Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

Well I kept wondering why I saw no candy cane coral skeleton on my newest rock and now I know why. They were part of a different rock at the LFS. I feel a bit sheepish for thinking they were a part of my rock but as dark as it was in there they looked like one rock and I was too busy asking about the water parameters. It was still an amazing price considering all I got. It was an even more awesome birthday present bought for me by my awesome wife.

The good news is that all the mushrooms and palys are opening. They clearly aren’t used to the lighting however so I’ll have to reduce the light by half. It may help kill off the cyano. That may also be why the GSP weren’t opening. I’ll only run half the lights (I have a six lamp T5 only light) for a bit and see how that goes.

Since I didn’t make the LaCl dosing reservoir yet I’ll do it tomorrow. I originally wanted to drip the LaCl directly into the overflow, having it rush into a filter sock placed at the base of the drain pipe. Instead I’m going to clip the sock to the side and run a moderate amount of water into it and drip the LaCl into it. The sock will catch virtually all of the LaPO4 that is formed before it can even leave the sock. Thank you @Steve2020 for the Idea. I realized that a 5 micron sock was going to constrict flow but after getting an idea I went with Steve2020’s advice which makes things far easier. I’m eventually going to run filter socks at the base of the drain but they’ll be 200 micron socks.

Anyway once I start dripping the LaCl I will of course post the starting PO4 level, the ending PO4 level, and how the reef reacts to it. I have a feeling things will go quite well since my duncans are the only stony coral I have. Even in the face of 1ppm phosphates that coral has two larger baby polyps and three smaller babies, possibly four. Anyway all the rest of my corals are palys, mushrooms, and other softies so I think all my corals will be ok. As for my inverts I think they should be ok but I am a bit more concerned about them, particularly my new mini brittle stars, asterinas, and peppermint shrimp. My original hermits survived months of dinos and the attempts to eradicate them and they’re still going strong so I’m not as worried about them making it. Still I’ll be watching closely.

 

[Fishy888]

Today was busier than I expected but I worked on the reservoir container. It didn’t work the way I wanted it to but I have a workaround I’ll try tomorrow.

I blew all the detritus and cyano off the rocks tonight. If my workaround is successful and I can keep a steady drip going without leaks; I’ll be able to start dosing phosphate-e tomorrow too.

My palys were out today and my mushrooms were opened up more despite not cutting back on the light output. My wife noticed that the mushrooms weren’t as expanded as at the LFS which is true. That tank was windex blue though. While they were certainly more intense than my moonlights they were also much weaker than my T5s. That’s even taking into account how desperately my lamps need to be replaced. I would say the mushrooms were about half as expanded as at the LFS. The palys were about a half to three quarters as expanded as at the LFS. The newest GSP are still completely closed though. I’m going to try cutting back on the lights to see if the GSP will open tomorrow also.

If all goes well it’s my intention to get my 10 gallon tank setup tomorrow for my mysis shrimp. Since I’ll be washing out an aquarium for my wife’s hamster and transferring it into its new, larger digs I’m going to get the mysis shrimp setup.

I’ve gone back and forth about whether to culture mysis shrimp or not. Sure I could buy freeze dried mysis at quite the expense but live mysis would make for a nice treat and hopefully can be gut loaded. I would likely have to gut load baby brine shrimp. If I can keep a culture of brine shrimp or two thriving then I can try gut loading. We’ll see how things go.

 

[tbrown]

Today was busier than I expected but I worked on the reservoir container. It didn’t work the way I wanted it to but I have a workaround I’ll try tomorrow.

I blew all the detritus and cyano off the rocks tonight. If my workaround is successful and I can keep a steady drip going without leaks; I’ll be able to start dosing phosphate-e tomorrow too.

My palys were out today and my mushrooms were opened up more despite not cutting back on the light output. My wife noticed that the mushrooms weren’t as expanded as at the LFS which is true. That tank was windex blue though. While they were certainly more intense than my moonlights they were also much weaker than my T5s. That’s even taking into account how desperately my lamps need to be replaced. I would say the mushrooms were about half as expanded as at the LFS. The palys were about a half to three quarters as expanded as at the LFS. The newest GSP are still completely closed though. I’m going to try cutting back on the lights to see if the GSP will open tomorrow also.

