Seabass's Caribbean 40 Gallon

[seabass]

There is a fair amount of die off, as you can see pieces scattered about.

 

However, much of it seems to be taking hold.

 

Interestingly, they "bleed" when cut.  On the palm caulerpa, it looked just like long hair algae (green vs white).

 

Some new growth on the palm caulerpa.

 

New holdfasts growing on several specimens.

 

[seabass]

Iron:

 

[GregEmmitte]

I read that caulerpa needs high flow. What say you? @seabass

[seabass]

I definitely don't have high flow in this tank, so I guess we'll see if there's any truth to that.  Specifically, I only have a 200gph HOB filter on this 20 gallon tank (or 10 times total turnover).  There's unmounted macro in the tank that doesn't even blow around.  So far I'm seeing signs of growth, so I'm not concerned yet.  I'm attributing the die off to shipping stress.

[GregEmmitte]

I got my shipment today. We'll see how they donunder 24/7 lighting

[Weetabix7]

6 hours ago, GregEmmitte said:

I got my shipment today. We'll see how they donunder 24/7 lighting

 

24/7 lighting. 

Are you doing a refugium according to Leng Sy's guidelines?

8 hours ago, seabass said:

Iron:

 

 

What were your starting iron levels?

What do you think of this iron test kit?

[seabass]

23 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

What were your starting iron levels?

What do you think of this iron test kit?

I'll let you know when I try it.  I got the test kit at the same time I got the iron supplements.  I should be able to find the time later today.

[GregEmmitte]

49 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

 

24/7 lighting. 

Are you doing a refugium according to Leng Sy's guidelines?

No. I just feed copiously and need something to assist in phosphate and nitrate consumption.

Also I don't like a lot of algae in the main display.

Honestly I didn't even know he existed until you mentioned him. Now I'm looking him up lol

[seabass]

Iron (Reef Aquarium Water Parameters by Randy Holmes-Farley - Reefkeeping.com)

 

Iron is limiting to growth of phytoplankton in parts of the ocean, and may be limiting to macroalgae growth in many reef aquaria. Because of its short supply and critical importance, it is also subject to aggressive sequestration by bacteria and other marine organisms. Consequently, aquarists might consider dosing iron if they grow macroalgae.

 

Iron is not easy to measure at levels normally encountered in marine aquaria. It is also not easy to determine which of its many forms are bioavailable in seawater, and which are not. Consequently, aquarists should not target a specific concentration, but rather should decide if they want to dose any at all, and then use an appropriate dosage going forward. The reason to dose iron is that macroalgae may benefit from it. If you are not growing macroalgae, then you may not need to monitor or dose iron at all.

 

Deciding how much iron to add is fairly easy because, in my experience, it doesn't seem to matter too much. Presumably, once you add enough to eliminate it as a limiting nutrient, extra iron does not cause apparent harm (at least that I've detected in my aquarium or have heard of from others). I dose about 0.1 to 0.3 mL of a solution containing 5 g of iron (as 25 g of ferrous sulfate heptahydrate) in 250 mL of water containing 50.7 g of sodium citrate dihydrate. I presently dose once per week to my system with a total water volume of about 200 gallons. This iron(II) citrate turns brown and cloudy over time, but I still use it.

 

I've noticed no negative effects from dosing this iron, or of Kent's iron and manganese supplement that I have also used, that were attributable to the iron, nor have I heard of any negative effects from others doing similar dosing. Still, I don't keep all organisms available to the hobby, and if a negative reaction does appear, I advise backing off the dose or stopping completely.

 

Since many hobbyists do not have access to the chemicals required to make iron(II) citrate, I advise most aquarists to obtain a commercial iron supplement. A number of appropriate and inexpensive supplements are available. Some commercial supplements, such as Kent's product, combine manganese with iron, presumably because the scientific literature has demonstrated that phytoplankton also scavenge manganese from the water column. I've not experimented with manganese, but it is likely acceptable to use if a pure iron supplement cannot be found.

 

I'd also advise using only iron supplements that contain iron chelated to an organic molecule. The iron sold for freshwater applications is sometimes not chelated because free iron is more soluble in the lower pH of freshwater aquaria. I'd avoid those products for marine applications. It will likely still work, as many of the studies in the scientific literature use free iron in seawater, but probably not as well because it may precipitate before it has fully fortified the system with iron.

