120g La Ville des Poissons 🐚 Well that didn’t last long 😢

[A.m.P]

That shot of the Damsel is awesome.

[ECLS Reefer]

1 hour ago, mitten_reef said:

your pics are so much sharper on here than on IG.  some great shots of the fishies.  

Yeah and the video compression is AWFUL. I put one up recently and it looked worse than in real life. But thanks I’m glad I have something worth taking pictures of still. I lost a lot of coral 😢

 

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

Glad to hear you were just busy. Looks pretty happy now. I hope everyone is well. Tell Moose we all say Hi.

Yes so busy at work! Good thing the tank was able to just coast and work it’s demons out. Was tired of seeing it look so pathetic. I’ll tell him you said hi. Moose loves new friends!

[ECLS Reefer]

39 minutes ago, A.m.P said:

That shot of the Damsel is awesome.

Thanks it loves to pose in front of its den. He’s so weirdly fat. Not like the other two. 🤔

[Squid_reef]

Lovely shots 💫 really inspiring. 

[ECLS Reefer]

Updates on the big tank! It’s FINALLY coming back into a happy place where I can be proud of it and actually want to sit in front of it again. Nothing has changed in my management of it- it just seems to have worked out its own kinks over time. I’m now to the point of having to dose nitrates back, because the nitrates and phosphates hang out at zero and near zero every week. I had tried feeding more in the past but that just caused a dirty looking sand bed, and the zoas/GSP/rock held on to all that detritus and ended up growing stuff I didn’t want.

 

Dosing wise, I am running 6 channels on two pumps. Reef Code A and B, Iodion, Magnesion, NoPox and MB7. I also dose trace elements (Replenish) once a week, and Strontion once a week. Vitamarin C every 4 days. That sounds like a lot, but I test weekly on Friday or Saturday, to make sure things are staying in line, and run an Apex system with the Triton tester setup, which has brought a TON of piece of mind. 

 

Lighting wise, I still have the three AI Hydra 64s over this tank, running a program I morphed from Tony Roger’s program. Tank seems to like falling somewhere within those parameters, though I occasionally increase the whites on the program for aesthetic purposes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have added some new corals to the tank, some large and some small. Hopefully the tank will start to fill in again without suddenly going down the drain again. The fish have all been doing well, and I have not been able to add anything to the group in a while I tried with a goby and a jaw fish and both ended up not making it more than a couple nights. I’m going to make one last attempt with my absolute favorite fish and see what happens, and if that doesn’t succeed I will just add no further fish to this tank until they start aging out.

 

And now, PICTURES!!

 

The beautiful Billy Frechette guarding her new anemone

 

 

New softball sized green goniopora colony

 

 

Billy Frechette again, peeking around her palys

 

 

Mr Purple Urchin wearing some random crap as a hat

 

 

New gold Galaxea coral frag

 

 

New space invader chalice frag

 

 

New sparkly micromussa

 

 

New volcanic red logo Phyllis

 

 

New acanthophyllia

 

 

New green long tentacle anemone

 

 

R’ hullor the God of Flames

 

 

Billy super closeup

 

 

Little Jack in his elegance

 

 

The Creeper

 

 

Full tank shot with goodie box

 

 

R’hullor the Flame God

 

 

Berry Manilow-White the purple tang (who loves to get all stabby stabby when I go to stick my hand in the tank 😑)

 

 

 

 

Until the next time, wish my little reef luck!

[debbeach13]

Great update - hearing and seeing things have settled down and everything is looking nice. Love the clowns hosting their corals.

[Snow_Phoenix]

I absolutely love your tank. Your pics are very sharp and beautiful too. Especially the close-ups of all of the fish. 

[ECLS Reefer]

7 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I absolutely love your tank. Your pics are very sharp and beautiful too. Especially the close-ups of all of the fish. 

Thanks! They’re pretty used to me hanging out right up next to the glass now, so I have time to catch them in good poses. And it’s such a relief, having the tank look enjoyable again, because there were a lot of days when I would refuse to even glance its way out of frustration. The fish all behaved though which was a huge bonus. 

[ECLS Reefer]

1 hour ago, debbeach13 said:

Great update - hearing and seeing things have settled down and everything is looking nice. Love the clowns hosting their corals.

Thanks! Those clowns— they’re actually too comfy in their corals because now I get bit every time I go to mess with stuff or feed masstick in there. And the purple tang tries to stab me with his spike. So it’s like having to run from a gang chasing me with weapons 😳

[dpoltsdsu]

Fellow 120 owner! Tank looks great!

