Adventures in keeping a SPS reef

[Llorgon]

1 hour ago, mcarroll said:

It pre-dates reefing in terms of. saltwater hobbies.  👍

 

In general they're too slimy for glue...I guess "your mileage may vary" 😉 ...folks seem to use rubber bands and toothpicks a lot. 

Interesting. I haven't had many issues with glueing them, but maybe I should try the rubber band method.

1 hour ago, mcarroll said:

Those are pretty good numbers, BUT....if you saw them as a "problem" and were doing things to get "low nutrients", then THAT could've been the problem.

I actually just left the tank alone since all the corals were growing and doing well. I did a weekly water change and that's about it. I had about 5 euphyllia in the tank at one point, all went through the same cycle at one point or another. I'm now down to one gold hammer.

1 hour ago, mcarroll said:

I always thought those were interesting looking, but they never eat....as you alluded.  

 

I haven't seen a captive bred one yet....would be amazing to see one eat in person.

From what I have been researching, it sounds like the captive bred ones from biota have no issues eating. At least that's what people on the internet have been saying about theirs.

 

They aren't terribly expensive. I could try 2-3 of them and a coral beauty to round out the stocking list.

[Llorgon]

I did some water testing today. Last week I lowered the time the refugium light was on, removed a ton of Xenia and upped my feeding while dosing some nitrates.

 

I can happily say those changes made zero difference!

 

Alk: 7.3

Cal: 495

Mag: 1350

Nitrate: 0

Phosphate: 0.01

 

On the plus side alk isn't dropping anymore. I do think I am dosing a rather large amount of alk for having 2 months and a forest fire as the only sps in the tank. I'm going to slowly try and bring it up to 8.

 

I did a big dose of nitrate and phosphate. To try and get those numbers up. 

 

I wanted to lower my refugium light time again to see if that will help, but the stupid apex has disconnected from fusion...again. so I'll have to deal with that again.

[Llorgon]

I sold the last big chunk of Xenia today. I've sold about 95% of it and made a total of $85!

 

I also got the Kenya trees from the small tank into here. None of them look happy yet. They were way too big to glue so I either need to get some rubber bands or sell them. I am leaning towards selling them since I don't really have a place for them in the tank. 

[mcarroll]

16 hours ago, Llorgon said:

I sold the last big chunk of Xenia today. I've sold about 95% of it and made a total of $85!

Now, who can argue with that?  👌

 

16 hours ago, Llorgon said:

I am leaning towards selling them since I don't really have a place for them in the tank. 

And you have momentum from selling off that Xenia too.  👍

 

Tanks looks great overall!!

 

How's your CUC currently?  Seems like maybe a few more would fit in.

[Llorgon]

9 hours ago, mcarroll said:

Now, who can argue with that?  👌

 

And you have momentum from selling off that Xenia too.  👍

 

Tanks looks great overall!!

 

How's your CUC currently?  Seems like maybe a few more would fit in.

Thanks. Tank is definitely looking better now that the Kenya trees have settled some.

 

I could always use more cuc. I'm hoping to do one bigger order of more cuc and some other fun inverts.

 

I'm working my way through figuring out why the wave engine is restarting randomly. Hopefully I can get some food troubleshooting help from their support people.

 

I also need to figure out my flow. I'm pretty sure there is a dead spot at the front left of the tank where the cyano is starting.

[Llorgon]

I have been searching for all my inverts and hoping to do one big order instead of a bunch of small ones... of course peppermint shrimp seem to be sold out everywhere...

 

CoralVue has been less than helpful with the WaveEngine restarting. I was told the WaveEngine will only reboot if it loses wifi connection and they left it at that. Apparently the only way to tell if it has lost wifi connection is by looking at the LED lights. If they are red it has lost connection. There are no logs for it. The fact that this has happened in the middle of a water change and there was no red LED doesn't seem to matter.... so that's a bummer.

[mcarroll]

That seems like a defect....all you have to do is lose WiFi and it reboots to a non-/dis-functional state?  Gee...what are the odds that WiFi would ever drop out in a customer's house???  🤦‍♂️

[InAtTheDeepEnd]

1 hour ago, Llorgon said:

I have been searching for all my inverts and hoping to do one big order instead of a bunch of small ones... of course peppermint shrimp seem to be sold out everywhere...

 

CoralVue has been less than helpful with the WaveEngine restarting. I was told the WaveEngine will only reboot if it loses wifi connection and they left it at that. Apparently the only way to tell if it has lost wifi connection is by looking at the LED lights. If they are red it has lost connection. There are no logs for it. The fact that this has happened in the middle of a water change and there was no red LED doesn't seem to matter.... so that's a bummer.

considering water slows wi fi signal that's a stupid feature. the likelihood of the wifi dropping out is really high 

[Llorgon]

2 hours ago, mcarroll said:

That seems like a defect....all you have to do is lose WiFi and it reboots to a non-/dis-functional state?  Gee...what are the odds that WiFi would ever drop out in a customer's house???  🤦‍♂️

Right. Something seems off. At lunch today I turned off my wifi router. So in theory the waveEngine would restart since the wifi connection would have suddenly dropped... but it didn't. Everything kept running I just couldn't change any settings.

