Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

Cyano continues to be an issue but it’s about to get dealt with big time. I had to make sure the dinos were outcompeted before doing anything else.

I’m going to thoroughly clean the sand. I’m also going to try to cover the sand so that photosynthesis can’t take place there. The rocks will fall into line once the right bacteria take hold. I’m just not sure how I’d do it.

Another possibility is that I could remove some of the sand and throw it in an opaque tote with a small circulation pump. Of course, getting the right bacteria growing means not allowing anaerobic bacteria to get a foothold. That means a fairly shallow depth of sand in the tote. Hopefully I’ll be able to get enough sand cycled with good nitrifying bacteria to outcompete the cyano in the display.

I’m also going to add to my hermit crab population. Hopefully that will help as well.

 

[Fishy888]

I got a couple of emerald crabs today as well as two hermit crabs (That’s all the hermits they had). It’s a modest start but I need to revamp my cleanup crew. Hopefully soon I’ll have the money to buy the next round of emerald and hermit crabs.

The hermits got right to work as soon as they hit bottom. The emeralds are just chilling, or at least they were. Since the lights are off, I’m sure they hid themselves in the rocks. I’m hoping to see them out and about and not hiding constantly like they sometimes do.

 

[Fishy888]

So I designed another ATO that I could use to dose kalkwasser. It has a hole in the side for the valve, and another for airflow. Both holes are 3/8”. It’s actually cheaper to build, yet it’s able to deliver a pretty consistent drip. It’s certainly not as consistent as a peristaltic pump, but it’s close enough.

I’m thinking about making one more modification to the new ATO. It’d be a fairly simple one too. Currently I have the rigid airline tubing attached to a short length of regular airline tubing on both the inside and outside. The tubing on the inside doesn’t bend straight down. The tip of the rigid tubing only goes a third of the way down. My solution would be to take a length of PVC pipe and cement it to the side of the ATO bucket. The rigid tubing would slide in, forcing it to bend downward all the way. Once done, it wouldn’t touch the bottom. It would go down about 3/4 of the way, maybe slightly more. That way the powder still on the bottom wouldn’t get siphoned out.

 

[Fishy888]

While the cyano is still thick in places, there is less than there was. I’ve also noticed an uptick in micro feather dusters and spaghetti worms. I’m still going to remove a good chunk of the cyano however, especially on Mt. Nem. I’m leaving the cyano on the sand bed though.

I’m going to try to get a look at a sample of cyano under a microscope. I want to see if there are any copepods in/on it. I’ve got to make a cover slip since the original ones are gone.

It’s crazy how fast coralline can spread when it gets enough CAL and ALK. Yesterday, there were only dinos and cyano growing on my wave maker. I hadn’t dosed any kalkwasser in several days. The existing coralline was holding on but not expanding. Overnight, a bunch of new coralline formed on the wave maker and the side panel where the wave maker is attached.

I think the coralline will ultimately tip the scales away from dinos and cyano. Better stability is sorely needed though, especially after the mini crash. The new ATO design will help provide that as long as I keep it topped off.

 

[Fishy888]

I’m definitely seeing some improvement now in how much and how quickly the cyano is repopulating rocks and sand. In order to keep the dinos at bay I’ve been manually removing the cyano from rocks and sand.

I think the kalk drip has been helping too. Most nuisance algae, bacteria and dinoflagellates don’t like higher pH and ALK.

Of course, the ALK goes up when kalkwasser is dosed as well as CAL. I’m keeping an eye on levels though. After all, I’m not dosing kalk just to kill the dinos. That said, it’s definitely helping. My coralline takes up a lot of CAL and ALK. It also takes up a decent amount of MAG as well. They’re direct competition to the dinos and cyano.

I have more salt coming soon. My nitrates have been in the 40’s. Hopefully they’ll be in the 20’s before long. Hopefully this week I’ll be able to order my RODI pre-filters and resin. It’s about that time.

All the fish are doing well. My brittle starfish has been with arms extended, day and night. My shrimps are doing great too. Things are stabilizing nicely, and my tri-color Valida in particular is looking amazing. It seems to really like the higher CAL and ALK content.

 

[Minifoot77]

I’m definitely seeing some improvement now in how much and how quickly the cyano is repopulating rocks and sand. In order to keep the dinos at bay I’ve been manually removing the cyano from rocks and sand.

I think the kalk drip has been helping too. Most nuisance algae, bacteria and dinoflagellates don’t like higher pH and ALK.

