Building Gurgly – Kallor’s 125ish gallon reef tank

[YHSublime]

How about an update?! I'm sure you've got double polyps on all your stuff by now! That tank must be filling in nicely!

[Kallor]

How about an update?! I'm sure you've got double polyps on all your stuff by now! That tank must be filling in nicely!

Thanks for tuning in again, and for the positive outlook! Things are indeed going quite well ... on most fronts. I've got some fun stuff to share over the next few days regarding the positive things - but I guess I shall start with the more urgent info.

 

My first 'update' post will thus be more of a cry for help - as of course those are always more time sensitive. I've got a trachyphyllia I picked up at the last WAMAS meetup. It has been doing well, but over the last month or so it started a gradual decline. It has some dark spots that appear to be growing. I've tried a Beyer dip, followed a week later by a dip in Lugol's solution - but those haven't had any apparent positive response. It is placed in a well lit spot on the sand bed (light by two Radion Gen 3's). I know that sometimes you just get a coral that won't work in your tank - or had issues you couldn't fix - but I'd love to save this guy if I can. If my tank just isn't a good home, I'm happy to give the coral (gratis of course) to someone that might save him.

 

This is what he looks like at the moment. The dark spots have noticeably grown since the dips - which have been over the last two weeks. 

 

 

My parameters are as follows:

 

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: 0 

Phosphate: 0.04 - 0.06

PH: 8.0 - 8.2

Salinity: 35ppm / 1.025

Temp: 77 - 78

ALK: 9 

Calcium: 440

MG: 1420

 

I'll follow up in the next few days with the positive stuff - I've got lots of nice growth on most everything else :-)

 

All input and suggestions are appreciated!

 

(edited to fix typos)

Edited June 12, 2014 by Kallor

[YHSublime]

No suggestions, but if you want to put it in my frag tank you can see how it fairs. Find out if it's on it's way out or not...

[dante411x]

Same as above with suggestions... Those parameters are perfect, so nothing to say there. Maybe something is picking on it... Doesn't look like it though.. I'd take Isaac up on his frag tank suggestion. Somehow with my system, some corals do amazing in the frag tank and when they go in the display, they just refuse to open/look like they are dying.. Back in the frag tank and they open right back up.

[Kallor]

No suggestions, but if you want to put it in my frag tank you can see how it fairs. Find out if it's on it's way out or not...

 

 

Same as above with suggestions... Those parameters are perfect, so nothing to say there. Maybe something is picking on it... Doesn't look like it though.. I'd take Isaac up on his frag tank suggestion. Somehow with my system, some corals do amazing in the frag tank and when they go in the display, they just refuse to open/look like they are dying.. Back in the frag tank and they open right back up.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys! Issac, I'm definitely going to take you up on your offer!

[Kallor]

I’ve had some new arrivals! BB and Dizie, the Purple Helfrichi Firefish!

And that’s not all – there is also Kela, the Yellow Assessor Basslet!

 

 

After the basslet and firefish were introduced, my formerly reclusive clownfish became much bolder. They continue to regularly explore the tank and clearly seem more at ease after the addition of Kela, BB and Dizie. Here they are exploring with Sharon the Kole Tang (who is also the benevolent queen of the tank).

 

Of course, everything hasn't gone perfectly smooth (see the prior post regarding my ailing Trachyphyllia, which is currently convalescing at Issac’s (thanks again!)). However, I have gotten some growth on quite a few corals, so with that said, here are some photos documenting the coral progress.

Starting with the Mystic Sunset Montiporra, which I don’t have a ‘before’ picture of – but you can see the growth nonetheless (along with some snail eggs).

 

Frogspawn – 2/26 to 6/9

 

Stubber’s Acroporra – 4/21 to 6/9

Meteor Shower Cyphastrea – 4/21 to 6/20

Blueberry Lime Birdsnest – 4/21 to 6/20

[smallreef]

Lookin good! The assessor though...let me know how he does..my angelfish already killed 2 :( (evil Lamarcks)

All your other corals are looking nice...maybe the trachy is one of the ones you just can't have...like I can't keep a cyphastrea alive to save my life,lol but I have 3 acro's now ... It's always weird when alot of stuff does greats our tanks and there is that one elusive thing we can't keep,,.,

[JR-Tanked150]

I like the fish, helfrichi are one of my favorites. You have some good growth on your corals. Love the birdsnest.

[Kallor]

Lookin good! The assessor though...let me know how he does..my angelfish already killed 2 :( (evil Lamarcks)

All your other corals are looking nice...maybe the trachy is one of the ones you just can't have...like I can't keep a cyphastrea alive to save my life,lol but I have 3 acro's now

... It's always weird when alot of stuff does greats our tanks and there is that one elusive thing we can't keep,,.,

 

Thanks! Sorry to hear about your assessors :-( So far everyone is getting along nicely, so hopefully that will continue!

 

I definitely get the 'type of coral I just can't keep' issues people have - in fact, I'm running into another issue myself regarding my SPS.

