Monday, 14 March. Nitrites holding at orange/amber or appox 2PPM in the big tank. Salinity is now 1.018. Still running dark and 29 Celcius.
Dipped some star polyps from my small tank. Decided to throw them out after dipping because they were holed through all over their tissues. Looked closely in the formation from where I pulled them and saw many tiny, about 0.2 mm, critters crawling over the rocks. Pulled out the entire formation and dipped it and vacuumed the sand in the area fully. Now I shall monitor the rest of the star polyps to see if they improve. Only one species of polyp was hit hard, the other two just stunted a bit. If the dip was effective they should show it soon. I have not seen another .2mm critter but its too soon to say. The dip was Red Sea used at full strength for the recommended 15 minutes. Everything was rinsed twice before returning to the tank.
My start-up plan has been politely eaten alive by many folks as being ridiculous but I have decided to stick to my guns and the advice from scholarly articles out of various universities with major marine biology departments and assistance from the U of Liege public aquarium lead technician.
Dipped some star polyps from my small tank. Decided to throw them out after dipping because they were holed through all over their tissues. Looked closely in the formation from where I pulled them and saw many tiny, about 0.2 mm, critters crawling over the rocks. Pulled out the entire formation and dipped it and vacuumed the sand in the area fully. Now I shall monitor the rest of the star polyps to see if they improve. Only one species of polyp was hit hard, the other two just stunted a bit. If the dip was effective they should show it soon. I have not seen another .2mm critter but its too soon to say. The dip was Red Sea used at full strength for the recommended 15 minutes. Everything was rinsed twice before returning to the tank.
My start-up plan has been politely eaten alive by many folks as being ridiculous but I have decided to stick to my guns and the advice from scholarly articles out of various universities with major marine biology departments and assistance from the U of Liege public aquarium lead technician.