Tangerine's 35gal cube

[tangerine3486]

Not much new since last month. Pretty good growth on everyone, colors are still there, and one of the acans' color has returned. Anemone continues to move and I try to clear his path of destruction. He is annoying some of the Hawaiian Zoas right now, waiting a little to see if he moves before i tear them from the rock .

Monti has developed some deeper purple in the older parts, and the green monti on the wall is shelfing out to cover the candy canes so I might have to figure something out about that.

 

[tangerine3486]

Right now having issues with two (out of ten) micro lords having some serious tissue loss. They had been stable for several months now. There have been no new additions to the tank. Also starting a to get a little bit more bubble algae. Any suggestions?

Salinity 1.026
Nitrates ~0
Phosphate ~0
Ca 440
KH 7

Running chaeto, purigen, chemi pure, and skimming a little dark.

 

[tangerine3486]

Bump! Really need help on this one. Starting to see it on another Acan. Here is the first one that had major tissue recession. Let me know if I am missing information needed.

 

[tangerine3486]

So I've been having a big issue with chemistry and I think I'm on the rebound. My cry for help is in the thread below. I lost the acan pictured above.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/acan-lord-and-chalice-tissue-recession.315392/page-3#post-3929172


Some pics in the meantime-
These two are about 1.5 months old. At least those sunny D's are growing like crazy.

Cube FTS are hard for me

 

[tangerine3486]

Emerald crab has been chilling on and about montipora for a few weeks now

 

[tangerine3486]

While it does not help solve the issue with the acans, I did get a fancy Avast porthole!

Stop growing polyps and start actually growing!!!

 

[Fishninja]

Great shots! Have you ever had any issues with emerald crabs and zoanthids.

 

[tangerine3486]

Thanks! I have not had any issues. I have seen them pick at them briefly-but I'm pretty sure the crab was just picking a little bit of algae or whatnot off of it. I have had a red mithrax (same as an emerald) completely tear flesh off an acan, clawfull after clawful. These green emeralds are good to go. Have devoured my bubble algae (75% ish)

 

[tangerine3486]

 

[tangerine3486]

Last Friday (8/18) tested water:
Mg-1350
Ca-400
ALK-8.6
PO4-.08
NO3-16

I also took samples and sent to Aquamedic.
08-21-2017 Ammonia (NH3-4) Good 0 0.000 - 0.050 mg/L
08-21-2017 Nitrite (NO2) Good 0.021 0.000 - 0.100 mg/L
08-21-2017 Phosphate (PO4) Good 0.01 0.000 - 0.250 mg/L
08-21-2017 Nitrate (NO3) Good 14 0.000 - 25.000 mg/L
08-21-2017 Silica (Sio2-3) High 0.8 0.000 - 0.500 mg/L
08-21-2017 Potassium (K) Good 384 350.000 - 450.000 mg/L
08-21-2017 Ionic Calcium (Ca) Good 152 100.000 - 400.000 mg/L
08-21-2017 Boron (B) NA NA 3.000 - 6.000 mg/L
08-21-2017 Molybdenum (Mo) Good 0.1 0.000 - 0.300 mg/L
08-21-2017 Strontium (Sr) Good 8 5.000 - 12.000 mg/L
08-21-2017 Magnesium (Mg) High 1420 1100.000 - 1400.000 mg/L
08-21-2017 Iodine (I) Good 0.03 0.030 - 0.090 mg/L
08-21-2017 Copper (Cu) Good 0.05 0.000 - 0.100 mg/L
08-21-2017 Alkalinity (meq/L) Good 3.1 2.500 - 5.000 meq/L (8.68dKH)
08-21-2017 Total Calcium (Ca) Good 410 350.000 - 450.000 mg/L

Thoughts? other than my Mg test was way off and that it seems high. Not sure if that is high enough to need to correct it.
Silica?

 

[tangerine3486]

Made some large changes. As a reminder, a significant portion of this tank's history is documented with my Acan issue thread (below) which has led to a less active tank thread:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/acan-lord-and-chalice-tissue-recession.315392/page-3#post-3929172

Fortunately, the acans look much happier now - some tissue recession still, but otherwise much happier. I am interested in removing the shrimp. I don't have any hard evidence it is him though.

Anyway, 2 major updates to the tank: I added a BRS 2 stage GFO and Carbon reactor which i have seen immediate results, at least in the water clarity. PO4 was at .08 this morning, and I was honestly expecting it to be lower. I will give it some time. I also took off the Kessil a360WE and am now running a Radion XR30 pro G4. I became a little concerned about having a single point light and that I could be doing better with multi point light. I'm not really sure why I went with the XR30 over a second 360WE, which would have been just as good. I was getting great results with the Kessil, but still had significant shadowing all over the tank, especially on the new acros I got from Battle Corals, and I wanted them to do well.

dKH is still dropping significantly faster than the other parameters, so I am continuing to watch that the closest. I was not able to address the extra high magnesium found from the Aquamedic results. Considering switching to Coral Pro salt, as it seems to mix with a higher dKH and a lower Mg.

One clownfish was going nuts on the hammer, so I moved to the Lagoon. I'm getting great growth on sunny d's in this tank. Also fighting a minor population of Aptasia, but i'm not worried about that yet. Lost a very pretty Rhodactis mushroom that got buried in the sand while on vacation. Probably a crab/diamond goby team effort.

Pics in following post.

 

[tangerine3486]

I keep having to move the vortech from the anemone! He is getting big. Otherwise, FTS:

a little closer

I like the next few-top down but wide angle through the porthole. Good perspective that I would not be able to get without the porthole from Avast marine.

so many new zoa babies!

scrimps!

Solid growth from fragging it a month ago

about to have 3 separate heads - has taken 8 months! gotta be doing something right now.

some recession on this guy. VERY unhappy about it.

hard to get these blues to come out color wise, but they have taken off.

They are not friends. The palys have done a good job of growing the other direction.

not much more room

mmmmm salt creep

Thanks for looking at all of the pictures. I can do less if that is just too many.

 

[tangerine3486]

Apparently I imbed almost all of the pictures wrong on the first try, so if anyone is having trouble viewing. let me know.

 

[tangerine3486]

Still kicking

The other colony

 

[tangerine3486]

R2R,
Received two maxima clams on Tuesday. One is doing fine, and the other is pretty much dead and getting worse. Both are under radions and in the same tank. I can get water chemistry posted, but I passed on that first since the other clam seems very content. Any thoughts?

He is split all the way down one side, and his siphon is not even recognizable. Barely responsive to changes in light.

 

[tangerine3486]

Been Such a long time for an update, big part is that I have handed off the red monti cap to a friend, as it was too big for the tank! Other than that, just looking at slow growth for the other SPS, and need to work on some algae control in some places. Otherwise seems healthy, and finally have had good polyp extension on all of the SPS. Any major red flags for slow SPS growth?


I did lose a firefish, which means I am down to:

1 Diamond Goby
2 Clownfish
1 Cleaner shrimp
2 Anemone

Monti difference:

Some pics from yesterday 2/24

Finally a baby head at the bottom:

Still dig the wide angle in the porthole!

Now:

September: