TheWB’s IM Lagoon 50

[TheWB]

Bummer on the acan. How often do you feed it? The acans I used to have used to grow like weeds when I fed them once a week.

Interested in your take on the Aquamaxx skimmer - I'll be picking up either the dc nuvo skimmer or the AM one. The AM is cheaper, but the dc nuvo (*not* ghost) seems to get consistent good reviews. So, I'll be watching.

It always sucks when a coral gets damaged unnecessarily but what can you do. Luckily it’s not an expensive frag, it was only $25. I feed them once or twice a week. LRS Nano with some Hakari particulate food mixed in. The larger red acan is a complete pig but this smaller rainbow doesn’t show anywhere near the same extension.

So far I’m digging the Aquamaxx skimmer. However, mine is the older model and it barely fits in the second chamber. I literally had to squeeze it in so make sure you get the exact dims on the new one. The dc Nuvo skimmer is one I’ll consider if the Aquamaxx doesn’t work out because I like the way it integrates into the back chamber with the low profile. I think the Cadlights skimmer might be the best choice from the standpoint of being able to maintain it and clean the pump. The good news is that at least we have choices.

 

[TheWB]

I’ve started doing a water change on a 2 week cycle instead of every week. I wanted to see how the tank would react since I’ve been using both vibrant and Nopox plus I added some Chaeto to the egg crate refugium box I made. Right after today’s water change nitrates were at 2.5 on Salifert so I’d say that is getting under control despite my still heavy feeding hand. I tried to test Phosphate and found out I bought, or was sent and didn’t notice, the wrong reagent for the Hanna ULM checker. I haven’t tested Cal or Alk in a really long time but I’m sure they are fine. I really don’t have enough coral to make too much if a dent in it. The red Acan has at least 8 heads now so it’s growing. The blasto, Frogspawn and Zoas also are looking good. The Favia looks good and has a little growth, it seems to slowly be covering its plug but no new heads are developing. The rainbow Acan continues to struggle. Hopefully it will eventually stabilize and start growing. All in all there’s not a lot to update this time but things are ok.

 

[jcolliii]

The acan looks great - nice row of new polyps! Glad you're getting your NO3 reigned in. I'm having the opposite problem right now - NO3 and PO4 are undetectable and I have a small bit of cyano and some diatoms that are bothering me. So I went ahead and ordered the IM Nuvoskimmer. I never thought I'd say this - but I wish my nitrates were higher!

 

[TheWB]

I know this isn't a great picture but I wanted to see if anyone looking has an opinion on what’s wrong with my Favia. The whole left edge turned white and has receded a little. One of the eyes is also all shriveled, you can barely see the green. I did a 25% water change on Sunday and I did move this coral over about 4 inches but it’s still on the sand bed so lighting didn’t change much if at all. I’m wondering if maybe a hermit crab might have gone after some food and irritated it. No new additions to the tank. Unfortunately I don’t have a good recent picture of that side of this coral, it’s the side facing towards the back of the tank. If anyone has any ideas I’d live to hear them. Thanks.

 

[Dj City]

I am trying to wait for my tank to be ready before I add more coral. I almost envy you.
Everything looks great though.
If you are getting noticeable growth from a favia, you are doing REALLY good.
When you moved the coral, was the section you see receding in the sand?

 

[intricate_reefer]

I know this isn't a great picture but I wanted to see if anyone looking has an opinion on what’s wrong with my Favia. The whole left edge turned white and has receded a little. One of the eyes is also all shriveled, you can barely see the green. I did a 25% water change on Sunday and I did move this coral over about 4 inches but it’s still on the sand bed so lighting didn’t change much if at all. I’m wondering if maybe a hermit crab might have gone after some food and irritated it. No new additions to the tank. Unfortunately I don’t have a good recent picture of that side of this coral, it’s the side facing towards the back of the tank. If anyone has any ideas I’d live to hear them. Thanks.

Corals can be so frustrating, I'm going through a lot with mine as well. It doesn't look like you have any algae on the edges which is the problem I was having. Could be like you said with the crabs. Maybe try an iodine dip(reef dip or loguls) to help prevent any infections, I have had mixed results with it but couldn't hurt.

 

[jcolliii]

Was it close to something with long sweepers? I have seen sweepers over an inch long come out of a frag of Platygyra after lights out. Did the flow change? Has it been eating? Check Ca recently?

 

[TheWB]

Corals can be so frustrating, I'm going through a lot with mine as well. It doesn't look like you have any algae on the edges which is the problem I was having. Could be like you said with the crabs. Maybe try an iodine dip(reef dip or loguls) to help prevent any infections, I have had mixed results with it but couldn't hurt.

The only thing I have on hand is Revive. Maybe I’ll order something off Amazon, I’ll have to take a look and see what’s available.

 

[TheWB]

Was it close to something with long sweepers? I have seen sweepers over an inch long come out of a frag of Platygyra after lights out. Did the flow change? Has it been eating? Check Ca recently?

