Monique's Wave (reefer 525XL)

[spiraling]

It's good to hear that your corals are starting to recover and you are not losing any new ones. I had a similar issue in my tank. I learned that my tank definitely needs some nitrates... especially when running more intense lighting. My turn around for the better was taking my bio pellets offline. My tank has never been happier now that my nitrates are around 5-10 ppm. My SPS have much better color and my LPS are also fluffy and thriving. That's even with phosphates around o.1 ppm. I have zero algae, aside from the normal dusting on the glass every couple of days. I added some extra Xport-PO4(similar to GFO, only in a lava rock type form) to try and get my phosphates down to below 0.05 ppm... and that should help with the green dusting on the glass.

When I had far less lighting intensity, my corals were fine with the ultra low nitrates. I'm definitely a believer now in the fact that there is a direct correlation between the amount of light available, the amount of flow and the amount of nutrients available to coral and how it affects their life. High light and low nutrients = BAD

Good luck!

Thanks Broadfield. It sounds like I'm on the right track then. My corals started to look bad again yesterday and I found my P/ N had fallen again. I only have about 1/4 c biopellets left, and plan to have them offline soon. I've been slowly decreasing the amount over the past two months and ramping up the fuge.

 

[Broadfield]

Thanks Broadfield. It sounds like I'm on the right track then. My corals started to look bad again yesterday and I found my P/ N had fallen again. I only have about 1/4 c biopellets left, and plan to have them offline soon. I've been slowly decreasing the amount over the past two months and ramping up the fuge.

Yeah, I don't even run a fuge... I just keep it super simple now. The only thing I run is the Xport-PO4 cubes in a reactor... and that's it. I don't dose anything except coral food and 2-part for calcium, alk and mag.

 

[spiraling]

Yeah, I don't even run a fuge... I just keep it super simple now. The only thing I run is the Xport-PO4 cubes in a reactor... and that's it. I don't dose anything except coral food and 2-part for calcium, alk and mag.

I want the fuge for copepods (ie a madarin)

 

[Broadfield]

I want the fuge for copepods (ie a madarin)

Yep, that would be a good reason to have one

 

[spiraling]

Vibrant dosing #2 - no change at all since the first dose. All algae seems intact.
Doing my usual maintenance with cleaning off the algae in the glass and the turf algae around the frags. Also my infrequent water change

 

[spiraling]

I'm at Vibrant dosing #4 - no real change in algae

Yesterday my greens birdnest RTNd. I clipped the tips off and gave it an iodine dip. I'm not sure its going to make it. I also noticed my joker monte looks bad. It was fine a few days ago. (I'm not trying to blame vibrant here)

I have now lost 3 gobies. the first one who I had for several years and transferred into the tank with the pistol. It was gone in a week. I got two hi fins. They were off DD. I had them in "observation" for a month with the tail spot blenny. I didn't give any meds. All fish looked healthy and were eating well.

The first hifin was in the tank for about a month then disappeared. The second was gone a week later. Is it possible their pistol is a killer? Not much else to get them. Two clown, tailspot who is very social, non ever chased or touched the gobies. One peppermint shrimp, one small emerald crab, last seen on the other side of the tank eating hair algae. And the pistol. The fish live under a rock with him, and just never come out one day.

 

[spiraling]

I ordered 3 wrasses for tank. Hooded fairy, mccoskers flasher, and carpenter flasher. The hooded never shipped. The carpenter was very DOA. the mccosker is in QT, and fairly large. It looked very stressed but no signs of ick or flukes. LA will send another wrasse. Its unfortunate I can't QT all three together. That's easier in my book.

I'll get a picture later. I matched temp and salinity (1.018!), opened the bag and put him in. He went to the bottom and sat there for a few hours. when I would come around he would sometimes flare and look at me. Breathing is rapid but not frantic. finally he moved into a pvc pipe and is in there.

I also realized today that the silicone we used for the skimmer stand was the GE 2. Doh. not aquarium safe. I'm wondering if that is some of the issues. I'll remove it and build a new stand.

 

[ksfulk]

I dont want to jinx it, but Ive had about a 30% success rate with wrasses from LA. Most have arrived DOA, but once I got them past a week or so (and they had started eating) theyve been bullet proof. Im not directly blaming LA - Im guessing it would be similar from other vendors, but I order from LA because they had the species I wanted. Flasher wrasses seem to be worse than fairies - so much so that I ended up getting my flashers locally - and even then they still didnt last very long. I just gave up on them after a while and picked some fairies that were similar in appearance (longfin fairy wrasse for example). Hopefully, you have a much better success than I did Good Luck!

 

[spiraling]

I dont want to jinx it, but Ive had about a 30% success rate with wrasses from LA. Most have arrived DOA, but once I got them past a week or so (and they had started eating) theyve been bullet proof. Im not directly blaming LA - Im guessing it would be similar from other vendors, but I order from LA because they had the species I wanted. Flasher wrasses seem to be worse than fairies - so much so that I ended up getting my flashers locally - and even then they still didnt last very long. I just gave up on them after a while and picked some fairies that were similar in appearance (longfin fairy wrasse for example). Hopefully, you have a much better success than I did Good Luck!

Thanks for the good wishes.

I had one shipment (not wrasses) from DD and the fish looked great, but two are dead two months later. No idea why. They were hi fin gobies. ate well, looked good, just disappeared. I admit I'm already disappointing with LA. The hooded fairy couldn't ship - but it is still advertised on their site. Carpenter was dead shortly after bagging, decomposed in the bag. I really wanted to QT the three together.

