Myka's 69 SPS Tank 2015

Myka · Dec 26, 2015

The rocks have a bunch of bacteria on them, as if I was overdosing a carbon source, but I'm not dosing anything except Sponge Power. The rocks have had this bacteria bloom for probably 6 weeks now, and it's getting annoying. The water hasn't been super clear in a long time, and the filter pads feel slimy when I change them out. I'm not sure what's causing, but hopefully it will cycle out soon. I'll dose some Coral Snow tonight and see if that helps.

A few FTS from just now.

Myka · Dec 31, 2015

The bacteria has been persistent for some weeks now. Some people have commented on my photos saying they think it's an alga, but I'm not really convinced. I dosed 3 mL Coral Snow (80 gallons net) a couple times this week which kicked the crap out of the bacteria/alga overnight. It knocked it back by about 50%. After the second dosing, I woke up to the skimmer overflowing and a bubbly mess in the sump (which leads me further to think it's bacteria). I didn't clean the skimmer between the CS dose on Saturday night and the one Monday night. The water was slightly cloudy too like there was still some Coral Snow in the water, and there may have been since the skimmer puked all the CS residue out from the earlier dose.

The only other thing I've been dosing is kalkwasser (no vinegar) and Sponge Power. Someone mentioned that SP smells carbony and maybe to stop dosing it for awhile, which I was already thinking to myself. So now I've skipped dosing SP for two nights. Between this and the CS the bacteria is definitely better. It peaked in it's abundance last weekend when I decided to dose the CS. Today is WC day, and now I think of it, I've also been dosing Prodibio BioDigest which is due today, and I will not dose it.

Here are some macros. It scrubs off very easily. In some of the photos it looks colored (greenish/brownish), and it is not. It is translucent white. It is individual hairs up close, and looks like fuzz when viewed farther back.

Myka · Dec 31, 2015

Last night I added a big male Pintail and a really nice Carpenter's Wrasse to my QT. The Carpenter's Wrasse has really nice coloring and was eating at the LFS, but it's in very rough shape. I give it 50/50. They'll both get a FW dip today.

Remember this maricultured Acro from the last page? It's coloring up quickly. If you look on the bottom left there are pink highlights. It looks a lot like a Sunset Mille, but a bit different. The color isn't as yellow-golden in person as in the pic, it's more of a rust orange, pretty cool color actually.

Myka · Jan 3, 2016

Some pics from New Years' Day.

I took the closeup pics and then proceeded to do a water change and big clean up; I took a toothbrush to the rocks scrubbing and siphoning the Bubble Algae, and the bacteria (algae?). I also scraped the back wall real good and cleaned the powerheads. Plus I did another round of glue/epoxy/glue to the frags that have been doing well and I've decided where to put them. After that cleared I took a new FTS at the end.

I'm liking where this one is going:

I don't care what anyone says, I love the blue and green contrast on the Montipora "crapitata".

For a mariculture piece, it has really held it's color well. Only faded a sniff at first, and I think it's back to the color it was when it came out of the bag at the LFS. I need to try to get an ID on it, and maybe get another one with different color:

A bit bleached and not sure why.

Hawkin's "Echinata" mostly recovered from the mini-crash:

The corallites on this papillare are neon, but my camera didn't pick it up well:

This SSC has always been super fussy for me - the first one to lose color and the last one to gain it back, but it's tough as nails! At least it's showing some color again. It's been turd brown ever since the mini-crash and grows sooooo slow that it hasn't covered the STN'd tips yet.

FTS after scrub/clean.

RamsReef · Sep 18, 2016

Update

Myka · Sep 18, 2016

Ramasule said:
Update

Hey, thanks for checking in. I didn't get very many followers here, so I quit updating. I regularly update my thread on RC though. www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2497386

revhtree · Sep 19, 2016

Very nice!

RamsReef · Sep 19, 2016

This is why I am on R2R, mention another site on RC, ban, come to R2R links to the other forum and the forum owner saying, "Very Nice!",

*Like*

Myka · Sep 19, 2016

Ramasule said:
This is why I am on R2R, mention another site on RC, ban, come to R2R links to the other forum and the forum owner saying, "Very Nice!",

*Like*

Just because @revhtree did that I'll post some new photos up...

Myka · Sep 19, 2016

This one isn't growing much, but the color is outstanding:

Here is an interesting no-name frag from Canada Corals was just called "Pink Polyp Acro". I have no idea what it's up to - it hasn't grown hardly a sniff since I got it last November, but look at those polyps!

RRC OP, 9/10:

Here is the OP 30 days earlier with the photo taken from a very similar angle.

Many corals are looking ok. Color was better in June, but growth seems decent.

