PJPS Posted February 17, 2023 Share Posted February 17, 2023 If that cyphastrea isn’t glorious AF, I’m shit at this reef stuff. I’ve rarely seen such nice PE! That’d be an A+ day in my (apparently garbage) reef. Just wow 🤯 well done. That’s just coral pornography 😂 1 Quote Link to comment
ml86743 Posted February 17, 2023 Author Share Posted February 17, 2023 Just now, PJPS said: If that cyphastrea isn’t glorious AF, I’m shit at this reef stuff. I’ve rarely seen such nice PE! That’d be an A+ day in my (apparently garbage) reef. Just wow 🤯 well done. That’s just coral pornography 😂 Do you see the tissue regression though? Makes no sense...Maybe the extra fluffy PE isn't good? Quote Link to comment
PJPS Posted February 17, 2023 Share Posted February 17, 2023 4 minutes ago, ml86743 said: Do you see the tissue regression though? Makes no sense...Maybe the extra fluffy PE isn't good? I see what you mean at first I thought it was just lighting highlights. Are you dosing amino‘s? I find that tends to help thicken up the flesh on SPS (cyphastrea is easy SPS). Quote Link to comment
ml86743 Posted February 17, 2023 Author Share Posted February 17, 2023 4 minutes ago, PJPS said: I see what you mean at first I thought it was just lighting highlights. Are you dosing amino‘s? I find that tends to help thicken up the flesh on SPS (cyphastrea is easy SPS). Just started back up actually. Quit the stuff when the dino's were heavy. Using the Brightwell product. I just did a quick flashlight look and it seems to have a bit more fluff in some sections. Quote Link to comment
banasophia Posted February 17, 2023 Share Posted February 17, 2023 Wow, your tank is amazing and so is your photography. I love the cyphastrea and ricordeas, and you have a really good scape for top down shots. Thanks for tagging me! I’ll be curious to hear whether the emerald eats any of the hydroids. 1 Quote Link to comment
ml86743 Posted February 17, 2023 Author Share Posted February 17, 2023 2 minutes ago, banasophia said: Wow, your tank is amazing and so is your photography. I love the cyphastrea and ricordeas, and you have a really good scape for top down shots. Thanks for tagging me! I’ll be curious to hear whether the emerald eats any of the hydroids. Thanks! It's getting there, really needs to hit a solid stride and start growing. As long as that mofo doesnt mess with Winston I'm cool w it. She is in the cave direclty next to where ol winst sleeps.. 1 Quote Link to comment
PJPS Posted February 17, 2023 Share Posted February 17, 2023 2 minutes ago, ml86743 said: Just started back up actually. Quit the stuff when the dino's were heavy. Using the Brightwell product. I just did a quick flashlight look and it seems to have a bit more fluff in some sections. I’m using the brightwell, unimpressed. I’m going baack to acropower. I’m cheap though, so those are the aminos they’re getting for a couple of weeks. smart to stop aminos with dinos. They’ll feed aiptasia too, so arm up the Faiptasia if you have them 😊. Start low, but dose daily for best results. Divide the daily dose by half, then slowly build to 100%+. That’s almost always resolved “thinning” like that for me. GO SLOW can’t be over-emphasized, I go too fast now and then. They have to build up consumption or something 🤷🏻♂️ 1 Quote Link to comment
ml86743 Posted February 17, 2023 Author Share Posted February 17, 2023 25 minutes ago, PJPS said: I’m using the brightwell, unimpressed. I’m going baack to acropower. I’m cheap though, so those are the aminos they’re getting for a couple of weeks. smart to stop aminos with dinos. They’ll feed aiptasia too, so arm up the Faiptasia if you have them 😊. Start low, but dose daily for best results. Divide the daily dose by half, then slowly build to 100%+. That’s almost always resolved “thinning” like that for me. GO SLOW can’t be over-emphasized, I go too fast now and then. They have to build up consumption or something 🤷🏻♂️ Funny you mention that, prior to the outbreak I was dosing daily and was pretty sure I was seeing excellent results. Interestingly enough, since dosing 2-3 times a week after the majority of the dino's went away, I feel like I've seen a slight resurgence. Nothing super bad, just a little more bubbly-ness on the rocks than usual. I think at the peak I was using 4-6 drops daily. Maybe I'll try 2-3 daily for now and see where that gets me. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
