Mr. Knightley's Planet 125 The Culmination of Indecision

Mr_Knightley · Apr 5, 2022

Well, I'm gonna assume that the four Huchtii anthias have died somewhere in the tank, since I haven't seen them for 2, going on 3, weeks. Super big bummer, but I guess it happens. I've not been able to find bodies and haven't picked up any signs of rotting fish in the tank, so I'm still hopeful, but not by much

In other news, this nem is the best thing ever & so is this clam.

Mr_Knightley · May 20, 2022

Ok, really big update coming shortly. Stay tuned.

Mr_Knightley · May 20, 2022

So.
You know how I had a reef tank?
...

I may or may not have lost 90% of all coral & fish in the span of 48 hours.
I'm still unaware of the cause. SOMETHING caused a rapid PH drop & drop in organics, which made the planarian flatworms begin to melt, which released their toxins and created a domino effect to kill nearly everything. Sadly, there's no antidote for Neurotoxin so I just had to rip things out and hope they didn't already receive a lethal dose. Tangs and wrasses died first, then dartfish and finally my 5 year old cardinal. Strangely, the clowns are seemingly unaffected and don't seem to care about the toxins at all. All of my acros have melted, along with my entire bicolor hammer colony, and every single frag I was growing out for an upcoming swap. A lot of random inverts in the tank are also unaffected, even though spaghetti worms and flatworms are all dead. I figured out where those anthias went! I found a giant 5+ inch Polyclad flatworm dead in the tank, the likely culprit of their deaths. It's looking like my clam may not make it either, and both nems look a little rough too, but I'm holding out hope.
The only things that are still alive are listed below:
3 skunk clowns
(maybe) Small colony of green hammer
large frag of orange hammer
a couple shrooms & my big shroom rock
All hermits & snails
a tiny nub of anacropora
(maybe) a tiny frag of acropora
(maybe) most of my trumpets
Lithophyllon (Seemingly unaffected)
(Maybe) acan pachysepta
Both fungias
(maybe) clam
(maybe) condylactis
LTA

That list seems larger than it should be, however in perspective that's a very small percentile of what I had. On the bright side, I get a blank slate to restart from. On the nasty side, I have to restart from a blank slate. Sometimes things just don't go the way you planned.
So now I'm kind of stuck. I don't know if I want to downsize a bit, or try again full force. Most likely it'll be a mix of the two. I want to kill the remaining flatworms to be over with that ordeal, then I'll let it settle before using Flux to ditch the Bryopsis. Then I'll have a clean slate. Maybe I can start fresh with the original plan, an anemone/clown harem tank. Maybe I'll do something different. I don't know.

I took a bunch of pictures of the dead livestock, but honestly I don't have the heart to post them. You know what a dead acro looks like.

TDiefRN · May 20, 2022

Mr_Knightley said:
So.
You know how I had a reef tank?
...

I may or may not have lost 90% of all coral & fish in the span of 48 hours.
I'm still unaware of the cause. SOMETHING caused a rapid PH drop & drop in organics, which made the planarian flatworms begin to melt, which released their toxins and created a domino effect to kill nearly everything. Sadly, there's no antidote for Neurotoxin so I just had to rip things out and hope they didn't already receive a lethal dose. Tangs and wrasses died first, then dartfish and finally my 5 year old cardinal. Strangely, the clowns are seemingly unaffected and don't seem to care about the toxins at all. All of my acros have melted, along with my entire bicolor hammer colony, and every single frag I was growing out for an upcoming swap. A lot of random inverts in the tank are also unaffected, even though spaghetti worms and flatworms are all dead. I figured out where those anthias went! I found a giant 5+ inch Polyclad flatworm dead in the tank, the likely culprit of their deaths. It's looking like my clam may not make it either, and both nems look a little rough too, but I'm holding out hope.
The only things that are still alive are listed below:
3 skunk clowns
(maybe) Small colony of green hammer
large frag of orange hammer
a couple shrooms & my big shroom rock
All hermits & snails
a tiny nub of anacropora
(maybe) a tiny frag of acropora
(maybe) most of my trumpets
Lithophyllon (Seemingly unaffected)
(Maybe) acan pachysepta
Both fungias
(maybe) clam
(maybe) condylactis
LTA

That list seems larger than it should be, however in perspective that's a very small percentile of what I had. On the bright side, I get a blank slate to restart from. On the nasty side, I have to restart from a blank slate. Sometimes things just don't go the way you planned.
So now I'm kind of stuck. I don't know if I want to downsize a bit, or try again full force. Most likely it'll be a mix of the two. I want to kill the remaining flatworms to be over with that ordeal, then I'll let it settle before using Flux to ditch the Bryopsis. Then I'll have a clean slate. Maybe I can start fresh with the original plan, an anemone/clown harem tank. Maybe I'll do something different. I don't know.

