☆☆ - Spring Grow-Out Class 3 - The Points & Says WOW Nice Efflo Picture Entries - ☆☆

[GlassMunky]

I’m hoping to avoid this myself. My efflo has browned out badly and I’ve lost a lot of my mini colonies and frags… I finally figured out what was going on…

I started running a mastertronic for PO4 and NO3 testing about 6 weeks ago and when I switched over my numbers were in line with what I’d been getting with my Hanna meters. PO4 was around .13-.15 and NO3 was low in like the 2-3 area… so I started dosing some nitrate to try and bring them up a bit. Over the last while, PO4 has been rock solid at .15-.16… cool…

I went on vacation end of last month, tuned up the auto feeder and mixed up some benepets, pellets, reef jerky, etc into it trying to give some variety since I wouldn’t be here to do frozen/coral foods and if PO4 started to climb Id turn down the Plank via my apex.

The whole time we were gone PO4 was pegged at .15-.16 which was perfect… stoked. I get back, and things weren’t going as well as they seemed. Lost some mini colonies and several different nicer acro frags. To boot, a lot of pieces are super brown and/or STNing from the bottom up. I start investigating and couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Thought maybe it was a response to me not dosing my moonshine dailies or feeding coral normally… and the. I pulled out my trusty Hanna testers.

PO4 at 1.07 and NO3 at 25. Mastertronic is still reading .15-.16. and 5ish respectively. Found the problem.

I was looking for answers last night and think I found the PO4 testing problem. Redsea Pro PO4 kit tops out at .16 resolution… so… it was just higher than the test can resolve and the Mastertronic couldn’t tell.

Still looking for answers on the NO3 discrepancy.

Meanwhile I’ve lost probably 20 frags and 4-5 mini colonies that were 8ish months of growth. Probably 10 of the frags are from Adam where my mom got me a gift card for Christmas and that turned into a killer battle box. It also cost me a JF solar flare colony that I’d nursed back to health and a TCK lemoncake colony that was my first successful acro. So I’m really not pleased with myself.

Anyways…my efflo is a big ball of brown right now. Hopefully yall are all faring better and had a great 4th!

dang man that sucks.
Stories like this are exactly what keeps me away from automatic dosing based on atomic testers. I’m too scared this will happen.
Sorry for your losses and hoping the restful through now that you’ve figured it out.

I really do love efflos but man they really are a Love/Hate thing

 

[Outlaw Corals]

I’m hoping to avoid this myself. My efflo has browned out badly and I’ve lost a lot of my mini colonies and frags… I finally figured out what was going on…

I started running a mastertronic for PO4 and NO3 testing about 6 weeks ago and when I switched over my numbers were in line with what I’d been getting with my Hanna meters. PO4 was around .13-.15 and NO3 was low in like the 2-3 area… so I started dosing some nitrate to try and bring them up a bit. Over the last while, PO4 has been rock solid at .15-.16… cool…

I went on vacation end of last month, tuned up the auto feeder and mixed up some benepets, pellets, reef jerky, etc into it trying to give some variety since I wouldn’t be here to do frozen/coral foods and if PO4 started to climb Id turn down the Plank via my apex.

The whole time we were gone PO4 was pegged at .15-.16 which was perfect… stoked. I get back, and things weren’t going as well as they seemed. Lost some mini colonies and several different nicer acro frags. To boot, a lot of pieces are super brown and/or STNing from the bottom up. I start investigating and couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Thought maybe it was a response to me not dosing my moonshine dailies or feeding coral normally… and the. I pulled out my trusty Hanna testers.

PO4 at 1.07 and NO3 at 25. Mastertronic is still reading .15-.16. and 5ish respectively. Found the problem.

I was looking for answers last night and think I found the PO4 testing problem. Redsea Pro PO4 kit tops out at .16 resolution… so… it was just higher than the test can resolve and the Mastertronic couldn’t tell.

Still looking for answers on the NO3 discrepancy.

Meanwhile I’ve lost probably 20 frags and 4-5 mini colonies that were 8ish months of growth. Probably 10 of the frags are from Adam where my mom got me a gift card for Christmas and that turned into a killer battle box. It also cost me a JF solar flare colony that I’d nursed back to health and a TCK lemoncake colony that was my first successful acro. So I’m really not pleased with myself.

