plainrt Posted May 26, 2015 Share Posted May 26, 2015 6 lines are aholes. Been better off with a small yellow wrasse Link to comment
Learn It Posted June 2, 2015 Author Share Posted June 2, 2015 6 lines are aholes. Been better off with a small yellow wrasse I have heard this, and was hoping to get lucky. Firefish looks fine to this day but I havn't been able to spend much time with the tank so who knows... Link to comment
GreenPea Posted June 2, 2015 Share Posted June 2, 2015 What sand are you using? I can't turn my new mp10 past 30 percent without getting tornado storms. Link to comment
Learn It Posted June 17, 2015 Author Share Posted June 17, 2015 What sand are you using? I can't turn my new mp10 past 30 percent without getting tornado storms. Sorry for the delayed response... I am using Carib-Sea special grade reef sand. Link to comment
righttirefire Posted June 17, 2015 Share Posted June 17, 2015 What sand are you using? I can't turn my new mp10 past 30 percent without getting tornado storms. I second Learn It! I use special reef grade. I run my mp10 about 3" down from the top of my 20 long and shot it long ways. No sandstorms. Link to comment
Learn It Posted October 26, 2015 Author Share Posted October 26, 2015 Here is the issue with my birdsnest: it appears to be bleaching or turning white then algae growing over it. Is this RTN? It has been SLOWLY getting worse for over 2 months. The apparently dead part grows cyano/algae over it while the rest of my tank is seemingly free from any algae.. My tank parameters are perfect and stable. My lighting has not changed. Everything else in my tank is thriving. Link to comment
D Z Posted October 26, 2015 Share Posted October 26, 2015 Have you checked for pests? Look at night, with a flashlight, and see if you can see any red bugs. Also, I know you said your parameters are perfect, but what is your calcium and alk at? How often to you test for alk and what test kit do you use? Link to comment
vlangel Posted October 27, 2015 Share Posted October 27, 2015 That is a shame because it looks like your birdsnest was growing great before this started to happen. I hope someone can help. I am new to sps myself so I don't know what is wrong. Link to comment
Learn It Posted October 28, 2015 Author Share Posted October 28, 2015 It has been growing like mad, everything in the tank is right now. I will look for red bugs, none lat night. I have been very strict with dipping corals and nothing new in quite a while... Ammonia/nitrie/nitrate are all undetectable with API, Phosphates 0.00 with Hanna, Ca:470 and Mg:1500 with RedSea. My Alk test by RedSea sucks, but I think dKH: 8.4 Link to comment
tetraodon Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 It has been growing like mad, everything in the tank is right now. I will look for red bugs, none lat night. I have been very strict with dipping corals and nothing new in quite a while... Ammonia/nitrie/nitrate are all undetectable with API, Phosphates 0.00 with Hanna, Ca:470 and Mg:1500 with RedSea. My Alk test by RedSea sucks, but I think dKH: 8.4 thats the problem, you need better test kits. get nitrate, alk and calc by salifert. having zero of everything starves coral out, Link to comment
Sk8n Reefer Posted October 28, 2015 Share Posted October 28, 2015 Sorry about the bird- are you running GFO or carbon? Maybe cleaning the tank too much or did you recently change one or both? That can cause a reaction like this in my experience. Did Alk. take a dip at one point? Link to comment
Learn It Posted October 30, 2015 Author Share Posted October 30, 2015 thats the problem, you need better test kits. get nitrate, alk and calc by salifert. having zero of everything starves coral out, I agree I could use a better Nitrate/Alk kit, but the RedSeaPro test kit for Ca is pretty highly regarded from my understanding. They recently (last2 years or so) changed the Alk test, which I now find to be useless. Sorry about the bird- are you running GFO or carbon? Maybe cleaning the tank too much or did you recently change one or both? That can cause a reaction like this in my experience. Did Alk. take a dip at one point? I am running BRS GFO and ROX carbon as per bottle recommendations, changing it out every 4 wks. This is simply in a media bag in the AC70. 20% WC every 7-10 days w/ IO RC and SG of 1.025. RODI water = 0tds. As mentioned above I do have a crappy Alk test kit. I just don't understand why negative change when it has been growing like a weed for 6mo ever since the tank was started when NOTHING about maintenance had changed. I rotate between NLS pelletes, PE mysis and PE cyclopeeze every day. The tank only gets the frozen probably 3x a week. So this brings me to my next question... With everything @ 0 (NH3,NO2,NO3,PO4) in addition to ROX carbon, GFO, wet skimming, etc. is my water too clean? I feel like with all my coral growth recently that I need to either start dosing something or feeding more... Maybe d/c 24/7 carbon? Let me know what you guys think.. Link to comment
