Definitely worm free (IMLagoon25)

[BristleWormHater]

Here's a full tank shot! You can see some dinos up front but overall the situation is improving. I've been brushing the sea fan every day, the dinos always come back but it seems like there's less of them everytime, still no polyps :grimacing-face:. Today I added a small female emerald crab for some minor bubble algae, let's hope it doesn't eat my coral. I think I'm starting to see some red cyano grow over the dinos, let's hope I don't have to deal with green cyano AND red cyano.

 

[BristleWormHater]

Don't be surprised if you start seeing updates without pictures, I just dropped my phone in the live rock tank trying to get a top down shot of a feather duster :grimacing-face:

 

[BristleWormHater]

Things are rough, at least my phone works :)
Everything looked good yesterday, aside from the cyano and dinos, the corals all looked great. I'm thinking my power might have gone out for an extended period last night. The birdsnest coral and mushroom corals are ticked. Everything else looks good though. Did a water change and tested this morning just in case, everything looked fine on the tests so my power outage theory is what I'm going with. Now for the problem child, the sea fan. I did a 3 minute freshwater dip on the frags that were overgrown with dinos and cyano, this was something I saw recommended online on some very old forums so I gave it a shot. They all died :( So I did NOT dip the colony in freshwater, but in my morning water change I did a peroxide dip on the sea fan, scrubbed it with a toothbrush and trimmed any dying areas. It is really hard to find any info on treatment for these issues for this coral so im kind of winging here. I don't think there's enough flow in my main tank to keep cyano and dinos off of it so until I get that resolved I moved it to the liverock tank and mounted a 500gph powehead, so that should be plenty.

 

[twentyleagues]

Thats one of the problems with sea fans they are not photosynthetic and high light levels will invite algae to grow on them. High flow can help. Feeding them can be a pain also feeding the enough will add unnecessary nitrate and phosphates to the water more food for algaes.

 

[BristleWormHater]

Thats one of the problems with sea fans they are not photosynthetic and high light levels will invite algae to grow on them. High flow can help. Feeding them can be a pain also feeding the enough will add unnecessary nitrate and phosphates to the water more food for algaes.

Exactly, now I'm thinking that the permanent spot for this sea fan will be in the 8 gallon that's sitting in my closet. I can set up that tank with corals like this one in mind. I'll get a photosynthetic gorg to take up the space where this one was. :)

 

[BristleWormHater]

Question for yall, Should I switch to feeding brine shrimp? I have some in my freezer that I haven't used. I've been feeding only mysis, I'm thinking that could be contributing to the cyano and dino problem.

 

[Slocke]

Question for yall, Should I switch to feeding brine shrimp? I have some in my freezer that I haven't used. I've been feeding only mysis, I'm thinking that could be contributing to the cyano and dino problem.

I was always told brine is far less nutritious

 

[WalkerLovesTheOcean]

Question for yall, Should I switch to feeding brine shrimp? I have some in my freezer that I haven't used. I've been feeding only mysis, I'm thinking that could be contributing to the cyano and dino problem.

You could feed it, as they'll eat it. But it's like a potato chip. So I wouldn't switch to brine for awhile. The only way you can get it decently healthy is while they are still BBS.

 

[BristleWormHater]

I need help. What is going on, I genuinely have no idea. All birdsnest rtn'd overnight and the mushroom corals are still ticked and now they are expelling zooanthelle. Everything else is fine.
Parameters:
Salinity: 1.025
Alk: 9dkh
Calcium: 440ppm
Mag: 1400ppm
Nitrate: 5ppm
Phosphate: .25
I'll retest when I get home, these results are from yesterday after I did a water change. I'll confess I'm still using an api kit for nitrate, phosphate, and calcium.

 

[tbrown]

My thoughts are a false positive on phosphates and a highish alkalinity. SPS do not do well with low phosphates and high alk.

Also if there's Dinos they could be a variety that stings.

 

[BristleWormHater]

My thoughts are a false positive on phosphates and a highish alkalinity. SPS do not do well with low phosphates and high alk.

Also if there's Dinos they could be a variety that stings.

That makes sense, so they were ticked because of low nutrients and then I bottomed them out with the water change :/ Still really confused about the mushrooms though, any ideas?
I'm pretty disappointed in myself for letting the birdsnest die, it was one of my favorites :(

 

[tbrown]

That makes sense, so they were ticked because of low nutrients and then I bottomed them out with the water change :/ Still really confused about the mushrooms though, any ideas?
I'm pretty disappointed in myself for letting the birdsnest die, it was one of my favorites :(

Not sure on the mushrooms. That's one of those things that can be thriving one day and just get irritated the next. Mine has been slowly getting worse for the past week or so as well.

 

[BristleWormHater]

Mushrooms don't look as bad today. And good news is that the sea fan seems to be doing well in the liverock tank, no polyp extension yet but I'm not expecting any for a few more days, it took awhile to adjust when I first added it to my main tank. No more dinos or cyano growing on it :)

 

[BristleWormHater]

Rhodactis mushrooms are regaining their color and opening up again, the yumas are still looking rough. Unfortunately the urchin bit the dust :/. Dinos and cyano are still everywhere but they've stopped spreading as much, I think it's because I've been feeding more and increasing my nutrients. The sea fan is doing well, it's starting to shed and the polyps are opening up in some places, unfortunately I had to prune some parts that were showing skeleton. It looks a little messy because its shedding and this glass is filthy, ive never cleaned it on this tank.

I've shifted my priorities away from livestock and into equipment upgrades, I meant to do this after I beat gha but didn't. The coral craze got me lol. I've been running my tank with no ATO and api tests. I've had a osmulator 3 since January but never bought a reservoir. Now I've got a reservoir on the way and some hanna colorimeters.
I'll update yall once those get here :)

 

[BristleWormHater]

Here is some cool shots from outside
Hump-backed Beewolf
Philanthus gibbosus

Horace's Duskywing
Erynnis horatius

American Toad
Anaxyrus americanus

Eastern Carpenter Bee
Xylocopa virginica

Thick-headed fly
Physocephala tibialis

 

[BristleWormHater]

The sea fan is almost entirely shedded and I'm really glad I didn't kill this beautiful coral. If I turn down the lights and dose phytoplanktin I can watch the polyps open up and it's really awesome :) I'll try and get a time lapse video at some point.

 

[BristleWormHater]

Heres an update on the mangroves, if any of you remember them lol. Two of them died because I added magnolia leaves from a tree with a fungal infection, which then spread to the two least healthy mangroves and killed them. There was also another huge problem, iron poisoning! I added so much iron to the water because I thought it could only help the plants, turns out thats not the case! I did multiple water changes to account for any residaul iron in the substrate and the mangroves have start to grow much faster. I only have two now, one still hasn't shown any leaf growth since it was partially eaten by my cat LAST YEAR, only root growth. I'm wondering if cutting a leaf could stimulate growth? The other one is doing great though! Look at these big leaves! I'll start acclimating this one to saltwater sometime next week!

 

[twentyleagues]

The sea fan is almost entirely shedded and I'm really glad I didn't kill this beautiful coral. If I turn down the lights and dose phytoplanktin I can watch the polyps open up and it's really awesome :) I'll try and get a time lapse video at some point.

You might want to try rotifers as well. A lot of "soft" nps really need small meaty things like that.

 

[BristleWormHater]

You might want to try rotifers as well. A lot of "soft" nps really need small meaty things like that.

Might try rotifers, I do feed it powder food as well so it does get meaty foods.

 

[twentyleagues]

Might try rotifers, I do feed it powder food as well so it does get meaty foods.

Have you seen it actually consume the powdered foods? That would be good.