Dopey's Reef

[dopey]

Well.. It's been 6 weeks folks!

The top tank has been disconnected from the bottom tank. I treated the top tank and all fish have survived which started in the quarantined period.

The lower tank had the corals/inverts and light.


Full disclosure; I didn't do any maintenance during these 6 weeks. Only top off water.

Man did the caulerpa take off in the coral tank Just absolutely insane. Really shows how well either the skimmer or surgeonfish was doing at fighting it off..


So how things looked before quarantine.. literally had just taken the skimmer out of the sump:

And how they looked today..

You can''t see it but there is basically a wall of caulerpa flowing in the current.. Algea all over the glass.



Just finished the draining, here was the setup.. My partner didn't want to hold the hose in the bathroom so she taped it down in the sink..

Currently making water as fast as I can to fill it back up. The fish were relocated into the bottom tank for the day. Think the surgeon will be quite happy, as he has an endless buffet of food........


Next steps:
1.) As much NSW into the tank this evening as I can make so it can be heating overnight.
2.) If I have made enough progress/temp/salinty/stats are OK .. Turn on the pumps to reconnect the systems tomorrow.
3.) Move fish + corals back into display
4.) Immediate water change to syphon out as much of the caulerpa as possible. (Large hose + thumb is amazing effective)
5.) Dose bacteria and monitor parameters to make sure no ammonia.

...and clean up all the cabling/extra equip/monitoring mess made 6 weeks ago.

...and ofcourse test for copper before connecting the systems. But it is 100% water change and a *new* piece of rock which has been curing the past 6 weeks, the rubble was also removed. I just can't imagine the glass/silicone has 'absorbed' copper.


Some positive news, my new weir came in from modular marine ! (Literally the first day of quarantine.. thanks universe..)

One interesting note(may make another post). The tank which I treated the fish, the silicone is now dyed blue. I assume from the medicine/copper.. I can only thing this is stained and not 'copper seeped into the silicone thus rendering the tank forever unusable'.. but I guess we will find out...

 

[dopey]

Everything is connected again. Been about 10 days now.

Think i'm happy with the rockscape, and just need to focus on syphoning out the caulerpa and let the surgeonfish do his magic.

Today tore apart the sump and cleaned it, as well setup the refugium. Since my sump doesn't have baffles i'm using a small plastic box for reptiles; like https://www.petsmart.com/reptile/ha...e-critter-reptile-tote-54943.html?cgid=500118 but without the lid Have mounted the little tunze refugium light above it/angled to try and minimize light spread.

Before and after pics of the sump:

and after:

Since I have plenty of caulerpa going to let that grow down there at first. I'm a bit hesitant to get chaeto from my LFS. Love them to death, but feels better to start with the macro I have than risk introducing new pest with LFS chaeto. Will try to find an equivalent to algae barn here in EU.


Basically back to where I was in Feb. Once I see the caulerpa eradicated from the display I will order additional lighting and start adding new corals. For now just a single AI prime over the old nano tank rock.

Also picked up a UV. Recommendation of LFS is to have it ready with a pump and upon seeing any signs of stress/ich/whatever toss it in the DT directly. Haven''t decided if i'll follow that idea, or plumb it in permanently. After having this velvet outbreak, i'd rather have it on the shelve than not (along with medicines, and enough equipment to setup a QT within a few hours......)

 

[najer]

Excuse the likes explosion, nicely done, sorry about the fish, keep on plugging on.

 

[dopey]

Just an update.. Today is actually the 'tank birthday'. Seems I put it all together Jan 11th! She's officially 3 months old, albeit had a 6 week 'pause'.

FTS Today:

Here's how the tank looked day 1:

And just to remind everyone how shameful this is. Here is how the previous nano looked in it's prime (July 2019):

But some good news.. making progress in the battle of caulerpa! This is April 4th vs today.
April 4th(forgive the uncleaned glass):

and today. It's cleaned up substantially around the zoa's and other areas.

I credit this to both the fish eating it, and removing what I can each water change.

Additionally the refugium has started growing caulerpa on the rock:
April 5th:

vs today:

I suspect i''ll make changes to the refugium. When I receive the chaeto will likely remove the rock entirely and go with chaeto and try to get it to spin in the container. Second idea is to make a divider and use the entire width of the tank for the refugium.


