Anemone printing $! (Different tank) dandelion's Fluval 13.5

[Milky Way]

On 3/8/2017 at 6:47 PM, dandelion said:

First skimmate collection today.

 

And it's pink.

 

what kind of skimmer do you use

[dandelion]

9 hours ago, Milky Way said:

what kind of skimmer do you use

It's the aquaticlife 115

[Aquacrazed]

Sorry to hear this but my nitrites and nitrates went up a bit (~2ppm nitrites, ~40ppm nitrates) also a few days after my two monti frags died (I kept them in the tank). After removing them and doing a 30% water change they dropped to almost zero. If you kept the dead corals in your tank I believe that's what caused the crash. I just had 2 frags so my tank was fine but looks like you had some big colonies that died off.

[Aquacrazed]

I notice you didn't put live rock or live sand into your tank. Are you sure your tank is fully cycled?

[dandelion]

5 hours ago, Aquacrazed said:

I notice you didn't put live rock or live sand into your tank. Are you sure your tank is fully cycled?

My tank is bare bottom. The rocks inside are live though. They were bought dry. I cycled them in a bucket for like 3 months and 1ppm of ammonia gets all chewed up into nitrate within 24 hours. I thought that would be sufficient to handle some coral die off. Maybe something happened during the transfer process that caused some bacterial die off.

 

Anyways I am going to redo the cycling process before I put anything back in there again. Everything else are in my other tanks. I'm glad that at least I have mature tanks to put them into.

[dandelion]

Just figured I would post some casualty pictures here. I moved most of my SPS to my 29G fish-and-anemone tank (well a mixed reef now apparently). Some started to perk back up already so hopefully I can limit my loses:

 

The setosa is almost all bleached except for the tips. It really can't pollute my water very much more so I left it in there to see if there's any chance there'll be any revival at the tips.

 

At least I have 1 frag that has really bounced back. I can even see some polyp extensions. This will probably be my seed for a new colony.

 

The montipora has lost much of its tissue but it seems like it has stopped spreading. Parts that are alive is showing great polyp extension.

 

Another monti frag that seems to be doing good.

 

I left my birdnest in the pico but for some reasons it has been STN-ing. I snipped off all the tissues I could and put them in a breeder box in my 29G. Lack of flow will be a problem. Any suggestions?

 

Assorted SPS that I moved to my 29G from the pico today. They don't seem to like the pico's light too much. I'm not putting much hope on the bird nest. The pocillopora may have a small chance but the other two should hopefully perk up.

[Weetabix7]

I think it's a good sign that many of them seemed to have stopped showing damage and are now showing polyp extension. 

Really hoping for you that they come back, especially that Setosa. 

[dandelion]

11 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

I think it's a good sign that many of them seemed to have stopped showing damage and are now showing polyp extension. 

Really hoping for you that they come back, especially that Setosa. 

It is taking quite a while for the nitrite to get processed. It may be because I don't have a lot of live rocks in the display area. I do have Seachem Matrix in the 1st chamber so hopefully that would make up for this minimalist rockscape.

[dandelion]

I think my tank is due for some updates.

 

So after the crash, I simply couldn’t get the tank to recycle. I ended up getting new rocks and cycled until 2ppm of ammonia takes about 24 hours to be digested. Then I put the pair of clown who has been in QT for 6-7 months into the tank. I also got a few frags from the latest frag swap, and a couple that I moved back from the 29G that doesn’t seem to be doing the best.

 

Anyways here are some pictures:

 

 

 

 

[dmw913]

What tests are you using?  Any thoughts as to why you couldn't get it to cycle?

[dandelion]

22 hours ago, dmw913 said:

What tests are you using?  Any thoughts as to why you couldn't get it to cycle?

I think someone is wrong with the reef saver rocks. Maybe I needed to put a lot more, but it would look really ugly if I did. Ended up using Marco rocks 

[dmw913]

Interesting.  I know pukani leaches PO4 like crazy for some folks but I hadn't heard much on reef saver.  Sorry you're having that trouble.  Has the Marco been working better?

[dandelion]

7 hours ago, dmw913 said:

Interesting.  I know pukani leaches PO4 like crazy for some folks but I hadn't heard much on reef saver.  Sorry you're having that trouble.  Has the Marco been working better?

It doesn’t scape as good compared to reef saver because they’re bulkier, but surface area is definitely superior to reef saver. It can digest 2ppm of ammonia in around 30 hours.

