The Garden -- Rakies shallow SPS cube

[Rakie]

My vote is make one without the pedestals and attach acros with epoxy!

I've got waaaay too many corals for that haha. I like to keep them pruned to a manageable size so I can have as many as possible, not too interested in having just a couple larger colonies, tank is too small for that.

 

[GoVols]

AKA... the vault

lol

 

[GoVols]

Nutrients are a buffer. Nutrients make it so corals can accept alk spikes, high light, and other various problems.

I agree with this.

+3

Will never run an ULNS again.

 

[najer]

*Sneaks out*, my work here appears to be done!

+3

Will never run an ULNS again.

 

[Rakie]

Helping a buddy with an 8x3x2 overcome AEFW now!

The fun never ends

 

[lbacha]

Helping a buddy with an 8x3x2 overcome AEFW now!

The fun never ends

I hope he isn’t the one watching your corals

 

[RichtheReefer21]

Helping a buddy with an 8x3x2 overcome AEFW now!

The fun never ends

Are u trying purge?

 

[Rakie]

I hope he isn’t the one watching your corals

He's one of a few -- He has a backup of all my valuable pieces. But it's no big deal, he's been extremely generous with me, and I've been guiding him quite a bit. He will not struggle to overcome AEFW, I've beaten them for myself and others before. Here's how to kill AEFW easily ("easily").

1) The rock has encrusted coral? It's gotta go, or get a LONG acid wash to peel that surface layer / encrusted SPS off

2) Dip in LARGE plastic tote with flow -- You want to dip a big section of corals at once

3) Continue dipping 2x the first week, and once per week after for 6-8 weeks (Overkill)

4) Have that acid washed rock cooking for the 6-8 weeks you're dipping your corals -- Use bacteria

5) 8 weeks later, AEFW dead. You should stop seeing them after the 3rd or 4th week actually.

AEFW is as big of a threat as people believe. Sure, you can live with it... But it's just better to kill it off completely. Additionally, he will now be running a small QT tank and leave corals in there for about a month or so, with dippings as necessary 2x the first week, 1x per week after.

Are u trying purge?

I was one of the first people to try purge -- It didn't work for me. Apparently Purge was partially re-designed because of my results. We have been finding more species of AEFW.

 

[Rakie]

I've got about half of my coral back in tank.

 

[Wrangy]

Weeewww

 

[Rakie]

Weeewww

Yep! Exciting times.

Whats back:
- Acans all back
- SPS small colonies back
- Some zoas back

What's still gone:
- Mushrooms staying with my buddy in his shroom tank
- High end SPS not back yet.

So i'm glad to have some things back now. Still planning on the dumb bonsai structure unless these silly emerald crabs go crazy for bubble algae all the sudden. They're making a dent, maybe I just need to be patient...

 

[NY_Caveman]

Yep! Exciting times.

Whats back:
- Acans all back
- SPS small colonies back
- Some zoas back

What's still gone:
- Mushrooms staying with my buddy in his shroom tank
- High end SPS not back yet.

So i'm glad to have some things back now. Still planning on the dumb bonsai structure unless these silly emerald crabs go crazy for bubble algae all the sudden. They're making a dent, maybe I just need to be patient...

Mine just kind of vanished. It was everywhere, but yours was worse. I had a single Emerald who did pick at it, but the sudden reversal was not from him. I think the tank just finally adapted like any other ugly I have had.

 

[Rakie]

Mine just kind of vanished. It was everywhere, but yours was worse. I had a single Emerald who did pick at it, but the sudden reversal was not from him. I think the tank just finally adapted like any other ugly I have had.

It's definitely thinning out, and starting to look unhealthy and slightly deflated -- I think the UV is bugging it somehow.

 

[NY_Caveman]

It's definitely thinning out, and starting to look unhealthy and slightly deflated -- I think the UV is bugging it somehow.

I will let you in on a secret. Once mine seemed to suddenly recede one day, I did what you are not supposed to do and scrubbed the rocks in the tank to finish them off. They never returned. My feeling was if the tank had adapted, there was little risk in what I was doing. I do not recommend this, but it seemed to work for my tank full of Pacific live rock.