If all goes well it’s my intention to get my 10 gallon tank setup tomorrow for my mysis shrimp. Since I’ll be washing out an aquarium for my wife’s hamster and transferring it into its new, larger digs I’m going to get the mysis shrimp setup.

I’ve gone back and forth about whether to culture mysis shrimp or not. Sure I could buy freeze dried mysis at quite the expense but live mysis would make for a nice treat and hopefully can be gut loaded. I would likely have to gut load baby brine shrimp. If I can keep a culture of brine shrimp or two thriving then I can try gut loading. We’ll see how things go.

When I transferred my GSP from the 5 over to the 125 it opened immediately. When it transferred the one from the 75 it took 3 days for the first polyp to open. The next day it was full open. Some take longer adjusting than others.

 

[Fishy888]

I finally got my LaCl drip going. I started the drip around 9:00 last night. Based on how much is left I’d say there’s probably another three or four hours to go. That would mean half a teaspoon of phosphate-e (diluted of course) was dripped over an eight hour period. So far there is no cloudiness. In fact I think the water is clearer if anything.

I did a phosphate test (Salifert) just as I started the drip. The test showed about 0.03ppm. I was suspicious of the results so I ran it again. Same result. Then I remembered that I dosed nitrates last month so I got an algae bloom. The algae has been taking up the phosphates. I haven’t dosed any nitrates in the last three weeks so I hope to see the algae die back enough that I can see how much phosphate is still there.

The fish are behaving normally as is the one peppermint shrimp I could see out. The corals all looked normal too.

I realize that bad effects could still happen; and if there any problems it might take a while to see them manifest themselves. Honestly I doubt there will be any for a few reasons. I am using an old filter to take phosphate laden water up and deposit it into the 5 micron sock at the same time lanthanum drips into it. That insures that phosphate binds to the lanthanum before the resulting compound leaves the sock. If I had used 3ml instead of 2.5ml it would have dropped phosphates by 0.1ppm in my 120 gallons of total system volume. The amount I used will have dropped phosphates by 0.83ppm.

I had to take out the center bar that holds the lights for the sump in order to set up the drip. The lights hung too low for me to get my equipment set up for the drip. I’m going to take apart the lights so I can drill holes to mount the lights directly to the center bar. It’ll make it easier to work in the sump and make the equipment area under the stand look neater.

I didn’t get the mysis shrimp in their new home yet. I’ll hopefully get it done this afternoon.

 

[Fishy888]

Today was day two of phosphate-e dosing. I haven’t seen any indication of distress in any of the animals. In fact the corals were more open today if anything. The fish seem good as did the one shrimp I saw today. I haven’t seen both shrimp out at the same time in a number of days but they are still very much alive.

 

[Fishy888]

Perseverance Reef is undergoing its third course of LaCl even as I type this. I also did some re-scaping today to make sure no corals are shadowed. I took some pictures tonight. There’s still plenty of cyano and GHA but it’s not as bad as it was. The corals are looking better than they have in ages. I’m pretty excited about the direction things are heading in. The fish, shrimp, and at least one bristle worm are all doing great.

I got the lights directly mounted to the center bar which will make it easier to replace filter socks and the like. It will also make things look neater.

Please pardon the dirty glass. I need to buy some paper towels soon.

 

[Fishy888]

Dose number four is underway. Nuisance algae has slowed. Cyano is also dying back slowly.

So far the tank hasn’t clouded up and everything’s business as usual. My original GSP is opening up more and the tentacles are getting longer. The new ones are still closed tighter than a jug but they have to get used to the different lighting and water chemistry.

Except for the new GSP all my corals seem happier and healthier. My watermelon mushrooms fluoresce more than they did last week as do the green palys. The old GSP had a nearly white mat just a couple of weeks ago just like the new ones currently have. Now the original GSP’s mat is a healthy purple color. My Duncan’s look great now. The babies are growing fast. The tentacles on the largest baby polyp are long enough to be visible when the polyp is open.

I set up the 10 gallon tank for my mysis shrimp Sunday night. Last night I released the shrimp. I’m not sure how well they’ll do but I am hopeful that against all odds they’ll breed and the babies won’t get eaten. I’m going to get 800 micron mesh as soon as I can so the juveniles won’t get eaten by the adults. Until then I put some chaeto in the mysis tank.

