Mikeymikemike's Shallow Reef Iwagumi - SPS Edition: Updated July

[Mikeymikemike]

Wow great job..love the sps additions. Are you doing regular water changes?

 

I do about 30% water change every 3 days. That's about 15 liters. I make sure I balance out calc and alk levels and temp during the change. Soon a sump will be installed with a MAME overflow! These upgrades will hopefully make the system more stable.

[Spencer7]

So it's safe to say you added the SPS pieces in as colonies sometime in the past ~2 months?

[Mikeymikemike]

So it's safe to say you added the SPS pieces in as colonies sometime in the past ~2 months?

 

I've had small colonies of poci since the beginning, I then added a larger poci colony on the right about 4 months ago. Over the past 2 months I traded my torches for small colonies. Things have kept colour and some of my sps are actually showing better coloration and lighter shades. I expect better growth to occur when I stabilize the water parameters with a dosing pump

[Mikeymikemike]

UPDATE: So I have some bad news.

 

Today i came home to find my half of my water on the floor. Turns out my filter leaked it out and so I lost the tops of most of my SPS colonies. They will recover but my pink strawberry short cake and milli was totally out of hte water for hours and its winter here so they stressed out and turned brown. I know corals in my tank tend to lighten up in colour so the brown will go away. My large poci lost its tips and started to RTN at the tips. We'll see if these recover too. I lost one colony of my green ancora sps on the left and that was my favourite.

 

This hobby is full of good and bad. My first disaster in this tank that was going very well. I'll post a picture update soon... For now, I'm going to survey the damage and have a glass of scotch...

[GHill762]

this tank is HOT!!

 

EDIT: so sorry to hear about your recent flooding/sps loss.. that's tough

[niQo]

Nooo! That sucks!

[Nano sapiens]

Tank was looking so nice...sorry to hear about the flood and resulting coral issues.

 

Couple months of TLC and should be set to rights, again.

[Spencer7]

Good luck, you'll recover, just a small road bump in a long path.

[Mikeymikemike]

Thanks guys, the leak hit the tank hard and so we'll see how things go. I'll keep surveying the damage. It all happened when the tank was it its peak condition so I find it all to be a very humbling experience.

[rickztahone]

Thanks guys, the leak hit the tank hard and so we'll see how things go. I'll keep surveying the damage. It all happened when the tank was it its peak condition so I find it all to be a very humbling experience.

 

I agree, the tank was looking spectacular. Very bummed to hear this. Maybe someone above is forcing your hand towards the sump faster than you thought...

[holy carp]

Oh, sorry to hear the leaking news. Hope everything recovers well.

 

Just came across this thread, and it looks amazing - at least up to the leak. Need to do some catching up now...

[Mikeymikemike]

 

I agree, the tank was looking spectacular. Very bummed to hear this. Maybe someone above is forcing your hand towards the sump faster than you thought...

 

You are right, if the sump was installed, none of this would have been an issue.

 

An update, so I had a friend come over and survey the damage. He said most of the colonies will heal, but some will need a bit of a snip if they start to RTN downwards. For now I'm increasing my dose of iodine to repair soft tissue and I will increase feeding to get the colonies stronger.

 

here is a survey of the damage

 

You can see the flesh coming off the tips. The corals are healthy but some have lost colour and others are on a slow path to recovery.

 

Thanks for the encouragement.

 

I've seen your tank it is looking good and progressing! You should consider mounting your powerhead behind the main left rock and turning it sideways to make it hidden if that is possible. Keep the updates coming!

 

Oh, sorry to hear the leaking news. Hope everything recovers well.

 

Just came across this thread, and it looks amazing - at least up to the leak. Need to do some catching up now...

[rickztahone]

 

You are right, if the sump was installed, none of this would have been an issue.

 

An update, so I had a friend come over and survey the damage. He said most of the colonies will heal, but some will need a bit of a snip if they start to RTN downwards. For now I'm increasing my dose of iodine to repair soft tissue and I will increase feeding to get the colonies stronger.

 

here is a survey of the damage

 

You can see the flesh coming off the tips. The corals are healthy but some have lost colour and others are on a slow path to recovery.

 

Thanks for the encouragement.

 

I've seen your tank it is looking good and progressing! You should consider mounting your powerhead behind the main left rock and turning it sideways to make it hidden if that is possible. Keep the updates coming!

 

 

Will do bud. I have no doubt that your tank will bounce back in no time. You take way too good care of your tanks for that not to be the case

[Mikeymikemike]

after 1 week, the dieback is starting to heal. It will take maybe a few months for the poci to come back but the acro will take maybe 1 month. Not sure yet, but the worst of it is over. In total, I lost one colony.

 

so what does a guy do when he feels down about losing a colony?

 

He buys 3 more!

 

stay tuned...

[Mikeymikemike]

Some closeups. see if you can guess how the layout changed. Pictures taken under full blues. I'll get a white picture some time soon, but the maxspect "blurple" is hard to get rid of.

 

You can see the extent of damage my Poci took.

[MR.FEESH]

Solid pics my dude.

 

Did you ever figure out what exactly went wrong with the canister?

[Mikeymikemike]

The quick release lever on my filter was not locked fully when I closed it. It caused a slow leak which drained the tank over a few hours. Sad

[Bowen1022]

FTS? Those photos are amazing!

[rickztahone]

man, having a hard time getting these pics to load

[Mikeymikemike]

man, having a hard time getting these pics to load

let me know if you still have troubles, I can direct link you

[Mikeymikemike]

FTS under blue and white.

 

 

It's still a challenge for me to get rid of the "blurple" colour. I'll keep trying but with 3500-6000k whites (yellows) they look a bit funky.

 

[MR.FEESH]

The quick release lever on my filter was not locked fully when I closed it. It caused a slow leak which drained the tank over a few hours. Sad

 

That must be frustrating. For what it's worth, even after the damage, I still think you have a tank a lot of people look up to.

[Mikeymikemike]

Thank you

 

Today I used my friends par meter and it gave me a lot of info. At 30%-70% white and blue on the maxspect, I was only getting around 240 average par. If I amp things up to maybe 50% 100% then I'll get more happy numbers of 350. So that's my plan for the next two weeks. And here I thought I had way too much light... I'll eventually take things up to 65% 100% when I get my filtration sorted. LPS may not like it so it's a steady 5% per 3 days change.

[Sk8n Reefer]

Hope the sps recovery continues, nice looking tank ?

[thilankasp]

Hope everything will recover.. even with the damaged corals this has to be one of the greatest reef setups I've seen..