BranchingHammer’s sps journey

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BranchingHammer

BranchingHammer

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So some acros are getting a little rough around the edges, working on maintaining my feeding routine. I think the easiest way for me to maintain nutrients is to add more fish, so I am purchasing two more tomorrow. Stay tuned!
 

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So some acros are getting a little rough around the edges, working on maintaining my feeding routine. I think the easiest way for me to maintain nutrients is to add more fish, so I am purchasing two more tomorrow. Stay tuned!
Couldn't agree more. I'm about to add acros to my tank after moving so I'll probably be in the same boat.
 
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I think the STNing of some corals is from the swings that happened in combination with lower feeding. Feels like a bit of a beginner mistake. To come back from this, I’m going to attempt to keep things as stable as ever, feed a lot, and get new fish. I’ll let you know how this strategy works.
 
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Picked up the new fish. I just acclimated both of them to my quarantine tank with temp acclimation and salinity matching only. They seem to be pretty healthy so far. I actually put an egg crate barrier between the two in case the damsel got aggressive, but the funny thing is that as soon as I put him in the tank, he started to swim back and forth through the divider! He ended up settling on his side of the divider (the smaller one), and letting the hawk fish rest alone on the larger side.

I also picked up LRS reef frenzy and PE mysis. I was replacing my old pack of mysis, but figured I would try the reef frenzy as well. I am not disappointed! On my first feeding, all of the fish and inverts went into a frenzy!
 

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Looks great!
 
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Here are some long awaited fish pics! The hawk fish took mysis soaked in selcon today, so the outlook looks good on these two fish. The hawk also started feasting on some isopods that were on the sponge filter and chaeto. They are in my QT tank right now by the way.

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The fish in QT continue to eat mysis well, so I am glad about that. In addition, the algae in my display in some areas has diminished greatly for some reason. I guess the chaeto is finally outcompeting it for the massive amount of nutrients that I add to the tank. Right where this algae is dying, the BC Aquatic Man is encrusting very quickly. I will have to take a few pics soon to show what I am talking about.
 
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I went away on vacation for a week, and I returned this Saturday. A family member of mine had been feeding the fish in QT mysis while I was gone. Apparently, they were both eating fine. Then, when I woke up on Sunday, there were some white fluffy patches hanging off of the hawkfish and he was breathing heavy. He also started developing popeye and possible lymphocystis. He ate that day, and I continued to observe him. On Monday and Tuesday his condition worsened, and on Tuesday he stopped eating. I treated the tank with copper and erythromycin that evening, but I wasn't sure if he was going to make it the night. I went to measure the copper levels before I went to bed at around 11:30 last night. He had stopped breathing. I attempted to get him breathing again by gliding him through the water and running water through his gills, but he wouldn't snap out of it. I tried some gentle compressions while water flowed over his gills, but I couldn't save him. Even though I only had the fish for around two weeks, I felt very attached to him, and it was very emotional for me to say goodbye to him.

I'll post some updates on this tank shortly, some good, some bad. Anyways, just wanted to share that story.
 
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A nice thing that happened while I was away was that some of the algae on my top rocks where the acropora reside faded away. So that's a small win. It was nice for patience to finally pay off and my chaeto to finally outcompete the nasties.
 

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I went away on vacation for a week, and I returned this Saturday. A family member of mine had been feeding the fish in QT mysis while I was gone. Apparently, they were both eating fine. Then, when I woke up on Sunday, there were some white fluffy patches hanging off of the hawkfish and he was breathing heavy. He also started developing popeye and possible lymphocystis. He ate that day, and I continued to observe him. On Monday and Tuesday his condition worsened, and on Tuesday he stopped eating. I treated the tank with copper and erythromycin that evening, but I wasn't sure if he was going to make it the night. I went to measure the copper levels before I went to bed at around 11:30 last night. He had stopped breathing. I attempted to get him breathing again by gliding him through the water and running water through his gills, but he wouldn't snap out of it. I tried some gentle compressions while water flowed over his gills, but I couldn't save him. Even though I only had the fish for around two weeks, I felt very attached to him, and it was very emotional for me to say goodbye to him.

I'll post some updates on this tank shortly, some good, some bad. Anyways, just wanted to share that story.
Sorry to hear that it sucks I've been there. Looks like you did everything you could but I know it's tough when it doesn't work out.
 
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Sorry to hear that it sucks I've been there. Looks like you did everything you could but I know it's tough when it doesn't work out.
Thanks for the kind words. It's just really frustrating and tough. I'll try to post some coral pictures tomorrow to cheer us all up.
 
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Here's an update on my acros as of today.
The Good:

RRC Pink Cadillac growing well
image8.jpeg



BC "mutha ship" table growing well and looking exceptional
image7.jpeg


Ricky's Shortcake coloring up well
image6.jpeg



BC Aquatic man growing the best out of everyone
image4.jpeg



Vivid's rainbow delight growing and coloring up well
image3.jpeg


BC Strawberry Fields encrusting well down the rocks
image2.jpeg



Both "Poseidon" Tort and Lemon lime tort growing tremendously
image1.jpeg


BC Fly me to the Blue Moon Humulis is encrusting well and starting shooting branches
image0.jpeg


Also in the Good list
Hawkin's Echinata
Green slimer (fell off of rockwork)
Red Planet
RR Rainbow loom (fell off of rockwork)

The Meh:
PC Rainbow (has some white spots)
BC Magic wand (some STN)
Ricky's lavender fields (pale, no growth)
BC Soft Sunset mille (paling out)
Unknown green mariculture

The UGLY:
BC Pig Champion (flesh is very thin, STN got worst, minimal polyp extension)
Jurnee's Unicorn Tenuis (I was pretty bummed about this one, as it was encrusting on the rocks and looking amazing) I cut off the dead skeleton and reglued it to a frag plug as best as I could:
image5.jpeg


I am going to try to do one of these types of updates once a week to track recoveries and downhill spirals of corals.

All other corals/inverts doing fine and grew amazingly while I was gone.

To combat the issues, I am changing my DI resin tomorrow and mixing some water change water. I'll throw some polyfilter in there too as well.
 
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Looks great. My LNH only eats mysis.
Thanks for the kind words, @Crabby48. When I had the LNH, I only fed him frozen mysis which he liked a lot. I am considering trying again with this fish, but I think that I will order a long nosed hawkfish from @Dr. Reef's quarantined fish, because all of the diseases hit at once and it was too much for him to handle. I hope that by starting with a healthier fish I could avoid this.
 
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