Slowtwitch Posted May 16, 2016 Share Posted May 16, 2016 Looks like a porites. 1 Quote Link to comment
Gary.F Posted May 16, 2016 Author Share Posted May 16, 2016 Could be. Whatever it is, it's nice when something starts growing for free. It almost makes up for all the things we buy and then lose! 1 Quote Link to comment
Gary.F Posted May 16, 2016 Author Share Posted May 16, 2016 So, back when I was about to discover one of my long list of issues (Alk or PO4), I bought a lovely blue mariculture acro' which turned immediately brown and began to STN at the base. With no great expectation of success, I fragged off two tips and stuck them onto a couple of rocks. Well, time passed and one of them began to encrust, much to my surprise. Now they have begun to turn blue again and, for the first time, shown some polyps. I really hope something comes of them as it was a beautiful coral before I got my incompetent hands on it. 1 Quote Link to comment
jam1n Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 Hi Gary Just wanted to say your tank looks great and I love what you are doing with it so please keep the updates coming! You have kept two copperbands in the Lido, can I ask your secret? I've known people with 4 footers who have struggled with this fish. I'm picking up a Lido myself in a few days and would love one but dont think I could bare moving him on once he got too big! Quote Link to comment
Gary.F Posted June 21, 2016 Author Share Posted June 21, 2016 Hi Gary Just wanted to say your tank looks great and I love what you are doing with it so please keep the updates coming! You have kept two copperbands in the Lido, can I ask your secret? I've known people with 4 footers who have struggled with this fish. I'm picking up a Lido myself in a few days and would love one but dont think I could bare moving him on once he got too big! Thanks. I've actually recently taken the copperband back to the shop. After nearly a year, I just got tired of the feeding headaches and the effects of three frozen feedings a day on the phosphate levels. I think it could have been done with the right tank mates but three active wrasses and a mandarin all competing to pick the rocks clean was maybe not the best combination. Quote Link to comment
Gary.F Posted September 26, 2016 Author Share Posted September 26, 2016 Looong overdue update. I haven't given up but I wanted to make a few changes and let them bed in for a bit. I've been struggling with acroporas generally and, when two seemed to burn up on the tips (while Alk was stable at about 7.5) I had begun to suspect that the Razor wasn't as gentle as it might be. Don't mistake me- it has been great for many corals, but one or two acro's seemed unhappy. The shadowing was also leading to a lot of bare skeleton on the undersides. So the light was the second of the changes (and I'll come to that) but I also wanted to dabble in carbon dosing. Here in Italy, distilled vinegar isn't as easy to come by as in some other places. White wine, apple, balsamic...no problem. Pure, distilled? Not so easy. After a little research, though, I went with ZeoStart3. I learned that it contained the necessary nitrate to form the third pillar of rapid bacterial growth and, wow, does it work! I'm gradually phasing out the GFO since PO4 seems stable at .04 regardless of how long I leave the old stuff running in the reactor. The skimmer it pulling far more out than it ever did, too. The second change was slightly pricier. I think I was a little reluctant to move out the Razor because it was so pretty and easy to use. I didn't want halides because of the heat and lack of adjustably and I've never liked the flat, ripple-free light of a T5 unit. So I was down to either a more sophisticated LED or a hybrid. First option ran the risk of "good money after bad" while the second was just, well, a lot of money. Still, the point of this is keeping corals alive so I bit the bullet. It's an ATI Powermodule and, while it was not cheap, I think it was the best aquarium investment I've made. In a few weeks, struggling, ugly corals have regained their vigour. Growth seems to be happening everywhere. I know that we should never get too confident but it really feels like a corner turned. Anyway, I hope I have something worth posting from now on. For now, though, here's an update on that blue frag from a couple of posts ago. Onwards and upwards! 2 Quote Link to comment
vlangel Posted September 26, 2016 Share Posted September 26, 2016 Wow Gary, I read your whole thread. I got a chuckle out of your comment about how did we do anything without the internet. (I felt like that when I first joined this forum, ha ha!). Anyway, I enjoyed reading your story and your tank is beautiful. 1 Quote Link to comment
Gary.F Posted September 27, 2016 Author Share Posted September 27, 2016 Thanks. It hasn't been smooth sailing but that makes us appreciate successes all the more, right? Quote Link to comment
Gary.F Posted October 14, 2016 Author Share Posted October 14, 2016 Over the years, I'm sure we've all read conflicting opinions about the capacity of Acropora tissue to regrow over dead and algae-covered skeleton. Well, this is what is going on at the moment with my an echinata that I almost gave up on when it looked to be dying off. It seems to have rallied and has taught be a valuable lesson about the point at which you should give up on a coral. Early last month, I thought it seemed a little more fleshy than before so a took a pic' in order to chart progress. This is where we are right now: The algae has received a pretty decent arse-kicking and the right-hand side has now completely recovered. There even seems to be a bit of growth on that top branch. Very happy! Quote Link to comment
Gary.F Posted October 16, 2016 Author Share Posted October 16, 2016 New FTS. SPSs are really taking off but a few others are suffering. The Jasmine polyps (knopia) are dying back but, since they were invaders anyway, I'm not losing sleep. More concerning is the Alveopora. I'm feeding it more regularly but it seems like getting nutrients under control will not be without casualties. Orange zoas also seem to be suffering but, conversely, the green ones seem to be taking off. Actual growth at the tips of my ancient green slimer are making it all worthwhile. 1 Quote Link to comment
Gary.F Posted October 18, 2016 Author Share Posted October 18, 2016 Update on some individual corals. This is that little green splodge that started growing on the Stylo base. Now shaping up to be a pretty interesting Acropora of some kind. The slimer finally has some growth tips, too!!! This is a top-down shot. And this one is exploiting the more diffuse light to spread over the parts of its skeleton that suffered from the LED's shading. Next task is to thin out the euphyllias. They're lovely but they're just spreading too aggressively. Quote Link to comment
Gary.F Posted November 13, 2016 Author Share Posted November 13, 2016 Update on that echinata from above. The bare/algae covered bits are pretty much gone now and growth seems to be kicking in hard. 1 Quote Link to comment
Gary.F Posted November 30, 2016 Author Share Posted November 30, 2016 I picked up a new Acropora. Any ideas on the ID? It's from Australia, if that helps. Quote Link to comment
Gary.F Posted December 18, 2016 Author Share Posted December 18, 2016 New FTS. Euphyllias are thinned out (too late to save the red acro' in the top right of the earlier post). The alveopora dwindled to nothing despite being great for a long time, I've read the theories on these but I won't be risking another. Quote Link to comment
Gary.F Posted February 7, 2017 Author Share Posted February 7, 2017 The recover continues... Quote Link to comment
Gary.F Posted June 10, 2017 Author Share Posted June 10, 2017 Quick update. Lost a couple of fish to a power cut. Fortunately the addition of a UPS kept the damage down. Switched to the ATI Essentials about a month ago. Very early to say but it feels like things are going well. Corals growing, good colours etc so certainly nothing negative to report. Anyway, here's a FTS to show how things are at the moment. 2 Quote Link to comment
Chalkyy Posted September 29, 2018 Share Posted September 29, 2018 Hello, What sump did you use for your lido 200 conversion? im currently in the same process and am looking to sump the tank instead of using external filter. Many thanks 🙂 Quote Link to comment
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