Fishfreak's foxy BC29: Brine Shrimp!

[Pjanssen]

1 minute ago, fishfreak0114 said:

The dendro

P8100640 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

Hammers.  Not really any change since this morning (when I took the pic)

P8100639 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

New toadstool is pretty awesome.

P8100641 by orb1915, on Flickr

I don't know much about dendros, other than they are like sun corals and need to be fed heavily and kept in the shade. Yours does not look like it will come back. Your hammers don't look so bad-If you can get your water stable I think they will be okay. Not sure I would have added anything new at this point, but that is a beautiful toadstool. Good luck with it

3 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said:

My salinity stays pretty stable.  I top up manually daily.

 

In very sad news, I just went to change my floss and Ernie was laying dead on top  I'm not enjoying this hobby right now.

So sorry.

[fishfreak0114]

I just checked my powerhead and somehow the setting was changed to a linear one.  I'm hoping that that was the hammers' irritant, though I'm doubtful.

[Pjanssen]

17 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said:

I just checked my powerhead and somehow the setting was changed to a linear one.  I'm hoping that that was the hammers' irritant, though I'm doubtful.

Meaning it was getting hit directly? Mine gets hit pretty hard, but with a gyre so not constant. I think they can handle pretty strong flow. But if it was already irritated, then maybe. Still, they didn't look too bad to me.

[fishfreak0114]

14 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

Meaning it was getting hit directly? Mine gets hit pretty hard, but with a gyre so not constant. I think they can handle pretty strong flow. But if it was already irritated, then maybe. Still, they didn't look too bad to me.

No, usually I have it on random flow but it had been changed to linear.  I thought maybe the flow change made it mad even though it wasn't directly on it.  I see no change so far.

[gogeta]

What Red Sea salt is that? I swear my Red Sea salt is doing something weird with my magnesium. Sorry to read about your lose and the coral trouble 

[TinyOcean]

Oh dear. Sorry about everything that's going on.

[fishfreak0114]

2 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

I don't know much about dendros, other than they are like sun corals and need to be fed heavily and kept in the shade. Yours does not look like it will come back. Your hammers don't look so bad-If you can get your water stable I think they will be okay. Not sure I would have added anything new at this point, but that is a beautiful toadstool. Good luck with it

So sorry.

This isn't the usual type of dendro, it's a walking dendro.  Although I couldn't find much information about them, I did gather that they're photosynthetic, although I still feed it on a regular basis.  I'm pretty sure this is the 3rd or 4th time now that it has ended up like this.  Usually from here the outside browns up slowly, then with a little feeding the mouth regenerates, and the tentacles follow.  The green coloration in the center comes back slowly.  No idea why it's been happening.  When I first bought it it went pretty much dead for, like, 6 months and then grew back completely out of nowhere.  It's weird.

 

I still don't know what's distressing the hammers.  They have been fairly unaffected by everything going on, and yesterday they were happy and puffy.  No idea what changed overnight, but I think the only thing I can do is wait and see.  I did add a little more purigen and carbon just in case (like a very little bit, can't hurt right?).

 

It was a tough call whether or not to add something at this point, but I've wanted a toadstool like that for ages and I likely won't visit that shop again for a year (not a city I visit often).  It seems happy so far

 

And thanks, I guess Ernie's luck ran out.  He made it to the back safely once, but the second time around didn't go so well.

59 minutes ago, gogeta said:

What Red Sea salt is that? I swear my Red Sea salt is doing something weird with my magnesium. Sorry to read about your lose and the coral trouble 

Thanks, I'm hoping things turn around soon.  It's Red Sea Coral Pro.  I bought the bucket several months ago, but just opened it last week.

17 minutes ago, TinyOcean said:

Oh dear. Sorry about everything that's going on.

Thanks, it hasn't been fun.  But I know eventually the tank will get back on track

[gogeta]

Yeah exact same one, I'm having magnesium trouble with it! 

[Lula_Mae]

I'm sorry about all the troubles.  I do think if you get rid of some LPS, the ones left will consume alk at a much slower rate which will probably help with alk swings.  Definitely contact Red Sea about it, and maybe post a topic asking if anyone else is getting weird readings from recent batches (or do some searching online).  Sorry about Ernie!

[fishfreak0114]

1 hour ago, gogeta said:

Yeah exact same one, I'm having magnesium trouble with it! 

Perhaps they had a bad batch or two!

 

50 minutes ago, Lula_Mae said:

I'm sorry about all the troubles.  I do think if you get rid of some LPS, the ones left will consume alk at a much slower rate which will probably help with alk swings.  Definitely contact Red Sea about it, and maybe post a topic asking if anyone else is getting weird readings from recent batches (or do some searching online).  Sorry about Ernie!

That was my thinking. I'd like to keep the blastos, the happy Duncans, the dendro, and the hammers if they get happy again. I don't really feel a need to keep the others. But then I was thinking, wouldn't a toadstool look great where the big green hammer is?

