bues0022

Whelp - all good things must end. My light bit the dust. It may not be completely toast, but it’s basically a slow strobe - turns on for one second, then off for one second, on for one second (you get the idea). Seems like a ballast problem to me, but I’m a mechanical engineer not an electrical guy, so me and electrical components don’t get along too well. If anyone has great ideas to tell me what to look at in this thing I’m all ears. Otherwise I’m back to square one looking for a new cheato light.

If you're super concerned about it - to the point that you're more concerned about it being bad than curious about what it might be - take it out and scrape it off. If it were me, I'd let 'er grow to see what it is, as long as that frag didn't cost too much.

Is it possible that what disintegrated was never actually “rock” but merely compressed sand or other junk that has now “rehydrated” and finally broken up?

It was one of the freebies. It was called: acro. I actually really like the little thing, and want it to grow into a big thing so I can pay it forward and give some back - but it’s stubbornly not growing. I’m thinking it may be because I’m not giving it something it needs (light flow) because I have no idea what it actually is ?

I got this at the spring meeting frag give-away - but I really don’t know what it is. It’s never really grown much, but it hasn’t receeded ever either, so I’m not messing up too much. It’s pinkish with yellow/green tips, and usually has pretty good polyp extension, and when feeding its polyps almost look like a milli. Is this a plating acro of sorts? (The frag growth pattern kind of look like it). I am just trying to know more specifically what it might be so I can help get some better (any) growth out of it.

I usually just leave it. Eventually if everything else is good the coral seems to outcompete the algae and grow back over - but I’m no expert.

A little update: I haven’t changed anything (literally, no eater changes even) about the tank, and the little guy seems to be making a slight turnaround. The only thing I did do differently, was placement of the coral. I put it on the sandbed turned sideways - trying to get the light very low on it (lack of good placement in shadows elsewhere). It has really good laminar flow across it all day there, and it seems to be doing better, with some better color and tissue growing back. Maybe I was just blasting it with too much light before - even though it was already bear the bottom? This coral might just end up on my blasto rock which is literally in a completely shaded corner (and has been doing great there).

That's a CRAZY price for that salt! Tempting me to switch salts.....

There were some other reviews elsewhere on the 'net which discussed actual power consumed vs what it's listed at. So be to perfectly honest, I have absolutely no idea what it's pulling, or what PAR it's actually putting out. You caught me red handed! All I actually know is that it was cheap, and grows cheato like a boss

I posted about this a few weeks ago looking for help selecting a good fixture for cheato. But, now I have photographic proof that it’s super awesome! I’ve always been leery of Chinese knockoff products on eBay. But, I found a 300W LED (output, I think it draws something like 42W) that kicks serious ass. UFO 300W fixture made by Vander. They are all over eBay, and go for a variety of prices. Mine was $27 shipped, and I saw it was down to $25 last week. Proof is in the pudding. I started with a little less than a softball sized chunk of cheato 10 days ago. I harvested it tonight. Probably close to two basketball sized balls could be formed. Half filled a 5 gallon bucket. It essentially completely filled my cheato section of the sump - about a 4 gallon area for cheato, a little rock, and my return pump darn!! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hydro-300W-UFO-LED-Grow-Light-4200LM-Lamp-Panel-Full-Spectrum-Plants-Grow-Lamp/142812898266?_trkparms=aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160908105057%26meid%3Df4d226831d624de1bc5c39bcb18a1465%26pid%3D100675%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D8%26sd%3D142812898266%26itm%3D142812898266&_trksid=p2481888.c100675.m4236&_trkparms=pageci%3Aacb1c61e-e92a-11e8-b6b4-74dbd180b8ec|parentrq%3A199d85681670aca48f758e33fff8629e|iid%3A1

A "sale" that fast makes me wonder if there was a glitch in the matrix.

Looks like that coupon code is good for more than just IO. 20% off already on sale salt is a good deal though. UR20DEAL - 20% Off Regular, Sale & Clearance

My three biggest: 1) First time using kalk to kill aptasia. I had a minor outbreak of aptasia. Nothing terrible, but I wanted the 6-7 of the little buggers gone. So, I mixed up some kalk paste, but it wouldn't flow through my syringe. No worries, I'll just smear it with my finger. I put a big glop on my finger, and into the tank I went. Expect I neglected to turn off powerheads, so it all blew off my finger before I got to my target. Ok, no worries, I'll turn off powerheads. I completed the rest of my paste smearing and was pleased with myself. Turned pumps back on, and the roughly 1/4 cup of kalk paste I had just used (WAAAAAY too much at a single time), went into the water column and the water turned like milk. Big water change couldn't stop the damage. I lost LOTS of coral (almost everything stony) but my fish managed to survive. 2) low salinity: I started up a tank once, and being cheap (a.k.a. stupid), I thought it was smart to run hypo during the cycle. I added my first fish, everything went great. Spend a few hundred in frags and after about a week they melted/withered/receded almost completely. I panicked, checked every parameter I could think of before I remembered my bonehead move. This was on a previous incarnation of my current 30 gallon setup, so I wasted hundreds of $$ in frags to save about $5 in salt. This also lead to mistake #3. 3) Adding salt straight to tank. After my salinity was found to be super low for corals (1.016), I needed to add salt - easy, right? Stupid move #3 - and I'm sure you can see from 100 miles away what not to do: I poured a few cups of salt into the overflow of my tank. At the time, my logic pattern was that it would dissolve in the overflow, down to the sump, and by the time it made it back to the display I'd be fine. Yeah, no. I had little bits of white flecks all over the water. All kinds of shimmering salinity changes observable in the water. The remaining corals I had left were burned (or so it seemed), and I was left with the remains of the last of the frags I was trying to salvage from #2. Moral of my story: remember: nothing good in this hobby happens quick. Even changes to fix "whoops" should be done slowly/methodically and not with lack of thought on the output of these changes.