Pusztareefer Posted February 17, 2023 Share Posted February 17, 2023 Just finished reading , loving you’re scape, specially top down . 1 Quote Link to comment
ml86743 Posted February 17, 2023 Author Share Posted February 17, 2023 6 hours ago, Pusztareefer said: Just finished reading , loving you’re scape, specially top down . Thank you so much!! Just gotta keep my hands out for a little and let it take off! 1 Quote Link to comment
ml86743 Posted February 17, 2023 Author Share Posted February 17, 2023 Quick little lunch time snap of the AOI's. I got at least 8 heads for 50 bucks..I've seen another local LFS sell them for 60 PP!!! They've done super well and are growing like weeds. Hopefully I'll have enough to frag sometime..This is under the daylights and they look amazin' New emerald was just munchin on some rocks, didnt eben go after the pellet i tried to give her. Cyphastrea looked better today:) Probably gonna change 2-3 gallons this afternoon. 5 Quote Link to comment
PJPS Posted February 17, 2023 Share Posted February 17, 2023 (rooting for the cyphastrea ✊) (I don't #### with palytoxin so no zoas or palys for me, but those make me wanna cheat on my diet so to speak lol) 1 Quote Link to comment
ml86743 Posted February 18, 2023 Author Share Posted February 18, 2023 7 hours ago, PJPS said: (rooting for the cyphastrea ✊) (I don't #### with palytoxin so no zoas or palys for me, but those make me wanna cheat on my diet so to speak lol) Looking better by the hour! No zoas/palys??? Man I'm a sucker for em'... 1 Quote Link to comment
PJPS Posted February 18, 2023 Share Posted February 18, 2023 2 minutes ago, ml86743 said: Looking better by the hour! No zoas/palys??? Man I'm a sucker for em'... The SO got whacked in our first tank, it was gory. We were careful and knew to be careful, we did something to make it poison the water, we hadn’t physically disturbed it for weeks. Ever since it’s been easy enough to just say no Nancy Reagan style 😜. Certain softer drugs however… say… maybe? 😇 2 Quote Link to comment
ml86743 Posted February 18, 2023 Author Share Posted February 18, 2023 Just got the BW reef blizzard products (LPS Pellets & CR, which is a fine powder). Pellets are a tad large but seem to be packed w goodies. The favia was able to take a whole pellet but my little acan's in the front were having a really tough time. I'll probably have cut them in 3rd's for smaller individuals. I have the say I like the CR more than Reef Roids. It's less "messy" and is a little chunkier than RR. Doesn't leave the water with a cloud or anything, just sorta suspends on down to whomever you're feeding. I saw feeding reactions from several zoas that generally don't seem to fully enclose on the reef roids. Will report back after a few weeks of feeding for color/growth results. Fish are good, tanks pretty good. Random algae on the back panel and front glass. (I've restricted myself from wiping down the front glass, I see thousands of pods and I like to think it's my nursery for now 😅, even though they're probably everywhere else..plus we don't really view the tank from that angle) I've got Ulva appearing sporadically on my LR and output nozzle. I noticed it's in the rods food, do y'all think it could've somehow remained alive in the packing/freezing process? I've got no idea where else it could have came from? Hopefully Ms. Emerald will take a liking to it. 1 1 Quote Link to comment
PJPS Posted February 18, 2023 Share Posted February 18, 2023 1 hour ago, ml86743 said: Just got the BW reef blizzard products (LPS Pellets & CR, which is a fine powder). Pellets are a tad large but seem to be packed w goodies. The favia was able to take a whole pellet but my little acan's in the front were having a really tough time. I'll probably have cut them in 3rd's for smaller individuals. I have the say I like the CR more than Reef Roids. It's less "messy" and is a little chunkier than RR. Doesn't leave the water with a cloud or anything, just sorta suspends on down to whomever you're feeding. I saw feeding reactions from several zoas that generally don't seem to fully enclose on the reef roids. Will report back after a few weeks of feeding for color/growth results. Fish are good, tanks pretty good. Random algae on the back panel and front glass. (I've restricted myself from wiping down the front glass, I see thousands of pods and I like to think it's my nursery for now 😅, even though they're probably everywhere else..plus we don't really view the tank from that angle) I've got Ulva appearing sporadically on my LR and output nozzle. I noticed it's in the rods food, do y'all think it could've somehow remained alive in the packing/freezing process? I've got no idea where else it could have came from? Hopefully Ms. Emerald will take a liking to it. Good eye on the ingredient list! I rarely see people consider food as the source. 