I have about 7 more courses of LaCl to go at 0.08ppm. At that point I should be at .12 at a minimum. Since I use Salifert for PO4 I had at minimum 1ppm. Since I am seeing a slowing of nuisance algae growth I think my phosphates were closer to 1ppm.

 

[Fishy888]

So now that I’m getting my phosphates down I am revamping my source water. Even though our tap water has very low phosphates they are still non zero. After the first of the year I’m getting my RO/DI unit finally. In the meantime I am going to use distilled water from the supermarket. I’ve been using it to administer the LaCl and it’s worked well so far.

After today I will be halfway through my phosphate-e treatment. Once I get to to the end I’ll wait 24 hours from the last drop then get my levels checked. If I’m still high I’ll start another course. At the end of the current course I will have at least 0.12ppm. If I’m at that level I’ll stop the LaCl and allow my plants and animals consume it, keeping things under control. My target is to get to 0.1ppm.

I finally have enough green microalgae to need to clean the glass. I was having to do it twice a day at one point. Now it’s taken 4 days. It’s kind of nice.

 

[Fishy888]

I hung out on a certain other forum until 2015. When I went back there it was completely different and worse it was dead. All the good reefers left there. I then found R2R. Even in that other forum’s heyday it didn’t have the, how can I put it, feeling that you weren’t alone on your journey. They weren’t as friendly as people here are. I know not too many read my build thread but I know a few do at least. I also know that if I ask a question I’ll get great advice without being judged. Of course if I was doing something really stupid it might be different or if I didn’t accept the good advice I was given then of course I should expect to be roasted. I find however that if a person accepts good advice people here are more than happy to help.

I am saying all this because I have taken to helping to welcome those who are new to the forum. There are a lot of people who have different interests as reefers and have different experience levels that join R2R. It’s a privilege to be able to welcome them. Even though there are days I can’t spend time greeting newcomers I try to make up for it the next day.

Yesterday I administered the fifth dose of phosphate-e. So far so good. The algae still takes up all the phosphate in the water column so I get a zero reading. Even though the nuisance algae has slowed it certainly hasn’t stopped. If I was only at 1ppm I should be at 0.5 now. When I get to 0.1 give or take I’ll evaluate where things are at that point. If I still see nuisance algae blanketing everything I’ll resume the drip. If not I’ll enjoy the growth of my corals.

My cabbage leather is growing fairly quickly. In fact all my corals have started growing faster since starting the lanthanum chloride drip. The only holdout right now is the new GSP colony. They haven’t opened since I got them. The original GSP are growing much faster now so I’m not sure why the new colony won’t open unless it’s a stability issue. If I get my way though after this course my phosphates will be low enough to not have to dose more except for the occasional maintenance dose. Then I can get the stability all my corals and other animals need.

 

[tbrown]

I hung out on a certain other forum until 2015. When I went back there it was completely different and worse it was dead. All the good reefers left there. I then found R2R. Even in that other forum’s heyday it didn’t have the, how can I put it, feeling that you weren’t alone on your journey. They weren’t as friendly as people here are. I know not too many read my build thread but I know a few do at least. I also know that if I ask a question I’ll get great advice without being judged. Of course if I was doing something really stupid it might be different or if I didn’t accept the good advice I was given then of course I should expect to be roasted. I find however that if a person accepts good advice people here are more than happy to help.

I am saying all this because I have taken to helping to welcome those who are new to the forum. There are a lot of people who have different interests as reefers and have different experience levels that join R2R. It’s a privilege to be able to welcome them. Even though there are days I can’t spend time greeting newcomers I try to make up for it the next day.

Yesterday I administered the fifth dose of phosphate-e. So far so good. The algae still takes up all the phosphate in the water column so I get a zero reading. Even though the nuisance algae has slowed it certainly hasn’t stopped. If I was only at 1ppm I should be at 0.5 now. When I get to 0.1 give or take I’ll evaluate where things are at that point. If I still see nuisance algae blanketing everything I’ll resume the drip. If not I’ll enjoy the growth of my corals.

My cabbage leather is growing fairly quickly. In fact all my corals have started growing faster since starting the lanthanum chloride drip. The only holdout right now is the new GSP colony. They haven’t opened since I got them. The original GSP are growing much faster now so I’m not sure why the new colony won’t open unless it’s a stability issue. If I get my way though after this course my phosphates will be low enough to not have to dose more except for the occasional maintenance dose. Then I can get the stability all my corals and other animals need.

