Snow's 2.6G Little Monsters Picoreef - Retired!

[Snow_Phoenix]

Coral progress pic for the montihat Part #1: from 17/6/2020 until 9/7/2020 (present day) :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Coral progress pics for the montihat Part #2 (different angle) :

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Coral progress pics for the green leptastrea from 1/5/2020 until 9/7/2020 (present day) :

 

 

 

 

[Ratvan]

Would the white dots on the Pavona be where the sweepers expand from?

[Snow_Phoenix]

17 minutes ago, Ratvan said:

Would the white dots on the Pavona be where the sweepers expand from?

I honestly have no idea. 🤷‍♀️

[debbeach13]

Great progress photo's.

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

Great progress photo's.

Thanks, Deb - I wanted to update you about my furan-2 dip/zoa pox treatment, but am finishing up dinner atm. Will explain when I get back on my laptop. (It didn't go too well. 😔 )

[Snow_Phoenix]

Okay, so today morning, I did my first ever zoa pox treatment using Furan-2. I pretty much followed the general instructions laid out by other reefers online when it came to doing a furan-2 dip. The only additional thing that I did do was that in the second cup of SW - the water used to 'rinse' the frags before re-adding them to the DT - I added a drop of Vit. C and a few drops of iodine, because the frags looked rough after the Furan-2 dip. 😕 

 

I dipped 2 zoa frags and 1 Red PE colony in Furan-2. I only dipped zoa frags/colonies which were affected by the pox - all other zoas which were perfectly healthy were left in the tank, undisturbed. 1 of the frags only had 2 polyps left, and I knew it was a lost cause, but I was still hoping to salvage at least *1 polyp - but this effort proved fruitless. The other zoa frag was covered in pox spots, and was fully open before the dip. After dipping in Furan-2, it was only partially open, and the polyps that were open appeared small and shrunken. 😞 

 

I noticed some of the polyps of my Red PEs showed some visible stress (partially melting) as well after the dip. 

 

I dipped for almost 20 mins., but I think this is too long. Tomorrow, I'll try dipping the Red PE colony and remaining zoa frag in Furan-2, but I'll only do it for 10 mins. For some reason, my zoas seem to be exceptionally sensitive than the norm. 

 

The pox spots that appeared on my Tubbs Blue zoas and multimix frag actually vanished on their own, which I find peculiar, but interesting. I did perform 2x WCs and add 1x drop of Vit. C every other day for the past week, so I *think this helped frags with milder cases of the pox to recover on their own.

 

I find upping WCs and keeping stable parameters more useful in tackling this. I know it's still too early to tell, but tomorrow I plan on doing another full dual-WC. I've also been dosing 2x drops of kH buffer (to keep the Alk. levels >8.0) every day and 1x drop of Mg. buffer once every three days to keep up with the demands of all my other corals, especially my SPS. I also recall dosing 1x drop of Ca. buffer few days ago, but I *don't really think that made much of an impact. I'm uncertain, because I didn't test my Calcium levels after dosing (oops!). 

 

The shimmery green zoas are definitely gone though. I *think the stubs of the polyps are still there, but I don't think it can grow back from that. 

 

Currently, I've lost one full frag (which was expensive) of beige/green zoas with brown skirts. The other frag, which I dipped today - is the green one with a bluish center, and yellow-striped brown skirts. Together, both those frags cost me RM 100 in total, which is quite expensive for a zoa here. Their original value was RM 80 per frag (so, RM 160 in total), but my primary LFS wanted to clear them off really quickly, and I haggled, so we met in the middle and found a value which sated both parties. My Red PEs is considered quite common, and is only valued at RM 30 for the entire colony. 

 

I'm mainly trying to stop that one remaining frag from dying. I'll observe it after tomorrow's dip - if the coral is too stressed, then I'll stop the treatment completely, because it might be more harmful than beneficial. Hope this helps anyone who's reading this, and battling a similar issue in one of their tanks. 

[debbeach13]

I am so sad to read this. I wonder if your results were so different just because of the extended amount of time the pox was on the zoanthids. I hope you get better results and can save the rest.

My polyps opened every day after the 1st 3 treatments, all 4 days between those treatments and the last one 2 days ago. Even opened after the 4th treatment which is when I first tried the toothbrush. Like I mentioned mine were no where near as covered as yours. Yesterday I did not do another treatment. I used the tooth brush and removed a couple more spots and last night I put the zoa's in my EVO. They are still on the plugs and just sitting on the sand bed. I hope my ayes aren't deceiving me that the spots are gone. There are no other zoa's in that tank. So at least I have no worries about contaminating other corals. I feel that tank is stable. The polyps are open this morning. The lights are off. Not sure the light or flow is strong enough but will monitor for a week. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

21 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

I am so sad to read this. I wonder if your results were so different just because of the extended amount of time the pox was on the zoanthids. I hope you get better results and can save the rest.

