Percolating A GSP reefscape

[TheCoffeeReef]

Thanks all for the replies, kimdawg I'll get checking out the tank- I've a ton of posts to peruse on this site, particularly the larger tanks! The smaller frag route is my preference overall, just on cost alone, but easier on me if I try a coral and it doesn't take. 

 

Tired and Seabass thanks for the considerations on the fish. You pretty much nailed it as a goby is the consideration. Panda gobies seem good size wise, but I'm also wondering what benefit could be had going for a non-photosynthetic coral like Tubastraea to encourage me to feed the tank more frequently?

 

May sound odd, but I'm very cautious with feeding or dosing this tank because of the volume and algae is very well controlled at present, I've green coraline, a few diatom patches that appear close to the lights on the ledge rock, but the 4 snails and Halloween Hermit seem to control it. 

 

 

 

[seabass]

Sun corals are fairly demanding.  Luckily, the reward is high, as they can add a punch of color in a dark area of your tank.  But you essentially have to target feed each polyp every day (which might sound fun at first, but most people grow tired of the chore).

 

Also, broadcast feeding isn't a great option, as you will either introduce a lot of extra food (and invite all the problems associated with that), or they won't get enough food and they'll stop opening (then slowly die off).  Keeping sun corals isn't a choice that I'd lightly recommend.

[TheCoffeeReef]

Thanks for the advice Seabass, I've read around the Tubastraea corals and a few sources who've had success. I've decided to give it a try and see how well I get on. I've added a small frag with around 20 polyps on it. 

 

It's been steadily coming out and has been observed feeding, with reefroids getting the appetite going before some mysis/krill mix. Already I can see the dedication needed, and certainly based on how beautiful they are I feel I need to try my best. He's placed under an alcove where shade is prominent.

 

However, I've spotted what may be a hitchhiker I've not been able to identify. Pics below and I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts. Could it be spawn or some other expulsion from the coral? 

 

My others actually appear to be growing well- the first GSP frag has really started to take off, the others have undergone growth and my favia appears to have a new mouth growing!

 

Candy cane is puffy and seems happy, zoa's are static for now, 2 pushing out, the smallest has never emerged, however not melted or dropped off. 

[TheCoffeeReef]

Feeding sun coral 🥰 and a recent FTS.

[TheCoffeeReef]

Been a little time since I've updated on the little reef to allow some time for it to settle. 

 

I've had some great progress with the GSP, all colonies are developing, growing and spreading, which is a joy to see. The favia and candy cane/ trumpet coral (seems more the later from what I think..) are both appearing to slowly grow.

 

My tiny zoa trio are still struggling, however there was an uptick on them the last week since a larger water change and increased flow. No more signs of pox on the smaller of the two, but I'm not calling them happy and healthy yet. 

 

The sun coral I've certainly learned why these are a challenge.... It's feeding and putting out it's polyps, however there has been a continuous receding (dieback) of the tissue surrounding the lower area back from the frag edges. It's receiving a mix of frozen krill/mysis and reefroids/AB+, and I've observed the full consumption.

 

I try.to dose several times a day with little blasts of the reefroids, and once in evening of the frozen, and once a day AB+.

 

I've questioned where I positioned the coral to begin with, in the overhangs crevice made feeding incredibly challenging. So I've decided to move it to a lower area in a more traditional position where flow movement is higher. 

 

There's been continued good health from the Halloween Hermit, several moults for him and the pom pom crab and peppermint shrimp. The nassarius snail is alive and seems to be growing (amazing to see how much of a mountaineer they are!!) and I can see my snails are still alive and doing their thing. 

 

I definitely lost both my smaller scarlet reef hermits, and there is a rather chunky bristle worm that lives in the rocks near my brittle stars. He's a pink coloured, clearly segmented worm with clumps of white/transparent hairs. 

 

So...what have I tried to remedy the sun coral and zoa health? I've remained on the view that testing is a tool to understand a possible causation when a problem shows up, not just for the sake of it and continual information observation. I decided I'd test my tank for the Mg/pH/Kh/Ca as well at my phosphate and nitrates.

