COVID affected us all in different ways. For me, it canceled my in-person rotations for medical school and effectively transitioned the last 18 months of training to a virtual experience (because catching babies virtually is totally the same thing as in person…). Because of this, we no longer had a compelling reason to stay in South Texas, and the current state of healthcare in the valley was dire enough that we knew the pandemic would hit the area hard. With this in mind, two little kids and living thousands of miles from our parents, we decided to pack up and head home to Utah to weather out the pandemic and finish school virtually.
As detailed earlier, this involved breaking my tank down and shipping out the corals I wanted to hold on to. We set up a coral quarantine tank for my incoming coral as all of the fish in my parent’s 120 had been quarantined while the tank itself had sat fallow following a velvet outbreak. I don’t have any great pictures of the 120 at this point, but it had been up for a couple of years and had fallen victim to a combination plague involving RBTAs and pocillopora. While they hadn’t completely taken over the tank yet, there were at least 12 bta scattered throughout the rock structure and 7-8 large colonies of self-propagated pocci, with dozens of smaller nubbins starting to grow. The rocks had been moved around a few times to get fish out and my parents weren’t super happy with the aquascape at this point. The sand was starting to look grungy, most of the other thriving corals were limited to zoas, mushrooms, leathers, and colt corals. The tank as a whole, while not unsuccessful and enjoyable in its own right, hit a major decision point; continue on the current path, letting the pocci and bta become dominant above everything else, or rescape and restart the whole system to control the invading species?
We seriously debated just continuing on the current path, with the addition of a few monti caps for the lovely scroll growth, as the tank was pretty much on auto-pilot and the outcome would be unique in its own sense. A tank fully grown with alternating rose bubble tip anemones and green pocillopora would have been an enjoyable sight, with movement and hard coral structures. However, they ultimately decided that a tank refresh was in order, and dry rock was ordered the very next day.
Seeing as I had freedom in my schedule and we were all stuck at home anyways, I was placed in charge of the tank reboot. Their only request was that the aquascape was designed in such a way for lots of coral placement, most likely big shelves. The prior tank had been started with live rock and sand, but this time we chose to go with dry rock and bare bottom, partially to allow for flow around the bottom of the tank to keep it clean, and also to control pests in the tank. Added bonus, growing coral on the bottom glass would just increase the amount of space we had for coral growth. I found aqua forest rock and it fit our goals to a tee; man-made and sterile, flat shelves, pink tinged, and easy to work with. It took me longer than I’d like to admit to design an aquascape I was happy with, but in the end I think it turned out pretty good and gave us lots of room with different elevations to grow coral. Once the structure was finalized and pieces cemented together with eMarco 400, I disassembled the aquascape and started it soaking in heated salt water with a little bacteria and ammonia boost.
While agonizing over the rock structure I also started the breakdown of the old tank. I had two goals; save clean frags of the coral in the tank with no pocillopora or aiptasia, and frag up the remaining coral to sell and help fund the reboot. A particularly fun challenge was trying to get all the BTA off of their rocks, and suspending them above water did not work. Luckily, I already had a quarantine tank up and running for my coral I shipped in, so as I fragged coral and found clean pieces, they went into the quarantine tank. We also started shopping for new coral, as the diversity in the tank was pretty minimal. Torches and monti caps were highest on our list, but then we just kept an eye out for other good deals or things that caught our eye, all the while only spending as much money as I was able to make selling frags from the breakdown. All of the coral was ordered and placed in quarantine with sufficient time to eradicate ich, while also allowing us to watch the frags on a daily basis and kill any aiptasia we saw and scrape off and glue any pocillopora spores.
Once the unwanted coral and old rock was rehomed, and the new aquascape finishing cooking from April 13th - June 1st 2020, we pulled the fish out and deep cleaned the tank and sump. Removing the sand was by far my least favorite exercise, and it was impressive just how much junk was hiding in the sand bed. We filled and rinsed the tank and plumbing with hot water and muriatic acid, drained, rinsed, and let dry fully. We also reworked the sump a little, added a few new baffles to switch from a filter sock method to a crash chamber followed by filter floss, and made room for a refugium. Ease of use was the sole driving factor. The new rocks went in, fresh salt water was made, and the fish were returned to the tank with only one casualty, our melanurus wrasse. We tried using a wrasse-den to hold sand for him to sleep in, but the engineer goby threw the sand out of the den as soon as it was filled and the wrasse couldn’t handle the transition to bare bottom.