Of course, the ALK goes up when kalkwasser is dosed as well as CAL. I’m keeping an eye on levels though. After all, I’m not dosing kalk just to kill the dinos. That said, it’s definitely helping. My coralline takes up a lot of CAL and ALK. It also takes up a decent amount of MAG as well. They’re direct competition to the dinos and cyano.

I have more salt coming soon. My nitrates have been in the 40’s. Hopefully they’ll be in the 20’s before long. Hopefully this week I’ll be able to order my RODI pre-filters and resin. It’s about that time.

All the fish are doing well. My brittle starfish has been with arms extended, day and night. My shrimps are doing great too. Things are stabilizing nicely, and my tri-color Valida in particular is looking amazing. It seems to really like the higher CAL and ALK content.

Pics of the tricolor?

 

[Fishy888]

Pics of the tricolor?

I’ll post a picture when the lights come on.

 

[Fishy888]

Here’s a long overdue picture of the tri-color. In fact, let’s do a comparison.

Early December of 2025

Today

Don’t worry, the water’s not green. I really wish we could override the white balance feature but that’s another story….

Sadly I lost my fruity pebbles acro because I placed it in a different spot when the mini crash happened. I got busy with life as well, so several days had passed since I checked in on it. I burned it sadly.

The tri-color is the only acro left. The fact that it’s growing is a good sign though. I’ve learned a lot about acro keeping, things that work and things that most certainly don’t. In the fall I’ll be getting more acros. I’m disappointed in myself for what happened to the fruity pebbles, but I’m grateful for what I’ve learned as well. The next round of acros I get will thrive.

As for the cyano and dino problem, I went back to basics. I did a 75% water change. While doing that I cleaned the sand bed thoroughly. Here it is 24 hours later.

I still have dinos to deal with but the cyano is gone for now.

My next move is to get another kalk drip started after work tonight. I’m looking into two part dosing. My system uses a ton of calcium and even the kalkwasser has a hard time keeping up with the demand. The extra pH boost is helping suppress the dinos so that’s a weapon I’m using in the war against them.

Yes, I value my coralline highly enough to go the two part route. It’s serving two purposes. It’s another weapon to use against the dinos. It looks awesome! It’s also a good bio indicator. Okay, that’s three purposes.

I’ve added some more cleanup crew. I’m going to add more over the next few months. I hope to find some diamond and sand sifting gobies too. Hopefully I can find a sea cucumber that can handle crushed coral. I have a mix of different grades but the crushed coral dominates.

 

[Fishy888]

I just ran my first suite of tests since the water change.

NO3 - 15 ppm
PO4 - 0.04 ppm
ALK - 9.9 dKh
CAL - 495 ppm
Salinity- 1.032 SG

I’m bringing my salinity down slowly. Obviously it’s high. It’s not catastrophically high, but I want to get it back down to 1.026.

The dinos are trying to hang on but they’re nowhere near as bad as they were. I have some patches of cyano in places but nothing like before.

In December I bought 24 red wiggler worms and started a small “bin”. I finally took a few and fed the fish. They slurped them up like they were spaghetti!

It was time to replace some of the worms’ bedding so I counted them yesterday afternoon, expecting to find maybe forty or fifty. There were approximately one hundred and twenty five worms! Five times the amount I started with! That’s not counting the worms I fed the fish Tuesday night!

I started a real composting bin last night using a 15 gallon Rubbermaid tote. Their bedding is coconut coir and cardboard I cut up for them. They also have banana peels to eat. The castings will go into my wife’s flower bed, and the worms will be food.

I want to be able to feed each fish a worm or two every day. Of course, the smallest damsels won’t be able to eat mature worms but they can eat juveniles. The fish seemed to enjoy hunting the worms. Live food is so good for them, and not just from a nutritional standpoint. It’s my goal to add more live food choices for the denizens of my reef.

Edit: I dropped the salinity to 1.030. I retested ALK and CAL. My ALK is now at 8.0 dKh. I think I messed up when I tested it earlier anyway. I only added 8 gallons of RODI, so I know I didn’t drop ALK by almost 2 dKh, especially with 150 actual gallons of system water volume. My CAL is now 485 as well.

 

[Fishy888]

The bad news is that I have a problem with my left arm, particularly with my left hand. Most likely trigger finger. There’s a lot of numbness, but when my fingers lock up momentarily it’s painful. As a result, I haven’t been able to do any maintenance on the tank to speak of in a while.

The good news is that it can be treated. It’ll take some time but at least I’ll be able to sleep. I think the dinos have claimed my last acro. I haven’t seen a single polyp in days and I see some areas of recession, likely STN.

