Erk's Attempt at a Reef

[erk]

Nice save!!!!
How are the SPS doing?

Thanks, very happy I didn't lose my wrasse.

SPS receded a bit, some worse than others. My birdsnest frag has the most tissue loss. Still trying to keep everything stable and not change anything. Keeping alk between 8 and 8.5 dKH for the last week. No RTN, just STN and it appears to have slowed/stopped. Going to keep on the path I am now to allow them to recover. My gonis took a bit of a hit, but are extending a bit more everyday.

I've modified a 44 oz dog gravity fed water bottle to gravity feed phytoplankton to the tank. I've ordered a culture kit from Mercer off Amazon. I also purchased a hemocytometer to figure out the amount of phyto I'll be dosing. Would like to collect data on phyto dosing and reduction in NO3 and PO4 to contribute to what @Dana Riddle is doing. My number one reason for dosing phyto is to make my gorgs, sponges, and other filter feeders happy. Hoping phyto helps to boost goni growth.

If the phyto works out well and is something I want to do long term, I have an idea to create a phyto reactor that operates in a similar fashion to a calcium reactor.

 

[erk]

Started my phytoplankton culture. Went with N. oculata culture kit from Mercer. Initial concentration is 486250 cells/mL. Starting 9/2/2019 I will dose 130mL diluted in a 3:1 ratio via a gravity feed into the return pump. I will program the skimmer to remain off during the day to keep from taking all the phyto out of the water.

 

[erk]

An update on my corals, no idea what happened, but all of my stony coral have started to rapidly decline. I have no idea what caused it. Alk is stable between 8-8.5, calc is staying above 420. NO3 is stable at 10 and PO4 is below .1 though it went from .03 to .06 over a week. Don't think this is the issue. Nothing is starving and elements are stable. I made no changes prior to the decline nor any after. I'm just keeping things stable and not making any changes. Hopefully the stony coral recover.

I stopped carbon dosing weeks ago because this white fuzzy fungal like growth cropped up. Figure it is bacteria or something related. It hasn't gone away and hasn't weakened. It doesn't grow on the coralline algae. It prefers to grow in the shaded regions but can grow in direct light. It is growing on my gorgs and I've wiped it off but it comes back. I don't think this is related to the stony coral decline, but I don't know.

 

[najer]

Hopefully stability will see the corals recover.

 

[erk]

Sending in an ATI ICP test to see if it can identify the culprit. I'm still seeing a steady decline in my hard corals. It isn't fast, just a painfully slow march to death. Now even the blasto that has grown several new heads is on the decline.

Something interesting I noticed this evening. I added a grounding probe several months ago as a precaution. Recently I disconnected it as I was trying to plug an air pump in for the phyto stuff I'm trying. I went to reconnect the probe to a new grounding location and I can see tiny sparks when I touch the grounding probe cable to the ground location. I checked to see if I have any stray voltage and there is nothing out of the ordinary. Sitting at 51VAC of induced voltage. I have everything tank related on a GFCI outlet, so I would expect it to trip if there was an issue. I really hope this is my issue and everything will bounce back.

 

[erk]

Stopped by LFS to buy salt and took a look at their corals. They had a 3 polyp frag of rastas in the $15 section so I grabbed them. I've always wanted rasta zoas, but I'm cheap.

 

[erk]

Started dosing phyto. Dosing 100mL/day currently. I keep the skimmer off during the day and turn it on at night. I've seen some change in coral behavior. Gorgs showing more polyp extension but can't say much about anything else. My scleronephthya is coming back. It started coming back before I dosed phyto though. Hopefully it doesn't take a hit when I stop using GFO. Hard corals still upset and slowly perishing. Waiting for ICP to see what is up. I know it isn't nutrients because NO3 is 10-25ppm and PO4 is .08ppm.

I currently run GFO and carbon. Carbon is for the leather corals only. Want to reduce a chance of them killing their neighbors. GFO was run to get PO4 below .1ppm to see if that would improve things. Ran it for a month to keep PO4 below .1ppm. It didn't result in any improvements, so I'm going to stop. This next WC I'll refill the reactor with carbon and either a quarter or half dose of GFO. Then the following week quit GFO completely.

Other than the hard corals, the tank looks good and fish are healthy. I might break out the camera to take a new FTS and fish pics, and maybe a video.

 

[living_tribunal]

Started my phytoplankton culture. Went with N. oculata culture kit from Mercer. Initial concentration is 486250 cells/mL. Starting 9/2/2019 I will dose 130mL diluted in a 3:1 ratio via a gravity feed into the return pump. I will program the skimmer to remain off during the day to keep from taking all the phyto out of the water.

Are you running the culture in your dt?

 

[erk]

I'm running the culture in a 64oz jar that comes as part of the Mercer kit. Been dosing everyday since Monday and so far things seem good. I can tell there is increased food particles in the water at night as the banggai cardinals and other nocturnal inhabitants are going nuts right now.

 

[erk]

I discontinued GFO last night. When I got home several hard corals had died back, so I emptied the reactor and filled it with fresh carbon.

 

[najer]

Hope the carbon helped.

 

[erk]

Hope the carbon helped.

I don't know if it was the carbon or the water change, but hard corals are really starting to bounce back. I used to use Red Sea blue bucket but switched to Fritz RPM blue box. I've done two water changes with Fritz and both times the corals are a bit perkier the next day. Gonna post some new pics in a bit.

 

[erk]

New FTS

Banggai hanging out

My eagle eye zoas are really nice looking. Loving the yellow green skirts.

 

[deahttub]

New FTS

Banggai hanging out

My eagle eye zoas are really nice looking. Loving the yellow green skirts.

Looks great! Thats my favorite zoo

 

[najer]

Looking very nice.

 

[erk]

I just saw a fish fry! It was about an 1/8th of an inch long. I don't know if it is from my swallowtail damsels that spawn constantly or maybe the Talbot's. First time I've seen one. I was checking the tank after lights out and noticed a large amount of particles in the water. Guessing the phyto dosing is paying off. And swimming in the current is a tiny fish fry eating the particles. I think phytoplankton dosing is going to become a regular thing for me.

 

[erk]

Got back my latest ICP and other than low PO4, which I expected, everything is normal. No pollutants. Was a bit surprised salinity was at 33ppt and not 35 since I aim for 35.

 

[erk]

LPS are rebounding from what I can tell. Both gonis are showing increased polyp extension with the red one almost always open. The jack-o-lantern lepto is coming back. I thought it was dead for sure, but it gets more and more flesh back everyday. The purple psammocora is looking good too. SPS still look unhappy so no idea if they will bounce back. The soft corals look awesome though. It's a water change day, so might take pics after I do tank maintenance. Thinking of trying to use my Kenko TC on my Nikon 200mm macro lens.

 

[erk]

Took some pics and a video today. Tank has been looking better everyday. Wish I knew what changed to make it happier.

Here is the video, will get the pics up in a bit. I used a pair of orange filter sunglasses while filming so it wouldn't just be a blue blob of light. I recommend turning down the sound because my daughter squeals at the end.

 

[erk]

These are the only shots I liked that I took today. Everything else had glare or was too noisy. Might need to start using a flash when shooting with the macro lens. There is also the difficulty of shooting thru glass. Really should use the tripod.