Susan's RMS Max C250

[Whitey1973]

No problem, I would defo check your alkalinity again if you say you were getting readings if 14!! That's quite high, keep the pics coming[emoji2]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Susanedw]

Happy Mother's day/Birthday/6 mo birthday from my dau and her SO!

He has a 300 gal tank plus 200 gal sump and a 100 gal frag tank. She has a 40 gal. Together, they fragged me 9 corals! My hubby got home made beef jerkey for father's day and I got frags. Actually one was chosen for him as he likes orange. <g>
Received:
Another colt coral on a frag with 2 white tipped leathers
Rhrodactus green mushroom
green birdsnest
orange setosa
Montipora capricorn
2 orange mushrooms that abandoned their frag plugs. Have them in bowl of water with some rubble to see if they will attachI was going to hit a fish store for another pc of coral or two before the family reunion here end of the week and didn't need to after all!

Here's some pics. I need to shift the frag with the 2 leathers to the front or higher so I can see them. The leather has some polyps on it now but too dark.
My to do list:
Need to plan permanent placement for the monti's. one is low, one is high. Maybe in center below gsp as it can grow up and out. I just have to keep it below duncan
Mushrooms (orange) I think can go against sides of rock where light is lower
Make sure birds nest and acros can be close
Move brain coral--will be too close to birds nest. It should be lower.
I added another rock to put the elegance on on other side of tank where it can grow and expand. SIL has a huge one
Need to get the gonipora off the sand due to the sand sifter
Thinking I need to add a rock on top of the shelf where the sun coral is to put the leather and colt frag. Want the sun on same rock to spread as I can feed it where it is easiest.

Yegads, this is getting complicated... Will add another full shot tomorrow with new corals. And the corals as for some reason, I can't get any files to upload tonight. They uploaded just fine to another forum and shouldn't be too large as I always save them at 30%. Sigh

 

[Susanedw]

This has been the worst week in all my 6 months. I've lost 6 fish in a week. First I noticed my bicolor blenny not acting right. Sleeping in odd spots. It disappeared. Figured it died and got eaten. Then I noticed one of the anthias I got for mother's day had tiny spots. It died 2 days later, followed by the other two I got for mother's day just over 30 days ago. Then my tang started not acting right and diedd. Today, one clown died. Yesterday it had the same rashy spots.

I suspect the 3 anthia must have brought something in. I also had 2 barnacle blennies purchased at same time and haven't seen them. But they are hard to find anyway. To cement this fear, I had also bought a yellow watchman goby for my display refugium. He last no more than a week and obviously was not right from the beginning. The fact that it died immediately, followed the the other three, and some of my other fish, leads me to believe these fish had something or brought something in as parameters have been pretty good except high nitrates

My tang had gotten like one or two spots on him in past but adding garlic always took care of it. These spots were almost more of a coating of spots.

So this weeks loses:
1 bicolor blenny
1 kole tang
1 clown--one of my first fish in Dec.
3 anthias

I have remaining:
1 clown
1 sleeper gold head goby
1 scooter blenny
2 green chromis

Maybe a good thing my refugium isn't plumbed to main tank yet as there are 3 damsels in there

While the fish are not doing well, the corals are doing fantastically. Unbelievably great.
Also, snails breeding like crazy. I know have 3 sizes of trochus baby snails.

So I will take some time, see if I can get the nutrients down and under control and get rid of algae problem while I see how the remaining fish fare.
No, I don't have a quarentine tank and yes, I will see if I can set one up.

So bummed.

 

[Susanedw]

wow, it's taken almost 2 days before I was allowed to post!

Update: Lost my second clown. Knew I would. that makes 7 gone, 4 left and question marks about my barnacle blennies. Someone asked if whatever came into my tank came from the frag tank that the corals my dau gave me were in. I don't think so as there were no fish but I don't know. Plus I'm not sure if it is plumbed into the main display or separate. If separate, then I wouldn't think so. If plumbed to main tank, they would be having issues.