I took a bunch of pictures of the dead livestock, but honestly I don't have the heart to post them. You know what a dead acro looks like.

Oh no! I'm so sorry! Love the attitude though, clean slate, specialty tank, the sky's the limit!

DiefsReef · Jun 9, 2022

Any update @Mr_Knightley my wife told me about this and I had forgotten to reach out. So sorry for all the issues you've had.

Mr_Knightley · Jun 9, 2022

DiefsReef said:
Any update @Mr_Knightley my wife told me about this and I had forgotten to reach out. So sorry for all the issues you've had.

I thought I had already updated the thread

thanks for the reminder lol
Everything is back to normal!! After putting two poly filters in, the toxin was eradicated and every coral left in the tank has recovered entirely. At the swap on Saturday, I got one of the Spike's Coral giftcards and got some SPS, and they look incredible now so I can safely say that the whole ordeal is behind us. There are no flatworms left in the system at all (that I can see), so thank goodness that nightmare is over. Now the final frontier is the Bryopsis, which I will be treating this week! I finally got a bottle of Flux, so all I need to do is remove as much as I can in a couple of days.
Interestingly, there's been a massive boom in Copepod populations in all three of my tanks. Maybe it's a seasonal thing?
I'll leave with some pics. Thanks y'all for following along, and hopefully I can get the tank back on track to where it will actually be interesting to follow!

Mr_Knightley · Jun 12, 2022

Okay, as of June 12th, 2022, I have begun my journey using Flucanozole to combat the bryopsis problem. Four weeks ago, I halved my lighting intensity to weaken the algae, and I was able to pull some 80-90 percent of it out in 15 minutes. And now the wait begins.

Mr_Knightley · Sep 7, 2022

Super-mega-crazy-extra update time. (not actually that cool but whatevs)

Today marks the end of my fluconazole journey. It's been nearly 3 months of a low-end dosage, and I'm happy to say that all traces of hair algae and, most importantly, bryopsis have disappeared! I'm making a big batch of water right now to do a final water change, then it's smooth sailing.
Today I visited my LFS to get some small wrasses, since I've still only got my two clowns left. I ended up getting a Timor wrasse (I've been battling pyramid snails on my squamosa), and I was planning to get an aiptasia eating filefish, but the one they had was really giant and I didn't trust that it wouldn't eat my coral.
HOWEVER...
I may have made a bad decision, but in the shop was a pair of tiny bird wrasses. They had been kept together for weeks and were clearly on good terms, and due to their tiny size, I decided to take the chance. I've wanted to do an 'aggressive reef' tank for years, and this seems like the perfect opportunity to start!

To put into perspective just how tiny these bird wrasses are, the little one is barely over an inch in length. The big one is almost twice the size, and the timor wrasse is just a bit bigger than that.
Expect some more updates soon! I need to do some serious work on the Cynarina tank, there was a diatom bloom and I nearly lost one of them, crossing my fingers she makes it. All three tanks need a lot of work to get back to a presentable point, but they are coasting along just fine.

Thanks for checking in and God bless!

Mr_Knightley · Oct 18, 2022

New fische alert.
I've been tracking this thing down for years. I asked my LFS is they could get one in for me, but they said they haven't seen one for at least a year. I took it into my own hands and found someplace that had them in stock, Reefs4Less. I've ordered from them in the past and it's only been good experiences, and I'm happy to say that the record holds. I'm going to QT this fish for a week or two before I put him in the main tank, of course.
The species is Xanthicthys ringens, the redtail trigger! I had one years ago in my old 220, but I lost it due to flukes. I don't plan to make the same mistake.
In other news, my Timor wrasse and anemone have been missing for two days. Can't find them anywhere, I'm going to tear into the reef to figure it out. I think I may have a fireworm somewhere

Daily dose of pics and I'll get out of your hair. Have a wonderful day and God bless!