I've also finally settled on a light. Have ordered an evergrow IT5080 which is the european version of the Photon v2. It's 80cm panel of LEDs, which with the tank being 83cm felt perfect. I find myself a bit confused by this all. I'm a heavy watcher of BRS content, and naturally found myself considering radeons, and AI lights due to their reviews of lights. I'm not sure if i've merely 'seen the light' (forgive the pun) when finding this alternative (As when I think about it, I see panel of LEDs at my LFS coral tanks.. not banks of small form factor LEDs... or will I be disappointed by a 'chinese blackbox' light.

I have a seneye, my plan is to use it to measure the existing AI prime par and set the new light at/below it's readings to start. Also quite keen to see the 'spread'.

At this point, I plan to get the light in place and after that start collecting and placing frags.. then let the tank grow.

I have no idea which corals or where i'll place them. Other than the candycanes will be moved off the rock it's on today. That rock will become softie island with the hammerhead on top.

 

[dopey]

I think I can finally declare victory over Caulerpa. It's not 100% gone from the display, but it is just melting away every day.

Here is March 30th:

and here is April 21st:

It is just disappearing by the day. The Caulerpa in the refugium is growing strong as well.

It's a really great feeling to see this melt away. It was entirely my fault it ever got out of control (or even introduced), but after the initial attempt to fight it.. then velvet.. it's so nice to feel i'm well on my way to 100% removal from the display tank.

I believe it's the combination of herbivore fish picking at it, and the refugium out competing the display tank's caulerpa.


My IT5080 evergrow lights should arrive by middle of next week. As should an MP10 to continue tuning flow.

Today I did pick up a couple corals that i'll keep at the bottom of the tank.

One Chalice:

and one Scoly:

Hoping to grow these on the barebottom of the tank.


Last thing; I have decided to try and kill off the GSP. I do like it, and do like the look. I also recognize it will take over that entire rock. I haven't settled on a strategy to kill it, but will start making attempts to stunt/reduce it's footprint and ultimately kill it.. I suspect this will be much harder than Caulerpa to remove

 

[dopey]

I believe in the next 1-3 days i'll be able to officially declare caulerpa 100% out of the display tank. I can count on one hand the individual strands of caulerpa I can find in the display at this point.

.......................Or i'll be posting about how I nuked my tank...............by going mad scientist against GSP.

I've been researching how to get rid of GSP. Unfortunately most threads you find don't actually show the final/long term success -- the only threads or stories I could find which resulted in actual eradication of GSP (and blue polyps) was using Fenbendazol. Such as this wordpress article: https://maxdraco.wordpress.com/2013...ue-cloves-polyps-xenia-aiptasia-hydriods-etc/

When picking up allergy medicine, I checked the dog/cat section and spotted 250mg tablets of this. I purchased them, and been debating each day since whether to use them or not.


This afternoon I crushed up half a tablet to make roughly .5mg per liter of water and dosed the tank. About 1 hour and 45 minutes ago.

Here it was minutes before dosing:

and about 1 hour after:

Many things could of made it angry, but i'm assuming it's reacting to the dose.

I am beyond nervous watching this unfold.


I initially turned off the skimmer, but out of potentially an irrational fear of not enough O2 in the tank turned it back on. I've lowered the water volume as low as possible and running the DC pump on a medium setting. It won't collect anything but will still provide aeration.


Fingers crossed, as i'm very proud in the caulerpa battle and if this latest action by me causes a tank crash it's going to really really suck. At the same time, if I don't want GSP in the tank now is the best time to ensure it's 100% removal -- not after I add tons of frags.

 

[Murica]

nice build, following!

 

[dopey]

Just a boring update to track the effects of dosing Fenbendazol.

Here is the GSP 24 hours later:

It never opened fully today, but that can happen. Never know when the hermit crab decided to stroll over it.

Can't say I see any noticeable signs of death on either the GSP or the BCPs.

Everything else seems healthy; if I was being picky i'd say the hammer didn't open quite as much as it normally does.

Reading wordpress article it does seem to be something that affects become more noticeable over the 48-72 hour period.