Whatever the cause, it's wiping my fish out but corals doing fantastically well. I suspect the last batch of fish in may had someting they brought in. still very bummed but trying to be positive. Maybe I can really get a handle on the algae

 

[yungreefer2410]

I remember you saying you had spots on the tang in the first few pages of this thread. Sounds like ick to me. Ick goes thru life cycles, it is very possible it has been in your tank this whole time and a new addition caused it to outbreak again, more viciously this time.

 

[Susanedw]

@yungreefer2410 this wasn't what the tang used to get. I'm pretty sure after researching it is marine ick. It will take me a day or two to set up a quarantine tank and then I'm not sure I can even get out the remaining 4 to treat.

 

[yungreefer2410]

Worst case you can always remove the live rock until they have no where left to hide.

 

[Susanedw]

Big update. Major tank disaster. Lost 9 fish to velvet. Tough survivors: 2 chromis, 1 scooter blenny, 1 sleeper gold head goby. On the advice on the thread I started here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/marine-velvet.312596/ If anyone needs good advice, check it out. Lots of experts.

So based on that good, expert advice, I've removed the survivors to a QT tank. Then learned the scooter blenny, a dragonette cannot tolerate copper so he's out and in a small tank by himself. Also based on the experts, because my display refugium (DR) is within 10 feet (less than 3) and velvet can be airborne, that tank also has to go fallow. So 3 damsels added to qt tank.

Took me all day Monday to catch 7 fish in 2 tanks. Had to remove ALL rock from the DR and all but one large cemented rockwork from DT (display tank). So no fish in my office for 76 days. Because I've had ick in my tank, I'll run it fallow for that long. Velvet is 6-8 weeks--saw both numbers. So I'm bummed. It's either cry, give up (never ;Rage), or look on the bright side. Is there a bright side? Yeah there is.

I made 2 rockscape errors when I set up. One was a big, deep, wide cavern that took up a good part of the right side of tank. I could not see into it to check fish. And two, I didn't leave enough sand for corals that like sand beds. So I rescaped, changed out some rock with the DR and I think I'm happy with it. Still testing its strength to be sure nothing can fall. Might put turbos in the DR. I now have lots of sand, lots of swim throughs and hidey places. So that was a good thing. too bad no fish to enjoy it. When jail time is over, goby is going to go into the DR so I can have coral on sand in DT. Will decide if the 3 damsels will go in the main tank or back to refugium

Corals all coming back. Major hissy fits and pouting as any unattached were removed or placed in sand. Testing new spots before I glue down. White tipped Leather finally opening. That frag needs attention. It has 2 leathers and a colt. Colt has to come off.

I have 4 colt frags now. going to grow them bigger and see if the LFS will do a trade. Prob. trade in a bigger one as well as I have 3 big ones and don't have that big a tank!

still trying to get copper levels up in the one qt tank. As none show signs of MV a week or so after last death, they are just in qt as preventative and to let tanks go fallow. I am upping dosage a bit more slowly. Will remove some sand tomorrow. Needed it for the sand sifter and the scooter blenny. He's moved out so I can clear some sand out, esp. as I know where the goby is now calling home. Didn't want to over stress him. he's very stressed. Hope I get it up tomorrow and start the 76 days.

Will also get some copepods to seed both tanks. Have seen some in the main tank.

Here is the qt tank (with blenny still in) and my redone MT. Tomorrow I redo the DR.

 

[Susanedw]

Update. Realized I missed my 7 month birthday. Not sure there's a lot to celebrate this last month with velvet wiping out nearly all my fish! Still no CP for the scooter blenny. Had to return him to the DT as he wasn't eating. Gave him some time to fatten back up and removed him from tank yesterday back to his own 10 gal. Added some pods and have more in fridge to add to his tank. Need to start the countdown on DT going fallow so he just has to deal. Other fish are in 20 gal with copper. Almost 2 weeks with them. Of course, they are stuck there now for 76 days from today

Started fluconazle treatment last night for bryopsis. Will be documenting here but mainly in separate thread under that forum. Goal while tank is fishless is to get rid of all algae. Only have to feed the sun corals. Will keep up with the vibrant and nopox and biodigest. Nitrates still high but keeping a close eye. Will dose refugium display after the main tank is done. Then try to get the tanks plumbed together. Lights just came on. Skimmer turned off for the treatment. We'll see if I can leave off for full 14 days or if I have to turn it back on sooner. Hope all corals open and tell me all is well even with the new treatment. Leather hasn't opened yet

I miss all my little fish buddies. They are in another room as office is only 10 x 10 and they can't be within 10 feet of tank.

