My techniques for growing SPS

[J Rog]

Quick question. How do you does the Brightwell AA? Do you just put the drops in the tank in a high flow area or do you target feed with a turey baster or something like that? BTW awesome tank!! Corals look great!

 

[swannyson7]

Quick question. How do you does the Brightwell AA? Do you just put the drops in the tank in a high flow area or do you target feed with a turey baster or something like that? BTW awesome tank!! Corals look great!

Thanks, it's a never-ending work in progress. I used to just add the drops in a high flow area, but now I usuallu mix it in with whatever I'm broadcast feeding that day.

 

[J Rog]

Thanks, it's a never-ending work in progress. I used to just add the drops in a high flow area, but now I usuallu mix it in with whatever I'm broadcast feeding that day.

Cool, thanks. Im trying to pinpoint an issue im having with my tank.. Have you ever over dosed the AA? I had 2 of my sps colonies die pretty much overnight.. And a bunch of heads of my duncan colony.. Not sure if i over doed on this stuff yet or I have some kind of coral disease going on.. But it came up in a my last thread i started that i might have over dosed the Brightwells AA..

 

[swannyson7]

I doubt that overdosing the Aminos would cause RTN. It would probably just cause a spike in excess nutrients and lead to an algae issue. Sometimes pieces will RTN for no known reason, it's seems like it's just a fact of life (this is coming from much more experienced reefers than me), but the fact that you lost two leads me to believe there are other factors at play. Here's a whole slew of questions to help pinpoint your issue:

- What are your parameters?
- How much of the AA did you add and on what size tank?
- How long had you been dosing the AA prior to losing the colonies?
- How long did you have the colonies?
- Is it possible that the corals were stung by anything?
- Did you have a swing in alk, pH, salinity, or temp?
- Did you have any rapid changes to your flow (added, moved, or removed a powerhead)?
- Any changes to lighting (new bulbs, new fixture, raised/lowered fixture, added a form of supplementation)?
- Any new additions to the tank (fish, corals, other inverts, rock)?
- Did you use any cleaning chemicals in the house? Some cleaners will become airborne and make their way into the tank.
- Have you checked for stray current or do you have a grounding probe? (unlikely to cause RTN on 2 colonies without everything looking ticked off, but a possibility)

If you answer those questions then maybe we can pinpoint a possible source of the problem.

 

[my2girls]

Beautiful tank man. Thought I would show my support here on R2R as well as in CTARS.

BTW- I got a small nub of your pink milli at PC. Hopefully it is as good to me as it is for you.

 

[J Rog]

I doubt that overdosing the Aminos would cause RTN. It would probably just cause a spike in excess nutrients and lead to an algae issue. Sometimes pieces will RTN for no known reason, it's seems like it's just a fact of life (this is coming from much more experienced reefers than me), but the fact that you lost two leads me to believe there are other factors at play. Here's a whole slew of questions to help pinpoint your issue:

- What are your parameters?
- How much of the AA did you add and on what size tank?
- How long had you been dosing the AA prior to losing the colonies?
- How long did you have the colonies?
- Is it possible that the corals were stung by anything?
- Did you have a swing in alk, pH, salinity, or temp?
- Did you have any rapid changes to your flow (added, moved, or removed a powerhead)?
- Any changes to lighting (new bulbs, new fixture, raised/lowered fixture, added a form of supplementation)?
- Any new additions to the tank (fish, corals, other inverts, rock)?
- Did you use any cleaning chemicals in the house? Some cleaners will become airborne and make their way into the tank.
- Have you checked for stray current or do you have a grounding probe? (unlikely to cause RTN on 2 colonies without everything looking ticked off, but a possibility)

If you answer those questions then maybe we can pinpoint a possible source of the problem.

Here is a link to my thread. If you can help me out with any pointers that would me awesome! It sucks watching my tank just go down hill. My sps were starting to look soo good before this down fall... https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/reef-chemistry-forum/71299-help.html

 

[swannyson7]

Beautiful tank man. Thought I would show my support here on R2R as well as in CTARS.

BTW- I got a small nub of your pink milli at PC. Hopefully it is as good to me as it is for you.

Thanks, much appreciated! Hope that the mille does well for you, but if anything happens to it, jut let me know and I'll cut a frag for you.

 

[swannyson7]

Here is a link to my thread. If you can help me out with any pointers that would me awesome! It sucks watching my tank just go down hill. My sps were starting to look soo good before this down fall... https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/reef-chemistry-forum/71299-help.html

I'll check it out and post anything that I can think of

 

[J Rog]

I'll check it out and post anything that I can think of

Thanks!

 

[splitkooks]

wow...... that is some amazing stuff there, great work....I think your a god...plain and simple

 

[swannyson7]

lol, I wouldn't go nearly that far. There are SPS keepers on R2R that are FAR more successful, I'm just a small fish in a big pond. But I appreciate the compliment! :wink:

 

[skinz78]

I'm thinking I am going to have to get some AA's in my next order. You use Brightwells correct?