My polyps opened every day after the 1st 3 treatments, all 4 days between those treatments and the last one 2 days ago. Even opened after the 4th treatment which is when I first tried the toothbrush. Like I mentioned mine were no where near as covered as yours. Yesterday I did not do another treatment. I used the tooth brush and removed a couple more spots and last night I put the zoa's in my EVO. They are still on the plugs and just sitting on the sand bed. I hope my ayes aren't deceiving me that the spots are gone. There are no other zoa's in that tank. So at least I have no worries about contaminating other corals. I feel that tank is stable. The polyps are open this morning. The lights are off. Not sure the light or flow is strong enough but will monitor for a week. 

I'm happy you managed to save yours, though!

 

But yeah, I think I'm having issues with treatment because my zoas are really badly infested. And they have been for a while (too long, I think). 

 

I'll update after the second dip tomorrow. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Second furan-2 dip went better today. I only dipped the corals for 10 mins, then rinsed it off very quickly in SW and placed them back in the pico. Zoa pox has partially destroyed half of this frag though: 😔

 

 

But my Red PEs seem to be bouncing back, so I think that colony should make a full recovery. 👍

 

Spotted Harvey up and about:

 

 

Strained my back WCing my 70G FW tank yesterday, so I couldn't do any WCs or tank maintenance for any of the reeftanks today. The pico is due for a WC, and I was worried some of the corals would be unhappy without a proper WC for more than a week. But surprisingly, everything is *tentatively okay, and the montihat is still green - phew! 😅 :

 

 

And Midnight still has Ich, but seems to be be less nippy towards my corals today:

 

 

 

 

 

Will try to WC this tank tomorrow. 👍

[debbeach13]

Sorry about your back. Put off the WC if you need to. Many members couldn't get to there tanks on a regular basis with the pandemic and most did fine. A few days shouldn't have much of an affect at all. You don't want to make your back worse. Some people go every two weeks or more all the time. Have to take care of you first.

[Snow_Phoenix]

21 minutes ago, debbeach13 said:

Sorry about your back. Put off the WC if you need to. Many members couldn't get to there tanks on a regular basis with the pandemic and most did fine. A few days shouldn't have much of an affect at all. You don't want to make your back worse. Some people go every two weeks or more all the time. Have to take care of you first.

Yeah, I *might take a couple of days off from doing any heavy lifting or *WCing. Glass is dirty though. 😔

[debbeach13]

That's just lunch for the snails.

[Tired]

Glass cleaning is entirely a cosmetic thing, don't worry about it. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I felt a bit better today, and the dirty glass was really, really bothering me, so I scraped it slowly. 

 

Also knocked over a whole bunch of frags, rediscovered my hidden merletti and reglued everything back to their original positions. I transferred a very small frag of miscolored leopard discosoma mushrooms from my 60G to the pico today morning as well.

As for the zoa pox treatment, today was the third time I did it, and the Red PEs look much, much better than day one. I can see some pox spots have vanished from my green zoas as well, but half of the frag still looks pretty messed up. I'll dip it again next week (need to let the zoas rest for a few days, according to the treatment guidelines) but if I'm feeling up to it, I'll WC the tank today evening - or else I'll just do it tomorrow. 

 

Still feeling tired, but at least my back feels much better. I think sleeping helped. 

[Tired]

Good to know that stuff works on zoa pox, if I get it in the future. 

[Snow_Phoenix]

I guess this is my zoa corner now: 😕

 

 

Still looks okay and pox-free, and hopefully it stays that way! 

 

And a closer look at that leather coral up top - I think it's a weeping willow (?) 🤔 :

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Morning! 🤗

 

Shroom buddies: 🤗

 

 

Three days of furan-2 dips finally appears to have done something. This zoa frag looks much better today than it was yesterday, and a lot of pox spots have vanished as well. Hoping it'll recover and regrow in time: 👍

 

 

Meteor shower cyphastrea is still getting bluer by the day:

 

 

 

Just flipped the lights on, so no full PE from these two yet:

 

 

The zoa tower from the top: 

 

 

Orange leptastrea still has very poor PE, so I think I'll shift it away from the purple death palys a little to see if that helps it bounce back: 😕

 

 

I still need to catch Midnight and QT him, but I'm waiting until I WC the tank, because I figured he'll be easier to catch then. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Benny & Kraken, jammin' it together tonight : 😎

 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #1: Harvey. 

