How about these lights?

[mattzang]

how are your fish doing?

 

[Philipgonzales3]

No worries, it wont hurt anything by leaving it there.

So you think it's still dead? Not trying to be a smart aleck, I truly want to know. It doesn't seem there is much info out there on branching coralline especially for this specific species (if it is even really a hydrolithon gardineri). I am starting to think this may be because it may not be suitable/hardy for home aquaria. I hope I am wrong though.

The vendor says it is a hardy algea, but of course they may be biased. They do have a very good rating on eBay and only sell macro algeas and a few common corals such as Zoa's.

It does seem that they sell more hardy stuff than anything but at this point I'm not sure what to think.

 

[DSC reef]

From the one pic with bacterial slime yes. From your last pic it looks to have viable purple algae. I've never personally never grew branching coralline. I would just leave it be.

 

[Philipgonzales3]

how are your fish doing?

So far so good. 3 fish are at 41 days in the tank and the others at 21 days. Assuming my app counts 30 days as a month. It seems like I have had them a lot longer. The clowns tails have thier back fins a little nipped but I do not believe they are actively being harrassed. My best guess is they did this to each other establishing dominance and I believe they will heal up within a month or so.

I did catch my Kupang Damsel and Valentin puffer in an exchange earlier. The damsel was being territorial and charging at the puffer. The puffer looked straight up and let the damsel pick at it's stomach. Did not appear to result in any injuries.

Here's a current vid, sorry for all the background noise. Family is currently being loud lol.

I'm only the boss in the 2'x2' area of the tank.


Not sure if you saw but we went from 11 freshwater fish to 30+. Counted 19 fry about a week ago. I'm hoping some of them have gotten eaten by now, truthfully. We may be removing all the endler's livebearers females if this trend continues. For now I will raise the fry until they are juveniles and take them to the LFS. This is my son's tank, he's enjoying the fish and got really excited when we found babies.

 

[Philipgonzales3]

From the one pic with bacterial slime yes. From your last pic it looks to have viable purple algae. I've never personally never grew branching coralline. I would just leave it be.

I have very small green spots everywhere on my rocks. Hopefully that is some coralline spreading as I read it can start off green. Fingers crossed.

 

[Ron Reefman]

Philip, I kind of hate to get in the middle of this, but here is my take.

First, if that frag is branching coraline algae, I'll say it may be alive. I certainly wouldn't pull it from the tank yet. However, I have collected big colonies and small frags of this personally while snorkeling in the Florida Keys. IMHO it is very difficult to keep alive in a reef tank.

If salty said 100% you need to have an ATO, he is just wrong. Will it make life easier, absolutely. I've tad tanks for 15 years and didn't run an ATO until about 3 months ago. And for 5 years I was running 4 tanks without any ATO.

And the 1% swing in water parameters is questionable as well. Are very stable parameters desirable, for sure. Some parameter maybe, others aren't that big a deal. If you have a tank full of big sps colonies, I'd say he's far more right than wrong. However, for the past couple of years I test and add Ca and alk once a week for a 40g tank with lots of zoas, lots of rock flower anemones and a few lps and sps corals. My Ca gets down to 390 or 400 and I dose it back up to 425 in one shot. My alk gets down to 7dKH and I bump it up to 9.5dKH over a period of about 15 to 20 minutes. This isn't usually great for sps corals, but mine are doing OK.

Salty, I don't mean to be stepping on your toes here, I'm not saying that what I do is good for everybody. But 1% variance in some water parameters is beyond harmless and in some other parameters it can be a serious issues.

 

[Philipgonzales3]

Philip, I kind of hate to get in the middle of this, but here is my take.

First, if that frag is branching coraline algae, I'll say it may be alive. I certainly wouldn't pull it from the tank yet. However, I have collected big colonies and small frags of this personally while snorkeling in the Florida Keys. IMHO it is very difficult to keep alive in a reef tank.

If salty said 100% you need to have an ATO, he is just wrong. Will it make life easier, absolutely. I've tad tanks for 15 years and didn't run an ATO until about 3 months ago. And for 5 years I was running 4 tanks without any ATO.

And the 1% swing in water parameters is questionable as well. Are very stable parameters desirable, for sure. Some parameter maybe, others aren't that big a deal. If you have a tank full of big sps colonies, I'd say he's far more right than wrong. However, for the past couple of years I test and add Ca and alk once a week for a 40g tank with lots of zoas, lots of rock flower anemones and a few lps and sps corals. My Ca gets down to 390 or 400 and I dose it back up to 425 in one shot. My alk gets down to 7dKH and I bump it up to 9.5dKH over a period of about 15 to 20 minutes. This isn't usually great for sps corals, but mine are doing OK.

