Deeper Well - An Acquasole 60

[jedimasterben]

This morning

 

 

About an hour ago. Notice the dinoflagellate strings attacking the tips.

 

 

At least the stylos both look good.

[markalot]

Dim the lights, get them down around 125 to 150 PAR. I wonder if the bright lighting exacerbates the dino issue.

[kimberbee]

[jedimasterben]

Dim the lights, get them down around 125 to 150 PAR. I wonder if the bright lighting exacerbates the dino issue.

They actually do not grow as well in higher PAR levels. Do you mean get the area with the birds down to 125-150 or just the substrate?

I know, right. I'm wondering if it could still be allelopathy. I know it affects different species (even in the same genus) differently, which could explain why the thinner branched birds and stylos are unaffected.

 

The smaller ones are Seriatopora hystrix, the larger ones are S. guttatus and S. caliendrum.

[markalot]

They actually do not grow as well in higher PAR levels. Do you mean get the area with the birds down to 125-150 or just the substrate?

I know, right. I'm wondering if it could still be allelopathy. I know it affects different species (even in the same genus) differently, which could explain why the thinner branched birds and stylos are unaffected.

 

The smaller ones are Seriatopora hystrix, the larger ones are S. guttatus and S. caliendrum.

 

The birds and the stylos, 125 to 150 while they acclimate if you can. The dimmer the better.

[jedimasterben]

The birds and the stylos, 125 to 150 while they acclimate if you can. The dimmer the better.

Gotcha. I'll do what I can, but I've... lost some of the adjustability of my lights. Lowering the entire frag rack down only lowers PAR to it by around 15-20, but I guess it's better than nothing.

[spectra]

Well I cant grow xenia so maybe SPS is your downfall everyone calls xenia a weed I look at birds nests kind of the same way in the SPS category.......they usually grow well for anyone.....

[jedimasterben]

Well I cant grow xenia so maybe SPS is your downfall everyone calls xenia a weed I look at birds nests kind of the same way in the SPS category.......they usually grow well for anyone.....

I can't do xenia, either. It's alarming how much money I've spent on just xenia.

[markalot]

I'd love to know what the difference is. I moved a rock with Xenia in it because it would instantly shrivel up and melt in my 150 ... and then it didn't. It does seem to be related to growing SPS, they both tend to do well at the same time.

 

Have you ever dosed Nitrate Ben?

[jedimasterben]

I'd love to know what the difference is. I moved a rock with Xenia in it because it would instantly shrivel up and melt in my 150 ... and then it didn't. It does seem to be related to growing SPS, they both tend to do well at the same time.

 

Have you ever dosed Nitrate Ben?

No, I haven't. I don't actually have a nitrate test kit, my Red Sea one expired like two years ago lol. I just ordered one, though, from Salifert. Also got an Elos phosphate kit. I really like the other Elos kits I have, the color change is not gradual and is very easy to tell, but their nitrate test kit only measures down to 5ppm, which is odd.

[markalot]

Well, how are things going?

 

I've been preaching over on R2R that I think the secret to SPS in smaller tanks is small regular amounts of feeding. So many people have trouble with SPS in either smaller tanks or LED lit tanks. My theory is that it's all to do with feeding habits of the corals. LPS and softies can either absorb or eat larger quantities when food is available. SPS, on the other hand, require a small amount of food in the water at all times to stay healthy.

 

I feed my 40 gallon more Reef Roids than I do my 150, and I'm not exaggerating. I have been feeding Reef Roids every morning and evening for the 40 to get better colors on the Orchid Stylo and monti caps. It's working!

 

I move blastos from the 150 to the 40 to get them in lower light and they do really well, even when SPS are paling from to little food.

 

Maybe this is a clue, maybe it's not. Your birds went south really fast for tank params to be an issue IMO, but maybe they were shocked?

[ninjamyst]

Well, how are things going?

 

I've been preaching over on R2R that I think the secret to SPS in smaller tanks is small regular amounts of feeding. So many people have trouble with SPS in either smaller tanks or LED lit tanks. My theory is that it's all to do with feeding habits of the corals. LPS and softies can either absorb or eat larger quantities when food is available. SPS, on the other hand, require a small amount of food in the water at all times to stay healthy.

