Adventures in keeping a sps reef

[Llorgon]

Here's the tank after a couple days of scrubbing rocks. It's starting to look a bit better. There's tons of gha in the refugium and it's starting to choke out the caulerpa. I removed a cup full of gha tonight.

The 2 remaining SPS that have no tissue lost seem to be doing ok. The euphyllia are still unhappy. I might try moving things around this week. The one octospawn I put on the rocks seems to be liking it.

The live phyto should be delivered tomorrow, so I can start with that at least.

 

[Llorgon]

I looked at the tank a few hours after lights out. Saw a ton of snails on the glass and an oddly large, what looked to be asterina starfish?

 

[BAMatter]

Keep it up. One day it will just not come back as strong and start to recede. Add as much biodiversity as you can.

 

[Llorgon]

Keep it up. One day it will just not come back as strong and start to recede. Add as much biodiversity as you can.

I got the live phyto today. It says 1-5 drops per gallon a day. How much did you start dosing?

 

[BAMatter]

I got the live phyto today. It says 1-5 drops per gallon a day. How much did you start dosing?

I think I started with about 50 drops just to see how long it took to process. You’ll see your water clear up… it should take less than an hour or you’ve dosed too much. Now I’m at about 100 drops a day. I think the 5 drops per gallon is overkill IMO! Make sure to turn your skimmer and UV off for an hour or so after as well.

 

[Llorgon]

I think I started with about 50 drops just to see how long it took to process. You’ll see your water clear up… it should take less than an hour or you’ve dosed too much. Now I’m at about 100 drops a day. I think the 5 drops per gallon is overkill IMO! Make sure to turn your skimmer and UV off for an hour or so after as well.

Added 50 drops. It ends up being a bit under 10ml so that makes things easier going forward and just adding 10ml. I took the skimmer cup off the skimmer, but left it running. Hopefully that is ok?

I did a bit more rock scrubbing today and tried to deal with as many aiptasia as I could see. I think I am going to have to find some nudibranch before they get out of control.

I also need to deal with a broken line on my ro/di booster pump. It looks like one of the cats has chewed it and now it leaks..

 

[Llorgon]

MB7 came today. I added 3 cap fulls and 10ml of the live phyto. I missed 3 days of rock scrubbing while away for the weekend, but I will get back to that tonight.

Some of the hammer and frogspawn are opening up more, so hopefully that is a sign things are turning around. No more tissue loss on the remaining SPS which is a good sign.

gha in the refugium seems to be out-competing the caulerpa. I'm not sure if I should just leave it be or look to into adding some chaeto instead.

 

[BAMatter]

MB7 came today. I added 3 cap fulls and 10ml of the live phyto. I missed 3 days of rock scrubbing while away for the weekend, but I will get back to that tonight.

Some of the hammer and frogspawn are opening up more, so hopefully that is a sign things are turning around. No more tissue loss on the remaining SPS which is a good sign.

gha in the refugium seems to be out-competing the caulerpa. I'm not sure if I should just leave it be or look to into adding some chaeto instead.

I would remove the GHA from the refugium on a consistent basis. The more you remove between there and your display, the more available PO4 and NO3 there will be for your bacterial load to consume and continue to establish.

 

[Llorgon]

I would remove the GHA from the refugium on a consistent basis. The more you remove between there and your display, the more available PO4 and NO3 there will be for your bacterial load to consume and continue to establish.

I tried that last night. Very hard to get gha without caulerpa. I might just pull all gha I can and if I am left with no caulerpa I will find some chaeto.

Some good news is there is a small hint of green on my one montipora. It's not much, but it's there.

 

[Llorgon]

I'm going to need to get new lids for the tank. The hawkfish jumped out last night and landed behind the tank! Luckly I heard something weird and found it in time to get him back in the tank.

 

[BAMatter]

I'm going to need to get new lids for the tank. The hawkfish jumped out last night and landed behind the tank! Luckly I heard something weird and found it in time to get him back in the tank.

TopLids is awesome… that’s who I had make me mine

 

[Llorgon]

TopLids is awesome… that’s who I had make me mine

Great looking lids, but with the exchange rate that's like $700 CAD. Which is a bit more than I'd like to spend.

I missed a couple weeks of water testing due to holidays and a wedding. So, since I have been home on the weekend for what seems like forever I tested my tank water.

Temp: 78
Salinity: 1.026
Alk: 9.4
Cal: 490
Mag: 1500
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0.05

Should I dose some nitrate to get it above 0? I still have gha growing in the display so I assume it's not actually 0. Also, my montipora is starting to get some colour back now.

Next week, I plan to do a 15g water change and get on a schedule of once a month water changes.

I lowered my dosing of all the big 3. Aiming to let them drop slowly.

As for corals, no more tissue loss in the few remaining SPS and the one montipora is slowly getting some green colouring back. Euphyllia are still unhappy though.

I've been dosing 15ml phyto and 3 capfulls of MB7 daily.

 

[BAMatter]

Great looking lids, but with the exchange rate that's like $700 CAD. Which is a bit more than I'd like to spend.

I missed a couple weeks of water testing due to holidays and a wedding. So, since I have been home on the weekend for what seems like forever I tested my tank water.

Temp: 78
Salinity: 1.026
Alk: 9.4
Cal: 490
Mag: 1500
Nitrate: 0
Phosphate: 0.05

Should I dose some nitrate to get it above 0? I still have gha growing in the display so I assume it's not actually 0. Also, my montipora is starting to get some colour back now.

Next week, I plan to do a 15g water change and get on a schedule of once a month water changes.

