Anthrax & Gangs! 50G SCA

[thecoralbeauty]

I recently almost wiped out all of my SPS as well. I was so frustrated because all of my params were perfect and I even got a Hanna ULR PO4 checker to make sure I hadn't stripped my water. I was about to go nuclear by saying "F you" to the tank and tossing in a hand full of pennies when I realized that I was killing my corals with activated carbon.

 

Unfortunately, the only evidence to support the theory that too much carbon is bad for corals is anecdotal (at least what I could find). You may want to check out this link though...

 

http://www.fishchannel.com/saltwater-aquariums/aquarium-frontiers/reef-aquarium-granular-activated-carbon-2.aspx

 

The link I provided pretty thoroughly explains the effectiveness of carbon in different scenarios. In a nutshell, it's probably best to stick to 3 Tbps/50 gallons of water. The article also recommends only using the carbon for 12 hours once every week because the effectiveness of carbon drops almost logarithmically with respect to time. The author also makes some recommendations about flow through the carbon. Specifically that flow should be limited to one aquarium volume per day, which is pretty hard to do unless you have a reactor with tunable flow.

 

Some of what this guy says is logically derived, referenced, or experimentally derived (although I wouldn't call his experiments very controlled or publishable). So take it with a grain of salt, but it's good food for thought. Anyway, I hope everything is going smoother for you now.

very interesting! i mean, at this point, anything is worth a try...

 

and maybe i'll just take my sweet time replacing SPS (if at all). big, squishy, easy LPS is also super fun and I really enjoy the movement it brings.

 

in fish news:

 

I decided to try out a target mandarin, and grabbed a melanurus wrasse that was on sale in case there IS some sort of pest issue that i haven't been able to spot. I also caved and finally got a midas blenny. That fish is hysterical and i regret not pulling the trigger sooner.

 

The target mandarin is happily chowing down on the insane amount of copepods i have in my fuge. I may move him(i think its a him?) into the main display here soon, but figured he'd probably enjoy a few weeks of feasting first. i have so many copepods that I'm not sure he could wipe out the population even if he tried... but we'll see. i was very scared to take the plunge on him after hearing how finicky they can be, but he's been actively on the hunt since day one and i can tell he's put on some weight as well.

[cnseekatz]

Morgan, the majority of the corals not doing well seem to be montipora species. I would check them extremely well for nudibranchs. Check online for images and what to look for so that you can spot them. Montipora eating nudibranchs are no fun and I hope it is not that but have to cross it off the list of possible causes.

 

Oh sure... something goes wrong and Kat automatically blames MEN.

 

Sorry to hear about your SPS Morgan, but I'm stoked that you picked up the Midas Blenny. It's still one of my favorite fish. They're super active, and have really cool personalities. They WILL jump if they get spooked so make sure you've got a good lid on your tank. I was about to say that it's sad to come into find one of your friends dried up on the floor, but then I remembered that you have cats, so if she does jump, you'll probably never know!

[thecoralbeauty]

 

Oh sure... something goes wrong and Kat automatically blames MEN.

 

Sorry to hear about your SPS Morgan, but I'm stoked that you picked up the Midas Blenny. It's still one of my favorite fish. They're super active, and have really cool personalities. They WILL jump if they get spooked so make sure you've got a good lid on your tank. I was about to say that it's sad to come into find one of your friends dried up on the floor, but then I remembered that you have cats, so if she does jump, you'll probably never know!

actually, when i did have my original carpenter's wrasse go carpet surfing, they didn't touch him!!

I wonder if it had something to do with the slime coating??

[cnseekatz]

actually, when i did have my original carpenter's wrasse go carpet surfing, they didn't touch him!!

I wonder if it had something to do with the slime coating??

 

Since my fiancee and I moved in together, I've never discovered any carpet surfers. She has a 15 year old dachshund who loves nothing more than trolling around the house looking for food on the floor. I've had a couple of fish disappear, and I never knew if they died in the tank and got eaten, or if they jumped... and got eaten!

 

[thecoralbeauty]

So, i FINALLY FOUND THE PEST

 

After all this time doing water changes like a maniac and testing params daily... to no avail.... i found the buggers. or at least, i think they must be the buggers.

my params are stable and normal, nothing has changed... except these little creepy crawlies have gotten so abundant that i finally spotted them. could they be causing this?

 

most of my SPS is gone. my LPS is starting to detach from skeletons in some places, but nothing severe.... fish, clams, inverts, are all totally fine.

 

 

WHAT ARE THEY?! and more importantly.. HOW DO I GET RID OF THEM!?

 

[jedimasterben]

Flatworms. They are very particularly picky eaters - they would more than likely not target both LPS and SPS corals, or different species of corals altogether, so you might actually have several problems. For these you can try wrasses along with medications like flatworm exit.

[CronicReefer]

I had some that looked just like those in my tank. As far as I could tell they just eat algae.