 

Though now I think I have dinoflagellates issues.

[tonydahomie]

 

1 hour ago, dandelion said:

Though now I think I have dinoflagellates issues.

You can’t catch a break man!

 

Hopefully its just diatoms

[ajmckay]

Nice update - those are the marco rocks?  Whatever they are the scape looks nice.  I like your mini frag racks with the magnets!   It's been a while since I've gotten any frags - I'll have to look out for an upcoming swap and load up.

[dandelion]

On 11/23/2017 at 2:07 AM, ajmckay said:

Nice update - those are the marco rocks?  Whatever they are the scape looks nice.  I like your mini frag racks with the magnets!   It's been a while since I've gotten any frags - I'll have to look out for an upcoming swap and load up.

Thanks yea those frag racks are like super cheap and easy to make. However simply supergluing the magnets to the egg crates is not very steady and it’s a matter of time for them to fall off. I now sandwich the egg crates with two magnets, fill the space between the two magnets with hot glue, then superglue the magnets to hot glue after it’s hardened. Seems to be working well so far. I get those ceramic magnets from michaels, and neodymium magnets on the outside from ebay. 

On 11/22/2017 at 9:20 AM, tonydahomie said:

 

You can’t catch a break man!

 

Hopefully its just diatoms

Unfortunately I’m pretty sure they’re Dino. I’ll try doing a complete light off for 48 hours and see what happens. 

[Aquacrazed]

How's the tank coming along? Looks like things are back on track after the crash.

[ninjamyst]

Must be dino season...sigh

[dandelion]

28 minutes ago, ninjamyst said:

Must be dino season...sigh

I haven’t done much to the tank lately other than regular maintenance. The Seto’s a frag didn’t make it. The bird nest and Monti died too but they weren’t well to begin with. My scrambled egg grew two new buds so that’s a good thing. 

 

Whatever is growing may not be Dino after all. The snails didn’t die, but they aren’t clearing it all either despite the large amount of poop. I’m leaving town for 3 weeks in a month so I’m trying not to change anything until I come back. 

[dandelion]

Haven been doing much on the tank, but finally went to the frag swap today to get some new corals. I’ll let them sit on the racks for now and plant them into the rock work later. Saw this trick on YouTube and found it to be much easier than frag plugs to fit into tiny holes in a nano. 

 

Green slimer

 

Blue tort. The tip looks white I hope it’s not bleaching?

 

Tricolor acro. Looks like it’s lost quite some colors. Let’s see if I’ll be able to get them back.

 

Torch and purple haze

[dandelion]

Finally got some polyp extension on the blue tort this morning when I went to check on my tank! Need to start a coding schedule soon. Been slacking off on testing had to dose 1.5 dkh last time. 

 

[dandelion]

Not this tank, but I don’t have a thread for my other tank. Anyways my RBTA decided to split again! First time she split I put her sister into the breeder. Did water change yesterday I guess she doesn’t like being taken out of water even for a little bit, and she split into two. Just took her and her new sister out to put them into the breeder properly. Maybe they’ll split again?

 

This hobby is finally starting to pay for itself back. 🤑

 

 

 

[Aquacrazed]

haha! I'm having the same problem in my 13.5g, It's been a year since I put one in and now I got 11 of them!

[dandelion]

4 minutes ago, Aquacrazed said:

haha! I'm having the same problem in my 13.5g, It's been a year since I put one in and now I got 11 of them!

Wow it took mine like 2 years before she decided to split the first time. Before she split she’s probably the size of my face when extended.... kind of gross to be honest.

 

if you ever want to move it, someone told me you can get the foot to let go by tickling where the edge of the foot meets your rockwork. Worked like a charm for me.... although it did take quite some time. Oh and make sure you have gloves on. Prolonged sting would orobably irritate your fingers badly.

[Aquacrazed]

1 minute ago, dandelion said:

Wow it took mine like 2 years before she decided to split the first time. Before she split she’s probably the size of my face when extended.... kind of gross to be honest.

 

if you ever want to move it, someone told me you can get the foot to let go by tickling where the edge of the foot meets your rockwork. Worked like a charm for me.... although it did take quite some time. Oh and make sure you have gloves on. Prolonged sting would orobably irritate your fingers badly.

I tried the foot tickling technique, didn't work for me. I'm trying to get them off the rocks and sell most of them.