It was a long day with a few set backs on monday during the swap but overall it seems to be success so far. Most my sps retained some color and I havent lost a single piece as of today. My doser failed while i was out of town over teh weekend. This let my display drop from an alk of 8.3 to 6.8. I realized this while acclimating the coral to my frag tank that I had previously set up to 8.3. An airstone combined with a warmer day and 50g of fresh mixed saltwater saved my arse. I let the coral drip for about 4 hours focusing on my alk levels. Once they matched I drained half the tub and "dripped" with a 1/2 hose, repeated teh process until the temperatures matched. Then added the coral to the tank.
In case it helps someone else in the same situation, this is how I went about the transfer and initial dip.
Basic rundown on whole process:
Filled large rubbermaid tub with display water. One that could fit all my sps. Also filled 2 medium rubbermaids.
Added bayers to one medium rubbermaid until water was very cloudy.
Removed sps from rock, removed base of coral and any dead areas
Removed sps went in bayers dip for about 8 minutes
Then rinsed in second medium tub
Then in large holding tub with airstone. I also had my ambient room temp higher than usual around 75 to help with temp.
Then dripped to frag tank until alk and temp were matched, airstone still running.
As I added pieces I would super glue them to frag plugs making sure to cover all cuts and any dead spots I found and overlapping live flesh.
Visually inspected knooks and crannies for eggs under a bright light
Once clean I added that piece to the tank.
I've read of flatworms just being stunned from some with dips. enough to fall off but then slowly starting to move. So i swapped out my bayer dip, making fresh batches several times as I emptied my display.
Once the first coral was added to bayer I set a timer for 8 minutes and worked as quickly as I could to add as many pieces of sps to the dip in that time. From there I'd take my time rinsing, swooshing and basting each piece to remove any hangers. I did this to each coral individually in the dip to try and keep moving while giving each piece about 8 minutes. Seemed to work out. After the last piece in that group I dump the bayer and rinse around the paremeter of my house and mixed a new batch with display water. I repeated this until all the corals were out of the tank.
It made for a long and exhausting/stressful day but all my hard work seems to have paid off so far with no losses as of yet. Polyps are out, the frag tank lets me easily inspect these pieces and I'm happy I removed them.
Going forward I plan to dip as close to 5 day intervals as possible. So I'll be doing 5 day water changes with alk/temp matched, possibly nitrates too not sure on that yet. I'm also double dosing flatworm stop as I've read some found it stops the reproductive cycle of AEFW. Daily basting and super high flow should help me determine how i did on the dip. I scored some HEAVY frag plates from TGC today so I'll be cranking the flow now. Hopefully all this'll shorten the time it takes me to beat AFEW. I'll update as I go with mistakes and successes.
Some pictures of the corals today, 3 days in looking good with polyp extension like I haven't seen in a while.
SSC
DSC_0008 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
TGC millepora
DSC_0010 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
TGC acro of some kind
DSC_0011 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
Crazy millepora I got from Eve
DSC_0012 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
WD,TGC Serendipity,Vivid 4 Loco, Vivid Orange Crush, Orange Passion, Nice tenuis from Fly5150, cool stag from Eve
DSC_0013 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
Vivids Glowstick (second guessing that name)
DSC_0014 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
Millepora
DSC_0015 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
Joe The Coral
DSC_0017 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
Tort
DSC_0018 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
Pink Lemonade
DSC_0021 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
DSC_0022 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
ASD Doomsday
DSC_0025 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
Cool acro/stag? From Eve
DSC_0026 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
Side boob
DSC_0031 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
Sunny D
DSC_0016 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
.
Jedi Mind Trick
TGCM closeup by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
Happy campers. hopefully this nem holds strong under the finnex planted light its under. Just dont want to have it in the frag tank with all the bayers dips.
DSC_0035 by matthew schueneman, on Flickr
In case it helps someone else in the same situation, this is how I went about the transfer and initial dip.
Basic rundown on whole process:
Filled large rubbermaid tub with display water. One that could fit all my sps. Also filled 2 medium rubbermaids.
Added bayers to one medium rubbermaid until water was very cloudy.
Removed sps from rock, removed base of coral and any dead areas
Removed sps went in bayers dip for about 8 minutes
Then rinsed in second medium tub
Then in large holding tub with airstone. I also had my ambient room temp higher than usual around 75 to help with temp.
Then dripped to frag tank until alk and temp were matched, airstone still running.
As I added pieces I would super glue them to frag plugs making sure to cover all cuts and any dead spots I found and overlapping live flesh.
Visually inspected knooks and crannies for eggs under a bright light
Once clean I added that piece to the tank.
I've read of flatworms just being stunned from some with dips. enough to fall off but then slowly starting to move. So i swapped out my bayer dip, making fresh batches several times as I emptied my display.
Once the first coral was added to bayer I set a timer for 8 minutes and worked as quickly as I could to add as many pieces of sps to the dip in that time. From there I'd take my time rinsing, swooshing and basting each piece to remove any hangers. I did this to each coral individually in the dip to try and keep moving while giving each piece about 8 minutes. Seemed to work out. After the last piece in that group I dump the bayer and rinse around the paremeter of my house and mixed a new batch with display water. I repeated this until all the corals were out of the tank.
It made for a long and exhausting/stressful day but all my hard work seems to have paid off so far with no losses as of yet. Polyps are out, the frag tank lets me easily inspect these pieces and I'm happy I removed them.
Going forward I plan to dip as close to 5 day intervals as possible. So I'll be doing 5 day water changes with alk/temp matched, possibly nitrates too not sure on that yet. I'm also double dosing flatworm stop as I've read some found it stops the reproductive cycle of AEFW. Daily basting and super high flow should help me determine how i did on the dip. I scored some HEAVY frag plates from TGC today so I'll be cranking the flow now. Hopefully all this'll shorten the time it takes me to beat AFEW. I'll update as I go with mistakes and successes.
Some pictures of the corals today, 3 days in looking good with polyp extension like I haven't seen in a while.
SSC
.
TGC millepora
.
TGC acro of some kind
.
Crazy millepora I got from Eve
.
WD,TGC Serendipity,Vivid 4 Loco, Vivid Orange Crush, Orange Passion, Nice tenuis from Fly5150, cool stag from Eve
.
Vivids Glowstick (second guessing that name)
.
Millepora
.
Joe The Coral
.
Tort
.
Pink Lemonade
.
.
ASD Doomsday
.
Cool acro/stag? From Eve
.
Side boob
.
Sunny D
.
Jedi Mind Trick
Happy campers. hopefully this nem holds strong under the finnex planted light its under. Just dont want to have it in the frag tank with all the bayers dips.
