210 Gallon - "Texas" (First Build)

[Aaron-A2]

Finally... Welcome back little dudes...

 

[Aaron-A2]

Coral Update

This past week I've had nearly 0 polyp extension from my Acropora only (everything else is fine). I've done 2 full rounds of testing and everything is fine (alk/calc/mag/n03/p04/etc). So what's the most recently changes that could effect my acros?

1. Recently began dosing DIY KZ Snow. A simple mixture of Calcium Carbonate + RODI water
2. Added my fish back to the system (Includes Flame Angel)
3. Increased LED intensity by 5%

Let's break down each one.

KZ Snow Dosing
My goal here was to starve out my vermitid snails by removing all particulates in the water. Over the course of 4 days, this dosing caused my alk to drop from 8 to 7.6 (4) times. Each time it would drop, I would manually dose alk to bring it back up. It's possible this fluctuation was the cause.

Flame Angel
I had this fish for months without issue. However, this dwarf angel has the possibility of nipping coral. That said, I've seen no evidence of the fish nipping coral directly, though it is ALWAYS pecking at the rock for algae. It's very likely this is the cause, though I have no visible proof.

Increase LED Intensity (5%)
I have been increasing my LED intensity by 5% every 1-2 weeks (currently at 70%). After using a PAR meter, it's clear my PAR levels are too low. They were low initially because the one and only coral I've killed (octospawn) died from my ignorance of hot spots from LEDs. I was nervous, so I ran them at 40% within a 28" deep tank. That's clearly not enough, and my end goal is to bring them up to 100% albiet slowly. This should put my PAR at 350-400 at the top where my acros are.

Conclusion
I believe it may be a perfect storm scenario where multiple issues have causes the polyp recession, however after talking with a few fellow SPS dominant reefers I am relatively certain the true issue is tied to the Flame Angel. To confirm this hypothesis, I have captured and removed the flame angel from my system. As of this morning (early), I'm seeing PE on all my acros however the true test will be when lights are actually on. Update pending.

 

[Aaron-A2]

Acropora Update

Per my previous post, I've been trying to figure out why I'm having a lack of polyp extension with my acropora. I'm leaning towards the flame angel, however after a day of it not being in the tank my PE is still not back. I'll be letting my tank settle for a week to see if the polyps return.

 

[Aaron-A2]

So since Monday, I've started to see some polyp extension. Not much, but SOME. I believe now more so than before it was the Flame Angel causing the polyp recession.

Thanks @bubbaque for the info over the last day or so. It's always appreciated :D

 

[bubbaque]

I’m glad you are seeing a little improvement. Few more days and I’d imagine you see an improvement.

 

[Aaron-A2]

So normally I relegate my clown harem videos to my 90g build thread, I figured it was worth while to post this video here as well. I talk a bit about how my acropora are doing from last weeks update (hint: much better!), some new acros i'll be putting in the tank today, and some other random stuff. Most of it's in the beginning, the rest is for the harem build.

 

[Aaron-A2]

Like I mentioned in the video above, I had a few sweet adds to the tank arriving today (they just did).

I'll get better pictures, but they are...

- Flame Fairy Wrasse
- Orange-Back Fairy Wrasse
- Radiant Wrasse
- Yellow (Canary) Wrasse
- Melenarus Wrasse

 

[Aaron-A2]

So an update on the fish... last night I noticed nearly all of them have white salt grains on their body/fins. At first glance, I'd assume Ich, however knowing that wrasses typically don't show ich and after talking with @Humblefish , the current guess is it's marine velvet.

That said, my current plan is to bring copper up to therapeutic 1.5ppm within 48 hours. In my 29 gallon tank, I am dosing 6ml of CopperPower (chelated) every 12 hours till I reach 1.5ppm. My first dose was last night -- I tested twice this morning with my hanna checker and the levels are at .37 which is about where it should be for dose 1.

Honestly, what the actual ****. Every fish I have ever purchased has had ich or some other parasite/disease. These fish were specifically from a local(ish) retailer of rare fish, and I was hoping that based on his suppliers he could have more direct access to pest-free fish, but I was obviously wrong.

 

[bubbaque]

Oh man, I am sorry to hear about that. Dealing with velvet has to be absolutely terrible.

 

[OffTopic]

So an update on the fish... last night I noticed nearly all of them have white salt grains on their body/fins. At first glance, I'd assume Ich, however knowing that wrasses typically don't show ich and after talking with @Humblefish , the current guess is it's marine velvet.

That said, my current plan is to bring copper up to therapeutic 1.5ppm within 48 hours. In my 29 gallon tank, I am dosing 6ml of CopperPower (chelated) every 12 hours till I reach 1.5ppm. My first dose was last night -- I tested twice this morning with my hanna checker and the levels are at .37 which is about where it should be for dose 1.

Honestly, what the actual ****. Every fish I have ever purchased has had ich or some other parasite/disease. These fish were specifically from a local(ish) retailer of rare fish, and I was hoping that based on his suppliers he could have more direct access to pest-free fish, but I was obviously wrong.

I am sorry to hear about the fish, I have never had a fish have velvet. I did however want to mention how great the tank is turning out to be, great pictures of the corals. Following along

 

[zzl630]

Which LFS was that?

 

[Aaron-A2]

Update

The Flame Fairy Wrasse died. Girlfriend sent a picture of it belly up....

While I am work, she did the second of four copper dosing. She also did a copper test with my hanna checker and it's reading .74 which is right on target for bringing copper up to 1.5ppm within 48 hours. Sigh...

Which LFS was that?

It wasn't from an LFS. I'm in Houston, the guy that sold it to me shipped from Austin.

 

[bubbaque]

That doesn't sound good

 

[izzyishh]

sorry im late to the party you picked up the orange hammer from aqua sd right?

 

[Aaron-A2]

sorry im late to the party you picked up the orange hammer from aqua sd right?

Yes, that's correct.

 

[Aaron-A2]

So as an update on the wrasses in QT... Flame Wrasse died 2 days ago per my message. Last night the Orange-Back fairy wrasse died.

Today, I have 3 wrasses left:

• Radiant
• Yellow
• Hoeven's

I am now at 1.55ppm copper and I'm no longer seeing white spots on the wrasses. I'm utterly devastated at the losses of the two fish... I can't believe they shipped an entire batch of fish infected with marine velvet. It was obvious they were sick when they arrived...

In either case, I've attempted contact with the seller since Thursday but have had zero response. This is infuriating.

 

[Aaron-A2]

Still no response from the seller. The remaining 3 wrasses are doing good -- not seeing any more white spots and copper is holding steady around 1.56. I'm going to be doing a 5g water change on the QT tank (30g) , so I'll be bringing the fresh SW up to 1.55ppm~ before dumping.

Any suggestions on how long to wait for copper to fully disseminate throughout the water?

 

[bubbaque]

I hate to see this happening to your fish :(.

 

[Aaron-A2]

@bubbaque On the bright side, I glued my new frags to the rock last night (Homewrecker, SC Orange Passion, ASD Rainbow). Homewrecker pinks are coming through already. I'll get some pics in a bit when they color up more.

 

[Aaron-A2]

Been awhile since I updated this thread, but here ya go! The second half covers a generic overview of my coral. tl;dr I need more nutrients yo!