Mark's 150 gallon SPS heavy reef
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Latest FTS Color is coming back, but getting nitrates down to something reasonable has been a struggle. Most color coming back, some color fading. The usual suspects. That neon green polyp acro with the purple skin was a really good purple with high nitrates, so of course it's fading back to a brownish.
Here's a good example of tip burn, like it caught on fire.
Hawkins still growing and fast.
The Hairy horrida is recovering. Not as hairy as before but looks a little better every week.
My pile-o-birdsnests
Favorites saved from my 40 gallon tear down.
Here's a good example of tip burn, like it caught on fire.
Hawkins still growing and fast.
The Hairy horrida is recovering. Not as hairy as before but looks a little better every week.
My pile-o-birdsnests
Favorites saved from my 40 gallon tear down.
Daniel@R2R
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My Tank Thread
Yes! @markalot we'd love to see an update on this beautiful reef!
OP
OP
Personally all healthy here, nothing bad to report in life. The tank, though, whew.
So this update will be about neglect, accidents, and lots of losses. I waited to make the post until I got the reef bug again. Putting a computer in the basement near the tank and setting it up as my work from home office did the trick.
I neglected the tank for a while, and during this time the alk hose fell off. Yea, still not sure how this happened, but Alk dropped to 4. I raised it back to 7 but then after a month of seeming stability all the corals started to die. It ended up being super high phosphates, I guess the balance was thrown off? Do I really know what it was? I did the following (this was a year ago):
Switch to B-Ionic two part, which has trace elements in the calcium part.
Dosed a ton of NO3-PO4X, which slimed (white and pink snot) the tank, but stopped the death.
PO4 still measured above 1 but suddenly the clowns started laying eggs again. So ok, backed off on the NOPOX, still a lot of neglect for another 6 months, and boom, it starts again. Clowns had stopped laying eggs, I should have known. Same thing, NOPOX, snot, fixed. Hannah PO4 check says .05 PO4, which is lower than I like but whatever works. I'm doing maintenance doses now of NOPOX.
During this time the Lime channel on the NanoBox died, as did one ballast of T5's, but the rest works like a champ. One of my BML strips died as well (power supply died, light is fine), so I was running at 300 PAR max, with low par down near the front. This was compounded by the fact I rarely cleaned the glass, so reflected PAR was also way down
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. I scraped the glass, man what a job, lol, cleaned the skimmer, and bought a Orphek 60" Blue Plus OR3-150 LED Light Bar. Man, this thing is too bright, had to raise it way up, but I'm back to 150 PAR on the sandbed, which is where I want to be. Upper tank is 350-375 PAR, which is a bit higher than I like, but seems to be working. Now the recovery.
So let's talk about the acros.
The Katropora, which was purchased years ago was almost lost, but survived. A small unseen nub on the big skeleton survived and grew while I was still in neglect mode (glass covered in algae). Smaller shaded frags also survived, though they look more like the next coral.
The Frag Farmers Red Robin, from @Cultivated Reef Went into survival mode, encrusting all the growth tips and making what looked more like a plating monti than anything else.
It's waking up, see the new little branches?
The wild caught horrida is in bad shape, but might just survive. Here is the best branch above the slimer (of course it survived).
I cut this and placed on a plug on a frag rack to regrow.
The Lokani survived, which does not surprise me. This was originally a browned out frag at the bottom of a closed fish store display tank. Unknown source, but had lived there for over a year before the store closed and somehow survived weeks of absolute neglect before the new owner took over. Tank!
The Hawkins is alive, and I've fragged a piece since this picture to make sure, but obviously I lost most of it.
This is but a small number of aptasia, who were also stressed, so spread everywhere. I have since pulled a lot of infected rock out, rescaped, if you can call it that, and only have a few visible ones left to deal with.
More pictures later today or tomorrow. My rescape makes it look like a wild reef just hit by a hurricane. Dead pieces everywhere, but I don't want to remove too much at once.
So what else survived?
Orange Passion - DEAD
Green Polyp purple acro (owned for well over 5 years) - DEAD
Huge Valida - DEAD maybe, might have seen a small bit still alive.
The pretty bluish tabling acro - DEAD
ORA Miami Orchid - DEAD (I think)
All Birdsnests - DEAD
Blue Tip dark green stag (very fast growing) - fragged, should survive
Cali Tort, or some other super fast growing tort (purple/green) - fragged, should survive
Mint Acro (green with white polyps) - Alive, on the lower right of the aptasia picture, broken off / fragged, should survive
All montis survived, with the digitata's not missing a beat. The long gone green digitata is somehow back.
Purple Stylo died back but survived. The purple/green stylo and green stylo did not survive. One stylo is enough!
Green Pocci - TAKING OVER!
Here's a FTS before the radical cleanup and infested rock removal. Note the sie of the Setosa and that dang green pocci.
I saved the best for last. An old hobby coral, purchased when I bought the Orange Passion, is not only alive but is waking up from 2 years of brown. Vivid's Rainbow Delight. I was amazed. I knew it was alive, but just a brown mass. I moved it higher up when I first started working on the tank and it turned a brighter green, then started launching branches, and a lot of them. Amazing.
More pictures in a day or so.
So this update will be about neglect, accidents, and lots of losses. I waited to make the post until I got the reef bug again. Putting a computer in the basement near the tank and setting it up as my work from home office did the trick.
