Perseverance Reef

[Fishy888]

Last pics for tonight. They’re in the DT and are looking good. The rock’s backwards but tomorrow’s another day. I just wanted to get it into good saltwater and allow my hermits to pick the sloughing and any traces of xenia that are left.

 

[Fishy888]

As of last night the big colony of cabbage leather was disintegrating. Much longer and it would have caused a bunch of issues not the least of which would have been the terpenes. I’m still a bit concerned about terpenes but not nearly as much as I would have been had the cabbage leather completely disintegrated overnight.

I pulled the cabbage leather out, rock and all. I removed as much as I could off the rock. There are a few small pieces left that I’ll scrape off of the rock today.

Some of the crud from the leather got into the system. I’ll do another 10% water change today as well.

So far none of my fish are showing signs of distress. Same for the nems and corals except for my small cabbage leather colony which is getting ready to shed. It’s not dying back or anything thankfully but I’ll be keeping a very close eye on things.

 

[Fishy888]

The cabbage leather colony which was the daughter of the colony I tried to save, is in the process of shedding. At least it’s not falling apart.

Pods are starting to bloom big time. I’m going to try and get some phytoplankton cultures going before long. For now they appear to be eating the micro algae on the front glass towards the bottom of the pane.

I actually got pictures of a couple of copepods tonight. I’m going to see if the pictures are good enough to ID what kind they are.

I’d like to buy even more pods for the system as well as for the 10 gallon lifeboat tank. I want to culture pods in there as well as in the sump.

Green hair algae is starting to take hold. Slowly but surely the diatoms are working their way out of the system. I also have green cyano although it’s not the neon green stuff. I also have the red kind too. Major nutrient control incoming.

 

[fishguy242]

CATCH UP POINT...

 

[Fishy888]

CATCH UP POINT...

It’s great to see you here. Please do get some rest though.

 

[N1tew0lf1212]

 

[tbrown]

 

[Fishy888]

I got my light bar yesterday afternoon. It needed a cleaning badly. About 6 hours later I finally finished up. It looks great now, especially with the light bar being 10 years old. There are several issues that need to be addressed but most are fairly minor. It’s an Odyssea fixture with 250 watt ice cap ballasts for the halides. The stock Odyssea T5HO ballasts are still in there though and one might be bad. That’s an issue for tomorrow or the next day however.

The lamps are ATI actinics and the halides are plusrite 14000k. I’m not sure how many hours are on the MH lamps themselves but they didn’t appear to be too old to me, especially considering how crisp the light is and the response from my two anemones once the lights came on.

Here are some pictures. I knew there’d be a difference but wow!

These images are with the new halides and the two working actinics.

Here come the pictures under the two actinics and the moonlighting.

And finally I took these images of Dory and the gang under the halides and two actinics. These images don’t fully capture how much Dory and the others fluoresce in deep blue with these lights.

 

[tbrown]

I've got an old Odysea 250 MH in the garage still I think. Single bulb. It was good for me when I used it but I liked the corals under LEDs more, plus the heat living here in Arizona - didn't do well for tank temps in the summer.

 

[Fishy888]

I've got an old Odysea 250 MH in the garage still I think. Single bulb. It was good for me when I used it but I liked the corals under LEDs more, plus the heat living here in Arizona - didn't do well for tank temps in the summer.

I know it. That kind of heat is insane.

 

[Projects with Sam]

I know it. That kind of heat is insane.

 

[tbrown]

Nah, that's Tucson. I'm in the Phoenix area.

 

[Fishy888]

I got a one spot fox face today. I also got a montipora digitata. The fox face is hiding but the digitata is open.

In this image the fox face is still in his bag.

The next image I took about an hour ago.

This is the first SPS to enter my current system.

Hopefully I’ll get time tomorrow to find out what I hooked up wrong when I put the light bar back together. The rear bank of T5s isn’t working at the moment. Once I figure that out and fix it I’ll permanently mount the icecap ballasts.

 

[Fishy888]

Unfortunately the fox face didn’t make it. I’m sure that to some extent my water chemistry is to blame. Considering how well acclimating Dory went I expected the acclimation of the fox face to be just as successful. I don’t think the difference in chemistry between the LFS’s tanks and my tank was the only issue though but it certainly had to be a part of it.

At least I saw the fish before it could cause a mini cycle. I almost missed seeing the fish which was all the way in the back. It’s eyes were still clear as a bell so it couldn’t have been dead long.

Despite being brown, the montipora digitata is doing well so far.

I’ll definitely need to start dosing LaCl again soon since phosphates are off the charts. Plus I really want to see this coral take off. I’m hoping it’ll color up a bit more once phosphates get back in line, something I’ll be taking my time doing.

