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Penny's IM14-Retired 7/18/2021


Pjanssen

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42 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

Right?!  Maybe the universe is telling me to break down this tank

 

It’s like the movie Final Destination.......Reef Edition.  

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So I've just spent most of the evening sanding and filing the edges of the lid and I'm real close to getting it to fit so I don't think I will have to have it re-made. Such a bummer though, because it really is/was a nice looking piece. The error was totally mine. I don't know if I mis-read the tape, or just wrote it down wrong. I measured several time though, so I think it was the stupid tape measure. Just not meant for precision measuring. I did notice though that the corners, where there is silicone, takes up quite a bit of space and that should be accounted for when laser cutting.

 

So aside from taking up most of my Sunday, I think all in all everyting gonna be arright !

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Woke up this morning, carrying on my usual routine, waiting for the lights to come on and wondering why they aren't. Is it earlier than I thought. Did the power go out over night and mess up the timer? Nope and nope. I don't have a light anymore 😂😢!

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3 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

Woke up this morning, carrying on my usual routine, waiting for the lights to come on and wondering why they aren't. Is it earlier than I thought. Did the power go out over night and mess up the timer? Nope and nope. I don't have a light anymore 😂😢!

Oh gosh! It looks like a whole lot has gone south in here within the past 48 hours! Here's hoping things turn back around soon! 😞

 

I will send you some good Caribbean reef energy. 🏝️

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1 hour ago, billygoat said:

Oh gosh! It looks like a whole lot has gone south in here within the past 48 hours! Here's hoping things turn back around soon! 😞

 

I will send you some good Caribbean reef energy. 🏝️

The good news is that the inhabitants all look pretty good, Except for not being able to find Rover, but he's gone missing before and then miraculously shows up.

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Bad photo with too much glare and reflection, but..._A120002.thumb.jpeg.32a27076a06e669fefe3f79401133e7d.jpeg

 

The Gorgs are looking a bit better. Still some algae growth on some them, and I think I need to frag off some of the dead branches in hopes of new growth. I still have 2 Rics hanging in there, but still tiny. Alk seems to have finally stabilized at 6.9 with Ca at 415. Still no sign of Rover, I think he's really gone this time 😢

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I like the spooky ghosts! 😁🎃

 

I've had success rehabilitating damaged gorgs by cutting their dead branches. Make sure you make your cut a bit below the dead part; take just a tiny bit of living tissue off with it and the gorg should be stimulated to regenerate. If dead skeleton is showing in between patches of living polyps, you can frag off the living part and plant it in the rock somewhere. Often it will recover and begin to grow anew.

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  • 2 months later...

Not much has changed in this tank. It's kind of boring right now. But I did notice this on the purple ribbon, which has always been my best grower and remained healthiest of all my gorgs. Should I frag it down and cut out the dead parts? @billygoat, maybe you have some expert input?

 P1060028.thumb.jpeg.66cb3ee91bdec33146bc9fe01145a775.jpeg

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1 hour ago, Pjanssen said:

Not much has changed in this tank. It's kind of boring right now. But I did notice this on the purple ribbon, which has always been my best grower and remained healthiest of all my gorgs. Should I frag it down and cut out the dead parts? @billygoat, maybe you have some expert input?

 P1060028.thumb.jpeg.66cb3ee91bdec33146bc9fe01145a775.jpeg

In my experience, gorgonians with these sort of isolated dead spots are capable of regenerating their tissue over the exposed areas of skeleton if conditions improve. If it were me, I'd wait a little while before fragging it to try to get it back on track and growing again. 

 

It looks like the polyps on this particular colony are a little bit leggy, almost like it's reaching for the light. How is the light and flow on it? And what have you been feeding it with?

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I've never seen much written on requirements for gorgonians.  @billygoat do you know any good sources?

 

From a little searching (without knowing what species we're looking at) it seems like it's possible that photosynthetic Gorgonians may be similar to clams in that they don't get tweaked as easily as corals (or maybe not at all) by having too much light. 

 

One study indicated that even at 1000 PAR (half the maximum possible at the water surface -- bright!) there was no indication of photoinhibition in most of their tests.

 

Any idea what genus or species we're looking at on this thread?

