Zoey's Reef is Growing Up . . .

[Maritimer]

Thanks, Rev . . .

I keep telling myself that!

Switched some corals over from the 65 last night. So far, so good .... and they're finally under decent lighting, reminding me why I do this!

~Bruce (Now, if I could just get these heterotrophic bacteria to go away . . . )

 

[LbulletM]

Welcome, LbulletM!

~Bruce

Shoot! Didn't lurk deep enough!

~Bullet, who we both know is just here for your creative sign-offs

 

[Maritimer]

Right.

Well.

Reef-A-Palooza.

Summertime is when my bank account is at its lowest ebb, but the end of June is when Reef-A-Palooza hits just over an hour's drive from here, so ... that happened. Got some good things, got some great info, got to spend an entire day talking reef with people who really enjoy it, and don't have to buy any tee shirts this year. Might even be able to let go of some of my most religious tee shirts. (They're holey!)

I was going to use this paragraph to say that the heterotrophic bacteria that have plagued the 220 were fading away, turning to detritus, blowing around in the tank and getting caught in the filter socks & skimmer ... but that was the last several days, not today. Today, I can only see about three feet into the tank from the end panel. The skimmer has settled in for the long pull, and while it can still need draining every other day or so, it's no longer blowing the lid off. The Osmolator has been behaving itself, as well, so ... yay.

Picked up a bakers' dozen corals at RAP, and so far (fingers crossed!) they seem to be doing well. A few Montipora, a couple of Leptoseris, a Cyphastrea, a couple of Seriatopora and a pretty cool Stylophora with yellow tips, pinkish body and sky-blue polyps - does that even _have_ a name? - mostly from a group of High-School kids from PA going by the name of "Millionaire Corals". (The Millionaire is their school's mascot!) Great deal on some pieces that should prove to be pretty, no matter _what_ their trade names are.

Most tempting booth I successfully resisted? Cultured blue and teal maxima clams at 2/$100. Reminding myself that my tank's not ready for clams and walking away was _not_ easy. (Do clams eat heterotrophic bacteria?) You get a chance, you _go_ to Reef-A-Palooza!

So ... what's it all look like (mostly without heterotrophic bacteria, because this was shot two days ago)? Here it is under blues:

And under full-spectrum daytime lighting:

I'm open to suggestions that would make the heterotrophs go away for good, but I suspect that will come with time alone.

I've got at least _some_ of next week off, so hoping to move the rest of the rock from the 65, and do some actual aquascaping in there!

~Bruce, envisioning the future . . .

 

[Maritimer]

Oooo-kaaaayyy . . .

If you've read the last couple of posts, you know that I've experienced what I believed to be a bloom of heterotrophic bacteria in this tank, as well as diatoms. They'd both started to fade around last weekend, giving me confidence to bring corals home from Reef-A-Palooza, but tonight they (or something else . . . ) are back in _force_. (There are also a _ton_ of copepods on the glass, and by extension, everywhere else!) Photo from tonight shows just how foggy the tank has become in the last two days:

There's a slight greenish cast to it, but mostly on the right side, leading me to believe that may be the one-year-older light, rather than the color of the cloud. Is this really bacterial? Could it be phytoplankton? Will it _ever_ go away?! Are the corals feasting on it? (I'm seeing polyp extension like I haven't seen in _months_ in the 65,where all the fish are!)

~Bruce

 

[Maritimer]

Well, pretty sure the fog in the tank isn't heterotrophic bacteria again.

It's grown thicker. Deeper. Real pea-soup. No, like, really - pea soup.

Pretty sure it's phytoplankton - changing out carbon & GFO seems to be having little to no effect. Got some "Vibrant" hanging around, so added the first dose last night.

Tank looks like this with one lamp showing blues and the other still on daylights:
~Bruce, hoping he can see the back of the tank again someday soon . . .

 

[Maritimer]

All right, I've caved.

Went and ordered a UV sterilizer - smaller than recommended for the tank, but it's got a decent reputation for clearing algae. Predictably, the algae had already begun to clear before the UV arrived, and the Deltec skimmer is pumping almost straight water into its collection cup. It's been filling several times a day for the last three days or so, and today after installing the UV, the thing went plumb loco.

This morning's draining above, this evening's running below!

The tank itself is beginning to clear as well, and I can begin to ***** the corals' condition. Inverts seem to be OK - I can see some of the snails and Aquilonastra (Asterina) stars on the glass and hermits as they bumble along the front, and I can hear the pistol shrimp from time to time.

~Bruce

 

[180_reef_beast]

You guys mind checking out my Instagram showcasing my 180 reef looking for advice will also be showing step by step 75 gallon anemone tank build

Follow ... 180_reef_beast

 

[Maritimer]

Welcome, 180_reef_beast! Alas, I know nothing of "Instagram" - never even been there.

Starting a build thread or asking questions in the "Reef Aquarium Discussion" forum here is a _great_ way to find advice from folks who know what they're talking about; people who've encountered the same issues and situations before.

~Bruce

 

[Maritimer]

With the UV sterilizer (AA's 24 watt "Green Killing Machine") in place in the sump - and a remarkably flexible little gadget it is - things are beginning to clear up a bit.

Last night, I told my son that I'd be able to see the back of the tank by tonight - and tonight, I can see the back of the tank.

(Only the right-hand side of the tank is even close to aquascaped - can't place rock if you can't see it...) I think I've lost four corals - three Montipora; a purple plating type, a bit of green digitata, and a rainbow with a teeny bit of orange cap attached to it (That one got dragged under a piece of shelf by the pistol shrimp, so I can't blame the algae completely...) and a Micromussa lordhowensis.

