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[jefferythewind]

Over the last few weeks I am sold quite a bit of corals. The green mushrooms 2 for $5 special really attracted people and then they all ended up buying other things like zoas, green monti, orange setosa and green star polyps. I also sold one small chunk of live rock which had at least 10 green mushrooms on it. Overall I must have sold 20 to 30 mushrooms. I love the way the tank looks with more space. Over this time I've also increased my water changes from 1 to 2 per week. The whole take really loves the additional water changes. Colors are more vibrant and the purple mille in the middle has even more extended polyps and is growing quickly!

 

On Christmas I also replaced the incorrect powerhead (aquaclear 50) with a proper, programmable wavemaker, the Nero 3. Aquaclear was rated at 270 gph and this Nero 3 has maximum 2000 gph, so its a big upgrade. With this additional flow and the water changes, everything looks great.

 

Only trouble at this point in the holy grail acro is still holding all its polyps inside and not happy at all. Still feeds though with the long filaments. The green millepora which I also transferred to the frag rack has been doing a little better.

 

I'll follow up with a clear pic of the purple mille.

 

 

[mcarroll]

4 minutes ago, jefferythewind said:

Aquaclear was rated at 270 gph and this Nero 3 has maximum 2000 gph, so its a big upgrade.

GPH ≠ GPH tho....so it's not as big of a jump as it appears.  (Probably just right, though!)

 

For example, a Maxijet 1200 will do 300 GPH in "utility pump mode" but is rated at 1300 GPH in circulation pump mode.  Just a difference of which impeller type....same amount of power (watts) used.   The difference in flow is the velocity....velocity is MUCH slower at the higher GPH.....MUCH faster at the lower GPH.

 

BTW, I still think your purple milli will recover as long as you keep the tank in a good way.  I just think it looks "tight"....the fact that it's feeding is a good sign IMO.

 

Will be interesting to see if you notice any change over the next week or so due to the improved flow.

[jefferythewind]

44 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

GPH ≠ GPH tho....so it's not as big of a jump as it appears.  (Probably just right, though!)

 

For example, a Maxijet 1200 will do 300 GPH in "utility pump mode" but is rated at 1300 GPH in circulation pump mode.  Just a difference of which impeller type....same amount of power (watts) used.   The difference in flow is the velocity....velocity is MUCH slower at the higher GPH.....MUCH faster at the lower GPH.

 

BTW, I still think your purple milli will recover as long as you keep the tank in a good way.  I just think it looks "tight"....the fact that it's feeding is a good sign IMO.

 

Will be interesting to see if you notice any change over the next week or so due to the improved flow.

Yes you're definitely right. The Aquaclear was a utility style pump and just funneled all the water out a small tube, and this Nero 3 has the newer design to basically expose the propeller blades to the water around the side, and it creates a huge wide spray of water. When I put it on full blast for a few seconds it looks like a hurricane in there, haha. So i've put it on randomized flow. Like I said everything seems to be enjoying it.

 

The purple mille is actually the one doing really well, this one all tightened up I am not exactly sure what kind it is, the person I got it from said its called a "holy grail" acro, but I haven't found it by that name line. It was very pretty and grew well for first bit it was in the tank. Here's a picture of it in its prime. That was October 22, now that I look at it, it seems the decline happened about the same time I fragged the green monti (shortly after this picture), which ended up killing a big portion of the green monti. I'm sure nothing touched this coral directly but surely something may have contacted it in the water. 

 

[mcarroll]

Thank you for the clarification – I called the wrong coral!  🙂 

 

9 minutes ago, jefferythewind said:

That was October 22, now that I look at it, it seems the decline happened about the same time I fragged the green monti (shortly after this picture), which ended up killing a big portion of the green monti. I'm sure nothing touched this coral directly but surely something may have contacted it in the water. 

Very interesting to ponder these things while we watch and wait!

 

Collisions or damage during work in the tank are one potential to consider.  

 

Another set of considerations is "downstream" changes (sorry for the pun) after the fragging.  For example, what changes in flow and light availability did that fragging cause?  Were there other changes that are hard to notice/not immediately apparent?  Was one coral feeding/sustaining the other in any way?  Or on the flip side, maybe they were even in some kind of combat/competiion for the time before the fragging....and perhaps the Acro was losing the whole time?  Then the fragging and anything related to it were either "the straw that broke the camels back" or they were coincidence.

 

How much does the problem coral change in appearance throughout the day?   Does it look more or less like the photo 24/7?

1 hour ago, jefferythewind said:

 

[jefferythewind]

11 minutes ago, mcarroll said:

How much does the problem coral change in appearance throughout the day?   Does it look more or less like the photo 24/7?