 

I'll be contacting Red Sea shortly. 

 

I don't think I'll  get another small goby in this tank.  Unless I put something over the overflow openings. 

[teenyreef]

Dang, so sorry about Ernie 

 

For what it's worth, my hammers in the 10g get mad and stay retracted for a couple days, and it happens every month or two. I've gotten to the point where I just ignore it. Sometimes of I squirt a little coral food on them with the pumps off it helps them. 

 

How long have you had that bucket of salt? Any chance your weird Alk stuff started happening around the time you got it? 

Oh, and definitely change the carbon. Maybe the toadstools are conducting chemical warfare. 

[fishfreak0114]

12 hours ago, teenyreef said:

Dang, so sorry about Ernie 

 

For what it's worth, my hammers in the 10g get mad and stay retracted for a couple days, and it happens every month or two. I've gotten to the point where I just ignore it. Sometimes of I squirt a little coral food on them with the pumps off it helps them. 

 

How long have you had that bucket of salt? Any chance your weird Alk stuff started happening around the time you got it? 

Oh, and definitely change the carbon. Maybe the toadstools are conducting chemical warfare. 

I wish I'd glued needlepoint mesh over the openings, but I didn't want to use white and that's all I have on hand  

 

Usually the hammer being retracted wouldn't freak me out, but their messenterial filaments are all out and it actually seems that the flesh is receding up the skeleton in some spots. Or maybe I'm just not used to seeing those parts of the skeleton when it's puffy, I can't tell.  I'll try squirting some food on them today.  Hopefully things are looking better.  

 

I just opened the new bucket last week when I wanted to start water changes after the dosing troubles. Only 8l of water from it have gone in the tank (before I tested it and found weird numbers). I think I'll be doing very small waterchanges with it like pjanssen suggested to hopefully keep levels up with minimal swings. I'll have to make sure Mg and Ca don't creep up though. 

 

I guess I'll change the carbon better today. I just added a little bit of new stuff to the bag yesterday. Chemical warfare was definitely a thought I had, because I remember how badly the hammer was affected by palytoxin.  

 

 

My mom mom just texted and said the hammer is opening!  Not back to normal yet, but definitely getting there!  Perhaps that little bit of carbon pulled the irritant out! 

[teenyreef]

Yay! 

[fishfreak0114]

Thought I'd give a quick update on the state of things.

 

Good: The new toadstools are open and happy, the dendro is starting to brown up and the mouth is beginning to regenerate, and the hammers are pretty much normal now.  I broke the pink Duncan off to put the new red macro in its place, and it actually seems happier on the sand so I'm going to leave it there for the time being (maybe permanently?).  My soft corals are doing great.  The feather caulerpa is growing quick, as is the grape

 

Bad: I've lost more plates.  Most weathered the alk swings alright, but the heat spike really did a number and they won't stop receding.  Weirdly enough the ones attached to the skeleton still seem unaffected.  The watermelon favia frags also didn't do well with the heat spike, and one is totally gone, the other barely hanging on.  The main colony was unaffected (I guess the frags were weakened from being recently made?).  The lobo is just about gone, as is the neon green trumpet  The majority of my blastos are alright, but the radiant red and neutrino are struggling.  As far as I can tell, the radiant red hasn't receded.  I can't really tell with the neutrino, because although there is exposed skeleton, I'm unsure whether or not there's more exposed than there was when I bought it.

 

Changes: I fragged a couple of the shaded parts off of the green hammer.  There was one head that I couldn't get (awkward angle), so I'm not sure what'll happen to it long term. I did notice that the ones I fragged off are somewhat receded which I can only assume is due to lack of light as none of the other heads are receding. 

 

I need to do a really small water change (1-2l?) to raise alk. 

[teenyreef]

Thanks for the update, I was wondering how things were going. There's always something not quite right in every tank, and I think you're doing the right thing by just doing what you can to help the individual frags and keeping things stable.

 

I have a neon green trumpet that has been slowwwwwly receding for about a year now. It doesn't matter what I do, it just declines bit by bit. I may try something drastic, like doing an iodine batch and moving it to a different tank with different light, just to see what happens.

[fishfreak0114]

5 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

Thanks for the update, I was wondering how things were going. There's always something not quite right in every tank, and I think you're doing the right thing by just doing what you can to help the individual frags and keeping things stable.

 

I have a neon green trumpet that has been slowwwwwly receding for about a year now. It doesn't matter what I do, it just declines bit by bit. I may try something drastic, like doing an iodine batch and moving it to a different tank with different light, just to see what happens.

I can't wait for things to be smooth sailing again.  As smooth as reef tank can be that is.  I'm hoping to re home some frags soon, but I need to find someone to take them first.  There's a place an hour and a half away that says they'll accept livestock and equipment for cash or trades, so I need to see what I can get for the healthy frags and if they'll take the damaged things for free.

 

I think the trumpet is just going to recede to nothing, and an iodine dip didn't help at all unfortunately.  I wish I had a second tank to move things to, but the best I can do is rehome things for now.