[ECLS Reefer]

Full tank shot. I deeply love the bubble coral I mounted in the center. It’s more stunning up close. 

 

 

[ECLS Reefer]

So, not much to add this post but that the tank is still trucking along, hopefully towards good things. The Zoas seem to be growing more again, and I’ve had some actual babies showing up in the tank! One of the RFA’s had a baby and my cynarina has multiple new baby growths on the skeleton, all of which I take as amazing signs. I’ve taken to dosing NeoNitro to get the nitrates up to a higher level, while at the same time battling the dirty sand bed and beating back the cyano that is still lurking. I’m trying not to over clean and shock the tank at the same time, but it seems like the cyano is getting somewhat better so long as I get it off the rocks and surfaces every day.

 

Spent all day today assembling a new cabinet for my fish supplies and the FW tank, and organizing all the fish stuff that was taking over the whole den and kitchen island. Got a new, bigger tool box to put all testing supplies in, new canisters for carbon, Purit and phosguard so they could be stored and stacked in the garage. Will finish the cleaning and organizing tomorrow after I get some new containers for the other miscellaneous supplies. It’s a relief to be able to see surfaces again. 

 

 

 

And now, some fishy pictures!!

 

Mel the melanurus

 

 

Coming in HOT!

 

 

Creeper

 

 

The fabulous Billy

 

 

Rey

 

 

The baby RFA!!

 

 

Fatty Lumpkin the Smiths Damsel

 

 

Little Jack

 

 

Hawkeye

 

 

Berry Manilow White

 

 

Bubble coral looking tentacle-y

 

 

Dilly loving on his anemone

 

 

More fabulous Billy

[ECLS Reefer]

So, a few updates.

 

We were blessed this last week by the god of shitty karma with bed bugs. I haven’t the slightest idea where the little curses came from but thankfully it was caught early and we had an exterminator come in and bake the buggers to death plus lay down pesticide. The pesticide was applied to baseboards and not a bug bomb, so I was able to shroud the big reef with painters tarp and tape and seal it for about 6 total hours. During that time, I kept the lights off, turned off the skimmer and the air pump that feeds the sad excuse of an algae scrubbers and the CO2 scrubber. This to make sure the tank was sealed and not taking in outside air. That being said, this caused the pH to drop drastically from 7.9 to 7.45ish. The heat thankfully never made it so high as even 81 degrees F but it was a cool day and the ambient room temp didnt get over 79. (The A/C had to be turned off during all the exterminator work). I was quite anxious to get the shroud off the tank so as soon as I had the blessing from the bug people I had that plastic down. The pH started to climb immediately so there’s obviously a lot of gas exchange that occurs just at the surface of the water. 

 

I turned on the skimmer and air pump about an hour following uncovering the tank, and the lights about 3 hours later, when the heat treatment was completed and the house was starting to cool down. I added in a largish bag of new carbon just to make sure that any random fumes from the pesticide wouldn’t hurt anything. The tank went without lights for about 10 hours total and none of the corals were the worse for wear. The fish also all did well in the tank, with no one showing any stress at all. I guess the most telling thing was that the long tentacled anemone even acted like nothing had happened. 

 

Yesterday, following all the tearing down of the house, fish moving and then moving back, and starting to put the house back together, I went and splurged a bit (okay a LOT) on some fantastic looking cynarina from my favorite LPS. I also snagged a really nice zoa rock with Queen stratospheres and a baby red BTA on it. A small panacea after feeling like the house was hit by a small tornado and having to pick the pieces back up. 

 

Next time, (please GOD let there never be a next time) I may just set the affected room on fire.

 

Some potato phone shots of the new zoa rock and the new cynarina

 

 

Jack peeking through the anemone noodles

 

 

 

Jack guarding his mushroom 

 

 

 

Dilly hovering over his purple long tentacle nem.

 

 

 

More Billy go away looks

 

 

 

Hawkeye giving me the hairy eyeball

 

 

 

Billy peeking through the noodles

 

 

 

Berry Manilow cruising the tank

 

 

 

Little Jack glamour shot

 

 

 

Who ‘Der??

 

 

 

Rey says hey that’s one handsome dude there…..

 

 

 

R’ hullor out cruising.

 

 

 

Creeper creeping

 

 

 

Dilly giving the Goni a good snuggle

 

 

 

This IS my happy face!

 

 

 

Happy Toadstool

 

 

 

Red cynarina looking nice and poofy

 

 

 

New artwork from Lazy Coffee Design

 

 

 

Full Tank Shot!!