Sk8n Reefer Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 The Rox is a really strong carbon. That ac70 will still flow a large amount of water through it. GFO is also something to be carful with. I would only run the GFO when you see PO4 getting up in the .05-.07 or more range and even then you will not need to run in continuously to reduce it to .02-.03 Dial back the amount when you do also so it doesn't remove anything to quickly. You can do the same with Carbon and only run it 1-2 weeks out of the month. You could increase feeding to allow the water to become a little dirtier and just monitor PO4 every few days or so Link to comment
tetraodon Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 I agree I could use a better Nitrate/Alk kit, but the RedSeaPro test kit for Ca is pretty highly regarded from my understanding. They recently (last2 years or so) changed the Alk test, which I now find to be useless. I am running BRS GFO and ROX carbon as per bottle recommendations, changing it out every 4 wks. This is simply in a media bag in the AC70. 20% WC every 7-10 days w/ IO RC and SG of 1.025. RODI water = 0tds. As mentioned above I do have a crappy Alk test kit. I just don't understand why negative change when it has been growing like a weed for 6mo ever since the tank was started when NOTHING about maintenance had changed. I rotate between NLS pelletes, PE mysis and PE cyclopeeze every day. The tank only gets the frozen probably 3x a week. So this brings me to my next question... With everything @ 0 (NH3,NO2,NO3,PO4) in addition to ROX carbon, GFO, wet skimming, etc. is my water too clean? I feel like with all my coral growth recently that I need to either start dosing something or feeding more... Maybe d/c 24/7 carbon? Let me know what you guys think.. yea your water is way too clean, i dont have any experience with GFO or carbon, i never used them. it could be that you added something that helped keep the water from being stripped completely. i would get your skimmer to get a dryer skim production, as for the carbon and GFO i cant help. Link to comment
bobssecrtsn Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 I'll give my 02 cents.. carbon/gfo may strip your water to clean, but in terms. of it effecting your birdsnest I would say its not the cause. besides, softies love dirtier water so you might even see them close up or start to look stressed, judging by your pictures they look fine. have you tried testing alk on your fresh batch of mixed water before doing a water change? do you put it up to temperature before hand? I dont think an alk spike would be the issue here, you'll notice it more on the tips of your coral. the dead area looks like it starts from the base. have you tried looking at the tank after the lights are out? I am suspicious of your cleaner shrimp, From experience I had them tear polyps out of corals and cause them to rtn. When was the last time you calibrated your refractometer? Birdsnest are the easier sps coral to take care of, so there must be something effecting it. Link to comment
Admonition Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 You have any asterina starfish? This exact thing happened to my birds nest and birds of paradise until I discovered asterina starfish (hitchhikers) wrapped around my corals munching away. I only found them eating at night, so I'd keep an eye out at night with a flashlight to check for pests. Link to comment
Gary.F Posted October 30, 2015 Share Posted October 30, 2015 Seriatopora have been known to do a Polyp Bailout when something is upsetting them. You might find that they recover and also that you find the odd new one growing somewhere else in the tank at some point in the future. Link to comment
Learn It Posted October 30, 2015 Author Share Posted October 30, 2015 I'll give my 02 cents.. carbon/gfo may strip your water to clean, but in terms. of it effecting your birdsnest I would say its not the cause. besides, softies love dirtier water so you might even see them close up or start to look stressed, judging by your pictures they look fine. have you tried testing alk on your fresh batch of mixed water before doing a water change? do you put it up to temperature before hand? I dont think an alk spike would be the issue here, you'll notice it more on the tips of your coral. the dead area looks like it starts from the base. have you tried looking at the tank after the lights are out? I am suspicious of your cleaner shrimp, From experience I had them tear polyps out of corals