Nano Sapiens 12g - Ye Olde Mixed Reef

[Nano sapiens]

TG Update:

Sometimes things can get mighty strange in a reef aquarium

Long story short, I had a funky alk test kit that was showing 9.5 dKh, but the actual level per the LFS and a second test kit showed 12.5 dKh (I was running this high level for well over a month, yikes!). On top of that, I just happened to be playing with lighting spectrum and intensity during this time, so there was bit of collateral damage:

Ponape and BOP Seriatoporas:

Fallen Horizons Leptoseris:

Having the Birdsnests bleach is expected as they are typically the first to show displeasure when something is amiss. The normally all orange Lepto's response was to have the most highly illuminated areas go black and then loose tissue, or where not quite so brightly lit, develop fluorescent green pigmentation.

On top of this (or because of it), when I tried to bring alk down to a more typical 9 dKh by consistently reducing my normal 70% Kalkwasser/30% RO top off, I had to reduce all the way to pure 100% RO to get any kind of reaction (nearly 2 weeks to get from 12.5 to 9 dKh!). Slow alk decrease response, likely due to corals/coralline showing reduced calcification. The main fix is to change lighting back to a 'known good spectrum and intensity' (from my log book), monitor parameters closely until kalkwasser/RO usage is back to normal again and make sure that sufficient iodine stays in the system as it can help corals recover from bleaching events.

Thought this was interesting. I cleaned the system and all equipment today. Within the pump's internals, I have noticed a purplish/reddish coloration over the past month or two (ever since I carbon dosed for two months). Definitely got my attention, and the impeller and Q-Tip below show the reddish bacteria (the brownish bacteria on the top is from the return outlet):

Ok, back to the glamour pics

This side wall is coming along. Just waiting for the Zoas to take off and fill out:

I removed a rogue Superman Rhodatis that was causing my Acans some grief and used the spot for this nice little two polyp orange Homophylllia bowerbanki:

The already old school 'Lunar Eclipse' Zoa. Within 15 min of setting in place this guy was already puffed up. I'd forgotten just how large these guys get! (the Sunny D's are 3/4" across). Praying that the Acan plays nice:

 

[Nano sapiens]

Imagine that...a Eunice worm!

I just happened to be looking at one of my small hermit crabs picking on some algae and all of a sudden this little iridescent head full of thick tentacles whips out of an overhang and bumps the hermit's shell. Then it comes out a little further and does it again. Whoa...

The little Eunice terror is maybe 1/3 as thick as a pencil and very colorful. I tried to get a pic by luring it out of it's lair with a piece of salmon, but it took the food faster than I could snap a pic.

I have no idea how long the worm has been in my system, but I haven't had any new live rock since the tank was setup over 12 years ago. I suppose it's possible that it came in on a frag plug, but if it did it would have had to have been really small and have survived my typical 1 minute FW/Iodine dip.

At it's present size it poses no danger to my 2-1/2" Eyebrow Barnacle Blenny. It didn't seem interested in attacking the tiny Blue Legged hermit, just getting it out of it's territory.

Having just read up on Eunice (and related genera), there are many species and many different size ranges from 10 mm up to 3 m. Some are strictly carnivores, some omnivores and some herbivores. I can definitely say this one eats meat, but considering that if it's been in this aquarium for the whole 12 years, then it's likely an omnivore getting by on a variety of foods. Luckily, it doesn't seem to have a taste for coral, though. I have seen a really tiny 'mini-me' worm version in my sand bed, but whether this one is a different species or offspring from this larger species...can't say.

This is one of those 'cool but creepy' finds. I'm going to keep the little fella until it misbehaves, and if that happens, I may set up a little pico tank for him like this one:

Pet Eunice Worm

 

[Aqua Man]

Those Acans are looking real nice!

Crazy Alk readings again! Good catch. What test kit are you using for Alk?
That ponape was good looking. Been trying to find one local. Do you think it will recover?

Pet worm! Love it!! Lol

 

[Nano sapiens]

Those Acans are looking real nice!

Crazy Alk readings again! Good catch. What test kit are you using for Alk?
That ponape was good looking. Been trying to find one local. Do you think it will recover?

Pet worm! Love it!! Lol

I've had trouble with Acans in the past and I am very pleased that they are doing well, but especially that they have now done well over a long period. In the past, I tended to either loose them within a week or two due to brown jelly infections (cuttings that weren't healed sufficiently before sale) or over a few months where the tissue would slowly recede and eventually vanish (unknown cause, possibly light and/or flow issues).

