Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

Although I still have to deal with the trigger finger, a secondary issue in that arm, which is cellulitis, got looked at in the ER today. They drained the majority of the infection out, and started me on potent antibiotics. It’s painful still but the pain is subsiding slowly. I’m sure it’ll come back at night a little bit, but I doubt it’ll be as bad as it was.

All of this has me thinking about some changes I want to make. The most important change will be to automate my water changes. A couple of cheap pumps and a couple of hose lengths will go far. Ok, some bulkheads and PVC fittings as well but they’re not too ridiculously expensive.

Though I don’t like the thought of feeding pellets, I might invest in an automatic feeder. I’ve heard the automatic feeder for frozen food is temperamental at best. I’d only use it on an emergency basis though.

I might even splurge on a used hydros, although if I got it cheaply enough, I’d go with an Apex.

 

[Fishy888]

One last post. I discovered a pretty big problem that lay hidden in the sump. My thermostat died. By day, my halides keep the tank warm. Because of that, and with everything going on, I didn’t pay close enough attention. Thankfully we keep the temperature in our apartment around 70 give or take.

I think I finally found the other culprit I was looking for regarding the crash. @Goaway reminded me about the fact that dinos hate heat. I normally keep my reef at 82 to 84 degrees. Needless to say, I’ll be shopping for a new thermostat.

 

[Fishy888]

I decided to end the blackout yesterday. This is how the display looked tonight just before the lights went off.

There are some hints of dinoflagellates still but very few. Not bad for about 8 hours of light. I only kept two of the three halides on for now.

I’ve decided to order two more heaters last night. They’re both 300W heaters. They’ll help take some of the load off of the heater I have in the sump already.

 

[Fishy888]

I got one of my heaters from Amazon yesterday. Why they didn’t send both together I don’t know but I’m glad I got the one a day early. It’s working, and the tank is warm now like it should be.

Sadly I haven’t seen the cleaner wrasse since I started the blackout. My hope is that he’s been out while I’m not around, but I’ve been around long enough over the last couple of days that I should have seen him by now.

One thing I notice though is that all the fish seem more vibrant. I can smell that smell like I’m at the beach when I’m near the water. I can still see some dinos but not like there would normally have been.

I feel like I’ve rebooted Perseverance Reef. It looks like things are falling back into place again. I expect the higher temperatures will encourage pods to breed more as well as spirorbids and hopefully Asterina stars. Micro dusters too.

I have the thermostat on the new heater set to keep the water temperature at 84 degrees. While it doesn’t leave lots of “wiggle room”, we do have central air so that helps keep things more stable. If we were relying on hot water heaters or something I’d probably just run at these temperatures just long enough to choke off the dinos.

Here, we’re more likely to suffer from power outages than a prolonged period without central air. In that situation the water would cool. If the outage occurred in winter, the temperature would take a few hours more to fall below the safe range than if I ran the system at 78.

The halides do contribute certainly to the heating of the system by day. It’s enough that the heaters don’t have to be on much to maintain 84 degrees. At night the heaters will have to work a little harder but since there’ll be two of them (three eventually) , they won’t have to work very hard to maintain temperature.

I’m feeling better about the reef than I have since the crash happened. I lost a lot for certain, but a lot survived too. Now that things are on the mend, my sights are set on making preparations for my next coral spree this fall.

 

[Fishy888]

Just a quick note. I dropped the temperature to 68 in the apartment. Despite the air temperature dropping 8 degrees, the heater is performing amazingly well. The water sits at 82.5, so a 1.5 degree drop from the 84 degrees I have the thermostat set to.

Once the second heater goes online, the two heaters won’t even need to break a sweat in order to keep the temperature up.

There’s actually going to be three heaters altogether though. I keep forgetting about the 100w heater that’s in there along with the 300w I got today. So all three will have an easy time keeping the temperature at 84. Bye bye dinoflagellates!

 

[Fishy888]

I found the cleaner wrasse this afternoon! He was hiding in a crevice so deep that I thought he curled up and died. It was like someone, or something, stuffed it in there. I pulled gently on his tail. I fully expected pieces of him to come out. Instead, he darted out of there, very much alive! He swam out in the open for a couple of seconds, then disappeared again.

I see more micro dusters out, and the fish are more lively. Everything looks healthier to me. Maybe it’s just me, but I really think I see an improvement already.

The dinos keep trying to come back, but they’re finally losing the battle! I’m going back to filter socks though. I’ll clean the sand as well, and do a partial water change. I feel like I finally have my reef back!

Once the dinos are gone, I’ll make sure the system stays stable for a while. Only then will I replace the acros I lost. I know they do well in my system overall, so as long as the dinos are eradicated, the beginner acros will thrive.

In the meantime I’m going to replace the fighting conchs I had. I might add some Astrea snails. I’ll definitely add an army of Mithrax crabs. I want emeralds and rubies. I’m also going to try and add more brittle and serpent stars as well. It’s likely that I’ll add more hermits too.

 

[Minifoot77]

Judy from coral monsters had a great deal on pithos crabs i picked up 30 and 20 nerites

 

[Fishy888]

Judy from coral monsters had a great deal on pithos crabs i picked up 30 and 20 nerites

I’ve thought about pithos crabs but they only live 6 months to, in rare cases a year from my research into them. How much were 30 pithos crabs just out of curiosity?

Edit: Pithos, not Pathos.

 

[Fishy888]

It was an interesting night last night! I got hailed on last night when those storms came through the first time. It was pea to dime sized hail. Then about 15 minutes later, we were in the car and it hailed again, this time nickel to quarter sized hail. We’re quite fortunate no damage happened to the car. That was the first time I got hailed on by that size of hail. It’s also the first time I’ve ever been on the road during a hailstorm like this one.

After I got home and washed a filter sock to use overnight, I hung it on the eye hook I use to hold it in place over the drain. As I blew the crud off of the sand and rocks, one of the anemones just blew away. It fell deep into the cave area of Mt. Nem. I tore the rock work apart and found the little nem. I totally rearranged Mt. Nem as the third and final storm blew through. You could say that the new Mt. Nem was forged in a storm.

The nem that detached is now safe on a rock where there’s less light. It opened back up a little bit. Hopefully it stays put or moves into more light.

The fish have been exploring the larger cave area inside Mt. Nem. The anemones are all in view too.

The filter sock I was talking about? It got clogged within an hour. I’ll be doing the same thing again. Stir up the sand and clean the rocks, and let the filter sock catch the remaining dino strings, which are mainly dead but just as bad and as ugly.

I found the second fighting conch. It’s alive too! I couldn’t believe it! It was stuck inside Mt. Nem but it was still alive all this time.

 

[Minifoot77]

I’ve thought about pithos crabs but they only live 6 months to, in rare cases a year from my research into them. How much were 30 pithos crabs just out of curiosity?

Edit: Pithos, not Pathos.

3.30 a piece

 

[Fishy888]

3.30 a piece

That’s not bad at all. I’ll have to check them out. I don’t know what regular price is but it sounds like what hermits cost around here.

As for the continued crash recovery…

It’s looking awesome! It’s almost too awesome though, like it feels too good to be true, so I need to stay vigilant. That said, I got the rock work on the left side rearranged finally.

You can see how much crud I stirred up! I clogged two clean filter socks up within an hour or less of hanging them! It’s going to be like that for a bit though. I’ve been stirring the sand bed in order to clean it. It’s honestly much easier and far less messy for me to let the filter socks do the work instead of trying to use a gravel vacuum. It’s working nicely too.

The lights aren’t on yet, and won’t be for another few hours. That said, the water’s clear as a bell. There’s enough light coming from the sliding door to illuminate the display. It certainly isn’t enough to grow even soft corals, but it’s enough to tell that the water is clear. It also acts as my “ramp up” to when the lights come on.

