B... Reefing

[Ruben's Reef]

About the salinity, I would get the refractometer to get the right salinity. When you get the correct reading then you can raise the salinity with water changes. Don't make any drastic change on salinity if you can't depend on your hydrometer reading. Also, 1023 to 1025 will be good but if you have corals will be good to keep it at 1025 or 1026.

 

[Bruno_Soares]

Unfortunately my light broke last wednesday and I had to return it to the store but did not get any replacement for it...
I am using an Chihiros A-601 RGB which is for freshwater and don´t know if I should use it?
What do you think? Is it better to use this or nothing at all...
Cycling and already with some algae...

 

[Bruno_Soares]

My light is back and working properly.
My Tubipora Musica handheld well the use of a Chihiros A-601 RGB. Turned it to the max and it did a good job... at least it hold the coral pretty well.
Saturday I went to my local shop, did some tests, and since it was all ok, I bought some Acanthastrea, a Red, a Pink and a Green... sorry but no pics.
I used some coral dip, Coral Protec, and they released some bugs, some worms that started strugling and died. looked like it was pretty efective. Bathed the corals for about 5 minutes and they looked ok, so I put them in my tank. They are at the bottom, as recommended by the store and tomorrow i will get them to the stone where I want them to stay.
Hope they will be ok...
My aquarium as some algae, and I didn´t clean anything, including the glass.
Do you think I could clean, at least, the front glass, so I can observe better my tank? I think I will do it at my next water change.
Also I want to get some cleaning crew. What do you recommend for an aquarium as small as mine. I know that Trochus die easily and I would like to get some inverts that could clean the rocks and sand. At the sand, I have seen that Nassarius are a good choice. What do you think? And for cleaning the rocks?
As soon as possible I will post some pictures...

 

[Bruno_Soares]

1 month later...
Still looking good. Tomorrow I will get them higher to the rock they will be staying in. Hope all goes well with them, because they look really awesome. Some good frags from the local store. Hopefully I can clean the glass a bit at the end of the day and take some better photos.
Can you identify them for me?
What other corals would you advice at this point? Or is it too soon to be adding more corals?

 

[C. Eymann]

What are your water parameters? Do you have fish? are you fully cycled?

You mentioned buying a piece of tubipora musica
how is that doing?

Yes greenish guy looks like Acanthastrea/Micromussa lordhowensis, the smaller polyped red ones look more like another species of Micromussa, possibly M. amakusensis?

 

[Bruno_Soares]

It is cycled, doesn´t have any fish yet, and the only parameters that I know are Amonnia 0, Nitrite near 0, salinity is 1.025 and other parameters, as per advice of my local store, I haven´t measured yet, since I will be having only some easy and very easy corals. I don´t have tests but I think that sooner or later I will need some.
My Tubipora is looking great. I will post some more photos tomorrow after I clean my front glass.
As for the Acans, i bough them at my local store this Saturday, and they mentioned that they are all of the same species, all Acanthastrea Lordhowensis. But if they are not, can I put them together on the same rock? Should it be better not to put them together? Will they attack each other?

 

[C. Eymann]

It is cycled, doesn´t have any fish yet, and the only parameters that I know are Amonnia 0, Nitrite near 0, salinity is 1.025 and other parameters, as per advice of my local store, I haven´t measured yet, since I will be having only some easy and very easy corals. I don´t have tests but I think that sooner or later I will need some.
My Tubipora is looking great. I will post some more photos tomorrow after I clean my front glass.
As for the Acans, i bough them at my local store this Saturday, and they mentioned that they are all of the same species, all Acanthastrea Lordhowensis. But if they are not, can I put them together on the same rock? Should it be better not to put them together? Will they attack each other?

Acanthastrea lordhowensis was reclassified to the Micromussa genus, so these days its actually Micromussa lordhowensis,
Many people still call them acans/lords but not all "acans/micros in the hobby are lordhowensis, like those smaller polyped red ones you have are possibly Micromussa amakusensis or M. indiana.
I have seen people with acans/micros if different species growing together no problems, but I have also read some reports of them stinging eachother, just like euphyllia, everyone's mileage seems to vary there.