I'm just glad I didn't wake up to a mucous covered tank of death..



**just have to say, that two spotted surgeonfish is my absolut favorite in the tank. May not be the most bright colored fish, but man he is awesome.**

 

[dopey]

Update on treatment.

It's been 6 days. I dosed .5mg per Litre last Tuesday(April 28th).

The BCP has nearly vanished. First couple days it was very small.. Today it's to the point that I am going I *think* I see a stain where BCP used to be in some areas, and completely gone in others.

The GSP has been angry ever since. Hard to say if it's 'dying'. If it is receding it is very very slightly. Looking at the GSP I can't say it's receding, but I do see a once lost couple zoa heads that I haven't seen for a bit..

Here is May 1st:

May 3rd:

May 4th

Can you see a difference? It's clearly angry.


I haven't done a water change going on 3 weeks now.. And my skimmer has been not-skimming for 1 week. No carbon either(don't normally run carbon anyway.)

I'm debating whether to do skimming/WC this week or let it keep like this. It does seem to be having an affect, and if I start skimming/waterchange/carbon i'll potentially remove the active ingredient?

I think I will let this continue this week as-is, and worst case resume normal duties this weekend. (WC, Skimming), as well add some Carbon. If the GSP starts recovering i'll try a second dose?

This is the downside with playing mad scientist.. you have no idea what you are doing

 

[dopey]

Things seem to be happening now.

Definitely some thinning out of the mat:

and two dead bristleworms floating in the current today:

I have no idea why it's taken over a week for effects to become more noticeable. I have not dosed any additional medication to the tank.

All other fish/corals acting fine. I can't find any BCP open. I see specs of what could be BCP or just something else if I stare long enough.

The GSP hasn't even partially opened for a couple days now. Just looks like above 24/7.


Still no water change and skimmer water level turned all the way down so it's not skimming. Planning one this weekend unless the situation changes.

 

[dopey]

Still no water changes or skimming.

The GSP is clearly clearly dying now;

You can see tears in the mat, and it hasn't shown any green tentacles in a week now.

I am holding off a few more days on a water change. I'm a bit afraid if I start doing water changes/skimming it will make a comeback.

So far no other corals seem affected. The snails seem a bit 'slow', and our beloved hermit crab it's hard to tell. He's still moving around, and even molted this week... but we think he may be a little bit less active.

On a side note; This covid situation has left much time on all our hands. I put together a little video montage of the journey since returning to reefing. It was fun looking back and seeing the ups/downs of this journey since returning:

 

[Murica]

Still no water changes or skimming.

The GSP is clearly clearly dying now;

You can see tears in the mat, and it hasn't shown any green tentacles in a week now.

I am holding off a few more days on a water change. I'm a bit afraid if I start doing water changes/skimming it will make a comeback.

So far no other corals seem affected. The snails seem a bit 'slow', and our beloved hermit crab it's hard to tell. He's still moving around, and even molted this week... but we think he may be a little bit less active.

On a side note; This covid situation has left much time on all our hands. I put together a little video montage of the journey since returning to reefing. It was fun looking back and seeing the ups/downs of this journey since returning:

love the video, good idea for my thread!

 

[dopey]

The GSP continues to decline. It's by no means a rapid demise, but it's certainly dying. I'm seeing Zoas I didn't realize even existed pop out from the GSP's mat. Mixing water now and will do the normal 26L water change tomorrow, and will retune the skimmer for skimmate. I am a bit worried if the GSP begins to make a recovery, if it does I think i'll just dose again.

The new lights finally arrived! In hindsight I am glad I am upgrading lights at this time of the year. Here in Sweden we go through nearly 24 hour daylight cycles (Ramping up now) to nearly 24h darkness cycles during fall/winter. By upgrading lights now, it's not very noticeable how bright they really are Replacing them in the middle of our darkness period would of been a massive shock for my partner

Final shot with old light:

New light:

These lights were strong! I hadn't tested my PAR even though I owned a Seneye, but before installing them I put the seneye on top of my hammer. Only read around 45 PAR. That was way lower than i'd of guessed.