Anyways…my efflo is a big ball of brown right now. Hopefully yall are all faring better and had a great 4th!

It’s always something

 

[Outlaw Corals]

Can you frag or glue over the necrosis?

I could always give it a shot

 

[Mschmidt]

I could always give it a shot

I've heard that helps. Never succeeded personally though.

 

[SaltyArms]

dang man that sucks.
Stories like this are exactly what keeps me away from automatic dosing based on atomic testers. I’m too scared this will happen.
Sorry for your losses and hoping the restful through now that you’ve figured it out.

I really do love efflos but man they really are a Love/Hate thing

It’s really on me… I didn’t have any experience with the Redsea test before throwing it in the mastertronic and I should have paid more attention to its limits/resolution. I still need to figure out the NO3 issue but don’t think nitrates at 25 really hurt anything. It’s the PO4 at 1 that’s causing the meltdown.

To be fair to automated testing and monitoring, I’ve been running a trident exclusively for 2.5 years and almost never do a back up manual test. It’s been spot on as long as I calibrate it with the included reference. And my salinity/ph monitors have been reliable as well. You just have to do your part in the maintenance and understanding what you’re asking it to do.

 

[Jasonak]

JULY ENTRY
@Reefing102 @Jasonak @Troylee @Mschmidt

 

[JayM]

July entry.

@Reefing102 @Jasonak @Troylee @Mschmidt

 

[Reefing102]

Sorry guys just realized I haven’t updated the master sheet. I’ll get to that in the next few days.

 

[zbryant91]

July entry.

@Reefing102 @Jasonak @Troylee @Mschmidt

 

[Reefer Matt]

July entry. Holding my own. #TeamReeferMatt
@Reefing102 @Jasonak @Troylee @Mschmidt

 

[SaltyArms]

Well, I sadly may not make it through this contest. Ive been fighting instability for a couple of months, that seemed to come out of nowhere. Its cost me a lot of frags but the efflo seemed fine aside from being brown which I figured would fix itself over time.

This morning it’s showing signs of STN. So that sucks.

 

[SaltyArms]

@Reefing102 @Jasonak @Troylee @Mschmidt

Here’s July. Not sure I’ll have an August but we’ll see. I’ve saved other corals before. You can see how much it’s browned out. Nitrates only at 10.

 

[Vinaka_vakalevu]

@Reefing102 @Jasonak @Troylee @Mschmidt

Here’s July. Not sure I’ll have an August but we’ll see. I’ve saved other corals before. You can see how much it’s browned out. Nitrates only at 10.

what about po4 just out of curiosity... ive noticed my efflo seems way more sensitive to increases in po4 compared to my milis and tenuis and is the first to show any sign if po4 is even slightly increasing.

 

[Mschmidt]

@Reefing102 @Jasonak @Troylee @Mschmidt

Here’s July. Not sure I’ll have an August but we’ll see. I’ve saved other corals before. You can see how much it’s browned out. Nitrates only at 10.

Good luck!

 

[Ghostbuster]

what about po4 just out of curiosity... ive noticed my efflo seems way more sensitive to increases in po4 compared to my milis and tenuis and is the first to show any sign if po4 is even slightly increasing.

A couple weeks ago he said his PO4 was about 1.07 ppm. So, getting phosphate down is key. I’ve had similar issues but didn’t have a dramatic increase, with PO4 at about 0.88ppm when I first tested it on 9 Jul. 13 Jul, 0.83; today was 0.70 ppm

 

[Tompickles]

@Reefing102 @Jasonak @Troylee @Mschmidt
July entry

 

[Miami Reef]

@Reefing102 @Jasonak @Troylee @Mschmidt
July entry

Beautiful photos!

 

[Tompickles]

Beautiful photos!

Thanks! Taken with a cheap Nikon and a macro lens that cost more than the camera lol

 

[Miami Reef]

Thanks! Taken with a cheap Nikon and a macro lens that cost more than the camera lol

The efflo looks like a sarmentosa. I love how rich the colors are.

 

[Pakman2]

@Reefing102 @Jasonak @Troylee @Mschmidt
July entry

Have you noticed any growth?