Mark's 40 gallon breeder

[markalot]

Mark's reef tanks

Howdy,

This thread starts out with my 40 gallon tank, ends up being about all 3 of my tanks, a 40 breeder a 46 bowfront, and a 29 gallon. I am trying to return my 40 to mostly Acropora nwo tat I have eliminated the AEFW (I hope). I love the birdsnests, but they get big fast! The big Purple Stylo in the back right is my very first SPS from over a year ago. The Slimer is about a year old.

Latest FTS of my 40 breeder (my first tank, now over 2 years old)



46 Bowfront


29


Tank Specs:

40 breeder

4.5 gallon CPR HOB fuge with skimmer
AC110 running Phosguard and Carbon
MP10, long pulse, 12 seconds full power, 12 seconds idle
WP 25 wave mode, a short pulse to avoid blowing sand around the tank. I estimate about 60X turnover. I'd like 75X but the sand starts to blow around.

T5HO lighting, front: Purple+, Blue+, Coral+, Blue+, Aqua blue special, Blue+ :back ATI bulbs in 3 AquaticLife fixtures married together.
Maxspect Razor 16K with one BuildMyLED fixture in front
1 Royal Blue stunner strip
Shallow, medium course sandbed which I vacuum every water change

Fish: Yellow Tang, Midas Blenny, Sixline Wrasse, Neon Goby, Yellowtail Damsel

Cleanup: Blue Legged, and 2 Thin Striped Hermits, Nassarius snails, a single Trochus snail, plus a few brave Nerites that haven't been assassinated or crawled out of the tank yet. In addition numerous good hitchhiker snails, including one giant Stomatalla snail with a 2 inch foot.



46 bowfront

AC110 modified with two Warm White LED pucks for growing chaeto. One bag of Chemipure Elite
Eshoppes 100H HOB skimmer
2 WP25 pumps running in wave mode slightly out of sync with each other
Shallow fine sandbed
2 AquaticLife 1w expandable LED fixtures attached to each other. Blue, White, and Purple LEDs.

Fish: Purple Dottyback (reason for starting the 29, to save the firefish), Yellow Tang (needs to be re-homed), Starry Blenny, 2 false P clowns and a RBTA they completely ignore.

Cleanup: 2 Trouchus snails and a few Nassarius.


Water Source:

Spectrapure RODI with dual inline TDS meter and pressure guage
HM Digital TD-3 temperature correcting TDS meter to verify final water quality is 0 TDS

I do at least a 4 gallon water change in each tank every week using a 32 gallon Brute on wheels.

As of this posting I am 1/4 of the way through my supply of Kent Reef salt. Parameters for this batch of salt have been consistent: 9.5KH, 550Ca, 1350Mg

^^ checked again since this post was modified, latest batch was 10KH, 540Ca, 1400Mg ... so similar given the variance of hobby test kits.





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Old intro...

This tank is currently recovering from a crash that might have been caused by too high salinity, or a salinity swing, or a small amount of stray voltage made worse when I installed a ground probe (now removed, everything on a GFCI circuit anyway).

Bascially I'm just documenting the recovery and posting some over-time pictures which will help me and hopefully others. This thread will be very picture heavy.


I'm still losing older SPS corals and some, but not all, of my LPS and softies are not happy but appear to be improving, so I'm looking forward, and back just long enough for this FTS just before everything went haywire.

Tank has been running for about 10 months now.

Nov 15th, 2012



Setup Details:

Standard 40 gallon breeder
Glass hood
2 - AquaticLife T5H0 fixtures
2 - AquaticLife Expandable LED strip lights (low power led bulbs)
: front->ATI Purple Plus, ATI Blue Plus, Blue+White LED strip, blue LED strip, ATI Coral Plus, ATI Blue Plus->back
1 - MarineLand Hidden LED internal LED light strip mounted to the front rim to add white to the front of the tank

AquaClear AC110 filter that runs with a bag of GFO and sometimes Carbon
CRP AeroFuge medium HOB fuge + AeroForce skimmer

Flow is provided by two JBJ 1400 GPH pumps on a JBJ Oceanstream wavemaker.
I also have two nano pumps blowing behind the rocks.

I try and run at an SG of 1.025 and keep the temp between 79F and 81F

Here's a view of the tank from the top, click for full size.

 

[markalot]

Updated FTS, November 20th 2012

All of this is also pictures from before the crash.



Unknown Chalice, purchased 2 months ago and just now starting to show some growth.

LFS birdsnest frag, finally starting to look better

What was sold to me as a Green Slimer

 

[markalot]

Also prior to crash. Most of these are dead or nearly dead now.

Orange Sherbert Montipora. Polyps have a slight blue tint.

A WYSIWYG labeled as Dinosaur Egg Montipora but this one has green polyps.

A WYSIWYG labeled Lime Stylophora

And a WYSIWYG labeled Neon Polyp Acropora.

 

[markalot]

This is post crash. I'm trying to document what the crash looked like, what was killed, and what still lives.

I added a test coral, an unnamed cheap frag from a LFS, to see if the tank can support SPS or if something else is afoot.

Test coral #1


Tale of destruction ...

The Stylophora that lived!



This next one is dead and gone.



This next one still lives!



Green slimer (dead and gone)


Birdsnest is still hanging on and some branches appear to be recovering.


Both my Montipora's look done for. Worse now but still not quite dead.

 

[markalot]

The test at 2 days in, all new corals are looking good.

* click for full size *







I added this Zoa frag as well, just to see how it responded. Also looking good while other softies and LPS are looking very ragged ... so in my mind the existing corals are still recovering from the damage done.



The coral that lived! This blue polyp stylophora is now a favorite.



Other existing SPS continue to decline rapidly. My theory is some of these are dead already, just shedding skin. Zombie corals.

