illumnae's SPS shallow reef

[illumnae]

Hello everyone!

I set up my SPS reef tank in early 2016, but have been plagued with problems since its inception - if it could go wrong, it went wrong some time during the past 18 months! I've had to reboot the tank several times due to problems as unthinkable as a friend's hands being "acidic" enough to drop my tank pH to 7.3 for hours simply by helping me to glue SPS colonies (it happened twice - whenever he stuck his hands into my tank, the pH dropped to 7.3 for several hours), and as mundane as being overrun by dinoflagellates.

This is how my tank looked like after my friend helped to rescape the tank and glue the corals (picture was taken sometime around Christmas 2016):

2017-08-03_03-51-10 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

Soon after that picture was taken, I lost all my SPS (suspected due to the pH dips) and the resulting reboot ended up in a dinoflagellate infestation, which resulted in yet another reboot sometime in April 2017.

Finally, it seems that things are settling in (knock on wood!) and my SPS kind of look happy. This is what my tank looked like at the end of June 2017:

2017-08-03_03-50-36 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

I'm hoping that now that things are progressing well, I'll be able to finally progress in my journey with this tank This thread will hopefully document this journey moving forward.

Some details about the system:

Tank dimensions: 72" x 28" x 20"
Lighting: 5x Radion XR30 Pro G4
Return: Abyzz A200
Flow: 2x Maxspect Gyre 150 with new controller
Skimmer: Nyos 220
Calcium Reactor: Skimz CM152
Controller: Apex 2016

I'm currently using Fauna Marin salt for my weekly 10% water changes, and dosing the Tropic Marin Bio-Activ system (Elements A- and K+, NP Bacto Balance, Reef Activ and Reef Mud Vital).

 

[illumnae]

Here's a photo dump of some top down shots I took earlier this month:

SPS 1 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

SPS 2 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

SPS 3 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

SPS 4 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

SPS 5 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

SPS 6 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

SPS 7 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

SPS 8 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

SPS 9 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

SPS 10 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

 

[illumnae]

SPS 11 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

SPS 12 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

SPS 13 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

SPS 14 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

SPS 15 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

SPS 16 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

 

[illumnae]

I apologise in advance for the shaky footage, some out of focus footage and inaccurate colour. This is my first time shooting and editing video, so I'm still learning how to use my camera for video taking. I also have no idea how to correct white balance like i do in Photoshop. For more accurate colouration please see my photos above. If there's interest in my tank, I'll definitely try to do better and make more videos

 

[Shep]

Stunning!!

 

[illumnae]

My second attempt at a tank video

 

[revhtree]

Dang this baby is awesome!

 

[illumnae]

Please join me in welcoming the latest inhabitant into my tank, Bodianus sanguineus! I've been wanting one of these since my Bodianus bennetti (previously Bodianus sp "Kimura"?) passed on, and thankfully Iwarna Aquafarm managed to source one for me from Blue Harbor Osaka recently. Really good timing in light of the potential ban on collection of ornamental fish looming in Hawaii! Sorry for the many dust spots in the picture, the fish just stirred up the sand!

Hog 1 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

Hog 2 by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr



Here's a recent FTS too to end off. Colours and stability in the tank are improving week by week. I'm really very impressed with the Tropic Marin Bio-Actif system. It's perfect for a newbie reefer like me to get a nice sps system going

FTS by Yi Xiang Lye, on Flickr

 

[CoralWealth]

hey man!

How is everything going now? How much of the reef actif are you dosing a week? Do you use activated carbon at all?

 

[illumnae]

Didn't I already answer you on RC?

 

[CoralWealth]

Didn't I already answer you on RC?

That was just on the reef actif thread and a month old, was just wondering if you were still dosing it and at the same strength.

Also I never asked about activated carbon.

 

[Daniel@R2R]

@illumnae could we get some updated photos? I'd love to see an update on this beautiful reef!

 

[illumnae]

That was just on the reef actif thread and a month old, was just wondering if you were still dosing it and at the same strength.

