OP
OP
sdreef

sdreef

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 24, 2015
Messages
849
Reaction score
3,320
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I performed my final dip. It has been more than 2 months since the last time I saw a flat worm, and nearly 3 months since I started the dipping process. I inspected each frag under magnification during the past two dips to ensure saw no evidence of bite marks or tissue damage. I decided it's time to put everything back in it's place.

I did realize about 6 weeks into this process that I was using double the recommended amount for the concentration of the dips. Somehow, I miscalculated the volume of melafix to add. Despite this, I'm happy to report I didn't lose any coral. Although colors suffered, many of the corals have continued to grow.

D0BA6D8C-6552-438D-B237-B5A063E6991A_1_201_a.jpeg


IMG_6128 2.jpeg
IMG_6131.jpeg
IMG_6132.jpeg
IMG_6133.jpeg
IMG_6136.jpeg
IMG_6150.jpeg
IMG_6139.jpeg
IMG_6157.jpeg
IMG_6128.jpeg IMG_6141.jpeg IMG_6153.jpeg
 
Last edited:

rds85

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 13, 2019
Messages
639
Reaction score
1,033
Location
Colorado
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I performed my final dip. It has been more than 2 months since the last time I saw a flat worm, and nearly 3 months since I started the dipping process. I inspected each frag under magnification during the past two dips to ensure saw no evidence of bite marks or tissue damage. I decided it's time to put everything back in it's place.

I did realize about 6 weeks into this process that I was using double the recommended amount for the concentration of the dips. Somehow, I miscalculated the volume of melafix to add. Despite this, I'm happy to report I didn't lose any coral. Although colors suffered, many of the corals have continued to grow.

D0BA6D8C-6552-438D-B237-B5A063E6991A_1_201_a.jpeg


IMG_6128 2.jpeg
IMG_6131.jpeg
IMG_6132.jpeg
IMG_6133.jpeg
IMG_6136.jpeg
IMG_6150.jpeg
IMG_6139.jpeg
IMG_6157.jpeg
IMG_6128.jpeg IMG_6141.jpeg IMG_6153.jpeg

All that hard work has paid off! Nice work.
 

ScottB

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 5, 2018
Messages
7,873
Reaction score
12,155
Location
Fairfield County, CT
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Whew. Finally made it through all 10 pages. An excellent build thread!

Glad you made it through the AEFW process OK. I am about 2 months into my second round with them. Luckily (I guess) they are only in my frag system. Still, dipping a dozen racks every weekend is not a lot of fun. I began with Melafix but switched after a few things browned out. Now a fan of potassium chloride. Last weekend was the first time NO WORMS were detected. I am now falling back to dipping every 2 weeks.

As to adding the CaRx I will share my experience there too. My 2-part consumption (frag system again) was approaching 250ml a day of ESV of each part. I bought an ACR reactor and ran it WITH the APEX DOS and gradually dialing the doser down and reactor up. Within a few weeks I had dialed the DOS down to negligible amounts.

The ACR runs with a relatively high pH compared to other units. I was using a blend of my own skeleton and ReBorn which melt easily. Still, my pH ranges dropped about .2 to 7.80-8.10. I added a scrubber to the skimmer and got modest improvement even with a recirculating install.

So I waved in a Reef Octo 250 kalk stirrer to very good effect. I am trying now to minimize the work to manage it. My APEX pushes about 2.2 liters for RODI through it each day/night. Mostly at night, of course.

1628087117633.png
 
OP
OP
sdreef

sdreef

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 24, 2015
Messages
849
Reaction score
3,320
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Whew. Finally made it through all 10 pages. An excellent build thread!

Glad you made it through the AEFW process OK. I am about 2 months into my second round with them. Luckily (I guess) they are only in my frag system. Still, dipping a dozen racks every weekend is not a lot of fun. I began with Melafix but switched after a few things browned out. Now a fan of potassium chloride. Last weekend was the first time NO WORMS were detected. I am now falling back to dipping every 2 weeks.

As to adding the CaRx I will share my experience there too. My 2-part consumption (frag system again) was approaching 250ml a day of ESV of each part. I bought an ACR reactor and ran it WITH the APEX DOS and gradually dialing the doser down and reactor up. Within a few weeks I had dialed the DOS down to negligible amounts.

The ACR runs with a relatively high pH compared to other units. I was using a blend of my own skeleton and ReBorn which melt easily. Still, my pH ranges dropped about .2 to 7.80-8.10. I added a scrubber to the skimmer and got modest improvement even with a recirculating install.

