TheWB’s IM Lagoon 50

[TheWB]

That’s a shame about the pumps and the chalice. Did you test all your water parameters?

Not yet. I’m trying to get to that tomorrow. Last time I tested NO3 was 5 and PO4 was 0.09. Alk was 9.8 which is where it always is. I’ve done a 10% water change since then. PO4 was higher than it’s been recently which is 0.04 to 0.06. Once I test again if it’s still around 0.09 I’m going to try and target it with some Phosphate E and get it down to 0.05 and try to keep it there consistently. I think it’s a little to high compared to the NO4. I’m starting to see a little more growth on the glass than usual, but just a little. That chalice deteriorated really fast. It either hated something in my water or it was just unhappy when it got here. Probably won’t ever know for sure. It’s still hanging in there but barely. I parked it in low light and flow for now.

 

[Dj City]

Sorry to hear the chalice is still struggling. It's unfortunate but sometimes they just get unhappy and never recover. I got a grafted monti that I never even posted on my build because it was doing bad and went from stressed to bad to worse to gone inside of 24 hours.

Sometimes there is simply nothing you can do but keep moving forward with the ones that make it.

 

[TheWB]

Sorry to hear the chalice is still struggling. It's unfortunate but sometimes they just get unhappy and never recover. I got a grafted monti that I never even posted on my build because it was doing bad and went from stressed to bad to worse to gone inside of 24 hours.

Sometimes there is simply nothing you can do but keep moving forward with the ones that make it.

That’s basically what I’m doing. I moved it to the lowest flow area I’ve got and am leaving it there. The yellow eyes are still there but almost all of the pinkish flesh is gone. It’s looked the same for a couple of days now so maybe it’s stabilizing. As long as there is something that looks alive on the skeleton I won’t give up on it. The others all look good and the pink zippers are even slowly starting to think about opening up. Once that happens then I’m 10 out of 11 on successfully putting the frags in without killing anything so far. I’ll take it for a first time online coral order. Still need to figure out where all the Zoas are going to end up. I have a plan but I need to make sure I’m not putting similar colors together so it will look decent. That shouldn’t be too hard.

 

[jcolliii]

Wow man - a lot has happened since I checked in last. Sorry to hear about your pumps giving out on you, that's a real bummer. New corals look good though! It's maybe a tentatively good sign that the eyes on the chalice are holding out. I know what you mean about even just a sliver of tissue - I have a piece of cyphastrea that has been holding on for over a year - just a few polyps on one side. I just can't find a place where it seems to make it happy. Seems to like low light, but then it loses color. Hope to see that chalice start to regrow soon.

 

[TheWB]

Wow man - a lot has happened since I checked in last. Sorry to hear about your pumps giving out on you, that's a real bummer. New corals look good though! It's maybe a tentatively good sign that the eyes on the chalice are holding out. I know what you mean about even just a sliver of tissue - I have a piece of cyphastrea that has been holding on for over a year - just a few polyps on one side. I just can't find a place where it seems to make it happy. Seems to like low light, but then it loses color. Hope to see that chalice start to regrow soon.

Eh, what are ya gonna do, stuff fails. I am digging the new corals, getting ready to finish placing them soon. The chalice is trying to hang in there and I’m optimistic, it has stopped receding and seems to be gaining a little color, not a lot but some. Here‘s a shot of it in its current location which is just the plug on the sand bed. I’m going to attach it to a small piece of the Stax rock since it’s flat and see if it will eventually encrust. Sorry the picture sucks, I’m having a hard time taking a decent one of anything that‘s not right up next to the glass.

 

[Dj City]

Chalice is looking like it's gonna be ok.
It's got good color from the pic. Actually really good color. Give it time and it will grow. It may (probably) take a while but it will be just fine.

Hang in there buddy.

 

[TheWB]

New FTS. I placed all the new frags and got rid of the eggcrate. Nothing is glued down so I can mix and match where the frags end up. I like the idea of putting them all on larger pieces of rock but still have the ability to move them. Gonna leave them where they all are for now and see how it goes.

 

[jcolliii]

Pretty wrasse. What are those orangey palys up top?

 

[intricate_reefer]

Looks great, its nice to see it start to fill in. I do the same thing, never want to commit to glueing stuff down lol.

 

[TheWB]

Pretty wrasse. What are those orangey palys up top?

Thanks, thats an Orange Back Fairy Wrasse. If you‘re talking about the palys with the clown in the middle those are Devil’s Armor Zoas. They look more red than orange in person.

 

[TheWB]

Looks great, its nice to see it start to fill in. I do the same thing, never want to commit to glueing stuff down lol.