I lowered my dosing of all the big 3. Aiming to let them drop slowly.

As for corals, no more tissue loss in the few remaining SPS and the one montipora is slowly getting some green colouring back. Euphyllia are still unhappy though.

I've been dosing 15ml phyto and 3 capfulls of MB7 daily.

I would dose something like NeoNitro so your nutrients are at a 100:1 ratio… so you’ll want NO3 at 5ppm if PO4 is 0.05ppm

 

[Llorgon]

Nitrate was at 2.5ppm so I dosed a bit more. Once I get it to 5ppm, I will see how much it drops per day then I might put it on a doser.

I definitely need more cuc, I'm scrubbing rocks and in a few days the algae is back.

I can tell I am annoying the euphyllia by having to pull algae off the bases, hopefully I can get this under control soon.

 

[BAMatter]

Nitrate was at 2.5ppm so I dosed a bit more. Once I get it to 5ppm, I will see how much it drops per day then I might put it on a doser.

I definitely need more cuc, I'm scrubbing rocks and in a few days the algae is back.

I can tell I am annoying the euphyllia by having to pull algae off the bases, hopefully I can get this under control soon.

I wouldn’t scrub it as i believe it just causes it to spread. Just grab what you can with your fingers and remove it. A tuxedo urchin will do wonders for the GHA

 

[Llorgon]

I wouldn’t scrub it as i believe it just causes it to spread. Just grab what you can with your fingers and remove it. A tuxedo urchin will do wonders for the GHA

Some people say scrub others say don't scrub. I have filter floss that I change a few hours after scrubbing to collect as much gha as I can. I find it really hard to pull off and get my hands into all the cracks in the rocks.

I noticed last night, after lights off that I have tons of small snails all over the glass, but not a single snail on the rocks. Is that odd or is it just me?

 

[BAMatter]

Some people say scrub others say don't scrub. I have filter floss that I change a few hours after scrubbing to collect as much gha as I can. I find it really hard to pull off and get my hands into all the cracks in the rocks.

I noticed last night, after lights off that I have tons of small snails all over the glass, but not a single snail on the rocks. Is that odd or is it just me?

I’d physically take as many snails on the glass as you can and put them on the rocks.

what is your CUC? May need to buy more and put them to work.

just keep up with adding pods and live phyto, it will get better eventually.

 

[Llorgon]

I’d physically take as many snails on the glass as you can and put them on the rocks.

what is your CUC? May need to buy more and put them to work.

just keep up with adding pods and live phyto, it will get better eventually.

That's a good idea. They look like some sort of stomatella, so might not be the easiest thing.

CUC is a ton of what I think is stomatella snails, fighting conch( haven't seen it in awhile though) and an unknown number of trocus and cerith snails. I need more and it's on my list to order more. I'm waiting for the Mexican turbos to be in stock before ordering.

I haven't added any pods yet. Just MB7 and the live phyto. I was waiting to see if adding the phyto would increase the current pod population or not, but that doesn't seem to be the case so far.

How long of dosing and removing algae did it take before you started to see some improvement?

 

[BAMatter]

That's a good idea. They look like some sort of stomatella, so might not be the easiest thing.

CUC is a ton of what I think is stomatella snails, fighting conch( haven't seen it in awhile though) and an unknown number of trocus and cerith snails. I need more and it's on my list to order more. I'm waiting for the Mexican turbos to be in stock before ordering.

I haven't added any pods yet. Just MB7 and the live phyto. I was waiting to see if adding the phyto would increase the current pod population or not, but that doesn't seem to be the case so far.

How long of dosing and removing algae did it take before you started to see some improvement?

Probably a solid 3 months give or take. It just took my tank about 9 months to fully cycle, and I went through every ugly stage possible. Hair algae, cyano, 2 types of Dino’s, hair algae again, then the issues just went away. I started daily dosing of live phyto, MB 7, and adding pods at the first sign of Dino’s. Just kept up with manually removing what I could, that included putting a filter sock in my sump and basically sucking everything I could off the rocks. Then one day I could see a distinct change in the hair algae and it was very easy to remove off the rocks, and my urchin was eating it clean off the scape. Then poof, it was gone one day.

How is your sump set up? Flow patterns? I make sure to run a nutrient export and also run the pumps in reverse to make sure detritus gets suspended in the water column and filtered out…

 

[Llorgon]

Probably a solid 3 months give or take. It just took my tank about 9 months to fully cycle, and I went through every ugly stage possible. Hair algae, cyano, 2 types of Dino’s, hair algae again, then the issues just went away. I started daily dosing of live phyto, MB 7, and adding pods at the first sign of Dino’s. Just kept up with manually removing what I could, that included putting a filter sock in my sump and basically sucking everything I could off the rocks. Then one day I could see a distinct change in the hair algae and it was very easy to remove off the rocks, and my urchin was eating it clean off the scape. Then poof, it was gone one day.

How is your sump set up? Flow patterns? I make sure to run a nutrient export and also run the pumps in reverse to make sure detritus gets suspended in the water column and filtered out…

I've got a long way to go!

I have filter floss in the sump which I have been changing daily as I scrub the rocks and I pull out easy to grab clumps by hand. I am finding it hard to keep it away from the euphyllia though.

Sump has filter floss, skimmer then refugium with some gha and caulerpa in it.

For flow, I have the 2 octo pulse2's. I have them on SPS mode 15 - 85% They also go in reverse. I don't have many SPS alive so I should probably change that up. I don't have a nutrient export setting on them. That would also be something to think about.