 

[Rakie]

I will let you in on a secret. Once mine seemed to suddenly recede one day, I did what you are not supposed to do and scrubbed the rocks in the tank to finish them off. They never returned. My feeling was if the tank had adapted, there was little risk in what I was doing. I do not recommend this, but it seemed to work for my tank full of Pacific live rock.

Yeah I know a few people that scrubbed them all away. The "they're full of spores" thing is a myth

 

[lbacha]

Bubble algae seems to come and go for me. I had a couple emerald craps and they kept it in check but then I had a Bayer dip mishap with a large frag on live rock where I must not have funded it well enough because I killed my crabs and shrimp. It took a couple months before I could add crabs back (I don’t recommend making that mistake) and during tht time bubble algae got a little out of hand. I have added 2 emeralds back in and the bubble algae is going away again

 

[Rakie]

Yeah I've got two smaller emeralds. So far they've been perfect citizens so that's good. I've heard way too many horror stories so I was nervous to get them, especially big oens.. BUT, 2 isn't quite enough for my tank. I feel 2 could manage any that grows but 4 are necessary to tackle whats there.

The two that are there are slowly working it out, but honestly it's a little too slow for me. I'm getting impatient, which is always a good mix with reefing.

 

[Rakie]

+3

Will never run an ULNS again.

@GoVols -- Freddie!! your thread always disappears from my alerts!!

@mdbannister -- Fix the broken alert system! I have faith in your ability to learn coding and rework the website to a future glory! Also I've almost started calling you mbdannister accidentally. So if that slips out you've been warned !

Yeah, I think nutrients are undervalued and the 90's stigma from that flawed 70's paper on the GBR nutrient levels have been causing problems for a long time. What people fail to realize is test kits from yesteryear are NOT as accurate as they are today. The Salifert guy said in the early 2000's when you were testing nitrates at 0 you really probably had 2-5. In the later 2010 era 0 was more like 1-2, and since around 2015 we can almost test for true 0, but it's still like 0.25.

Equipment is getting better, and people are throwing in all these things to strip the water sterile. Putting in GFO when it's not needed, running carbon 24/7, filter socks, chaeto reactors, zero water changes, Bare Bottom.

Modern reefing is a perfect storm of things that can be good individually being bad shoehorned together. It's creating an unstable environment that is too harsh on corals. And the easily solution is, IMO, nutrients -- which act as a buffer for everything corals go through.

• The zero water change methods are based on dosing trace, but most people still don't believe in trace... That's funny because yesteryear water changes were ALL about replenishing trace.
• Chaeto in a zero water change system require extra metals, or chaeto will strip the water bare, eventually stop taking up nutrients, then corals will begin to pale and fade.
• Filter socks remove all the goodies that slowly turn into food for our corals -- We need waste breaking down in real time to give a balanced "diet" to our corals. Some research has shown they use up trace amounts of Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Yes, we don't want detectable ammonia, nor do we want detectable nitrites, but corals use it in trace quantities.
• Running Bare Bottom keeps the tank cleaner, too clean. The sand is a nutrient sponge.. That is true. But IMO, and the growing opinion of others (WWC, Sanjay, Rich Ross, etc etc etc) is that nutrients are good... So, a nutrient sponge isn't necessarily a bad thing.
• Modern skimmers are better than ever and more efficient every year.

You put all these things together as most people do, and you start having serious problems -- Because all of these things interact with one another, and they are all a link in the chain. One effects the other, and the whole chain effects the tank at every level.

The only downside to nutrients is when you introduce an inedible pest algae like I have... I never had GHA problems, or any slime algaes... Even with very high nutrients. But once I introduced something my snails wont eat (Bryopsis / Bubble Algae) then yeah, it can run away from you. Fluconazole worked great for me, unfortunately in MY tank, when all the good algaes die out and stop competing with Dinos... Then Dinos take over. This has happened 100% of the time for me. And every time I kill dinos, I need to kill them a new way when they come back... This time I had to buy a UV.... I can't afford to get a new species of dino that's unkillable!

@WallyB -- As you can see, my opinion has not changed. If anything, I am painfully consistent

 

[Rakie]

So.... First day corals are back, time for some pictures!

Some pictures taken under 14k, some under 16k

This one is a serious gem, needs a little coloring to hit it's potential but under blues it's a crazy mix of colors

Bad picture... This one is sweet, but didn't come out great, a little too dark.

 

[Wrangy]

Daaannnggg they some mighty fine pieces