Monique's Wave (reefer 525XL)

spiraling · Nov 9, 2017

Vibrant update: week 4
The turf hair algae is about 90% gone. There is one problematic spot by the nem. A few snails are still half covered (instead of fully covered) and there are strands here and there. Overall the tank looks great. I am getting cyano, most likely from the vibrant use. the prevailing theory in the forum is that is nutrients from the dead algae. I keep with the vibrant for now and see how it goes, but I may cut back to weekly.

Today I will be changing around the refugium so hopefully that will help with nutrients.

Daniel@R2R · Nov 10, 2017

Glad things seem to be doing well.

JimFuller · Feb 16, 2018

I like your thread on the tank. What part of Montana are you in? It is a big state

I am in Billings. I will be following along.

spiraling · Jun 10, 2018

Its been quite a while since I've updated. Mostly because I keep killing coral and fish.

I've been trying to get wrasses. Many die from LA and DD within a few days. I finally have two, a mccloskers flasher wrasse and linespot flasher wrasse. I have an exquisite coming in from a local store (yea! we now have a local store!) for QT this week.

The coral kept dying. I finally did a triton test and had very high nickle, vanadium, and molybdenum. I replaced an MP40 wet side that had minor rust marks, did a bunch of water changes. The next test was down, but not as much as it should have been so I'm not sure I found the source. I tried cuprisob this time, and should get my next set of results next week.

I also have a huge outbreak of spirulina. I thought it was cyano, but it wasn't going away and when I tested it was certainly not cyano. I have the chemiclean in the tank now. Its helping, but I will need another round.

I can't tell you how much I have struggled and agonized over this tank. All I want is a beautiful coral garden to tend, and instead I get disaster after disaster.

spiraling · Jun 10, 2018

JimFuller said:
I like your thread on the tank. What part of Montana are you in? It is a big state
I am in Billings. I will be following along.

I'm in Bozeman. It looks like you have a new store in Billings - have you been there yet?

JimFuller · Jun 10, 2018

We have a couple New places. Octopus Garden at 2500 Grand Ave.

Treasure State Aquarium at 9th and Grand Ave. Treasure State Aquarium is moving to Grand Ave from 11th street west.

Both are good places, I have dealt with them.

Pongo · Jun 10, 2018

spiraling said:
I can't tell you how much I have struggled and agonized over this tank. All I want is a beautiful coral garden to tend, and instead I get disaster after disaster.

I've had all those problems and more.
All I can say is be patient, uglies happen and often fade with time.
Eventually as the tank ages and stabilizes you'll achieve your goals.

spiraling · Jun 10, 2018

JimFuller said:
We have a couple New places. Octopus Garden at 2500 Grand Ave.

Treasure State Aquarium at 9th and Grand Ave. Treasure State Aquarium is moving to Grand Ave from 11th street west.

Both are good places, I have dealt with them.

Good to know. I occasionally get over there. We have the Aquarium in Belgrade now. No corals but the fish look healthy. I ordered an exquisite wrasse from them so I'll see how it goes.

spiraling · Jun 10, 2018

Pongo said:
I've had all those problems and more.
All I can say is be patient, uglies happen and often fade with time.
Eventually as the tank ages and stabilizes you'll achieve your goals.

The tank is a year and a half old now. I kept saying that and it kept getting worse because of the contamination. I get the next results this week. The zoas have survived the whole ordeal, and are finally looking like they might finally be growing. I have some frogspawn and a few others that are looking good, so I'm expecting the test will come back with good results. (fingers crossed) I'm pretty sure I've lost all of my pods, brittle stars, etc that I seeded the tank with, so I may have a while to get it "aged and stabilized". I will say it was comforting to know it was a heavy metal contamination (which I don't think I have yet found the source) and not my husbandry that was causing the issues.

spiraling · Jun 12, 2018

I have 3 RBTA, and they keep moving around. I'm not sure what to do to keep them settled, but I'm changing about 20g water twice a week.

The colors of all the corals is picking up. So I think the cuprisorb is working. Hopefully I'll get the ATI results back soon. I'm not sure how to take good pictures with my phone yet. Too much blue.

spiraling · Jun 15, 2018

The ATI ICP results are back. There is still Vanadium and Nickle, but only 1/4 of what it was. So the cuprisorb is indeed working. I sent the sample about 3 weeks ago and have done several water changes since, so I'm gussing the levels are even lower now. I have some new cuprisorb on the way. I'll let it work a couple of more weeks and retest.

I'm battling cyano at the moment (actually spirulina). The chemiclen did a great job knocking it out, but it looks like I'll need a second dose this week. The coraline is finally starting to grow on the rocks too.

spiraling · Sep 27, 2019

Its been over a year since I checked in. The losses had been staggering. I kept killing almost everything I put in the tank. It ended up being the black sand. Once I got it out, then the ICP test came back with good parameters.

So now I've started stocking it again. The zoas have been fine, and are growing faster, the leather survived. Most other pieces are new.

najer · Sep 28, 2019

Sorry to hear that, glad it is turned around for you.

spiraling · Sep 28, 2019

najer said:
Sorry to hear that, glad it is turned around for you.

There were times I wanted to give up, but patience paid off. I'm excited for a nice looking reef!

ksfulk · Sep 30, 2019

Glad to see things are on the rebound. Also glad I have company in the "took a year to right the ship" reef tank as well

spiraling · Feb 18, 2020

The nickle went up over fall and winter. I couldn't do water changes. A few things bleached out, but are rebounding. I got more sand out and have been taking a magnet to get the rest. I got an order in from Boom Corals and more from a local reefer. Things are starting to look good!

spiraling · May 26, 2020

Things are looking a little better. I'm starting to get a lot of coraline. The colors are returning. I made a bunch of zoa frags to trade at the LFS too. Although from this pic and the one before it doesn't seem like I have much growth.

spiraling · Jul 29, 2020

hahaha no picture today because my glass is covered with coraline and pods. I'm also finding the ca and alk consumption going up. I feel like I have FINALLY gotten rid of the poisoning in the tank that caused all the issues for three years. I'm really happy, and so are my fish and corals.

spiraling · Aug 10, 2020

Here's a FTS to show coral growth. the frogspawns are getting really big. Like I need to sell some of them big.

spiraling · Aug 28, 2020

My 3 peppermint shrimp disappeared at the beginning of summer. Today I saw a bunch of little aptaisia popping up. I haven't seen one in a while, well, not since I got the shrimp. Hopefully I got enough of them with the aptaisia x to avoid a full blown outbreak.