JBJ 45 G Rimless Build (KCV)

[KC V.]

Just a few photos from feeding time.

 

[flchamp89]

How's the vibrant working for you?

 

[KC V.]

How's the vibrant working for you?

@neoGeorge How's the vibrant working?

 

[neoGeorge]

@neoGeorge How's the vibrant working?

At 7 days in (last Thursday) there was no noticeable affect on the GHA, but skimmate production stopped and nitrate and phosphate levels were at the low end of normal. I’ll be back in town this Thursday-perhaps there will be some progress to report. All the critters seem fine, although my rock anemone was looking a bit unhealthy; don’t know if it’s related...

 

[KC V.]

Yesterday, did a 10% water change again along with the usual armory of tests:

Temperature: 77 °C
Salinity: 1.0245 sg
Nitrate: 2-2.5 ppm
Phosphate: 0.01 ppm
Calcium: 400 ppm
Magnesium: 1400 ppm
Alk: 8.1 dKH (OMG it just plumetted this week!)

Still fighting the GHA, but it seems to be retracting a little bit, and the nitrates and phosphates are stabilizing without a crazy about of GHA in the display.

Drop in Alk is most likely due to a new addition this past week that I'm still getting used to. I added the Jebao doser over the weekend, and I am still honing in the dose for this.
There's the under-tank shot while I am looking for appropriate mixing containers for the powder formulations. Space is a little tight down there now with the RO/DI and the electronics to the other side.

I'm needing to automate a few processes because of some [hopefully] pending changes coming in my routine.

 

[KC V.]

Royal Gramma sticking head out from the perch near the hammer coral.

 

[KC V.]

I call this crab "the monster." This hermit definitely moved into this shell that's way too big for it, and it's fun to watch sometimes. Now it's time for a buffet on the Xenia.

 

[KC V.]

The goby chilling in front of his hole with a view of few corals.

 

[neoGeorge]

Yesterday, did a 10% water change again along with the usual armory of tests:

Temperature: 77 °C
Salinity: 1.0245 sg
Nitrate: 2-2.5 ppm
Phosphate: 0.01 ppm
Calcium: 400 ppm
Magnesium: 1400 ppm
Alk: 8.1 dKH (OMG it just plumetted this week!)

Still fighting the GHA, but it seems to be retracting a little bit, and the nitrates and phosphates are stabilizing without a crazy about of GHA in the display.

Drop in Alk is most likely due to a new addition this past week that I'm still getting used to. I added the Jebao doser over the weekend, and I am still honing in the dose for this.
There's the under-tank shot while I am looking for appropriate mixing containers for the powder formulations. Space is a little tight down there now with the RO/DI and the electronics to the other side.

I'm needing to automate a few processes because of some [hopefully] pending changes coming in my routine.

Looks good! Dosers are a must have IMHO (unless, of course, you can go big guns like a calcium reactor!)

 

[neoGeorge]

I call this crab "the monster." This hermit definitely moved into this shell that's way too big for it, and it's fun to watch sometimes. Now it's time for a buffet on the Xenia.

That's a very happy Xenia

 

[KC V.]

Full tank shot from earlier today:

 

[KC V.]

Sorry. Been busy trying to work out major plans with the next steps in life. I have been keeping up on maintenance lately, but just haven't gotten around to being able to post much. Good news is that the green hair has mostly subsided at this point, and there could even be a little pink/purple hue popping up on the tank rocks in a few places (and on the hermit shells, go figure). But today's shock was too much to let slide.

The hammer coral has been happy as can be in its spot. It's been getting bigger and bigger. So this was my surprise when I woke up this morning. 1 red box is where it used to be/is supposed to be. The other box is where it went to.

I know that these are sessile inverts, so I've been looking around to see any potential issues. This is very sudden (i.e. it looked very happy before today).

Params are:
dKH = 9.5
Mg = 1350 ppm
Ca = 430 ppm
Sal = 1.0255
Temp = 77.4 C
PO4 = 0.02 ppm
NO3 = 5-6 ppm
pH = 8.2 ish

So params don't seem to be an issue. Flow hasn't changed in the past 4+ months, so any other thoughts? Only other changes were that I added additional copepods this week from Algaebarn, but that shouldn't chase the corals away!