 

Yea it stays like that all day, extends some of those filaments after feeding. But the color is the same and polyps stay sucked yo like that all day.

[Maas101]

Your purple millepora isn't a millepora. The corallites are the wrong shape and there isn't a central long polyp. It looks like a tenuis to me.

[jefferythewind]

9 minutes ago, Maas101 said:

Your purple millepora isn't a millepora. The corallites are the wrong shape and there isn't a central long polyp. It looks like a tenuis to me.

I'd be interested in looking into that, I will post some more detailed pics of it tomorrow. it's been growing great and it is right in the top center of the tank, has great potential.

[Maas101]

11 minutes ago, jefferythewind said:

I'd be interested in looking into that, I will post some more detailed pics of it tomorrow. it's been growing great and it is right in the top center of the tank, has great potential.

Millepora have c shaped corallites and usually a long central polyp in the centre 

 

 

Tenuis have a round corallite with a dimple in the centre and an even polyp length

 

None of that changes the fact that it's a good looking coral and is a fine addition to your tank. I would be worried that it appears to be trying to feed through mesenterial filaments which appears to be an emergency feeding strategy for acros

[jefferythewind]

21 minutes ago, Maas101 said:

Millepora have c shaped corallites and usually a long central polyp in the centre 

 

 

Tenuis have a round corallite with a dimple in the centre and an even polyp length

 

None of that changes the fact that it's a good looking coral and is a fine addition to your tank. I would be worried that it appears to be trying to feed through mesenterial filaments which appears to be an emergency feeding strategy for acros

Yeah no there was a mixup, this one you're referring to was called a "holy grail" acro by the person I bought it from. I want to take a fresh pic of the mille tomorrow and post it.

[jefferythewind]

Here is a little introduction to 3 of my acros. This is a millepora, purple color. I don't know much more about its background. I got 2 small fresh cut pieces from a person who lives an hour from me. I glued them right to the top center of my main rock and they have just taken off. I've been through some swings in the tank and this coral has never shown much bad reaction. Recently it has been acting very happy and growing quickly.

 

This next one I got at the same time. It's called a green staghorn. It has been a bit more sensitive to changes in the tank, has had burnt tips once or twice, but has never been too bad. The base has grown out quite a bit recently but still not new growth spikes.

 

The last one I will show here is called a Myagi Tort ( I think ). It has had a problem with algae getting stuck to it and then attaching to it in a couple spots, however hasn't gotten too unhappy about it. Always extends polyps and recently grows from its base pretty well. I got this one more recently than the other two.

 

 

Besides these I have 2 other small frags that aren't doing so well, so I've been keeping them on the frag rack. One of these is a green millepora. It certainly hasn't been happy in the tank like the purple one.

[jefferythewind]

So after testing phosphates quite a few times, and seeing the level wasn't zero, but still pretty low, I started dosing some phosphates. When I decided to start dosing a couple weeks ago the level was about 0.02 PPM, and since dosing i've been able to keep it at or above 0.04. Basically I've been focusing on these 2 acro frags that have been retracted for a while, like a long time. This one called the holy grail is finally starting to show signs of improvement. The skin is getting that brilliant sheen back to it, and the other day i could have sworn I saw one polyp extending. Meanwhile the green mille (the other problem frag) has been extending more and more. For a long time I didn't believe I had low phosphates but it may have been an issue.

[A.m.P]

Phosphates have a way of creeping-in and causing problems for me too, nitrate as well for that matter. 

[jefferythewind]

5 hours ago, A.m.P said:

Phosphates have a way of creeping-in and causing problems for me too, nitrate as well for that matter. 

Yeah I really don't know if it is a problem or not. A long time ago I went through a stage with super low phosphates and pretty much all the corals showed signs of that, but now its just a couple of these small frags seem unhappy. Everything else in the tank has been really loving a water change, which actually exports some phosphates. I can't really figure it out.

 

[jefferythewind]

CA 400 ppm

MG 1440 ppm

 

 

Breaking in the new skimmer. Love it, already pulling lots of stink stuff out. Just test CA and MG since I don't test those too often. I usually just test Alk almost daily to control the level, but I dose CA with it. Seems CA is staying in the right range. MG I don't dose and I've tested here and there and always seems to read about the same. I'm thinking about dosing some trace elements, still learning about that. Just to see if I can tune it a bit. Still remains to be seen the affect the skimmer will have. 

 

Did some fragging last night. All the Japanese toadstool frags opened up today. Got a whole bunch of little red monti frags.

 

 

 

[mcarroll]

On 2/5/2022 at 5:23 PM, jefferythewind said:

I've tested here and there and always seems to read about the same.

If you've said before, I forget – what chem's/system are you using to dose?