Colts are dropping branches. Have a dozen frags. They can stop anytime now...

Have more baby trochus snails. Babies in 2 sizes now. Maybe three. They are happy. Narsarius keep laying eggs. Have coraline on rocks and my wave makers and magnet glass cleaner.

So today is day one of Fallow and day one of "kill the bryopsis"

Have a tiny crab I discovered last night. No idea what kind. or if good or bad. It's hanging on my rhod. mushroom. Pics taken at night with flashlight shinning on. Looks all white even in daytime.

 

[Susanedw]

I finally figured out that my tank has bryopsis algae. Vibrant, nopox and biodigest have done nothing! So on another site, there was a thread on using flunconazle. I got some and this evening hits day 4. All I got to say is WOW and bye-bye bryop! I actually sit here and chat die-die-die... Pretty sad huh.

So here are some before pics and my lates before and day 3. I'll post my day 4 updates here as well. The algae had actually gotten a bit worse before I got the pills in the mail and used them--about 4 days between pics and start of my killing spree. I take the pics around 6-8 pm which is when I dosed initially.

by the way, I still have that itty-bitty crab. I think it must be a coral crab as it is living in the green rhod.

Before pics


Day three


ugh, ignore that little day 1 all by itself right above... wasn't supposed to group with others pics for export. Just for kicks, here is a full tank shot this morning. I'll take my test/comparissons pics around 7pm today and plug into my graphics boxes. You can really see the middle rock how gray/white it's becoming

 

[Susanedw]

Tank has been fallow for a whole 5 days...Ugh. So sad. I am tempted to add a coral or an anemone now because the tank is going fallow for ick and marine velvet. I'd just have to add another 5 days plus with the fluconazle added to kill the bryopsis, that would also take care of any incoming algae. It'd also let an anemone settle before fish are added back in.

I suspect that I might just put the surviving 2 chromis, 2 damsels and gold head sleeper goby into the display refugium and start new fish in the DT. They all seem to be doing well in the 20 gal qt. Scooter blenny will go back into the DT. He is in a 10 gal qt by himself. If I can't find a vet to get the cp, I did find it on ebay. I do have time to try to from a source more reliable.

Happy with day 5 of progress of killing off the bryopsis. By the time I can add fish back in, I hope to have a pristine tank. Can't do a wc for 2 weeks so just watching everything and planning where I'll permenantly affix all the corals. Hard to glue down onto mats of algae so they are just stuck where they will stay and where they all seem to be happy. Need to make my care sheets for each one while I'm twiddling thumbs...

Here are some day 5 shots.

 

[Susanedw]

Changed my 6 T5 lights. At 7.5 months not six but oh well. 2 ati blue/whites, 1 ati purple, 3Red sea blues.

Okay, I did it. I added a few new corals and a rbta. That means countdown to fallow begins tomorrow. I'm without any fish but in case any ick cysts came in, the 76 days start from 1. But I figured it was now or wait until toward end of october to any anything. The tank is a basically qt tank right now with no fish, and with the fluconazle beating the cr** out of the bryopsis, I also figured that would take care of the new frags.
Ended up with
Ricordia
Candy Cane
Mushroom--pretty blue
Clove
One they forgot to write the name down--maybe someone can tell me...
And a rbta.

All on bottom of sandbed except anemone who looks like it might be going to move. Dang...