 

[Fishy888]

I added another Emerald crab and some blue legged hermits to the crew. I thought about replacing the fighting conch that died but I’m going to wait a little longer.

Things still look pretty good today. It’ll take time but eventually it’ll get there.

Soon I’ll need some more sand since I’ve opened up a little more room on the bottom of the DT. Eventually I’ll have corals and clams in those spots. Unfortunately, with gas prices at $5.00 plus per gallon, my timeline might get delayed. Still, it’ll happen.

In the meantime, it’s as if overnight my micro dusters are becoming cluster dusters; they’re proliferating that much! I take that as a great sign. Eventually I’ll have several Hawaiian feather dusters too. I also want a Christmas Tree worm rock eventually. Some Coco worms too. That’s just the list of worms I want in the system! There are so many other such creatures I want too!

I just noticed a decent sized area of new coralline growth on the front acrylic. There are still new areas of coralline growth each day. I’m surprised I don’t see more spirorbid worms in the DT. There are plenty in the sump though. Go figure.

I never did get the water change done. My trigger finger is still an issue, and the wound in my left arm from where the abscess/cellulitis combo was is still leaking a decent amount of plasma, and if I lift too much, I still get some pain in the hand and in the wound area. That said, it gets a little better each day. Hopefully this weekend I’ll be able to start the water change.

I still have some testing to do. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get that done. Now that I have the temperature back where I want it, I need to gauge how fast a drip I need from the ATO to keep up with evaporation. I’ve already started making tweaks but I’m not quite there yet.

 

[Fishy888]

I was doing well enough today that I was able to scrape the acrylic. I tidied the sand a little bit as well.

Most of my anemones are unhappy, which doesn’t surprise me, but several still look decent. I have the water temperature at 84 degrees. I believe the combination of the crash followed by the cure has taken its toll. I can only see 4 nems. I believe I lost the black widow. Of course, they could be hiding deep in crevices, but the widow started gaping yesterday. Today I don’t see even the slightest hint of a foot or pedal disk, much less tentacles.

Needless to say, several huge changes have and are taking place. Like I said before, it’s like a sports team whose dynasty has ended, and now has to rebuild. Sometimes, younger players on those teams leave, looking for a new team they think will win, no matter how hard you try to keep them.

Hopefully the anemones I have left will start doing better soon. If I were to lower the temperature right now, the dinos, which even at this temperature are trying to hold on in places, would just come right back! Then again, dissolved oxygen levels drop as the temperature increases.

My fish and shrimp are doing well though. They’re eating like pigs and aren’t showing signs of stress, but I’m watching closely. My mushrooms and toadstool leather are all hanging in there as well.

I hope to be able to drop the temperature eventually but at the same time, temperatures on the reef are right around where I have my system at.

Oh, one other thing of some note is that my coralline has spread onto the left side of the DT now. Quite a bit in fact. A good bit of the acrylic where the gyre is, is now dotted with a good bit of the pink/purple stuff. About 1/4 of the back and front acrylic now has brand new spots coming in rapidly. The temperature might actually be accelerating its growth.

Even with the bad news, there’s still a lot of good news. Good bacteria should have a much easier time becoming re-established. I haven’t seen a single trace of cyano since raising the temperature either. My fish and at least 4 of my nems are still doing ok. I still feel that things will soon be where they need to be, even though in the short run it doesn’t seem like it.

 

[Fishy888]

Slowly but surely I’m getting my parameters dialed back in, but things are still a bit out of whack.

Due to all the loss, and the subsequent cyano and dinoflagellate die off, my nitrates are at 30 ppm. My phosphates are at 0.27 ppm. They were 0.04 just before my trigger finger became an issue. I’d say 3 to 4 weeks ago. I’ll be working tonight, but when I get home, I’m going to start the water change I’ve been waiting to be able to do.

My hand is a little bit better, so if I don’t go too fast I should be ok. This won’t be a super large water change. This will be a 33%’er.

