Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

Well there were a couple of corals unfortunately that RTN’ed on me but most of them are doing good. My favorite coral out of all of them so far is actually one of the ones that fared the best! That would be the RR “The Vinh”.

The green slimer RTN’ed up until about 5:00 or so and abruptly stopped RTN’ing about halfway down since then. Polyps are out even in some places where the tissue mostly sloughed off. The rest looks like it has from the beginning. The rest look pretty darn good. Both Montiporas are doing good for their first day in the new system and have some PE.

The ones I’m pretty sure I lost are the pink lemonade and the other pink one. Time will tell if the others continue to do well but I haven’t seen any change in them, good or bad. I’ll take it though!

You have to admit, this is an epic coral! And it has the best PE out of all the corals hands down! The Forest Fire Monti has more polyps out but “The Vinh” has all its polyps out. It only took 45 minutes for that one to open up all the way and they’ve been out since!

 

[Fishy888]

I’m seeing a bit more PE on several of the corals this morning. I’m starting to think that the green slimer didn’t actually RTN so much as that it bleached because it has PE even where the coral is white. The polyps are still green.

There’s another I thought was done for. I see what appears to be color coming back into its flesh. At first I thought maybe it was diatoms but there’s another coral that did die and it’s ghost white. It’s in an area with more diatoms coverage on the sand too so I’m pretty sure what I’m seeing isn’t diatoms or algae. Even though there’s zero PE on this coral (the other pink one) the fact that I see some pale coloring coming back makes me cautiously optimistic.

The forest fire digi has even more polyps out today, and they’re out a little further. The bonsai acro has better PE today as well. The goldenrod anacropora has some red coming back into its polyps now.

Honestly I think the bulk of the issues were due to shipping stress. Everything was well packaged. Sometimes, once it gets into a courier’s hands, things happen. Still I’m very happy with the new corals! I’m grateful that so far they’re doing as good as they are. I can’t wait to see them start growing!

 

[Reefering1]

Don't look at them tooo much, they don't like that...

 

[Fishy888]

Don't look at them tooo much, they don't like that...

What’s that saying again? A watched coral never grows? Or something like that….

All jokes aside I feel less anxious than I did yesterday. I’m excited to actually have some acropora doing good in my system. Things are nice and stable so the corals should start opening more. Hopefully, they’ll start growing before long.

The next hurdle, for lack of a better word, will be the next water change. I’ll be getting more salt when I get my new wave maker. That’s in another 2 weeks give or take. I’ll gradually ramp up the flow so I’m not as worried about that. The water change is going to have to be spot on though. I don’t think there’ll be issues with that but it’s something I want to be real careful with.

 

[Fishy888]

The new corals are hanging in there. They still don’t have the greatest PE ever but they do have some. My RR “The Vinh” has the best PE out of them all. This coral, the goldenrod Anacropora and the forest fire Montipora are my three favorites out of all of them! That said I love all of them so I’d be sad if any of these were to die off. I already had 3 RTN on me likely due to shipping stress after getting into the hands of UPS. All three of my favorite corals are coloring up. A little later I’m going to try waving a blue LED light over them to see how much color they have. It’s the light I have over the 20 gallon tank.

 

[Fishy888]

Well, out of twelve, seven are still alive. Three in particular have better PE than they’ve had since I got them.

This is the goldenrod Anacropora. Look at the PE!

Here’s my Montipora hirsuta. I can’t remember its name though. It doesn’t come through very well but there are green polyps that are somewhat open.

Here’s my bonsai. It’s got polyps that are oh so slightly open here but that’s the most open it’s been yet. Again the green in the polyps is hard to see due to the white balancing.

This is my tri-color. It’s another coral that hasn’t really put out many polyps but I see a couple of orange polyps thinking about coming out. It’s still got color though.

This is the forest fire digi (that isn’t actually a digi). This is the best PE it’s had since being in my system. Although you can’t really see it here, it’s getting some green color on its coenchyme (flesh).

Here’s my RR “The Vinh”. Not only is it coloring up, but look at the PE on this! They’re like mini sapphires!

I forgot to take a picture of the fruity pebbles but I did manage to take a picture of my fire shrimp. Because my reef is on phire! I just have to make sure it stays that way!

 

[Fishy888]

As much as it scares me to even move the new corals around in order to clean the sand around them, that’s exactly what I started doing today. Needless to say any PE ceased for now. The places I moved them to are where they’ll spend the next couple of weeks more or less. I still have to clean the other half of the sand bed and the acrylic. I’ll start that later today.

Since I was moving the corals anyway, I moved them into slightly more light but still on the sand bed. None have been moved more than a foot from where they were, and most only got moved 6 inches or less from where they were originally.

