HighEndOfTheLow's Red Sea Reefer 750 XXL

[highendofthelow]

So we finally managed to pick up the coral I paid for a few weeks ago plus the 2 new zoa frags .

We have a 4 + baby headed Australian Dendro, with huge heads being NPS I have the perfect shaded spot under the red montipora cap which gets little light but plenty of flow.

Heres a shop photo

Originally it was 8 heads but it was just too steep even with my friends discount to cover! So I offered to buy a multi headed piece and got a pretty reasonable price

We also picked up a real unusual chalice frag its red and turquoise blue/green

Again a shop photo

Zoa wise I have a love hate relationship with polyp pricing, any zoa frags I buy will be under ~ £20 (yes I'm a hypocrite when it comes to Acros...) I'm more then happy with my cheap polyps and although have opportunity to buy serious priced polyps they just dont do anything for me rarity or not. they just help inject a splash of colour to the sticks.

So I'm slowly expanding my collection and have put my name down for a few other frags but tend not to keep up with names and newest morphs etc.

Finally I made up a 2ltr stock solution of Calcium Chloride today and will probably do my first tests and doses later today.

 

[najer]

Good luck with the sun coral, on my wish list.
Great little chalice, I would have bought that.

 

[highendofthelow]

Good luck with the sun coral, on my wish list.
Great little chalice, I would have bought that.

Thanks hopefully we can get it going, we broadcast feed a stack of finer particulate food most days for the anthias, firefish, mandarin etc so I'm hoping this will be enough to keep it healthy but if needs be I can introduce spot feeding

 

[highendofthelow]

Funny how quick things can change, last night the tank was looking fine, all was well etc

This morning both Liz and I came down and instantly said something was off.

Lots of corals sulking (particularly soft corals); only 4/5 anthias visble, the magnificent fox face stressing like crazy at the surface and the pintail wrasse swimming very odd/stressing out at the surface.

We think we know what's happened, so firstly the cyano is all but gone, theres a tiny amount left on the sand bed but is rapidly declined over the past few days, at the same time thats been dying the water has become increasingly cloudy (bacterial bloom) (we haven't dosed anything for a few days)

We're 90% sure the bacterial bloom has caused the nutrients to crash,

To try and combat the cloudy water we've completed a water change and plan to complete a second one shortly ( at 50ltrs at a time).

If it's a toxin then water changes are going to help dilute it, if its ultra low nutrients; water changes will make no significant difference except removal some of this cloudiness.

Unfortunately right this second the pintail wrasse is looking very rough in a fish trap in the sump and we aren't holding much hope for it unfortunately. Ironically all other fish are looking and acting perfectly fine.

Unless the foxface stung it I cant what else it is. Possibly lower oxygen levels but I kinda doubt it I'd expect all fish to show signs + theres reasonable surface agitation etc.

Bit rubbish all in all.

 

[najer]

Funny how quick things can change, last night the tank was looking fine, all was well etc

This morning both Liz and I came down and instantly said something was off.

Lots of corals sulking (particularly soft corals); only 4/5 anthias visble, the magnificent fox face stressing like crazy at the surface and the pintail wrasse swimming very odd/stressing out at the surface.

We think we know what's happened, so firstly the cyano is all but gone, theres a tiny amount left on the sand bed but is rapidly declined over the past few days, at the same time thats been dying the water has become increasingly cloudy (bacterial bloom) (we haven't dosed anything for a few days)

We're 90% sure the bacterial bloom has caused the nutrients to crash,

To try and combat the cloudy water we've completed a water change and plan to complete a second one shortly ( at 50ltrs at a time).

If it's a toxin then water changes are going to help dilute it, if its ultra low nutrients; water changes will make no significant difference except removal some of this cloudiness.

Unfortunately right this second the pintail wrasse is looking very rough in a fish trap in the sump and we aren't holding much hope for it unfortunately. Ironically all other fish are looking and acting perfectly fine.

Unless the foxface stung it I cant what else it is. Possibly lower oxygen levels but I kinda doubt it I'd expect all fish to show signs + theres reasonable surface agitation etc.

Bit rubbish all in all.

This sucks, I hope it comes back in line quickly (?).

 

[highendofthelow]

So we've completed a second water change today and a few things are starting to look a touch better I suspect the oxygen levels probably got on the low side caused by the explosion of bacteria; unfortunately its a bit of a case of just let it burn itself out, the tank is currently pretty dang murky

We may have just got away with saving the pintail it's looking a bit healthier this afternoon we'll see how it looks tomorrow night but its no longer on its side, and has moved around alittle plus its breathing looks less laboured, the fox face is also looking alittle better.