I've noticed on both milleporra and now some acros some algae growth. This all popped up recently and quickly. Does anyone have any clue what could be going on? I did a fully battery of tests this weekend, and everything looks fine water-quality wise - I'm really rather perplexed.

You can see what this stubber's acroporra looked like earlier this month (and even last week) in the photo above . . . here is what it looks like today:

 

[Kallor]

I like the fish, helfrichi are one of my favorites. You have some good growth on your corals. Love the birdsnest.

 

Thanks for the kind words! The helfrichi have been great, and hopefully the coral growth will continue (assuming I can get this algae issue ironed out . . . see the above photo for what it looks like)

[YHSublime]

I think what you are calling a "stubbers" is actually a "tri-color," also from my tank. The part that has algae growing on it is dead. I don't know why that is happening, but if your water quality all looks good, and there have been no swings, I would look into things like stinging from other corals, lighting, and flow.

 

Sorry to say I lost the trachyphyllia. It was more than halfway dead when I put it in my tank, and has slowly withered into a skeleton. Perhaps it was stressful moving it. Sorry friend, I gave it the exact same conditions as mine:

 

[Kallor]

I think what you are calling a "stubbers" is actually a "tri-color," also from my tank. The part that has algae growing on it is dead. I don't know why that is happening, but if your water quality all looks good, and there have been no swings, I would look into things like stinging from other corals, lighting, and flow.

 

Sorry to say I lost the trachyphyllia. It was more than halfway dead when I put it in my tank, and has slowly withered into a skeleton. Perhaps it was stressful moving it. Sorry friend, I gave it the exact same conditions as mine:

 

 

Thanks for the info - and the update on the trachy'. I'm sad but not surprised - I think it was too far gone by the time you got it. I do appreciate the effort nonetheless. Your's certainly looks amazing! I love that color combination as well!

 

Oh, and my apologies for continually misnaming that tri-color. I'll update my photos so I put a stop to it for good :-)

 

I think (hopefully) my current problem could possibly have been a flow issue - I noticed the other day that one of the powerbricks for one of my two MP-40s had come disconnected, and thus I was running only one of the two pumps for a week or so. I've of course got the situation sorted out now, so hopefully that will get everything back in swing. I'd be more confident this was the issue, but this tri-color still got lots of movement from the other pump - however, the waterflow in the tank was obviously still impacted.

 

Also, I'm constantly doing mild tweaks on my lighting, so in case I really messed it up somehow I reverted to a backup of my lighting program from a month ago.  

[Kallor]

So re-visiting the coral die-off I experienced, I definitely think it was a flow issue. As I noted above, for about a week one of my MP-40s was unplugged (the slave unit). I don't know if this caused the other MP-40 to throttle up or not, but I do recall seeing some vortexes form in the water, which I normally never see. In hindsight, this should have been a wake up call to check what was going on, but at the time I just thought "Neat, I've never seen Reef Crest mode kick in this strong!". Perhaps the second pump mellows out the other (or at least it helps disperse the other pumps flow). Either way, by the time I realized their was an issue (which was last Saturday/Sunday) the damage was done (I had re-plugged in the pump on the preceding Thursday).

 

It appears that the coral die off has stopped (or it has at least slowed quite a bit). My bubblegum millepora appears to have taken the worst of the damage, but all in all I've got 4-5 wounded SPS (all my acros and millies). I feel really bad about this, and I should have noticed the warning signs earlier, but the pump that was off is obscured a bit behind some rock from my primary viewing location. There were of course warnings (the vortex I noted above, seeing a clownfish sleeping right under the should-have-been-on pump, and also seeing a cleaner shrimp walking almost on top of it, etc.). A hectic week at worked paired with a bumping the wrong thing ... uggh...

 

 

This sums up how I feel right now.

[Kallor]

Now hopefully to put that negativity behind me, here is something positive that happened this month

 

http://youtu.be/D8Tq0xvRDvk

 

(If anyone knows how to embed flickr videos, please let me know - I finally buckled and upload it to youtube as I couldn't figure it out)

 

(Edit: Hopefully youtube will figure out this is a 1080p video, and not 360p ... never uploaded to youtube before so I'm not sure how this works - Here is the flickr link if anyone wants to see it in 1080p)

Edited June 25, 2014 by Kallor

[smallreef]

Wow...I'm not sure what a hair worm is...but that's cool!

[Kallor]

Wow...I'm not sure what a hair worm is...but that's cool!

 

Thanks - it was a fun thing to see! This particular worm is a type of cirratulid (likely a cirratulid polychaete). If you scroll down a bit on this page (or just search the page for cirratulid) you can find some more info on them.

[surf&turf]

Any updates?

[Kallor]

Any updates?