Also I never asked about activated carbon.

I'm still dosing it at the same strength and will continue to do for the forseeable future. I use Fauna Marin activated carbon switched out weekly.

@illumnae could we get some updated photos? I'd love to see an update on this beautiful reef!

Thanks Daniel! Unfortunately I got aefw and tore everything down to dip for 6 weeks. I'll put up a video soon on the tearing down process. In the meantime this is the last video I took back in December:

 

[Daniel@R2R]

I'm still dosing it at the same strength and will continue to do for the forseeable future. I use Fauna Marin activated carbon switched out weekly.



Thanks Daniel! Unfortunately I got aefw and tore everything down to dip for 6 weeks. I'll put up a video soon on the tearing down process. In the meantime this is the last video I took back in December:

Dang! That sucks, man! I have a friend going through that right now.

The video looks outstanding! Dipping and working to save those corals has gotta be a ton of work. I hope you're able to save a lot of the acros and get everything going again as normal in a few weeks.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you and follow along to see how the recovery process goes.

 

[illumnae]

Thanks! Tomorrow will be the 3rd dip of 6 and so far the corals are responding well. I've only lost 3 of the almost 80 colonies/frags I have and the remainder are showing good signs with better pe and no decrease in kh consumption. It's really quite tiring to dip them all but unfortunately it has to be done

 

[illumnae]

So I just completed my 3rd dip. Is it normal to still be finding aefw eggs at this stage? I found 2 colonies with eggs - one had only a few eggs and what looked like recovering bite marks, while the other had 2 big patches of eggs and many fresh bite marks. I glued over the eggs on the first one and threw away the other one. In the dip tub there were still dead flatworms floating around, but less than weeks 1 and 2.

Is this normal or did I mess up somehow?

 

[Daniel@R2R]

So I just completed my 3rd dip. Is it normal to still be finding aefw eggs at this stage? I found 2 colonies with eggs - one had only a few eggs and what looked like recovering bite marks, while the other had 2 big patches of eggs and many fresh bite marks. I glued over the eggs on the first one and threw away the other one. In the dip tub there were still dead flatworms floating around, but less than weeks 1 and 2.

Is this normal or did I mess up somehow?

@hybridazn got some wisdom on this?

 

[hybridazn]

So I just completed my 3rd dip. Is it normal to still be finding aefw eggs at this stage? I found 2 colonies with eggs - one had only a few eggs and what looked like recovering bite marks, while the other had 2 big patches of eggs and many fresh bite marks. I glued over the eggs on the first one and threw away the other one. In the dip tub there were still dead flatworms floating around, but less than weeks 1 and 2.

Is this normal or did I mess up somehow?

That sounds about right unfortunately. By week 4-5 the egg clutches should be gone. Then 5-6 weeks you should see only a few smaller flatworms fall off. If you still see flatworms fall off week 6 I suggest dipping for another 2 weeks to make sure you get them all.

Sorry you are going thru all this, def not easy.

But the tank was looking fantastic in the last update!

 

[revhtree]

Nice video!

 

[illumnae]

Thank you @mdbannister @hybridazn @revhtree

So it looks like I'm on the right track and didn't mess up? I did dip #4 a few days ago, which is actually effectively the end of week 3 and I checked more carefully and still found eggs. However the eggs were not the fresh yellowish colour that I associate with newly laid aefw eggs but were deep brown and looked old, if you get what I mean. Anyway I superglued over all the eggs I found just in case. I will keep checking every dip.

In dip #4 there were no longer any visible large aefw. I think I may have gotten all the adults and from now on it's just getting the babies that are hatching from the leftover eggs. I currently miscounted and intended to stop after dip #6, but that's just 5 weeks from dip #1 not 6 weeks so J probably have to carry on until dip #7 or #8 to be safe. I need to carry out dip #6 1 day later than usual (Sunday instead of Saturday) but that should be ok right?

I recorded a short video documenting the tearing down of my tank to start the dipping. Filmed in HD.