Newbies IM 25 AIO

[Llorgon]

18 hours ago, A.m.P said:

Looks like a ball nem.

Thanks. I looked them up and it does look pretty similar to that. I see a few in the tank. I'll leave it until it starts bothering something.

[Llorgon]

Got a new screen lid for the tank since my old one was starting to fall apart.

 

Been having some issues with one of my frogspawns. It's looking quite unhappy and I'm not sure why. The frogspawn and hammer near it are doing well. I can't see any pests on it that might be bothering it.

 

I seem to have this problem with euphyllia. The hammer I have was growing well then was unhappy and 2 of 3 heads died. Now it's back to 3 heads. Same with another frogspawn I had. Was doing great then all of a sudden started dying off. 

 

Since I haven't changed anything with the tank I sent away an ICP test to see if it could tell me anything.

 

All other fish and corals are doing well. The jack o lantern I glued to the back wall is growing which is great. I hope one day it covers the back wall.

[Llorgon]

Unfortunately my one frogspawn is looking worse. Not sure why. The other 2 frogspawns and hammer coral are all doing well. Anyone have any ideas?

[A.m.P]

Kind of looks like you have cyano or dinos on your rocks in that shot, but it definitely looks bleached for some reason. Alk swing, low nutrients, too much light, temp swings, something's upset it.

[Llorgon]

16 hours ago, A.m.P said:

Kind of looks like you have cyano or dinos on your rocks in that shot, but it definitely looks bleached for some reason. Alk swing, low nutrients, too much light, temp swings, something's upset it.

The tank seems to always have a bit of cyano here and there. Kinda moves around the rocks...

 

I doubt nutrients since I always struggle with high nutrients in this tank.

 

I admittedly haven't tested my params in awhile. I do weekly 5g water changes and at least until now, it's been enough to keep things stable. 

 

I might try moving it down to the sand bed where one of the other frogspawn is.

 

It's just strange that the other euphyllia there are all still doing well.

[Llorgon]

Tested my water

 

Alk: 7.7ppm

Cal: 490ppm(not sure how accurate this is. New salifert test kit is iffy for me)

Mag: 1380ppm

N: 5ppm

P04: 0.015ppm

 

[A.m.P]

You could try directly feeding it some pellets, what does your saltwater mix to (Cal/Alk) for waterchanges?

[Llorgon]

I'm not sure what the saltwater mixes to. It's been awhile since I checked and I don't remember. It's Instant Ocean reef crystals.

 

I've tried feeding it and the pellets just fall off it. I haven't seen any sort of feeding response from any euphyllia in my tank. I've also tried reef roids. Doesn't help the stupid clownfish steals all the food I Put in for the corals.

[A.m.P]

I believe reef crystals mixes to 11-13 dkh. It's possible that your waterchanges are causing pretty substantial swings in alkalinity.

[Llorgon]

Honestly I was surprised my alk was at 7.7. I was definitely expecting it to be higher with the weekly water changes.

 

I ran out of reagent for the hanna alk checker so I can't check after water change until more gets delivered.

 

I will probably have to look into getting a doser for the tank to keep everything more stable.

 

All the other corals seem to be doing well. But probably only a matter of time before they start to suffer if there are big alk swings.

[A.m.P]

You can probably get away with dosing manually, every other day or so.

[Llorgon]

True. I could manually dose, but I also get lazy and forget at times

[MisturrTinnie]

Do you have any other flow besides the return pump? Looks like you've been having a tough battle.

[Llorgon]

haha ya, it's been a bit tough at times with this tank, but I think for the most part it's looking up.

Once I get the dosing all figured out and dialed in I think things should be good.

I have a mp10 on the left side of the tank. Max 85% reef crest mode.

[Llorgon]

So the frogspawn continued to retract and looked a bit bleached. So I moved it to the sand bed on Saturday.

 

The frogspawn has been on the sand bed for a few days now. Still not getting the extension it was on top of the rocks, but I think it's looking a little less bleached out.

[Llorgon]

Today was water change day and I got my alkalinity reagent refill on Friday.