99% of seafood for human consumption is preserved with phosphates on the boat. Stuff like that and added algae for tangs I don’t have, is why I choose LRS (no phosphate treated seafood), particularly the nano blend (no algae). I buy 10 packs at a time and have it shipped like livestock with no heat pack in the winter. I do this because my LFSs don’t reliably have it, otherwise I’d just buy it as needed. I doubt it introduced the ulva, but it’s not 100% impossible. But Rod’s has seemingly produced more algae in my tank when I tried it. It dirtied the water too much for my exports 🤷🏻♂️. And I’m pro higher nutrients. Totally anecdotal, I have no real evidence other than my personal experience. Yes, I have no life 😂 e: Personally I skip RR. I find that old university of Hawaii study that found RR and Reef Chili useful, a largely useless study to cite at this point. Ingredient ratios change with availability etc. The study barely shows any difference, unsurprisingly. I feed a wide variety, but in a nano water volume, I’m choosier about water pollution from food. Quote Link to comment
gena Posted February 18, 2023 Share Posted February 18, 2023 Since you guys are talking food and phosphates… Is frozen food enough for fish? I’m feeding a nice quality pellet only. I see my clownfish go for pods on the glass (I only have one fish) and she also eats the film algae when I clean the glass (loves it!). But I’m wondering if the pellets are the reason for the hair algae in my tank. maybe I need a skimmer. Any recommendations for a skimmer on a 10 gallon innovative marine cube tank? 2 Quote Link to comment
PJPS Posted February 18, 2023 Share Posted February 18, 2023 Complete frozen like LRS or Rods, I’d say yes. I don’t feed dry food to fish except rarely when I want to bump nutrients, I’ll add soome vitalis flakes/pellets/both to the phyto/frozen/powder slurry I feed over the day/a few hours. I don’t love just freshwater shrimp alone. I like to feed majority marine foods. Hope that helps. I view feeding as a top priority, more so than any elements in my water chemistry. Feel free to ask if you have more questions, I’m not shy about anything I do with my tanks 👍🏻 e: easy way to remember it is that frozen food tends to bump, nitrates, dry food tends to make phosphatess. There are definitely exceptions, but as a general rule, it works. 2 Quote Link to comment
ml86743 Posted February 18, 2023 Author Share Posted February 18, 2023 3 hours ago, PJPS said: Good eye on the ingredient list! I rarely see people consider food as the source. 99% of seafood for human consumption is preserved with phosphates on the boat. Stuff like that and added algae for tangs I don’t have, is why I choose LRS (no phosphate treated seafood), particularly the nano blend (no algae). I buy 10 packs at a time and have it shipped like livestock with no heat pack in the winter. I do this because my LFSs don’t reliably have it, otherwise I’d just buy it as needed. I doubt it introduced the ulva, but it’s not 100% impossible. But Rod’s has seemingly produced more algae in my tank when I tried it. It dirtied the water too much for my exports 🤷🏻♂️. And I’m pro higher nutrients. Totally anecdotal, I have no real evidence other than my personal experience. Yes, I have no life 😂 e: Personally I skip RR. I find that old university of Hawaii study that found RR and Reef Chili useful, a largely useless study to cite at this point. Ingredient ratios change with availability etc. The study barely shows any difference, unsurprisingly. I feed a wide variety, but in a nano water volume, I’m choosier about water pollution from food. Yeah I try to pay attention whats in them...I am pro LRS myself. I primarily feed da fishes LRS/PE Pellets but got my hands on some