The long version: The alk kit that went haywire was a Seachem. I had initially compared it to a brand new Salifert kit and they were both within 0.3 dKh. Because I wanted to finish off the Seachem, I started to use it exclusively, but when I noticed the coral trouble I compared them again and found the 3.0 dKh discrepancy. So, not knowing which one was correct, I picked up a cheap API kit and it actually read close to the Seachem (both around 9 and 9.5 dKh, respectively)...so logically I assumed that the Salifert was messed up at 12.5, when it was actually correct. A few weeks later, the coral situation was even worse, so I brought a water sample into the LFS and they confirmed that the Salifert at 12.5 was correct.

Luckily, the Ponape BN lost very little tissue. I've been target feeding it 2x week with Reef Roids so it's survived ok. I am starting to notice the return of small areas of neon green as the alk has stabilized and I've reduced lighting intensity and adjusted spectrum back to known good levels.

There's a whole list of takeaways here:

1. 'Expect the unexpected'...
2. 'You can't double check too many times'...
3. 'Expect issues if you experiment outside of the norm with lighting spectrum and/or intensity'...
4. 'Reef keeping for a long time doesn't insure that you can't/won't mess up, just helps when fixing is needed'...
5. 'If you find a 'pest' likely living in a system for years without any unusual losses, it's generally safe to 'let it be''...

 

[Nano sapiens]

I have named him 'Bob'

He gets ticked off when the lumbering hermits get too close to his entrance. This time I saw him nip my Halloween hermit's leg to get him to move on, so that's exactly what I'd expect from a Eunice worm.

 

[Aqua Man]

Great picture of Bob! Reminds me of that movie Tremors, giant killer worms!

It’s sure strange that API can stay in business with all the faults there kits have. API for alk is what I’m using now. Ordered a Salifert kit. My Alk may also be off.

1. 'Expect the unexpected'...
2. 'You can't double check too many times'...
3. 'Expect issues if you experiment outside of the norm with lighting spectrum and/or intensity'...
4. 'Reef keeping for a long time doesn't insure that you can't/won't mess up, just helps when fixing is needed'...
5. 'If you find a 'pest' likely living in a system for years without any unusual losses, it's generally safe to 'let it be''...

Agreed!

 

[Nano sapiens]

This is one Pavona with an appetite for baby earthworms! (P. maldivensis):

Eventually, the piece will be sucked under the skin and slowly digested. One of my all time favorite corals and unfortunately rather under appreciated...


And for comic relief, there's always the Traveling Circus Troop of Hermits performing their 'death-defying triple mount' :

 

[Nano sapiens]

New FTS:

Yikes, a whole bunch of issues at the end of this year...

First an inaccurate alk test kit with alk spiking at 12.5 dKh (or possibly higher), now the same with a defective mag kit and mag up to 1775 ppm (now I know why my Birdsnests lost color/tissue). One of the interesting consequences of the high mag is that although all corals (except a Lepto and the BNs) look fine, there is very little growth/calcification (Kalkwasser usage went from 70% to 10% in 2-3 weeks time). Slowly reducing mag via weekly water changes, so it'll be a while to get it back to around 1350 ppm.

I also noticed that all my violet and hyper-violet LEDs, while functioning, had very opaque looking lenses (common problem with high energy violet lighting). Upon further examination, I could see that they were all highly fractured:

I replaced all (8) today and figured out via PAR measurements that the originals had lost nearly 50% of their illumination output. So now I can run my violet channel with a lot less power, but have the same output (for at least a few years, I hope).

Reduced lighting, stable parameters and a bit of luck in the next few months and hopefully the few affected SPS will recover fully.

 

[Aqua Man]

Looking great regardless of the trouble!

How often do you check Mg? How could it get so high? Is there Mg in kalk?

 

[Nano sapiens]

Looking great regardless of the trouble!

How often do you check Mg? How could it get so high? Is there Mg in kalk?

I had a mag kit that was reading about 400 ppm low at the end. It was fine when I bought it (I had checked it with a different, nearly finished, kit), but then over the last 6 months or so it started reading low and I didn't catch it. Possibly, some sort of contamination or degradation. What tipped me off was that the system was requiring quite a bit of mag every two weeks based on testing. I've had this situation before, but not to this extreme.

I now perform the mag test without having any other kit open. I take my time with this one since mag testing needs to be done VERY carefully (even a less than full drop size can skew the result).

 

[Aqua Man]

How’s Bob doing? Are the SPS recovering well?

 

[Nano sapiens]

How’s Bob doing? Are the SPS recovering well?

Thanks for asking. Haven't seen Bob for quite a while, but I'm sure he's still in there. As long as he doesn't do any major harm, he's got a home for life

As far as the SPS go, noted improvement for all that were affected, but slow going as expected. Dropping Mg from near 1800 ppm takes time (down to around 1430 ppm right now), even with additional water changes. If I change too much water and/or too often, I find that some of the coral starts to turn pale from lack of enough PO4 (the system naturally processes phosphate very well, always '0' on test kits). If I feed too much to add PO4, I end up with excess NO3, blooms of algae, vermetid sails and hydroids. I don't want to start complications by dosing PO4 if I can avoid it, so at this point it's just a matter of input/export balance...and patience. I expect the system to get back to normal once Mg gets down to around 1350 ppm.

