29 gallon: R.E.E.F Tank

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

15 hours ago, jservedio said:

You should hold off on more acros until you've got the problems under control - while the treatments themselves likely aren't going to kill your acros, it's going to stress them. Stressed acros don't grow, take a while to recover, and sometimes die. Wild caught acros almost always tend to die when stressed. Big fresh cut frags or "mini-colonies" from local reefers is the way to go. Never buy a hacked up maricultured or wild piece - they just don't do as well entirely ignoring the ethical argument.

 

Consider these two scenarios:

1. Buy acro now, spend 3 months getting problems under control, 9 months of stability for a total of 1 year.

2. Don't buy acro, spend 3 months getting problem under control, sit for 3 more months letting things stabilize further, buy acro and have it grow for 6 months in stability

 

If you go with scenario two, you will end up with a bigger, happier acro at the end of your one year, even with 50% less time in your tank.

 

Want Visual Proof? I have two colonies of WWC Yellow Tips in my tank - same exact coral, about the same sized frags when I got them. One I've had for a year and another I've had for over 2 years. The one I've had for two years is considerably smaller because it went through the tail end of treating Chrysophytes, had a tiny bit of STN, and lost a lot of color. It took a long time to recover and start growing fast again. Sorry the glass is insanely dirty, but I don't feel like cleaning it.

 

Two Years of Growth from 1.5" single branch:

 

Just 10 months of growth from a 1.5" single branch:

Yea I’m not getting it yet, I’ll wait

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

My reef cleaners order just came in last night. The emerald crabs actually are eating the bryopsis, I notice a difference. Not huge, I just got them yesterday, but they are helping. They are keeping it under control 

[Pjanssen]

Good luck.It will be great if you can get it under control without the use of medicines or chemicals.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

42 minutes ago, Pjanssen said:

Good luck.It will be great if you can get it under control without the use of medicines or chemicals.

That’s what I’m hoping. It seems to be working so far. I have a mix of ruby red mithrax crabs and emerald crabs. I have 10 of them. I also ordered 25 of these very small snails from reef cleaners. They are small but do a good job at cleaning the glass. I also got 5 assorted reef safe hermit crabs. Idk what they are either, but they aren’t harming anything. They are moderately big too. They aren’t very colorful tho, they are a white and grey color. They remind of the white striped hermit crab. I also got about 10 nassarius snails too. By far my most favorite thing that I got tho was for my second tank. My pest tank. John gave me the most adorable crab that I have ever seen. He’s just a baby too. He is only the size of about a nickel. He’s a type of box crab or shame face crab. He stays out in the open too, that’s my favorite part. He stays in the open and buries his body in the sand up to the top of his shell. I can still see his eyes and shell tho. I got him for my pest tank as well as a super cute porcelain crab. He is also a baby. He is even smaller than the box crab and likes to stay out in the open. I’ll have to get pictures of my pest tank later tonight. 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

I did make a mistake tho with my 10 gallon pest tank. I got rid of the big stone crab in the tank, I gave him to my LFS, but I left the smaller mystery crab in the tank, thinking he would be ok with everything. I was wrong. He jumped my new little box man and took off 2 or his legs on his right side. I saved him before the crab could do more damage. He had the little guy over in his rock hole that he stays in and was trying to tear him apart. I got to him in time tho. He only lost 2 legs thank goodness, he’ll grow them back. I felt horrible, I should’ve known that he might attack. I couldn’t keep the mystery crab in the tank anymore, I was afraid he would kill the box crab. I had to put him in the freezer and get rid of him that way. I felt horrible. I thought the freezer was the best way to do it. This was the first time I actually had to kill a creature in my tanks. 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

19 hours ago, NoOneLikesADryTang said:

I hope you learned from that, to not trust everything you're told and to do your own research on issues that you're having. 