[Squared]

In great numbers flatworms can cover up coral and cause irritation, but I don't think they actually eat coral. When they die they release toxins, so keep that in mind when treating.

 

here's some useful links:

 

http://www.melevsreef.com/node/651

http://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bayer-insecticide-as-a-coral-dip.100496/

[thecoralbeauty]

The war on flatworms has begun.

 

I moved my target mandarin into the display. he is happily hunting and i did see him snatch one of them up. which was pretty cool. was also told that my damsel would eat them, but i haven't confirmed mine does or at least i haven't seen it.

 

i also used flatworm Rx. immediately worked. did several large water changes (i think total about 30 gallons over the course of the afternoon/next morning) to combat the toxins released when the worms die. also running carbon

 

continuing the monitor params for stability as well. only thing thats a bit out of whack is my mg is high, and its the salt mix causing this.

i'm super frustrated about this because because i switched to io from the io reef crystals because of high mg issues..... and here we are again. ARGH.

[Sk8n Reefer]

Flatworms are the worse! I had to tear an older tank down because of them. I got them from the store on Wadsworth years ago- what store do you think you got them from?

[ninjamyst]

oh no, i have flatworms right now in my tank. I been dipping my frogspawn and hammer in Coral Revive weekly but they keep coming back. My yellow coris not eating them. I do NOT want to use flatworm exit....

[metrokat]

oh no, i have flatworms right now in my tank. I been dipping my frogspawn and hammer in Coral Revive weekly but they keep coming back. My yellow coris not eating them. I do NOT want to use flatworm exit....

Dipping isn't a solution for FW. Flatworm exit or siphoning them out are the only 2 solutions besides predators.

AEFW are different because they are predators of Acropora, so they can be removed with dips on the host coral.

[thecoralbeauty]

Flatworms are the worse! I had to tear an older tank down because of them. I got them from the store on Wadsworth years ago- what store do you think you got them from?

 

im 90% sure that is EXACTLY where they came from- as the little target mandarin and midas blenny I got from there was the only recent addition. do they come in on fish?

 

unless they've been here the last several months.... but I'm assuming that since flatworms have limited diets, and MANY of my corals have declined, there was some other underlying thing going on. i can't remember exactly what the last coral additions were since I've been holding off for so long until things stabilize and improve...

[metrokat]

Baby FW are really tiny. They won't show till they grow and reproduce to enough numbers to be actually able to see them. They stay on the sand, rocks and on the corals, not on the glass making them hard to spot till a certain number are reached.

[ninjamyst]

How are things?

[thecoralbeauty]

Whoa. it's been quite a while.

 

What have I missed?

 

Flatworms were handled. Then there was an algae bloom. I had a ton of water changing, my skimmer went out, and it was a process getting it under control, because the salt I was using for water changes had an alk of 14- so that caused another issue.

 

After a few months of steady monitoring and water changes... we are stable now. Finally.

[vlangel]

Welcome back Morgan! It sounds like you had to fight through some issues but that you eventually won. Way to stick with it and persevere. Take some pics when you have some time.

[jedimasterben]

[cnseekatz]

Welcome back!

[FlowerMama]

Yay! Glad your system is back on track!!

[ninjamyst]

pics!

[HarryPotter]

Lets see!

[sublime1996525]

I just read through a bunch of your thread. Awesome tank!

[Rory282]

Any news about this one? 

[thecoralbeauty]

Whoa- my computer somehow saved my password. 

It's been a while. Tank is going stronger than ever though. 

 

I kind of decided to care less about replacing things that hate me/die (SPS) and just stock up on corals that seem to like me (LPS).

 

And clams. I now have 5. Which is probably why I get away with running the tank the way I do. I know the research on clams is very up in the air about how much they actually filter/etc. but they've all been happy for over a year at minimum. I still have all three Harry sent me too 🙂

 

The only piece of SPS i have is a red monti cap that is huge and growing out of control and even into itself.... I have a tiny nugget of sunset monti that i forgot was alive.... probably why its so tiny, it was buried. Everything else is mostly LPS.

 

Strangely enough, Goniopora seems to really enjoy my tank. I have a large colony of red aquacultured and a smaller frag of green Hurlock goniopora. I've seen blues and greens and I'm considering ordering them... does anyone know if they do OK touching? I've heard not to let the green and red that I currently have touch, but I've seen mixed experiences in my reading online so far. I love the movement, and the fact that unlike an anemone, they won't walk around.... So some blue/purple color would be excellent visually

 

I'm not out at the archery range as often these due to a car accident kind of screwing up my back and shoulder, so I'll try to be better about updating through the winter months instead of getting distracted and forgetting to log in for.... literally years. 😂

 

I finally caved and got an instagram a few years ago- can I share photos/video from there on here..? I vaguely remember photos being a pain and having to host them somewhere else...