I've done four different batches of GSP. One in my old 5 gallon took off while another that was growing great all the sudden shut and never opened again. One in the 75 never opened and the other in the 75 opened by never grew. Since moving the two survivors to the 125, the rock from the 5 gallon has exploded even more and the plug from the 75 is now fully encrusted and attaching to the rock.

What I find with GSP is flow. Mine in light flow tend to close or stay small but when they're getting blasted they open fully and spread fast.

 

[Fishy888]

I've done four different batches of GSP. One in my old 5 gallon took off while another that was growing great all the sudden shut and never opened again. One in the 75 never opened and the other in the 75 opened by never grew. Since moving the two survivors to the 125, the rock from the 5 gallon has exploded even more and the plug from the 75 is now fully encrusted and attaching to the rock.

What I find with GSP is flow. Mine in light flow tend to close or stay small but when they're getting blasted they open fully and spread fast.

Too true. I’m getting ready to take all the algae out of the sump that isn’t chaeto and I’m going to try to fix my flow in the DT. Eventually I’ll upgrade the return pump too. I wouldn’t mind something in the 2400 gph range. For now though my 2 3300 gph circulation pumps should be sufficient. I’m going to take them apart and clean the impellers and the depression they sit in. The stuff that builds up in there can certainly slow them down due to friction.

 

[Fishy888]

As I said above I’m going to do some maintenance on the sump today. There’s a thick coating of algae on the glass and the bottom. Now that my phosphates are coming down I don’t want die off creating more phosphates.

Of course no algae whatsoever would be unhealthy but a tank where stony corals are inhibited growth wise is also unhealthy. I don’t want 0 phosphates. I do want 0.05 to 0.1 though. Preferably 0.05.

I’m seeing positive responses from most of my corals. There’s still need for improvement phosphate wise but I’m at 0.4 now. I should be about 4 LaCl doses away from my goal of 0.1. Sunday will be the last dose. At that point I’ll continue running a 5 micron sock for a week to be sure all the lanthanum phosphate leaves the system. I was going to wait just a day but I want to wait longer to see if the bad algaes start growing faster once the treatment is done. Cyano of course may still flourish. I’d rather have it than dinos however. Nonetheless I’m feeding the system a bit more with my DIY frozen food. I also feed New Life Spectrum mini sinking pellets sparingly to supplement the frozen food. That should keep nitrates and phosphates balanced and under control.

Hopefully enough bad algae will be gone that I can get an accurate reading of phosphates. I’m eager to finish the treatment and let the system stabilize. My corals are indeed growing faster and have better polyp extension but once the system stabilizes I think they’ll really take off.

 

[Fishy888]

I performed my sump maintenance Thursday night. All the algae on the glass sides and bottom, in the return pump, and on the heaters is gone. I also blew the cyano off the rocks in the DT as well as the surrounding sand.

I’ve been using the algae in the DT as an indicator of how well the LaCl is working. After getting the algae out of the sump the cyano on the sand in the DT grew a bit. If the phosphates were as high as they were (1 ppm) before starting the phosphate-e the cyano would have grown not only on the sand but the sides, front, and the back. The green micro algae barely returned. It was growing super fast and thickly before the LaCl dosing as was the cyano.

last night I started the seventh dose of LaCl. I’ll need to keep an eye on ALK since I’m close to my goal. I’ve got about three more doses to get to my goal of 0.1 ppm assuming I was right at 1 ppm.

The animals are doing well still. My corals are acting normally as are the fish. The two peppermint shrimp are doing ok but they’ve not come out at the same time which happens every once in a while. My 12 hermits are still ok. They don’t come out at the same time but that’s normal. I’m glad to say that there have been no bad reactions to the phosphate~e thus far.

 

[Fishy888]

I took some pictures of my reef today. Despite the cyano the DT looks better than it has since I started it back in August. The phosphate-e is definitely doing its job.