I've noticed that my Tunze pump (210 gph) is not providing quite enough flow after a week or two of operation due to excess biofilm/bacteria (noticed after my carbon dosing experiment, but still present even though I stopped) and ever increasing Zoa and LPS growth, which cuts down on circulating flow (my Sunset Montipora is my best indicator of flow issues). Since I'm getting a bit tired of the constant cleaning to keep the Tunze at full strength, I just ordered a Sicce Silence 1.0 (251 gph) to make life a bit easier and provide a more consistently higher flow to the corals

 

[Aqua Man]

I must confess that I don’t clean my pumps very often. When I unplug them for water change and they don’t turn back on, well it must be time to clean them!

Never thought of using a Q- tip, worked great!

Your Halloween hermit still have a taste for those hydroids?

I think about your tank every time I dose PO4! The voices..... lol

Good to hear your coral is making a comeback.

 

[Nano sapiens]

I must confess that I don’t clean my pumps very often. When I unplug them for water change and they don’t turn back on, well it must be time to clean them!

Never thought of using a Q- tip, worked great!

Your Halloween hermit still have a taste for those hydroids?

I think about your tank every time I dose PO4! The voices..... lol

Good to hear your coral is making a comeback.

There is a certain logic to having more than one pump as it does provide redundancy. However, I personally weigh that advantage against the additional cleaning required to maintain two pumps (or more) and the extra intrusion into the display area in these small systems. Fortunately a single well maintained pump of sufficient power and a rotating nozzle works quite well.

Q-tips can work great, but they do shed cotton on sharp edges, especially. Having a brine shrimp net handy is perfect for straining the floating shreds back out of the system.

To be clear, not saying dosing PO4 is bad, per se, just an additional process that typically requires regular testing and of course there is a potential for over dosing. For less mature systems that have undetectable PO4 and pale coral, it can be quite helpful (some say it helps prevent dinos, too). For mature systems with '0' phosphate, but healthy colorful coral, IMO more caution is warranted before going down this path.

To get the affected SPS to stabilize with the higher than normal Mg, I lowered my typical lighting intensity by about 5% which, in this case, helped to stop the tissue recession. To my knowledge, there have been no studies done to determine the effects of highly elevated Mg on reef specific organisms, however, studies have been done on oysters and the takeaway is that it can cause issues in high enough doses. Anyway, I'm not at all concerned about browning out the SPS, just that the tissue starts to recover and regrow over the bare skeleton. Once that recovery process is complete (and Mg is back to normal), then I'll very gradually bring light levels back up to where I see normal expected coloration and fluorescence return once again.

 

[Wiskey]

I love seeing this thread pop back up!!! I noticed you said that your Par had dropped by half because of those lenses. Did other LED's have that happen as well? Or was it just the UV?

What Par do you run the tank at?

I also noticed a mention of a Hydroid eating hermit! I have what I think are hydroids in my 10G, super long string things that come out and touch corals at night. Do you know what kind of hermit that is? Is it literally a Halloween Hermit? Or is that a nickname?

Thank you,
Whiskey

 

[Nano sapiens]

I love seeing this thread pop back up!!! I noticed you said that your Par had dropped by half because of those lenses. Did other LED's have that happen as well? Or was it just the UV?

What Par do you run the tank at?

I also noticed a mention of a Hydroid eating hermit! I have what I think are hydroids in my 10G, super long string things that come out and touch corals at night. Do you know what kind of hermit that is? Is it literally a Halloween Hermit? Or is that a nickname?

Thank you,
Whiskey

The drastic drop in intensity was only with my violet channel (405nm & 430nm). The other channels had very minimal drops of maybe 3 - 5% in 5 years.

Halloween Hermit is the common name for one of four similar looking species, but the most common one is Ciliopagurus strigatus. It did a good job of reducing old colonial hydroid colonies, but doesn't seem to go for the younger ones. As for the digitate hydroids that you are referring to, I haven't seen it directly eat them, but I can't say that it won't. Through diligent manual removal, I've managed to clear the tank of all but one that is buried in a zoa colony. Always the possibilty they could spring up again, but my tweezers and old toothbrush are at the ready

 

[Wiskey]

The drastic drop in intensity was only with my violet channel (405nm & 430nm). The other channels had very minimal drops of maybe 3 - 5% in 5 years.

Halloween Hermit is the common name for one of four similar looking species, but the most common one is Ciliopagurus strigatus. It did a good job of reducing old colonial hydroid colonies, but doesn't seem to go for the younger ones. As for the digitate hydroids that you are referring to, I haven't see directly eat them, but I can't say that it won't. Through diligent manual removal, I've managed to clear the tank of all but one that is buried in a zoa colony. Always the possibilty they could spring up again, but my tweezers and old toothbrush are at the ready

I had not considered going after them with tweezers!!! I could definitely do that. Do you just grab the long string that comes out and pull?