Mr_Knightley · Oct 18, 2022

Found the timor wrasse, it looks like it's been dead for a while, as the eyes and stomach were eaten out. The only thing I can think of is that he had a bit of a potbelly before he died. Bummed about it, I'll have to get another soon fosho. I did find the nem, he was alive and well and had just sucked under the rock he was attached to! so that's good.
While searching for the wrasse, I found a ton of dead spots on the rockwork and sandbed that were just totally caked with detritus! So I'm going to do some re-arranging with the rocks to get better flow, and maybe make the rockwork generally more pleasing and give the fish more open swimming space. It'll also give the new trigger some unclaimed hiding spots when he moves in this weekend!

Mr_Knightley · Feb 24, 2023

Super quick update, nothing much to say besides everything is going well and the tank is cruising. Got a bristletail filefish to deal with some aiptasia issues & swapped out a rick from the display that had some Caulerpa growing on it with another in my refugium.

Mr_Knightley · Jun 30, 2023

I just re-read this thread from page 1 to 5, and suffice to say, I've had a rollercoaster of an experience with this tank. A pattern I've noticed is fish surviving for 5-8 months before disappearing without signs of disease, a continuous cycle of different algaes, and a vicious cycle of acropora being wiped out by factors outside of my control.

Let's start updating this again. I've been sailing on automation for the past few months, and I'm ready to get back into the thick of it.

First thing's first, casualties. Both remaining clownfish and a filefish mysteriously passed since the last update. No signs of disease, just dead one day, leading me to think flukes are the culprit.
Same deal with my giant purple urchin. Just stopped moving and shed all his spines, both other urchins are fine. I think it was old age, he was grapefruit sized.
I bought a hectors goby last month that I have not seen once since adding. I suspect he's still there though as there's a spot of sand near a rock that stays suspiciously clean.
I lost an acro frag in the rockwork directly after purchasing it, same deal with a monti. System is currently acro-free, I may keep it that way.
Lumped in with casualties, I have sold several colonies from the tank. The green shroom rock, the acan, and one of two larger chunks of my Caulastrea. I'm seriously working to clean off the sandbed and get it nice and white again.

Ecosystem health:
Hair algae has begun its rapid colonization. My starry blenny and chocolate tang occasionally nip at it, but I have to pull it out first. They don't eat the strands. Diatoms of one form or another have also taken their hold, but I'm not particularly worried about those.
Microfauna is at an all-time high, thanks to additions from Florida. The water is full of mysid shrimp every night, along with larval hermit crabs from my thinstripes, and the glass is populated with immense diversity of copopods and their ilk. Weird little filter feeders hang from every cave ceiling, notably miniature tunicates and bivalves.
Coral extension & coloration is phenomenal, no doubt aided by bi-nightly feedings. Everything gets a taste, and it shows.

Additions:
Since the last update, I have added (in order):
Chocolate tang (mid spring)
serpent star (late spring)
hermits from FL (late spring)
Ornate brittlestar (this month)
x3 yellowband possum wrasses (two days ago)
x2 blackcap grammas (two days ago)
Blue linckia starfish (two days ago)

Total stock list, not including coral:

Sargassum triggerfish
x2 blue bird wrasse (juvenile)
Pajama cardinal
Starry blenny
Chocolate tang
Hector's goby? (not seen since addition)
x3 Yellowbanded possum wrasse
x2 Black-cap gramma

Tuxedo urchin
Pincushion urchin
Serpent star
Ornate brittlestar
Blue Linckia
Tigertail sea cucumber (hitchhiker!)
Emerald crab
Myriad hermits
CB Squamosa clam
Myriad snails
Flame scallop (5 months!)

So here's my dilemma. The tank is a pretty bare slate right now, so I can take it any direction. I've wanted to try a Heteractis Magnifica for years, and I do have a rock that I got specifically with that in mind, so that's one way I could go. I could get back into sticks, which were amazing, and focus on a higher energy reef environment. Or I could keep it going with this lazy reef feel, stock up on softies and gorgonians, and let it be an easy rider sort of tank. All three options are appealing.

Anywho, thank you all for tuning in. here's a big ol' photo dump before I log out.