rods that I'm just trying to use up. Luckily, my local LFS is always in stock with LRS. I'm right there with you about the nutrients. Somehow this little s**t box still needs a shot of PO4 every evening. NO3 stay relatively stable @ 10. Here's a question for you - Whenever I let the tank do its thing and feed normally yada yada...My PO4 ends up @ .03-.04. I'm tempted to not dose back up one of these days and see if that will hold. I'm shooting for .08-.1 but if it'll sit at .03 w/o my intervention I'd be okay with it. You think it's worth testing? Or is the risk of bottoming out too scary. The lower number would probably cut back on some of the algae growth, but I really do not want to deal with a large dino bloom again. As far as RR I know the corals like it, but from the minute results I've seen with this reef blizzard stuff I already prefer it, like I said it's way less messy and more "concise". 2 hours ago, gena said: Since you guys are talking food and phosphates… Is frozen food enough for fish? I’m feeding a nice quality pellet only. I see my clownfish go for pods on the glass (I only have one fish) and she also eats the film algae when I clean the glass (loves it!). But I’m wondering if the pellets are the reason for the hair algae in my tank. maybe I need a skimmer. Any recommendations for a skimmer on a 10 gallon innovative marine cube tank? I've heard pellets/dry in general are higher in PO4 whereas frozen is higher in NO3. In my opinion, frozen is plenty enough. I also frequently soak my foods in vitamarin M or selcon. This obviously will add extra nutrients, but I've seen the health benefits in my fish, even if its just putting on weight. Vitamarin M is the cleaner of the two. I also, at least currently, do not have a PO4 issue in this little tank. Whether that's because of algae or coral consumption I'm not sure. Now that I'm writing this out, I almost want to try and target a lower PO4 and see if some of the green stuff limits itself with a PO4 value closer .03. LIVE UPDATE: @banasophia it's a miracle, looking at Ms. Emerald eating some hydroids of a zoa stalk as I write this. #Herocrab 2 1 Quote Link to comment
PJPS Posted February 18, 2023 Share Posted February 18, 2023 14 minutes ago, ml86743 said: Yeah I try to pay attention whats in them...I am pro LRS myself. I primarily feed da fishes LRS/PE Pellets but got my hands on some rods that I'm just trying to use up. Luckily, my local LFS is always in stock with LRS. I'm right there with you about the nutrients. Somehow this little s**t box still needs a shot of PO4 every evening. NO3 stay relatively stable @ 10. Here's a question for you - Whenever I let the tank do its thing and feed normally yada yada...My PO4 ends up @ .03-.04. I'm tempted to not dose back up one of these days and see if that will hold. I'm shooting for .08-.1 but if it'll sit at .03 w/o my intervention I'd be okay with it. You think it's worth testing? Or is the risk of bottoming out too scary. The lower number would probably cut back on some of the algae growth, but I really do not want to deal with a large dino bloom again. As far as RR I know the corals like it, but from the minute results I've seen with this reef blizzard stuff I already prefer it, like I said it's way less messy and more "concise". I've heard pellets/dry in general are higher in PO4 whereas frozen is higher in NO3. In my opinion, frozen is plenty enough. I also frequently soak my foods in vitamarin M or selcon. This obviously will add extra nutrients, but I've seen the health benefits in my fish, even if its just putting on weight. Vitamarin M is the cleaner of the two. I also, at least currently, do not have a PO4 issue in this little tank. Whether that's because of algae or coral consumption I'm not sure. Now that I'm writing this out, I almost want to try and target a lower PO4 and see if some of the green stuff limits itself with a PO4 value closer .03. ❤️ PO4 balance, add some PO4 rich food - anything dry and not probiotic usually. soak it in tankwater with the Rod’s. A little can go a long way, so the usual stuff about starting slow applies. Top up with PO4 dosing until you’re in the pocket 😊 I’ve been tempted to try the reef blizzard foods. I like that it’s available in different sizes. Captiv8 foods as well. I have a very mixed view on BW (largely negative, but better than most 🤷🏻♂️) I’ve literally never had anything but dinoflagellates as a result of tinkering with PO4. But others swear that it enhances colour and growth If you keep it low. I personally have never witnessed this… ever😊. Maybe it’s a water volume thing? Quote Link to comment
