Bubba's SPS Journey

bubbaque · Jun 10, 2019

drawman said:
You have been using Melafix for some time too right?

No, this was my second time using it. I normally use bayer but wanted to get away from that.

Rakie · Jun 10, 2019

I actually mass dip everything at once with the tiniest hydor pump.

If you have or can make a tiny stand with eggcrate I would suggest that, makes everything way easier

You can also go to 7 minutes but it's really not necessary. Really youxdont have problems until about 15 minutes IF the coral is very healthy and pest free.. if it's already stressed, pest infested, from a high stress tank (zeovit) then it won't handle that kinda dip at all.

Because of all those reasons I just tell people 5-7 minutes because it's long enough and covers all the bases.

If something is heavily bitten up you can also put them in a 10 minute rinse with some Lugol's. I'll do that sometimes.

bubbaque · Jun 10, 2019

Rakie said:
I actually mass dip everything at once with the tiniest hydor pump.

If you have or can make a tiny stand with eggcrate I would suggest that, makes everything way easier

You can also go to 7 minutes but it's really not necessary. Really youxdont have problems until about 15 minutes IF the coral is very healthy and pest free.. if it's already stressed, pest infested, from a high stress tank (zeovit) then it won't handle that kinda dip at all.

Because of all those reasons I just tell people 5-7 minutes because it's long enough and covers all the bases.

If something is heavily bitten up you can also put them in a 10 minute rinse with some Lugol's. I'll do that sometimes.

I am not sure what happened. None of mine have pest or bite marks. I’m just redipping to kill vermetid snails and any possible bristle worm.

I used the 2 ml per cup but just scaled it up, so I used 16ml in my 8 cups of dip.

This is gonna be the cleanest and pest free system anyone’s ever seen, haha. At least that’s my plan.

bubbaque · Jun 10, 2019

These are my tester frags. Not the best pics but since I am wanting to do this as an experiment I figured it was best to track their progress.

Right now I am feeding pretty heavily. I am feeding roughly 5-6 cubes of frozen broken up into two feedings. At this point I have one banggai cardinal, one kole tang, one atlantic blue tang and one sailfin in the tank. I have TSA putting a small group of yellow tangs through QT for me that I should be able to pick up in a couple weeks.

This is day 6 of being in the tank.

Rakie · Jun 10, 2019

Oh, that may not kill vermatids as they can seal their little tubes shut. Some will get in and harm them and probably kill them.. But I would try to crack their shells to ensure they die in the dip.

OTHERWISE.... I use a DIY KZ Coral Snow to kill vermatids. It works by starving them out. You dose the Coral Snow, and they throw out their webs because of lots of stuff in the water (Chalk, or Calcium Carbonate) -- It's completely inert to the reef tank, and actually scrubs your water... BUT, it also gets stuck on vermatid webs, and they try to eat and starve out. You have to dose daily for a long time, but it works. They take 3-4 weeks to starve out.

rushbattle · Jun 10, 2019

You are making me feel anxious about my new systems. The only pests that are on my rock right now are bristles and vermetids. I’ve had this rock for a year preparing for my expansion from 66 gallon system to 375 display and 275 coral system. Do you think it’s worth it to start over again without anything but bacteria and coralline?

bubbaque · Jun 10, 2019

I’m making sure they don’t get in without the dip. The dip is just an added layer of protection. I am removing every plug, every piece of glue and even chopping my colonies off above the base and leaving the base behind. You should of seen me scraping my snails with a butter knife before adding to the tank to make sure there were none.

bubbaque · Jun 10, 2019

rushbattle said:
You are making me feel anxious about my new systems. The only pests that are on my rock right now are bristles and vermetids. I’ve had this rock for a year preparing for my expansion from 66 gallon system to 375 display and 275 coral system. Do you think it’s worth it to start over again without anything but bacteria and coralline?

No it’s not worth it. If you have mature rock, use it. Vermetid snails never caused me any issue what so ever. They are just ugly in pics and a large part of the hobby to me is sharing pics so I want to avoid them.

rushbattle · Jun 10, 2019

bubbaque said:
No it’s not worth it. If you have mature rock, use it. Vermetid snails never caused me any issue what so ever. They are just ugly in pics and a large part of the hobby to me is sharing pics so I want to avoid them.

Makes sense. I won’t be sharing pictures as frequently, so I guess I’ll live with the vermetids. I have some very fine chalk powder, I might try the snow treatment to see if I can knock them back.

Epic Aquaculture · Jun 10, 2019

Just got caught up on the thread Bubba. the tank looks great! Sorry I couldn't get over to see it in person when i was down there, but we were always on the run, so I just couldn't find the time.

Fudsey · Jun 10, 2019

Corals are looking like they are happy sticking out their polyps at you

drawman · Jun 10, 2019

bubbaque said:
You should of seen me scraping my snails with a butter knife before adding to the tank to make sure there were none.

I'm about to be doing the same over the next week lol.

najer · Jun 10, 2019

bubbaque said:
No it’s not worth it. If you have mature rock, use it. Vermetid snails never caused me any issue what so ever. They are just ugly in pics and a large part of the hobby to me is sharing pics so I want to avoid them.

I have had vermitid webs take corals out, I hate them, keep them out!

Janci · Jun 10, 2019

@bubbaque , I hope you have a good plan to keep taking those pictures of your coral in the new tank.
The canopy and depth will not make it any easier.
It would be sad to not have them that frequent anymore... ;Sorry

AngryMike2016 · Jun 11, 2019

Holy smokes, that pink lemonade frag though.

bubbaque · Jun 11, 2019

Janci said:
@bubbaque , I hope you have a good plan to keep taking those pictures of your coral in the new tank.
The canopy and depth will not make it any easier.
It would be sad to not have them that frequent anymore... ;Sorry

I did make sure I built the canopy where I can fully fit in it. The pink lemonade frag I took a pic of today is probably in my hardest spot to take a pic of and it was fairly easy.