This one is really taking off - enjoying the higher light area I gave it.

[/QUOTE]

revhtree · Sep 20, 2016

Nice!

biom · Oct 20, 2016

Hey Mika, time for new FTS? [emoji4]

Myka · Oct 26, 2016

I'll take some pics Friday maybe...

Myka · Nov 26, 2016

I was playing with camera settings today and found some settings that are pretty close to life. My focus was pretty good today too. The corals have really darkened/saturated since I started dosing Pohl's Xtra nightly a few weeks back.

Poor Hawkins fell down on the flubber below it, and got a boo boo. Here I thought it was encrusted onto the rock.

OP is a tad over-saturated in this photo, but it looks almost this good! Haha.

This is that wild Aussie microclados/nasuta. It's been coloring up really nicely since starting the Xtra.

Red polyped loripes starting to settle in.

I asked an Aussie wholesaler specifically for a blue Echinata. This is what showed up, I think a spath (only 24 hours in my tank):

This humilis is stupid bright. It doesn't matter what's going on in the tank, it always looks at least half decent. I'm waiting for it to start growing though.

biom · Dec 11, 2016

Hi Mindy, very very nice collection of acros. What are the current levels of nitrates, are you still using biopellets?
It looks that there is imbalance between nitrates and phosphates, causing valonia outbreak and reduced or (irregular/disproportional) coral growth.
Green humilis wants very strong light and some nutrients in water (cannot tolerate 0 nitrates for long time).

Myka · Dec 11, 2016

biom said:
Hi Mindy, very very nice collection of acros. What are the current levels of nitrates, are you still using biopellets?
It looks that there is imbalance between nitrates and phosphates, causing valonia outbreak and reduced or (irregular/disproportional) coral growth.
Green humilis wants very strong light and some nutrients in water (cannot tolerate 0 nitrates for long time).

Hi Stoyan, thanks for stopping in.

I've never used biopellets on this tank. I add AF ProBioS, but I don't use -NP Pro. I used to use carbon, but haven't had any in the tank since July. Never had GFO in it. The tank has a tendency to have very low PO4, often reading 0 ppm on the Hanna ULR checker. Triton test in August read 3.11 ppb PO4, where my checker read 0 ppb. My last testing was Nov 14th where I read NO3 0.25 ppm (Red Sea Pro), 0.20 ppm (Salifert), and 0 ppb PO4. I do have to clean the glass every second day.

A couple weeks ago I added a Long Spine Urchin, which I noticed has been eating it as well as the burgundy-colored turf algae. Last week I attacked the Valonia manually, and the tank looks much better.

The Green Humilis is getting 260 PAR. Up until recently the corals have been very pale from low nutrients despite my regular feedings to try to get some nutrients into the tank. For this reason, I haven't been able to run the lights at 100%. Just last week I turned up channel 2 from 6 hours at 70% to 6 hours at 80%.

I feed a lot to try to keep nutrients in the water and get some to the corals. I started adding Pohl's Xtra Nov 4th in the evenings and started turning the skimmer off at night, and it has really helped coral colors. I'll have to test today to see if the water column has any more nutrients - I doubt it.

Here's the current feeding schedule:

0700 turn skimmer on, add 2.5 mL ZV Coral Snow, on Mondays and Fridays add 3 drops ProBioS
0830 lights on
0900 homemade frozen mash
1200 NLS pellets top dressed with wild Salmon oil and astaxanthin in auto feeder
1500 more pellets
1800 frozen mash
2000 frozen mash
2030 lights off
2100 turn off skimmer, add 3 drops Sponge Power (no results noted), 2.5 mL Xtra, 2 scoops Reef Chili, 1/4 tsp Reef Roids.

Current fish:
2 Onyx Clowns, A. percula (breeding)
1 Pelicier's Perchlet, P. pelicieri
1 Royal Gramma, G. loreto (might remove him, he's a jerk)
1 Panamic Barnacle Blenny, A. hancocki
1 Johnson's Fairy Wrasse, C. johnsoni
1 Lyretail Anthias, P. squamipinnis

These two are in the tank now, but I'm removing them after Christmas, will have to take the rock out to get them. They are too smart for the trap.
1 Tomini Tang, C. tominiensis (needs bigger home)
1 Yellow Coris, H. chrysus (needs bigger home)

Future additions:
2-3 more Anthias, prob vary the species
1 Bell's Flasher Wrasse, C. bellae
1 Candy Basslet, L. carmabi

biom · Dec 11, 2016

IMO turning off the skimmer during the night is not good idea, it could be very dangerous especially when tank is heavily fed , you can simply remove the cup of the skimmer (IMO it is better to leave it skimming all the time). My suggestion is to start dosing nitrates and feeding with low phosphate frosen food like brine shrimp and stop other foods (both fish and coral) and Sponge power. If you like Xtra you can continue dosing it (it is aminos, amonnia, and nitrates).
Sorry, I know you did'not ask me for advises, but I like very much your tank and your reefkeeping approach.