 

[GR808]

I've been using Coralamino and I've noticed more color and growth. I just broadcast once a week but I'd like to do more and am not sure if there are any adverse affects?

 

[swannyson7]

Seeing as I’ve received a couple PMs from the R2R community, I’d like to point out that I’m aware of the red bugs seen on a few of the corals within the pictures. I first noticed their presence while processing this batch of photos and luckily, they show up very well with macro shots, despite being hard to spot with the naked eye. I thank you and applaud you all for the keen eye to notice them on a few of the Acros. I picked up frags from quite a few people over the past month and despite dipping all new aquisitions, I have yet to find a dip that actually kills redbugs other than interceptor. For any of you who are unsure what red bugs look like, you can find a brief summary on Melev’s reef about red bugs and the treatment to eradicate them at the following web address:
www.melevsreef.com/redbugs.html

I dosed my first round of interceptor yesterday and will do the follow-up doses at 3 & 6 weeks. As far as pests go, red bugs are the easiest to beat IME. For any of you who have never dosed interceptor, it’s nothing to fear. As long as you do a bit of research prior to determine your dosage and take the proper steps to remove crabs & shrimp, the treatment works beautifully with no ill effects. I’ve never experienced any problems with fish or corals reacting poorly to the treatment, nor have I had a problem with decimating my pod population. I have a mandarin goby in my tank that has been fat and happy for a few years and he’s survived several interceptor treatments. I’ll post some updated shots today to show that there is no negative impact on coloration and also a few other eye candy shots of some LPS within my tanks.

 

[skinz78]

I don't see them?

 

[swannyson7]

I don't see them?

They're there, just zoom in on your browser and use your imagination. They usually effect smooth skinned acros first and then begin to spread throughout the tank. There were honestly only 3 corals that I noticed them on, but this is the one that seemed to be plagued with them. I deleted the raw files, so I'm stuck with the downsized images to work with, but the red arrows point to the red bugs. If you zoom way in on the image, you can see what look like little dark spots...that's them.

Red bugs are a type of pod and only a small portion of them has the redish color, while the remainder of their body is a pale color. Between their size and their lack of vibrant color, they're nearly impossible to see with the naked eye. Use of a magnifying glass or macro lens will help you spot them, but it can be difficult even with these tools. The link for Marc's page has some better images in case you've never seen them.

 

[swannyson7]

I've been using Coralamino and I've noticed more color and growth. I just broadcast once a week but I'd like to do more and am not sure if there are any adverse affects?

To be honest, I wouldn't increase your dosage, but I would definitely spread out the dosage as a smaller amount a few times per week. If you decide to increase the dosage, I would divide your current dosage by 7 for your daily dose and increase dosage by perhaps one drop per day (for a total increase of 7 drops per week, not continually ramping it up each day). That will give your bacterial population and skimmer a chance to keep up with the increased dosing instead of a sudden influx of nutrients on a single say where it will struggle to keep up. Monitor your parameters and give it a couple weeks before you increase your dosage again. Once you notice your parameters starting to increase, then reduce dosage by a drop for your maintenance dose and continue to monitor parameters, decreasing the dosage if necessary. Good luck in whatever you decide to do, but don't make any rash decisions that could throw your tank out of whack!

 

[swannyson7]

As promised, here's some LPS photos from the other day. Nothing too fancy, but the only pieces of LPS that I haven't already shown pics of, except for a few other frags.

My wife went to work with the SLR, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to show pics of the SPS after the interceptor treatment.

 

[skinz78]

Ahh I see them now.

 

[J Rog]

Seeing as I’ve received a couple PMs from the R2R community, I’d like to point out that I’m aware of the red bugs seen on a few of the corals within the pictures. I first noticed their presence while processing this batch of photos and luckily, they show up very well with macro shots, despite being hard to spot with the naked eye. I thank you and applaud you all for the keen eye to notice them on a few of the Acros. I picked up frags from quite a few people over the past month and despite dipping all new aquisitions, I have yet to find a dip that actually kills redbugs other than interceptor. For any of you who are unsure what red bugs look like, you can find a brief summary on Melev’s reef about red bugs and the treatment to eradicate them at the following web address:
www.melevsreef.com/redbugs.html

I dosed my first round of interceptor yesterday and will do the follow-up doses at 3 & 6 weeks. As far as pests go, red bugs are the easiest to beat IME. For any of you who have never dosed interceptor, it’s nothing to fear. As long as you do a bit of research prior to determine your dosage and take the proper steps to remove crabs & shrimp, the treatment works beautifully with no ill effects. I’ve never experienced any problems with fish or corals reacting poorly to the treatment, nor have I had a problem with decimating my pod population. I have a mandarin goby in my tank that has been fat and happy for a few years and he’s survived several interceptor treatments. I’ll post some updated shots today to show that there is no negative impact on coloration and also a few other eye candy shots of some LPS within my tanks.

Get a pair of Dragonface pipe fish. I read they will eat red bugs. I actually just got a pair last week. They are so cool! They might help you keep the red bugs in check naturally.