IM 14 Peninsula - My first reef (now with nem!)

[tidepooldreamer]

20 hours ago, natalia_la_loca said:

I’ve heard anecdotes about live phyto dosing (e.g. algaebarn ocean magik, dinkins aquatic gardens, Tommy’s phyto) knocking back cyano. Fwiw I’ve never seen cyano in my Evo that i dose daily with live phyto, although correlation is not causation. Have also heard about bottled bacteria dosing by day + peroxide dosing by night being effective. Also 3+ day tank blackouts or eliminating white light, maybe in combination with the above.

I've heard that too, I'd like to start dosing live phyto (for more reasons than just this!). Considering putting an order in to florida aqua gardens for the fertilizer + culture starter disk...

[tidepooldreamer]

1 hour ago, MLS_Reef said:

If it were my tank and this is my normal procedure .   I would scrape the glass completely tonight.  Turn up the flow push it into filter floss overnight. 

Tomorrow morning make coffee change the fliter floss, move all  the coral to the right side of the tank vacuum the left, and water change.

Sunday morning change the filter floss and move all the coral to the left and vacuum the right and water change.  Then change filter floss Sunday night and turn the flow back down worry about the rocks next week. 

Thanks! I assume since I've not really touched my sandbed since setting it up that I'd need to go slower in vacuuming, at least at first?

[MLS_Reef]

I like to give a good 24 hours in between sections and take a larger amount of water. I have never had a problem in smaller tanks/ nano tank doing halves. I've had more problems with 

fine sand not settling and hurting fish,

or deep sand beds that develop black pockets where there is anaerobic stuff going on and gas trapped.

If it's just detritus get it out and change the water.

12 hours ago, tidepooldreamer said:

Thanks! I assume since I've not really touched my sandbed since setting it up that I'd need to go slower in vacuuming, at least at first?

 

[wuzzo]

On 6/15/2023 at 12:54 PM, tidepooldreamer said:

Still the cyano persists. I did get that new gravel vac, which is a vast improvement in terms of actually being able to suction things out. For the last week I have been turkey basting the rocks once (or twice) daily, waiting for the water to clear up, and then removing the top piece of filter floss (which is always very green). I do think less crud is coming out of/off the rocks now, although the cyano still seems to be regrowing very quickly. I think there's a lot of crud in my sandbed too most likely, but I'm nervous to start vacuuming it in case I disrupt it too much and release anything nasty 😞

 

I introduced 2 blue leg hermits, to see if they'd be interested in eating any of it. I'd had them already but they were in a separate tank to grow bigger, since when I'd bought the new tiny ones from the store, they seemed to be falling victim to my RFAs (is this a problem anyone else has had, btw? I don't want to have to have a separate hermit grow-out tank for any time I want to replenish my group!).

 

Any other suggestions, aside from just staying the course? I'm aiming for at least one 1 - 2 gallon water change weekly, maybe a 0.5 gallon one in between if I have time.

My parameters today:

Nitrate - undetectable (API)

Phosphate - undetectable (Salifert)

KH 7-8 (API)

Calc 370 - 380ppm (Salifert)

Salinity 1.025

Temp 78 - 79

 

I'd like to bring my alk and calcium up a little - need to remember to test my source water before a water change to see what it mixes up as. My alk used to always test at 9-10 so it's interesting to see that my LPS and SPS frags must actually be starting to consume it! It's tested at 7 - 8 the last few times I've tested, so I think it's holding relatively stable, but I do want to double check and dial that in.

 

FTS 6-15-23:

Like MLS said, you shouldn't have problems with vacuuming the sand bed.  Just go slow and be patient with it, one section at a time.  At least from personal experience I can say, as I believe you read some of my biocube thread, and before cleaning it up there were parts of the sand bed that literally hadn't been vacuumed in 2-3 years+ lol.  There are still small sections of sand in the back that hadn't been stirred in years until I added and soon took out my yellow coris wrasse.

From your parameters it still seems you have a nutrient issue, but honestly I'm glad its cyano now that outcompeted the dinos, cyano is much easier to get rid of.  I would personally not try dosing nutrients in a small tank, just feeding more and having more bioload.  You could totally start feeding and dosing aminos to possibly raise them, and get better coral growth.

As far as the cyano does go, since your nutrients are high I would assume its flow and certain dead spots.  I'm not sure if you turn off the pumps to take photos, but the water looks very still in all photos, usually with a prime you get that shimmer effect.  Personally I would try raising the flow on your pump if possible, if not try getting a stronger pump or rearranging scape to get more flow out of your current pump? I'm not sure about powerheads for this tank, I see most IM 14 owners don't use a powerhead.

If it's neither of those, consistency is key. Do regular water changes and take out as much cyano as you can when you can. You could probably also maintain a higher alk and calc through just water changes for a while, but as corals grow I'd start dosing alk or some 2-part.  Only dose if you notice your corals need it though.  Lower end alk and calc is okay as long as your corals like it.  Hope my advice helped, happy reefing

[tidepooldreamer]

On 6/17/2023 at 9:29 AM, MLS_Reef said:

I like to give a good 24 hours in between sections and take a larger amount of water. I have never had a problem in smaller tanks/ nano tank doing halves. I've had more problems with fine sand not settling and hurting fish,

or deep sand beds that develop black pockets where there is anaerobic stuff going on and gas trapped.

