Back in again. 75g sps build thread

[ScottB]

Little update on my reef. Dinos are visibly gone even from the sump now for about a week. Tank is looking good again and on the up swing. I may remove the UV and see what happens. Hair algae is slowly getting better, not increasing for sure. Chaeto in the sump is growing again but not looking super healthy. I need to clean out my sump, its nasty with GHA. Get4ing green film algae on the glass again, have not had that in a while. Coraline algae has quickly started to spread on the bottom glass. One of the coolest new things as the tank is gaining diversity again is sponge growth is showing up on a rock that once had it but mostly died off. One of the Talbot Damsels died/was killed at some point in the last day or 2. Did not notice any aggression but one did have beaten up tail so it was happening. Corals are doing well for the most part. Bubble gum digi has some polyp loss in the center and may be light related and the ORA Hawkins lost tissue on one small branch. Everything else is looking happy and holding color. I want to send another ICP test in to see how the water is after all this crazyness and no water changes.

Curious how your ICP results came out. After my third dino battle, I finally sent one out.
0 Iodine (dosed up now and doing maintenance doses)
0 Potassium (dosed up now)
almost 0 Arsenic (nothing done but WCs; not sure I should care.)

I don't know if dinos had anything to do with these depletions. I use IORC salt and finally back to 15% WC every two weeks.

Everybody doing OK there?

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Curious how your ICP results came out. After my third dino battle, I finally sent one out.
0 Iodine (dosed up now and doing maintenance doses)
0 Potassium (dosed up now)
almost 0 Arsenic (nothing done but WCs; not sure I should care.)

I don't know if dinos had anything to do with these depletions. I use IORC salt and finally back to 15% WC every two weeks.

Everybody doing OK there?

I have yet to buy another ICP test. Next time Im at the LFS I will pick one up. Im curious as well and I bet iodine and postassium will be very low from no water changes for so long and no trace elements dosed. Mag has me curious as well. So far everyine is doing well. I lost 1 Talbot Damsel, must have gotten beaten up but all the other fish are very happy and healthy. All corals are doing good for the most part. Forest Fire digi and ORA Hawkins are holding steady and have not lost any more tissue but have not recovered at all yet. My orange acan has not been happy for several weeks, lost a few heads and its not opening up very much. My green acan is in the same condition, never had luck long term with acans for some reason. Every other coral is doing good though, holding color, a few acros are even starting to encrust a bit. Duncan coral looks great and the hammer coral is looking awesome. Still no signs of dinos, I have been lazy I will admit kind of let the tank go on autopilot. I blame the dinos. Going on vaction at the end of the month so maybe its a good thing, tank is already dirty used to being left alone. Laziness has kept me from using the microscope to check for dinos but I am sure they are still lingering in the shadows. As I said the tank is dirty, GHA in serval places on the rock, green film on the glass every 2 days and the sump is almost 1 big algae scrubber right now with some cyano mixed in. But hey it adds biodiversity and they all compete with the dinos. After my vacation I will be cleaning the sump out, dosing some Microbacter Clean and doing some AGH removal in the display, not all at once....my dino PTSD is kicking in. Coraline algae is kicking back in with a vengeance and seeing green coraline for the first time in this tank, maybe from the new live rock I added. Im not seeing any amiphpods or copepods in the system at all not even in the fuge. Even though I have been adding copepods via Reef Stew and feeding phytoplankton to the tank
The tank is coming back around for sure in a big way but its still not 100%.

 

[ScottB]

Roger that. Thanks for the update.

Acans IME need to be target fed too often. Best examples I've seen get Reefroid paste injected into their mouths. I tried for a bit, but too many aggressive shrimp went after them post feeding. If the acan mouths are open at all you can give it a try.

Enjoy your vacation! (Then get back to work on your tank )

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Roger that. Thanks for the update.

Acans IME need to be target fed too often. Best examples I've seen get Reefroid paste injected into their mouths. I tried for a bit, but too many aggressive shrimp went after them post feeding. If the acan mouths are open at all you can give it a try.

Enjoy your vacation! (Then get back to work on your tank )

Thanks. Yeah not going to worry too much about the acans, sps are doing well as are the duncan and hammer. Not going to mess with things just to make the acans happy. And Reefroids triggers my dino PTSD, have not used it in a while now so the acans have not had a good feed.
Some pics from today. Did a little clean up after taking the pics too.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Well I went to the LFS after work to get an ICP test. Of coarse they were out of them. Each time I go there they have them and I dont grab one thinking next time. Now I wanted one and they dont have them. Figures right. Seems to happen a lot to me at that LFS, I make a run there and they are closed on day they are normally open, out of stock on what I want/need or never ordered what I requested. Dont get me wrong its a good LFS, prices are good, well stocked dry goods and always a good selection of coral frags but its has its down sides too. So not to make it a total waste of it I grabbed some more large turbo snails, reef stew and some Ocean Nutrition Arcti Pods for the reef. Maybe now I will see more pods in the system, they are all over the fuge right now and some swimming up in the display.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Got sick of the cheap UV suction cups coming off every few days. So I glued an old Hydor magnet to the back. Also put the UV on the Reef Keeper running on a 12/12 timer on only at night. Going to slowly reduce the time its on and then remove it hopefully.

