Smite's Stout CDA - 205G

[DylanCameron]

Well I went to check my skimmer cup and saw no foam. It was unplugged, not sure how long ago I did that but could be a major part of my issue. Or what saved some pieces, my chaeto must have been sucking up quite a bit of nutrients since they all show so low still. I was also running a short duration of ozone at night, I wonder if that pissed things off without it being skimmed off?

I’m not an ozone expert, but I definitely suspect this had something to do with it. Sorry, I’m not sure exactly how you’ve got your tank set up (maybe one day I’ll have time to read all 55 pages of your thread, lol!), are you monitoring ORP?

Glad the smoothies are doing well. I plan on making my next tank smoothie dominant and you’ve definitely got some killer pieces! Hoping everything pulls through

 

[Jimbo327]

Just ride it out. I’m also living through your post since my tank is not set up. I plan to start it up next month, so would be nice to have reefers nearby. Hopefully, you can give me pointers on having a large tank. Hoping your tank recovers. Ozone is powerful, and will break down organically where your water is crystal clear. This can sometimes shock your SPS because more PAR is getting through the clear water.

 

[Smite]

FTS from today. Tried fragging a few pieces that were going south but no real luck. Some pieces are crapping out and some a thriving. My consumption is up a bit and my JF fox flame is starting to look better.

All but lost that wild enchinata, I'm going to try and frag the small piece left but have little hope for it at this point. TGC Creamsicle, ORA Frogskin, CC Voodoo Magic, BC Aquaticman, JF Flame, PC Rainbow and a few other smoothies are loving life so I'm just focusing on those for now.

 

[mattyzang]

i'm having similar issues in my tank. not sure if it's the ever popular bacterial issue or just general neglect which is also true on my part. i think i'm gonna give oxolinic acid a whirl whenever it gets here and see if that helps

 

[Smite]

I'll have to look that up. Is it something that's better or safer than cipro for bacterial issues?

 

[mattyzang]

I'll have to look that up. Is it something that's better or safer than cipro for bacterial issues?

i guess? i haven't really followed the whole bacterial issue stuff lately. the guy i asked about it i told him i had cipro and he advised to just get the oxolinic acid. the only other option i can see is just sit back, order an aquabiomics test, test it, then wait like 3 months for the results to come in. so i'll just give this a whirl and see how it goes

 

[drexel]

Sorry to hear about the pieces going down, hopefully the echinata will hold on? OA is something that Jake Adams, Chris Meckley and someone else was working on to see if it was a viable option for treating TN and other issues. It seems promising and doesn't have the issues cipro has (or will have). Keith (Reefbum) talked about it on his livestream/channel recently, so he might have some good info on how to use it? Hopefully things will recover for both of you, it's always tough not knowing what's really going on in our tanks.

 

[Smite]

Wow that's insane it takes that long to get results. Yeah I feel like I've had 2 ICP come back fine and still losing stuff. I do have a decent temp diff daily but nothing that should be causing a huge issue?

Thanks drexel, I'll be reading up more on it before trying anything. I feel like if I were to do something, I'd probably go the witchazel route first to see if there was any improvement. Even that I'm a little bit weary on.

 

[Smite]

Quanta OG Pop - thru orange shades FTS/side shot

a few other pieces doing well. I’m really liking the RR Robin Hood granulosa

Unfortunately it looks like my Confetti may be doomed at this point that’s the look I get before TN. @mattyzang do you experience anything that looks like this?

 

[OGFrenchHorn]

Crazy how most of your pieces look amazing yet some are stning


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[bakbay]

Awesome pics — sorry to hear about the Confetti. Mine has been encrusting yet dormant for more than a year!

Assume you’ve looked at flow or bugs? Weird that the rest is fine

 

[drexel]

Hopefully the confetti will hold on? Dude, that hyperberry hasn't missed a beat, it looks awesome!

 

[Smite]

Crazy how most of your pieces look amazing yet some are stning


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Unfortunately that’s been the name of the game since I set this system up. Something was for sure off when I transferred but not sure what’s still up with it.

 

[Smite]

Awesome pics — sorry to hear about the Confetti. Mine has been encrusting yet dormant for more than a year!