We've also chucked a maxijet style pump with a air Inlet to suck and chop some air into the water, its not as good as a microbubble air stone etc but I'm sure itll help alittle if it is indeed oxygen levels.

 

[najer]

Have a look at Sochting Oxydators!

 

[highendofthelow]

Unfortunately the foxface took a turn for the worse over the past hour or so and passed away, the pintail is still holding on just unfortunately we've maxed out what we can pretty much do now and just got to wait it out.

 

[najer]

Unfortunately the foxface took a turn for the worse over the past hour or so and passed away, the pintail is still holding on just unfortunately we've maxed out what we can pretty much do now and just got to wait it out.

My good reefing best thoughts are with you both.

 

[dragon99]

Well that's a bummer, any sign of the missing Anthias?

 

[highendofthelow]

Good morning reefers,

So half expecting the worst this morning we've come down to a reasonably happy tank.

Generally speaking, most of the corals look healthy or at least healthier then they did yesterday, I've lost 1 acropora which to be fair wasnt looking healthy since the cyano started (the cyano was being blown into its branches by the gyres etc, and I've got partial strip on another piece again in direct gyre flow this one is slightly more gutting .

I've managed to make a few small frags of the first as it was near dead and the second may just pull through if not I'll frag that tonight. I do have a very small frag of the first already.

The pintail looks better this morning and is more alert, we intend to keep it in the fish trap a little longer yet till at least tonight.

We ran a nitrates and phosphates test first thing and nitrates came in at 2.5 ppm and phosphates at 0.07 ppm arguably perfect values but were going to just continue to monitor these but have no intention of dosing anything etc .

We'e decided to put the main lights just on blues today just to try and keep things calm etc we've also kept the room dark. Pily filter should be here today and we also found and threw in some old but unused active carbon last night .

 

[highendofthelow]

Well that's a bummer, any sign of the missing Anthias?

We're down to 4 athias it would seem,

We lost 1 over the past 24/48 hours along with the foxface.

I intended to buy a few more anthias this coming month but will now need to let everything settle down more first.

 

[highendofthelow]

Ok so another 24 hours over and what feels like another 24 hours nearer to stability.

Another water change was completed totaling 150ltrs in 3 days.

Other things we've done is test nitrites (zero).

Added a piece of poly filter ( no colour change indicating no ammonia, heavy metals etc)

Swapped out some light hangers as they had a bit of rust on them to rule them out.

Added filter wool as there is alot of detritus floating around currently.

Added a bag of TMC zeolite, admittedly this was a pretty new product to me but my LFS swears by it for cloudy water, I've used zeolith based products in the past and at this point figured anything must help.

The cloudless does look like its reduced since sunday but we still have a way to go.

So where are we damage wise

We lost 1 acro completely, 1 acro has partially stripped but seems to be slowing down plus theres a little patch here and there particularly on every acro that's in near direct flow.

We lost the foxface and 1 anthia, the pintail wrasse managed to pull through which frankly I'm amazed considering what it looked like on sunday and was put back into the tank last night after seeing it actively swim around in the fish trap, it was seen this morning and ate well/looked fine.

The tang last night showed stress induced ick spots but still has an appetite, its actively soliciting the cleaner shrimp and looks well this morning however the cleaner shrimp is looking rough infact we thought it was dead last night but it ate this morning so there is hope for it yet.

The mandarin is looking very thin but is still moving around. I tried to catch it last night and this morning to trap it and feed it up but it got away. So I've had to broadcast feed.

The reason why the mandarin is on the thin side is because pretty much all micofauna has been hit; We've lost 90% of the snails, pods are non existent, fan worms have dropped their heads /died.

So the big question what caused it?

We dont 100% know, I have my thoughts but basically within 48hours or so the cyano algae crashed releasing who knows what toxin wise and nutrient wise, this caused a huge bacterial bloom which possibly caused o2 levels to crash (possibly explaining the wrasse and foxface breathing issues) a water change and additional airflow appeared to help pretty quickly.

We've also seen algae growth on the rocks which I'll have to work once the tanks stable again.

We're far from stable and there maybe more losses yet but each hour does feel slightly better.

 

[najer]

My heart goes out to you both, the more you change the less idea you have as to which change helped?

 

[highendofthelow]

My heart goes out to you both, the more you change the less idea you have as to which change helped?

To be honest I was on the wavelength of we were not sure on the direct cause is and therefore tried every trick in the book to save as much as we can.

My rationale for each thing we did was to cover as broad a spectrum as possible in order to have as much impact as possible.