I totally changed the flow pattern so that there’s much more flow toward the bottom of the tank. Now my original GSP are extended more than they have been since I got them. I took a picture of the original GSP and the new GSP which are a little more than an inch above the old GSP. The new ones are still closed. The new GSP have a grayish white mat. The old ones have a purple mat. My cabbage leather, duncans, mushrooms, and palys are all extended more too. The Kenya tree and the waving hands anthellia are the only corals that haven’t extended more than usual so I might try to increase flow where the Kenya tree is. The anthellia is probably trying to get used to the new extra flow but they’ve stayed closed all day today.

I got a picture of both shrimp tonight. They came out just after I fed the fish. All my fish are doing well. The hermits are doing well too. Most of them are hidden of course.

 

[Fishy888]

Well it turns out that the “coral” I thought were green palys are, well, majanos. At this point there are only 8. If each one has one baby a week though the entire reef would be overrun by spring. Then again they aren’t populating that fast. There were five or six on there when I got the rock they are on. That was the twenty-ninth of October. Today’s the fifteenth of November. Even if there were only five on the rock when I got it; it means it’s taking almost three weeks for five anemones to spawn three new ones. Of course the rate at which they reproduce might climb. My hope is that as my phosphates drop the rate at which they reproduce will stay sturdy or drop. They are beautiful anemones. I have heard stylophora can outsting aiptasia but I don’t know about majanos. I’m not in a panic however. I actually want a couple of them. I don’t want a million of them though.

The LaCl drip continues. This afternoon or evening I have to clean both filter socks. I’m going to test for phosphates again. Hopefully I can get a reading. I’ve pulled a lot of phosphates out of the rock work so far. I’ve stirred a lot of gunk up while cleaning the walls of the sump and blowing the detritus and other debris off the rocks which clings to the walls of the tank to a degree and releases a bunch of nitrates and phosphates. If anything green micro algae is growing on the glass slightly faster than before. I also suspect there was more than 1 ppm phosphates bound up in the rock. Most of the rock was dry rock which had been in other tanks. I might let the tank rest tomorrow and resume the drip Thursday depending on how late it gets before I have time to do the filter socks and test for phosphates.

 

[tbrown]

Well it turns out that the “coral” I thought were green palys are, well, majanos. At this point there are only 8. If each one has one baby a week though the entire reef would be overrun by spring. Then again they aren’t populating that fast. There were five or six on there when I got the rock they are on. That was the twenty-ninth of October. Today’s the fifteenth of November. Even if there were only five on the rock when I got it; it means it’s taking almost three weeks for five anemones to spawn three new ones. Of course the rate at which they reproduce might climb. My hope is that as my phosphates drop the rate at which they reproduce will stay sturdy or drop. They are beautiful anemones. I have heard stylophora can outsting aiptasia but I don’t know about majanos. I’m not in a panic however. I actually want a couple of them. I don’t want a million of them though.

The LaCl drip continues. This afternoon or evening I have to clean both filter socks. I’m going to test for phosphates again. Hopefully I can get a reading. I’ve pulled a lot of phosphates out of the rock work so far. I’ve stirred a lot of gunk up while cleaning the walls of the sump and blowing the detritus and other debris off the rocks which clings to the walls of the tank to a degree and releases a bunch of nitrates and phosphates. If anything green micro algae is growing on the glass slightly faster than before. I also suspect there was more than 1 ppm phosphates bound up in the rock. Most of the rock was dry rock which had been in other tanks. I might let the tank rest tomorrow and resume the drip Thursday depending on how late it gets before I have time to do the filter socks and test for phosphates.

Majanos can be beautiful. I'm not sure how powerful their sting is but I know they can spread like wildfire once they get a foothold in the tank.

 

[Fishy888]

Majanos can be beautiful. I'm not sure how powerful their sting is but I know they can spread like wildfire once they get a foothold in the tank.

I’m going to deal with them. I’ll just have to find a cure that isn’t worse than the disease.

 

[Fishy888]

So I got my filter sock cleaned and started yet another drip. Everything looks good thus far. I’m going to let things rest tomorrow then I’ll watch to see what algae in the system does. Some is already trying to grow on the glass in the sump. Mainly GHA and cyano systemwide but I do get green micro algae on the glass. I find that when I clean the glass the green micro algae takes about three days on average to become noticeable.

My first major reef purchase will be a portable RO/DI unit. I am fortunate enough that phosphates in our tap water is nearly nonexistent but that’s a huge gamble. I am using distilled water currently for top offs.