 

I did this in a poorly scientific manner by just testing the calcium in isolation first, before getting the additional Salifert kits.

 

I got a bit of a shock to see my calcium was off the charts- so much so I tested RO water to confirm nothing flawed with the kit!! Following a bit of discussion with some local reefers, a potential suspect was the large central piece of aragonite rock I structured my live rock around. 

 

I dis a 4ltr water change to reduce the levels I hoped and watched a couple of days. Life continued with the visual observations similar to normal.

 

But, wanting to get a better idea of my parameters now I'd taken some baseline readings, I tested the range:

 

Old water- post feed of Krill/reefroids/ab+

 

Alkalinity kh: 8.6

Magnesium mg: 1440

Phosphate po4: 0.5

Nitrate no3: 50

Calcium ca: 250

pH: 7.7

SG:1.025

 

pH surprised me being low when my salinity remained stable, as did the calcium drop.

 

So a large 65% water change was undertaken to address the situation.

 

New water

 

Alkalinity kh: 8.7

Magnesium mg: 1230

Phosphate po4: 0.25

Nitrate no3: 25

Calcium ca: 450

pH: 8.0

SG:1.025

 

And this is where I'm at today. I've observed the above, and until I can figure out what the cause of the sun coral unhappiness and decline is, I'm open to thoughts and suggestions. 

 

Certainly an adventure every day!

 

 

 

 

[Murphs_Reef]

25ppm nitrate in new water? Where you getting that from our of interest?

 

I like my Phosphate up a bit but that is a bit higher than I like.. usually around 0.1 - 0.08 for me. 

[TheCoffeeReef]

2 hours ago, Murphs_Reef said:

25ppm nitrate in new water? Where you getting that from our of interest?

 

I like my Phosphate up a bit but that is a bit higher than I like.. usually around 0.1 - 0.08 for me. 

Interesting point Murphs_Reef, this was from Tropic Marine Pro-Reef salt mixed in RO water from LFS. This was the test results I got from the mixed water in the tank after approx. 1 hour of circulation.

 

I should have checked and clarified on my notes (the numbers were copied and pasted from a Google Keep note I made at the time).

 

Thanks for the suggestion on the phosphate, I've noticed around the 0.25-0.5 is where I've seen the test results from the tank, but I suspect it fluctuates more due to small water volume. 

 

 

 

 

[Murphs_Reef]

I mean GSP won't mind that phosphate level at all, but it might mean you have more unwanted algae to deal with... That said.... I water change about twice a year and only usually when there so much cyano on the sand I can't break it up... 

 

So take my suggestions on nutrients with caution... 👍🏼

[TheCoffeeReef]

Couple of tank shots to share as the reef changes and progresses. 

 

Willing my zoa mini frag to continue to recover, but pleased to see my GSP, favia and trumpet coral/candy cane are going strong.

 

Also, got a pick of this little rock dweller, he's a fairly big boy as seen a good 5 x that come from the rock!! Seems not to attack anything so I'm leaving him alone and remember to watch hands near his rock! 

 

[Tired]

Looks like the standard bristleworm. Harmless detritivore, may be a helpful cleaner, and a good reminder not to handle rock with bare hands. Aside from bristleworms, there are some nasty bacteria that can live on reef rock, and plenty of sharp edges waiting to give those bacteria a way in.

[TheCoffeeReef]

7 hours ago, Tired said:

Looks like the standard bristleworm. Harmless detritivore, may be a helpful cleaner, and a good reminder not to handle rock with bare hands. Aside from bristleworms, there are some nasty bacteria that can live on reef rock, and plenty of sharp edges waiting to give those bacteria a way in.

Thanks for the confirmation assurance on the worm, I find the little(ish) guy amusing as he comes out when feeding but will rapidly return to home if something spooks past.

 

I try to be very careful as I've got health concerns relating to skin and allergies. Pretty sure I'd not fare well. 

 

Sadly my sun coral didn't make it and took a fairly rapid decline, so decided to remove rather than let continue to decay. Lesson learned about pushing it with more specialist corals and life. 