 

In many cases of iron products intended for the marine hobby, the product may not state what the iron is chelated with, in order to protect proprietary formulations. I don't actually know if it matters much. Very strong chelation by certain molecules will actually inhibit bioavailability by prohibiting release of the iron unless the chelating molecule is completely taken apart, but I expect that manufacturers have avoided those molecules. EDTA, citrate, and some others actually degrade photochemically, continually releasing small amounts of free iron. It is believed to be the free iron that many of the organisms actually take up. "Captive Seawater Fishes" by Stephen Spotte includes a more detailed discussion of this degradation and uptake.

 

It should be noted that iron may be a limiting factor for many organisms other than macroalgae. These might include microalgae, bacteria (even pathogenic bacteria), and diatoms. These possibilities were discussed in a previous article. If such problems should arise, backing off or stopping the iron additions may be warranted.

 

 

Randy Holmes-Farley indicates that:

• typical iron concentrations in natural seawater are only about 0.000006 ppm
• iron concentrations in reef aquara are typically below kit detection limits, so testing is thought to be unnecessary
• dosing is usually safe, providing that you follow the instructions provided

However, Seachem's MultiTest Iron kit claims that NSW values are closer to 0.01 mg/L (and iron is barely detectable, at NSW levels, using their kit); and, maybe more importantly, they claim that concentrations above 0.5 mg/L can be toxic to some species.  However, they also state that under normal conditions, it is nearly impossible to maintain iron in seawater at measurable concentrations, so IDK.

 

This test doesn't necessarily indicate low levels (when low iron becomes a limiting factor), but it can indicate high levels.  Using their color chart, it is clear when iron is becoming too concentrated.  It's sort of like Salifert's phosphate kit, where you typically just want the slightest blue tinge and nothing more.  But in this case, you want the slightest purple tinge and nothing more.  Note that Kent and Brightwell's iron supplements are both chelated (which is what you want), so you have to let the color develop for 30 to 45 minutes.

 

I think a case can be made for not testing for iron.  However, it offers me peace of mind, and will let me experiment a little (without risk of toxicity).  It will be nice to know if larger or smaller doses are needed to maintain iron levels.  IDK, maybe I just hear mantra in my head of "don't dose what you don't test for" and maybe maintaining iron concentrations is just a pipe dream.

 

The test is pretty straightforward.  Other than needing to let it sit for a half an hour to test for chelated iron, I like the idea of it.  There is a normal range procedure, as well as a low range procedure (which you divide the results by 4).  I performed both procedures for comparison; here are my results (ref.=plain tank water, low=low range procedure, and normal=normal procedure):

Which I interpret as, there was some iron, but high levels of iron were not detected.  Note: the color chart came with a sliding viewing range to make it easier to determine a more precise value; however, determining a precise level isn't that important, and I wanted to show more of the color chart.  Immediately after I added the water to the reagent, some dark specs showed up in the sample.  So I shook the powered reagent and tested again.  The specs appeared again.  I'm not sure if that's normal, but they did include a reference sample that can verify if the test is working properly.  I'll probably run a test against the reference sample this weekend.  However, I didn't see any reports online about specks, and I didn't see an expiration date on the reagent (or the kit itself).

 

On the subject of iron, check this out: https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/312613-formula-one-pellets/

[seabass]

So I forgot to say why I think iron is so important.  Many macroalgae species can go sexual (sporulation) when nutrients are depleted, but also due to swings in pH, temperature, specific gravity, etc.  But besides clouding the water and losing the algae, this process of reproduction releases tons of nutrients back into the water.  It is thought that you can prevent most instances of sporulation by maintaining nitrate, iron, and phosphate (as well as keeping other parameters stable).

[seabass]

Ferts:

[seabass]

I discovered (what looked like) bryopsis on the shell of this scarlet reef hermit.  I didn't want to expose him to peroxide (and certainly didn't want to let bryopsis go unchecked), so I "encouraged" him to switch shells.  I've done this once before (years ago).  I do this just prior to lights out so he can make the transition to the new shell in the cover of darkness.

 

The video is a bit long, and you don't actually get to see it switch shells, but I still felt it was kind of interesting.  You can even see him lift up the rock that he's zip tied to, which is many times his weight.  *** sorry, technical problems with the video ***  I'll have to fix that.

 

I checked on him in the morning and he was climbing around in his new digs.   The old shell (and rock) is soaking in peroxide.  I might eventually put it back in the tank for a spare shell.

[RayWhisperer]

I'm not too knowledgeable when it comes to macros, so I can't help you there.

