, I checked the forum before I headed to wal mart so I got the right one, but it also mentioned doing a 1:1 solution of peroxide and tank water, and tossing the whole frag in for a minute straight, so thats what I did. Then I washed it off in a clean bowl of tank water and tossed it back in....its still bubbling a bit inside the tank. IDK if thats bad or not but its too late now?

 

At the time the Acan didn't look like it had been bothered by it, but then again neither did the algae. Haha *runs into the other room to check on it really quick*

 

....it looks worse. Crap. *fingers crossed*

[Slowtwitch]

Well I did know about the 3% thing, I checked the forum before I headed to wal mart so I got the right one, but it also mentioned doing a 1:1 solution of peroxide and tank water, and tossing the whole frag in for a minute straight, so thats what I did. Then I washed it off in a clean bowl of tank water and tossed it back in....its still bubbling a bit inside the tank. IDK if thats bad or not but its too late now?

That's what my frags did when I dipped them in peroxide to get rid of some pesky algae. No bad consequences. Good luck trying to save that guy. If the infection killing him was bacterial, the peroxide should help. Is he eating at all?

[da1001]

That's what my frags did when I dipped them in peroxide to get rid of some pesky algae. No bad consequences. Good luck trying to save that guy. If the infection killing him was bacterial, the peroxide should help. Is he eating at all?

I tossed some mysis in earlier but he doesn't really have many feeders anymore, they sort of disappeared along with the overall size of each head so I am not sure if he is still eating or not.

[teenyreef]

You should be fine doing it that way. A peroxide dip usually results in the corals closing up for about 24 hours. You should see the algae start to change color in about the same time.

[Slowtwitch]

I tossed some mysis in earlier but he doesn't really have many feeders anymore, they sort of disappeared along with the overall size of each head so I am not sure if he is still eating or not.

Turn off your pump and actually place a mysis shrimp on head mouth and see if he tries to ingest it. Good sign if he does, not so good if he won't even try. Wait til tomorrow to try this now that you dipped them today.

[teenyreef]

Yeah, what he said Also, before you try to feed him, you can squirt some mysis juice in the tank and let it mix in the water for tne minutes or so. That often triggers a feeding response in corals. He also may take a while to ingest it if he's not feeling well. Give him ten or fifteen minutes to see if he tries to eat it.

 

You can also try something smaller like frozen brine shrimp since he's receded and might not be able to eat as much.

[da1001]

You should be fine doing it that way. A peroxide dip usually results in the corals closing up for about 24 hours. You should see the algae start to change color in about the same time.

I hope so, teeny. $5 down the drain would hurt my heart LOL. I did already notice a shrinking of the volume of algae on it, the heads of the Acan are also looking pre-soak normal again. Here's hoping!

 

Turn off your pump and actually place a mysis shrimp on head mouth and see if he tries to ingest it. Good sign if he does, not so good if he won't even try. Wait til tomorrow to try this now that you dipped them today.

Yeah I will have to do that the next time I feed ole LT 2.0, I got plenty in the fridge ready to go.

 

Yeah, what he said Also, before you try to feed him, you can squirt some mysis juice in the tank and let it mix in the water for tne minutes or so. That often triggers a feeding response in corals. He also may take a while to ingest it if he's not feeling well. Give him ten or fifteen minutes to see if he tries to eat it.

 

You can also try something smaller like frozen brine shrimp since he's receded and might not be able to eat as much.

No brine shrimp atm but I can pick some up at the LFS in a few days if he is still alive! Good idea on the pre-squirt while the pump is still on to activate the feeding response, I noticed the candy cane went insane about 10 mins after I tossed the mysis in there this afternoon. He always has his little feeders out about 1/4" during the day but when I saw him after the mysis had been floating arund for a bit a there were 3x as many out and they were at their full extended length of 1/2" looking for more, just like during night time.

[da1001]

Quick update before I gotta run:

 

Bulk Reef Supply and their....mishap with hacked account info almost bit me last night. Got to work to find 2 e-mails from my bank's electronics loss prevention department. They had seen two incoming card purchases from China totaling about $1300 so they de-activated my card for me knowing I was not in China at the time and did not have $1300 sitting around in my account to be spending anyway. If you all ordered from there too, better check your accounts just in case!

 

My Acan has NO algae on it 24 hours post-peroxide dip. The Acans themselves look about the same as they did before the dip. I saw a few tiny feeder tentacles poking out after I popped some mysis into the tank so I went ahead and did my best to get some into them but I do not know if I was successful or not. I did however manage to get some in every single head of the candy cane, it was puffed up and digesting its loot last time I checked. LT 2.0 liked the leftovers floating around so he nom'd on all of that if it was still in the water column then got his normal floating pellets that he murdered quickly after.

[kimberbee]

Good thing your bank was quick to act!!

[da1001]

Yeah now im all paranoid though so I will be checking on my account daily. I wont have a new card for 7-10 days until they can get the new one to me so I will have to write checks. Blah. Gotta visit the eye dr. today too for my yearly exam. Here's hoping the crooks left enough money in my account overnight so that I can afford basic medical care!

[Uphoric]

How did you go with the aiptasia?

[da1001]

How did you go with the aiptasia?

My joe's juice from marine depot should arrive in the mail in 1-2 days, and then its dead lol