1 hour ago, InAtTheDeepEnd said:

considering water slows wi fi signal that's a stupid feature. the likelihood of the wifi dropping out is really high 

The waveEngine is in a cabinet beside the tank and across the living room from the router. I think there is something else going on and support is just not being very helpful.

[Llorgon]

After telling coralvue support about my router experiment they then said it only reboots after being disconnected from the Internet for 30mins...

 

I have had it restart in the middle of a water change so the WiFi connection dropping wouldn't be the cause. I guess I'll see what they respond with on Monday...

[Llorgon]

Still talking with CoralVue support on the restarting wave engine. Last I heard from them they were trying to verify if indeed the wave engine restarted during a water change like I said... It also restarted again last night... super annoying.

 

I put out some feelers for the kenya trees. A few people messaged me saying they were interested, but no takers yet.

 

After a week and a bit of dosing nutrients I am starting to see an increase in algae in the tank. Also the cyano patch on the left front of sand is getting bigger. So I definitely need to add more cuc.

 

I have slightly changed my invert additions

3 peppermint shrimp

Money cowries

Cleaner shrimp

2x porcelain crab

Fighting conch

tuxedo urchin

Then restock snails(cerith, trochus, astrea)

 

My plan for the cuc is to remove a patch on long algae and put down a snail, hopefully they will eat any of the bits I didn't pull off. I will put the urchin on my left side glass that's covered in coraline and hopefully it can start munching away there and last more than 2 day!

 

I should be able to pickup all of the cuc at once except for the darn peppermint shrimp. They are either sold out or $40 each!

 

For fish stocking, I am going to try a pair of captive bred court jester gobies and a captive bred coral beauty.

That would put they stocking at

2 clowns

1 yellow tang

1 yellow eye kole tang

1 coral beauty

2 court jester gobies

 

 

[Llorgon]

Corals haven't looked great the last 2 days. I did a water test. Nitrates are a bit high.

 

Alk: 8.2

Cal: 485

Mag: 1350

Nitrate: 15.1

Phosphate: 0.02

 

I will stop the nitrate dosing and do a water change this weekend. 

 

I'm also going to see if I can get a tuxedo urchin locally. Last time I ordered one and it didn't come in great condition. Then some more cuc should come next week.

[mcarroll]

3 hours ago, Llorgon said:

Corals haven't looked great the last 2 days. I did a water test. Nitrates are a bit high.

 

Alk: 8.2

Cal: 485

Mag: 1350

Nitrate: 15.1

Phosphate: 0.02

Definitely stop dosing nitrates.

 

It's just a difference in perspective, but I would suggest that phosphates are too low and nitrates are fine.

[Llorgon]

On 3/1/2024 at 12:49 AM, mcarroll said:

Definitely stop dosing nitrates.

 

It's just a difference in perspective, but I would suggest that phosphates are too low and nitrates are fine.

Yep. I haven't added any nitrates since Thursday.

 

I did a water change today. Montiporas and space invaders pectina are still really unhappy. Soft corals seem to be fine minus the slightly unhappy Kenya trees. I'm still trying to get rid of those. 

 

I also picked up 2 baby tuxedo urchins!

[KC2020]

I would agree that Nitrates are not a concern. Phosphates are coral food and I think that's what you should focus on. 

[Llorgon]

Tested my water again tonight. 

 

Alk: 8.6

Nitrate: 11.5

Phosphate: 0.05

 

Alkalinity has been trending up pretty quickly the last few days so I lowered my dosing. I'm hoping to keep it in the 8.6 range.

 

Phosphate is up and nitrate is down slightly. Hopefully as nitrates gets under 10ppm the space invaders and montiporas will start being happy again. 

 

I pulled out another cup and a half of algae during my water change... definitely wasn't missing that! Fingers crossed the urchins will help make a dent in it.

[mcarroll]

21 hours ago, Llorgon said:

I did a water change today. Montiporas and space invaders pectina are still really unhappy. Soft corals seem to be fine minus the slightly unhappy Kenya trees.

[More|Change] your activated carbon?

[Llorgon]

4 hours ago, mcarroll said:

[More|Change] your activated carbon?

Hmm maybe? It's less than a month old. I thought it would last longer. I'll change it tomorrow and see if that makes a difference. Maybe all the slightly unhappy Kenya trees are causing the issues. 

 

If only someone would buy them!

[Llorgon]

Actually I found a media bag and added a new bag of carbon tonight. I'll take the old stuff out tomorrow.

[mcarroll]

I would do a more aggressive schedule with the same overall amount of carbon.  

 

In other words, use 1/4 of the recommended amount of activated carbon and change it weekly instead of monthly (four times as often).