 

 

 

Some of Lazy Coffee Designs’s awesome coral pillows!!

 

[jack1978]

Love the new zoa/BTA rock ..... and of course,  Little Jack!

 

J needs to hose out the back of his cruiser better ..... hopefully they weren't hooker/homeless  bedbugs. 

[ECLS Reefer]

1 hour ago, jack1978 said:

Love the new zoa/BTA rock ..... and of course,  Little Jack!

 

J needs to hose out the back of his cruiser better ..... hopefully they weren't hooker/homeless  bedbugs. 

Yes I thought that rock was awesome- I’m pretty sure the LFS owner was a little shocked at my squealing ITS A BABY BTA 😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱 but then, it’s been quite a crappy week. He told me he almost died from an allergic reaction to sushi this week too so maybe it’s just Houston karma in general. 
 

And it’s quite possible they were his little work keepsakes. But then, it’s also possible they came in with the cleaning crew. The paranoia is REAL right now. 
 

[ECLS Reefer]

So, that whole moment of wonderful new corals didn’t last long. The tank is still struggling and in ways I can’t really diagnose. About two weeks ago, nutrients sky rocketed without any changes in routine. No animals died but it did end up costing me quite a few frags and corals. At that point I removed the UV light and it’s pump, cleaned the sump up again, did water changes…. It ended up clearing up over time but it didn’t save any corals. 

 

I still fail utterly at growing any type of macro algae, so I opted for an algae scrubber - the professional type this time. It’s been hooked up for a week and a half now and already has strong growth. 

 

The fish are all healthy and hale and eating well. The corals I’m going to replace with a few softies for now since it seems that corals that really like dirty tanks are the only thing showing promise. I have a few frags coming tomorrow such as a toadstool, a long polyp toadstool and a carnation tree. I’d love to see these take off - at this point invasive softies are welcome.

 

I got my ICP results back today and they’re somewhat confusing. I still seem to have silicates in my RODI water that I can’t explain, but don’t seem to be the chief problem in the tank. I sent off this sample at the height of the nutrient problem so it reflects that in the nutrient section. Any comments/advice on the rest of the pollutants is welcome.

 

 

 

 

Gratuitous puppy shots!

 

[mitten_reef]

11 hours ago, ECLS Reefer said:

So, that whole moment of wonderful new corals didn’t last long. The tank is still struggling and in ways I can’t really diagnose. About two weeks ago, nutrients sky rocketed without any changes in routine. No animals died but it did end up costing me quite a few frags and corals. At that point I removed the UV light and it’s pump, cleaned the sump up again, did water changes…. It ended up clearing up over time but it didn’t save any corals. 

 

I still fail utterly at growing any type of macro algae, so I opted for an algae scrubber - the professional type this time. It’s been hooked up for a week and a half now and already has strong growth. 

 

The fish are all healthy and hale and eating well. The corals I’m going to replace with a few softies for now since it seems that corals that really like dirty tanks are the only thing showing promise. I have a few frags coming tomorrow such as a toadstool, a long polyp toadstool and a carnation tree. I’d love to see these take off - at this point invasive softies are welcome.

 

I got my ICP results back today and they’re somewhat confusing. I still seem to have silicates in my RODI water that I can’t explain, but don’t seem to be the chief problem in the tank. I sent off this sample at the height of the nutrient problem so it reflects that in the nutrient section. Any comments/advice on the rest of the pollutants is welcome.

 

 

 

 

Gratuitous puppy shots!

 

he 

Do the new frags that struggled happen to be mostly SPS?  your alk is over 12, eeeks!!!  most SPS growers keep that around 8, introducing them right into a 12+dKh will never end well - that's like spiking your alk in most systems.

 

also quick look seems to say that majority of your trace elements are significantly higher than they should be.  are your trace element being dosed?  if so, i'd definitely stop that for the time being and let wc takes care of trace.  Aluminum pollutant is one concern tho, typically this (or iron) points to some equipment being deteriorated somewhere.

 

 

 

 

[ECLS Reefer]

31 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

Do the new frags that struggled happen to be mostly SPS?  your alk is over 12, eeeks!!!  most SPS growers keep that around 8, introducing them right into a 12+dKh will never end well - that's like spiking your alk in most systems.

 

 

Oh no I have almost no SPS in there. Just a very few montipora and cyphastrea, leptastrea. Most of what died were LPS. 
 

And the alk did that on its own. I’d seen it climbing on the apex and turned off the doser. It’s on its way back down now, but I was never dosing more than 2ml per day even when it shot up. I think it was the corals rejecting the alk 🤷🏻‍♀️

33 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:  Aluminum pollutant is one concern tho, typically this (or iron) points to some equipment being deteriorated somewhere.

