Just wanted to post a little update on the tank. Overall, things are progressing pretty well, although I’ve definitely had a few bumps along the way.
I started dosing B-Ionic two-part and initially had to chase parameters around for a bit before getting everything figured out. I’ve finally gotten the alkalinity to settle around 8.0 dKH, which is where I want to keep it.
I also had both my nitrate and phosphate bottom out, and around the same time I started seeing what looked like the beginnings of dinoflagellates along with some nuisance algae. Rather than continuing to let the tank run ultra-low nutrient, I started dosing nitrate and phosphate to bring those levels back up. That seems to have helped quite a bit. Most of the nuisance algae has disappeared, and at this point I really only have a small amount of cyanobacteria hanging around.
I’ve added a couple more members to the cleanup crew as well, including a turbo snail and an algae blenny, and they’ve both been putting in some work.
I did have an unfortunate issue with some of the first zoanthids I purchased from one vendor. They ended up having Aiptasia on them. Rather than continuing to fight it, I traded those colonies to my local fish store for store credit. They knew about the Aiptasia and said they would put them into a tank with a copperband butterflyfish. I have seen one Aiptasia pop up in my sand since then, which I manually removed, so I’m hoping that’s the end of it. I also ended up fragging my Scrambled Eggs zoas and salvaging the small amount of clean tissue I had left rather than risk keeping any Aiptasia with them.
I’ve also had my first run-in with brown jelly disease on one of my Goniopora. I’ve been treating it with iodine and Revive dips, and it initially responds well, but unfortunately the brown jelly seems to be returning. If it continues, my next step is going to be the more aggressive KFC dip. Hopefully I can get ahead of it and save the colony.
On a more positive note, I’m really happy with the colors I’m starting to get in the tank. I also ordered what a vendor sold to me as an ORA Red Goniopora, which definitely did not turn out to be an ORA Red. I guess that’s one of the risks of buying coral online! Fortunately, it ended up being a really beautiful hot-pink Goniopora, so I’m not exactly disappointed with how that mistake turned out.
Overall, there have definitely been some learning experiences, but the tank is moving in the right direction. I’m getting the chemistry more stable, nutrients are coming back into balance, most of the nuisance algae has cleared, and I’m really enjoying how the coral collection is starting to come together.
With the store credit I plan on getting a red planet and green slimer soon.