So I waved in a Reef Octo 250 kalk stirrer to very good effect. I am trying now to minimize the work to manage it. My APEX pushes about 2.2 liters for RODI through it each day/night. Mostly at night, of course.

1628087117633.png
Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm happy to be done with the flat worms for now and hopefully forever. Much nicer to look at the tank now, and I'm excited to see things grow in.

I was eager to get things back on the rocks to allow them to settle for a couple weeks before adding the calcium reactor (Trying to avoid changing too many things at once). I was interested to learn more about your experience with the KCl dips? I'm curious what product, concentration, and how you're actually doing the dips. I was happy that even at double dosage the corals handled the melafix dips relatively well, but colors on some of the corals are more brown. I haven't used KCl for this before and interested to learn about another option and your experience.

I was considering adding a kalk stirrer to maintain the pH and was thinking about using a doser to avoid the fluctuations that I would encounter with the ATO. Your pH curve looks great. Just curious what's the volume of the system?
 

ScottB

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 5, 2018
Messages
7,873
Reaction score
12,155
Location
Fairfield County, CT
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Agree it is best to let everyone settle down before next changes.

A link to the KCl I use is below. 1 tablespoon per gallon is recommended but I have done stronger accidentally without issue. Mixes clear. It does not stun AEFW, it kills them dead dead dead. In fact the only downside is that it makes them shrivel up and seemingly dissolve, which makes it hard to get a body count. If you don't see them early, you might not realize you have any worms. Which could be a problem.

When you do bring on the CaRx, I really feel like you will need to dose kalkwasser. I broke my CaRx so am back to 2Part ESV but now dosing less than half of what I did prior to kalk: 110ml each part.

I use APEX DOS to push RODI into the stirrer. I run 3 different intervals with different rates and still tinkering with the intervals. If the house is tightly closed, I dose almost 3 liters a day. When house/basement is "open" only about 2200ml. ALK and Ca have been remarkably stable day to day and intra day. Kalk is old school I know, but I better understand now why it remains popular. I would not so this via ATO; way to volatile. Besides, APEX makes it too easy to dial.

System volume is 300G but really only 240 or so of water. Sumps alone are 108G with a lot of rock in them.

 
OP
OP
sdreef

sdreef

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 24, 2015
Messages
849
Reaction score
3,320
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Agree it is best to let everyone settle down before next changes.

A link to the KCl I use is below. 1 tablespoon per gallon is recommended but I have done stronger accidentally without issue. Mixes clear. It does not stun AEFW, it kills them dead dead dead. In fact the only downside is that it makes them shrivel up and seemingly dissolve, which makes it hard to get a body count. If you don't see them early, you might not realize you have any worms. Which could be a problem.

When you do bring on the CaRx, I really feel like you will need to dose kalkwasser. I broke my CaRx so am back to 2Part ESV but now dosing less than half of what I did prior to kalk: 110ml each part.

I use APEX DOS to push RODI into the stirrer. I run 3 different intervals with different rates and still tinkering with the intervals. If the house is tightly closed, I dose almost 3 liters a day. When house/basement is "open" only about 2200ml. ALK and Ca have been remarkably stable day to day and intra day. Kalk is old school I know, but I better understand now why it remains popular. I would not so this via ATO; way to volatile. Besides, APEX makes it too easy to dial.

System volume is 300G but really only 240 or so of water. Sumps alone are 108G with a lot of rock in them.



Thanks, I haven't used kalk before, so I didn't have a great sense of the volumes. Your system volume is very similar, so at least gives me a little bit of an idea. Obviously other variables to account for. I'm going to look into this a bit further.

What are the intervals and rates you're tinkering with? Do they correspond to the light cycle? I suspect you're correct regarding dosing kalkwasser when I bring the calcium reactor online. The pH in the Deltec runs low from what I understand. I would consider doing this proactively, but seems like a lot of variables to account for. Still something I'm considering and will think about timing further.
 

ScottB

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 5, 2018
Messages
7,873
Reaction score
12,155
Location
Fairfield County, CT
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Thanks, I haven't used kalk before, so I didn't have a great sense of the volumes. Your system volume is very similar, so at least gives me a little bit of an idea. Obviously other variables to account for. I'm going to look into this a bit further.