It was about 4“ away from a Blasto so nothing with long sweepers. The Frogspawn isn’t close at all either. The flow has changed but not coming from the direction that would have affected that side of the coral. It does puff up when offered particulate food but I’ve never seen feeder tentacles on it the way I’ve seen them in other peoples pictures. I have not tested Cal but there’s not much in the tank that uses it up. I should probably break out the Cal and Alk checkers this weekend though just because it’s been forever since I tested either one.

 

[jcolliii]

How long did this take to happen? Was it normal one day and like that the next, or more gradual? Does it get enough light on that side? My Favias are up fairly high in my tank and they don't seem to mind getting blasted with light - in fact, their color has seemed to improve when moved up. I have a Favites that develops random skeletal 'holes' from time to time, but not extensive patches. I'm stumped.

 

[TheWB]

How long did this take to happen? Was it normal one day and like that the next, or more gradual? Does it get enough light on that side? My Favias are up fairly high in my tank and they don't seem to mind getting blasted with light - in fact, their color has seemed to improve when moved up. I have a Favites that develops random skeletal 'holes' from time to time, but not extensive patches. I'm stumped.

Yes, normal one day and then the white edge and receding happened quickly. It gets the same light it’s always had, directly under the Radion with full exposure. Radion is set for lps preset and is only about 35% intensity. I did move it up higher last night just to keep the crabs off of it. Down in the sand is where the hermits mostly congregate and they were all over the Favia during feeding which I also did last night. Stealing food from corals is relatively new for them and weird because they’ve got plenty to eat. It will be interesting to see how it looks once the lights come on today.

 

[TheWB]

Update on the Aquamaxx NF1 skimmer. It does a pretty good job but has a little flaw. The airline tubing kinks pretty easily where it connects to the pump. This causes inconsistencies In performance but it’s good when it works. It’s bugging me but I’ll live with it.

 

[TheWB]

Checked Alk and Cal today using Hanna Checkers. The Alk reagent was expired (naturally) so I’m not sure if it’s still accurate but that came out as 9.8dkh. Calcium was 431 with unexpired reagents.

 

[jcolliii]

Sounds within normal ranges... how is the Favia looking today?

 

[TheWB]

Sounds within normal ranges... how is the Favia looking today?

Not good. Lights aren’t on yet. You can see the whole left side is pretty much toast. There’s a crater where the green eye is supposed to be. A while back I posted about the rainbow acan falling on top of this Favia. The Acan hasn’t been the same since then. I haven’t been posting about it because I know what happened and I’ve just been waiting to see if it recovers. So the acan lost 4-5 heads and had been struggling with the last three. About the same time that the Favia lost its color on that side the Acan had 2 heads shrink really small. There’s basically only one viable head left on it. The Favia never showed any signs of stress after the Acan fell on it until now. Are these things related, I dunno? The rest of the coral in the tank is doing well, it’s just these two that are having problems. The change in the Favia was just so sudden that I didn’t really connect the two, and they may not be connected.

Favia

Acan

 

[jcolliii]

Sorry to hear. What you posted about the acan falling over makes the most sense. Hope they both fully recover quickly.

 

[TheWB]

I tested N and P yesterday in preparation for a water change today. For the first time ever nitrate showed up as zero??? I’ve never seen this before in my tank and I tested twice to make sure. I’ve been using Nopox and Vibrant for different issues and I’ve got some macro algae to help with nutrient uptake but I never expected to bottom out. Phosphates were at 0.05 on the Hanna Checker. I’m not going to do the water change and I’ll cut the Nopox until N gets back up to 10 and then I’ll reassess. I do not want Dinos. I know there some N bound up in the algae on the rocks so it’s not really at zero but the test results were surprising. I try to feed heavy to keep the fish happy so bottoming out the N didn’t really occur to me as a possibility. Trying to dial in nutrient levels has been a more challenging task than I expected 11 months in from the first fish going in this tank. I need to test more and there’s really no excuse as far as Nitrate goes since it’s the easiest test.

 

[jcolliii]

Sounds like a good plan. How are your corals looking? Why do you think your nitrates got so high before?

 

[TheWB]

Sounds like a good plan. How are your corals looking? Why do you think your nitrates got so high before?

Corals are the same, 4 of them look really good, the rainbow Acan and Dragon Soul Favia are circling the drain from previously posted problems. The nitrates were never really that high, around 25 at most on Salifert. I feed a lot and don’t clean the sand as much as I should. Phosphates were more of an issue before which is why I started using Nopox. They’ve gone down from .16 to .09 to .05 over the last three tests. Nitrate actually ballooned up over a week from 10 to 25 after my last water change 2 weeks ago. That’s what made yesterday’s zero test surprising. I was expecting around 10 again after restarting Nopox. I’ll test daily or every other day this week and start mixing a smaller amount of Nopox back in if N gets over 10. I don’t want to get rid of it, just keep it under control while still feeding the fish well. It’s a balancing act.

 

[TheWB]

It’s been a while since I posted a FTS. I really like the Icecap camera filters. These pics were done with both the yellow and orange filters attached. The actual light is really blue but you couldn’t tell at all from these shots. The algae really shows up this way as well.

The corals that are doing well.

The two that are not well at all.

Clown hovering over its Zoa patch, cuz that’s not weird at all.