The good:
I have a waterbox 180.5 setup with reefbreeder/t5 combo. It’s a mixed reef with Zoas, lps, and sps. Clams, hermits and snails. It is setup with an apex, triton and 2 part dosing along with auto water change system. It also has a paxbellum chaeto reactor and a royal exclusive skimmer. I am also running a 36w Uv sterilizer as well.
the BAD!!!!:
slowly my torches and hammers have been degrading. Dying and just not happy. Lost a few and couldn’t figure out why. Thought it was lighting/flow/water quality issues. Did all the test I could think of and still stumped until last night. I will post the test results below as well. Last night I pulled out an almost dead 24k gold torch and my wife found small tiny tiny black bugs on it. I will post a video/pic of them as well. What ever is going on only seems to be affecting the euphyllia and a bubble coral. Everything else in the tank is growing and rocking out!
I have researched these without much luck. Some say acro eating black bugs but they are not affecting any of the sps in my tank right now. Some say LPS eating black bugs but no one has much info on them.
here is my plan if attack:
since I cannot remove all snails, hermit, and rare black elephant slugs from tank to treat, I’m going to remove all euphyllia and bubble coral from tank and Bayer dip them. Then putting them inside a QT tank where I will run interceptor (yes I have some dissolvable pills and no not sharing ) for treatment. Monitor them in QT and see how things go. Then reintroduce one or so back into the display once I feel comfortable with the results.
QUESTIONS i need help with!!
What are these black bugs?
What all do they consume?
What is their live cycle (eggs to adult)?
Can you starve them out of a display without treating display with meds?
Any more information out there on them?
test results for people wanting to know water quality.
PH 8.1
Nitrates 12 (Hanna checker)
Phosphates .06 (Hanna checker)
Alk 9.4 (Hanna) 9.1 (trident)
Calcium 465 (Hanna) 448 (trident)
Mag 1282(trident)
par rating for Euphyllia in tank is 125 to 200 with par meter in areas they are at.
trident test completed this week
more results
More results
last but not least is a full tank shot. Maybe you can zoom and see some ticked off LPS. Any quality information is wanted!!! If you have any other questions or readings I should do let me know. I’m stumped if it isn’t these black specs running around!
thanks
Randy
I have a waterbox 180.5 setup with reefbreeder/t5 combo. It’s a mixed reef with Zoas, lps, and sps. Clams, hermits and snails. It is setup with an apex, triton and 2 part dosing along with auto water change system. It also has a paxbellum chaeto reactor and a royal exclusive skimmer. I am also running a 36w Uv sterilizer as well.
the BAD!!!!:
slowly my torches and hammers have been degrading. Dying and just not happy. Lost a few and couldn’t figure out why. Thought it was lighting/flow/water quality issues. Did all the test I could think of and still stumped until last night. I will post the test results below as well. Last night I pulled out an almost dead 24k gold torch and my wife found small tiny tiny black bugs on it. I will post a video/pic of them as well. What ever is going on only seems to be affecting the euphyllia and a bubble coral. Everything else in the tank is growing and rocking out!
I have researched these without much luck. Some say acro eating black bugs but they are not affecting any of the sps in my tank right now. Some say LPS eating black bugs but no one has much info on them.
here is my plan if attack:
since I cannot remove all snails, hermit, and rare black elephant slugs from tank to treat, I’m going to remove all euphyllia and bubble coral from tank and Bayer dip them. Then putting them inside a QT tank where I will run interceptor (yes I have some dissolvable pills and no not sharing ) for treatment. Monitor them in QT and see how things go. Then reintroduce one or so back into the display once I feel comfortable with the results.
QUESTIONS i need help with!!
What are these black bugs?
What all do they consume?
What is their live cycle (eggs to adult)?
Can you starve them out of a display without treating display with meds?
Any more information out there on them?
test results for people wanting to know water quality.
PH 8.1
Nitrates 12 (Hanna checker)
Phosphates .06 (Hanna checker)
Alk 9.4 (Hanna) 9.1 (trident)
Calcium 465 (Hanna) 448 (trident)
Mag 1282(trident)
par rating for Euphyllia in tank is 125 to 200 with par meter in areas they are at.
trident test completed this week
more results
More results
last but not least is a full tank shot. Maybe you can zoom and see some ticked off LPS. Any quality information is wanted!!! If you have any other questions or readings I should do let me know. I’m stumped if it isn’t these black specs running around!
thanks
Randy
