This will be a long post, anyhow, basically the story is I had all these great corals with awesome coloration. One week before I was going to Europe, I noticed red bugs on a coral I had been noticing declining in health of my red planet coral, the Red Planet was browning out and wasn't getting a lot of polyp extension. I was going to treat with a dog dewormer suggested by some people, but I didn't have a lot of time . In the end, I decided to dip the corals with Revive with the suggested dosing amount ( I usually do a lot less concentration, probably how the red bugs made it in), followed by a 20-30 second rodi dip. After the treatment corals looked like ****, but haven't seen red bugs since. I was gone from my tank for about 2 months, I had apex to monitor, dose, do ATO, I had someone feed for me (they overfeed, a lot of algae when I got back). I did a water change.
Corals had all encrusted and grown thus the consumption increased and levels dropped. Something to note is that I had tested the PAR before I left I had super low levels like 120-150 par at the top frag rack, changed the lights to have 250-350 par over a 4 month acclimation.
Parameters before leaving:
Salt:35
Temp:77.2-78.2
phosphates: 0-0.02
Mag:1470
Calc:385
Alk:8
The parameters when I got back were
Salt:35
Temp:78-82 (hot weather)
phosphates: .23
Mag:1455
Calc:350
Alk:5.7
I've slowly raised the levels since I got back, and I'm still raising them, I'm sitting at
Salt:35
Temp:77.2-78.2
Mag:1410
Calc:395
Alk:7.5
Nitrate:0
Can't test for phosphates(ran out of Hannah testers)
Changes I've made:
*decreased white light by 60% (hydra 26 hd)
*changed feeding: use to feed pellets or flakes, mostly pellets to fish and reefroids to corals once a week. I now feed fish pellets once a week, and benepets 2-3 times a week, I also add fuel daily (.57ml) and 1ml of amino acids (recently changed how I fed, phosphates seem low since algae is almost gone). I think the algae was out competing my chaeto, before changing feeding routine.
*Ph: ph was constantly 7.7-8.2, made this change today, now the skimmer is vented and gets fresh air to keep ph higher and help with growth.
Surprised corals haven't recovered in coloration, but have grown, except for specific corals like the Red Planet that still looks like crap.
Color coded corals:
Red-red planet
Blue: Chocolate chip
Yellow: Pc Rainbow
Green, unknown acro
Pictures: Before dipping, notice the Red Planet starting to brown out in the second pic , it had red bugs at that point
When I got back from Europe after dipping:
Corals had all encrusted and grown thus the consumption increased and levels dropped. Something to note is that I had tested the PAR before I left I had super low levels like 120-150 par at the top frag rack, changed the lights to have 250-350 par over a 4 month acclimation.
Parameters before leaving:
Salt:35
Temp:77.2-78.2
phosphates: 0-0.02
Mag:1470
Calc:385
Alk:8
The parameters when I got back were
Salt:35
Temp:78-82 (hot weather)
phosphates: .23
Mag:1455
Calc:350
Alk:5.7
I've slowly raised the levels since I got back, and I'm still raising them, I'm sitting at
Salt:35
Temp:77.2-78.2
Mag:1410
Calc:395
Alk:7.5
Nitrate:0
Can't test for phosphates(ran out of Hannah testers)
Changes I've made:
*decreased white light by 60% (hydra 26 hd)
*changed feeding: use to feed pellets or flakes, mostly pellets to fish and reefroids to corals once a week. I now feed fish pellets once a week, and benepets 2-3 times a week, I also add fuel daily (.57ml) and 1ml of amino acids (recently changed how I fed, phosphates seem low since algae is almost gone). I think the algae was out competing my chaeto, before changing feeding routine.
*Ph: ph was constantly 7.7-8.2, made this change today, now the skimmer is vented and gets fresh air to keep ph higher and help with growth.
Surprised corals haven't recovered in coloration, but have grown, except for specific corals like the Red Planet that still looks like crap.
Color coded corals:
Red-red planet
Blue: Chocolate chip
Yellow: Pc Rainbow
Green, unknown acro
Pictures: Before dipping, notice the Red Planet starting to brown out in the second pic , it had red bugs at that point
When I got back from Europe after dipping:
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