Shots of stressed, but awakening corals follow below - M. setosa:

Zoanthids and a Rhodactis 'shroom

Green frogspawn

Gorgonian - I hadn't seen this guy's polyps for _months_ in the 65, but he seems to like it here.

Birdsnests and a Pocillopora in the background, zoanthids and a Cyphastrea up front

A staghorn (green slimer?) that's the only Acropora I've kept for any great length of time, with a ... Millepora? ... in the foreground, which was gifted to me by a fellow reefer just before the tank went all cloudy. Beautiful little colony, rose-pinks and purples in real life, and I hope she pulls through!

Tomorrow's my only day off for a while, so I'd like to transfer some things to some heres and theres, and finish aquascaping what I can in the big tank. Eventually, I'd love to order about 50# of ocean-fresh liverock, dripping with random life to the tank, just to provide those moments of "What the heck is _that_?!" - and a more ecologically complete community.

~Bruce

 

[Maritimer]

Aquascaping 1.0 is done - not sure I've got room for another 50# of rock!

It's amazing how quickly a tank this big can fill up. Here's what she looks like this evening, under the blues:

Some corals look severely bleached - but they seem to have a bit of life in their polyps, so they're up on a shelf where I can keep an eye on 'em.

~Bruce

 

[Maritimer]

On the learning of things...

Gyre X-50s are cleaned and placed at both ends. There's six feet of water between them, but I had to dial them back to 70% to keep the sand on the floor and the corals on the shelves. Awesome flow! I may have to dial them back still further, as they'll periodically (once an hour or so?) send a vortex from the surface halfway down the water column.

Skimmer has settled in again, producing skimmate rather than weak green tea. The tank's not quite 100% crystal clear yet, but I can clearly see an eggcrate panel through six feet of that water, so it's 1,000% improved!

Moved all the fish from QT and the 65 to the freshly cleaned 75, where I'd like to keep and observe them for a while. The Caribbean striped parrotfish (Scarus iseri) took an immediate dislike to my orange-back wrasse, rushing at him. Hoped it would go away ... got worse. This morning, I caught the parrot _pummeling_ the fairy wrasse, and slipped an eggcrate divider into the tank right quick. Even with that, there are blue wrasse scales all over the bottom of the wrasse's side of the tank - and of course, the wrasse is in hiding. Since I like the wrasse better than this particular parrotfish - and would still love to have a Quoy's parrotfish (which has a much gentler reputation!), I've contacted a LFS about rehoming this guy - along with a couple of others who didn't work out as well as I'd have liked; the blue-jaw trigger, who I suspect in the disappearance of five sexy shrimp, two blood shrimp and a cleaner, and possibly the disappearance of a gramma and hi-fin goby (and who has turned all brown, with just a 5:00 shadow to betray his gender), and the Bartlett's anthias, who refuses to get along with any other small, reddish planktivore. (RIP, flasher wrasses . . . )

Hopefully, I can get this peaceful, diverse community back to its gentle flow . . .

~Bruce

 

[prsnlty]

[emoji23] . . "That's skimmate!" [emoji23] [emoji23] [emoji23]

Bruce, That was just too funny!!!!

Just finished reading your thread (in no particular order, I read books this way too LOL) Nice 220! Hopefully the uv will clear it up for you I'm installing one myself.

Jackie

 

[Maritimer]

Thanks, Jackie!

It's mostly clear now, but only mostly ... so the UV is quietly humming along in the sump, pumping sterilized algae directly into a bag of carbon / GFO. I think it'll take another giant step towards clarity if I clean the glass . . .

~Bruce

 

[prsnlty]

Thanks, Jackie!

It's mostly clear now, but only mostly ... so the UV is quietly humming along in the sump, pumping sterilized algae directly into a bag of carbon / GFO. I think it'll take another giant step towards clarity if I clean the glass . . .

~Bruce

Lol yes, it's amazing how much clearer are the tank gets after the glass is cleaned [emoji12]

 

[Maritimer]

Well . . . a baby step toward clarity, anyway.

I caught the parrotfish's aggression too late - after dropping that guy off at the LFS, I came home to find my orange-back wrasse lying on his back, fins and head a rich ultramarine blue ... and not one single scale on his ghost-white body. Angry with myself - it took a lot of effort to get that fish through QT, through an eye infection - one of my favorites, for sure, only to fail him now.

~Bruce

 

[jsker]

Well . . . a baby step toward clarity, anyway.

I caught the parrotfish's aggression too late - after dropping that guy off at the LFS, I came home to find my orange-back wrasse lying on his back, fins and head a rich ultramarine blue ... and not one single scale on his ghost-white body. Angry with myself - it took a lot of effort to get that fish through QT, through an eye infection - one of my favorites, for sure, only to fail him now.

~Bruce

Bummer Bruce

 

[prsnlty]

Bummer Bruce

+1 I'm sorry I was devastated when I found my orange shoulder gone. My daughter went through a lot to find him for me as a mother of the bride gift and then nearly lost him on the way home, and then I had to nurse him to health only one week shy of a year later to die and have no clue what happened. All I could think of was that pbt tormented him to death I understand how you feel...

 

[Maritimer]

Thanks, guys . . .

I'm going to have to find another one, 'cause I love that fish - but I'll also have to work around my C. solorensis somehow. The solorensis was the submissive of the two, but he'll want to grow and color up in the new tank.

~Bruce

 

[jsker]

Off to boarding school with him

 

[Bronc]

Great thread!! Thanks for sharing with us!