At this point, it’s probably a straight up crash rather than just a mini-crash. I’ve lost two fighting conchs, three acros, three fish among others. I still have a lot of life in the reef too, but it could have been worse. Just ask Adam Sandler of Polo Reef fame. If he has the guts to persevere, how much more should I, especially considering my losses were nowhere near his. That and after all, my reef is named for perseverance.

I’m actually feeling encouraged despite the losses. My nitrates are down to 15 ppm, my phosphates are perfect, and things have been pretty steady state considering the circumstances, but I’m going to reign in the factors that have been causing the instability that’s led to the crash.

Things will get much better. I’m still planning a trip to the LFS in the fall when I will be getting much acropora. Things will be much more stable again. My coralline is still growing nicely so things aren’t all bad. Once the dinos are gone for good, and once my arm, particularly my hand though, is healed, they WILL be unalived!

 

[Fishy888]

Whelp I still have the trigger finger issue, but this time there’s good news and no bad news.

I was finally able to do some maintenance over the weekend. Yes, I was bad. I technically shouldn’t be doing what I’m doing with my little “issue”, but I value my reef and the creatures within more than I fear the pain right now.

Nonetheless, I finally replaced the pre-filters and resin in my RODI. I’ve made 30 gallons so far, and I’m making another 30. The ATO also got filled, so I’ve got a kalk drip going. Then I scraped the acrylic, blew a bunch of dinos off the rocks and sand, manually removing what I could.

Today, my goal is to do a partial water change. I’m going to stir up the sand really good so that I get rid of as much of the nasty stuff as I can.

Despite not having touched the tank over the last week or so except to feed it, and not adding any kalkwasser during that time, I have more coralline growth. It’s slower than before, but I expect it to grow faster again now that there’s a kalk drip once again.

My fish are all doing good thankfully. The shrimp and nems are doing well for the most part, but one of the smallest nems is missing tentacles. The maroon clownfish loves on that particular anemone almost always. It’s about an inch in diameter.

I know it could be that the nem is starving, but all the others are doing great, even with the dinos and cyano. Also, if the nem was starving, I would think it would have moved by now. I’m going to try to feed it oh so slightly today though, just in case. It’s still very much alive thankfully, and it’s not gaping, losing color or zooxanthellae.

 

[Fishy888]

I decided to do a 3 day blackout starting today. I might extend it to 5 days. Since my acros are all dead there’s not much downside to trying this.

I’m going to use @vetteguy53081’s advice, including his H2O2 dosing regimen. He’s in the top 10 people on R2R whose advice I trust.

During the blackout period there will only be ambient light in the DT. For now I’m keeping the lights on in the sump despite the cyano growing in there. I have a bunch of chaeto and grape caulerpa growing in the sump. If I don’t like what I’m seeing in there though I’ll black out the sump too.

I haven’t done the water change yet. Today is likely to be busy for a while but if there’s time tonight I’ll get it done. If not it’ll be tomorrow.

The fish, shrimp, and brittle starfish all love the shrimp and seafood medley I puréed a couple of nights ago. It’s going to be part of my new batch of DIY frozen food. I should have time to add some ingredients to the mix today.

Last night I picked up more worms to add to the worm bin. I buy them at Walmart rather than buying them online. You end up paying the same price if not more online per 1000 worms. Buying them at a bait shop or a chain store also means not having to worry about whether or not they got left out in the sun by the delivery driver.

I got another 160 so I have about 300 now of the European night crawlers. I also have about 100 red wigglers, which are a smaller worm. The fish love them! They’re packed with nutrition, and they trigger the hunting instinct. I can really see the joy and contentment the fish, particularly the two Sergeant Major damsels and maroon clownfish, get when they catch their prey!

 

[Goaway]

If you are still fighting dinos, look into 82f treatment.

Raising temp to 82F degrees to fight Dinoflagelletes? On three systems!

I have three aquariums two identical 12 gallons that have mirror equipment but one houses LPS and the other SPS. Both have been up 6 months and recently got Dinos. Read a lot on dinos on forums and watched plenty of videos on youtube. The third is about 3 months and is a 30 gallon with only...

www.reef2reef.com

something to look into, and read up on from others.

 

[Goaway]

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/increasing-temperature-to-beat-amphidinium-dino.783653/

 

[Fishy888]

If you are still fighting dinos, look into 82f treatment.

Raising temp to 82F degrees to fight Dinoflagelletes? On three systems!

