jda's 240g Acropora Rebuild

jda · Jan 14, 2022

Frag2Morrow Quazar Millepora. Probably the most under rated coral that too few people know about. Just amazing multi colors for a Millepora. I am kinda glad that the photo is terrible so that people might over look it. I might get out the underwater hood and 100mm L and see if I can get a better photo...

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JCOLE · Jan 14, 2022

Pictures are looking great! Keep em coming!

ScottB · Jan 15, 2022

jda said:
Frag2Morrow Quazar Millepora. Probably the most under rated coral that too few people know about. Just amazing multi colors for a Millepora. I am kinda glad that the photo is terrible so that people might over look it. I might get out the underwater hood and 100mm L and see if I can get a better photo...

That is a fav for sure.

BeltedCoyote · Jan 15, 2022

Awesome stuff @jda

KevinC · Jan 15, 2022

jda said:
Got a new underwater case for my newer iPhone and even though I cannot take as clear of photos with it, some of these are OK.

This is a group of acropora that I would recommend to most who want colorful stuff that does not wreck your budget and that are pretty tolerant.

RR The Vihn. This one is the real RR one, but there are other flavors/names that are nice too:

Greg Carroll Utimate Stag. Tyree stole the name - not really, but lots of folks call it Tyree Ultimate Stag:

Copps Blueberry Miyagi Tort. Nearly all Miyagi Torts are nice, but I love this one. Photos don't get all of the contrast in person.

AV99 Orange Crush. Not many like it.

Wait what case? Lol I’m tempted to stick my iPhone pro into saltwater but I’m scared haha

jda · Jan 16, 2022

There is no shortage of waterproof/underwater cases for iPhone on eBay or amazon. I got one that was like $10-12 and while it is not ready to go into the ocean, it is OK in my tanks. If I don't seal it 100% by pressing really hard, a few drops might get in, but the phone is water proof (my 12 pro max is, anyway).

jda · Jan 28, 2022

For about a year, I have noticed some stupid clove polyps growing in the shadows and backs of my tank. I have no idea how they got there or where they came from. It appears that my angels and tangs will eat some of them since they are not really out in the open. They kinda became widespread in the shadows. I have a coral QT and I am good about it... so just to show you that anything can slip by your defense...

I am sure that most know that I am not a huge fan of meds or treatments, but I will use them if I have to. I have no issue with levamisole for flatworms or even some LC if I get in some high phosphate rocks or something.

My friend Scott was over and told me to feed some Deworming Angelfish Flake for a few days - it has small amounts of fenbendazole. It is from Angels Plus and is made to help large angelfish. He said no side effects and it took very little of the flakes to work. Having never let me down before, I bought some.

I fed for about 5 days with just a nice sized pinch of flakes - about enough to feed all of the fish and what I would put in there if I was feeding flake anyway. Nothing happened until about that fifth day or a week and then they started to fade away. It took about two weeks total for them all to disappear, but they are all gone.

It has been two weeks since I added any of the flake and there have been absolutely no side effects to corals, inverts, etc. I am totally happy with this. I am amazed at the small amount of flakes that it took, although I did have to have patience for it to work. I also wanted to wait a while before i posted this to see if there were any side affects - none in about three weeks.

This all could be widespread knowledge, but I don't keep up on this kind of thing. I have seen fenbendazole used on blue cloves and stuff, but I had no idea about the flake food nor the dosage. I have also seen huge tank crash threads and stuff. In any, case, I am not inventing the wheel here, just sharing a story.

I imagine that this would also kill other similar types of sofites, but I do not care about that.

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Show quality angelfish, IFGA guppies, bristlenose and fancy swordtails available here. We also carry a line of fish supplies that breeders find valuable.

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Acropora52 · Jan 28, 2022

That's fantastic! I've noticed a few cloves as well and been wondering what to do. I was one of those that nuked their tank in the past using something that was supposed to be safe but a small amount of flake should be pretty minimal risk. Thanks for sharing!

jda · Jan 28, 2022

While I waited a while to post, a few weeks is not forever. I will be sure and post back if anything changes... and I mean even the smallest thing. I have had no issues with the urchins, snails, worms of anything so far. The cloves in my tank did not spread really fast, so there is time to wait.