and cause them to rtn. When was the last time you calibrated your refractometer? Birdsnest are the easier sps coral to take care of, so there must be something effecting it. Interesting points. Yes all softies are growing faster than ever right now. I have not tested Alk with newly mixed SW, I may be investing in a better Alk tester in the near future. Temp is always matched. My refractometer is calibrated every week and has been very consistent. My cleaner shrimp is an absolute beast towering over everything in the tank, maybe hes too hungry.. My Red Monti has some random white spots like it always has, but otherwise looks fine. My blue acro that can be seen in the shrimp pic is actually starting to encrust after appearing unchanged for months...now recently has great PE and a new neon green base that is branching out. You have any asterina starfish? This exact thing happened to my birds nest and birds of paradise until I discovered asterina starfish (hitchhikers) wrapped around my corals munching away. I only found them eating at night, so I'd keep an eye out at night with a flashlight to check for pests. In the past few weeks I have not seen any, but yes, I have seen a handful of tiny hitchhikers stars in the past. Because this is such an isolated incident, I agree that I need to better observe @ night for pests. Seriatopora have been known to do a Polyp Bailout when something is upsetting them. You might find that they recover and also that you find the odd new one growing somewhere else in the tank at some point in the future. I would love to find more of them but even more so would I love to find what is stressing him! BTW thanks for all the ideas, you guys are awesome. I'm going to try a few tings: feed more (in moderation of course), search for pests, and look for a better Alk test. Ill probably either ease up on my carbon/GFO or try d/c my skimmer for a little while and see how things do... Link to comment
Sunar357 Posted November 30, 2015 Share Posted November 30, 2015 Nice looking tank. I'm going to be running the same light fixture over my lagoon. I love the six-line! Link to comment
Learn It Posted December 1, 2015 Author Share Posted December 1, 2015 Nice looking tank. I'm going to be running the same light fixture over my lagoon. I love the six-line! The light fixture is excellent, no problems thus far. The six line sure is a cool fish that eats all the pests, however, he is quite an ass to my firefish who now spends 90% of his day hiding in his hole Link to comment
Sunar357 Posted December 1, 2015 Share Posted December 1, 2015 Yeah i've had one before. Thankfully mine was kept in check previously by clowns but I also didn't have any 'shy' fish like a firefish. Link to comment
Learn It Posted January 6, 2016 Author Share Posted January 6, 2016 In the midst of thinking about taking out my skimmer because my water was too clean, it started to have issues. At no point has this tank ever had any ammonia/nitrite/nitrate or phosphates. I believe my oversized skimmer (rated for 100gals) was over skimming the water. I did not clean it for a year and it stopped working - clearly my fault. But instead of cleaning it I took it down to experiment without it! After one week with no skimmer I have seen much more algae growth but still not nitrate (API) or phosphate (Hanna). I am sure some phosphates exist and are simply being used up by the algae so they do not register with test kits. For the next few weeks I will be feeding less, doing more WC (every 7 days as opposed to every 10-12), and adding a fuge light to my AC70 so I can grow chaeto in the overflow box and AC70. Everything is thriving and happy besides my birdsnest in the center which has been slowly dying for over 3 months... Wish me luck on this super cheap and simple setup! Link to comment
Weetabix7 Posted January 6, 2016 Share Posted January 6, 2016 I'm interested to see what kind of results you get from this. Link to comment
Learn It Posted February 17, 2016 Author Share Posted February 17, 2016 2/17/16 Sixline jumped even though 90% of my top is covered. Recommendations for new fish? I DO NOT want another sixline as he was super aggressive to my firefish. I want to get 2 small peaceful fish - thinking maybe a clown goby and something else? Been over a month with no skimmer now, and I am seeing the best growth thus far. Softies/LPS taking off and SPS pieces are showing new growth, even my birdsnest which was at least 70% white out with algae growing over it. I truly believe my skimmer (rated for 125gal) was stripping the shit out of my water. This tank now runs on nothing but a AC70 HOB filter and MP10. Tested everything yesterday and still 0 nitrate and phosphate. Link to comment
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