Weazl's 50g mixed, uhh, something

[madweazl]

Randall's goby died sometime last night, sure liked that lil guy. It had become quite lethargic over the past few weeks and was eating less and less (if anything the past week). The tail fin had started to rot a bit while this was going on but I don't suspect any disease. I'll have to keep an eye for a new shrimp goby, they're one of my favorites. 

[madweazl]

Playing with the new camera (Nikon D3400). 

 

[madweazl]

Was working out of town the past two weeks and came home to an SPS that has RTN (best I can tell since much of the skeleton has no algae growth). This was one of the acros that had an exposed tip that had healed up a few weeks back. Everything else looks to be doing very well still with the exception of the monti cap. The main colony sits directly under one of the Kessils and I increased intensity (only 5%) right before I left but it looks to be expelling zooxanthallea (could be algae growth too I suppose). The blenny also spends most of the day on top of the main colony. The frag that is in a different area of considerably less light looks great. 

 

dKH - 8.3 

PO4 - .025 (this dropped from .153 7 Sep)

NO3 - 2.5-5

 

I stopped harvesting algae from the refugium a while back and I think that is what is responsible for the decrease in phosphate levels (extremely thick in there now). Tank is do for a water change so I'll take care of that and replace the carbon (forgot to do that last water change so it is has been in there four or five weeks now, oops). 

 

[madweazl]

Once the light intensity ramped up I was able to see the monti cap frag is showing the same symptoms as the main colony. 

[Origami]

Check your alkalinity and salinity for starters.

 

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[madweazl]

Check your alkalinity and salinity for starters.

 

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Salinity had dropped from 35ppt to 34.5ppt. Alkalinity increased from 8.0 to 8.3 (both over the course of two weeks). I cant find anything in test results to explain it. 

[madweazl]

I dropped light intensity on the Kessils by 10% and the monti cap looks better. We'll see how this pans out of the next week. If the reaction remains positive and it heals up completely, I'll likely frag it and it remove it from the tank as there really isnt another location it would work well in this tank. That is a prime spot for another acro or two. 

Edited September 25, 2017 by madweazl

[madweazl]

The monti continues to improve. I was able to check PAR levels in that area and it was receiving approx 225 in that location. I was surprised to see a negative reaction from that level of light but it stopped expelling zoo and started to heal up within 24 hours of the change to intensity. I wonder if it was a reaction to a couple factors vice just light intensity but I never was able to find anything else out of whack. 

[madweazl]

When you stare at it every day it's tough to notice the growth but it is happening. Of the acropora's I have, this is about my favorite; it is also the fastest grower I have which makes me question a few things as it sits in an area of considerably lower light than the others and also gets considerably less water flow. 

 

Edited October 28, 2017 by madweazl

[madweazl]

This guy started to STN/RTN (somewhere in between...) about a week and a half ago; it was also located in roughly the same area as the acro a few posts up that RTN'd (may have started slow while I was away and I just caught the tale end of it when I returned). I checked parameters to see if I could find anything and everything was right where it normally is with the exception of salinity which had dropped to roughly 33ppt (pretty much right on 1.025 for my refractometer). The Copps undata was showing signs of stress again which is what caught my eye first (I never seem to be able to keep that one happy for long so it's a constant struggle). I brought the salinity back up to 35ppt via salt water in the ATO over a few days and did my typical 10g water change last weekend. The acro has stabilized the past two days and has started to color back up a bit too (was browning out but has a lot of green back today). 

 

Things that were different the last few weeks:

 

Light intensity (raised and lowered to accommodate various issues)

Salinity dropped slightly (35ppt to 33ppt) but quickly during a water change, skimmer, and reactor maintenance (not enough salt water was replaced to account for the lost displacement)

A couple water changes were conducted using Live Aquaria's salt but I'm out of that so back to Reef Crystals (the only other salt that has been used in this tank) for another week or two until that is all used up and then shifting to regular Instant Ocean.

 

I'm also wondering if there may be a trace element issue as I cant find anything in the standard test results (alk, Ca, Mg, PO4, NO3) that would indicate an issue. I submitted some results to Triton on the 5th but my results were:

 

SG - 1.025

dKH - 7.9

Ca - 450

Mg - 1365

PO4 - .058

NO3 - 2.5-5.0

 

We'll see how the Triton results look sometime next week when the results come in but the only thing I expect to be different is PO4 which will likely come back at 0 or very close based on previous Triton results as compared to what my Hanna ULR shows. I have a calculator that will provide some results in regard to salinity but I've never seen that off by more than .25ppt between my refractometer and Triton. 

 

In regard to trace element depletion, I've decided to do weekly 10g water changes (roughly 10%); to that end, I changed 20g two weeks ago and 15g last week I believe. Tomorrow will be a typical 10g change which is what I normally do (though every two weeks vice weekly). 

 

I have no clue what has caused the issue but things have at least stabilized at this point so I guess that is a win (for now). I'd hate to lose another coral and this little acro was pretty awesome. 

 

[WheresTheReef]

Did you happen to have an alk swing that caused burnt tips?

[madweazl]

Did you happen to have an alk swing that caused burnt tips?

Alkalinity is about as stable as can be; dosed in small parts 18 times per 24 hour window and literally fluctuates less than .1 dKH over the course of two weeks. 

[madweazl]

Results came in and they are what I expected.