I read that healthy anemones are sticky. This guy stuck to the bag, stuck to the container I used to drip acclimate and after coaxing it free, it almost stuck to my fingers as I placed it. It was looking so good, I tried to feed a tiny pc of frozen cooked shrimp and it took it and ate it. I was jazzed. The last one I tried never ate. It hid, stayed in the dark and withered away. I think it wasn't healthy to begin with plus my tank was too new But this one seems good and I hope it stays where I put it. Put thread spool netting over wave makers, and may even turn them off for the night in case it goes walkabout.

So this is it for a while. My wallet and budget will thank me. And my hubby.... I am going to order the CP from ebay unless my vet at petco's banfield will write a script for me to use on the scooter blenny. Better to get some even from ebay than not get any at all. After scooter blenny is treated, and those in copper have the copper removed, I'll move him in there and free up the 10 gal qt. Then in september, I'll purchase 2-3 new fish, prob. 2 clowns and one other, start the qt and by the time they are done, my soon to be bryopsis free tank will be ready for them.

The 2 damsels will go back to the display refugium, as will the gold head sleeper goby. My new rockscape has lots of bare sand for corals which I didn't have before, so no sand sifter. The 2 chromis I'm not sure. They can either stay with the damsels as they all seem to be managing, or go back into the dt. I actually love the new rockscape. Lots of swim thrus. It is a wall across from one end of tank to other but there are no huge caverns where I can't get to or see into, and there is lots of sand bed in front for bottom corals. Even sand in back. In fact the colts are dropping so many branches I should let the back be colts... Must have 20 frags so far. Anyone want a colt? Free! Adding them into the refugium. That might end of being a colt species, xenia and macroalgae.

so my goal/plan for the next couple months is:
Get tank algae free and nutrients where I want them
Seed more copepods in both tanks. Have lots of amphipods .
Glue/epoxy all corals where I want them.
Buy dosing pump and figure out how to dose and have even better control than manually dosing
Treat display refugium with fluconazle after main tank is finished
Pay someone to plumb the two tanks together
Replan my fish list and corals. When the weather cools I want to try online ordering as with a local fish store, you are limited by what they have and there are some others, like pretty zoas I'd like
Have the small qt tank ready to go early september
And in October, have a dt back in business.

At some point I'll play with the chiller I got. It doesn't work. It's a Teco with UV and heater and an expensive one from my son in law so I'd like to see if I can fix it. Too late for this year but next year. Made due with fans, lots of fans and low ac settings this year.

 

[Susanedw]

Very happy with my new nem. Ate again, 3 days. Just a small pc of raw shrimp. And it is staying put. Must figure that is where the food comes <g> which is why I tried feeding the first night. It was so healthy, so sticky, I figured it either would or wouldn't. It ate my offering in seconds!. I figure any creature from a lfs comes on the starved side so the daily offerings will do it good.

Day 8 of the battle of bryopsis. Guess who is winning! Not it! Used a turkey baster to blast the dead stuff off the rocks and lo and behold, there be rock beneath that stuff. Very pleased with the stuff. If anyone wants to see my progress from day one on another site, just pm me. I'm documenting the use of fluconazle and not sure I'm allowed to share that link. Putting some pics here as well.

Will add another full tank shot tomorrow or day after. It's gonna kill me to be fallow for 76 days....

 

[Susanedw]

