Mark's Tanks

[Salty Dog24]

What does the AE stand for in AEFW, i'm assuming FW is Flat Worm

[markalot]

Originally Posted by Salty Dog24

What does the AE stand for in AEFW, i'm assuming FW is Flat Worm

Acropora eating flat worms, a very different beast from the regular annoying flatworms, and flatworm exit does nothing to them. I was terrified of them at first but basting the acros each water change seems to stop most of the damage. I assume they get blown off and either get eaten or never find their way back up to the coral.

This is what the damage looks like on my ORA Blue Voodoo. See the circular bite marks? I blew a big one off this coral.

[Bello]

Yep, that's them alright....

Mark...just wanted to say, that IMO, it's all about eliminating variables of what can go wrong......as you do that...things get stable....and better

Nice pic and coral BTW, wish I had access to frags like that

[Salty Dog24]

Thanks Mark!

[markalot]

It's QT time. AEFW back with a vengeance. I rescaped the 40 to give me some height to work with and did some closeup pics of the bad looking corals. It's bad. Setting up my old 20 long this weekend for the 8 week Bayer dip and QT process.

These were the worst effected. My Red Acro and Green slimer appear untouched but will get the treatment as well. Wish me luck.





Here is the FTS of the rescape. I still am working on how to reposition that big rock at the back left.

[markalot]

First dip is completed. 6ml Bayer concentrated to 1 cup saltwater. Makes a very milky solution.











I still have to cover / kill some encrusted areas.

[sahin]

Best of luck. I feel for you. They killed all my SPS in the past.

[markalot]

Originally Posted by sahin

Best of luck. I feel for you. They killed all my SPS in the past.

Thanks. I think it will go ok, as long as the QT tank doesn't crash. I'm very nervous about keeping SPS in a brand new tank with only a few smaller rocks from my AEFW free tank for adding bacteria. That old 20 gallon had been sitting unused for months. The coraline on the glass is just dead coloring.

[troubadour11]

Good luck with the dips and eradicating the infestation!

Hmmm... I don't know much on bayer dips. I'm off to do some on that now. I haven't moved on to SPS yet. Only a couple ricordea frags and a zoa frag. But I'll need to know this soon. I wasn't expecting to QT frags as I bring them in. I'll probably be following some sort of dip regiment before introduction though. I just need to learn a bit more about the process.

Does it take much to keep them alive in QT? Currently, my QT has some cheap incandescent bulbs. But I'm sure I could run some CFLs in there. Or modify it for that easily enough if I needed to.

But good luck and I'll be checking in to see if you're getting the improvement your looking for!

[markalot]

Originally Posted by troubadour11

Good luck with the dips and eradicating the infestation!

Hmmm... I don't know much on bayer dips. I'm off to do some on that now. I haven't moved on to SPS yet. Only a couple ricordea frags and a zoa frag. But I'll need to know this soon. I wasn't expecting to QT frags as I bring them in. I'll probably be following some sort of dip regiment before introduction though. I just need to learn a bit more about the process.

Does it take much to keep them alive in QT? Currently, my QT has some cheap incandescent bulbs. But I'm sure I could run some CFLs in there. Or modify it for that easily enough if I needed to.

But good luck and I'll be checking in to see if you're getting the improvement your looking for!

I'll have to let you know if it takes much to keep them alive. I have no fish so I've sprinkled in some coral food which will start to rot and create a small ammonia source ... I assume. Using a turkey baster to keep things mixed up. Besides water changes I have no nutrient export, so I must be very careful else algae will explode.

[markalot]

I received my crock colored epoxy today so I've completed killing / covering all remaining acro encrusted areas in the 40. I also went ahead and rescaped as if the acros were not coming back, just so the tank wouldn't look under construction for a couple of months.

My long lost Rusty Goby has moved back into view!



FTS

[Bello]

Good work Mark ....I need to do this also, need to man up a bit!!...Worried about losing colors AND corals......And I've got a ton of them! Waiting to see your results.

Nice work on the scape BTW, the scape makes the tank look way bigger than a 40. I like the channel of the right side of the pic

[markalot]

Originally Posted by Bello

Good work Mark ....I need to do this also, need to man up a bit!!...Worried about losing colors AND corals......And I've got a ton of them! Waiting to see your results.