Salty, I don't mean to be stepping on your toes here, I'm not saying that what I do is good for everybody. But 1% variance in some water parameters is beyond harmless and in some other parameters it can be a serious issues.

From what I saw on a BRS video they said a 10% difference when estimating water volume was likely not to be a big deal. That this likely fell within the margin of error for the test.

I'm no expert on anything, I just don't feel like I had been given an opinion. I feel like I was given a cold hard fact and that it was deceiving. I also noticed that he choose the worse picture out of all to share even after I showed him that it looked much more purple after blowing away some of the diatoms. Then he tagged the reefsquad which I think was just petty.

I look at it like this. How would you feel (not you specifically) if someone told you that your fish was dead when it was in fact breathing hard. If they said man toss that fish, it's a goner. Then what if it survived, even though it was unlikely to do so, wouldn't you question that person's advice?

I'm not trying to personally attack anyone or be diffucult. I just felt the advice in general from this one individual was a little careless. Like I said, maybe I'm splitting hairs or reading too much into it.

Also thank you for your input on the algea. At least I kind of have an idea what to expect. I think it's the coolest thing since sliced bread, but I am definetly biased since it's the only thing in my tank! Going to do my best to keep it alive ! I wish there was a bit more info about it online. The vendor had quite the dosing regiment so I may be in over my head.

 

[Philipgonzales3]

@Ron Reefman

Here was their response to me questioning whether or not this algea required dosing. They have been awesome at answering my questions. They've emailed me back within 30 minutes each time, about 6 times. Did I mentioned this was a $15 frag lol. I would definitely buy from them again in the future.

New message

Good question. We use Instant Ocean Reef Crystals in our system. Though we dose 8different supplementations, namely: Red Sea Coral Colors A,B,C,D, Brightwell NO2 and PO4, Aquavitro Fuel, Brightwell ALK, because we keep a handful of corals, inverts and macro algae that need these additional supplements and we only do 5% water change every 3months to keep everything in balance.

I don’t think you’ll require dosing if you do regular water changes and keeping a few corals in general.

 

[HotRocks]

From what I saw on a BRS video they said a 10% difference when estimating water volume was likely not to be a big deal. That this likely fell within the margin of error for the test.

I'm no expert on anything, I just don't feel like I had been given an opinion. I feel like I was given a cold hard fact and that it was deceiving. I also noticed that he choose the worse picture out of all to share even after I showed him that it looked much more purple after blowing away some of the diatoms. Then he tagged the reefsquad which I think was just petty.

I look at it like this. How would you feel (not you specifically) if someone told you that your fish was dead when it was in fact breathing hard. If they said man toss that fish, it's a goner. Then what if it survived, even though it was unlikely to do so, wouldn't you question that person's advice?

I'm not trying to personally attack anyone or be diffucult. I just felt the advice in general from this one individual was a little careless. Like I said, maybe I'm splitting hairs or reading too much into it.

Also thank you for your input on the algea. At least I kind of have an idea what to expect. I think it's the coolest thing since sliced bread, but I am definetly biased since it's the only thing in my tank! Going to do my best to keep it alive ! I wish there was a bit more info about it online. The vendor had quite the dosing regiment so I may be in over my head.

Just want to help clear the air here a little bit.

I personally don't take offense to the comments @saltyfilmfolks made. I think you are possibly reading a bit to deep into it. This is a forum. Everyone has an opinion, and likely if you ask ten people a question you will get 11 or 12 answers.

He is a highly respected member of our community. I spend tons of time in the disease forum. I don't ever state when I am making a comment if it's a fact or an opinion. I think most of what we see here is opinions and anecdotal. There is plenty that is factual as well. It looks like you have gotten plenty of support from the other membership here on the issue at hand. Best of luck, and I hope what I'm saying makes sense.

 

[Philipgonzales3]

Just want to help clear the air here a little bit.

I personally don't take offense to the comments @saltyfilmfolks made. I think you are possibly reading a bit to deep into it. This is a forum. Everyone has an opinion, and likely if you ask ten people a question you will get 11 or 12 answers.

He is a highly respected member of our community. I spend tons of time in the disease forum. I don't ever state when I am making a comment if it's a fact or an opinion. I think most of what we see here is opinions and anecdotal. There is plenty that is factual as well. It looks like you have gotten plenty of support from the other membership here on the issue at hand. Best of luck, and I hope what I'm saying makes sense.

Thank you for explaining it that way. That does make sense. Ok, I'm officially over it. Did I mention I quit smoking a couple of weeks ago. Maybe there should be a badge (more like a disclaimer!) For that.

