Post transfer and corals and corals are still ticked.

[MIke Wood]

I recently upgraded from a nuvo 40 to standard 60cube. my nuvo was exploding with growth. sps coloration was very good. i run a single red sea led 90 with an aquatic life t5 fixture.

I am using the same lighting- i was able to match the par using a par meter.

i matched temp, salinity, po4 and no3. i transferred. the transfer was not as planned all the rock structure fell apart during the process. so i had to use a bunch of jp water weld to get it all back together. alk after transfer was 9.3 (previously 8.5 in the nuvo).

i matched the par- but how the corals were reacting it seemed as if it was too much light despite them being in the same par values in the 40. so i decided to lower the light level. polyp extension improved after doing this.

i ran carbon for a few days thinking maybe the JB water weld and or slime from corals during the transfer was creating some type of chemical warfare. after about 2 days it seems like the corals looked paler so i removed the carbon.

it has now been about 3 weeks since the transfer. my WD colony is super pale. and my dragon soul torch has yet to expand to it full length. all the other sps seems to be somewhat normal maybe a little faded but not nearly as bad as the wd.

current tank params:
salinity 1.026
temp 78
alk 8.3dkh
no3 5ppm
po4 .01-.03 (tank has always run this level without any coloration issues)
cal 440-450
mag 1500 (i have always ran this a little higher)

I had to turn dosers off as i have very little uptake at this point. prior to the transfer i had an uptake of 1.4dkh per day. now im at .25dkh per day.

my question- is this light related? or am i missing something with nutrients. nutrients were dosed up artificially with brightwell.

i am running a larger skimmer but have it draining back into the sump. i did the same in the nuvo 40. i just use the skimmer for outside air exchange. the new skimmer creates a ton of thick skimmate that sticks to the wall of the cup and neck. could this be removing available nutrients and im just dosing up po4 and no3 that they cant use?

 

[bluerider098]

My guess would be something in the water. I'd catch the skimmate and do 25% waterchanges weekly until things perk up.

 

[MIke Wood]

My guess would be something in the water. I'd catch the skimmate and do 25% waterchanges weekly until things perk up.

i thought this as well. my question is would you add carbon again on top of weekly changes? and also would you collect skimmate? my fear is that it is from low available nutrients and this process will further make it worse

 

[bluerider098]

I personally would collect the skimmate.

I always run carbon, mainly for water clarity. I use the estimator on BRS to determine how much. I've run this way for 3 years without issue.

Carbon Media Calculator - Bulk Reef Supply

Bulk Reef Supply - Saltwater Aquarium Supplies for Reef Tanks

www.bulkreefsupply.com

 

[MIke Wood]

I personally would collect the skimmate.

I always run carbon, mainly for water clarity. I use the estimator on BRS to determine how much. I've run this way for 3 years without issue.

Carbon Media Calculator - Bulk Reef Supply

Bulk Reef Supply - Saltwater Aquarium Supplies for Reef Tanks

www.bulkreefsupply.com

i used the same calculator. and i used to always run carbon until i stopped and things just looked a lot more inflated with it offline. so i havent ran it in probably 5 years.

 

[KrisReef]

After a hurricane where coral gets displaced they seem to take a bit of time before they start “ grooving “ again. Moving coral around is a signal that the substrate is moving which is a bad environment for growth. Until the coral is adjusted to the new stable location I think they shut down the growth options for awhile until they are certain that they are done being cast about by waves and currents.

I would anticipate that they will start growing more in the base for awhile and then the expansion of the head and rapid growth will resume.

How long this will take?

I would suggest increasing the availability of nutrients, add phytoplankton, pods, etc to nudge them towards resuming growth.

 

[MIke Wood]

After a hurricane where coral gets displaced they seem to take a bit of time before they start “ grooving “ again. Moving coral around is a signal that the substrate is moving which is a bad environment for growth. Until the coral is adjusted to the new stable location I think they shut down the growth options for awhile until they are certain that they are done being cast about by waves and currents.

I would anticipate that they will start growing more in the base for awhile and then the expansion of the head and rapid growth will resume.

How long this will take?

