Battlecorals Bliss and Shag Priority discussion thread

marlinmon · Apr 24, 2019

ReefyB said:
but do you think I could cut them down then put some coral glue or epoxy over top of the area to kill it?

You can, but eventually you will lose the war. That said, I'm going to continue to trim mine until it's unmanageable.

CMO · Apr 24, 2019

ReefyB said:
I think I’ve got some bryopsis sprouting up now too.. it’s patches a green, almost grass like (not hair algae) in a few spots. I trimmed it down with scissors a few weeks ago, and siphoned out the clippings with some WCs, but it’s back again in the same spots. I try not to use chemicals to fix things in this tank (wouldn’t even put chemiclean in there when I had a small bout with cyano), so I don’t plan to use fluconazole, especially after hearing how concerned you guys are while using it. Mine still seems manageable, and it’s mostly growing in places you can’t see unless you look from behind the tank, so I’m planning to just do another ‘lawn mowing’ session, but do you think I could cut them down then put some coral glue or epoxy over top of the area to kill it?

I'm with you and tried literally everything before resorting to fluconazole. I managed mine manually for several months but eventually it got out of control. And yes I did the epoxy trick too but that isn't a great solution unless you want to epoxy every crack in your entire rock structure. But in time it will also start growing in your sand bed (if you have one) as well which is a real pain and impossible to control without fluconazole once it gets there imo.

marlinmon · Apr 24, 2019

Does anyone QT their corals in fluconazole before going into DT?

Fishfinder · Apr 24, 2019

marlinmon said:
Does anyone QT their corals in fluconazole before going into DT?

That doesn’t seem like a great thing for a stressed frag

marlinmon · Apr 24, 2019

Fishfinder said:
That doesn’t seem like a great thing for a stressed frag

It's like we are stuck dealing with bryopsis no matter what

CMO · Apr 24, 2019

marlinmon said:
It's like we are stuck dealing with bryopsis no matter what

I'm starting a QT to protect a large new frag system I'm building and thought about permanently running fluconazole in it. However, after some thought I'm thinking it's best to only run flucon if needed once they've acclimated to QT for the reason already mentioned. At least with a QT you will know if you're dealing with bryopsis or not and can still keep it out of DT. I'm pretty sure my bryopsis came in on zoa frags in between the polyps where it's hard to see. I've started tearing zoas off the rocks or plugs they come in on and glue the clean polyps on a fresh plug to prevent sneaky stuff like this. I find lots of bubble algae in between zoas too.

marlinmon · Apr 30, 2019

Finally got my tin down and everything is looking great (also coincided with the end of my fluconazole treatment). Shag finally shows polyps again.

CMO · Apr 30, 2019

marlinmon said:
Finally got my tin down and everything is looking great (also coincided with the end of my fluconazole treatment). Shag finally shows polyps again.

Very Interesting. I also had Tin in my ICP for the first time ever following fluconazole treatment.

marlinmon · Apr 30, 2019

CMO said:
Very Interesting. I also had Tin in my ICP for the first time ever following fluconazole treatment.

I wonder if we're on to something. Maybe this is why fluconazole is rough on SPS? I'm not sure how the stuff is manufactured but maybe impurities find their way into the final product? Or some reaction in the aquarium? Who knows...

CMO · Apr 30, 2019

marlinmon said:
I wonder if we're on to something. Maybe this is why fluconazole is rough on SPS? I'm not sure how the stuff is manufactured but maybe impurities find their way into the final product? Or some reaction in the aquarium? Who knows...

I'm back down to 0 Tin but will be starting another round of flucon in the coming weeks. That should be telling if it shows back up again.

ReefyB · May 2, 2019

jmags080307 said:
Life gets in the way sometimes here's April entry. Took the pics on the 30th

Is that the bliss? How is yours so green?

jmags080307 · May 2, 2019

ReefyB said:
Is that the bliss? How is yours so green?

Yup, it's the bliss. Not sure why it greened up. Moved it a bit higher. We'll see what happens.

marlinmon · May 6, 2019

Polyps are back! (orange filter)

marlinmon · May 6, 2019

Polyps are back! (orange filter)

Double post... some server error

Fishfinder · May 6, 2019

Beautiful

ReefyB · May 11, 2019

Welp, had my first ever alk swing. I usually test alk once a week, at least, but the time I decide to get a little comfortable.. BAM!