If it's just detritus get it out and change the water.

 

I did (briefly) notice a rotten egg smell after I disturbed the sand more than I intended to a couple weeks ago, but it dissipated quickly and nothing seemed bothered. It has me nervous that I may have some anaerobic pockets though... When I've tried vacuuming my sand in the past I would focus on just a small area each week (eg 8 square inches), so I may try that again.

 

On 6/17/2023 at 7:03 PM, wuzzo said:

Like MLS said, you shouldn't have problems with vacuuming the sand bed.  Just go slow and be patient with it, one section at a time.  At least from personal experience I can say, as I believe you read some of my biocube thread, and before cleaning it up there were parts of the sand bed that literally hadn't been vacuumed in 2-3 years+ lol.  There are still small sections of sand in the back that hadn't been stirred in years until I added and soon took out my yellow coris wrasse.

From your parameters it still seems you have a nutrient issue, but honestly I'm glad its cyano now that outcompeted the dinos, cyano is much easier to get rid of.  I would personally not try dosing nutrients in a small tank, just feeding more and having more bioload.  You could totally start feeding and dosing aminos to possibly raise them, and get better coral growth.

As far as the cyano does go, since your nutrients are high I would assume its flow and certain dead spots.  I'm not sure if you turn off the pumps to take photos, but the water looks very still in all photos, usually with a prime you get that shimmer effect.  Personally I would try raising the flow on your pump if possible, if not try getting a stronger pump or rearranging scape to get more flow out of your current pump? I'm not sure about powerheads for this tank, I see most IM 14 owners don't use a powerhead.

If it's neither of those, consistency is key. Do regular water changes and take out as much cyano as you can when you can. You could probably also maintain a higher alk and calc through just water changes for a while, but as corals grow I'd start dosing alk or some 2-part.  Only dose if you notice your corals need it though.  Lower end alk and calc is okay as long as your corals like it.  Hope my advice helped, happy reefing

Thanks, that reassures me! I figure my ceriths + nass snails are helping stir it up at least a bit anyway. I very nearly came home with a candy cane pistol yesterday (he's been on my wishlist from the beginning but never available at the right time) but I figured it's better to wait till the new tank is ready and not deal with trying to catch him. And I want to make sure it's a healthy habitat for any new critters, too.

That said, I did get some more blue leg hermits since the 2 I'd moved over have been doing a great job actually eating the cyano.

 

Me too, I was glad the cyano took over from the dinos so fast, but I was hoping it would move out just as quickly too 😅 Is it safe to dose aminos with cyano? I'll look into that, I think my corals would appreciate it anyway.

 

Flow - I'm not sure. I feel my flow is decent (when I feed the tank it seems to keep the food suspended and not settling onto the sand) and the LPS look to be swaying nicely ... but maybe it's not as good as I think? I did go back and look at all my FTS after your comment and I think it looks like my water surface has less disruption since I switched from the stock return nozzle to a dual RFG nozzle (which was supposed to be to improve flow...!). I'm not sure why it looks so still in the photos. I may try to get a video soon and post that to see what people think of the flow!

 

Your advice is much appreciated, thanks!!

[tidepooldreamer]

I did start dosing NeoNitro and NeoPhos again last night - starting slow to see how things react and not shock the system - and I have to say,  a lot of my corals are looking happier already. They'd been looking gradually sadder the last few weeks, although I didn't realise how much till looking back at the earlier photos again, and I'd attributed it to the cyano itself... But the cyano starting coincides with my stopping daily nutrient dosing, so fingers crossed bringing N and P up will make all the difference!

[tidepooldreamer]

I think the cyano is gradually receding! I vacuumed part of my sandbed on Wednesday and it took until today for it to really start turning green again. Vacuumed it again today and so much less crud came out of it that I was able to do a bigger area this time 😁 All the corals are looking improved since resuming the nutrient dosing, although my zoas mostly still aren't as open and vibrant as they used to be. The back glass is also starting to clear up bit by bit - not sure if my snails are eating it or - I suspect - conditions are shifting away from favourable for cyano and it's dying back. The rocks are staying much whiter for longer as well, except for one, but I don't see my hermits up there very much so I think that's probably why.

 

I've been feeding more generous portions as well which Rutherford is definitely not complaining about - he's finally deigned to accept LRS reef frenzy as well as frozen mysis, so I'm glad he's getting a more nutritionally complete diet.

 

Still haven't managed to get detectable phosphates, but nitrates have been reading steadily between 5 - 10 (no idea how anyone can tell the difference between those shades of orange). Not sure if phosphate is still limiting consumption of the nitrates (because I've not been dosing that much daily) or if it's a false 0... At this point I think I'll go by the appearance of the corals rather than chasing a number.