 

My test results:

 

SG - 1.025

Ca - 450

Mg - 1365

PO4 - .058

 

Triton results:

 

Sg - 1.02548 (Jim Welsh's calculator)

Ca - 464

Mg - 1364

PO4 .010

 

The Triton results do show deficiencies in a number of areas that are beneficial (I and Fe groups specifically). I suspect the macro algae is probably to blame for that but I still suspect the lighting and salinity issues previously mentioned to be the likely culprits. Perhaps the coral would have been more resilient if the other levels were in a range deemed more appropriate (though I'm not exactly what those levels "should" be outside of Triton's recommendations). 

 

On a positive note, my wife sent a picture of the acro that was in trouble and it has recovered a bit since I left town. Hopefully it will be looking much better when I get back (crossing my fingers for this weekend). 

[madweazl]

Wife called in a panic about an hour ago because there was a fault light on the controller (typically an ATO time out) and "the tank was blowing bubbles and the sump is filling up really fast." It's tough enough to walk somebody through some troubleshooting steps over the phone with something like this and when you add in the panic factor, look out. After calming her down a bit so she could rationally walk through some steps and send me some pictures of the sump, tank, overflow etc., it looks like the primary drain needed to be adjusted a bit (water level in the overflow box was pretty much empty so it was making the sucking noise). 

 

Everything looks right in that regard now and best I can tell, everything is operating normally. The high water level float sensor stuck which caused the fault light on the controller so the ATO wasn't turning on which led to the lower water level in the return chamber causing the bubbles in the tank. How the water level in the overflow changed remains a mystery (she hadn't touched the valve). She did mention that a piece of plastic fell in the return chamber when she messed with the float, no clue what that was...

 

Hopefully everything hangs in there until I can get back home and investigate. Why does it always have to happen when I'm out of town? 

[madweazl]

Made it home early and was able to check things over; everything appears to be just fine. The salinity was right on 35ppt so the ATO didn't dump too much water in after the issue was corrected (something I was worried about). For some reason the return pump is spitting a small amount of bubbles into the tank so I have a feeling there is some capitation so I'll have to tear it down to investigate further.

 

The acro has healed up a bit more and is coloring back up nicely. 

[madweazl]

Not a very good image but I just love this little acro. 

 

[madweazl]

A slow grower but I really dig this one too. 

 

[madweazl]

Almost hard to believe it's the same coral (taken 19 Aug 2017). The picture in the previous post was from today (20 Nov 2017).

 

[madweazl]

This is my "problem child." It will brown out if you look at it funny (literally in days) and is just starting to color back up from the last bout. It browned in the original location I had it so I moved it to the middle of the tank around the same depth (roughly twice the intensity). At that location, half of it colored up (the right side as it's oriented in the picture above). Thinking I was close to figuring out what it wanted, I moved it up a few inches to provide some extra intensity and it browned in about three days. Hmm, too much? I said to heck with it and left it where it was until about a week ago when I needed to make some more changes; the monti cap was getting too much light where it was and had started to expel zoothanthellae and bleach a bit. I moved it where this coral was and added another rock to the tank where the monti was. The Reef Raft Wolverine was getting overrun by the cyphastrea so I moved it over to this new rock (it likes lots of light and this is one of the brightest areas of the tank) and I moved this lil fella down the rock a bit into slightly less light than the Wolverine. 

 

The preliminary reaction is positive and while it isn't nearly as vivid as it can be, the blues and greens are starting to come back on the entire coral. Hopefully the trend continues! 

 

[madweazl]

About a week shy of 18 months now. 

 

[madweazl]

Last night around midnight, the secondary drain of the overflow started flushing. Yesterday I had increased the flow to about 600gph so I figured it just needed a small adjustment to the primary line but that didn't correct the issue. I opened the gate valve some more, and then more again, and finally it was all the way open but wasn't flowing much water. I had some long tubing brushes so I ran one of them down the drain a few times but that didn't help the flow rate and no obstruction came out. With no other choice, I started to disassemble the the primary line and once I got to the gate valve, I found my little clown wedged in there. I've had this lil guy (gal I imagine) for a little over a year and it had grown from about the size of a nickel to approximately three inches :( It has always slept at the very top right corner of the tank which made me nervous; at some point last night, it was spooked (or bored with tank life) and made a leap of faith. I have no idea how, but it managed to land in the external overflow of the tank (the internal has a cover) and was subsequently sucked into the primary drain. I guess the plus side is the beananimal did its job and prevented any flow issues and I was actually home to find fix the issue (even if it did leave me wide awake at 1am). I'll have to set up some type of screen behind the canopy to prevent this from happening again.

[roni]

sorry to hear about your clown.  There's not much you can do other then the safeguards you put into place but glad you didn't end up with an overflowing tank.  

[D805]

Glad you were able to find the problem. Sucks about your fish. So did you have unions installed? About to start plumbing my tank and trying to figure out best placement of unions.

[monkiboy]

this happens at least once or twice a quarter for me with dartfish and some wrasses. I just use a flat strainer on the main and secondary drains and that keeps the fish happy in the oversized external overflow until I can grab it and back into main. also keeping strainer at least a couple inches from the bottom in case of power outage and fish in there they have water to survive in.

[madweazl]

Slowly but surely, the little smooth skin heals up. 

 

 

On the other side of the tank, this one has started growing like a weed! 

 

 

Alkalinity and calcium consumption has increased dramatically over the past few weeks. I made an adjustment to the dosing duration last weekend before going out of town and fully expected it to be a little to high but it dropped from 7.2 dKH to 6.4 (I was figuring it would be about 8.0).