40 gallons and counting

[Saltyreef24]

I recently bought a microscope, and confirmed my Dinoflagellate bloom. This is a particularly dense sample. These Dino’s exhibit 2 different patterns of movement. When resting on substrate(the slide, in this instance) they move around like a roomba or bumper cars, but when free swimming they take a corkscrew-like path through the water. I believe they are of the genus amphidinium.

Then this is a sample of a green film algae from my other tank.

And this is a more diverse mixture of microorganisms, most of which I believe are diatoms, collected from my return nozzle

 

[Saltyreef24]

Since my last post, the dinoflagellate bloom has been resolved, so I have been able to ramp up my lighting schedule once again, leading to some nice growth. I also started adding more life to my tank to spruce it up. The microflora and fauna on rocks have really taken off. I have also added a new bicolor frogspawn, a rainbow bubble tip anemone, stellaria chalice, and a couple small frags of yellow tip acropora austera as my first acro. I had my first skimmer hiccup, where the air input to the Venturi became clogged with salt, and my nitrate climbed to 20 and phosphate to 0.2, but they are now trending down again since I’ve found and cleared the clog.

 

[Tahoe61]

Congrats on getting past the Dino battle. The tank looks great really really clean. I have wanted to try Anacropora, yours seem to be growing well.

 

[Saltyreef24]

Nitrate has been trending down ever since I cleared that salt clog in my skimmer Venturi, and it seems to be settling in at around 5. Hopefully it stays there and doesn’t drop much lower, as 1-5 ppm is my target range right now. I’ve since received a couple pieces of green/blue birds nest (Seriatopora caliendrum type) from a friend.

I’ve started fragging out my Kenya tree corals to sell them or maybe get store credit, but the frags do not want to stick to any rocks. I’ve tried superglue and rubber bands, but they just release themselves after a few days, or split where the rubberband is. Any tips for securing them?

My clownfish and my anemone have been growing accustomed to each other, to the point that the clowns now sleep up against it and when they nuzzle it during the day it does not retract. This has seemed to be a much longer process than I anticipated. Most of what I read online indicated that clownfish will suddenly take to the nem one day, but mine are just gradually spending more time with it.

 

[Saltyreef24]

Congrats on getting past the Dino battle. The tank looks great really really clean. I have wanted to try Anacropora, yours seem to be growing well.

Thanks Tahoe, yes it was a long battle but much better now. Anacropora are awesome and easy. I highly recommend them. I just wish they came in as many colors as acros. A small frag got knocked off and buried in the sand nearly a month ago and I just found it today with a bit of life still on it. I’ve got so much of it now, if only you were a bit closer to SWFL

 

[Saltyreef24]

Update:

So nitrate did continue to drop pretty far down. Last week it was undetectable on the API test. Phosphate is about the same. I’ve since been feeding 2-3x normal and I’ve raised my skimmer cup as high as I can to skim very dry, and am letting my filter socks overflow for a few days before changing them. I’m able to see that nutrient levels are on the rise because some corals which began to get pale have slowly regained some color, but I’m still reading 0’s on nutrients for now. I’m hypothesizing that the nutrient levels dropped so much due to how the live rock is now almost fully colonized with various algae’s and sponges, and how I have a healthy copepod population on the glass.
All this growth and development acted as a nutrient sink. Furthermore, I’ve gradually lengthened my photo period over the past couple months, and that has lead to much more photosynthesis happening.

On the bright side, I have begun trading Kenya trees in for credit and picked up a beautiful bird of paradise birdsnest.

 

[Saltyreef24]

I dosed fluconazole last week to knock out some gha and some other filamentous, anchored algae that looked a bit like bryopsis. Instructions said not to use the skimmer during treatment but with a covered display and sump, that’s my main oxygen source, so I’ve just been keeping the cup high and dumping it. This was the final blow to my ULN state. Nutrients are back up now. 5 nitrate and 0.03 phosphate.

This bump in nutrients is already improving health and coloration in my green Kenya trees, which is great because I have started trading them in at my LFS where they have been kind enough to accept them for credit. I recently got a scripps green acro from them and also picked up a bird of paradise birdsnest, which has been on my wishlist for a while.

Recently, I have gotten into the habit of fragging new corals on arrival, before I even dip them. I am doing this partly as an insurance policy against a frag simply going kaput, but also because it is helping to fill out my tank faster and give me more specimens that I can grow and trade. So far I have yet to see negative reactions to this practice, as they have still been acclimating okay to the tank and opening up.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

I dosed fluconazole last week to knock out some gha and some other filamentous, anchored algae that looked a bit like bryopsis. Instructions said not to use the skimmer during treatment but with a covered display and sump, that’s my main oxygen source, so I’ve just been keeping the cup high and dumping it. This was the final blow to my ULN state. Nutrients are back up now. 5 nitrate and 0.03 phosphate.

This bump in nutrients is already improving health and coloration in my green Kenya trees, which is great because I have started trading them in at my LFS where they have been kind enough to accept them for credit. I recently got a scripps green acro from them and also picked up a bird of paradise birdsnest, which has been on my wishlist for a while.

Recently, I have gotten into the habit of fragging new corals on arrival, before I even dip them. I am doing this partly as an insurance policy against a frag simply going kaput, but also because it is helping to fill out my tank faster and give me more specimens that I can grow and trade. So far I have yet to see negative reactions to this practice, as they have still been acclimating okay to the tank and opening up.

Glad to see you are getting rid of the GHA and your corals are doing better!

 

[Saltyreef24]

Glad to see you are getting rid of the GHA and your corals are doing better!

Thank you! It is already vanishing, though some clumps remain. Im patiently waiting for it to be gone to trade some more stuff with a buddy of mine. Meanwhile I’m wishing there were more local reefers in fort Myers that were looking to trade frags.

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Thank you! It is already vanishing, though some clumps remain. Im patiently waiting for it to be gone to trade some more stuff with a buddy of mine. Meanwhile I’m wishing there were more local reefers in fort Myers that were looking to trade frags.

Haha, if I was closer and had my tank up and running I would trade with you

 

[Saltyreef24]

Update:

After my fluconazole treatment (successful) my pod population crashed, possibly because of fluconazole’s strong effect on film algae. I did a few water changes and ran carbon to remove it, and reseeded the tank with some wild caught pods from the gulf. Then I went out of town for a week and on the last day or two of my trip there was a power outage of unknown duration. By the time I got home cyano and Dino’s had taken over again. The one bit of good news upon my return was seeing a healthy pod population on the glass once again.

I then ran more carbon to counteract the toxins the Dino’s and cyano produce, which were significantly affecting my snails. I also added some air stones to bring up O2, and installed a sicce UV sterilizer on my return line. Dinos are now gone and just a tiny bit of cyano is left in 1-2 small spots of the tank.

One other negative consequence of the fluconazole was my frogspawn coral bleaching and receding. It is staying retracted now, but I am trying to nurse it back to health.

This has been quite the ride, but in the weeks since these last changes my tank is looking better than ever, and I am excited for its next stages.

I also added some Halimeda incrassata? and Caulerpa sertularioides algae that I brought back from my trip, which have a cactus-like and fern-like charm that contrasts the bright corals.

I also have a beautiful melanurus wrasse in quarantine right now, slated to enter this tank in about a week and a half if all goes well.

Wishing the best of luck to all of y’all on your current (and future) tanks.