I would suggest increasing the availability of nutrients, add phytoplankton, pods, etc to nudge them towards resuming growth.

see this is where im at haha. stay the course or try and correct things. im not so much worried about the lack of growth. i suspected that things would halt just wasnt expecting them to lose color. im worried about the color loss of the WD and the deflation of the dragon soul torch.

 

[KrisReef]

see this is where im at haha. stay the course or try and correct things. im not so much worried about the lack of growth. i suspected that things would halt just wasnt expecting them to lose color. im worried about the color loss of the WD and the deflation of the dragon soul torch.

Yup, but I think the color loss may reverse by staying the course but if they are hungry I would worry a tissue loss next, vs a brown out with possibilities with extra nutrients I would lean towards the brown out preferably. But who knows? I hope it doesn’t go bad. GL.

 

[MIke Wood]

Yup, but I think the color loss may reverse by staying the course but if they are hungry I would worry a tissue loss next, vs a brown out with possibilities with extra nutrients I would lean towards the brown out preferably. But who knows? I hope it doesn’t go bad. GL.

I will def try to increase feedings and availability of nutrients. i have dosed these up with brightwells. not sure if corals readily take those products in for nutrition. doing water changes for a potential contaminant seems counter productive to increasing nutrients but after my first water change the torch looked the best it looked since the move. but then was back to being ticked off a day or 2 later. the torch might be ticked because i was man handling it to glue it back into place after the move.

 

[bluerider098]

I'd stay the course too, but regular waterchanges and running carbon will have no negative affects imo. My corals always seem to perk up slightly the day or so after a water change.

It's up to you on the carbon, I've personally seen no difference in my corals with our without.

The big thing for me with carbon was the water clarity. When I didn't run carbon for a period of time you could see a noticable change in water color when it was in a white bucket. It's definitely not a requirement though. I also run my carbon passively, just in a bag hanging in a sock chamber. I think it's less aggressive this way vs. a reactor. (No science here, just opinion)

Keep us posted, and good luck.

 

[MIke Wood]

I'd stay the course too, but regular waterchanges and running carbon will have no negative affects imo. My corals always seem to perk up slightly the day or so after a water change.

It's up to you on the carbon, I've personally seen no difference in my corals with our without.

The big thing for me with carbon was the water clarity. When I didn't run carbon for a period of time you could see a noticable change in water color when it was in a white bucket. It's definitely not a requirement though. I also run my carbon passively, just in a bag hanging in a sock chamber. I think it's less aggressive this way vs. a reactor. (No science here, just opinion)

Keep us posted, and good luck.

Heavy in heavy out. im going to increase my food intake and do a 25% change tomorrow. i will say that i have a small bioload. only 4 fish total in my system. i have essential doubled by total system volume. 34 total gallons in the NUVO to 65 total in the 60 cube.

 

[MnFish1]

I recently upgraded from a nuvo 40 to standard 60cube. my nuvo was exploding with growth. sps coloration was very good. i run a single red sea led 90 with an aquatic life t5 fixture.

I am using the same lighting- i was able to match the par using a par meter.

i matched temp, salinity, po4 and no3. i transferred. the transfer was not as planned all the rock structure fell apart during the process. so i had to use a bunch of jp water weld to get it all back together. alk after transfer was 9.3 (previously 8.5 in the nuvo).

i matched the par- but how the corals were reacting it seemed as if it was too much light despite them being in the same par values in the 40. so i decided to lower the light level. polyp extension improved after doing this.

i ran carbon for a few days thinking maybe the JB water weld and or slime from corals during the transfer was creating some type of light (I know you have the same PAR - but I'm talking about the same settings. )chemical warfare. after about 2 days it seems like the corals looked paler so i removed the carbon.

it has now been about 3 weeks since the transfer. my WD colony is super pale. and my dragon soul torch has yet to expand to it full length. all the other sps seems to be somewhat normal maybe a little faded but not nearly as bad as the wd.

current tank params:
salinity 1.026
temp 78
alk 8.3dkh
no3 5ppm
po4 .01-.03 (tank has always run this level without any coloration issues)
cal 440-450
mag 1500 (i have always ran this a little higher)

I had to turn dosers off as i have very little uptake at this point. prior to the transfer i had an uptake of 1.4dkh per day. now im at .25dkh per day.

my question- is this light related? or am i missing something with nutrients. nutrients were dosed up artificially with brightwell.

i am running a larger skimmer but have it draining back into the sump. i did the same in the nuvo 40. i just use the skimmer for outside air exchange. the new skimmer creates a ton of thick skimmate that sticks to the wall of the cup and neck. could this be removing available nutrients and im just dosing up po4 and no3 that they cant use?