Eventually I’ll have to get the frags mounted on rocks. I’ll be getting the new wave maker in the first week of December. There will likely be some sand blowing around so I want to get the corals far enough off the sand to not get sandblasted but not so far up as to bleach them. They’re doing quite well considering these are my first acros and I want to keep it that way!

Also in December I’ll be switching salt brands. I’ve used RC for the longest time but now that I have acros, and since I intend to get more, I’m going to go with Fritz salt, the red line. I have higher nutrients so higher ALK is just a good idea.

I’m also going to get some pickling lime for when I need to add CAL. I already have baked baking soda on hand for ALK. I know many discourage using these but they’ll work for now. Many have used both of these safely for years.

For now, water changes should be enough to keep up with demand. Once the frags start growing and start consuming more ALK and CAL than I can keep up with doing WCs I’ll use the sodium carbonate and calcium hydroxide to keep my levels stable. Once even that’s not enough, it’ll be time for AFR.

 

[Reefering1]

I wish I had more time right now, but remind me to talk about time and introducing coral to halides. T5 is easier, but still needs attention.
Tldr- go slow, think months and years- not days. Observe carefully, pay attention to how thick the skin looks...

 

[Fishy888]

I wish I had more time right now, but remind me to talk about time and introducing coral to halides. T5 is easier, but still needs attention.
Tldr- go slow, think months and years- not days. Observe carefully, pay attention to how thick the skin looks...

Will do. I still have the frags in dappled light. They’re getting oh so slightly more light where they are now. I really don’t want to move fast at all with these.

 

[Fishy888]

I just took a few quick pics under blues. Unfortunately the camera doesn’t pick up the colors really well since the light isn’t intense.

Here’s the bonsai. I’d like to see more PE than this but then again there are more polyps opening, albeit slightly, on the bottom half than at any time since I’ve had it.

Here’s the Forest Fire digi. The colors were too faint for the camera but you can see where some polyps are still out. Although the flesh still has some brown to it, it has a distinct forest green color. The polyps are a bright, fluorescent orange.

As for the Montipora Hirsuta, my fish fragged it once, and I broke the main coral free of the frag plug accidentally as well as a branch in the center. Fortunately all three pieces are doing good!

I glued one piece to a rock already. These are the other two. Tomorrow I’ll glue them to some small rocks.

Here’s one more. It’s one of the corals I thought I was going to totally lose for sure. This is the green slimer. I cut of the RTN’ed portions, super glued both ends and glued it on its side where there was another strip of RTN. I glued it up yesterday afternoon. It’s still doing ok tonight.

There are a couple more I forgot to take pictures of but I’ll take them tomorrow night.

 

[Fishy888]

As of Friday morning it’ll be exactly 1 week since adding the new corals to my system. They still have the colors they had when I got them, with some improvement. PE seems to be leveling off right now in most of the new corals but some are extending a bit further. Hopefully they’ll extend even more over the coming week.

I’m excited for the new wave maker that’s coming. I’ll have almost 100x turnover once I crank it up all the way. The SPS will love it. They might open up a lot more with that kind of flow. I would think the nems will too once they get used to it.

I’ll still keep the wave maker I have now, even though the impeller is shot. It still puts out a decent amount of flow but not as much as it did at a time. Still it’ll be great for creating random flow. I have a smaller Jebao wave maker which also needs an impeller. I think it’s an SL-20 but I’ll check on that.

Sadly, I haven’t found a source for the Jebao SCP-120 I currently have, but for the SL-20 I did find a place that sells them. It’s been a while since I priced them though. While it’s not a wave maker designed for a big tank by itself, that SL-20 can still potentially help create random flow.

I haven’t mentioned the rest of the system in a while, but the nems are doing awesome. They’ve doubled their size since I got them about 5 months ago, including the splits.

Other than the clownfish which were given to me when I was gifted the 75 gallon (which is now my sump) and the rock and soft corals that I have now, the first fish I bought were the sergeant major damsels. They have easily doubled if not tripled in length and height, and tripled if not quadrupled in mass!

The 75 gallon system was given to me at the end of last November. Literally the 30th, if memory serves me correctly. Of course, when I upgraded in early March, I used everything from the 75 gallon system in my current system. My current system has been running for 8 months now. I can’t believe how time flies!

 

[That Crusso Kid]

As of Friday morning it’ll be exactly 1 week since adding the new corals to my system. They still have the colors they had when I got them, with some improvement. PE seems to be leveling off right now in most of the new corals but some are extending a bit further. Hopefully they’ll extend even more over the coming week.

I’m excited for the new wave maker that’s coming. I’ll have almost 100x turnover once I crank it up all the way. The SPS will love it. They might open up a lot more with that kind of flow. I would think the nems will too once they get used to it.

I’ll still keep the wave maker I have now, even though the impeller is shot. It still puts out a decent amount of flow but not as much as it did at a time. Still it’ll be great for creating random flow. I have a smaller Jebao wave maker which also needs an impeller. I think it’s an SL-20 but I’ll check on that.

