SDReef's 330G CDA Acropora Dominant Mixed Reef

[sdreef]

I’m in the same boat with coralline, I have been continuing to run rowaphos at pretty much less than a stream of pee out of the reactor and keeping phosphates at .14, coralline has really started to take off again.

I really love your tank, by and far my favorite tank on the forum. I’m rooting for you to get things back on track.

Thanks, very nice of you to say. I'm not sure what caused my corals to lose their vibrance, but I think now with stability things should recover. Unfortunately, likely to take some time. Most of my acros are still alive, just not looking the way they can / should. On the upside, I have replacements for most of what I lost that were banked with a friend.

Just an observation, but whatever was going on affected the tenuis disproportionately. The millepora of all things, didn't seem to be affected to nearly the same degree. At least things seem to have stabilized at this point, so hopefully I can get confident to add stuff back soon.

 

[Hydrored]

Thanks, very nice of you to say. I'm not sure what caused my corals to lose their vibrance, but I think now with stability things should recover. Unfortunately, likely to take some time. Most of my acros are still alive, just not looking the way they can / should. On the upside, I have replacements for most of what I lost that were banked with a friend.

Just an observation, but whatever was going on affected the tenuis disproportionately. The millepora of all things, didn't seem to be affected to nearly the same degree. At least things seem to have stabilized at this point, so hopefully I can get confident to add stuff back soon.

sounds like what I dealt with when I used TMP salt, Tenuis lost color but others were fine. Also, for the tenuis, any idea if you bottomed out iodine by chance?

 

[GBRsouth]

Glad to hear you're making progress. Love your tank and got my fingers crossed for you getting it back on track.

 

[sdreef]

sounds like what I dealt with when I used TMP salt, Tenuis lost color but others were fine. Also, for the tenuis, any idea if you bottomed out iodine by chance?

You know I hate to blame the salt, but I really feel I may have had a bad batch. I don't have any other explanation for why the fluorine would all of sudden get depleted without any major changes in the livestock. But who knows. I have contemplated changing salt, but haven't decided to go that route yet.

I've always been Iodine deficient on ICP, but I was actually adding a couple drops of iodine a day at the time things started going south as a bit of an experiment. I stopped doing this when things started browning out. I don't believe the couple drops in 300 gallons was related to the corals browning out, but I wanted to return to the bare basics of what I've always done for the tank to simplify my routine. Since I don't track my iodine levels aside from the periodic ICP, I'm not positive if they were lower than the usual deficient level.

Do you routinely supplement iodine? If so, what do you use. I was adding a couple drops of lugols before I stopped.

Glad to hear you're making progress. Love your tank and got my fingers crossed for you getting it back on track.

Thank you! I'm optimistic I just need to be patient and keep doing what's worked for me in the past. I do think it's going to take at least a few months if not longer for some of the corals to recover. In the meantime, since I do have some new space, I may add some new acros and get some color back once I'm not doing stuff to the tank and things have stabilized.

 

[Hydrored]

You know I hate to blame the salt, but I really feel I may have had a bad batch. I don't have any other explanation for why the fluorine would all of sudden get depleted without any major changes in the livestock. But who knows. I have contemplated changing salt, but haven't decided to go that route yet.

I've always been Iodine deficient on ICP, but I was actually adding a couple drops of iodine a day at the time things started going south as a bit of an experiment. I stopped doing this when things started browning out. I don't believe the couple drops in 300 gallons was related to the corals browning out, but I wanted to return to the bare basics of what I've always done for the tank to simplify my routine. Since I don't track my iodine levels aside from the periodic ICP, I'm not positive if they were lower than the usual deficient level.

Do you routinely supplement iodine? If so, what do you use. I was adding a couple drops of lugols before I stopped.

I dose 4 drops a day of Seachem Reef Iodide putting me at 80.32 ug/l on ICP, that is also with dosing 4 ml a day of FWS. To be safe I would start with 4 drops if not using FWS since our tank size is similar, you have far more corals than I do.

If you are willing, I would do a 20% water change with a different salt brand based on my experience with the bad batches of salt I got.

 

[MrStoffel]

Thanks, that would be great if I could beat them in a week, I am not counting on it though.

Do you know what type of dinos you had? Also what kind of filter are you referring to as a power filter that you used during the bubble scrubbing? Thanks

Sorry for the late reply, i was on vacation.
A powerfilter is a pump that has filter floss before the intake. It is very popular in the DSR method.
For example a multijet with a drilled PVC pipe on the intake, wrapped in filter floss.

I had Ostreopsis by the way

 

[sdreef]

Tank is doing ok. The dinos have resolved for about a month now. The one thing I found helped expedite the sand bed clearing was blocking light from the sand bed. At baseline, I don't think conditions in the system are ideal for the dinos, but once the LCA were established they persisted.

A total system black out wasn't a good option for LCA dinos with all the sps, but I did a bit of a controlled experiment blocking the sand bed from light with a piece of opaque acrylic on one half of the clearing in the center of the tank for one week. The dinos disappeared and didn't reappear after re-introducing the light. The dinos persisted in the sand bed immediately adjacent where I had not blocked the light. In my case this was enough to give the other microorganisms the competitive advantage they needed to re-establish without having a broad effect in the tank and was more specific the sand bed with fewer systemic effects than a total black out.
Regarding livestock, the clown tang was removed due to ongoing issues with aggression. The tank demeanor is much more relaxed now.