What are the intervals and rates you're tinkering with? Do they correspond to the light cycle? I suspect you're correct regarding dosing kalkwasser when I bring the calcium reactor online. The pH in the Deltec runs low from what I understand. I would consider doing this proactively, but seems like a lot of variables to account for. Still something I'm considering and will think about timing further.
With APEX DOS, you just input the time window and the total amount and it does the portions/frequency. The "night" interval is broken into two intervals only because Fusion doesn't deal well with crossing over the 24:00 hour mark.

I suppose I could some day write some logic into an outlet to peg pH at a certain level, but I too am new to kalkwasser and prefer to keep it simple until I have a good feel for that impact on dkh and salinity first. Also, the concentration (saturation) of the solution wanes over time. I need a feel for that aspect as well.

Being new, I started MUCH lower than 2-3 liters; I began around 200ml which did nothing.
 
OP
OP
sdreef

sdreef

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 24, 2015
Messages
849
Reaction score
3,320
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
With APEX DOS, you just input the time window and the total amount and it does the portions/frequency. The "night" interval is broken into two intervals only because Fusion doesn't deal well with crossing over the 24:00 hour mark.

I suppose I could some day write some logic into an outlet to peg pH at a certain level, but I too am new to kalkwasser and prefer to keep it simple until I have a good feel for that impact on dkh and salinity first. Also, the concentration (saturation) of the solution wanes over time. I need a feel for that aspect as well.

Being new, I started MUCH lower than 2-3 liters; I began around 200ml which did nothing.
Thanks, this is great info. I hadn't considered adding kalk in intervals like this. This may very well be a common practice, just something I haven't looked into, but I really like the idea. I forsee a kalk stirrer and another DOS in the near future for the system!
 

ScottB

7500 Club Member
View Badges
Joined
Mar 5, 2018
Messages
7,873
Reaction score
12,155
Location
Fairfield County, CT
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Thanks, this is great info. I hadn't considered adding kalk in intervals like this. This may very well be a common practice, just something I haven't looked into, but I really like the idea. I forsee a kalk stirrer and another DOS in the near future for the system!
Ur welcome. I would never consider giving up my DOS for 2-Part. It will remain installed and running at least something through it always.

I am pretty much the same now with a kalk stirrer. As to WHICH kalk stirrer I am more ambivalent. Mine is a well constructed beast but lacks an easy to use trap door for adding more powder -- a feature I feel would be helpful as I am lazy. Noodling a DIY drill in the cap for this feature.
 

SaltyinTennessee

Community Member
View Badges
Joined
Jul 20, 2021
Messages
28
Reaction score
56
Location
Maryville
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have really enjoyed reading through your thread! I really liked all of the thought and details you incorporated in this fantastic build. What an awesome tank!
 
OP
OP
sdreef

sdreef

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 24, 2015
Messages
849
Reaction score
3,320
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I have really enjoyed reading through your thread! I really liked all of the thought and details you incorporated in this fantastic build. What an awesome tank!
Thanks for reading. It's been a fun project so far. I'm happy to have coral back on the rock work. It's nice to have things looking more natural again.

35678515-31DD-4C55-BB13-C922B8323F3A_1_105_c.jpeg
IMG_6189 2.jpeg
 
OP
OP
sdreef

sdreef

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 24, 2015
Messages
849
Reaction score
3,320
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
I wanted to get a baseline for the system's chemistry before I move away from dosing 2 part. I just received my ICP results.

The takeaways:
1. Nitrates and phosphates measured at 43 and 0.28 , higher than I expected
2. The Tridents alk/calcium/magnesium were reasonably precise. The triton measure 7.91, 437, and 1397. The ICP measured 7.84, 437, 1442
3. The iodine and manganese are low

I suppose it's not surprising that my nitrates and phosphates are high considering I feed the tank 8-10 times / day. I just checked the phosphates with my hanna checker and got 0.28 and checked nitrates with the Nyos test kit at got 25. The chaeto in the refugium has grown a lot in the past month since I collected the sample, so it may have reduced nitrates a bit.

The question is what to do? ATI recommends GFO. A few options I am considering:

1. Add rowaphos

Everything in the tank looks happy, is growing well, and I'm not having problem algae or cyano growth. I have run rowaphos in the past, but I'm not consistent with changing this, and it's a variable I would prefer not to manage at this point so will hold off on this.

2. Increase water change volume

I estimate there are about 1000 L of water in the system accounting for displacement and have a continuous water change of 10 L / day. I may increase this to 15L / day. I also am planning on doing a larger water change as I was planning on vacuuming out some detritus that has collected in the sump independent of these result.