The new lights in their 'default' configuration was 450+ PAR in that same location

I brought all channels down to 10% to reach similar par. Then adjusted following an SPS/AB+ (I think) recommendation but did 10% of each. I will start raising them slowly over time. I haven't decided on target PAR ranges yet.

I had been telling my partner/girlfriend that once we won against caulerpa, and got a new light, we could stock the tank.. so she was insistent to visit the LFS today. I actually want to do this quite slow now, given the challenges over the past couple years. I also know my lighting intensity is not where I want it for SPS, and i'm fully expecting an algea explosion now that the entire tank is lit..

But she won.. so we went, but told he we'd only buy one stick to see how it does under the new lights. I'm not entirely confident, but will be interesting to see how it goes.

We also got another Acan, and i've relocated the existing Acan to the small rock on the right side of the tank. I'm picturing an Acan garden there.. and if it's doable move the candycane to the top of that rock.

And a full tank shot with the new lights, and new corals:

I'm still waiting on my MP10. I'm chosing to believe Covid is the explanation for such a long delay in getting a common pump

 

[dopey]

I didn't think i'd need to dose alk so soon. I also haven't been testing it. I've been using Red Sea Pro salt so should of given me quite high alk to begin with, and weekly water changes of suffice'd for a while.

During this lockdown thought i'd become a better reefer and test alk daily. Unfortunately had lost all the caps to my hannah vials I ordered some new ones, and they have arrived.

Tested it yesterday after a water change, 5.6 dkh.

Began making a new batch of saltwater this morning as a 'control'. It test at 12dkh.

Seems the tank really is at 5.6dkh. I haven't done a water change in roughly 3 weeks, but i'm at a loss how the dkh of dropped so low. Did not think I had enough corals consuming alk/calcium to cause that.

Will do some additional water changes this week to bring it up, also decided to go with Fauna Marin Alk and Calcium that i'll start mixing and dosing once I determine my consumption rate.


I suspect this drop in alk coincides with the declining PH I saw a few weeks ago. Went from 8.20 with minimal fluctuation to stair-stepping motion down every day.


On the positive, the refugium has just exploded:

And some evening pics of our most neon corals:

 

[dopey]

Weekly update! Or atleast my own personal diary

Once I received my replacement vials and tested I discovered my alkalinity was dangerously low (4.7 at lowest). Good news, something is consuming alk, bad news.. that's super low! My Ca was at 420 a couple days ago and was 400 today.

After some research i've settled on the Fauna Marin Balling method. I'm able to easily source the components, and the method resonates well with me.

After more research, I settled and ordered a GHL Doser 2.1 SA. I hope I am able to scrape data from the unit itself, or the myGHL cloud worst case as i'd like to continue collecting all possible data in my own setup.

After even more research, I ordered a 3x1.5L dosing box, holder for tubes, and a Magnesium test kit.

Additionally i've been scoping out *where* to place all this. My tank is in our living room, and very very limited space. My partner is supportive of the tank, but very nervous about 'all the stuff' I seem to collect

The tank is next to my fairly large computer desk. I have a plan to mount a 30cm wide x 1.2meter long wood shelve behind the middle support of the desk, flush with the bottom of this support.

That will give me actually quite a bit of real estate for equipment. I can comfortable fit 3x 1.5L dosing containers there, as well store some seldom used test kits/materials.

As for the doser itself, I will put a small shelve just large enough for the doser higher up in this same area. According to online the doser is 22cm wide. I will use a 25cm shelve which will let me route the hoses directly 'down'' from the doser shelve, into the containers.

It will be a bit tight, but I think this is actually a quite clever use of space. Allows me to get more equipment for the tank, but keep it out of viewing.

I tend to have one of the panels open fairly often (Can see it in that photo), but a requirement is we can always close up the stand and just see tank. Trying to make a 'display tank' and conceal equipment is a real challenge!


On another note; The chalice is growing. Here is April 25th:

and today:

It has grown over the frag plug.


As for the GSP it is still closed. I have done two water changes since the initial dose, and the GSP has not shown any signs of recovering.. so hopefully it will continue to whither away and die. It is *very* slow to die tho. I expected to see the mat recede but instead it's almost like it's getting thinner and thinner.