I have three aquariums two identical 12 gallons that have mirror equipment but one houses LPS and the other SPS. Both have been up 6 months and recently got Dinos. Read a lot on dinos on forums and watched plenty of videos on youtube. The third is about 3 months and is a 30 gallon with only...

www.reef2reef.com

something to look into, and read up on from others.

This is a great idea.

How are you doing these days?

 

[Goaway]

This is a great idea.

How are you doing these days?

just playinh with the kids and taking care of the family. Reef wise, things.... get anemon'ed

I wanted to take pics of one of them walking to kill what's left of my acros (they murdered one and a half). They have tried to kill multiple zoas . I havent tested my waters since Eli passed. I just think the tail injury played such a huge part of it all.

Somethings, are difficult to get over. I got a lot to catch up on here.

Reefing seems to bring a lot of pain.

 

[Fishy888]

just playinh with the kids and taking care of the family. Reef wise, things.... get anemon'ed

I wanted to take pics of one of them walking to kill what's left of my acros (they murdered one and a half). They have tried to kill multiple zoas . I havent tested my waters since Eli passed. I just think the tail injury played such a huge part of it all.

Somethings, are difficult to get over. I got a lot to catch up on here.

Reefing seems to bring a lot of pain.

It can. That’s for sure. It can also bring triumph though too. That’s what keeps me going in times like these.

Please take care of yourself, and know that many of us care about you and value you, both as a reefer and as a friend.

 

[Fishy888]

Just a quick update. I can see a difference already in the amount of dinos covering the rocks and sand. It looks better. Of course, there’s much more to be done. If I were to turn the lights back on now, the dinos would be going full blast! Thankfully I’m employing several tactics which altogether will nuke the dinos. It’s just going to take some time.

 

[Fishy888]

This is how things look after 36 hours of blackout. It’s a nice start but I’m going to try to do 5 days of blackout altogether. It was truly bad in here. Still is as I’m sure the dinos are all up in the water column. If I turned the lights back on, within an hour at most, they’d be back. It’d be like they never left.

The blackout should help in several ways. Pods will take advantage and multiply while they have the chance. The fish do come out but they’re not as active as they’d be in daylight. They also don’t seem to be eating as many pods as they normally do, so pod numbers should come up substantially.

With the dinos and cyano having a harder time holding on, good bacteria should begin to take hold. My thinking is this. I’m going to do a 7 day blackout. When the lights come back on, I’ll be reducing the MH photoperiod to 10 hours. After a week of lights on, I’ll do another 7 day blackout if my remaining corals and the BTAs look ok. I’m feeding them more now since they’re in blackout mode so I’m not in panic mode, but I know I need to really watch what I’m doing.

I’m encouraged by what I’m seeing. It’s like when a baseball or football team dominates for many years, then suddenly the players are older, injuries happen that impact, if not end, careers, and before you know it the team is 8 and 8 at best, maybe even worse. At that point, you get the best draft picks you possibly can, even if you have to trade half your current team to do it. You make the best trades you possibly can. You’re building the foundation of a new dynasty. It’s still a few seasons away. You’re going to be a 3 and 16 team for a while. It’s painful to watch, but then those trades pay off. The new star quarterback takes his first snap. You actually might make it to the playoffs that year, even if you lose that first game. A season or two after that, the new dynasty begins. Who knows? Maybe it’ll be stronger and longer lasting than the last one!

I’ve been making my “trades” and getting as close to the first “draft pick” as I can, when it comes to my system. Things are changing markedly in some ways, but they’re showing signs of improvement, however subtle.

It also helps that my hand is getting a little better each day. I just got the arm and hand brace today. I’m supposed to wear it at night. It fits perfectly and there’s some pain as my arm gets used to it. It’s comfortable yet firm enough to keep the arm and hand in the right position.

 

[Fishy888]

I turned the lights on in the living room so I could see how things are doing. One of my two emerald crabs was out. I hadn’t seen either of them since the day I got them.

Today is testing day at Perseverance Reef. I did CAL and ALK so far. CAL is at 470 and ALK is at 7.9. I intend to get ALK up some more but I’m not going to get too crazy. I still need to test for salinity, NO3 and PO4. I suspect those numbers will be close to where they were the last time I tested for them.

There are still some dinos visible. I’ve had the lamp on for about an hour now and I think just that little bit of light (100 watt equivalent) from across the room has allowed for a slight amount of dinos to come back. That could also just be me worrying too much.

The hippo tang and the cleaner wrasse have largely stayed hidden along with the sulfur damsel but I could still see all but the cleaner wrasse. That fish has always been great at hiding when it wants to stay hidden. My three shrimp are doing well still. The nems are looking better too.