I keep my Alk at about 8.7-8.9, last test was 4/28, came in at 8.6, thought everything was normal, had just done a water change. I think it was around that time I noticed my entire acan garden was looking sad (not fully opening, all 5 or 6 of them slowly losing color). I assumed it was a freak occurrence because everyone else looked perfectly happy, including my monti’s, birdnest, acros etc. Fast forward to yesterday and all my acans are basically white and not opening up (tissue still all there). I decided to just go ahead and run some tests, starting with alk... and it was at 5.4! I ran it two more times (again on Salifert, and then on a seachem) confirming the 5.4. I immediately went to check my doser (after ironically talking crap about how I don’t need no fancy schmany trident earlier that morning) and found that the output had gotten clogged with precipitate and caused so much pressure the line to the dosing reservoir blew completely off. So nothing was being dosed for a week or so I guess except acropower.

So far though, other than my acans, which I really hope are salvageable and not already gone, nothing else looks to have been affected, but in the back of my mind I feel like all my acros are just gonna start dropping dead soon. I remember reading somewhere SPS react like a week or two after the swing. I did like a quadruple dose last night to start bringing it back up, it’s already at 7.0 now, but I don’t want to do it too fast in case that makes it worse. Wish me luck..

marlinmon · May 11, 2019

I’ve had a big swing like that happen before. Some sps died, others just lost color and growth temporarily. Now I have a kh monitor so it won’t happen again.

ReefyB said:
Welp, had my first ever alk swing. I usually test alk once a week, at least, but the time I decide to get a little comfortable.. BAM!

I keep my Alk at about 8.7-8.9, last test was 4/28, came in at 8.6, thought everything was normal, had just done a water change. I think it was around that time I noticed my entire acan garden was looking sad (not fully opening, all 5 or 6 of them slowly losing color). I assumed it was a freak occurrence because everyone else looked perfectly happy, including my monti’s, birdnest, acros etc. Fast forward to yesterday and all my acans are basically white and not opening up (tissue still all there). I decided to just go ahead and run some tests, starting with alk... and it was at 5.4! I ran it two more times (again on Salifert, and then on a seachem) confirming the 5.4. I immediately went to check my doser (after ironically talking crap about how I don’t need no fancy schmany trident earlier that morning) and found that the output had gotten clogged with precipitate and caused so much pressure the line to the dosing reservoir blew completely off. So nothing was being dosed for a week or so I guess except acropower.

So far though, other than my acans, which I really hope are salvageable and not already gone, nothing else looks to have been affected, but in the back of my mind I feel like all my acros are just gonna start dropping dead soon. I remember reading somewhere SPS react like a week or two after the swing. I did like a quadruple dose last night to start bringing it back up, it’s already at 7.0 now, but I don’t want to do it too fast in case that makes it worse. Wish me luck..

thaveteran · May 11, 2019

ReefyB said:
Welp, had my first ever alk swing. I usually test alk once a week, at least, but the time I decide to get a little comfortable.. BAM!

I keep my Alk at about 8.7-8.9, last test was 4/28, came in at 8.6, thought everything was normal, had just done a water change. I think it was around that time I noticed my entire acan garden was looking sad (not fully opening, all 5 or 6 of them slowly losing color). I assumed it was a freak occurrence because everyone else looked perfectly happy, including my monti’s, birdnest, acros etc. Fast forward to yesterday and all my acans are basically white and not opening up (tissue still all there). I decided to just go ahead and run some tests, starting with alk... and it was at 5.4! I ran it two more times (again on Salifert, and then on a seachem) confirming the 5.4. I immediately went to check my doser (after ironically talking crap about how I don’t need no fancy schmany trident earlier that morning) and found that the output had gotten clogged with precipitate and caused so much pressure the line to the dosing reservoir blew completely off. So nothing was being dosed for a week or so I guess except acropower.

So far though, other than my acans, which I really hope are salvageable and not already gone, nothing else looks to have been affected, but in the back of my mind I feel like all my acros are just gonna start dropping dead soon. I remember reading somewhere SPS react like a week or two after the swing. I did like a quadruple dose last night to start bringing it back up, it’s already at 7.0 now, but I don’t want to do it too fast in case that makes it worse. Wish me luck..

I know it’s a little late now but don’t bring it back up to fast. It was a gradual drop down and you don’t want to shock things back up.