The new Evergrow lights are great. I have made an excel with my target settings, and a second table I can manipulate by % to do incremental increased over time.

Today I increased to 30% of target and updated the lights. I haven't seen any negative effects of the lighting so far. I do think i'm running a tad too long of a photo period, so may revise this and start ramping 1 hr or so sooner/later on either side.


Now some negative news:
The Green SPS I added is receding in tissue compared to day one. It's not rapid but comparing photos it's apparent. I am hoping as I raise and stabilize alk this will trend the other way.

The Scoly I added also started having its 'mouth' open 24/7 this past week. At first I thought it may be LPS being LPS.. but started getting concerned. It was sitting in the 'middle' of the tank directly exposed to the light. I've moved it under a 'cliff' of Rock which makes it have shade. It appears to be closing it's mouth now, so fingers crossed it becomes happier. I have not been directly feeding it, but have ordered FM LPS food that i'll try once it arrives.


Overall i'm happy where the tank is heading, and while nervous to do automatic dosing I am quite excited to try it. It's a very good sign that alkalinity is being consumed! From testing each day this week it seems i'm losing about .5 dkh per day.

 

[dopey]

Been a couple weeks!

Few developments. Received the GHL Doser 2.1 SA, as well as a 3x1.5L dosing container!

First thing first was to make the new shelve hidden behind my adjustable computer desk. Actually think this is a really clever use of space. Added bonus it gets all the cables off the floor making cleaning much easier!

Before... The dust is mainly from drilling the ceiling holes for the lights.. but lets be honest.. im a gamer dude, desk is rarely cleaned :X

Get the desk out of the way.. We've joked many times about if I gave up my gaming setup, I could put a tank there instead. It is certainly tempting!

Add adding the shelve. For this I did go for 'already looks nice' MDF. This area should not see water, and if it does replacing it is 10000000x easier than replacing part of the tank stand.

Desk back in. Can't even see the shelve when in 'sitting' position. The black tube is for my ATO.

Here is a more eye level view seeing the shelve:

And with the desk up. Room to fit some lesser used supplies, containers, etc.

I actually built this the weekend before I received the doser (Got the containers first). Once the dosers arrived it was time to mix the Balling Method by Fauna Marin:

I already messed up mixing. Was following the instructions, but had a different order of containers than in the instructions (Above is Alk, Ca, Mg). I did all three salts first, then added trace elements. I added the Ca trace elements into the Alk container. Had instant precipitation, so got to do it all over again ^_^

And here is how it looks today with the desk at standing height:

I did want to put the GHL doser on a small 'shelve' a bit higher, but there just wasn't space and it would prevent me/require me to never accidentally lower the desk below X height. This way works.

The colorful box is actually hiding my ATO which at the moment is the large bucket of Red Sea Coral Pro salt. The ATO tubing runs out the back and into the stand.

Overall pretty happy with this. I do keep forgetting that I can raise the desk whenever I need something from under there, so normally on my knees crawling when I realize I can just raise the desk to make it much easier


I have found the GHL doser to be very straight forward to set up. I have been measuring my alk daily, and Ca a few times a week. If I understand the balling method I should aim for dosing equal parts (or close to it). I've started my dosing at 15ml total each day of each part -- practically 3x5ml dose of each part spread throughout the day. Having the pumps on their lowest setting to prevent precipitation. Will continue testing and gradually increase/decrease depending how the numbers go.

There is many many theories on the forums. I believe what i'm graviting towards is a somewhat raised parameters (Thinking 12 Alk for example -- trying to match Red Sea Pro fresh mix basically), with very high flow (Still waiting on my additional MP10 for the tank), higher side of lighting(update on lighting below), and high nutrients. (Feeding 2-3x frozen food a day + seawead 1x daily)..

I am very much enjoying my refugium and while I do see algea in the DT, considering I am running barebottom and 'newish' I give allot of credit to the refugium. Furthermore, if I understood others right, there is a theory that high alk can lead to burnt tips due to lack of nutrition available. I'm hoping by having a 'heavy in heavy out' mentality, with high flow i'll be able to sustain both higher parameters and lighting.