I know that right now it's still struggling and probably won't pull through, but here's to hoping...

 

[KC V.]

Well the hammer coral has been responding very strongly to the light cycle of the aquarium. It tucks in deep during the night, but it seems to be happy where it ended up skeleton free. I don't know how long this will last, but it seems to have gotten a little larger. Not much else has been going on in the tank, other than the Bangai has been picking on the gramma a bit, so I'm trying to spread the food around the tank more evenly. But here are some photos of me trying to show a somewhat less angry hammer while we can enjoy it.

 

[KC V.]

I'm trying to troubleshoot a coral death here. I sadly lost an acan as well. And given the recent detachment of the hammer coral, obviously something isn't right. The hammer seems to have settled in the corner of the tank, but I still am cautiously optimistic. So could I have a little help troubleshooting?

After using dosing, I have stabilized my nutrients here (I am giving ranges from the past few weeks):
- 430 ppm Ca (420-440 ppm)
- 1350 ppm Mg
- 10.5 dKH (10.0 - 10.5 dKH)
- 8.15-8.20 pH
- 5 ppm NO3 (5-7 ppm)
- 0.01 ppm PO4
- 0 ppm NH4/NO2
- 1.025 sg salinity (1.025-1.0255 sg)

Are there other tests that could provide insight at this point? The snails, hermits, and fish all seem to be doing well.

The GHA is under control, more or less and these corals were nowhere near the GHA. What are some symptoms of brown jelly disease during and after death? Are there other things I can look into (and also other useful information that I can provide that could be helpful to getting to the bottom of this)?

 

[neoGeorge]

Sorry. Been busy trying to work out major plans with the next steps in life. I have been keeping up on maintenance lately, but just haven't gotten around to being able to post much. Good news is that the green hair has mostly subsided at this point, and there could even be a little pink/purple hue popping up on the tank rocks in a few places (and on the hermit shells, go figure). But today's shock was too much to let slide.

The hammer coral has been happy as can be in its spot. It's been getting bigger and bigger. So this was my surprise when I woke up this morning. 1 red box is where it used to be/is supposed to be. The other box is where it went to.

I know that these are sessile inverts, so I've been looking around to see any potential issues. This is very sudden (i.e. it looked very happy before today).

Params are:
dKH = 9.5
Mg = 1350 ppm
Ca = 430 ppm
Sal = 1.0255
Temp = 77.4 C
PO4 = 0.02 ppm
NO3 = 5-6 ppm
pH = 8.2 ish

So params don't seem to be an issue. Flow hasn't changed in the past 4+ months, so any other thoughts? Only other changes were that I added additional copepods this week from Algaebarn, but that shouldn't chase the corals away!

I know that right now it's still struggling and probably won't pull through, but here's to hoping...

Might be worth it to get a Triton test to see if metals are at dangerous levels

 

[KC V.]

Might be worth it to get a Triton test to see if metals are at dangerous levels

Yep. I think so. That seems like the natural next step. I've been looking for other signs (cyano, diatoms, etc.) and I see nothing.

 

[KC V.]

And now we're onto a fishy mystery... The firefish is nowhere to be found tonight. I've looked in the sump, filters, around the (covered) tank, and all in the rocks. Time will tell, but Finny the firefish definitely is a social member, so this is unusual behavior.

 

[KC V.]

Not the happiest post, but here goes...

Still no sign of the firefish, but still no spike in total nitrogens (testing ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate 2x/week). We're at 0 ppm for the ammonia and nitrite, and 5 ppm for the nitrate. So hopefully Finny's just in the rocks hiding after we took a weekend away and left the tank with a sitter. Finny was the first addition to the tank and will be celebrating the 6 month mark since fish were added to the system in a few days. I am happy to have a social firefish, and am currently holding out hope that Finny and the Banggai just had a tiff.