I neglected the tank for a while, and during this time the alk hose fell off. Yea, still not sure how this happened, but Alk dropped to 4. I raised it back to 7 but then after a month of seeming stability all the corals started to die. It ended up being super high phosphates, I guess the balance was thrown off? Do I really know what it was? I did the following (this was a year ago):
Switch to B-Ionic two part, which has trace elements in the calcium part.
Dosed a ton of NO3-PO4X, which slimed (white and pink snot) the tank, but stopped the death.
PO4 still measured above 1 but suddenly the clowns started laying eggs again. So ok, backed off on the NOPOX, still a lot of neglect for another 6 months, and boom, it starts again. Clowns had stopped laying eggs, I should have known. Same thing, NOPOX, snot, fixed. Hannah PO4 check says .05 PO4, which is lower than I like but whatever works. I'm doing maintenance doses now of NOPOX.
During this time the Lime channel on the NanoBox died, as did one ballast of T5's, but the rest works like a champ. One of my BML strips died as well (power supply died, light is fine), so I was running at 300 PAR max, with low par down near the front. This was compounded by the fact I rarely cleaned the glass, so reflected PAR was also way down
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. I scraped the glass, man what a job, lol, cleaned the skimmer, and bought a Orphek 60" Blue Plus OR3-150 LED Light Bar. Man, this thing is too bright, had to raise it way up, but I'm back to 150 PAR on the sandbed, which is where I want to be. Upper tank is 350-375 PAR, which is a bit higher than I like, but seems to be working. Now the recovery.
So let's talk about the acros.
The Katropora, which was purchased years ago was almost lost, but survived. A small unseen nub on the big skeleton survived and grew while I was still in neglect mode (glass covered in algae). Smaller shaded frags also survived, though they look more like the next coral.
The Frag Farmers Red Robin, from @Cultivated Reef Went into survival mode, encrusting all the growth tips and making what looked more like a plating monti than anything else.
It's waking up, see the new little branches?
The wild caught horrida is in bad shape, but might just survive. Here is the best branch above the slimer (of course it survived).
I cut this and placed on a plug on a frag rack to regrow.
The Lokani survived, which does not surprise me. This was originally a browned out frag at the bottom of a closed fish store display tank. Unknown source, but had lived there for over a year before the store closed and somehow survived weeks of absolute neglect before the new owner took over. Tank!
The Hawkins is alive, and I've fragged a piece since this picture to make sure, but obviously I lost most of it.
This is but a small number of aptasia, who were also stressed, so spread everywhere. I have since pulled a lot of infected rock out, rescaped, if you can call it that, and only have a few visible ones left to deal with.
More pictures later today or tomorrow. My rescape makes it look like a wild reef just hit by a hurricane. Dead pieces everywhere, but I don't want to remove too much at once.
So what else survived?
Orange Passion - DEAD
Green Polyp purple acro (owned for well over 5 years) - DEAD
Huge Valida - DEAD maybe, might have seen a small bit still alive.
The pretty bluish tabling acro - DEAD
ORA Miami Orchid - DEAD (I think)
All Birdsnests - DEAD
Blue Tip dark green stag (very fast growing) - fragged, should survive
Cali Tort, or some other super fast growing tort (purple/green) - fragged, should survive
Mint Acro (green with white polyps) - Alive, on the lower right of the aptasia picture, broken off / fragged, should survive
All montis survived, with the digitata's not missing a beat. The long gone green digitata is somehow back.
Purple Stylo died back but survived. The purple/green stylo and green stylo did not survive. One stylo is enough!
Green Pocci - TAKING OVER!
Here's a FTS before the radical cleanup and infested rock removal. Note the sie of the Setosa and that dang green pocci.
I saved the best for last. An old hobby coral, purchased when I bought the Orange Passion, is not only alive but is waking up from 2 years of brown. Vivid's Rainbow Delight. I was amazed. I knew it was alive, but just a brown mass. I moved it higher up when I first started working on the tank and it turned a brighter green, then started launching branches, and a lot of them. Amazing.
More pictures in a day or so.
Last edited:
OP
OP
Putting these up here for documentation.
One of the Valida's still lives, kind of.
Here's the mint acro, which for 2 broken off clumps is doing quite well.
The dark green blue tip stag
This is what the katropora looks like when in low light. Now out in the open.
Here's Vivid's Rainbow. Long way to go, but it's growing.
FTS with the new arrangement (not calling this a scape!) Most of that mess on the lower right is in fact piles of rubble.
One of the Valida's still lives, kind of.
Here's the mint acro, which for 2 broken off clumps is doing quite well.
The dark green blue tip stag
This is what the katropora looks like when in low light. Now out in the open.
Here's Vivid's Rainbow. Long way to go, but it's growing.
FTS with the new arrangement (not calling this a scape!)
Most of that mess on the lower right is in fact piles of rubble.
Glad you are back. I live near you. I’m getting ready to trim my acros so PM me if you want some frags. Nothing too fancy.Putting these up here for documentation.
One of the Valida's still lives, kind of.
Here's the mint acro, which for 2 broken off clumps is doing quite well.
The dark green blue tip stag
This is what the katropora looks like when in low light. Now out in the open.
Here's Vivid's Rainbow. Long way to go, but it's growing.
FTS with the new arrangement (not calling this a scape!)
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