 

[tbrown]

Unfortunately the fox face didn’t make it. I’m sure that to some extent my water chemistry is to blame. Considering how well acclimating Dory went I expected the acclimation of the fox face to be just as successful. I don’t think the difference in chemistry between the LFS’s tanks and my tank was the only issue though but it certainly had to be a part of it.

At least I saw the fish before it could cause a mini cycle. I almost missed seeing the fish which was all the way in the back. It’s eyes were still clear as a bell so it couldn’t have been dead long.

Despite being brown, the montipora digitata is doing well so far.

I’ll definitely need to start dosing LaCl again soon since phosphates are off the charts. Plus I really want to see this coral take off. I’m hoping it’ll color up a bit more once phosphates get back in line, something I’ll be taking my time doing.

I forget but I think there was a reason some Foxfaces don't make it long...

 

[Fishy888]

I forget but I think there was a reason some Foxfaces don't make it long...

I know they’re easily scared and it was in a fairly small space with no hiding places at the LFS. I think that, the 2 hour drive home, and the acclimation period contributed to that. As much as I’d been wanting a fox face I probably won’t try them again. At least I only lost $50 and not $150 or more like sometimes happens with gem tangs and the like.

 

[Fishy888]

My digitata got loose a couple of times today. Finally I glued the plug down and put it in the tank. Then the frag came loose from the plug. I glued it directly to a piece of Tonga branch rock.

The frag looks ok despite the coral falling onto the rocks beneath it. I don’t see any tissue damage thankfully. It shouldn’t ever fall again unless something crazy happens.

The digitata is a little higher now and in stronger flow. That should help things but I have to stop slacking and get the aquascape finished by Tuesday night. Then all the corals will be in their permanent places.

 

[Fishy888]

Either this is a really good thing or a really bad thing. My digitata has gone from this…

to this….

Now the closed polyps are probably due to having fallen several times yesterday and being moved (though I kept it as close as possible to it’s original spot). It’s about 2 inches higher than it was.

What really worries me is that it’s faded so much. It’s the polyps that should be coloring up if everything’s ok I would think. It still has some brown fortunately. I don’t want to keep moving it but I don’t want it to melt on me either.

Before it fell yesterday (Sunday) afternoon it was open. When it fell it closed up. It fell a couple of times so I glued its frag plug to a rock. The frag came loose from the plug at that point, and as I noticed later the glue on the plug was spongey. I picked up the frag and glued it to the rock it’s on now. It never opened for me today.

Honestly it could be that the frag looks like this because of the light being more intense on it. If it hasn’t opened up by tomorrow night I’ll move it down some.

Speaking of light I tested the T5 ballast on the side that appeared to not be working. The ballast is still good but I need to replace the two lamps on that side and one lamp on the other side.

After reassembling the fixture and placing it back on top of the DT I went to restart everything and it all started normally then the middle ballast cut out. I found the culprit pretty quickly. A wire came loose that was held in place with just electrical tape. I undid all three wires and used wire nuts to reconnect them. It’s working quite well now. The lamp almost looks brighter to me but it’s probably my imagination.

 

[Fishy888]

I forgot to mention something that is definitely a positive. Dory has started eating the algae on the back glass! Kathy said she saw Dory picking at the algae Sunday night but I didn’t see it until tonight.

She was probably eating pods with the algae but she was definitely eating the algae which is a huge win for Dory and for me as I’d like to see her live for many years.

Hopefully she’ll get the vitamins and minerals that she’s been missing for the first 3 years of her life so she can finally grow and not be totally stunted.

On the back glass there’s a mix of diatoms, GHA, and cyano. I’ve been noticing a slow but steady decrease in cyano. The GHA is probably the most nutritious of the three “algae” types and would be the most likely to harbor pods.

Of course the chaeto would likely hold many more pods than the small amount of GHA on the back glass. My understanding is that hippo tangs won’t touch the stuff although there’s an exception to every rule. Dory however is decidedly NOT said exception. I’ve never even seen Dory browse the chaeto for pods.

I need to harvest some of my chaeto which is probably stripping the water of NO3. A lack of nitrates is the most probable reason for the decline of cyano in my system. My phosphates are decidedly high.

I’ve been holding off with dosing phosphat-e but I’m going to start dropping phosphate levels at the rate of 0.08 ppm per day until I get where I need to be. I’m going for ~0.1 ppm give or take.

I want to make sure I don’t shock the digitata any more than necessary. Once it opens back up (hopefully today) I’ll begin dosing LaCl.

 

[tbrown]

If you have a black light flashlight see if it fluoresces when the lights are off? It's hard to tell but it definitely doesn't look happy to me.