 

My apologies to everyone for not tuning into the WAMAS forums over the last few months. I've had some busy times (non-reefing) as well as busy times reefing. Most of the busy tank work has been trying to figure out why everything fell apart back in June. I think I can honestly say I'm back on the right track now :-)

 

I'm still not entirely sure what caused the coral problems I had starting in June. I’ve been confident I figured out in the past, and been wrong (as I continued to have problems after fixing an issue). My current theory is that it was (at least) two issues. The first was not enough light. Over the months I tweaked and updated the settings of my Radions. The Reeflink software makes this all too easy. Over a few months of tweaking, I slowly lowered my light output via lowering the whites, greens and red LED output in the tank in an effort to achieve a more pleasant color. What I didn't do was compensate by turning the light level up. I think over time I went from just-enough light to too little light. 

 

The corals may have been fine through the light change process, but as this was happening trouble was a-brewin' in my sump. I had decided not to use filter socks because 1) they are a pain, and 2) you pull out all of those lovable little 'pods when you remove them from the water. My plan was to siphon out the junk that built up in the slow flow area of the sump. I did this as part of monthly maintenance, but over time the detritus levels grew and grew. My nitrates never went nuts, but they went up to about 8ppm.  Previously I'd been around 0 or 0.25, and I don't think the corals appreciated the raised levels.

 

These two factors hitting at once, combined with an ALK overdose (and a pump issue) led to a mass SPS die-off. To make things worse, I convinced myself at one point I had too much PAR and lowered the light level. Now I've got a PAR tester, so I can get ballpark figures and make sure things are set right.

 

At the lowest of the low points, my  red monti me died off. It started as frag from Isaac’s mother colony, and was one of my first calcifying corals.  It had shown great growth, but over about 1 week or so it totally browned over. I realized then that my issues weren't just flow, or the past ALK overdose, and I really went into high gear trying to figure out the problem.

 

I've since gone crazy cleaning my sump, and I've worked filter socks into my regular maintenance routine. My nitrates are back in the 0 to 0.25 range as well, and I'm slowly raising my Radion's brightness. Also, happily, the red monti is coming back with gusto. After being sure it was dead, it is immensely satisfying watching it re-grow.

 

I've got an orange setosa that I thought was completely dead - over the last month it has gone from 1 tiny, tiny polyp to over a dozen. The monti has re-covered about 20% of itself, and continues to improve. Most recently, my mystic sunset montiporra has also started to re-grow. I'm thrilled, and continuing to very carefully monitor everything. Now that I feel like I'm back on track, I hope to spend more time on the message boards and otherwise participating in the community. It has been a rough few months (reefing wise) but I've certainly learned a lot. 

 

I'll post some before/after re-growth shots in a week or so. I would have documented the progress more, but I was worried that I would jinx myself :-)

 

Thanks for checking in on my thread!

[surf&turf]

Glad to hear your back on track!!

[monkiboy]

refreshing to hear one have the patience this hobby requires and to come back methodically to achieve even a bit of success and become reinvigorated again. thank you for the update.

[YHSublime]

Hey. Blast from the past. Glad things are getting back to "normal!"

[DuffyGeos]

Stick with it, problems happen, you get mad, figure it out, fix it, and get back into the enjoyment.

 

I think this hobby, like many things, has highs and lows. Looks like you are heading into the highs again!

 

this is also a good place to vent....Let me tell you about what one of my clients did today!!!

[Kallor]

Thanks for the kind words everyone! The coral continues to grow back, which is rewarding. Unfortunately, one of my firefish got beat up pretty bad last Wednesday night. She was doing great when I went to bed, and when I saw her in the morning she had a popped-out eye and a big gash in her throat. 

My guess at this point is that a hermit crab snuck up on her while she was asleep and starting chomping. I've never seen any of the fish quarrel, and given the severity of her injuries, I don't know what else it could be. Over the last 6 days, the swelling in her eye has gone down a bit - but the gash in her throat doesn't look much, if any better. I'm not sure she can open her mouth to eat, so I guess prospects aren't so good. She was looking particularly bad this morning, so I'm sure she will appreciate any wishes for a speedy recovery. 

 

Also, If anyone has any treatment ideas, feel free to share! 

 

Sick firefish

Edited November 4, 2014 by Kallor

[DuffyGeos]

Maybe she went out to a bar, got drunk, and got in a fight?

 

Or the crab thing.

[Kallor]

Maybe she went out to a bar, got drunk, and got in a fight?

 

Or the crab thing.

 

Yeah, at least if it were a bar fight she would have gotten to enjoy a few drinks first!

 

The only thing I've been able to really do at this point is hunt for larger hermit crabs. I had one that was whose shell was about the diameter of a quarter, and he is now on lock-down in the refugium. The other hermits are all 'micro' sized - penny-diameter shells and smaller. I guess theoretically even the very-small crabs have claws  and can do damage - but the gash on her throat is large enough that I doubt those tiny crabs could be the source of the drama.

 

None of the fish have ever come close to fighting, and even with the busted up eye and throat, the injured firefish hasn't acted intimidated by anyone else in the tank (the other fish being: 1 additional firefish, a pair of pink-skunk clowns, a kole tang, 1 banggai cardinalfish, and 1 blue-spot jawfish). The most aggressive things ever get in my tank is when the big female clownfish briefly chases the small male - or when the kole tang decides to nip on algae on the back of a conch :-).