 

 

 

 

Yeah I wondered about that. I pulled that UV light and it’s feed pump out for fear it wasn’t in its prime anymore. The algae scrubber is working off a new pump, and if it’s the skimmer pump - super frustrating. Not as easily replaced that one. Even the return pump is a new unit. 
 

Yes I dose trace and strontium. I can definitely hold on those. 

[ECLS Reefer]

I was concerned about the aluminum, lanthanum, zinc, tin, iron and cobalt since I wondered if they were from machinery. 

[mitten_reef]

12 minutes ago, ECLS Reefer said:

I was concerned about the aluminum, lanthanum, zinc, tin, iron and cobalt since I wondered if they were from machinery. 

yeah, other than lanthanum and cobalt, the others could be leaching from any equipment in the system...

 

@spectra or @FISHnChix would know more about their metal and electrical-related equipment than me

[FISHnChix]

8 hours ago, ECLS Reefer said:

I was concerned about the aluminum, lanthanum, zinc, tin, iron and cobalt since I wondered if they were from machinery. 

With the kind of cash you spend on reefing I'd do a test on your rodi water and your saltwater you use for water changes before you add it to the tank🙃

[ECLS Reefer]

1 hour ago, FISHnChix said:

With the kind of cash you spend on reefing I'd do a test on your rodi water and your saltwater you use for water changes before you add it to the tank🙃

Oh the RODI got tested with the ATI send out. It still has silicates and weirdly, lithium but no other contaminates, and thankfully the silicates aren’t showing up as a problem in either tank this time around. 
 

As for the spending I’m in another “I hate your face” mood and don’t want to bother with it much. I bought it three softies since shrooms and zoas are growing in abundance in there and am letting that algae scrubber do it’s work, since it’s actually working. I won’t be buying anything expensive or non softie for a while- not getting fooled into that again. 
 

Maybe someday that stupid tank will grow up. It hasn’t learned a thing from its little brother that looks fantastic.

[seabass]

Wow, this is a really nice tank!  I'm a little jealous.  Not sure if I could help at all, but I'll see what I can do.  Maybe something will help a little.  Just a couple of observations from quickly skimming through the last year's posts.

 

2 hours ago, ECLS Reefer said:

I make sure to stir the sand regularly. It doesn’t look like dinos- nothing is snotty- it’s red cyano mats. It’s mostly confined to the back of the tank behind the rocks. I’ve pointed the gyres back there and gotten a separate wave pump after it too but it hasn’t worked. I may try to boost the flow back there again. I’m just tired of fighting it and it always seems to get worse when I change water out, since the nutrients stay nearly zero at baseline. 

All that to say, I totally fee. Murphs_Reef's pain on battling stubborn cyano outbreaks. It just doesn’t give up easily. 

• Do you siphon out the cyano mats?  You could rinse out any sand that gets siphoned out, then return it to your tank.
• Flow helps fight cyanobacteria by helping to keep detritus in suspension, so that it's available to feed corals and/or for filtration to remove it.  I feel that organics are the main cause of cyano.
• So it's the organics (either dissolved in the water, or as detritus on the rocks or in the substrate) more than nutrients that I'd be concentrating on to deal with cyano.  A protein skimmer or activated carbon can help with dissolved organics.  Blowing (with a turkey baster or a weak powerhead) the detritus off of the exposed rocks before water changes can help; likewise you can use a powerhead or baster to stir up the substrate.
• You might even consider removing the sand bed temporarily and curing the sand in another container.  Some people simply wash the sand and return it; but this might be harder on the micro-inverts within the substrate.
• Arguably, alkalinity is the most important parameter for stony corals; but stability is key.  I'd target a level similar to a newly mixed batch of saltwater.  That way, water changes don't cause alkalinity swings either way.
• Is your flame angel nipping at the Euphyllia corals?
• Don't let your nutrients bottom out.  Your corals use these (along with your lighting) to feed themselves.  No inorganic nutrients (phosphate and nitrate) mean starving corals.  For nutrients, I'd recommend keeping phosphate between 0.04 and 0.10 ppm, and nitrate between 4 and 10 ppm.  Dose if necessary.
• I wouldn't do water changes just to change out water.  Obviously, removing some water to remove cyano and/or detritus needs to be replaced.  You can also do water changes to help export nutrients down to 0.1 ppm of phosphate or nitrate of 10 ppm.