 

[markalot]

Update the next day.

Duncans are closed again, and Xenia is looking bad now. Added polyfilter 2 days ago that has not turned any color other than browning slightly. I do have cyano a little more than yesterday, if this is what it is. It usually fades by 5pm or so.

Pictures first, then some videos of both the new healthy frag and a dieing frag of acropora.

* click for full size *

New Acro



Dieing Acro (this was the nice green polyp acro, now completely dead in appearance but not removed yet).



This one is a little better but still slowly receding.



Unhappy Duncans and cyanobacteria.




Now the videos:

Dieing Green Polyp Acropora - YouTube

Dieing Green Polyp Acropora - YouTube

The new healthy frag:
New Acro Frag, still healthy - YouTube

 

[markalot]

The recovery apparently continues EXCEPT for the Xenia, which is now melting away and has been removed. I have a bunch of this in my 20 and based on that experience I don't want it in here anyway.

The test corals.





Look at the stylophora making a huge comeback.



Left side of the tank. Note how all Duncans are partially open. Slow progress. How about that hair algae! :angry:



Right side of tank.




Alk was 8.1 this evening, dosed Seachem 2 part, as I've been doing every night for the past 3 nights. Also added GFO and Carbon back into the filter. Need to get those phosphates back down.

 

[markalot]

Finally I'm caught up to pictures taken last night, Dec 13th.

* click for full size image *

Test SPS #1



Compared to when first placed in tank, looks like decent growth already.




Test Zoa, looks like the color is fading a bit.



New test subject, ORA Blue Voodoo. LFS had this, the first ORA I've ever seen there. $40 is a bit pricey for me so let's hope this lives. Amazing polyp extension already.





Rockstar (my name) Stylophora



Encrusting once again and appears to be growing over areas that had receded.



My brown lump of Acro that appears to be holding steady at the moment.



And finally my Duncans, which open a little more every day and might be showing some new heads.



You can find most of my photos over here: ImageShack® - tolakram if you're curious. I didn't include every photo taken in this thread.

Any tips, thoughts, ideas, questions would be most welcome. Thanks for looking.

 

[revsgirl]

Sorry to hear about the crash. Good luck with the recovery.

 

[markalot]

Thanks. Hopefully a learning experience.

Here we go with some more.

* click for full size *

The Zoas, color still fading.



Green Star Polyps, normally bright green but now appears most of the tips are burnt.



Another variety of GSP, these are normally metallic green.


The birdsnest appears to be recovering. Branches are not white and not algae covers and some are getting a pink haze to them, so hopefully a good chuck of this will come back.


I really hope this monti pulls through but it continues to slowly recede.


My brown Acro blob. Posting an older and the latest to compare.

12/9


12/14

 

[markalot]

Dec 15th

* click for full size image *





===



from the 13th, clearly encrusting


===



from the 13th

 

[markalot]

Both test SPS are still growing and comparing my brown lump of acro for the last 3 days I see it's actually starting to grow, barely.

* click for full size *




Also of note, the broken off piece of rock that had my pink anthelia on it is showing signs of life. Extremely small, but there they are.




That's the good news. Bad news it it appears my frag of branching hammer is going to die, it looks worse every day.

I am measuring Alk every day and it's been ranging from 7.5 to 8.5 using Red Sea Pro test kit. I have been using Seachem 2 part every other day at about 3/4 dose.

 

[Singlefin]

Crash gotta be frustrating. Hang in there.

 

[markalot]

Crash gotta be frustrating. Hang in there.

Thanks, much appreciated. I tend to avoid purchasing anything over $25 so my losses right now are limited. I'd rather experience mistakes now than in a few years when everything is grown out.

-

Added setup details to the first post.

 

[markalot]

I finally feel confident in saying the tank is recovering.

My brown hunk of Acro has grown in the last 3 days and polyps have started to extend. The only Acro to survive the ordeal so far ... though one Acro I had thought dead is missing algae on parts of the skeleton, as if something might still be there. I'm keeping it in the tank to see if any part is alive.

Here's the brown hunk. It's alive!



Compared with just 2 days ago.



You can see the growth and it looks to be growing over the old recession line.

My two test SPS corals are encrusting rapidly as well, no signs of trouble.

I will be switching salt to Red Sea Coral standard salt and moving away from Reef Crystals. I want a salt that provides a KH closer to 8 instead of the elevated levels in many reef salts. When I was doing water changes during my crisis I probably raised KH rapidly since my tank normally sits around 8 but RC mixed to 10. I don't want to have to worry about that.

 

[markalot]

Some longer term growth over time pictures.

* click for full size *

Stylophora picture taken when I first noticed signs of recovery.

Dec 6th


Dec 17th


Unknown LFS Acro

Dec 8th


Dec 17th


ORA Blue Voodoo

Dec 14th


Dec 17th (plug rotated slightly, note ORA on plug)

 

[markalot]

Ok, time for an update. Everything is back to normal, I removed a lot of algae invested rock and replaced with new Pukani dry rock, rescaped to make a few cave like features, and added a bunch of new corals over the last month. Now it has some growing up to do. I discovered the RAW mode on my camera and was shocked how much better the quality was by taking a raw photo and compressing it into a JPG myself rather than letting the camera do it.

Latest FTS

 

[MarvinsReef]

glad everything is back to normal. hope it's smooth sailin' from here. good luck.

 

[Flipside]

Yep! Coming along nicely! I see some incredible improvements in the shots you provided. I like when people do that.

 

[markalot]

glad everything is back to normal. hope it's smooth sailin' from here. good luck.

Thanks, me too.

Yep! Coming along nicely! I see some incredible improvements in the shots you provided. I like when people do that.

My pleasure, I like to look at growth over time pics as well.

Thanks for visiting.