 

The idea is that the carbon is most active in its first week, and that's when it's going to be most productive against the compounds we're talking about.  (Same approach when you have a dino outbreak to remove dino toxins.)

 

Any time you mix softies and hard corals (which used to be considered an expert move) it's a good idea to use some activated carbon.  Worth pointing out that some fish don't mix well with activated carbon...seems to provoke HLLE.  

 

Anyway, in nature soft and hard corals aren't "friends", they compete aggressively for space.  Softies use chemistry in that competition to cause various bad effects in hard corals, including tissue necrosis and mortality!!

 

It's also possible that changing the location of the coral in trouble to be "less downstream" from the offending coral (if possible) could improve things a bit.

[Llorgon]

1 hour ago, mcarroll said:

I would do a more aggressive schedule with the same overall amount of carbon.  

 

In other words, use 1/4 of the recommended amount of activated carbon and change it weekly instead of monthly (four times as often).

 

The idea is that the carbon is most active in its first week, and that's when it's going to be most productive against the compounds we're talking about.  (Same approach when you have a dino outbreak to remove dino toxins.)

Definitely couldn't hurt. I have a few media bags I can easily swap out each week. I will need a bigger container of carbon though!

 

I currently have 2 1/2 bags in there now.

1 hour ago, mcarroll said:

Any time you mix softies and hard corals (which used to be considered an expert move) it's a good idea to use some activated carbon.  Worth pointing out that some fish don't mix well with activated carbon...seems to provoke HLLE.  

Now you tell me it's for experts!

1 hour ago, mcarroll said:

Anyway, in nature soft and hard corals aren't "friends", they compete aggressively for space.  Softies use chemistry in that competition to cause various bad effects in hard corals, including tissue necrosis and mortality!!

I have heard of the chemicals of softies, but never experienced it. I guess most likely until now.

1 hour ago, mcarroll said:

It's also possible that changing the location of the coral in trouble to be "less downstream" from the offending coral (if possible) could improve things a bit.

I think what I will do is setup the QT tank I have and move the kenya trees into that until they get sold. That at least gets them out of the main tank.

[Llorgon]

I pulled all the Kenya trees out tonight and put them in the QT tank. They are pretty unhappy, but I think they should perk up.

 

I haven't seen either urchin since I put them in the tank. After moving the biggest Kenya tree one was dead behind it. I can only assume the other one has died as well. So my second urchin attempt ended about as quickly as the first.

 

Inverts just don't seem to do well in this tank.

[rimga123]

strange that you are not having any luck with urchins! usually they are super hardy.

have you tested for heavy metals? you might have copper in your water that is killing your inverts.

[mcarroll]

That stinks...  😒

[Llorgon]

8 hours ago, rimga123 said:

strange that you are not having any luck with urchins! usually they are super hardy.

have you tested for heavy metals? you might have copper in your water that is killing your inverts.

I have done ICP tests before and there were no metals or copper in the tank. I try not to do them though since turnaround time seems to be a month at least. I do have some snails and a couple hermits in there so some survive, but most don't last long. Turbo snails and urchins both seem to last a couple days at most.

 

Also my 25g seems to have no issues with snails. I have had the same turbo in there for almost a year! And both tanks use the same water.

 

I have a probably incorrect idea that what I think is gha isn't actually gha. Both times I have tried urchins they ate a bit of the algae on the first day and were dead by day 2/3. Anytime I add a snail like a turbo it doesn't seem to touch it. Same with the current snails I have, mostly stick to the glass and never on the rocks where the algae is. Even when most of the rocks were clear of it, I would never have snails on the rocks.

I had a 10g as my first attempt at saltwater that got overrun with a long green algae and I added a turbo snail and it cleaned the whole tank in like a week. And it was a similar length to this stuff.

 

Before I completely restarted my 25g, I was having the same problem. I couldn't keep snails alive at all. I think I had 2 ceriths because I got sick of buying snails to have them die right away. That tank had the same sort of battle with a very similar looking algae.

 

And it all goes back to a previous version of this tank. It got dinos which killed all the inverts and corals and when they were all gone I was left with a tank full of algae that looked exactly like this. I would add snails, they would go on the sand and glass, but never on the rocks where the algae was. Again, even after cleaning it off. I tried an urchin that was eating algae in another reefers tank and it wouldn't touch the stuff. It at least lasted a few months.

 

Anyways, I tore that tank down when we moved, but some of the rocks I cleaned off and used in the 25g since I moved everything into it as a temporary tank. When I setup this tank again I never did a full vinegar clean out of it and I used some of the same equipment. So, I wonder if the algae and some of the issues are coming from that. Because when I fully restarted the 25g and did the vinegar bath for the whole tank and all the equipment, I have not had the same algae pop up or the issues with snails.

 

I also had a powerhead melt in this tank once...so who knows maybe there is something left over from that. But that was a few tank versions ago... I feel like this tank is just cursed.

6 hours ago, mcarroll said:

That stinks...  😒

It really really does!