I wonder if it's light and flow related. Also - what is your pH? Sometimes it just takes coral some time to adjust - it sounds like you're doing/did everything you could. Are you using the same light setting (not just PAR) - but the same settings?

 

[MnFish1]

Heavy in heavy out. im going to increase my food intake and do a 25% change tomorrow. i will say that i have a small bioload. only 4 fish total in my system. i have essential doubled by total system volume. 34 total gallons in the NUVO to 65 total in the 60 cube.

IMHO - you're kind of chasing your tail a little (I don't mean that critically). I would just leave things alone - unless you've drastically changed your lighting or flow. I don't see any reason for a 25% water change. What was your rationale. I don't think carbon is bad - I always use it. (meaning activated carbon)

 

[bluerider098]

IMHO - you're kind of chasing your tail a little (I don't mean that critically). I would just leave things alone - unless you've drastically changed your lighting or flow. I don't see any reason for a 25% water change. What was your rationale. I don't think carbon is bad - I always use it. (meaning activated carbon)

Possiblity of something in the water. It's a new tank so possiblly something from the plumbing, substrate, rocks, who knows.

Also his skimmer is going crazy, which is another sign of something in the water.

Seems like doing a couple of waterchanges is cheap insurance with no negative affects other than a few dollars lost in salt.

 

[MIke Wood]

I wonder if it's light and flow related. Also - what is your pH? Sometimes it just takes coral some time to adjust - it sounds like you're doing/did everything you could. Are you using the same light setting (not just PAR) - but the same settings?

PH i have no clue. have never followed PH. i know thats the new hot topic. and yes aside from trying a new light for a day. i switched back to my red sea/t5 combo. i actually just dialed it back down to the same percentages in the 40 gallon and have it on acclimation mode for 2 months to the settings that matched par. flow was an issue initially as well. but that had been corrected for some time. i think flow was the big issue for the torch- that and it being man handled to get it where i wanted it with the right flow and light. Ive been reefing along time and sometimes its just a puzzle i dont want to solve haha. its just weird to see some things are doing absolutely fine but my some of my favorite pieces looking like hot garbage.

 

[MIke Wood]

40 nuvo top down. 60 cube day after water change last Saturday. Since then the torch has shrunk half the size. The alveo on the left is half inflated as well.

 

[MIke Wood]

40 nuvo top down. 60 cube day after water change last Saturday. Since then the torch has shrunk half the size. The alveo on the left is half inflated as well.

 

[MIke Wood]

Possiblity of something in the water. It's a new tank so possiblly something from the plumbing, substrate, rocks, who knows.

Also his skimmer is going crazy, which is another sign of something in the water.

Seems like doing a couple of waterchanges is cheap insurance with no negative affects other than a few dollars lost in salt.

i wouldnt say the skimmer is going crazy. its just collected a lot of thick skimmate on the cup walls. any liquid skimmate is flowing back into the sump. the nuvo i was using a cheap nano skimmer (those never really work well) i would normally only get tea colored skimmate when i was collecting. so i just just had it drain into the rear chamber and used it for fresh o2 from the outside. but something in the water is always in the back of my head. i hosed off the tank prior to hooking it up. every piece of equipment was rinsed and the rock is all the same. nothing was added.

 

[MnFish1]

My guess is that there is nothing to fix except the fact that you moved stuff around. I would give it 2 weeks. I would ask why liquid skim mate is flowing back into the tank?

 

[MIke Wood]

My guess is that there is nothing to fix except the fact that you moved stuff around. I would give it 2 weeks. I would ask why liquid skim mate is flowing back into the tank?

Because I really don't need to skim. I only have 4 fish. Overskimming caused alot of issues with sps color for me in the past. I mainly just use a skimmer for o2 exchange. So any wet skim just goes back into the tank. There is still a good amount of dry skim that sticks to the collection cup.