I heard that this can work for xenia too... but no idea about that, personally.

JCOLE · Jan 28, 2022

Their Deworm 2 flake is geared towards flatworms. I don't have any flatworms but curious if that could work for those that do? I am not familiar with the ingredient praziquantel to know whether or not it is reef safe.

jda · Jan 29, 2022

Prazi has been used for as long as I can remember in reefing to treat for flukes in large angelfish. Prazi Pro is one of the main treatments out there. It is fairly safe in most cases, but nothing is for certian. The flakes probably work really well to rid the fish of flukes, but I have no idea if so little could do much good in a tank.

For flatworms like regular red planaria, Levamisole is what you need. I would be shocked if you could get enough in a flake food to kill them in a tank, but who knows. Prohibit is a livestock deworming powder that we use for red planaria, or you can buy Salifert Flatworm Exit. Too much levamisole can harm inverts and especially starfish and shrimp.

I am no pro on any of this... just know a bit when I have used some here or there.

jda · Feb 2, 2022

I got a group of 7 carberryi anthias that were mis-shipped locally - store really did not know what to do with them. I have them in an isolation tank and they started to eat this medicated flake food. These are hard to get to eat dry food, so this is somewhat amazing to me. There is a long road with these, but I decided to give them a shot a life since I do feed many times a day. I am keeping my hopes down, but giving it my all.

Acropora52 · Feb 2, 2022

jda said:
I got a group of 7 carberryi anthias that were mis-shipped locally - store really did not know what to do with them. I have them in an isolation tank and they started to eat this medicated flake food. These are hard to get to eat dry food, so this is somewhat amazing to me. There is a long road with these, but I decided to give them a shot a life since I do feed many times a day. I am keeping my hopes down, but giving it my all.

Hopefully it works out. I found my plank invaluable in adding a baseline feeding schedule on top of the walk by the tank and feed when I want approach. That and allowing my kids free rein to feed the tanks whenever they want.

How long are you planning on keeping them in isolation? How large is that system?

jda · Feb 2, 2022

I would like them to put on some weight - they are eating with a gusto, but I don't know how well they would fight in the big tank with the larger fish. There is always enough food and none of the fish are mean or aggressive, but they can still probably intimidate. The current tank is 75 gallons and they have some friends that they all hang out with - small bluethroat trigger and small floweri tang. The tang showed them how to eat the flake and even the capelin roe which they kinda just looked at for a few days. I have had bartletts and lyretails in the past that have lived their whole lifespan (or near) but they eventually all ate pellets and stuff. I know that these are harder and I would have never even considered them except they were in Colorado already with nobody to care for them.

tripdad · Feb 2, 2022

Good luck, beautiful fish.

ScottB · Feb 2, 2022

jda said:
I would like them to put on some weight - they are eating with a gusto, but I don't know how well they would fight in the big tank with the larger fish. There is always enough food and none of the fish are mean or aggressive, but they can still probably intimidate. The current tank is 75 gallons and they have some friends that they all hang out with - small bluethroat trigger and small floweri tang. The tang showed them how to eat the flake and even the capelin roe which they kinda just looked at for a few days. I have had bartletts and lyretails in the past that have lived their whole lifespan (or near) but they eventually all ate pellets and stuff. I know that these are harder and I would have never even considered them except they were in Colorado already with nobody to care for them.

I attempted Bimacs last spring, and failed. They were all eating day 1. But one by one they would stop eating and die within a couple days of stopping. It was a mix of pellet, flake and copped frozen four times per day.

Perhaps I should have fattened them up for a while in isolation. My LFS has managed to keep some of the same batch in his display reef feeding only mysis once per day.

Miami Reef · Feb 11, 2022

What salt do you use?

Where do you keep your alk at?

jda · Feb 12, 2022

Instant Ocean in the 4x 50g box. As close to 7.0 as possible, but sometimes it ends up in the high 6s to mid 7s with the tune that I have on my CaRx at the time.