I see that you are already doing a lot of what I recommended.  And I don't mean to be insulting by telling you things that you already know.  IDK, sometimes it's helpful to consider some of these things when evaluating the direction that you wish to go, changes you plan to make, or evaluating changes you recently made.  Knowing what to do and doing it are sometimes two different things.  Then be patient.  It often takes a while (several months) for a reef tank to turn the corner.  There's the maintenance of organics, and a bit of chemistry; but it's primarily the biological balance that needs to get worked out.

[ECLS Reefer]

1 hour ago, seabass said:

Wow, this is a really nice tank!  I'm a little jealous.  Not sure if I could help at all, but I'll see what I can do.  Maybe something will help a little.  Just a couple of observations from quickly skimming through the last year's posts.

 

• Do you siphon out the cyano mats?  You could rinse out any sand that gets siphoned out, then return it to your tank.
• Flow helps fight cyanobacteria by helping to keep detritus in suspension, so that it's available to feed corals and/or for filtration to remove it.  I feel that organics are the main cause of cyano.
• So it's the organics (either dissolved in the water, or as detritus on the rocks or in the substrate) more than nutrients that I'd be concentrating on to deal with cyano.  A protein skimmer or activated carbon can help with dissolved organics.  Blowing (with a turkey baster or a weak powerhead) the detritus off of the exposed rocks before water changes can help; likewise you can use a powerhead or baster to stir up the substrate.
• You might even consider removing the sand bed temporarily and curing the sand in another container.  Some people simply wash the sand and return it; but this might be harder on the micro-inverts within the substrate.
• Arguably, alkalinity is the most important parameter for stony corals; but stability is key.  I'd target a level similar to a newly mixed batch of saltwater.  That way, water changes don't cause alkalinity swings either way.
• Is your flame angel nipping at the Euphyllia corals?
• Don't let your nutrients bottom out.  Your corals use these (along with your lighting) to feed themselves.  No inorganic nutrients (phosphate and nitrate) mean starving corals.  For nutrients, I'd recommend keeping phosphate between 0.04 and 0.10 ppm, and nitrate between 4 and 10 ppm.  Dose if necessary.
• I wouldn't do water changes just to change out water.  Obviously, removing some water to remove cyano and/or detritus needs to be replaced.  You can also do water changes to help export nutrients down to 0.1 ppm of phosphate or nitrate of 10 ppm.

I see that you are already doing a lot of what I recommended.  And I don't mean to be insulting by telling you things that you already know.  IDK, sometimes it's helpful to consider some of these things when evaluating the direction that you wish to go, changes you plan to make, or evaluating changes you recently made.  Knowing what to do and doing it are sometimes two different things.  Then be patient.  It often take a while (several months) for a reef tank to turn the corner.  There's the maintenance of organics, and a bit of chemistry; but it's primarily the biological balance that needs to get worked out.

Yeah I went through a phase of chasing this tank around and trying to make it look better, but now I’m just waiting on hoping it will mature without me messing with it. 
 

I’ve never seen the Angel nip at anything, and I do watch him for thy behavior. He’s been a model citizen so far.

 

I turkey baste the rocks most days. I probably don’t have enough flow back there behind the rocks just because of how the overflow is made and how I positioned the rock to be a wall. I have an idea to maybe get a couple of those baby wave makers by hydor and anchor them low in the overflow, pointed directly at the back of the rocks. Because I’ve tried moving water laterally from the side of the tank and it doesn’t get in there well enough. 
 

I really, really don’t want to pull that sand out. I do use the turkey baster to suspend the crap in it while doing water changes but I don’t have the time or help to pull the sand out and clean it and put it back. Not to mention that purple tang is MEAN. I  hate spending any time with my limbs in his water. 
 

With this tank I went in for an apex system with the trident tester because I am gone for such long hours at work; it gives me peace of mind to be able to snoop on it remotely. And I test manually weekly as well and record that information in Aquarimate

 

 

I tried raising nutrients myself on advice from a friend and you see that in the numbers. I also chased pH for a bit and it raised the kH some, but now things are leveling back out. Ph is rising on its own, nutrients are naturally low because of the algae reactor because I stopped dosing nopox recently. KH is down a smidge because I’d turned the doser amount down when it got high, but I don’t mind a level of 8-9 and it’s doing this over time, not precipitously. 
 

So, other than the fact that the water has a stink, the tank is running fine. The fish are happy and healthy, but the only corals that proliferate are softies at the moment. I’m doing my best to just accept it for now in the hopes that less fussing on my part will help it grow up.