[fishfreak0114]

This morning I did a 2l water change which raised alk by about 0.5dkh.  I did an iodine dip on half my blastos.  It's weird, some have been completely unaffected, while a couple are affected to the point of receding, and a few are just not puffing up like they used to.  I hope the dip helps.  The hammer frags look good, and I'm considering splitting the rest of it in half.  It's just so large!  I need to think on it more though.

 

I've also continued to think about redoing the scape, but on a more minor scale.  Not a full redo, but I don't really like the right side.  Most of it is just one massive rock.  Perhaps this fall I'll change things up and take out the huge rock (that would involve moving a lot of coral off, and the RFA) and either breaking it up or putting in some dry rock in its place.  I don't like how tall it is, and it's awkward for placing coral.  The front and sides are pretty much vertical so I've always struggled to find things that are happy there, and the top is fairly flat meaning the things towards the back are partially or totally blocked by the things in front.

 

The dendro's tentacles are growing back now  

 

I feel like there was something else I meant to add, but I can't remember what it was!

[fishfreak0114]

I removed the lobo from the tank.  After the temperature spike, it starting receding faster and there wasn't much left. 

[teenyreef]

35 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said:

I removed the lobo from the tank.  After the temperature spike, it starting receding faster and there wasn't much left. 

Probably a good call, you don't want it to mess with any of the other corals. But it sounds like your making progress overall!

[fishfreak0114]

1 hour ago, teenyreef said:

Probably a good call, you don't want it to mess with any of the other corals. But it sounds like your making progress overall!

I could tell it had hit the point of no return  I think the tank is getting turned around. Slowly but surely. 

[Pjanssen]

Just caught up. Glad to hear things are doing better. I've lost two brains since starting this tank, and for some reason have never been able to keep trumpets/candy canes or merlettis.

[fishfreak0114]

3 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

Just caught up. Glad to hear things are doing better. I've lost two brains since starting this tank, and for some reason have never been able to keep trumpets/candy canes or merlettis.

Thanks  I think acans are the coral that I can't keep.  They did great for a little while, and then not so great...  

 

If the affected blastos haven't recovered by the time I go to give my frags away, I might add them in.  For now, I'll keep up with feeding and dips when/where needed.

[Lula_Mae]

17 minutes ago, fishfreak0114 said:

Thanks  I think acans are the coral that I can't keep.  They did great for a little while, and then not so great...  

 

If the affected blastos haven't recovered by the time I go to give my frags away, I might add them in.  For now, I'll keep up with feeding and dips when/where needed.

I think with some TLC like you're giving them, the blastos will probably be ok, especially if there's still flesh on the skeleton.  One of mine looked super-rough after the 800 mile move in April and now it's nice and fluffy!  Still the most temperamental one I've got though lol.

[fishfreak0114]

1 minute ago, Lula_Mae said:

I think with some TLC like you're giving them, the blastos will probably be ok, especially if there's still flesh on the skeleton.  One of mine looked super-rough after the 800 mile move in April and now it's nice and fluffy!  Still the most temperamental one I've got though lol.

I hope so!  They all have flesh, but a couple are receding a bit.  Throughout everything, the one blasto that hasn't seemed affected in the slightest is my big green one!  It just stays puffy

[fishfreak0114]

I didn't clean the glass, but here are some low quality pics to show a couple things.

 

Well I'm happy to say that in less than a week we've gone from this:
P8100640 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

To this:

P8160657 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

Quick and dirty FTS.  You might notice the lack of grape caulerpa.  I'm blaming the temperature spike for most of it disappearing.  I noticed my feather caulerpa also took some damage, but it's growing again.  Hopefully the grape will begin growing again soon.

P8160651 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

If I go through with the re-scape later this year, this is the rock I'd be removing or breaking up.  It's a big rock.

P8160651 edited by orb1915, on Flickr

 

These are the two hammer frags.  They've already begun to un-recede now that they're receiving proper light.

P8160656 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

You can see which 4 blastos are having the hardest time

P8160658 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

I'm not sure what's going on with the top edge of this one. 

P8160660 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

And a yucky vermetid!  I just realized that I forgot to smoosh it!  I will on Friday I guess

P8160662 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

Queen Bee was acting weird this morning.  She used her tail to dig out all the sand here.  She also moved the dendro's pen in the process

P8160663 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

I'm still undecided whether or not to frag Frank, but I'm leaning towards not for now.  If I ever do, this would be the best place

P8160666 edited by orb1915, on Flickr

 

P8160667 by orb1915, on Flickr

P8160668 by orb1915, on Flickr

 

This red macro continues to grow well, at least the part that gets light!  My attempt to prop up the toadstool was unsuccessful.

P8160671 by orb1915, on Flickr]

 

My glass is super dirty here, but I couldn't believe how large the Japanese leather looked today. It really has grown!  It's not very green anymore, but I don't care that much.

P8160672 by orb1915, on Flickr