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8 hours ago, billygoat said:

It looks like the polyps on this particular colony are a little bit leggy, almost like it's reaching for the light. How is the light and flow on it? And what have you been feeding it with?

The light is a NanoBox, and this gorg is at the top of the tank. The tank gets Phyto Feast daily, as well as pellets for the fish. I feed Reef Chili once or twice a week, and occasionally frozen LRS or similar.

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7 hours ago, mcarroll said:

I've never seen much written on requirements for gorgonians.  @billygoat do you know any good sources?

I have not encountered much literature dedicated specifically to gorgonians in the aquarium hobby. Sprung and Delbeek dedicate a chapter to gorgs in Volume 2 of "The Reef Aquarium" (1997) and I've been able to find a smattering of online articles that discuss keeping them in home aquaria (some of which were also written by Julian Sprung, who seems to be a big fan of photosynthetic gorgonians), but that's about it. I feel like there must be more out there somewhere though.

 

7 hours ago, mcarroll said:

Any idea what genus or species we're looking at on this thread?

The specimen pictured in the post above is a purple whip/purple ribbon gorgonian (Pterogorgia anceps). This is a common nearshore species found in shallow water (sometimes very shallow water) off the coast of Florida and throughout the Caribbean.

 

2 hours ago, Pjanssen said:

Also should point out that the picture was taken 1st thing in the morning, so that may have something to do with it.

Ah that makes sense. The polyps are likely not going to be extended all the way if it's early in the morning. I've read reports - specifically in this article - of this particular species starting strong in the aquarium but declining over time because it requires particularly strong lighting. I would imagine that any sort of NanoBox should be more than sufficient for P. anceps, but perhaps that is not the case. 🤔 Here's a quote from the relevant part of the aforementioned article:

  • "Of the various genera covered by this article, Pterogorgia has the poorest long-term survival record in aquariums. This stands in contrast with its position as among the most tolerant of wide fluctuations in temperature and water quality in the habitat where it naturally occurs. It has a very good survival rate in shipping, with mortality being basically non-existent. The poor survival in captivity relates to this genus seeming to require very strong illumination. It also seems to need some supplemental feeding. When strong light is given the members of this genus grow well in captivity, and supplemental feeding keeps them opening the polyps daily. The members of this genus frequently close the polyps for days or weeks at a time, and then shed a waxy skin, which leads a novice aquarist to believe the gorgonian is dying. As mentioned previously, the skin shedding prevents algae from growing on them."

Hope this helps! 

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I wish I had pics of my slit pore(I think) gorg before it grew back it was shipped in a wet papper towel (yikes!) And over 90 percent of it died off I had to cut away the necrosing tissue areas back repeatedly into living tissue as a last ditch effort to stop the necrosis and try to stimulate it to regenerate new tissue. I was convinced it would die I almost gave up. It eventualy recovered and quickly regrew over the skeleton. Its prety huge now. I even fraged it a few times

I read somewhere to not to cut the skeleton back if its clean unless its harboring algae that could prevent the tissue from regrowing. To Instead cut away dammaged tissue into the living tissue to stimulate new growth. Its able to grow new tissue faster than new skeleton. Some of these just fair better in tanks than others I could not keep the purple whips very well but the slit pore,(maybe slit pore?) grubes gorgonia orange and delicate spiny gorgs seem to be fairly easy to keep for me anyway. The grubes seemed to be the fastest growing. Even the photosynthetic ones benifit from feeding fauna Marin makes some fine powdered gorg foods ultra seafan and ultra min f that I broad cast feed a bit to mine once a week sometimes twice I've seen other corals eating it too.

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There's something happening here:

P1090029.thumb.jpeg.ba39ca8ff5a371c2b8c9c907fecc2267.jpeg

P1090031.thumb.jpeg.56e0c18a94340803d1c12bb4ceb2f534.jpeg

 

I have quite a bit of work to do to place a bunch of new gorgs. This is the last straw though. I will not be sinking any more money into this tank if these don't make it.

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Oh wow! Reinforcements have arrived! 😁

 

I can't wait to see what the tank looks like with all the new arrivals in position. Here's hoping that this time things turn around once and for all! 🤞

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  • Pjanssen changed the title to Penny's IM14-Retired 7/18/2021

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