3. Increase refugium photoperiod

The refugium photoperiod was 12 hours. I've increased this to 14 hours for now.

I have not been checking nitrates and phosphates, so I will likely test every week or two for the next couple months. I will replete the iodine and the manganese per ATI's recommendations.

IMG_5690.jpg
32AD7D88-BA02-4076-AFC4-3892A2EA9760.jpeg
F60358C3-795E-4026-ADF0-2620F5698395_1_105_c.jpeg
D5976A31-179F-40F7-9B74-96280BA774FC.jpeg


97E9913A-C88D-47DE-A678-4357B4F4857D_1_105_c.jpeg
051846EF-CA6D-44BB-9A92-4F04C636B0E6_1_105_c.jpeg
 
Last edited:
OP
OP
sdreef

sdreef

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 24, 2015
Messages
849
Reaction score
3,320
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
A 5-6 month update on the gorgonians, sea whips, & sponges.

It's been 6 months with the blueberry gorgonian, and it looks good currently. It went into the system in february. I ended up experiencing cyano shortly after its introduction and a few of the branches experienced some cyano and were injured quickly. Since the cyano has resolved, it looks good. I can't say if it is doing well or just surviving, but it has good polyp extension and appears healthy at 6 months.

725971DF-6A4A-442E-A24A-7726125D56AB_1_105_c.jpeg


The orange sea whip was injured by cyano early on as well. I have lost most of it, and it is barely hanging on, but part of it survives and is in the refugium now. There is a healthy population of a variety of pods in the refugium so hoping that perhaps it can survive, but looking unlikely. The orange sea whip had been a high flow and lighted area in the tank. The red sea whip was in a shaded area, and actually continues to have healthy appearing tissues. Polyp extension is primarily at night.

The sponges have been variable. I have not been dosing phyto or adding anything special for the sponges beyond my frequent feeding. The yellow ball sponge appears to have grown and looks ok. The red tree sponge looks good and is a favorite perch for the hawkfish. It has a small area where the tissue has lost its pigmentation. This had happened in another area previously and the faded tissue disappeared back to healthy tissue and the sponge looked fine afterward. So not sure if this is significant, but will continue to observe.

The majority of the dragon flame sponge tissue has died, receded and is covered with algae. The orange ridge sponge looks ok, but its coloration may be a little less vibrant. None of the inhabitants in the tank appear to have experienced any issues due to the flame sponge tissue dying, but this is a small amount of tissue in a large tank, so may also be a result of dilution.

Given how quickly the flame sponge has declined, I might shy away from this species in the future. The other sponges seem to be adjusting better to my system at least. I have a red ball sponge arriving later this week so will continue to see how this goes.

625A769B-9566-4212-BB83-A6B46CF91D79_1_105_c.jpeg
055BF4FA-A726-4706-B2B3-70EF2CCB8E64_1_105_c.jpeg
23A6A028-F6BB-41ED-918B-4386183F740A_1_105_c.jpeg
8C2A5DEC-9A92-415F-AAC2-F4F2E4842A86_1_105_c.jpeg
76EDE5E2-2F00-45CE-B517-6FC26888EC83_1_105_c.jpeg
 
OP
OP
sdreef

sdreef

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 24, 2015
Messages
849
Reaction score
3,320
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
New addition Choati wrasse. Working on getting a decent photo. Potter's and the trio of meleagris leopards are all getting along with the new addition. First time I have ever added a leopard that didn't instantly bury itself in the sand.

 
OP
OP
sdreef

sdreef

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Dec 24, 2015
Messages
849
Reaction score
3,320
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
IMG_6309.jpg


Choati is out and about swimming today and most importantly has started to eat. Took a couple brine shrimp earlier. Still clearly getting adjusted, but looks healthy and the other fish are leaving him alone. Hawkfish was a little territorial yesterday, but that has calmed down today.
 

rds85

Well-Known Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 13, 2019
Messages
639
Reaction score
1,033
Location
Colorado
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
IMG_6309.jpg


Choati is out and about swimming today and most importantly has started to eat. Took a couple brine shrimp earlier. Still clearly getting adjusted, but looks healthy and the other fish are leaving him alone. Hawkfish was a little territorial yesterday, but that has calmed down today.
I am very envious of your leopard wrasses, still mainly about the potters.
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 37 54.4%
  • Gate valves.

    Votes: 37 54.4%
  • Check valves.

    Votes: 15 22.1%
  • None.

    Votes: 15 22.1%
  • Other.

    Votes: 6 8.8%
Back
Top