We let the tank run with the lights on and no coral for a few weeks, though I will admit I don’t remember how long we waited, and then we slowly transferred all of the coral in. This was also a pain-staking process, as we hoped to only glue frags down once and leave them be. For added stability, my dad decided to upgrade his dosing regimen to aqua forest three-part with an automated dosing pump. I left in July to return to Texas to finish up some rotations and then came back in September to a tank that was doing well and growing nicely.
https://youtu.be/vcS5P8tbOZ4
Since rebooting the tank, we have had very few hiccups. I was worried that with the dry rock and bare bottom we would experience a severe ugly stage and significant coral death, but we avoided most of it all together. I attributed this partially to dosing vibrant (though with recent evidence this seems like maybe not the best idea) and KZ coral snow with cyano clean from the start of the tank, as well as getting the refugium on board fairly quickly. We also got our coral back into the tank shortly after turning the lights on, which brought diversity and stability along for the ride. The only thing that has been a consistent struggle for the past year and a half or so has been the refugium. It'spowered by an AI prime fuge, which we believe was a sufficient light, but the chaeto and other algae we would place in the refugium wouldn’t stay together, would break up and disintegrate, or just not grow. For a brief time, we sandwiched the algae between egg-crate sheets and made a pancake that we could trim and flip. However, after a big snail and emerald crab were found wreaking havoc on coral frags, knocking them every which way as they tore through town, they were sentenced to time in the sump and made short work of the algae. I think my dad is considering an algae scrubber but hasn’t pinned down the exact solution he is looking for. Other hobbies can also be distracting.
And here we are today with a pretty recent video showing good growth and happy fish. There have been a few coral casualties; one torch colony on the tip of torch island slowly retracted and died over a month. There is a chance the torch was just getting too much light, as I can’t remember what the par was at that point, but the other torches have been doing well. We also had a duncan colony that started to recede tissue from the base. I fragged it into as many healthy pieces as I could and all but one continued to recede and die. The lone, remaining duncan is hanging on for now, but we will see how it plays out. And sadly, I had a few really nice mushrooms that slowly melted away; a small colony of superman rhodactis and a small jawbreaker. A couple of coral have really taken off and are obviously happy in the new environment. One was a purple monti cap that we temporarily placed on a low rock ledge as we glued the other caps to the overflow, and then promptly forgot about. It quickly attached and thrived in its discarded state. It would be really interesting to test the par and see how much it is actually getting. One of the big stars up front is the pipe organ. When it was first put into the original tank, it was only a few very small polyps that we wedged into a rock crevice and hoped for the best. It grew substantially there and we were able to frag out a chunk of the brittle colony and start again in the reworked aquascape. It is front and center, adding lots of movement to the tank and really expanding as much as we will let it. I placed the hammers and frogspawn on one edge of it to hopefully keep it at bay, but we may have to frag it back soon.
https://youtu.be/qCGGnnemUFM
My crowning achievement, and what I am most proud of through this whole process, is the BTA island. This historically, unruly vagabond of the captive reef reigned destruction throughout the entirety of its prior habitat. But I believe that I have successfully cultivated a secure home that has discouraged further wandering and reigned in destructive tendencies. That is the next post!
As detailed earlier, this involved breaking my tank down and shipping out the corals I wanted to hold on to. We set up a coral quarantine tank for my incoming coral as all of the fish in my parent’s 120 had been quarantined while the tank itself had sat fallow following a velvet outbreak. I don’t have any great pictures of the 120 at this point, but it had been up for a couple of years and had fallen victim to a combination plague involving RBTAs and pocillopora. While they hadn’t completely taken over the tank yet, there were at least 12 bta scattered throughout the rock structure and 7-8 large colonies of self-propagated pocci, with dozens of smaller nubbins starting to grow. The rocks had been moved around a few times to get fish out and my parents weren’t super happy with the aquascape at this point. The sand was starting to look grungy, most of the other thriving corals were limited to zoas, mushrooms, leathers, and colt corals. The tank as a whole, while not unsuccessful and enjoyable in its own right, hit a major decision point; continue on the current path, letting the pocci and bta become dominant above everything else, or rescape and restart the whole system to control the invading species?
We seriously debated just continuing on the current path, with the addition of a few monti caps for the lovely scroll growth, as the tank was pretty much on auto-pilot and the outcome would be unique in its own sense. A tank fully grown with alternating rose bubble tip anemones and green pocillopora would have been an enjoyable sight, with movement and hard coral structures. However, they ultimately decided that a tank refresh was in order, and dry rock was ordered the very next day.
Seeing as I had freedom in my schedule and we were all stuck at home anyways, I was placed in charge of the tank reboot. Their only request was that the aquascape was designed in such a way for lots of coral placement, most likely big shelves. The prior tank had been started with live rock and sand, but this time we chose to go with dry rock and bare bottom, partially to allow for flow around the bottom of the tank to keep it clean, and also to control pests in the tank. Added bonus, growing coral on the bottom glass would just increase the amount of space we had for coral growth. I found aqua forest rock and it fit our goals to a tee; man-made and sterile, flat shelves, pink tinged, and easy to work with. It took me longer than I’d like to admit to design an aquascape I was happy with, but in the end I think it turned out pretty good and gave us lots of room with different elevations to grow coral. Once the structure was finalized and pieces cemented together with eMarco 400, I disassembled the aquascape and started it soaking in heated salt water with a little bacteria and ammonia boost.