banasophia Posted February 18, 2023 Share Posted February 18, 2023 Great discussion on foods! I need to figure out what my possum wrasse Marshall will eat besides spirulina brine shrimp and live pods. He seems very particular… he loves spirulina brine shrimp, for example, but he will not touch spirulina mysis shrimp! And Hank, my YCG, is picky too… he really isn’t happy if I don’t add a bit of the Sustainable Aquatics hatchery diet for his meal. Reminds me of my granddad who always had to have potatoes with every meal, or it didn’t count as a meal! And now, with my sea fan, I really need to make sure I’ve got the right foods to keep it open. I had ordered a special (pricey) sea fan powdered food, but apparently that’s no longer available. The fan seems happy with live phyto and oyster feast though, so maybe we’re all good there. 2 Quote Link to comment
banasophia Posted February 18, 2023 Share Posted February 18, 2023 On 2/17/2023 at 11:26 AM, PJPS said: (rooting for the cyphastrea ✊) (I don't #### with palytoxin so no zoas or palys for me, but those make me wanna cheat on my diet so to speak lol) I had the exact same line of thought, @ml86743, when checking out your zoas… very tempting to add some to my tank! but I also don’t stock zoas and palys due to palytoxin risk. So pretty though!!! 2 Quote Link to comment
banasophia Posted February 18, 2023 Share Posted February 18, 2023 2 hours ago, ml86743 said: LIVE UPDATE: @banasophia it's a miracle, looking at Ms. Emerald eating some hydroids of a zoa stalk as I write this. #Herocrab Yes!!! That is awesome! My hydroids always spread faster than the emeralds and sea hares could keep up with, but I fed extremely heavily in that tank with tiny foods, which the hydroids really liked. Quote Link to comment
PJPS Posted February 18, 2023 Share Posted February 18, 2023 1 hour ago, banasophia said: Great discussion on foods! I need to figure out what my possum wrasse Marshall will eat besides spirulina brine shrimp and live pods. He seems very particular… he loves spirulina brine shrimp, for example, but he will not touch spirulina mysis shrimp! And Hank, my YCG, is picky too… he really isn’t happy if I don’t add a bit of the Sustainable Aquatics hatchery diet for his meal. Reminds me of my granddad who always had to have potatoes with every meal, or it didn’t count as a meal! And now, with my sea fan, I really need to make sure I’ve got the right foods to keep it open. I had ordered a special (pricey) sea fan powdered food, but apparently that’s no longer available. The fan seems happy with live phyto and oyster feast though, so maybe we’re all good there. For the wrasse, I have the most success feeding finicky fish with stinky marine food. Let your frozen food warm up and get a bit of a stink to it. It helps if it’s marine food for sure. But especially the wrasse really like foods that twitch. So, leaving your powerhead on when you feed might help.🤷🏻♂️ If you don’t care about nutrients, RR should be OK for that sea fan. If you do, probiotic foods are your best choice. I don’t much rate Benepets, but coral frenzy or coral Sprint I like for particulate coral food. 1 Quote Link to comment
banasophia Posted February 19, 2023 Share Posted February 19, 2023 2 hours ago, PJPS said: For the wrasse, I have the most success feeding finicky fish with stinky marine food. Let your frozen food warm up and get a bit of a stink to it. It helps if it’s marine food for sure. But especially the wrasse really like foods that twitch. So, leaving your powerhead on when you feed might help.🤷🏻♂️ If you don’t care about nutrients, RR should be OK for that sea fan. If you do, probiotic foods are your best choice. I don’t much rate Benepets, but coral frenzy or coral Sprint I like for particulate coral food. Yeah, the hubs is really sensitive to the smell of stinky fish food, so I actually try to avoid them. My fish, corals, nems, and crabs all always liked LRS Reef Frenzy Nano, but the hubby gets grossed out by it. Quote Link to comment
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