Alex's Biocube 29

[xAyanex]

42 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

Looks great other than high mag! What test kit do you use for magnesium? I've had trouble recently with two different Salifert kits reading way too high. I was freaked out for a while until I tried Red Sea Pro, which read almost exactly the same level with new salt water that my salt manufacturer says it should be. 

 

It was a good 200 ppm higher with Salifert

Yikes!!! Yep, Salifert. I think I got it for like $16 on Amazon but I've only used it a handful of times and it says it can be used 50 times I think. The Red Sea kit is $33 on Amazon. After a quick google search, I don't think my Mag is going to hurt anything even if it is truly that high, and if it isn't it's probably right around where it needs to be. So I will try to test alk more often (like weekly) to run it out (lol, seems like that will never happen) and then get Red Sea next time instead. Thanks for the heads up!!

[teenyreef]

Yeah, I don't know why it's like that. I found some reports of it reading too low when the #3 reagent is left open too long, but nothing about reading too high. But both my current kit and the brand new one I got both read high. Normally Salifert's very good, and the Red Sea Pro kit is a lot more work to use, so I'd prefer to use Salifert. But who knows, maybe Salifert has a bad batch or something.

[xAyanex]

47 minutes ago, teenyreef said:

Yeah, I don't know why it's like that. I found some reports of it reading too low when the #3 reagent is left open too long, but nothing about reading too high. But both my current kit and the brand new one I got both read high. Normally Salifert's very good, and the Red Sea Pro kit is a lot more work to use, so I'd prefer to use Salifert. But who knows, maybe Salifert has a bad batch or something.

I don't really have an LFS that could test my water for me, the only two that would use Salifert. Otherwise I'd try contacting the company... There's not really a way to QC the kit. I could try to find a solution of known magnesium level and see how much off it really is? This is sounding like a lot of work, haha. 

[teenyreef]

From what I've read since my last post, there seems to be some belief that testing methodology may have something to do with it. Suggestions include mixing for 20 seconds instead of 10 for the first two reagents, and mixing gently but longer between drops of the titration solution. 

[Flexin]

I've enjoyed reading this thread.  Thank you!

[xAyanex]

20 hours ago, teenyreef said:

From what I've read since my last post, there seems to be some belief that testing methodology may have something to do with it. Suggestions include mixing for 20 seconds instead of 10 for the first two reagents, and mixing gently but longer between drops of the titration solution. 

I'll try that next time!

19 hours ago, Flexin said:

I've enjoyed reading this thread.  Thank you!

Thanks for reading.

 

Today my alk tested at 8.9, which is quite a bit different from the 9.6 it was at yesterday. It went down when I did a water change because Aquaforest reef salt alk is listed at 7.2-8.8 dKH. So that brings me to my next two questions to research: Why is my alk going up? And how much of an alk swing is too much?

[xAyanex]

I think my torch has brown jelly disease. Seems like many people have had bad experiences with this, and it seems like onset is most often caused by trauma. (In my case, one of us may have accidentally bumped into the torch's tentacles during a water change/tank maintenance). After some quick research, my options are:

 

A. Siphon out the jelly and hope the coral can recover on its own. Not a lot of success stories with this strategy particularly.

B. Iodine dip the torch coral and QT it, which I won't be doing because I don't have iodine on hand and I have no place to QT.

C. Frag the good head away from the bad one.

 

Right now I'm leaning toward A or C. I've never fragged a torch, so who knows how that will go. (I would make Daniel do it anyway.)

 

I will try to get pictures later to confirm, but the diagnosis fits other than bad water quality. I don't have perfect water parameters, but they were never that bad IMO.

[Flexin]

Pics, pics, pics

[xAyanex]

17 minutes ago, Flexin said:

Pics, pics, pics

Yep. I should have taken them before I left the house for work today. I will see if my boyfriend can take a couple while the lights are still on.

 

I am on vacation for the next two weeks, and it's a stay-cation so I can monitor the corals very closely

 

Edit: Uploading pics now!!

[xAyanex]

Pics taken today 4/9/17, I think this torch has brown jelly disease:

 

 

 

 

And here are a couple Full Tank Shots, so you can see the health of my other corals/I can admire my beautiful tank from afar:

 

 

 

Edit: I suppose another option would be to pull and trash it, I've read of a lot of people doing that because the brown jelly disease is a bacterial infection that takes hold when a coral is damaged, and it is contagious and can spread to other LPS. But I would feel bad throwing a live creature away!

[fishfreak0114]

That's a bummer about the torch but everything else looks really good!  I love how wavy your toadtool is.  For the torch, if it were me I would frag off the infected head using bone cutters, and run to the store for iodine for a dip. My Duncan once had what I believe to have been brown jelly, I did what I described and it came back to full health quite fast  I use iodine I bought at Walmart. 

[xAyanex]

Just now, fishfreak0114 said:

That's a bummer about the torch but everything else looks really good!  I love how wavy your toadtool is.  For the torch, if it were me I would frag off the infected head using bone cutters, and run to the store for iodine for a dip. My Duncan once had what I believe to have been brown jelly, I did what I described and it came back to full health quite fast  I use iodine I bought at Walmart. 

I love the wavy toadstool too! It looks so sad at night when it's sleeping, but it perks right up when the lights come on. And everything else is happy except the plate, which is still barely hanging on. Nice signature, is that new?

 

Do you mean I should frag the infected head, and dip that in iodine? And just leave the healthy head in the DT?

 

I don't have bone cutters, do they sell those as Walmart? Lol I can order some from amazon and have them here in two days, but that's the fastest I can do.

[fishfreak0114]

Thanks, and yah the signature is new as of a week and a half ago. 