1) the stressing fish at the surface suggested O2 depletion caused by the bacterial bloom. Adding as much O2 into the tank using air pumps, increasing flow and surface agitation to increase it.
2) getting the pintail caught and into the sump fish trap. A weak fish is always picked on when it hangs with a group of anthias. We also added much more flow into the sump for O2.
3) Large water change. Basically all the water we had was used, 2x 50L water changes in order to reduce some of the cloudiness, dilute any toxins, remove nutrients etc.
4) With the possibility of some contaminent, due to the weather and how warm our house is we often have the door open and there is always the thought has someone burnt something we werent aware of, certain pollens can be detrimental etc, even coral toxins, so we are running the Activated Carbon we had- again on the premise that it couldnt hurt- we may have wasted a few quid- but in this type of emergency, whats a few quid?? We dont run Active carbon as standard- we find its a bit unnecessary and the risk of HLLE etc.
5) the Amazon Prime was a blessing meaning we ordered some PolyFilter, which arrived yesterday. This was on the premise that (a) it will act as a filter and (b) if it was some sort of contaminent that it should identify by colour. On the 2 occassions we have used PolyFilter now it has not changed colour.... one assumes this is due to no contaminents rather than poor results.
6) The addition of Zeoliths- to be honest this was something suggested to us by our LFS and personal friend who is as gutted as we are. He uses it on his fish system if he has issues. It is known to help with ammonia which was also on the back of our minds given fish behaviour.
7) Filter wool. The addition of filter wool was more about trying to get as much particulate debris out of the water column which we think didnt help with the cloudiness- we are changing every 12 hours or so.
8) The change of the light brackets - There has been various issues raised when they have corroded in regards to things showing up on ICP tests- Giving the possibility of contamination, we thought it prudent to change them (It was on that list of jobs that was always going to be a nightmare to do so always put to ther back of the list). We had the parts but it was every minute the ball ache we expected them to be! The coating was in worst shape than we thought.

To be honest I believe that there is a combination of things here that so far have helped and to be honest definitely saved the pintail wrasse if not other fish as well.

We have done some Nitrate and Phosphate tests this afternoon Nitrate ~10ppm and Phosphates at ~0.15ppm - so very high for us. Another 50L waterchange has just been completed. The cloudiness does seem to have reduced (Luke thinks by about 50%), and we have seen the mandarin actively hunt this evening.

It is like watching a car crash in slow motion, you feel totally out of control and sick to your stomach and all you can do is watch and pray that things pull through. Most acros have browned out and there is now a list of those that we would list as "critically injured".

Watch this space.

Liz

 

[highendofthelow]

So the cloudiness has left the tank more or less and left us assessing the damage, although sulking it looks like most corals will pull through the SpS are super browned out but that's not surprising really

Nitrates have increased to 7.5ppm and phosphates have rose to a whopping 0.350ppm (115 on the hanna)

I've got a few skeletons I need to smash out but were currently stepping back alittle to give the tank time to settle.

This weekend we intend to replace the r.o filters and DI, and give the skimmer a strip down.

 

[highendofthelow]

So the Skimmer was stripped, scrubbed of the worst and reassembled, pulling bubbles like a champ still.

I didn't quite have enough r.o filters to replace my R.o so we've ordered a stack more filters and Di (enough to cover 2x full filter changes)

It also reminded me to get another STC-1000 so I have a backup.

On some good news i saw my queen conch for the first time in weeks! I thought it had died but evidently not.

 

[najer]

Nice, I love when things reappear!

 

[highendofthelow]

So I guess its time for an update.

Things are looking up. Whatever seemed to have gone on has now settled down and we are dealing with the problems it has left behind.... GHA!

We have lost some of the larger colonies of SPS which is really sad considering how big they were. However there seems to have been little changes on some of the pieces.

We lost no more fish after the foxface, but with its absence we are quite worried about GHA becoming an issue.

Therefore we have added a large Yellow Tang in order to aid with this and also some Black Foot Tronchus Snails (and a couple of cleaner shrimp).

 

[highendofthelow]

Bit more maintenance completed today

Razored the glass; made some frags of some of the dead sps that I removed to see if I can keep a small proportion of it alive, as any STN appears to have stopped now and theres a tiny amount of flesh holding on.

Also some frags were re plugged to clean them up etc.

I also replaced a my R.O filters, I have

2x 5 micron
1x 1 micro
2 x active carbon
A 150 GPD membrane
2 x DI pods

Plus a new inline TDS meter I've been meaning to fit to replace my ancient one.