 

I feed my 40 gallon more Reef Roids than I do my 150, and I'm not exaggerating. I have been feeding Reef Roids every morning and evening for the 40 to get better colors on the Orchid Stylo and monti caps. It's working!

 

I move blastos from the 150 to the 40 to get them in lower light and they do really well, even when SPS are paling from to little food.

 

Maybe this is a clue, maybe it's not. Your birds went south really fast for tank params to be an issue IMO, but maybe they were shocked?

how do you balance nutrient export to avoid algae in a small tank??

[jedimasterben]

how do you balance nutrient export to avoid algae in a small tank??

Extreme import requires extreme export, so a very large skimmer to compensate.

[markalot]

how do you balance nutrient export to avoid algae in a small tank??

 

In my 40 I don't, have you seen the algae in it? My skimmer is pretty bad as well yet the tank soldiers on.

[jedimasterben]

The two stylos continue to look fantastic, and the two birds that are okay have basically full polyp extension. Even the basically dead birds have lost no additional flesh, and the remaining flesh has had full polyp extension the entire time I've been home (except for now that I ran the algae scraper by them so I could get a decent pic lol)

 

[Sharbuckle]

The two stylos continue to look fantastic, and the two birds that are okay have basically full polyp extension. Even the basically dead birds have lost no additional flesh, and the remaining flesh has had full polyp extension the entire time I've been home (except for now that I ran the algae scraper by them so I could get a decent pic lol)

 

Im glad you didnt fully loses the nests. Always a damn shame.

[markalot]

Looks good. Hard to judge white balance but make sure the tank is running more blue for a while as you drop down the par as well.

 

The pink bird looks good, and it's probably no coincidence that that kind did well in my 40 as well. Seems to be more forgiving of mistakes and maybe doesn't need as much food?

[jedimasterben]

Im glad you didnt fully loses the nests. Always a damn shame.

Yeah, I've seen too much of that over the last few years, this is by far the fastest I've ever seen this happen.

 

Looks good. Hard to judge white balance but make sure the tank is running more blue for a while as you drop down the par as well.

 

The pink bird looks good, and it's probably no coincidence that that kind did well in my 40 as well. Seems to be more forgiving of mistakes and maybe doesn't need as much food?

I still don't understand your thing against white light lol. Besides, I could put a Radium over this tank and it would actually look less blue than these LEDs

 

SPS are very specialized feeders, but in being so specialized I think that it's because they rely less on that feeding response to round out their nutrition. Not really any hard data in either direction, so I don't know which way is right. Schrodinger's coral

[markalot]

If you feed enough the white LED's will be fine, otherwise the SPS will waste away. It's the only thing you refuse to budge on.

 

We need someone with access to a high quality spectrometer (something that can produce a high resolution accurate spectrum) of multiple light sources to see exactly what we are working with.

[metrokat]

What's up with your lights

[jbb]

Yeah his tank sorry Ben

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dim the lights, get them down around 125 to 150 PAR.

 

Benny's lowest par allowance is around 125,000

[ReefWeeds]

They actually do not grow as well in higher PAR levels. Do you mean get the area with the birds down to 125-150 or just the substrate?

I know, right. I'm wondering if it could still be allelopathy. I know it affects different species (even in the same genus) differently, which could explain why the thinner branched birds and stylos are unaffected.

 

The smaller ones are Seriatopora hystrix, the larger ones are S. guttatus and S. caliendrum.

 

Honestly, I think it is. It looks just like mine did when they started to peel overnight after the fragging of the sinularia. I had the birds for months, they weren't new - and they were doing fine then boom. Peeling and they were gone within a week.

[Mariaface]

I vote allelopathy or the dip itself? Especially the latter if the tissue loss has stopped now, but carbon filtering hasn't been changed.

 

But I'm also sleep deprived so who knows

[jedimasterben]

I changed carbon again on I think Saturday. Using very little, but I plan to change it every week instead of just when i remember.

[markalot]

I don't think anything except a shipping or dipping incident would have hit those birds so fast. The fact that they stopped peeling is a good sign IMO.