However, I have had some positive experiences with ordering carribean stuffs.

http://www.gulfspecimen.org/purchase-live-marine-specimens/

Quite pricey, but they have all kinds of weird things you'll never see anywhere else. Plus, what they sent me was huge. 

http://saltybottomreefcompany.com/

Another vendor I've had dealings with. TBH, I was reluctant ordering from them. Just something about the site screamed sketchy. After the initial order, I didn't get any more emails from them for about 4 or 6 days (don't remember) and I thought I lost my money for sure. Then I got a call since a few of the items weren't in stock. Asking me if I wanted to wait, or get another shipment. I asked to drop them from the order, as I could get the few items locally. After all was said and done, I was very impressed with this outfit. Well packaged and everything survived 2 day shipping without issue.

[seabass]

Thanks Ray!  I appreciate the links; pretty neat stuff.

[seabass]

Power was out this morning when I woke up (not sure what time it was... 'cause no power), so I went back to sleep.  Woke up around 8 am and power was back on.  There wasn't any storms in the area, so I figured power couldn't have been out for more than an hour.  I was going to check on the tanks, but figured they'd be alright.

 

So around 1 pm (typical lights on for my tanks), I knew I'd have to reset the time on my ReefKeeper controllers.  Unfortunately, the only source of flow for this tank is the HOB filter, and it failed to restart.  So I'm guessing it was nearly 6 hours without flow.  It kind of smelled a little funky, but looked pretty normal.  Anyway, I added a little Prime and restarted the filter.

 

I had a couple of things that I had to do, so it was a few hours more before I checked on it again.  Luckily, everything seems perfectly fine.  I've had a handful of times without power for around 6 hours, and never had any losses (knock on wood).  Good thing I checked it when I did though.  I may just have to add a powerhead just in case, should that happen again.

[debbeach13]

Glad every thing seems OK. Do you have any idea why the filter did not restart? Some time my aqua clear actually needs me to manually spin the impeller after cleaning to get it to spin. I always worry that might happen if we have a power outage. 

[seabass]

It lost its prime.  Water siphoned back out of the filter through the intake and it didn't have enough water in it to start flowing again.  I should have checked, because I know this can happen.  I always worry about things like this when I go on a trip.

[seabass]

So after lights out tonight I grabbed a magnifying glass to look for pods.  I was pleased to see a bunch of pods crawling on the glass (remember I just recently got some pods from Reef Cleaners).  So tonight, I dumped about a quart of phytoplankton in the tank for them.

 

Sorry, focus is pretty bad, and I didn't feel like reshooting it.

 

[seabass]

Get this RFA off my ass:

This rock flower anemone has attached to my conch.  Dang RFAs everywhere.

 

Algae seems to be doing fine.

[Weetabix7]

3 minutes ago, seabass said:

Get this RFA off my ass:

 

Algae seems to be doing fine.

 

Lol, that looks like a serious case of Nem-Butt. 

[seabass]

11 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

Lol, that looks like a serious case of Nem-Butt. 

Haha.  AKA nemorrhoids.

[Pjanssen]

2 hours ago, Weetabix7 said:

 

Lol, that looks like a serious case of Nem-Butt. 

 

2 hours ago, seabass said:

Haha.  AKA nemorrhoids.

[seabass]

The palm caulerpa is much taller than the surrounding Caulerpa prolifera (which seems to be doing quite well).

 

 

Caulerpa prolifera

 

Dwarf blue leg hermit

 

 

Pearling of Caulerpa prolifera.

[Weetabix7]

11 minutes ago, seabass said:

The palm caulerpa is much taller than the surrounding Caulerpa prolifera (which seems to be doing quite well).

 

 

Caulerpa prolifera

 

Dwarf blue leg hermit

 

 

Pearling of Caulerpa prolifera.

 

That Palm is TALL!!

That's weird that the one blade of Prolifera is turning translucent while the rest all looks normal, wonder what's causing it. 

Also, what are you using the eggcrate on top of the sand for?

And what have you learned about Iron supplementation, as well as the other supplements you started trying?

[seabass]

2 minutes ago, Weetabix7 said:

That Palm is TALL!!

Yeah I'm surprised how tall it is.  I might have to transfer it to my 100 gallon tank.

 

That's weird that the one blade of Prolifera is turning translucent while the rest all looks normal, wonder what's causing it.

I'm guessing it was just damaged.  I removed a few others that died off, but most are actively growing.

 

Also, what are you using the eggcrate on top of the sand for?

There are a few RFA babies on it.  You can see one on the right corner.  I wasn't sure where I wanted them, so I just left them there.  Since then, an adult has joined them.

 

And what have you learned about Iron supplementation, as well as the other supplements you started trying?

TBH, I've just been willy nilly dosing phyto, iron, and Micro Algae Grow into the tank.  I really should buckle down and figure out how to dose the dry nutrients.  After all, I wanted to learn how to dose and balance the levels.