Hope this helps

 

[Bruno_Soares]

Hello my friends,
I always welcome some more information, so feel free to coment
As for the corals I have taken a few more photos that I think may help in identifying them. Hope you can reply...
So these are the Acans/Micromussas that I have for now (hope to get some more soon).

 

[Bruno_Soares]

Also check my Tubipora Musica... 1st photo is of when the light just turned on and the 2nd photo of 2 hours after the light is on. Hope you like it too.

 

[Bruno_Soares]

Hello again.
My tank was going ok until some 15 days ago. I started to see some different algae, not the normal form the cycling of the aquarium. I believe it is dinoflagelates, since it is the same as I saw in some post in the forum. What can I do? What is the best plan for attacking it?
My acans are showing signs of distress and one of them is almost covered of it... please help.

 

[Daniel@R2R Verified Admin]

Hello again.
My tank was going ok until some 15 days ago. I started to see some different algae, not the normal form the cycling of the aquarium. I believe it is dinoflagelates, since it is the same as I saw in some post in the forum. What can I do? What is the best plan for attacking it?
My acans are showing signs of distress and one of them is almost covered of it... please help.

#reefsquad

What kind of clean up crew do you have? Also, any pics of the algae might help identify it.

 

[Rogued_Reefer]

I’m batting dinos right now. A picture of the algae would help to determine wether or not it’s dinos but then you’ll need to see a sample under the microscope to determine the strain and based on that you can put together a plan of action.

 

[Bruno_Soares]

I will post some pictures as soon as possible. The strain will be harder to determine unless I can take the algae somewhere to see it on a microscope, since I don´t have one.
I have 2 Astraeas and I believe they are suffering from eating the Dinos. I have been finding them turned upside down for the last 15 days, not everyday but at least 5 times in this period. That is one reason for me to believe they are really dinos, the other is the pictures I saw in the forum, since it is really alike. But I will post some pictures since my experience is very limited in saltwater.

 

[Bruno_Soares]

Can you help me identifying these? The worm, the moving little bug and those spots on the glass that are increasing in population...

 

[Bruno_Soares]

 

[Bruno_Soares]

 

[Bruno_Soares]

Tests and after that a 20% water change done yesterday.

PH - 8,2
KH - 8
NO2 - between 0,05 e 0,1ppm
NO3 - above 50ppm
PO4 - lower 0,03ppm (almost zero, if not 0 at all)

I don´t have calcium and magnesium tests. I know I should be testing to see if the parameters are stable.
Nitrate could be influence by the nitrite and this can mean it is a false result. Should I trust this or try to lower nitrate?
It looks like phosphate are really 0, because I have some ciano and it is increasing. I will try to correct this by using some salts, in this case monopotassium phosphate. I think there will be no problem since there are many salts used even in balling. I will use a solution to increase 0,02ppm since IP don´t want to get much over 0,03ppm. What do you think?
The corals are looking better but the nassarius vibex are always going over them. Tubipora Musica as some bubble algae over it, and I have already seen some on the rocks. My Zoanthus "Eagle Eye" is still not going ok. It was all closed for the weekend and as not opened yet. The week before it was ok, and I could also see some new polyps starting to show up. I don´t know if he needs more/less light or more/less water flow...
My Lysmata Seticaudata have already eaten all the aiptasias. They are almost always hiden and even when they show up, if they see movement they hide again. They come out a bit, because the rocks provides some shadows and they get out a bit... they have already molted, which I believe it is a good sign, one of the molts was complete and so I trust they are in good health. They eat whatever is available. I only have Mysis with garlic and spiruline and brine shrimp. What do you think it is good as an overall food, since I have these shrimp, some nassarius, an astraea and the Blue Damzel.
Algae, I have some GHA on the soil and a bit in a rock, bubble algae or Valonia Ventricosa. I know I shouldn´t pop them inside my aquarium, so what is the best way to get rid of them? Why have they shown?
Algae... can´t live with them, can´t live without them...
Now for the best part, some photos. Why doesn´t the GSP open right in the middle? It was growing like crazy and I was already thinking of moving my Zoanthus Radioactive, but the GSP stalled.

 

[Bruno_Soares]

Look who showed up... they must be hungry. I will be using Reef Roids today for the first time. Tomorrow a 25% water change since my nitrates are high...