Okay, Where am I in this wonderful reef world.... A few days late news anyway

--Day # 14/76 Fallow tanks.
--Finished 14 days of Fluconazle with amazing results. Still have some small patches and some in crevices. Might be gha now.
--Dosed Chemiclean as cyano was taking over.
--Stopped nopox and vibrant for now to see what tank does. PO4 at 0 unless I dose, nitrates around 20 still. But spent time today blowing cr** off rocks and sand as there is a lot of hidden debris from the bryopsis dying off. Will continue this to see if NO3 comes down
--Will retreat another round of fluconazle after a big water change and a cleaning of sponges in sump (around return lines sectons)
--Fish in 20 QT wc and carbon added to remove copper .
--Recieved CP from ebay to start treating scooter blenny and get him done. He's in a separate qt as he can't do copper. Hope it is pure enough to be an effective treatment.
--started flucon in display refugium as some of the bryopsis rock got put in that tank.
--new rbta did great with eating for 3 days then went on a hiding spree. Just lowered self into crevice to hang upside down. Does come out. Fed it yesterday. It's behind the rock in a crevice so I have to turn off flows and look down to feed. Today was out for a bit then back in its cave. As long as it comes out and gets fed I won't stress. Esp. until tank is done with treatments.
--sandbed still clear pretty much from stuff I blew off earlier. That's a good sign.
--can start to glue corals now that mass mats of algae are gone. Will give me something creative to do with tank during my enforced no fish time.

Lots going on but nothing exciting. Miss my fish in my office. 8 mo anniv coming up. Def. not where I thought I'd be...

 

[Susanedw]

More late news from another build thread in another forum:

Fluconazle worked very well to clear out the majority of the bryopsis. Still a few tough spots. Will hit with round 2 in a week. Spent almost 4 hrs! working on tank--brushed and blew off everything many times. I cannot believe how much debris there was from the 16 days of treatment and I've been blowing with the baster several times a day! Water was so full of ick after the wc still! Also added another wave maker to blow along back wall of tank. It's a bit bigger than the other two. I need it to go from end to end. Another wow! More debris from sand. I think clearing all this will help my no3!

Decided I needed to keep protein skimmer working for a few days minimum to clear the tank so I added carbon as I just also did a chemiclean and will give the tank a bit of time to recover and then re-treat and take skimmer off line again. Noticed my corals seem very happy. Sun corals came out in full show and they haven't been since treating, or only a few heads. Another reason to wait a week I think.

I treated the display refugium today. It's not nearly as bad as the main tank was.

Carbon and wc to qt with the fish in the 20 gal hex. Now it becomes a regular fish tank until October

Placed corals and glued now that I have algae free rock.. Things progressing. PO4 is now low. Trying to keep it just under .10 Having to dose just about every day.

Got some esv Ca/Mg/Alk to start dosing. Going to ease off on testing to every 3 days or so to see how the numbers do. PHos I'll track daily for a bit longer as I might have to rotate 5ml one day with 2.5 the next to keep it from climbing.

Stopped nopox and vibrant to see if tank settles. I hadn't noticed any difference with algae before, although might have a bit more on glass since I stopped nopox. I can always start if needed. No3 still high but will continue to blow off rocks and sand. Only thing I'm feeding is a sun coral and coral food. Some pellets for the scavengers as there isn't much food being fed with no fish.

 

[Susanedw]

As I can't buy anything to go into my tanks until october, I'm concentrating on upgrading and getting new equipment. First on the list was a new led light from amazon for the display refugium. Hated the cheap hood the 37 gal came with so bought a led adjustable light. Went really cheap as it was just going to have macros. Well, now it has corals, sort of my frags, plus 2 xenias I decided not to put back in the main tank as they were already spreading I needed something a bit better so got an Euphotica 16 inch from Hobbie Bug. No built in timer but 30 bucks cheaper than the one with the timer. This one had 3 groups of white lights, the other only 2, not that I know if that's good or bad. For the 30 dollars difference I can buy a timer for 10 bucks as I already have one. Looks nice and wow, it is bright. Now to figure out how much blue and how much white percentages to use. Seems most people have more blue than white.

Next on my list is power cord management. One thing I dislike is a snarl of cords. And besides, you have a nice tank and the view is spoiled by a mess. I want people to ooh and ahh over my tank, not eyeball my cords. So I'm going to get a couple of power centers and mount them to the wall. Maybe onto something like a peg board so that other plugs/outlet strips needed can also be organized. This gets everything up off floor and organized in one area.

Also soon, this month, is a dosing head. I think I'll just use the bottles instead of getting a container for the liquids. I'm working on figuring out what my system uses daily and think I'm about there. Phos might have to be done manually as it flucuates. I think it will need to be dosed every other day or at 5 ml one day and half that the next. 3 days in a row of 5 and I'm just over 2 again.