 

Current tank water

Alk: 6.8ppm

Cal: 500ppm

 

I dosed some 2 part that I have, but obviously it's too much calcium and not enough alkalinity. I have some bulk calcium and alkalinity I will have to mix up later today.

 

Water change water:

Alk: 8.8ppm

Cal: over 500ppm. Salifert calcium test never turned blue.

 

The Salt I'm using is instant ocean reef crystals. Seems like odd params for that salt. I thought alkalinity was supposed to be higher.

 

After water change:

Alk: 7.2ppm

Cal: 500ppm

 

After mixing up some of the alkalinity solution I brought the alk up to 8.3ppm.

 

Other than needing to get on top of dosing, the tank isn't looking too bad. I still have some algae, but things are growing. The aiptasia are a pain though. Seems like there's new one popping up daily.

 

The frogspawn that was having issues still isn't looking great, but isn't looking worse either.

 

I have a big empty spot in the sand right in front/below the mp10. What would work well there? I think it's higher flow since it's right by the mp10.

[Llorgon]

Looks like the tank is using up a good amount of alk, but very little calcium.

 

Alk on Sunday - 8.3ppm
Alk on Monday night - 7.4ppm
Alk Monday night after dosing 8.7ppm.

I'm going to try and keep alk at 8.7ppm. I didn't test calcium last night, but it seems like water changes are keeping up with calcium demands. I will test tonight and see how much is being used.

[Llorgon]

Added a couple corals. A peach frogspawn and a mystic monti.

I'm hoping the monti will encrust and fill out the front of the rock. Would be nice if it overtook the zoa's, but the frogspawn touching them doesn't seem to slow them down so I doubt it.

For the most part, the tank is doing well. Still fighting aiptasia, but I'm seeing less in the tank so hopefully winning on that front.

I'm going through a bubble algae bloom right now. Hopefully I can get that more under control. By removing the bubbles during water changes.

Tank is using up much more alkalinity than calcium. I'm dosing 3ml alk a day, but calcium seems to be kept in check by water changes.

[Llorgon]

Finally got my ICP test results. Took over a month to get them. 

 

Looks like I have some things to adjust. Mainly trace elements.

[Llorgon]

I picked up some aiptasia X to try and get them under control. I killed about 15 yesterday. Hopefully I got them all, but I'm sure more will show up.

 

The frogspawn that was having issues seems to have lost 2 of the 3 heads. Hopefully the last one comes back.

 

A local reefer here is selling his entire acan collection. About 13 different colonies/frags. So I am going to pick all those up from him. About half next week and the rest in the new year.

 

Since the ICP test revealed a imbalance of trace elements. I'm going to give the red sea coral program a try in the new year and see if that helps with the trace elements that don't seem to stay replenished with weekly water changes.

[Llorgon]

Got the acans yesterday. Everything is settling in well so far. Will probably rearrange them in a day or two.

[Llorgon]

I rearranged the acan garden a bit. Tried to group them together better. I've got a lot of orange so I'll need to pick up some other colours to balance it out.

 

It's interesting the acans that have been in my tank awhile have huge heads compared to the ones I got from the local reefer. My 2 head acan is bigger in size than a lot of the small colonies I got from him. 

 

I wonder if it's just due to lights and nutrient levels?

[Nixperience]

Suck up the algae on the sand bed, do a water change, and throw a bottle of live pods in there and dose live phyto every day and watch your tank turn itself around in a week. 

[Llorgon]

On 12/23/2021 at 12:21 PM, Nixperience said:

Suck up the algae on the sand bed, do a water change, and throw a bottle of live pods in there and dose live phyto every day and watch your tank turn itself around in a week. 

ya the sand bed seems to like to stay green instead of white. I do a weekly water change and vacuum the sand, but by the end of the week it's starting to turn green again.

 

I haven't tried the pods or phyto. What sort of benefits have you seen from adding those?

[Llorgon]

I got some gift cards for Christmas so I decided this year I'm going to try out the red sea program. 

 

My main goal with this is to improve coral colours and get my trace elements straightened out. Water changes didn't seem to be keeping up with a lot of the trace elements according to my ICP test.