I am by no means saying this is the right way, but it is my current plan. Follow along to see whether it ends in failure or success

As for lighting, I am currently at 40% of my target levels. I have not tested par, but plan to during the next water change. While I do run a seneye 24x7 since it's powered by a raspberry-pi/cable management, it's not a 10 second task to check a PAR meeting. So will bring out the windows laptop and test PAR during next water change. I do think I am seeing some negative reaction from the current lighting intensity though. The mushrooms are quite shriveled, but the Hammer, Candycane, and Acans seem to be doing great. Additionally the Chalice is slowly but steadily growing, and soon will be touching the bottom. I am not too terribly concerned about providing lighting to make the mushrooms happy, so if this causes them to slow down in their growth or gravitate towards a lower spot in the tank i'm OK with that.

Also the GSP is 10000000x on it's way out:

It's been a month(I think) since I did the one and only dose. It has been a slow but steady progress of GSP dying off. Now seeing a fairly bright-ish purple color coming through, suspect this is as the exterior mat deteriorates. Think it'll be another few months before it's entirely gone, but I can't imagine it making a comeback at this point I haven't seen any BCP since after the first week of dosing.

I still haven't ran any sort of Carbon after dosing, and only done a couple normal water changes.


I am also seeing Coraline algea growing. I never did have it grow in my 37L with the AI Prime, but in this tank.. either with the new lights, or by dosing, I am seeing it grow. On one hand, it's a great sign, on the other.. I don't want to deal with scraping it off the windows


I don't plan any livestock additions for atleast a month now. I want to dial in my dosing, and see consistent numbers for a month before adding more live stock.


I am also considering going from weekly to biweekly water changes. I can understand how people gravitate towards this. By having an effective refugium, dosing, etc.. what exactly am I improving with water changes.. but at the same time I personally think they bring a good value (though I hate doing them). Debating whether to keep the weekly 15%ish water change, or do biweekly 15%ish water change.



And last.. While the GHL doser itself is extremely high quality piece of equipment. I have been disappointed(and unsuccessful) in gathering/tracking the data I wanted to. With the SA unit, even within the various methods officially supported you cannot see any sort of 'dosing history', or 'last dose' information about your pumps. Only the dosing schedule, and current volume left in the containers. This was a bit of a risk taken by me when selecting this pump, so it's nothing against GHL, just I am a bit disappointed about the data that is shown by GHL or able to infer/access by other means. I'm still working on it. (Trying to reverse engineer how the app talks to the device, but so far unsuccessful). If you have the prolifux controller you can get this information(I think), and I will likely get one at some point.. but I was hoping for a bit more visibility/data from the SA unit.

And to finish off a FTS:

The green SPS is not going to make it. It was not based out when I bought it, and has continued to recede since I received it. I suspect I made this worse by rapidly increasing Alk, and to be honest my paremeters were not stable enough when I added it. Another reason I will wait 1 month before trying another SPS once I get the dosing dialed in.

 

[dopey]

Weekly update!

Have not been 100% disciplined in testing daily.

At the moment I am dosing 25ml of Alk, and 20ml of Mg and Ca respectively. Staggered throughout the day 5ml at a time.

I have been dosing 20ml of each up until today, today I added an extra 5ml dose for Alk bringing it to 25ml a day.

My alk continues to drop day to day, but Ca and Mg climb -- alk only dropping about .1dkh a day tho. I am a bit conflicted on the balling method. On one hand posts seem to indicate you should get things dialed in and dose all three parts identical amount. However when reading Fauna Marin's instructions it seems to say (or atleast imply) that their formula allows you to dose what the tank needs. I was keeping all three equal thinking some sort of 'balancing' would occur, since again, if I read right there is an interaction happening between the three parts so was wondering if it was some equilibrium i'll eventually hit.

I am also starting to understand why people select different salts. Red Sea Coral Pro mixes high on all these parameters. I will probably start looking for an alternative salt after i'm finish with this bucket, which more closely gets me to my target params when mixed.

The GSP conitnues to die:

Have also started to see coraline pop up. Have a spot forming on the glass, and another one some of the rock. Both way away from any coraline which was on a frag plug, so that is promising to see! I struggled to ever grow coraline in my nano.

Overall just maintaining things, and will not add more coral until I have the dosing dialed in.