I was going to put the mccloskers in my rsm 130, with lots of live rock, pods, hiding places. But after I saw the salinity would be 1.018 I couldn't get the tank down to that without casualties to the coral. So its in a BB 10 gal for a day or two. It didn't eat yet, but there was poop in its bag so I am hopeful. I would happily pay more not to have the heartbreak. But I really don't see online retailers with good stock. At least LA gives refunds. I don't have a LFS, so that's not an option.

 

[ksfulk]

There are some other suppliers that have decent guarantees as well. Vivid Aquariums, Unique Corals and PetSolutions.com are ones Ive used in the past with some success. The first two are limited in their available selection (Unique moreso than Vivid) but the livestock shipped well and did fine through acclimation as I recall. PetSolutions gets their livestock through the same supplier as LA, so its moreso for price comparing for me, but they occasionally have better deals than LA, and have a 14 day guarantee and free shipping at $99 (LA might have that right now too, but its normally $149 I think). Assuming you make another order soon, you could run everything through together, more QT time only really hurts the aquarist

 

[spiraling]

There are some other suppliers that have decent guarantees as well. Vivid Aquariums, Unique Corals and PetSolutions.com are ones Ive used in the past with some success. The first two are limited in their available selection (Unique moreso than Vivid) but the livestock shipped well and did fine through acclimation as I recall. PetSolutions gets their livestock through the same supplier as LA, so its moreso for price comparing for me, but they occasionally have better deals than LA, and have a 14 day guarantee and free shipping at $99 (LA might have that right now too, but its normally $149 I think). Assuming you make another order soon, you could run everything through together, more QT time only really hurts the aquarist

I've heard good things about Vivid, but they didn't have the stock I wanted. Strangely enough PetSolutions didn't either. Is Unique the one that does the full QT?

The wrasse spun a little cocoon last night. It kinda freaked my husband out when he say it today until I explained what it was. The wrasse then ate a few mysis I squirted in, and is exploring the tank. He is swimming a bit "tail down" so I'll keep an eye on that, but otherwise looks good.

 

[ksfulk]

CherryCorals / CherryFish / Aquabox is the one that does the full QT, unfortunately Austin is moving, so that business is closed as far as I know, I think they just cleaned out their last livestock a week or so ago. Unique usually only stocks a dozen or so different types of fish, and the more common ones. Still, its usually a good price and their shipping is only $19.

Sounds like the wrasse is headed in the right direction! Soon it will be pigging out and following you through the glass like a begging puppy!

 

[spiraling]

Here's a picture of the new comer

You can see the "tail down" swimming. I read some posts from evolved and eatbreakfast and they seem to agree that wrasses are susceptible to spinal injuries - especially when they bash into the glass or solid lid in a tank. They also said such thing may or may not heal, and is not life threatening unless they can't get enough food.

He can use his top fins and pectoral fins very well. He flares his bottom fin. The tail occasionally looks like it is moving, so I hope its a temporary injury. He has eaten several times today and I've started raising the salinity so I can get him in a tank with biological filtration.

On a strange note, Drs foster & smith sent a bag of carbon today. I didn't order it, and other than the fish the only thing I ordered was the tank. I guess they are grateful for my business.

 

[spiraling]

The McCloskers is scraping his face a bit against things. I dosed prazi last night. Overall he is out and swimming and looks great. Not very skiddish, curious, hungry. I feed 4 - 6 times per day (just a morsel or so) but he ate mysis, blood worms, and pellets already. Any leftover get eaten a few minutes later. Love this little guy!

 

[spiraling]

Vibrant update: two weeks
I'm about to give the 5th dose. I wanted to say there really hasn't been change, because its minimal and I haven't noticed the slow change, but the pictures don't lie. The spread of the turf algae has stopped. There is about as much stuff on the glass. My maintenance hadn't changed in the two weeks nor has any equipment. There are more snails which could contribute to the cleaner look, and about the same amount of macro algae in the fuge. Oh wait - I did turn off the biopellets last week and am continuing to dose to keep nitrates around 4, but I am trying to be consistent with N/P amounts so I'm assuming that is not part of the die off. So it's either snails or Vibrant doing the work (or both).

Before:

now:

 

[spiraling]

WOW so my nem started splitting today. I've seen it kinda fold in half ish so I was wondering... but it has its feet on two places and is tearing half.
Very cool and looked at it for several hours, but will probably complete in the dark of the night. Love having two! (and so will Dungey - the male clown)

 

[spiraling]

Nem is taking a while to split, after all night there is still one with two feet and a split disc.

 

[spiraling]

the nem moved to a new spot and is still half split after 4 days. I think I can see two mouths now though. Hard to see becasue the clowns are still always in it.

 

[spiraling]

oooh. sad. I found one of the hi fin gobies. A little jerky on the floor. I'm now wondering if all jumped
We are already starting a screen top for the wrasse, so we'll get that going. So sad and avoidable. That is one thing I really don't like about the open top tanks,beautiful, but no lid.

 

[spiraling]

nem update. Its bee two weeks and it still hasn't finished splitting. It moved to a different place and still has two distinct feet. For a while the disc was half split. I think its having problems splitting the mouth? now the disc seems a bit more healed up, but there are still two feet. The clowns are always in it so its hard to tell if the mouth is splitting.