Myka · Dec 11, 2016

biom said:
IMO turning off the skimmer during the night is not good idea, it could be very dangerous especially when tank is heavily fed , you can simply remove the cup of the skimmer (IMO it is better to leave it skimming all the time). My suggestion is to start dosing nitrates and feeding with low phosphate frosen food like brine shrimp and stop other foods (both fish and coral) and Sponge power. If you like Xtra you can continue dosing it (it is aminos, amonnia, and nitrates).
Sorry, I know you did'not ask me for advises, but I like very much your tank and your reefkeeping approach.

Stoyan, I have heard a lot of advice in my greater than 2 decades of reefkeeping, and after all this time there are two things I can tell you for sure - you never know everything, and good advice is priceless. I always listen to advice - I apply my own experiences, do a little research, and give it a shot. So in many less words, I appreciate your advice and see you as a trusted source, so thank you for following along.

I understand your concern with the skimmer. The skimmer sprays too much if I just remove the cup, and soaks the inside of the stand, which runs down the panels and gets my floors wet. They are not waterproof floors, so this is very bad. You do remind me though that I was thinking to fabricate a little concave cap to go over the neck of the skimmer (with cup removed) to hold the spray in. I will do this. That said, I was monitoring pH while turning the skimmer off at the end of the photoperiod it is 8.2 and in the AM just before I turn the skimmer back on it is 7.9. This is definitely a bigger swing than I would like. I also have a CO2 scrubber that I need to hook up to the skimmer since it's that time of year here (freaking cold outside).

As I mentioned, I've really noted no difference in using the Sponge Power, but I have it, and figured I'd use it up. It doesn't seem to cause any issues. I don't know what's in it though. The Reef Roids and Reef Chili - I'm not sure that I see much effect using these either. I will take your advice and cut these out, and just continue with the Xtra as it has been the "magic ingredient" for my tank recently. I'll continue with the 3 drops ProBioS 2x per week too. What about the Coral Snow? I use in replacement of carbon.

I am fairly certain that the homemade mash I feed is low phosphate, all the ingredients are inspected for phosphate preservatives on the packaging, regardless the tank certainly doesn't have a phosphate issue. Here is a typical recipe (all human grade ingredients except the FAF gelatin and vitamins):

White shrimp (shells on) 500 g
Wild Pacific salmon 200 g
Green Lipped Mussels 200 g
Squid 100 g
Flying Fish Roe 15 g
Florida Aqua Farms vitamins 10 g
Nori (green, dry) 5-8 g
Wild Salmon Oil 5000 mg
Hawaiian Astaxanthin 600 mg
Florida Aqua Farms Gelatin 50 g

I just finished today's 10-gallon water change using Aquaforest Probiotic Reef Salt, and tested parameters before the change:

SG 34 ppt (I adjusted this to 35 ppt during the water change)
Ca 415, 425 (old Salifert, new Salifert)
Alk 148/144 ppm, 8.28/8.06 dKH (Hanna, old reagent, new reagent)
Alk 7.85 dKH (Salifert)
Mg 1240 ppm (Red Sea Pro)
Mg 1200 ppm (Salifert...this kit read 134 ppm lower than Triton in August)
K 390 ppm (Salifert...this kit read 60 ppm higher than Triton in August) I added 10 g Potassion-P which should raise about 20 ppm.
PO4 6 ppb, 0.018 ppm (Hanna ULR)
NO3 1-1.5 ppm (Red Sea Pro)
NO3 ~ 2.5 ppm (Salifert)

I am so happy! This is the highest nitrate reading I've ever seen in this tank. Once every 6-8 weeks I do a big testing like this with numerous kits. Otherwise I just test alkalinity with both Hanna and Salifert every 2 weeks or so. I'm going to do another Triton test as soon as I remember to grab a kit from the LFS.

I was keeping alkalinity in the 6.8-7.0 dKH range for the entire life of the tank, and was recently thinking to try a slightly higher alkalinity to see if I could spur some better growth rates. Between Oct 4th and Nov 14th alkalinity slowly rose to 8.9/8.6 dKH (Hanna/Salifert) because of my lack of testing. I figured this was certainly too high though so I cut the dosers back and dropped it down to 7.96 dKH (Salifert) by the 18th. I decided to stay at this spot, and that's where I am today too. Corals were visually unaffected by the slow alkalinity spike thankfully!

I will take some pics tonight.