I did learn from it, I learned to never trust my LFS. I learned that if I ask my LFS a question and I get an answer, that I double check that answer by searching it up.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

The crab looks like a flame streaked box crab, but way smaller and cuter. It’s just a juvenile crab. 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

So I got home last night and my new little crab guy was laying on the sand and was dead. I can’t tell if it’s just a molt or not, it looks so much like the actual crab. I took it out of the tank to see if it smells like dead fish and it doesn’t. He was alive and fine that morning. He was attacked the night before though and lost 2 legs and one of his claws. Could he of died from that? Or did it get infected and he died? I wouldn’t think he would die that fast from an infection? The only other thing in the tank is a very small baby porcelain crab who minds his own business. He’s only the size of maybe my thumbnail. Could it be just a molt? I looked around the tank for him and I don’t see him at all. But he could be hiding under a rock or hiding under the sand to protect himself from anything because he could’ve just molted. Idk what do you’ll think? I can get a picture later. He’s so small I can’t tell if he weighs any different or feels any different. It’s a little squishy, I know molts could be squishy, but could a dead crab carcass also be squishy? I just hope that he’s still alive. 

[kimberbee]

This is why it's so important to do research on compatibility before putting ANYTHING in a tank... your crabs were not compatible and one killed the other... 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

Just now, kimberbee said:

This is why it's so important to do research on compatibility before putting ANYTHING in a tank... your crabs were not compatible and one killed the other... 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

Kimberbee, I know. I just thought that they might’ve been ok. The crab was fine with the crab that was in the tank before him, they never fought. He was about the same size as the new shameface that I got, so I thought he would be ok. I made a mistake I shouldn’t of. 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

Good news tho, the emerald crabs are doing a great job at cleaning up the bryopsis. I checked this morning and it looks a lot better than it did last night. The acro used to have some bryopsis growing on the frag plug, but the bryopsis was completely gone this morning. 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

I think I figured out why the tips of my sps looked burnt and some of my lps corals weren’t doing good. My alk is at 4.6! How is that even possible? I did like a 25% water change yesterday too. How can I raise it up? 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

Look back to page 69 of your journal... people have explained it already.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

SPS corals are very demanding. You need to learn how to test.... you need to know how much your numbers change daily and make the appropriate adjustments so that it doesn't drop. I think @SliceGolfer told you that you aren't ready for sps.

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

On ‎11‎/‎22‎/‎2019 at 12:03 PM, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

What I'm saying is when you make up new saltwater, test the alk and see where its at. That number is where you want the tank. If your tank is higher than the new water let it naturally drop. Now that you have sps you're going to want to make sure you check your alk every couple days. They will suck it up and use it.

Here is what I told you on page 69

[Tamberav]

The low alk probably isn't killing you corals, but perhaps a swing is during a water change. I let my tank run at 5.0 alk for awhile and eventually brought it up slowwwwwwwwly.

 

Also this tanks runs at 4.8-5.4 and looks very nice: http://lareefclub.com/community/threads/65-gallon-reef-savvy-build-aka-gemsavvy.44454/page-7#post-508225

 

STABILITY is key, not exact numbers. You need to figure our your daily consumption (test every day, same time of the day) then dose for it daily or buy a doser if you are not able to hand dose every day. Then you need to check alk frequently, at least twice a week would be a good start as consumption can drift and change. 

 

Bring alk up slowly to a desired number (whatever your brand of salt mixes at as long as it isn't over 9, high alk is for more experienced people imo). If you rush to bring it up, you will find problems. 0.5 max alk a day. Also know that something that stressed your corals, can show for weeks or show weeks later. So it's not always what you are doing now that is the problem.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

Hmmm, well I’m doing my best to slowly raise it up. I’m not sure what could’ve stressed out my corals a few weeks ago. I did have a slight problem when my filter leaked a bit of water, it wasn’t a lot, but it may have caused a problem. I’m following the directions on the bottle to raise my alk. It says to dose a capful of this alk raiser twice a week. I’m going to take my params again tonight. 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

I also finally got some flucazole to finally get rid of this bryopsis. I had to travel 2 hours to a lfs that actually had it, but I was already heading there anyway, so it wasn’t a problem. This small bottle tho cost me 30 bucks, that is crazy, but if it works, then every penny will be worth it

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

5 hours ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

SPS corals are very demanding. You need to learn how to test.... you need to know how much your numbers change daily and make the appropriate adjustments so that it doesn't drop. I think @SliceGolfer told you that you aren't ready for sps.