My second purchase will be lighting. I need to be budget minded but right now noopsyche and viparspectra are the only ones on the short list.

Once I get those I’ll look at setting up an ATO. I’ll get another ten gallon tank to use as a reservoir. Then kalk, hanna checkers, and other essential test kits I don’t have yet. After all that hopefully more LPS. One day hopefully I’ll have some montis, possibly “easy” acros, and one day maybe some rare corals.

For now though I need to stay the course and get my water tested to make sure I’m not sucking out a bunch of ALK along with the phosphates. I doubt it but I’ll know soon enough.

 

[Fishy888]

I came downstairs and saw that GHA is growing on top of the Cyanobacteria. As much as I don’t want nuisance algae I’d rather look at GHA than dinos or cyano. The GHA is growing mainly in the sand bed and a little on the circulation pumps.

Of course with the algae I’m getting phosphate readings of zero. I have an idea that might get me a more realistic reading. It would involve taking small rocks, weighing them, and adding tank water in proportion to the weight of the rock taken out and putting these in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid. So I have 120 gallons of total system volume and 40 lbs of rock. If I take out a pound of rock let’s say, I’d need 3 gallons of water. After a few days in the dark any algae should be dead and cyano should also die off.

There are a couple of issues with this method though.

1. If the rock I choose has more or less phosphate than the rest of the rock I’d get an inaccurate reading. Considering that the phosphate in the rock equalizes with the water so easily makes me think the phosphate content in the rocks is the same.

2. I haven’t accounted for sand. I have a ballpark idea but I keep a number of bristle worms and I don’t want to mess with the sand bed if it could be avoided.

3. All things being equal it seems to me on one hand that I should use tank water. There could be a chemical (or chemicals) that would interfere with the testsI don’t have a spare powerhead or an extra circulation pump to spare. I might just use a new batch of saltwater. I don’t know how much ammonia will be created or how it would interact phosphates so I want there to be as little as possible.

I’m going to ask Randy about these issues in the chemistry forum.

From my admittedly limited research on majanos so far it doesn’t spread as fast as aiptasia. I would DIY a majano wand but whether or not I build one or buy one I fear for the inhabitants on the rock close by. Saltwater might not conduct like copper exactly but it’s still able to conduct. The only part I don’t have is the push button momentary switch but I can easily get one.

 

[tbrown]

I came downstairs and saw that GHA is growing on top of the Cyanobacteria. As much as I don’t want nuisance algae I’d rather look at GHA than dinos or cyano. The GHA is growing mainly in the sand bed and a little on the circulation pumps.

Of course with the algae I’m getting phosphate readings of zero. I have an idea that might get me a more realistic reading. It would involve taking small rocks, weighing them, and adding tank water in proportion to the weight of the rock taken out and putting these in a 5 gallon bucket with a lid. So I have 120 gallons of total system volume and 40 lbs of rock. If I take out a pound of rock let’s say, I’d need 3 gallons of water. After a few days in the dark any algae should be dead and cyano should also die off.

There are a couple of issues with this method though.

1. If the rock I choose has more or less phosphate than the rest of the rock I’d get an inaccurate reading. Considering that the phosphate in the rock equalizes with the water so easily makes me think the phosphate content in the rocks is the same.

2. I haven’t accounted for sand. I have a ballpark idea but I keep a number of bristle worms and I don’t want to mess with the sand bed if it could be avoided.

3. All things being equal it seems to me on one hand that I should use tank water. There could be a chemical (or chemicals) that would interfere with the testsI don’t have a spare powerhead or an extra circulation pump to spare. I might just use a new batch of saltwater. I don’t know how much ammonia will be created or how it would interact phosphates so I want there to be as little as possible.

I’m going to ask Randy about these issues in the chemistry forum.

From my admittedly limited research on majanos so far it doesn’t spread as fast as aiptasia. I would DIY a majano wand but whether or not I build one or buy one I fear for the inhabitants on the rock close by. Saltwater might not conduct like copper exactly but it’s still able to conduct. The only part I don’t have is the push button momentary switch but I can easily get one.

Are you absolutely positive you have phosphates trapped in algae? I find that when my phosphates are nondetect algae starts growing (cyano, dinos, etc) and as I start feeding heavily those start disappearing as the corals start utilizing available phosphates and nitrates. I'd be curious what your experiment shows.