The acros are coloring back up gradually. Not back to the level of the colors previously, but progressing in the right direction. All the corals have some fluorescence now and not looking completely brown. I decided to give a new salt maker a try and have transitioned over to using Aquaforest reef salt.

Regarding the aluminum in the system, I was able to identify that this has been present in the system since at least December of 2021 based on prior ICP tests. This was not present in the October 2021 ICP tests. The primary change during that period of time was the addition of kalkwasser. Given the aluminum has been persistently present, I don't believe it was the cause of the acute change in the health of the sps. I have taken the kalk reactor offline for now and adjusted the two part dosing and will re-evaluate the water with ICP in the coming months.

Potter's Wrasse

Quoyi Parrot

Pascalus Anthias

PC Rainbow

Splice with Baby torch

Hung Rainbow

No name millie

System Spawned Holy Grail torch

 

[GBRsouth]

Glad to hear things are back on track mate! One of my favourite systems!

 

[1ocean]

glad things are coming back to normal... I also am doing away with TM salt and have been doing water changes on my 300 using Brightwell salt..My birdnests are getting very happy..

 

[AlgaeBarn]

Beautiful Potter's wrasse!! -Raven

 

[sdreef]

Tank continues to look better. I started carbon dosing about 6 weeks ago. I've been using TM Elimi NP and have slowly increased the dosage. I continue to use Rowa Phos GFO in a reactor and change once every two week.

Nitrates currently at 9 and phosphate at 0.16 by hanna checker. Although I continue feed heavily, I have reduced automatic feeding to four times per day and frozen one to two times per day.

Here is the status of some of the browned out acros that are demonstrating signs of recovery.

TGC Acrolandia, colors off, but starting to demonstrate increased polyp extension

BC Gilded Lily, Color and polyp extension slowly improving

All of the acros in the system are demonstrating improving color, but some were not as severely affected

I had to frag my speciosa colony to save it from infection. The base has turned a solid blue and the tips are highlighter yellow and bright under daylights. Tips glow under blues but lose the contrast of the blue base.

Another Speciosa, CC Flaming Sunrise

Some of the other acros
RR Rainbow Loom

SC Orange Passion

Vivid Confetti

TGC Bugatti

Other non-sps

Goniopora

Rainbow Chalice, top down actinics

Rainbow Chalice daylight

Zoas

 

[sdreef]

BC Rainbows army (Acropora sarmentosa)

Daylight

Blues

 

[dstockwell]

Beautiful

 

[Hydrored]

BC Rainbows army (Acropora sarmentosa)

Daylight

Blues

Stunner

 

[sdreef]

Asterina population has exploded

Harlequin being shy for a photo. After adding the shrimp a few days ago, a large number of the asterinas have made their way to the glass. Interested to see how long it takes to get the population under control.

Earl's Fairy wrasse

Lineatus Flashing

Eightline Flasher

Radiant Wrasse

Helfriechi

Tahitian Golden Hawkfish, was unsure if he may go for the harlequin, but so far hasn't shown any interest.

 

[sdreef]

Tank overall is looking better every day. The polyp extension on many of the acros is the best it has ever been. I'm due for an ICP test this weekend. I've started adding supplemental iodine and manganese to my salt water reservoir when I mix up the salt. These have always been deficient on my ICP tests, and I haven't been consistent with daily dosing. Not sure it matters, but easy enough to do when I mix up a batch of salt. I've fully transitioned to Aqua Forest Reef Salt.

I added live phyto earlier this week just because, and the polyp extension was better the following day. I know better, and this was purely coincidental, but I have started thinking about dosing live phyto. I'm considering dosing to the system manually once or twice a week.

I received a juvenile captive bred Bali aquarich Goldflake. He's only about 1.5" and Initially when I attempted to introduce him to the system, the hawkfish was being very aggressive. Seeing them side by side, the hawkfish has grown much larger than I realized. I ended up capturing the hawkfish and transferring him to my smaller system.

The Johnsoni wrasse has been growing up in the other tank, and was also transferred to the main display. Appears to be in the early stages of transitioning.

Splice is getting a pink streak at the base and continues to grow at a slow but consistent pace. (Photo under halide daylights)

Hung's Rainbow (Halides), Colors continue to improve, looks better almost daily right now. Often the base is really fuzzy with polyp extension and the coral is putting out nubs. I'm hoping its about to take off.

 

[dstockwell]

Sweet

 

[Hydrored]

Looking good! I’m glad the salt change worked out.

 

[sdreef]

Looking good! I’m glad the salt change worked out.

Thanks! I was slow to change salt. I had used TM Pro for 7 years without a problem, and with the pandemic and supply chain issues I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I figured perhaps there was a sourcing issue with something they put in the salt that had been undetectable by standard methods and would be corrected moving forward.

With that said, this Summer the downturn in the system correlated with a large water change and a dramatic drop in the fluorine level on the ICP test. I don't have an alternative explanation other than a bad batch salt as nothing else had changed in the system. For me the priority has always been the quality of the product I'm using and I was willing to pay for consistent and clean salt.

With the bad batch this summer, it felt like the second quality issue in a short period of time. I couldn't justify the combination of the highest price salt without a reliable product to offset for the added cost.

Ultimately, I'm just happy the tank continues to look better, and is something I enjoy looking at again.

 

[1ocean]

I am glad your salt change worked out for you. I found myself in similar situation with not liking the issues with salt and oversea prices. I am in the process of changing to brightwell, so far did 120 gallons ( 40 gallons a weekend) in the 300 gallon tank. My numbers have never been better.