Assume you’ve looked at flow or bugs? Weird that the rest is fine

I’ve checked for bugs/eggs but haven’t seen anything. I did get complacent and let my gyres get clogged up. I changed up my flow and have everything on a pulse topping out around 100% on the 350s and the tunze 6105. It’s cranking in there. I was expecting to see polyps out after that but no such luck on some pieces.

thay confetti is a seeet piece, hopefully it wakes up for you. Once it does it’s a great grower, at least on my last tank it was.

 

[Smite]

Hopefully the confetti will hold on? Dude, that hyperberry hasn't missed a beat, it looks awesome!

Yeah that thing has been rock solid! Same with that mariculture piece below it, grows pretty well. Colors have changed a bit.

 

[mattyzang]

idk if i can even describe my issues. sometimes some stn starts in from below. sometimes it's fairly rapid. sometimes i give up on a piece, cut it off, and the encrustment is fine. and sometimes the entire thing just dies within a couple days

i sent off an ICP test when the issues started and nothing out of the ordinary. my alk was high for awhile, maybe my tank didn't like that, but man i've never had issues like this on this tank

 

[Smite]

I've decided I'm going to give the witch hazel treatment a go, for 5-7 days and see if there is any noticeable improvements. I'll be following the protocol Andre has on his reefmoonshiner site.

I triple dosed my bacteria today (bio digest) and dosed my 40ml tonight after lights out. Nothing in my tank is going up in smoke but I have lost a few pieces, frags, that were hanging on from the last event. Between that and the turn in confetti, I figure it will be a good time to test the witch hazel and see what happens.

Sounds like some double/triple down on day 1 but I'm just going to do the minimum dose along with daily bacteria dosing for the week. I know it acts like vodka in relation to bacteria growth/nutrient reduction so I'll be keeping a close eye on those. I plan to feed like normal, maybe a little heavier if the nutrients drop.

Alk 8.5
Cal 450
Mag 1500 ( a little over but looked like it was about to change)
Nitrate 5ppm
Phosphate 0.1
1.024

Skimmer is staying on

 

[bakbay]

Other params look fine to me, unless you have a sudden Alk spike. How are you testing your nitrate? Understand that it’s 5ppm but I would let it ride up in the 20’ish. My SPS tank does better at higher N&P vs lower levels.

Do you have separate tanks that you can try to save frags of remaining colonies?

Good luck!

 

[Smite]

Other params look fine to me, unless you have a sudden Alk spike. How are you testing your nitrate? Understand that it’s 5ppm but I would let it ride up in the 20’ish. My SPS tank does better at higher N&P vs lower levels.

Do you have separate tanks that you can try to save frags of remaining colonies?

Good luck!

Thank you, everything looks good this am.

No real change in Alk. It dipped down over a few weeks time but I took just as long to raise it back up to where it is now.

I use Salifert for all but po4. This was taken through the tube side ways, its a light pink color. It's usually pretty close to my ICP results. That's where it naturally sits with how much food I feed. I may raise it to 10ppm just for a buffer while I do this treatment. I played with higher levels of no3 for a while and mostly everything did okay. Tenuis seemed to be more colorful but classic pieces and some of my smooth skins didn't have the same pop, I felt.

I've been using no3 more to judge whether I'm feeding the fish enough to supply the acros with enough ammonia/food source. I like no3 around 5 for a buffer and that tells me I'm supplying the tank with enough food to produce excess no3.

 

[bakbay]

Thank you, everything looks good this am.

No real change in Alk. It dipped down over a few weeks time but I took just as long to raise it back up to where it is now.

I use Salifert for all but po4. This was taken through the tube side ways, its a light pink color. It's usually pretty close to my ICP results. That's where it naturally sits with how much food I feed. I may raise it to 10ppm just for a buffer while I do this treatment. I played with higher levels of no3 for a while and mostly everything did okay. Tenuis seemed to be more colorful but classic pieces and some of my smooth skins didn't have the same pop, I felt.

I've been using no3 more to judge whether I'm feeding the fish enough to supply the acros with enough ammonia/food source. I like no3 around 5 for a buffer and that tells me I'm supplying the tank with enough food to produce excess no3.

I use Hanna for N&P testing - matching colors with Salifert was too painful for me. Ana yeah, I run higher nutrients in general — yes, some acros may not like it but at least they don’t die. They will adjust over time.