Sorry @saltyfilmfolks for taking offense. I don't believe you meant anything personal by it. Perhaps I am just being too sensitive.

 

[HotRocks]

Thank you for explaining it that way. That does make sense. Ok, I'm officially over it. Did I mention I quit smoking a couple of weeks ago. Maybe there should be a badge (more like a disclaimer!) For that.

Sorry @saltyfilmfolks for taking offense. I don't believe you meant anything personal by it. Perhaps I am just being too sensitive.

Thanks for understanding. Sometimes it's also hard to differentiate helpful vs hostile since this is all via text and you can't "hear" tone of voice. We all write differently.

Congrats on quitting smoking! I quit 4 years ago (I was a 2 pack a day smoker) when my first daughter was born. Best thing I ever did. You will start feeling better soon!

 

[Philipgonzales3]

Thanks for understanding. Sometimes it's also hard to differentiate helpful vs hostile since this is all via text and you can't "hear" tone of voice. We all write differently.

Congrats on quitting smoking! I quit 4 years ago (I was a 2 pack a day smoker) when my first daughter was born. Best thing I ever did. You will start feeling better soon!

I agree. I doubt anyone comes to R2R to start conflict. I'm sure we all come here with similar goals. To learn and/or teach and/or share our experience, etc. I know it can also seem easy to point out a problem from the outside view. Like if I were to read someone's post, I could easily think like man this person needs to be more patient or stick to a plan, but some things are easy to say or notice but harder to do. If that makes any sense.

I couldn't quit myself, was just so dang hard. Chantix has made it a lot easier to slow down without even thinking about it. Was at a pack a day myself (I sound like a Chantix commercial, but it's true). My daughter is 1 1/2 and I'm looking to buy a house and I'm not getting any younger. If I can make it two weeks I can stay quit. Knowing this is easy, but following through is the hard part (just like the aquarium example lol).

 

[Why-Me]

I quit via Chantix 3 years 3 months ago when my mom got her stage 4 diagnosis lung cancer spread like wildfire...CONGRATS on quitting you guys!
I had gone 7 years before but went through a nasty divorce and started again, my own fault/weakness. Never again!!!! I miss my mom I won't do that to my daughter.

 

[Philipgonzales3]

I quit via Chantix 3 years 3 months ago when my mom got her stage 4 diagnosis lung cancer spread like wildfire...CONGRATS on quitting you guys!
I had gone 7 years before but went through a nasty divorce and started again, my own fault/weakness. Never again!!!! I miss my mom I won't do that to my daughter.

It's crazy how much we have in common. Smokers are in the minority from what I understand. @Hemmdog drives a stick and that is also in the minority. Hemmdog are you a smoker or ex-smoker by any chance?

I try to keep myself busy with either maintaining or just watching the tanks when I feel like smoking. That or just eat haha.

 

[Why-Me]

I had a spinal fusion that had to be "redone" because I was a smoker and it didn't heal correctly, it was all scar tissue instead of healthy new bone.
Made me stop and think of al that bs and pain I went through again for nothing.
Well not nothing I learned the hard way.

 

[Hemmdog]

It's crazy how much we have in common. Smokers are in the minority from what I understand. @Hemmdog drives a stick and that is also in the minority. Hemmdog are you a smoker or ex-smoker by any chance?

I try to keep myself busy with either maintaining or just watching the tanks when I feel like smoking. That or just eat haha.

smoking as I type yep lol

 

[Philipgonzales3]

@Ron Reefman

I've been searching high and now about anything relating to branching coralline and the very little information I found seems to be positive. Most of the posts are very old, the pics no longer load, may be different species, etc. But a few people said that it was hardy and grows fairly fast. Supposedly the requirements are similar to other coralline algea. No idea how hard coralline is to keep alive because I am so new. I just thought this info was interesting. Still boggles me that there is so little info available.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1468703

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=820878

https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/191961-is-this-branching-coralline-algae/

 

[Ron Reefman]

Philip, I hope it goes well for you. All I can say is the large colonies I've seen in the Florida Keys look very cool and if it were easy to keep alive in a reef tank, I'd wager many more people would do it. IMHO it's similar to sponges. A very few sponges will grow in many tanks. Mostly black and yellow ones that grow under rocks. The cool one that are very colorful do not tend to do well in most reef tanks. But there are a few out there that are successful. Hopefully you will be with your branching coraline algae.

 

[Philipgonzales3]

I really hope purple is an indication of health for this macro algea, because boy oh boy this thing is looking pretty purple. I don't want to jinx myself, but I'm going to enjoy how pretty it looks for the time being.

 

[Philipgonzales3]

Still purple.