DBurr's betterlatethannever build thread

[Dburr1014]

The start of the coraline battle.



And my two Bellus Angels have graduated!

I finally cleaned the glass for the first time.

 

[Dburr1014]

Things are starting to turn around. I noticed some colonies are starting to get white growth.
I did some testing.
Alk 6dkh
Cal 393
No3 10
Po4 0.4
I took a few days and fixed the alk to 8dkh and the cal should be around 420~450 (need to test).
My no3 dipped back to 4ppm and po4 back down to 0.25.
Cyano patches forming on sand and dead coral, mostly the birdsnest but it's also growing and looks too be pretty quick at that. Going to leave it alone for now and see what happens.
Also have some diatoms on the sand. I think if I adjust the flow some this should all go away.
The only coral that still looks to be dying back is the tri-color valida. But yesterday what parts that do have tissue looked great. It had some nice color coming back in. It may just need some more pruning.

 

[JGT]

Man, remind me to never stand next to you during a thunderstorm. You’ve had the worst luck. Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Glad you and the tank made it out alive. Pretty amazing about the Bellus’.
Melafix for uronema. Good to know.

 

[Dburr1014]

Man, remind me to never stand next to you during a thunderstorm. You’ve had the worst luck. Anything that could go wrong, did hovering. Glad you and the tank made it out alive. Pretty amazing about the Bellus’.
Melafix for uronema. Good to know.

LOL, right?
I don't want to stand next to me in a thunderstorm.

I still can't believe the melafix(tea tree oil) worked. They are doing great. Eating well and taking cues from the other fish on food. At first in QT they would only eat mysis. They are now eating other stuff I feed the tank. I'm very thankful for humble.fish.com they have some very knowledgeable people over there for fish disease and treatment. Not to say anything negative, but this site I was pretty much told to write them off. So glad I didn't.

If it wasn't for my 30 years in the hobby I probably would have killed everything doing the ivermectin and everything else that happened on this tank transfer journey.

Having all this down in writing hope it helps someone else.

Thank you for following along!

 

[JGT]

Yeah, I always thought Melafix was one of those snake oil additives that essentially did nothing except take people’s money. Good to know it has some value.

 

[Dburr1014]

Good morning. Moon lights are Brite near a full moon and the water looks crystal clear.

 

[Nano_Man]

Good morning. Moon lights are Brite near a full moon and the water looks crystal clear.

Looks stunning

 

[Dburr1014]

Looks stunning

Thank you!
It's been a long battle but I think the tank is on the mend.
I have a couple large colonies that have a few polyps starting to grow flesh again. One is an apache and not sure about the other. I always leave him in until the fat lady sings, as they say.

 

[Nano_Man]

Thank you!
It's been a long battle but I think the tank is on the mend.
I have a couple large colonies that have a few polyps starting to grow flesh again. One is an apache and not sure about the other. I always leave him in until the fat lady sings, as they say.

Yep they could come back your reef looks really good as you know it will get better and better the longer it runs. Great job nice that you share it to others . I am going to follow along if ok and see your journey with this reef

 

[Dburr1014]

I need pics.
Green slimer is green again(not brown).
Yellow lepto is all yellow again(not half brown, half yellow).

Angels are doing pretty well although it looks like one is getting slightly picked on. My suspect is the purple tang. It's got a fin nipped and it darts in a hole when the tang comes anywhere near it. Nothing to concerning yet. They are getting fat though and some red trim is coming in on the fins.

I find my alk usage is picking up.
Went from 6.0 to 8.1 after dosing. 9 days later back to 6.4 so I installed the cal reactor Monday. Dosed back up to 8.0 yesterday and this morning.
Reactor is down to 6.2(arm course) but I should probably calibrate the probe and check the output effluent.

Oh, almost forgot I started the Garf method of binding po4 to sand and desorbing it with lanthanum. GCCM. Garf's Calcium Carbonate Method.
Found here;
Thread 'Desorbing phosphate from sand with lanthanum.' https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/desorbing-phosphate-from-sand-with-lanthanum.981286/

I'm only on my second bag and I need regents as I only have a few left. My po4 was up to 0.4 and with all the new sand and some new rock is back to 0.25. I would be happier with 0.1 so this method is nice and slow, easy to do, not very time consuming. I figure my fish stocking right now I have to feed more often but smaller meals. I want to stay on top of po4 before it climbs up.

The good, the bad and the ugly.

Green slimer is green again!
Yellows are yellow, and tips are growing!





From deaths door comes life. This was before cleaning. Lots of cyanobacteria. On the dead skeleton and the sand bed. I have lots of flow. Hoping it's just small bunch of uglies. There is some new rock and lots of new sand.

Full tank shot.

Growth rings on the mystic sunset.

 

[Dburr1014]

Effluent is 29.2 on the carx. Not bad since I just started it and didn't touch anything since I shut it down.

 

[Dburr1014]

I readjusted my flow last night. And watching this morning, it's pretty turbulent. I think I have enough flow now. What do you think?

 

[Nano_Man]

I readjusted my flow last night. And watching this morning, it's pretty turbulent. I think I have enough flow now. What do you think?

Looks like you’re pushing plenty of water out . You need really good flow for that size of tank
Reef looks great

 

[Dburr1014]

Looks like you’re pushing plenty of water out . You need really good flow for that size of tank
Reef looks great

Thank you!

Morning coffee, my 10+ yo Gramma came out to say good morning.

 

[Nano_Man]

Thank you!

Morning coffee, my 10+ yo Gramma came out to say good morning.

Nice that’s a good age

 

[Dburr1014]

Things are looking up. Sharing pics.

 

[Dburr1014]

Parameters are getting pretty steady.
Alk is 8, po4 down to 0.15ppm need to check again. Also need to check no3, I have a feeling it's back down close to zero again.

 

[Dburr1014]

We had a club meeting Saturday and I pickup a malanurus wrasse.
For coral an apache that is supposedly different than the one I already have and a bubble gum Monty. I got the frags pretty much for nothing as I donated a big red planet for fragging and gave the store what was left over for trade for the bubble gum. The apache were given out to everybody because that is what the shop donated for Fragging.
Also pickup some Nassarius snails and a couple fighting conch.

My central ac crapped out Sunday. I was at seratoga races for the day and I get home to a very hot house. Temp was rising in the tank steadily since about 1pm Sunday. Nothing I could do at 10pm. Called my service guy and told him I tried to start it several times, no go. He gets there Monday he tells me to try again and of course it started right up. I told him go ahead and change the capacitor and we'll try it again. After the capacitor was changed he said it sounded better on start up. It took all day to cool the house. Temp rose to 78.4, which doesn't sound bad but my red planet got very upset. Tank is normally 77+/-0.5 The planet got pale and slimy. I didn't change anything cuz I knew the house was cooling now. Looked better on Tuesday and I think she'll pull thru.

 

[Dburr1014]

Yesterday I pickup a couple more wrasse.
Yellow chrysus and a tri-color fairy.
Pics of the three. Not good pics, they are fast and in QT.

 

[Dburr1014]

It's happening again.



4 feedings a day, 1 Nori sheet weekly

1 Purple tang
2 clowns
2 Royal Gramma
2 Bellus Angels
4 springeri damsels
1 lawnmower blenny
2 serpant stars
2 fighting conch
Hermits and snails

In QT are 3 wrasse