While agonizing over the rock structure I also started the breakdown of the old tank. I had two goals; save clean frags of the coral in the tank with no pocillopora or aiptasia, and frag up the remaining coral to sell and help fund the reboot. A particularly fun challenge was trying to get all the BTA off of their rocks, and suspending them above water did not work. Luckily, I already had a quarantine tank up and running for my coral I shipped in, so as I fragged coral and found clean pieces, they went into the quarantine tank. We also started shopping for new coral, as the diversity in the tank was pretty minimal. Torches and monti caps were highest on our list, but then we just kept an eye out for other good deals or things that caught our eye, all the while only spending as much money as I was able to make selling frags from the breakdown. All of the coral was ordered and placed in quarantine with sufficient time to eradicate ich, while also allowing us to watch the frags on a daily basis and kill any aiptasia we saw and scrape off and glue any pocillopora spores.
Once the unwanted coral and old rock was rehomed, and the new aquascape finishing cooking from April 13th - June 1st 2020, we pulled the fish out and deep cleaned the tank and sump. Removing the sand was by far my least favorite exercise, and it was impressive just how much junk was hiding in the sand bed. We filled and rinsed the tank and plumbing with hot water and muriatic acid, drained, rinsed, and let dry fully. We also reworked the sump a little, added a few new baffles to switch from a filter sock method to a crash chamber followed by filter floss, and made room for a refugium. Ease of use was the sole driving factor. The new rocks went in, fresh salt water was made, and the fish were returned to the tank with only one casualty, our melanurus wrasse. We tried using a wrasse-den to hold sand for him to sleep in, but the engineer goby threw the sand out of the den as soon as it was filled and the wrasse couldn’t handle the transition to bare bottom.
We let the tank run with the lights on and no coral for a few weeks, though I will admit I don’t remember how long we waited, and then we slowly transferred all of the coral in. This was also a pain-staking process, as we hoped to only glue frags down once and leave them be. For added stability, my dad decided to upgrade his dosing regimen to aqua forest three-part with an automated dosing pump. I left in July to return to Texas to finish up some rotations and then came back in September to a tank that was doing well and growing nicely.
https://youtu.be/vcS5P8tbOZ4
Since rebooting the tank, we have had very few hiccups. I was worried that with the dry rock and bare bottom we would experience a severe ugly stage and significant coral death, but we avoided most of it all together. I attributed this partially to dosing vibrant (though with recent evidence this seems like maybe not the best idea) and KZ coral snow with cyano clean from the start of the tank, as well as getting the refugium on board fairly quickly. We also got our coral back into the tank shortly after turning the lights on, which brought diversity and stability along for the ride. The only thing that has been a consistent struggle for the past year and a half or so has been the refugium. It'spowered by an AI prime fuge, which we believe was a sufficient light, but the chaeto and other algae we would place in the refugium wouldn’t stay together, would break up and disintegrate, or just not grow. For a brief time, we sandwiched the algae between egg-crate sheets and made a pancake that we could trim and flip. However, after a big snail and emerald crab were found wreaking havoc on coral frags, knocking them every which way as they tore through town, they were sentenced to time in the sump and made short work of the algae. I think my dad is considering an algae scrubber but hasn’t pinned down the exact solution he is looking for. Other hobbies can also be distracting.
And here we are today with a pretty recent video showing good growth and happy fish. There have been a few coral casualties; one torch colony on the tip of torch island slowly retracted and died over a month. There is a chance the torch was just getting too much light, as I can’t remember what the par was at that point, but the other torches have been doing well. We also had a duncan colony that started to recede tissue from the base. I fragged it into as many healthy pieces as I could and all but one continued to recede and die. The lone, remaining duncan is hanging on for now, but we will see how it plays out. And sadly, I had a few really nice mushrooms that slowly melted away; a small colony of superman rhodactis and a small jawbreaker. A couple of coral have really taken off and are obviously happy in the new environment. One was a purple monti cap that we temporarily placed on a low rock ledge as we glued the other caps to the overflow, and then promptly forgot about. It quickly attached and thrived in its discarded state. It would be really interesting to test the par and see how much it is actually getting. One of the big stars up front is the pipe organ. When it was first put into the original tank, it was only a few very small polyps that we wedged into a rock crevice and hoped for the best. It grew substantially there and we were able to frag out a chunk of the brittle colony and start again in the reworked aquascape. It is front and center, adding lots of movement to the tank and really expanding as much as we will let it. I placed the hammers and frogspawn on one edge of it to hopefully keep it at bay, but we may have to frag it back soon.
https://youtu.be/qCGGnnemUFM
My crowning achievement, and what I am most proud of through this whole process, is the BTA island. This historically, unruly vagabond of the captive reef reigned destruction throughout the entirety of its prior habitat. But I believe that I have successfully cultivated a secure home that has discouraged further wandering and reigned in destructive tendencies. That is the next post!
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