Whiskey

 

[Nano sapiens]

I had not considered going after them with tweezers!!! I could definitely do that. Do you just grab the long string that comes out and pull?

Whiskey

I grab the thread and pull a bit taught so that I can see where the 'foot' is. Best practice is to tweezer the foot if possible and remove the whole organism intact. If the foot is visible, but I can't grab it, then I first remove as much of the string as possible and then use the toothbrush to scrape off the foot. If I can't get to the foot, I at least remove the string so that it has to create another one (they tend to move after that, hopefully to a place where the foot is visible for removal).

 

[Nano sapiens]

Happenings...

Watching Magnesium fall is like watching grass grow, but at 1420 ppm (high was 1775 ppm) it is approaching something a bit more normal. The Ponape Birdsnest is finally turning from solid pink to showing a bit of the typical green pigmentation and accompanying fluorescence so it's headed in the right direction, but this one will need a few more months to get back into prime coloration...

One coral that has taken advantage of the instability caused by first high alk, then high mag, then the digitate hydroids weakening the Zoas is my Leptastrea. While everything else was in a 'wait and recover mode', this coral has been expanding to the point where I had to put up a zoa frag roadblock...and I'll have to place another block in a different place next week to try and keep it fully contained:

My Sunny D's took a hit from high HV intensity (explained below) and a pair of sneaky and persistent digitate hydroids. Within a few short days the columns and heads turned olive green (which the hermits love to munch on). Doubtful that any of these that are closed up will recover, but thankfully a whole bunch down below are unaffected:

After replacing all old V/HV LEDs in my DIY array with new ones and matching PAR at the midpoint of the tank, I noticed that some corals at the outer corners were showing typical light distress symptoms (had to drop overall intensity to compensate). This was a good indicator that I have some hotspots specific to HV emitters located at the outer edges of the array. So I've ordered two types of half-density diffuser material to see which one will help distribute the light more evenly while still allowing some amount of shimmer.

And lastly, I upgraded my Tunze 210 gph pump to a Sicce 251 gph. Perfect upgrade as the additional flow is noticeable, but hasn't upset any of the coral. Now I won't have to clean the pump every week just to keep proper flow volume like I had to do with the Tunze.

 

[Nano sapiens]

Steady as She Goes (...and where she stops, nobody knows)

Flow: New Sicce Silence 1.0 providing a visibly stronger and more consistent flow. Kalkwasser usage is up around 50%, so calcification has been enhanced.

Magnesium: I tested Mag twice yesterday and it's finally dropped down to a more normal 1350 ppm. Really like the precision of the AquaForest Mag test kit as both test results were identical. AF also supplies a sample to check your accuracy against and when I tested I was within 30 ppm, which is good enough for Mag IMO. What I noticed after this abnormally high Mag episode is that I can't find any micro brittle stars and I don't see any of my resident mysids, either. Whether the high Mag did them in, or something else...hard to say. The negatively effected SPS are getting better due to a combo of reduced lighting (-15% from the previous), normal Mag level and increased flow.

PUR: After having replaced all my Violet/Hyper Violet emitters and matching the previous PAR levels produced by the old emitters, I expected no issues. However, I noticed that some corals directly under the new HV were showing signs of over lighting. Considering that HV is known to produce high PUR, this was a good indicator that I had PUR hotspots on the 4 corners. To mitigate, I ordered two types diffusion material from Rosco and decided to use their 'Cinegal 1/2 Density Soft Frost' (#3004) since it is less dense than the Cinegal Tough White 1/2 Density Soft' (#3027) and allows through about 1/2 of the shimmer compared to using no diffuser (important to me as I'm not a big fan of the flat T5 look). Since I mounted this material on top of a 1/32" sheet of clear polycarbonate, I'm seeing ~15% reduction in overall illumination. Perhaps not quite as good as I'd hoped, but considering that the light has to go through two different layers and I run modest light intensity anyway, it's not a big deal. The main thing I'll be looking for in the next couple weeks/months is if the corner corals show reduced stress (more expansion).

The diffusion effect at a low setting:




Ponape Birdsnest fluorescent green pigmentation is coming back:




Sunset Montipora below took a beating, but recovering with the increased flow:




Attempting to contain the Leptastrea with a dam of rocks (Eyebrow Barnacle Blenny looks on while shaking his head):




Fallen Horizons Leptoseris still struggling to recoup lost ground:




Repositioned the Duncan to a more upright position to avoid a bunch of extending Rics on the left and back away from the expanding Blasto colony upfront:

Alrighty then, 'maintain and sustain' for the next couple months and see how this all goes.