That’ll be good to drop my nitrates a little. Phosphates will be another story though. Honestly, with the cyano that was around before, it might explain the lower phosphate values. If so, the rise might not be as dramatic as I thought. I realize that 0.27 ppm won’t doom my reef exactly but it’s still higher than I want.

For now I’m not going to take any action. I want to see how things progress over the next month or so. Those numbers might come down. I’ll be harvesting some chaeto soon, and harvesting some caulerpa for the tangs and damsels.

Considering what the reef just survived though, I’m actually pretty happy with the numbers. As much loss as there was, those numbers could have been much higher. If my system wasn’t as mature as it is, well, I shudder to think. In fact, despite the loss of life, the reef absorbed it quite well I’d say.

Obviously, I don’t ever want to see anything like that ever happening again. That said I’m pretty happy with the direction things are heading.

I haven’t seen the cleaner wrasse in at least a week, but the other fish are handling things quite nicely. Great appetites, vibrant colors, acting normal. I still have 5 nems thankfully, and the ones that were the worst off are looking healthier again. The black widow anemone sadly didn’t make it, either that or it’s the best anemone ever at hide and seek. The fact that the others are visibly better than before makes me much more optimistic. It was depressing for a while there.

 

[Minifoot77]

30 and .27 are not "high"

 

[Fishy888]

30 and .27 are not "high"

I know. I just meant they’re higher than I’d like. It’s not world ending, which is why I’m just going to monitor things for now.

 

[Fishy888]

It’s been a week since I raised the temperature to 84 degrees. I’m happy to say that things look great so far. There are still some dinos in a couple of spots but it’s far better than it’s been in ages. The heat treatment has killed off the cyano mats, though I’m sure at least some of the bacteria remains.

I just lowered the temperature to 82 degrees. That’s the temperature I like to keep the reef at, particularly because of dinos! That 2 degree difference doesn’t seem like much, but it’s more significant than one might think. The cooler the water, the more dissolved oxygen the water can hold. It’s also less stressful to inverts especially.

Hopefully the dinos won’t come back again. I plan on ordering a phytoplankton starter culture in a couple of weeks. The pod population has markedly increased, at least in the sump. I also notice more micro dusters and bristle worms. Since I dropped the temperature, I expect a slight slowdown in pod population growth, but only slight. When I start feeding some phyto, I wouldn’t be surprised if the population growth accelerates despite the drop in temperature.

I’m also going to culture pods in my 20 gallon setup. I might even start raising ghost shrimp again in a 10 gallon tank. They’d appreciate the phyto as well, and provide another live food source for the reef.

 

[Fishy888]

I ordered six 64 oz jars and plastic wide mouth lids, which I got today. I’ve also ordered a nannochloropsis starter culture. That should come later this week or early next week.

So far, I don’t see any indication that the dinos are coming back despite dropping the temperature to 82 degrees yesterday. There’s a lot of life in my system though. Getting the heat back has made a huge difference. I’m actually getting green micro algae growing on the glass instead of dinos/diatoms. I’m also getting plenty of coralline growth.

My parameters are the most stable they’ve been since the crash. I won’t be taking any drastic measures. Even if a couple of parameters are higher than I’d like, they’ll still be ok, especially now. My acros were doing good with numbers similar to these.

I’ll still work towards lowering my NO3 and PO4 very slowly by letting my macro take care of it. Slow and steady wins this race.

 

[Fishy888]

The reef is steadily improving. I see a decent amount of micro feather dusters, and spaghetti worms which the Sgt. Major damsels love eating when they dig them up or find them crawling around on the rocks.

My brittle starfish, which is about the size of a serpent starfish, a good 6 inches in diameter, has made a home under one of the rocks that make up Mt. Nem.

Speaking of nems, I have six that are still alive. They’re doing better by the day. One of the nems lost almost all of its tentacles at one point, and was rapidly losing zooxanthellae. That nem now has a ring of tentacles and more zooxanthellae than it did at the end of the heat treatment. The others lost some tentacles too but not like the nem I just described. They’re doing much better.