I never figured out exactly what it was, but I did an extremely aggressive dip: 15 minutes in a solution of 90% RO water, 10% HP (the regular HP from walmart), followed by a swish in iodine water (2 drops of betadine (which is I believe 10% Iodine compared to Lugols which is somewhere around 2-3% I believe) in 2 cups of tank water), followed by swishing in the HP solution, then back in tank. The zoas didn't open up for almost 2 weeks, and the ones that looked rough before the dip completely melted away, but I haven't had anything since, and new growth is already pushing out faster than before. I think it might have actually been a fungal problem, not an actual creepy-crawly pest.

Here's the fixture I ended up getting: https://www.ebay.com/itm/142812898266 Price just went down a few bucks - I bought it for $28 shipped. For 300W (equivalent) power, this price can't be beat. I now grow more cheato in a week than I did in a month with a CFL spiral bulb. I'm trimming a mini basketball size chunk every week - that's impressive when I only have about 5 gallons water space for it to grow!

No worries on the outage from me. I greatly appreciate the effort you guys put in on the forum for the rest of us!!!!

Makes sens that stability is key - the first recession conincided with a big whoops on my part. I really should be testing my water more, but I get lazy. I hate to use a coral as an indicator because then I get frustrated that it’s not making good growth progress. I’ll tighten up and hope for the best.

None of those fish belong in that tank

I think based on the last step from many of us here, the VERY first step was missed.... Step 0) Stop at the store, buy beer, go home and put in fridge.

^ probably mold release from the production floor. I'd second the recommendation on 5 gallon buckets - using larger containers means heavier containers. 8 lbs per gallon for water, rock is heavier, so a bucket filled with rocks and water could weigh 60 lbs pretty easily. Also, I'd recommend making as much water as possible. Last time I moved a tank I was about 5 gallons short from filling up to where I could get the pumps circulating water. With livestock exposed to air it was nerve wracking finding a local awake at midnight to top me off (my RO wasn't working at the time). I moved my tank a 6 hour drive with tank, stand, water, livestock, sand all in my car. Basically used it like a giant cleaning opportunity. 1) I transported corals by going to the grocery store and asking for as many of those plastic deli containers as possible - poked holes in them, and one coral per container into a 5 gallon bucket, topped off with water. It kept corals safe from each other, and from banging around too much. 2) Fish went into their own 5 gallon bucket together. Fish were removed as I pulled rocks. 3) as much water as possible was siphoned into the buckets described above before disturbing too much rock/sand. When rocks started coming out, I used that nastier water ONLY in the rock buckets (to keep the rocks healthy in the move). I dumped this water when setting up the tank again. 4) brought as much fresh made SW as possible to refill. 5) setup tank - doesn't need to be perfect right now. It'll be a long day by this point. I was frustrated as H-E-double hockey sticks by setup time, so I basically chucked stuff in the tank in approximate locations, rock a jumbled mess, but I came back to it a few days later when I was refreshed and motivated again. Then, definitely beers!

Here's my light schedule. When i hover over the green dot, it says 46%. I'm not exactly sure what the means, however, because my slider on the left says 70%.....

This is a crappy phone pic of what it looked like last night: (sorry, don't know why the image turned funny)

I've got a maroon and gold leptastrea that I just cannot seem to keep happy. At least, I am pretty sure it's Leptastrea - I got it from Capital Aquariums a few months back. It has ebbed and flowed with receding/regrowing several times and I'm sick of the cycle and just want it to grow. Has anyone else kept this coral and had success? I've kept it low in the tank (30 cube, so it's pretty tall, Radion LED's running at 75%, but my program looks like a bell curve), and in what I'd consider medium flow. Other corals in the tank are doing well - besides the zoas, but that's self-inflected poor dipping technique. I keep reading how this coral is supposed to be easy, medium flow/medium light (even low light) and it grows like mad. What gives? My coral looks like this, or rather it looks like this when it's happy: https://vividaquariums.com/collections/beginner-coral-and-inverts/products/golden-leptastrea

Blister. I get them on my feet sometimes after a long run. LOL

In the display I probably have between 20-30 pounds of LR. I started with all dry, and I kept mixing/matching pieces to get it to look like how I wanted, so I didn't pay attention to how much weight actually ended up in the tank. My new light came - yowzers holy bright! I picked up a 300W UFO LED grow light from ebay for $29! Same one that sells for double that on amazon. Hope the algae likes it, I almost need sunglasses to even look in the sump now. In the sump I have a skimmer, heater, ATO float, return pump, and a bubble tower (basically just a vertical tube with holes in the bottom where my return dumps into - helps reduce bubbles in the display a little).