The other issue has been that I am struggling keeping my big three. They dropped as low at 10.5 dKH (okay, this one isn't bad), 280 ppm Ca, and 960 ppm Mg yesterday after testing normal (10.6-8 dKH, 430 ppm Ca, and 1320 ppm Mg) on Wednesday and before. I've been scrounging around on R2R and other places yesterday when I wasn't working to see what's up. However, it seems that the answer was the purple developing in the rocks (hopefully), and a few corals that are bigger between before/after. After testing daily now, it seems that 2x20mL alkalinity and 6x25 mL Ca/Mg have kept these levels stable. If this is true, then we are going to test tomorrow and use supplemental doses from the AquaForest calculator to slowly increase Ca/Mg back up. Most of the corals are still doing okay--not great, but the existing ones are not bad--so hopefully they hang in there and this is going to be one of the last swings.

Of course the Triton shows up today when I have a possible lead. I'll try to stabilize the tank for a week before sending out that test for the heavy metals if the other corals or the visible fish look fine.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Not the happiest post, but here goes...

Still no sign of the firefish, but still no spike in total nitrogens (testing ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate 2x/week). We're at 0 ppm for the ammonia and nitrite, and 5 ppm for the nitrate. So hopefully Finny's just in the rocks hiding after we took a weekend away and left the tank with a sitter. Finny was the first addition to the tank and will be celebrating the 6 month mark since fish were added to the system in a few days. I am happy to have a social firefish, and am currently holding out hope that Finny and the Banggai just had a tiff.

The other issue has been that I am struggling keeping my big three. They dropped as low at 10.5 dKH (okay, this one isn't bad), 280 ppm Ca, and 960 ppm Mg yesterday after testing normal (10.6-8 dKH, 430 ppm Ca, and 1320 ppm Mg) on Wednesday and before. I've been scrounging around on R2R and other places yesterday when I wasn't working to see what's up. However, it seems that the answer was the purple developing in the rocks (hopefully), and a few corals that are bigger between before/after. After testing daily now, it seems that 2x20mL alkalinity and 6x25 mL Ca/Mg have kept these levels stable. If this is true, then we are going to test tomorrow and use supplemental doses from the AquaForest calculator to slowly increase Ca/Mg back up. Most of the corals are still doing okay--not great, but the existing ones are not bad--so hopefully they hang in there and this is going to be one of the last swings.

Of course the Triton shows up today when I have a possible lead. I'll try to stabilize the tank for a week before sending out that test for the heavy metals if the other corals or the visible fish look fine.

I am curious, did your purple coralline start turning white? That was always my weekly sign to increase the dose. You know what happened to my tank and I had a serious coralline die off. Got some nasties growing all over on the remains. Still enough coralline there to make a comeback though as I get my system back in shape.

BTW, pulling for Finny!

 

[neoGeorge]

Not the happiest post, but here goes...

Still no sign of the firefish, but still no spike in total nitrogens (testing ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate 2x/week). We're at 0 ppm for the ammonia and nitrite, and 5 ppm for the nitrate. So hopefully Finny's just in the rocks hiding after we took a weekend away and left the tank with a sitter. Finny was the first addition to the tank and will be celebrating the 6 month mark since fish were added to the system in a few days. I am happy to have a social firefish, and am currently holding out hope that Finny and the Banggai just had a tiff.

The other issue has been that I am struggling keeping my big three. They dropped as low at 10.5 dKH (okay, this one isn't bad), 280 ppm Ca, and 960 ppm Mg yesterday after testing normal (10.6-8 dKH, 430 ppm Ca, and 1320 ppm Mg) on Wednesday and before. I've been scrounging around on R2R and other places yesterday when I wasn't working to see what's up. However, it seems that the answer was the purple developing in the rocks (hopefully), and a few corals that are bigger between before/after. After testing daily now, it seems that 2x20mL alkalinity and 6x25 mL Ca/Mg have kept these levels stable. If this is true, then we are going to test tomorrow and use supplemental doses from the AquaForest calculator to slowly increase Ca/Mg back up. Most of the corals are still doing okay--not great, but the existing ones are not bad--so hopefully they hang in there and this is going to be one of the last swings.

Of course the Triton shows up today when I have a possible lead. I'll try to stabilize the tank for a week before sending out that test for the heavy metals if the other corals or the visible fish look fine.

Curious to see those ICP results. It's amazing how effectively a fish can hide in a tank - given your test results, Finny is likely to make a surprising appearance at a time of her choosing!