Thanks Rob. I have not decided if I like the color combinations together yet. Plus, I’m dealing with some algae issues and I want to keep the ability to easily dip the frags or give the rocks a H2O2 treatment so no gluing for a while. My nutrients aren’t out of control when I test but A) they are higher than I’m testing because the algae and the corals are using some up and B) I’m using Nopox and vibrant to keep things in check. That’s necessary because I feed a lot to keep the fish healthy. It all a big chain reaction I don’t quite have control of. There’s 7 new pieces of rock in there now so maybe a little more surface area for biological filtration.

 

[intricate_reefer]

Thanks Rob. I have not decided if I like the color combinations together yet. Plus, I’m dealing with some algae issues and I want to keep the ability to easily dip the frags or give the rocks a H2O2 treatment so no gluing for a while. My nutrients aren’t out of control when I test but A) they are higher than I’m testing because the algae and the corals are using some up and B) I’m using Nopox and vibrant to keep things in check. That’s necessary because I feed a lot to keep the fish healthy. It all a big chain reaction I don’t quite have control of. There’s 7 new pieces of rock in there now so maybe a little more surface area for biological filtration.

Have you considered trying reef flux. I am getting some algae growth now that I’m running higher nutrients. I have been thinking about it but am going to try and lower them a bit and manually remove as much as I can and see what happens. I also loaded up on 20 astea snails last week. Hopefully they are hungry.

 

[Dj City]

The coral placement is real nice.
They are going to grow out and look stunning as time moves on.

 

[TheWB]

Have you considered trying reef flux. I am getting some algae growth now that I’m running higher nutrients. I have been thinking about it but am going to try and lower them a bit and manually remove as much as I can and see what happens. I also loaded up on 20 astea snails last week. Hopefully they are hungry.

I have not considered Reef flux, I’ll have to check it out. Have you used it? I do need to look at some cuc additions. Nassarius snails for sure to help with the sand bed. I have the smaller ones, need some of the bigger version. I don’t really want an urchin. The lfs has acclimated saltwater mollies for 6.99 ea. How have those been doing for you controlling algae?

 

[TheWB]

The coral placement is real nice.
They are going to grow out and look stunning as time moves on.

Thanks, that’s what I’m hoping for. I won’t be packing the tank with frags. I like the look of bigger colonies of coral growing out. I’m going to let these go for a while and see how they fill in.

 

[Dj City]

You have really good placement.
I'm still trying to plan out my corals.
I've got my LPS as workers to help filter and clean the water as well as look nice.
Sticks are next on my list.

I don't really like how I have my zoas or my acans. I'm trying to see where (how) to place them where I like so they don't look cluttered like they look now.

 

[TheWB]

You have really good placement.
I'm still trying to plan out my corals.
I've got my LPS as workers to help filter and clean the water as well as look nice.
Sticks are next on my list.

I don't really like how I have my zoas or my acans. I'm trying to see where (how) to place them where I like so they don't look cluttered like they look now.

I like to put the frags on their own small rock like the TLF Little Feet I’m using or just glue some rubble around the plug. That way I can keep them fairly portable and move them to new places more easily. You don’t have to find the perfect crevice to get the plug into and I don’t have to try and cut the plug stem off. I also think it helps with the spacing.

 

[intricate_reefer]

I have not considered Reef flux, I’ll have to check it out. Have you used it? I do need to look at some cuc additions. Nassarius snails for sure to help with the sand bed. I have the smaller ones, need some of the bigger version. I don’t really want an urchin. The lfs has acclimated saltwater mollies for 6.99 ea. How have those been doing for you controlling algae?

I haven’t used it yet but apparently it works well and doesn’t affect coral. I have a local that used it and was happy with it. My corals never seemed to like vibrant. Not that it killed any, just seemed to make them mad. The mollies do help. I mean they aren’t crazy algae eaters but do pick at stuff throughout the day and don’t seem as picky with what they will eat. When I had a lawnmower blenny it was just like he would just eat more of like diatoms and film type algae. Not really any of the longer stuff. Maybe I just got a bad one but he wasted away anyway. I don’t know If it was because of the lack of algae or he was just sick. The mollies are nice because they aren’t herbivores so when all the algae is gone they won’t starve. I have found the balloon sailfin mollies to be hardier than the normal ones.

 

[jcolliii]

I like to put the frags on their own small rock like the TLF Little Feet I’m using or just glue some rubble around the plug. That way I can keep them fairly portable and move them to new places more easily.

I like to do this also - in addition to helping with spacing and placement, it also makes LPS look more natural when they begin to grow out.

 

[TheWB]

I think lawnmower blennies get lazy like other supposed cuc fish and quit eating algae once they figure out we keep throwing food in there every day. Yours was probably sick if it wasted away. The acclimated Molly’s near here are the marbled looking black and white ones. At least that’s what was there, they might do others at different times. I saw a whole herd of orange ones in the recent Reefbuilders videos. I don’t know if they are for algae management or if they just like the looks of the schools. They‘re cheap so I may give them a shot. Certainly couldn’t hurt.