The sps that I have are still doing ok, and I’ve seen people who have had sps before who definitely weren’t ready for them. It’s just not my sps tho that aren’t happy, my lps softies are upset too. So if I’m not ready for sps, then I’m not ready for either of those too. I’ve had the sps for about 2 months and they have been doing good up till now. 

[Tamberav]

53 minutes ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

Hmmm, well I’m doing my best to slowly raise it up. I’m not sure what could’ve stressed out my corals a few weeks ago. I did have a slight problem when my filter leaked a bit of water, it wasn’t a lot, but it may have caused a problem. I’m following the directions on the bottle to raise my alk. It says to dose a capful of this alk raiser twice a week. I’m going to take my params again tonight. 

NO!

 

Don't follow those!! Dosing twice a week will never give you stability. 

 

You need to do the math to figure out the EXACT amount to dose. Like how many mL raises your alk by 0.5 then dose a bit less daily.

 

It should say how many mL to add per gallon or liter to raise alk by a certain amount. You will have to do the math equation. If you didn't pay attention in school thinking you would never use math...well you were wrong 😉

 

Then you need to stop dosing and test it you need to ease off dosing and test daily till you match consumption.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

Phhhhhh, well this is gonna be complicated. Was never good at math😂. So how do I raise it back to 9 dkh at least? Just doing the math? I’ll google it and figure it out, google usually has the answers. 

[Tamberav]

7 minutes ago, EthanPhillyCheesesteak said:

Phhhhhh, well this is gonna be complicated. Was never good at math😂. So how do I raise it back to 9 dkh at least? Just doing the math? I’ll google it and figure it out, google usually has the answers. 

Slowly....no more than 0.5 a day. You need to use the math for whatever product you bought to figure out the dose to raise it 0.5 and dose a little less to error on side of saftey. 

 

There are some calculators out there depending what you are using. Where you put in current alk and desired alk and the product and gallons. 

 

Also account for the space your rock takes up. Your tank is 29 but doesn't have 29g of water in it.

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

25 minutes ago, Tamberav said:

Slowly....no more than 0.5 a day. You need to use the math for whatever product you bought to figure out the dose to raise it 0.5 and dose a little less to error on side of saftey. 

 

There are some calculators out there depending what you are using. Where you put in current alk and desired alk and the product and gallons. 

 

Also account for the space your rock takes up. Your tank is 29 but doesn't have 29g of water in it.

Ok, thanks, I’ll have to figure it out. Your honestly probably the only person on this forum who can put up with me😂

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

Stupid me, I found out that I read the test kit wrong. It was not at 4.6 it was at 6.6 dkh. I just tested again and it rose to 7.0 dkh because I dosed this morning before I talked to you guys. Everything in the tank looks normal, nothing has changed or died. Alk rose .4 after one dose. Is that ok? 

[EthanPhillyCheesesteak]

My tank is looking much better after 3 days so far of raising my alk by .4 each day. Right now my alk is at 7.8, I’m trying to get it to 8.5 and then keep it there and stable. Also I added the flucazole to the tank 3 days ago and I’ve noticed the bryopsis is slowing down and has white/see through ends. It’s slowed down, but it’s still there, how long does it take for it to completely eradicate it. Also, my sps are looking much better, they both have full polyp extension, but are missing a bit of flesh. The bryopsis is not longer sticking to the skeleton of the sps that lost flesh, so hopefully it’ll grow back after things get stable. My scoly was also looking worse and worse, it’s bones were sticking through the flesh, but it’s been looking better the past few days. The only things that are upset still for some reason are my mushrooms. I’ve never had problems with them? My bounce has been shriveled up and it’s insides are outside of it and my leopard mushroom has also been shriveled up? My jawbreaker is fine, but why are they so angry?