My shrimp are all doing great. The fish are fat and happy. I have Collonista snails and chitons galore. My sump is full of pods. Especially amphipods. There are plenty of bristle worms in there too.

I did something I never thought I’d do. On the eurobrace at the top of the display, there’s wall to wall coralline. Much of it got stained a brown color because of the dinos. I decided it’s time to scrape that off. I started the process, but I’m doing it over a period of several days.

Not all of the coralline from off the eurobrace was stained brown. There were patches where it was still pink. In order to make sure I got any potential dinoflagellates off the eurobrace I’m going to scrape it all.

Like the part of the eurobrace I already finished, the remaining coralline also has some pink areas, but most of it is that brownish pink color so it’s getting scraped too. The more spores the merrier. Plus, it won’t take long for new growth to spread. It’s already spreading across the acrylic panels.

Once the new coralline growth spreads more to the right side of the display, I’ll scrape the front and side panels, although the growth right now isn’t even close to blocking the view through the panes. My goal right now is to get the rocks to be covered in mostly coralline. The spores from the coralline on the panels will help that for certain. Mt. Nem, which is on the right side, has started getting good coralline growth on the extreme left side. It’s definitely spreading to the right though.

The reef, despite there being no hard corals, is teeming with life! Tomorrow my nannochloropsis culture will arrive. That should help boost the pod population nicely. I’m really excited about how well everything is coming together! Laying the groundwork now, I’m pretty confident that the system will function better than it ever has! The next acros I get will do even better than the last ones, much better even! I just have to keep things stable. It’s getting easier thankfully. It helps that the system is now a year and 3 months old. If stability is king, maturity is the emperor.

 

[Fishy888]

Last Friday, the Nannochloropsis culture I ordered arrived. It was light green with a lot of clumping. I tried to salvage it on the slim chance it would pull through. I filtered out as many of the clumps as I could. No dice.

Thankfully the vendor I used is a really good one and they shipped me a new culture FedEx. I got it today and it’s the dark green algae I usually get from them. No clumps.

I built a shelf especially for culturing phyto. It has lighting built in on the sides. I’m using 64 oz Ball jars. The shelf can hold twenty four of them if necessary, though twelve would probably be the limit. For now, my intention is to culture Nannochloropsis, Tetraselmis and Isochrysis. Two cultures of each. Once I do well enough with those, there are some others I want to try.

I’ve boiled some freshly made saltwater, sterilized the jar and the rigid airline tubing. I’m waiting for it to finish cooling. Then I’ll add the f/2, add the culture, start the pump and turn on the lights.

As for the tank, one of the nems split. They’re looking good considering what they’ve been through. The fish and shrimp look great. I see the large brittle star every now and again. Sometimes I catch a glimpse of an emerald crab just before the lights come on.

Coralline continues to spread. It’s even growing over the bubble algae that’s still left.

Now that I lowered the temperature to 82 degrees, I see places where the dinos are trying to come back, but you really have to look for it. It’s been that way for about 3 weeks now, and it never gets any worse than that, so I’m happy with that. The addition of phyto is just one more competitor, and the pods that will increase in density will eat dinos.

It’s true that nothing good happens fast in a reef tank. It’s slow but steady progress, but it’s progress!

There will soon be two dry goods purchases that I’ll be making. Soon being within the next 2 months. One is the addition (Finally!) of blue lighting. The lights are going to be able to ramp up and down, do thunderstorms and the whole 9 yards.

The other will be a dedicated temperature/pH monitor. That’ll be in addition to the new thermostat/heater controller. This way, I can monitor the temperature on both sides of the sump, and I’ll always know the temperature, even if one or the other malfunctions.

Overall, I’m happy with how the reef is doing. By some metrics, it’s doing even better than before the crash. I’ve got many plans still for this system! God willing, great things are still coming!