Nice work on the scape BTW, the scape makes the tank look way bigger than a 40. I like the channel of the right side of the pic

Thanks Bello. I guess you can say I was lucky to not have a lot of acros and have a spare tank sitting around. I'm threatening to keep it running as a coral only tank if all goes well. I'm really not sure what kind of maintenance it will need. An algae explosion will certainly change my mind quickly.

Oh, I got my Marine Magic doser yesterday. Much bigger than I expected. Going to use it to stabilize my topoff + Reef Builder mixture first, then look into if I want to properly dose 2 part with it or not. I bought the triple doser.

[troubadour11]

I would have to agree. I like the re-scape. You do good work my friend

It's crazy. Your picture makes the 40 tank look bigger then my 90!!! Looking good!

Can you give me a quick little run down of a few more "newbie" details on your plans for stabilizing your top off? What's in the "reef builder mixture?" Is that a brand, or something you mix up on your own for your systems? My tank is quite sterile right now, and I'm just starting to look into using my gravity fed ATO to try and stabilize Ca and Alk. But I'm in a and learning phase on all these tricks until I get my lights running and we start adding more corals. But it never hurts to learn a bit more about the next steps while I'm waiting to get there

Thanks!

[markalot]

Thanks for the compliment, though i assure you my scaping is all a happy accident.

I was having to dose 45ml of 2 part every day to keep my KH at 8. This resulted in big swings each time I dosed. My solution was to mix my topoff water with Seachem Reefbuilder, which raises KH. I use glass lids so my evaporation is low, so keep this in mind. I use 3 teaspoons of reefbuilder for 2 gallons of topoff. I use a simple timer and aqualifter system that turns on for 30 minutes, 4 times a day. This doesn't perfectly match my KH usage but allows me to keep it steady by dosing a capful of part 2 (alk) in the morning and 2 caps of part 1 in the evening. The resulting KH swing is much less.

I use Kent reef salt which measures 550 Ca, 1450 Mg and around 9.5 KH and I do weekly 5% or bi-weekly 10% changes, give or take a gallon or so. With my new dosers I should be able to lock in a much more stable topoff regime using my topoff/reefbuilder mix, and I'll probably lock in my calcium dosing as well, so I don't have to manually dose this tank at all.

I think I've finally proven to myself that stability is the key to color. My 46 has always, from day 1, been more colorful with some of the same corals. The difference is the alk usage is much lower and only requires a 10ml of Alk a day.

[Bello]

Good move on the doser , should make things a lot easier. While I've NEVER done this, it does seem like a good idea..... using fresh water, check what the actual dosage from the doser is, for each head.. i.e. does 10ml on the doser, actually dose 10ml precisely? Just a suggestion, from my gleaning from more knowledgeable aquarists

Think it'd be great if you could run a permanent coral QT though!!...Imagine that, no more pests!...Since you've already started experimenting, wonder how long the qt will remain relatively clean?....I'm considering something like a coral qt for my future purchases...lets see how that goes

[markalot]

Long overdue update.

I lost all my acros except the green slimer. Just too many flatworms and after two dosing damage was still showing up. Since I had mostly small frags I decided to end it all. Well, for the acros anyway.

As of right now my 46 gallon tank is the only tank I have that has been acro free for 6 months, so it is currently hosting 3 acro frags; a Rainbow Milli, a Rose Milli, and a ORA Plum Crazy, all purchased from the same shop. If they end up with AEFW then at least I know where they are coming from.

Latest FTS of the 40.


fullsize: http://imageshack.com/a/img191/4285/1iji.jpg

and my 46 gallon.


fullsize: http://imageshack.com/a/img31/97/blbs.jpg

[markalot]

It's been a while so time for an update.

I switched to the Maxspect Razor for lighting supplemented by 2 BuildMyLED strip lights on the front and back. I'm using my custom warm white, blue, royal blue, true violet Windex special spectrum on the back and their 20K spectrum on the front.

I've been restarting my acros from tiny frags since getting AEFW last year and getting rid of all acros except my slimer, which keeps growing and growing and growing.

This was a FTS yesterday just before I did a 'scoot in' rescape to try and gain a few inches on either side of the tank for flow.



Post 'scoot' with the slimer fragged up a bit and my Bird of Paradise birdsnest moved to the back right. All slime is courtesy of the big green slimer.



The giant green bird came loose and I was holding the beast in my hand. It's huge! I placed or crammed it back in place so it won't move in the flow.