 

Id be interested to hear thoughts on additions that could pair well with the current sturdy trio of GSP, favia and trumpet coral? 

[Tired]

Acan lords (technically micromussa lords) are a classic for a reason. Small, colorful, fairly hardy, could be a nice pop of color among the green. I'm also a fan of the small, tightly encrusting favites, like the ones going around under the trade names Fascination and Hell Rider. 

 

Not the most flattering shot of the colors, but I picked up this Flame Boi favites recently, and I'm happy with it. It's about an inch and a half across- very small polyps for a favites-type coral. They're an encrusting type coral, so they'll take on the shape of anything you put them on. 

[seabass]

5 hours ago, TheCoffeeReef said:

I'd be interested to hear thoughts on additions that could pair well with the current sturdy trio of GSP, favia and trumpet coral?

Zoanthids are a popular choice.  Cespitularia is neat if you can find it (will provide a little height).  Maybe a toadstool.

[TheCoffeeReef]

Thanks both for the suggestions. I'm a fan of the favites, and considered some war coral a few times. I'll have a look into Cespitularia Seabass, not familiar at all with that. Similarly I've not checked much into the toadstools yet. 

 

the zoa's I'm really torn on. I do like the look and form, but I'm definitely not having a great time with the current occupant, although it's certainly holding on despite occasionally being bashed by the hermit crab and shrimp. 

8 hours ago, Tired said:

Acan lords (technically micromussa lords) are a classic for a reason. Small, colorful, fairly hardy, could be a nice pop of color among the green. I'm also a fan of the small, tightly encrusting favites, like the ones going around under the trade names Fascination and Hell Rider. 

 

Not the most flattering shot of the colors, but I picked up this Flame Boi favites recently, and I'm happy with it. It's about an inch and a half across- very small polyps for a favites-type coral. They're an encrusting type coral, so they'll take on the shape of anything you put them on. 

The more I see this the more it reminds me of graphics from an early PC game like Unreal or Hexen. 

[Tired]

Yeah, something about the shape and texture is weird, isn't it? And I don't know what happened to make that frag plug in the lower left look so incredibly unfocused and Photoshopped in. It's a nice coral, it's just in a spot where the lighting doesn't play nice with my phone camera. 

There seem to be a few strains of whatever favites species this is running around the hobby, and they're definitely worth picking up if you can find one at a nice price. Hardy, good colors, pretty solid growth rate when happy but not invasive, shouldn't lash out and murder everything in a ten-block radius. 

 

If you have a frag that can't get established because things keep annoying it, you could always try putting it on a little single-plug frag rack on the wall. Hermits can't climb glass very well, and the shrimp might leave it alone if it's somewhere inconvenient. 

[TheCoffeeReef]

7 hours ago, Tired said:

Yeah, something about the shape and texture is weird, isn't it? And I don't know what happened to make that frag plug in the lower left look so incredibly unfocused and Photoshopped in. It's a nice coral, it's just in a spot where the lighting doesn't play nice with my phone camera. 

There seem to be a few strains of whatever favites species this is running around the hobby, and they're definitely worth picking up if you can find one at a nice price. Hardy, good colors, pretty solid growth rate when happy but not invasive, shouldn't lash out and murder everything in a ten-block radius. 

 

If you have a frag that can't get established because things keep annoying it, you could always try putting it on a little single-plug frag rack on the wall. Hermits can't climb glass very well, and the shrimp might leave it alone if it's somewhere inconvenient. 

Thank, hadn't really considered wall mounting it. It was a tiny 3 specimen plug I got for around $12 equivalent, and originally I had it lower in tank and close to wave maker, but had caught zoa pox on one. I managed to deal with that, and now have two- well, one and a small never really opened addition. I wondered if I just picked up a weak specimen that was recently fragged and the combination of move, new environment with less stability likely than the shop tank has stressed it. 

 

Also, that comment on murder favites had me laughing. I've not seen it myself, but stumbled into coral fight club 🤣