Sadly, I haven’t found a source for the Jebao SCP-120 I currently have, but for the SL-20 I did find a place that sells them. It’s been a while since I priced them though. While it’s not a wave maker designed for a big tank by itself, that SL-20 can still potentially help create random flow.

I haven’t mentioned the rest of the system in a while, but the nems are doing awesome. They’ve doubled their size since I got them about 5 months ago, including the splits.

Other than the clownfish which were given to me when I was gifted the 75 gallon (which is now my sump) and the rock and soft corals that I have now, the first fish I bought were the sergeant major damsels. They have easily doubled if not tripled in length and height, and tripled if not quadrupled in mass!

The 75 gallon system was given to me at the end of last November. Literally the 30th, if memory serves me correctly. Of course, when I upgraded in early March, I used everything from the 75 gallon system in my current system. My current system has been running for 8 months now. I can’t believe how time flies!

100x turnover?

 

[Fishy888]

100x turnover?

Yup.

 

[Fishy888]

I noticed this morning that PE on my new corals was much less than usual. I know that my conchs turn up the sand, and the bigger three fish fan the sand with their tails looking for worms and the like. It became apparent that they weren’t the cause, since usually PE is back to normal within an hour or so. Even as I type this, PE is still about the same as this morning.

The first thing I did was to check ALK. It was down to 7.3 dKh! This wouldn’t be bad if I was running a ULNS but I’m most definitely not. I mixed up enough soda ash (baked baking soda) to raise ALK in my system by 0.5 dKh. Needless to say it’ll get dosed over a 24 hour period. I want to get ALK to 9, maybe 10 dKh. That’s going to be done slowly however.

I’m not so much chasing numbers as ranges. At some point though, parameters have to be reigned in. I’m going to test my other parameters shortly. Dosing ALK isn’t a knee jerk reaction though. I just want to start raising it slowly from now on, especially since I’ll be ordering the new salt next week. It’s going to have a fairly high ALK content, which I definitely want.

I’m not as anxious as I normally would be. At least not yet. I expect things will get back to normal soon. I’m still in the process of getting things dialed in.

 

[Reefering1]

Keep in mind, pe isn't everything. Pay attention to the actual skin.
Lower alk seems easier on the coral. With high n03/p04 and low alk, the worse is that could happen is the coral brown out(which it can do anyways).
And remember brown coral is better than white.

 

[Fishy888]

Keep in mind, pe isn't everything. Pay attention to the actual skin.
Lower alk seems easier on the coral. With high n03/p04 and low alk, the worse is that could happen is the coral brown out(which it can do anyways).
And remember brown coral is better than white.

Amen to that. I’m aiming for a rise of .1 dKh per day more or less. There’s a little more PE this evening though so that’s encouraging.

When I get my salt I’ll be doing a series of small water changes rather than a big one. Steady as she goes!

 

[Fishy888]

PE has improved some more today. In fact, my tri-color valida has the best PE it’s had since being in my system. What’s interesting is that the filter sock is overflowing. I’m wondering if maybe, despite my nutes being high, by having a filter sock I’m starving the corals.

@Reefering1 (and anyone else) What say you? Could that be an issue? I wouldn’t think so but then again I’ve been known to be wrong more than once.

 

[Reefering1]

Try separating your thoughts between nutrition and n03/p04.
Then consider- "what is a true coral?'.
The coral is a animal that hosts a algea in a symbiotic relationship.
As far as im concerned, the particles being trapped in the socks are nutrious particles of food that the coral animal can consume directly, and the coral regulates its zoox production.
The filter socks capture and hold these particles, preventing consumption by various organisms in the tank, until they rot or are removed. That rotting food is processed by bacteria and converted to n03/p04 waste products.
Not much is wasted in a reef tank though, these waste products are nutrients for algea(including zoox). So elevated n/p drive zoox population and the coral animal consumes the zoox to get its n/p.
Hope this is helpful ;-)

 

[Fishy888]

Try separating your thoughts between nutrition and n03/p04.
Then consider- "what is a true coral?'.
The coral is a animal that hosts a algea in a symbiotic relationship.
As far as im concerned, the particles being trapped in the socks are nutrious particles of food that the coral animal can consume directly, and the coral regulates its zoox production.
The filter socks capture and hold these particles, preventing consumption by various organisms in the tank, until they rot or are removed. That rotting food is processed by bacteria and converted to n03/p04 waste products.
Not much is wasted in a reef tank though, these waste products are nutrients for algea(including zoox). So elevated n/p drive zoox population and the coral animal consumes the zoox to get its n/p.
Hope this is helpful ;-)

I might just have to do away with the filter socks then. Thank you!

 

[Reefering1]

I might just have to do away with the filter socks then. Thank you!

Good answer! I truly believe that if something has a mouth, it wants to eat..