 

Today (6/25) -> 6/20 -> 6/15

 

 

FTS 6/25:

 

Goni opening nicely, I think! ☺️

https://i.imgur.com/V9JOSEN.mp4

 

Green Bay Packers -

 

Acan - turning a lot more green since I got it, interesting to see how it will develop. I think I run my lights whiter than the vendor; sounds like acans colour up more in bluer light (not just from fluorescent pop)? One of the heads caught 2 entire pieces of frozen mysis today and I was very impressed it managed to eat the whole thing! I think I need to start target feeding them more often ^^

[tidepooldreamer]

Fish has a small scrape over his eye and very skittish this morning; poor guy! Hopefully he'll get over whatever spooked him soon.

[tidepooldreamer]

Noticed what I'm pretty sure would be considered RTN on both birdsnest frags on Saturday 😞 The new green one is dying from the bottom up; the pink one it's in random patches but so far only on some of the branches (it's more like 5 separate frags glued onto one base, so perhaps it might not spread to all of them if I'm lucky!). I did notice reduced polyp extension for a few days beforehand.

 

Cyano still gradually improving as far as I can tell. It's interesting - the top left rock is turning more and more red with cyano while the rest of the tank seems to be clearing up. The rock on the right is still turning green but I'm not sure that it's still cyano vs perhaps a different type of algae? My zoas are all looking happier, the Midas colony that had been staying pretty closed through this is almost all opened up again, and none of them are getting overgrown with green slime so much anymore! Goni and acan seem happy enough... Since the RTN started my ricordea and duncan have both been looking a little weird (ric shrunken, duncan not opening fully), and my favia is not extending feeding tentacles as frequently although it still puts them out at night. I'm not sure what to make of that really; it seems like a weird subset of them to be upset by something?

 

Tests from today:

Nitrate - 20 (API) (higher than I'd intended!)

Phosphate - undetectable (Salifert)

KH 7-8 (API)

Calc 360 - 370ppm (Salifert)

Salinity 1.025

Temp 78 - 79

 

Interesting to see that my calcium had gone down slightly. Maybe a small enough change to be in the range of margin of error, or maybe things were growing a little bit!

I'm guessing my phosphate has been too low, even with dosing, for the nitrates to be getting consumed, so they'd accumulated more than I'd expected them to. I did a 25% water change today and only dosed phosphate after.

Any thoughts what could have caused the RTN? From what I read it sounds like it's really a mystery... I did accidentally skip a couple days dosing so I wondered if the nutrients dropped again and that upset them, but on the other hand it's not like my nutrients were exactly detectable to begin with... As far as I know there's been no temperature spike, alk has stayed consistent every time I've tested. The green birdsnest is new, maybe it brought a disease with it?

I did get AquaVitro fuel recently to help feed the corals. Would starting that maybe help the birdsnest recover (or at least not hurt anything)? I figure better nutrition and trace elements might give it its best shot at pulling through.

 

My hermit crabs released larvae last night, cool to see! Shame that there's very low chance of any of the babies making it.

[tidepooldreamer]

Been a couple weeks, time for another update on this tank ^^

 

Things are going really well, I'm super happy with how everything is looking! The sand has stayed nice and white without any dedicated cleaning for over 2 weeks now, rocks are staying clear of green slime, even that last lingering one... Zoas are open nicely and the midas colony is a much brighter yellow like when I first got it 🙂 The RTN seems to have stopped after a couple of days, fingers crossed - I think it must have been the result of a phosphate drop after all. My pink birdsnest is very fluffy looking; the green one is hanging in there with the little clumps of tissue it still has.

 

I've started seeing copepods on the glass again in the last week or so, which I think is probably a good sign. I have a lot of strange worms at night as well but they don't appear to be causing any problems.... I hope? Not really sure what they are. Definitely not the same chunky bristleworms I've started seeing in my other tank; these guys are very small and thin (like 1/2" long and threadlike). I can see bristles on them and they appear to have a darker head and a white body, Dorvellidae I think. But then there's also something that swims frantically through the water, which I'm not certain yet if it's the same or a different worm...

 

Tests from today:

Nitrate - 10 - 20 (API)

Phosphate - 0.05 - 0.125 (Salifert)

KH 8-9 (API)

Calc 375ppm (Salifert)

Mag (new test!) 1215ish... I think I did this one wrong so I'll try again later when the syringes have all dried out after cleaning

Temp 78 - 79

 

My nitrates have been holding very steady at the same orangey color since the beginning of July now, and phosphate has been detectable almost as long. Really happy with that, after struggling with it for so long.

 

FTS 7/23:

 

Midas zoas looking nice and bright

[tidepooldreamer]

Some more photos I couldn't include -

 

The hermits seem to really like perching up here at the very highest point!

 

My larger nem has started doing this a few times recently; not sure what it means?

[debbeach13]

That nem looks like it is eating. Maybe it caught a worm. 

[tidepooldreamer]

2 hours ago, debbeach13 said:

That nem looks like it is eating. Maybe it caught a worm. 

I never see it do this when I'm feeding the tank and it catches something? Just happens randomly... I know the male ones stand up and get a trumpet shape when they're reproducing but I thought that would be at night so I'm not sure what to make of it!