 

Harvey was very active today, and busy foraging the rocks for microalgae:

 

 

 

 

He appears to be a little bit bigger as well. I think he *might have molted again. 🤔

[Snow_Phoenix]

Update #2: Corals.

 

So I have some interesting news regarding my battle with the zoa pox. This frag, which was badly infested with pox spots not too long ago, is actually recovering! 🤗

 

 

Although I lost a few polyps, there are very few pox spots left, and they're actually fading away. 😊

 

I will still do another round of furan-2 dips in a few days, but it looks like the treatment does work. I just wish I had gotten ahold of the meds earlier, because then I could have saved one of the frags I've lost. 😕

 

Back to a more cheery note, the blasto regrowth has been very good:

 

 

Once the colony heals up and colors up a bit more, I'll be moving it back to the 60G, to make more room for more tiny pico-sized frags - I'm thinking of hoarding more montis, and maybe a few sticks. 🤔

 

The John Deere leptastrea is actually bouncing back and now encrusting quickly on the LR below:

 

 

Rainbow brain coral is large and spread out:

 

 

Purple death palys are actually now up to 18 polyps! There are more tiny ones which are overshadowed by the larger polyps - they're only visible when the polyps are closed up for the night:

 

 

This lone blasto on the zoa tower:

 

 

Jack-O-Lantern leptoseris - I need to show some coral progress pics of this piece. It's come a long way:

 

 

This rhodactis used to be *just orange. It actually developed a blue base in this reef: 🥰

 

 

Full WC coming up in a few days! 😊

 

Also, I didn't see Midnight at all today, which was odd. Hope he's okay and just hiding. 😕

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

Bullseye & baby bullseye: 🥰

 

 

Red pavona growing out:

 

 

The montihat has developed a mysterious pinkish-purplish rim as it plates out:

 

 

 

Pox spots have completely vanished on this frag - even my red PE zoas no longer has spots. I daresay the treatment is...successful (?) 🤔 :

 

 

Also, some bad news. I woke up and found Midnight dead in the back corner of the tank. Before I could fish out the body using chopsticks, however, Benny got a hold of the body and is attempting to digest him. 😔

 

I'll try to slowly lift up Coralline Ledge to steal the body back. Can't risk the fish rotting in the tank - plus I doubt Benny could eat the whole thing. Midnight was larger than he looked. 

 

He never ate pellets (properly) in this tank. But I think Ich + lympho was the one that killed him. I wanted to set up a QT tomorrow - kept holding it off because I was unwell. Should have found a way to treat him sooner. 😔

[ECLS Reefer]

1 hour ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Bullseye & baby bullseye: 🥰

 

 

Red pavona growing out:

 

 

The montihat has developed a mysterious pinkish-purplish rim as it plates out:

 

 

 

Pox spots have completely vanished on this frag - even my red PE zoas no longer has spots. I daresay the treatment is...successful (?) 🤔 :

 

 

Also, some bad news. I woke up and found Midnight dead in the back corner of the tank. Before I could fish out the body using chopsticks, however, Benny got a hold of the body and is attempting to digest him. 😔

 

I'll try to slowly lift up Coralline Ledge to steal the body back. Can't risk the fish rotting in the tank - plus I doubt Benny could eat the whole thing. Midnight was larger than he looked. 

 

He never ate pellets (properly) in this tank. But I think Ich + lympho was the one that killed him. I wanted to set up a QT tomorrow - kept holding it off because I was unwell. Should have found a way to treat him sooner. 😔

Sucks about the goby he was cute 😢

 

I wonder if the Sorting Hat is a purple rim undata like I’ve seen on vivid’s website?

[Snow_Phoenix]

37 minutes ago, Dirté Sanchez said:

I wonder if the Sorting Hat is a purple rim undata like I’ve seen on vivid’s website?

I honestly have no idea - this coral came to me pale and washed out - almost white-with-a-mild-dull-green-tint. I didn't even know what color the polyps were when I first picked it up, and my LFS wanted to get rid of it. I think they didn't expect it to survive at all. But I'm happy it turned around in my tank. I didn't even know montis could develop extra colors (unless they were grafted). 

 

Have to look at Vivid Aquarium's site to compare. 🙂