In september my goal is to get a back up generator for the winder. That's about 500 bucks on amazon.

Tank looking really good except some dino's appearing by end of day but not nearly as bad. Add some bio spira to compete for the food sources. I don't have any fish right now but even so, my nitrates are still high, even after a 20 % water change. Corals don't seem to mind. The sun corals didn't come out much while using the fluconazle--partly maybe as over 2 weeks no water change and 9 days no skimmer. Water quality sucked with all the die off. Out in full color last few days, looking better than ever. Notice a lot more pe in most corals. Hate to redose the flucon and may put it off and see what those spots of algae do. If it starts to take hold, I dose. No if ands or buts.

Lobo doesn't seem to extend tentacles at night yet. Gets all swollen up but doesn't eat. Thinking it was pretty starved when I bought it so hoping it will get what it needs from water when I feed corals, and the lights. Have it right on top.

Green Rhrodactus Mushroom split into two. My first split, montipora capricornis is showing some growth, sedosa orange monti also showing more polyps. Closed since gluing it down. Will ck in am. Ricordia looks like there is now 2 and anemone, even though it not in sight of front of tank, is where I can feed it and it eats. Hoping it will come out more. Might move the colt where it is in it's crevice in case it is affecting the anemone. Prob. not.

About ready to move all colts to display refugium as they dropped a ton of branches and they are growing in my rocks now. Can I admit to being a control freak and say I want to determine where what goes where? lol's...

Will get some updated coral pics to share.

 

[yungreefer2410]

For dosing, I am a fan of running two brs dodgers dosing their calcium and alk supplement kit that they sell. This is about $120 and should keep your corals growing well and with proper water changes all your stats in line.

 

[yungreefer2410]

Dosers**

 

[Susanedw]

So I missed my 8th month birthday!!! My Molly cat doesn't want me updating. She's laying on one arm which makes typing difficult....

Things looking good so far. Nitrates still high, phos ranging from 0 to .2 mostly down but some flucuation. Removed the sponges from the sump (all in one so there are 2, one in each return chamber), cleaned the sump out as much as I could without removing pumps etc. cut sponges in thirds to put in to act like a filter sock. Be easier to take out and replace every few days. Should have 3 of each size so can change and then wash. Will see if this works or maybe I'll remove one all together.

Shrimps are desperate for food. One took the pc of shrimp I gave to the rbta! The next day I gave it a pc of its own. Yesterday, went to feed sun corals and there is one of the peppermints. Gave him some food, and the other a pc of shrimp. Without the fish, I'm seeing them come out a lot more. Or else without fish, they don't have much to scrounge. I do toss in some pellets and there is food from the suns.

Rose bubble tip is doing great. It of course went under where I put it and out the back side. But it comes out every day and eats most days. Yesterday it went into the rock it favors before I could feed it. Made sure I fed this morning when it came out.

Yesterday I was checking my corals with my phone camera. I put it on 8x zoom so I can see polyps etc. One acro, one I'm not sure will come back had tons of copepods all over it. Was jazzed for that. Spotted some on another I tried to frag--piece that broke off that frag and they were there too. Hope that doesn't mean the acros are history... But today, I noticed copepods on the sand bed. No magnification needed and out in daylight. I looked really close and I can see them everywhere now. Big and small, as I have ampipods as well. When my fish come home, they will feast.... Maybe I can get my mandarin now.

Also noticed more of the bryopsis is gone. still had a few stubborn patches. Even the stuff still on the pally frag is gone . All but 2 that are under rocks are gone now. Tank is pretty clear, sand bed nice, no sludge, no debris.

So aside from wanting fish back in there, tank is looking good. Hopeful that it is maturing. Can't wait until October.... Actually will get one or two fish in september to start their qt so they are ready by mid to late october. Now to find someone to help me plumb the two tanks together once refugium is done iwth it's flucon treatment.


A sun coral shot

 

[Susanedw]

Some corals.