Gumdrop has passed

I was sick pretty much all last week so I was out of the office. With the high Nitrates, I was planning on doing 2 water changes during the week but that fell through when I got ill. Unfortunately, Gumdrop passed while I was sick. A buddy of mine was able to remove him from the tank.

The tank is looking better again this week. I did notice that the filter was unplugged and I'm not sure if it was unplugged over the weekend or just since Monday. Either way, it isn't good; pretty sure all the beneficial bacteria that was growing in the filter is dead now which may cause yet another cycle of the tank -.- This is not good for the inhabitants to constantly have their environment out of whack. 

I'll be performing a larger water change today and check my water params. If the params are not looking better, I'll probably do another water change on Monday.

~ Keep on Swimming ~

Tank looking a little better

The tank seems to be a little happier today. Most of the coral have started to open up again which is good to see. Unfortunately, I believe the Asterospicularia Coral is dead because it was not on it's base when I came in. I'm wondering if a snail or something knocked it off. I kept the body of the coral itself in the tank for now just in case if just got detached but It's covered in sand and doesn't 'feel' alive. Bummer, that was a cool one. Also, I believe all the other SPS (aside from the Sylophora) are not going to make it because of all the water chemistry changes the past few weeks. They're pretty much completely white but I read not to remove them until algae grows on them as this is a guaranteed indicator that the coral has died.

Time will tell,

~ Keep on Swimming ~

Things are not well...

So the Dinos are pretty much all gone (woo) but I probably caused a tank cycle replacing all the filter media at once. I knew this isn't a good idea but I was hoping the live rock would compensate as a filter. But apparently, the filter was doing all the work because my water params are completely out of wack now (and deadly to the inhabitants). Gilbert, unfortunately, has perished.

Parameter

Value

Salinity

1.024

pH

8.4

Ammonia

0 ppm

Nitrite

0 ppm

Nitrate

160 ppm

Phosphate

.25 ppm

Calcium

340 ppm

Carbonate Harness

107.4 ppm

Alkalinity

6.1 ppm

Magnesium

975 ppm

Iron

.05 ppm

Potassium

440 ppm

Iodine

.06 ppm

      

       *Green*: Values are good 
*Orange*: Values are not ideal but are not bad 
*Red*: Values are lethal










Ugh, and all this before a weekend, too. I threw in some Algone yesterday to hopefully try and drive down the Nitrates and dosed some dKH buffer to raise the alkalinity a bit but still not enough to be a proper value. I really wish we were allowwed in the building over the weekends like the last building so I could check on the tank...

Hoping for the best.

~ Keep on Swimming ~

Battling Dinoflagellates

I've been battling a huge dinoflagellate outbreak for the past couple weeks; hence the lack of posts. They just popped up and exploded. I'm constantly siphoning them out and off the coral because it's suffocating them. I also had some cyanobacteria pop up but I think (read: hope) that issue has resolved itself. All the coral are closed, except for the plat coral that is about 80% open. My light is also not behaving properly; it doesn't seem to be throwing light like it used to as the corners of the tank no longer get light.

I believe I may lose a couple of the SPS coral. I did a blackout of the lights for 3 days to help take the dinos down but it didn't really seem to help. I noticed all my amphipods and copepods are gone which may have attributed to the dino explosion. I picked up 300 copepods to hopefully counteract the dinos and replaced the Purigen and Chemipure Elite. 

Today, the tank seems a bit better than it has been recently. I believe the media replacements have cleaned up a bunch of the phosphates but I'll have to test for this. I also didn't use the new Red Sea Coral Pro Salt my last water change as I have been using the past few weeks. Since I began using it my coral has not really opened. 

There may be an issue with the Koralia pump because it doesn't seem to be causing as strong a current as it used to. I may have to replace it.

I'm really hoping things begin to recover soon

Tank is looking much happier

To my relief, the tank is looking much happier today! The Duncan and the Hammer were open much more than they have been and the Birdsnest that I've been worried about looks 'slightly' better. Still keeping my fingers crossed on that guy.

I also discovered that the Feather Duster I got is actually alive! During feeding today, he put out his crown. I'm glad I didn't remove him from the tank! I'll have to put him in a better spot now.

He's alive!

The Plate coral is getting large and looks gorgeous and the Big Polyp Blast is looks really neat. The Asterospicularia is cool to watch as it actually 'grows' and branches out towards the light like a sunflower. If it gets bumped around by a snail or whatever it'll change to compensate. It's relatively quick too. I was able to get a picture of the Candy Cane Coral polyps as well which was pretty cool to see. I was able to see the Favia coral extend its' polyps as well but my camera wasn't able to pick them up :( I really should get a better camera for this and clean up the side walls of the tank...

Candy Cane Coral Polyps extended

And last but not least, I got another fish for the tank to help with the SPS nutrients. It's a small one and I was really nervous as I'm already pushing the limits with the Clown. He seems to have adapted well and made his home in the tank with his tank mates. Say hello to Gilbert: the blue neon goby! I picked him up from Petco last Wednesday, I believe. I had to pry myself away from a really cool Galaxea Coral they had in stock. I really wanted it; they're some of my favorite looking coral! I have to make sure my current coral are going to be happy where I finally set them before I get it because it needs to be far away from anything else. They extend long sweeper corals and I'd be sad if it killed anyone :(

Gilbert!

That's it for now!

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

So much reading. Starting to see why SPS are more difficult to care for.

Man, the learning never stops...

I discovered that SPS corals want 'dirtier' water than LPS corals, ie they want some Nitrates and Phosphates in their environment. I also discovered that coral, particularly SPS, can change drastically in color depending on minerals and water chemistry. Mind. Blown. This could explain why the Leptasrea went from greens to red. Not quite sure if it is dead or not so I moved it to a different location to see if it has any affect. It could also very well be starving due to lack of nutrient. You'd think places that sell SPS would say they like some Nitrate and Phosphate...

Also, since the SPS want dirtier water, I may have to add another, very small, fish to increase the bioload and up the nutrients in the water. I'm going to skip this weeks water change and slightly increase the feeding of the tank to see if this affects anything. I turned the filter down to a low setting from a high setting. I don't want to do too much and overload the system.

The bleaching of SPS is not only due to too intense of light but lack of nutrients. I'm beginning to see why people say caring for SPS is more difficult that caring for LPS... I may have to get a much more sensitive Nitrate and Phosphate test kit so I can monitor these parameters at a much finer level. 

Sheesh, all this information is overwhelming but I'm loving the learning. Kind of worried about the health and life of the new SPS though and hope I can make the system happy for them and the LPS before they begin to die. 

~ Keep on Swimming! ~

Some pictures before moving the Corals

I decided to take some quick pictures of the happily acclimated corals before I disturb them all and move them. It's crazy how different some of them look from when I first got them! 

Livestock first received (for reference)

Orange Birdsnest Coral acclimated	Asterospicularia Coral acclimated
Taylor's Purple Tree Coral acclimated	Purple Hammer Coral Acclimated
Acclimated Coral

~ Keep on Swimming! ~