 

[ScottB]

Thanks. Yeah not going to worry too much about the acans, sps are doing well as are the duncan and hammer. Not going to mess with things just to make the acans happy. And Reefroids triggers my dino PTSD, have not used it in a while now so the acans have not had a good feed.
Some pics from today. Did a little clean up after taking the pics too.

I never made a connection between feeding Roids and dinos, but who knows. Aminos? Totally different story. I still have a couple jugs of the stuff in the fridge. I cannot even look at it.

I did watch a vid once of a guy with an amazing acan garden. Acres of them, bright and fat. Once a week or so, he would shut the pumps, mix a thick paste of Roids and tank water and syringe it straight into the mouths. Not broadcasted, zero waste.

Tank is looking good!

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Uh. No Coralvue ICP test locally for the next couple of weeks. Ordering one will take at least a week to get. Here is the thing. I am leaving in 8 days for a 3 day trip and wanted to send the ICP off before I leave so I can have results shortly after returning. A 5-10g water change was the plan after returning and after sending a sample for ICP testing. I want to know how the water in the tank is right now after all the crazyness and no water changes. Not sure if I want to wait on the water change and order a test kit or just do the water change and wait for a test kit to come into the LFS.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Made up my mind and ordered an ICP test, hope it will be here mid next week. Going to do a water change after I send out the test.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Got the ICP test sent out today.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

The reef survived me being gone for 4 days! No new issues anyways, my little sister and cousin took good care of it. ICP test results are in today as well. Br is crazy high no idea wh, I is 0ppm like my last test. But everything else is pretty good for no water changes and only dosing kalk lightly. Disneyland was Awesome! Back to work in the morning.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Wow pretty happy. After being gone a few days and being back now for a week I have now been able to see some growth with a few corals. A couple acros have new growth, zoas are growing well and the specks of monti that survived the dinos are colored up and growing. Not everything is happy though. Acans or acan now is not opening as slowly receding, ducans are not opening again, purple stylo and pink porci STN'd and 1 acro has STN from the base up.
Doing a 20g water change tomorrow, cleaning the sump of all algae and removing as much GHA from the display as possible. I checked my reef log and my last water change was back in December.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Just got done with the water change and cleaning. Took 4.5 hours. Drained and totally cleaned out the sump, should have taken before and after pics. It was pretty nasty and full of GHA and cyano. All the chaeto was dieing again so I removed it but the calerpa is doing well so it stayed. I hit one side of the rock work pulling off as much GHA as I could and man I removed alot. Still need to do the left side but that will be for another day. Going to order some Vibrant to help as well, see really good reviews on it removing pest algae. I can tell the tank biodiversity is back up, seeing sponge, multiple types of algae and a decent amount of pods again in the sump. Sadly Im sure a lot got removed with the clean out but I saved what I could.

 

[Reef_in_Denver]

Fwiw I got my icp test run at reefstock and my BR was super high as well. I'm beginning to doubt their test results some.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Fwiw I got my icp test run at reefstock and my BR was super high as well. I'm beginning to doubt their test results some.

Yeah me too. At least with some of the trace elements. I have a theory on my high bromine results though. ICP tests are just a tool for us and should not be used a the only guide to running a reef tank.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

What are the hive minds thoughts on what to do first. Get an ApexEL to replace the Reef Keeper Lite so I have email and text notifications or add more flow thinking Nero5 or just another cheap Jeboa PP or Crosflow pump. If I do the Apex I will need to get an ATO since the Reef Keeper is also working as my ATO. Neither one is really needed at this time since the Reef Keeper works fine just does not send me alerts and flow is pretty good right now, just wanting to keep ditritus off the bare bottom. Or just get more frags!

 

[najer]

More frags.

 

[Charlie’s Frags]

Recently bought an apex and trident and am really happy with it. I never worried about ph but couldn’t figure out why many of my Tenuis grew slower than Christmas. Well turns out my ph naturally was between 7.6 and 7.8. So I installed a co2 scrubber and now it’s up to 7.8-8.1

 

[DesertReefT4r]

More frags.

I like your thinking. I need more frags too.

 

[DesertReefT4r]

Well did a water change and so far so good, no dinos. I have turned the UV back on 24 hours as a just in case and to hopelfully help with the algae. After scrubbing algae off the rock I figure having the UV going will kill and little pieces floating around. I did another round of GHA removal yesturday and today I got more Microbacter Clean from BRS so I dosed a bunch to help with the remaining GHA. Getting back to weekly small water changes again.