I've upgraded the pumps in this tank. I now have an MP40 on theleft and MP10 on the right running in sync, Reef Crest, and 80% full power. Lot's of chaos when it ramps up.

I don't have a window box floater thing but I took some top down pics for color (they are blurry). I can't believe how much more colorful the corals are from the top.

The green slimer is GREEN, much greener that when viewed from the front.



The purple fuzzy is sort of purple, and certainly fuzzy.



Now this one, the mystery green and blue. Look at the blue tip and the cool yellowish base.



I was most excited about this one. It still appears mostly brown from the front but I believe I might have a nice milli here.



My purple poci does not look this good from the front.



Thanks for looking.

[tallball158]

Looking good, the corals are filing in nicely!

[markalot]

Originally Posted by tallball158

Looking good, the corals are filing in nicely!

Thanks tallball.

[Bello]

Whoa...an update...I must be dreaming

Glad to see that things are doing well Mark . The colors on most of the corals look great (I can't see the others). I love the slimer, don't care if its common or whatever, I think every SPS tank should have one . However, I seem to be having a terrible run of luck with them, dunno, just can't get them to grow out.

The birdsnest, and most other corals have shown some impressive growth . Hope the bloody AEFW's stay forever now, for you and me

When you get the time, can you list your NO3, PO4 and feeding regimen? Thanks

[markalot]

Originally Posted by Bello

Whoa...an update...I must be dreaming

Glad to see that things are doing well Mark . The colors on most of the corals look great (I can't see the others). I love the slimer, don't care if its common or whatever, I think every SPS tank should have one . However, I seem to be having a terrible run of luck with them, dunno, just can't get them to grow out.

The birdsnest, and most other corals have shown some impressive growth . Hope the bloody AEFW's stay forever now, for you and me

When you get the time, can you list your NO3, PO4 and feeding regimen? Thanks

Howdy Bello, thanks for stopping by.

I don't measure either anymore. I have both Red Sea and Salifert NO3 and PO4 tests and could never get either to show anything. I also have a Hannah PO4 checker and it alternates reading 0 and 1.8 so I stopped using it. If algae appears to be getting worse or colors start to fade for no apparent reason I'll start chucking in some well rinsed Phosguard in small amounts, changing it every other day for a week.

I feed the fish all flake and pellet food and do the Biggles pinch of Reef Roids every night, sometimes every other night. I'm also a big fan of Kent Coral Accel which will speed up coral and algae growth! I've been trying AcroPower but I'm not sure it does anything except make the birdsnest have some extreme polyp extension.

I run dirty tanks. I have a fish in this one that really needs at least a 65 gallon and I like to keep stuff for him to graze on. Between him and my thin striped hermits (2 of them) I never see any significant algae.

Skimmer is a fairly crappy CPR BakPak like skimmer build into a HOB refugium. The refugium stays empty other than collecting detritus that I vac out from time to time. I run media in a HOB Aquaclear 110. Usually just carbon and Phosguard when needed. My next tank, if I get one, will have a sump.

[Bello]

That's very impressive, given the minimal amount of equipment run . I'm trying something similar, but only with monti's in a 20g tank .

Thanks for the info. I stopped testing for NO3 and PO4 for quite a bit, as well. My buddy bought over his Hanna P checker, and we ended up testing, and got about 4 different readings, with various combos, for the same water....not impressed.

I'm getting better results with higher amounts of feedings, that's certain. I'm running a dirty tank as well, plenty of algae, haven't changed Phosguard for a long time as I wanted to see what natural levels would remain in the tank. However, a few corals that are already brown, don't seem to be making a quick trip back to proper colours. May have to go cleaner, while maintaining highish feeding levels.

Using Roids as well, though not everyday. Need to find a better balance. Thanks for the info Mark, looks like I'll have to change out Phosguard soon too .

[footballdude2k3]

Sorry to hear about the AEFW, but that slimer looks great!

[markalot]

Originally Posted by footballdude2k3

Sorry to hear about the AEFW, but that slimer looks great!

Thanks. Yea, this slimer is a locally grown coral that's been in some guys tank for at least 5 years and supposedly he got it from someone who has grown it for years. He stops in a nearby fish store once a year to drop off frags of it. His pieces are a foot long.

During the Bayer dipping the slimer might have dulled a bit, but not much. I never saw any AEFW damage on it, and I've seen it kill an aptasia anemone by slimign the heck out of it. Well, cause it to move anyway, it was gone after a few days of heavy sliming.