 

I meant any dipping the healthy part, in hopes of keeping infection from spreading. If you can't immediately cut the head off, I'd suck off as much goo as possible and dip the whole coral.  I haven't seen bone cutters at Walmart but you never know!  I wonder if you could use a dremel to cut it off?

[xAyanex]

I bet we could come up with something to cut it off, we have a lot of tools. I'll see what I can do when I get home.

[ninjamyst]

Do you have Coral Revive or CoralRx?  If not, just taking it out of water into a bucket of tank water and try blowing the brown jelly off the torch.  You want to do this outside of the tank so the brown jelly doesn't float around the tank.  This has happened to me before.  Torch are difficult to keep as far as euphyllia goes.  I was never able to keep one for more than 1 year.

[Mkus]

You can use a dremel tool to cut it off it's what I use.

[The Dish]

15 hours ago, xAyanex said:

...Right now I'm leaning toward A or C. I've never fragged a torch, so who knows how that will go. (I would make Daniel do it anyway.)...

 

 

Fragging euphyllia branching corals is really easy. Just make sure you cut the skeleton below the white flesh, Since you don't have bone cutters you might be able to get it started with another tool and (Very carefully) be able to just snap it off. Good luck with it, your tank looks great!

[teenyreef]

I used a dremel with a diamond wheel to cut up my duncans. You can use wire cutters instead of bone cutters too. 

[Mkus]

I cut my frogspawn all the time with a dremel I cut it as close as I can to the main body never a problem

[xAyanex]

I don't have a Dremel but I do have wire cutters! 

[Weetabix7]

There seems to be a bit of that brown jelly going around lately, I think you're the third person I've seen mention it. 

Everyone else is giving you great advice, so I have nothing to add to that, other than I hope you can save the remainder of the Torch and get it healthy and growing again. 

The rest of the tank looks really, really great!!

[xAyanex]

Long Update 4/20/17! Sorry for the lack of updates, I've been on "vacation". Really just a stay-cation getting lots of logistical stuff done, but it's much more relaxing than my job nonetheless. Going back to work on Monday unfortunately.

 

Parameters tested 4/18/17:

 

Temp: 79 degrees F

Salinity: 35 ppt/1.025 specific gravity

pH: 8.0

Ammonia: 0 ppm

Nitrite: 0 ppm

Nitrate: 10 ppm

Magnesium: 1500+ ppm

Phosphate: 0.03 ppm

Alkalinity: 8.9 dKH (better consistency)

Calcium: 440 ppm

 

So for the torch, we pulled it a day after I posted about it, but it seemed like both heads weren't doing well, so we pitched it. =/ In other bad news, the plate finally gave up too. No more plates for me for a while. 

 

I placed all the remaining corals that were chilling out in the sand.

 

I hope to go to my LFS this Saturday. I want to find a small replacement torch. It would be cool to add something yellow to the tank besides Earl, or some other color I don't have much of depending on what coral he has in stock. And I want to get a fourth fish, but I don't know what he has for that either, and I would have to set up the quaratine tank and research the fish ahead of time anyway, so I will wait and see if I end up with anything coming home.

 

I took lots of pictures, all taken the same day as testing. Both testing and pictures were post-water change. I tried to get a good picture of pretty much everything in the tank.

 

Full tank Shot:

 

 

Right Side View:

 

 

I found what I believe to be a red feather duster just below (but still touching) the orange yuma mushroom. I have never noticed having one of these before! I also noticed one on the toadstool's rock, but it is facing the back of the aquarium and is in a difficult location to photograph:

 

 

My SPS coral is still doing awesome. I still don't know what it is, but I love it and hope it continues to do well. It is extremely difficult to get a picture of the tiny green glowing polyps that extrude from the hard coral's skeleton:

 

 

The Red Acan is doing puffy and well, showing some feeder tentacles:

 

 

The meteor shower cyphastrea seems to like it's new location. It is much more blue and orange than the photo shows:

 

 

The Hammer coral is still happy as can be:

 

 

The green star polyps:

 

 

The small much-more-orange-than-they-appear acans are puffy and showing feeders as well:

 

 

The green polyp toadstool:

 

 

The radioactive dragon eye zoas, which are pissed off because they are being stung by the meanie-head RBTA:

 

 

The Duncan, which is happier than ever and has so many heads I can't count them unless it's sleeping:

 

 

The candy apple red zoas, which were stretching to reach for light where they were placed (mid-level), so I placed them up here hoping to help the poor eight heads get more light:

 

 

The ever-wavy beautiful toadstool (but you'd never know how pretty it was during the day if you only saw how pathetic and dead it looks when it's sleeping):

 

The rock flower anemone, featuring a nassarius and a hint of red cyanobacteria re-emerging:

 

 

The rose bubble tip anemone, which has still never bubbled back up because it's a fruitcake. Hobbies include stinging corals:

 

 

The orange yuma mushroom, which appears somewhat bleached in the center because it is pissed off about being moved, but it's mouth is still it's signature green color:

 

 

I have loads and loads of asterinas everywhere:

 

 

A baby stomatella snail crawling along the glass. I must have hundreds of these guys:

 

 

An asterina starfish on the glass beside a cerith, with a nassarius snail in the background. (Not pictured: Astreas):

 

 

Earl, the midas blenny that is far too quick and active to get a picture with both color and detail (in focus). I opted for a more in-focus picture:

 

 

Also extremely difficult to photograph are Bob and Dot. Here they are seen swimming side by side:

 

 

A slightly more focused picture of Bob by himself:

 

[xAyanex]

Nighttime Moonlight FTS 4/20/2017:

 

[Pjanssen]

Sorry about your torch. They are difficult to bring back once they start to go. Tank looks great. Love your wavy toadstool.

[fishfreak0114]

Looking good!  Do you have any ideas of what you might want for a fourth fish?