Turtle's Deep Blue Sea

[SashimiTurtle]

I got the mccoskeri and pylei for $25 each...

 

[Scurvy]

I may have just spent the next 6 months reef budget....

 

[SashimiTurtle]

I may have just spent the next 6 months reef budget....

What did you do?

 

[Katrina71]

I love it when you guys are naughty. Let's see what ya got!

 

[Scurvy]

Ill share one and hold one for arrival next week.
We ordered a young male C Rosefacia. He will hopefully one day look like this.

 

[Sipec]

One more question about the sps: do you light acclimate them?

 

[SashimiTurtle]

One more question about the sps: do you light acclimate them?

Yes, I have the Kessil controller with an acclimation program.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Ill share one and hold one for arrival next week.
We ordered a young male C Rosefacia. He will hopefully one day look like this.

View attachment 713085

Thats gonna be beautiful... same family as isosceles and lanceolatus. The "pin tails."

Check this badboy out... may have to save up.
http://aquanerd.com/2018/04/the-ocean-reef-led-fixture-from-orphek.html

 

[Scurvy]

Thats gonna be beautiful... same family as isosceles and lanceolatus. The "pin tails."

Check this badboy out... may have to save up.
http://aquanerd.com/2018/04/the-ocean-reef-led-fixture-from-orphek.html

Yep, I can't wait to see him in person and watch the evolution! Hunter notes say they're most always aggresive with other Cirrhilabrus but he'll be the only Fairy in that tank so I'm not overly concerned. The plan as of now is to have this guy share a tank with the Radiant and probably one more peaceful wrasse.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Tried to get a few pictures of the pylei today. Playing around with the shutter speed on the S8+ because wrasse never stop moving below warp 3. Average cruising speed is warp 7 or 8... I still can't quite capture the facial coloration on camera. Almost a mango color in broken lines extending laterally from the mouth to gills. Then the are three longitudinal yellow lines on top of her head. Pelvic fins are transparent, but elongated. They stay tucked up against her body most of the time, but when she stops briefly they extend. I can't wait to see male coloration.

I need a DSLR.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Good article describing the rubrimarginatus group and the sub groupings within. Some very pretty wrasse in there.

https://reefbuilders.com/2015/08/02/fairy-wrasses-rubrimarginatus-group/

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Here's a picture someone else took of the females in the group. Mine has more pronounced orange lines on the face. Almost like the color on the katoi.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

We may have found the cause of all of our problems... stay tuned, update to follow. Doing stuff and things.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

So, I have heard both good and bad things about Marine Pure. As in it leaches some things into the water. I asked the owner of the LFS we went to last week, who has been in the reefing business profesionally for 29 years and is aware of the STN issues we've been having, what his thoughts on Marine Pure were. These are his words,

"Other than leaching aluminum and borates, as well as reducing bioactivity of live rock, sounds good on paper."

So, I then showed him this picture and asked him if this could be the cause of my problems.

His response was, "That would stn any sps worth keeping! Hahahaha"

So, on his recommendation we removed all of the Marine Pure and did a 25% water change. We also ordered some polyfilter to remove any remaining metals in the water.

Makes since, after doing a 90% water change a few weeks ago everything perked back up and has slowly started to decline since then. The montis are still doing fine, but the stylos I got at reef dreams have STNed and the favia isn't doing well. The lobo started to look good after the big WC, then quickly went down hill after. I haven't been able to detect any change in parameters between water changes that would cause any of the problems I've been having, so it has to be something that I cannot test for. Heck, ALK has even stayed at the same reading over two weeks and Ca only dropped 30ppm from a slightly elevated to a normal reading.

Hopefully, in a months time, we can start trying out some more coral. Mark your calendars, May 1st we go looking at coral again.

 

[NY_Caveman]

Pardon my confusion, but which aspect of those he mentioned was most concerning to him?

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Pardon my confusion, but which aspect of those he mentioned was most concerning to him?

I assume you're referring to the leaching of aluminum and borates as opposed to the reducing the bio effectiveness of live rock?

I'm fairly sure the aluminum and borates, which would explain him telling me to get some polyfilter. That stuff strips metals out of the tank, without effecting your base and trace elements. Some kind of binding process that keeps it from absorbing any more of the good , but still allows it to absorb the bad stuff once put in the tank.

He's a bit(a lot) sarcastic at times(24/7), you have to pick thru his humor. I think what he was getting at was it will reduce the bio load the rocks can handle, because the marine pure is the better suited environment for the bacteria? Evidently the trade off is aluminum and boron leaching into the water.
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Hindsight being 20/20... I never had STN issues in my nano until the Marine Pure. Remember this guy? My favorite coral I had in my nano...

Grew out in my nano under extremely low(not even 100 par, 30% peak intensity from one A160we) light for at least 6 months. I had AWESOME color from this thing considering the low light it was getting. Started to lose color and PE after moving it to the Deep Blue, but was recoverable. I had done it before from that point when I moved it from the failed abortion that was my 75g to the 14g. I moved it back to the nano where it had grew perfectly fine for months. It STNed in a matter of a few days. I had just recently added marine pure to the back chamber of the nano, and put the rest in the sump of the Deep Blue.

Here it is today...

 

[NY_Caveman]

Thank you for the clarification. I had heard of the issue with Aluminum, but had not considered the effect of "competition" with the live rock. It makes sense.

I personally want my biofiltration concentrated in the display live rock with a small amount of rubble in the sump/fuge, so that gives me a second "con" on the Marine Pure.

I realize you have been frustrated of late, but we are all learning by following along. Thank you for documenting everything in such detail!

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Here is a frag of the same coral, doing the same thing as the last one. The only thing that changed with the original coral, was the addition of Marine Pure spheres.

Here is a picture from a two weeks ago when I bought it.

They start off healthy, then over the course of two weeks lose color and PE, then STN. Which is the same time frame the other one went down hill after adding the spheres. I've grown this coral before, I know it isn't over my skill level as an aquarist.

 

[SashimiTurtle]

Thank you for the clarification. I had heard of the issue with Aluminum, but had not considered the effect of "competition" with the live rock. It makes sense.

I personally want my biofiltration concentrated in the display live rock with a small amount of rubble in the sump/fuge, so that gives me a second "con" on the Marine Pure.

I realize you have been frustrated of late, but we are all learning by following along. Thank you for documenting everything in such detail!

Frustrated is an understatement. Good thing I'm too hard headed to know when to throw in the towel or I'd have quit months ago. I'm also too attached to my fish to see them go.

I've exhausted my play money on this tank, and I'll have to just sit back and observe for a little while. Which is probably best. Give myself, and the tank time to breathe and de-stress.

I'm all out in the open, there are no sugar coated unicorn fart acro frags over here. Its all STN, GHA and cyano. But we work thru it and eventually, maybe we'll get a cheap green acro to grow that nobody else wants.

 

[najer]

I'm all out in the open, there is no sugar coated unicorn fart acro frags over here.

Thanks, needed a name for this, I like that?!

DSC_0003 by sshipuk, on Flickr