Conskis 34 Gal Solana Build

[Conski]

yea im not worried about them becuase i got the mundo frag! i want the garf to live so bad im worried about it! and i want my zoas to open up hahaha im so excited for that

[Conski]

well i got a better idea, the 250watt sunpod is only 272 dollars right now hahaha guess whos gonna buy that and put it over his sps tank and them move the 150watt over to the 14gal ;) go me im smart

[Ace25]

LOL.. funny.. sounds like a good plan as long as you stay away from 10k bulbs.. 10k would probably be too intense for both those tanks/size ballasts.

[Conski]

14k for me i like the blue

[Conski]

is 250watts a big difference? i dk whys theres such a huge cut in cost but its usually 492 dollars for 250watt. o well more power to me.. and all my new corals :)

itll be here for a week then im gonna move some of the frags into my little tank!


thanks again ace you really are a stud haha let me know if theres anything else ya want!

[Ace25]

I am running a 250w on my tank, so it will be a pretty big difference for you. I would probably raise the 250w higher than your current MH and use Pheonix 14k bulbs (lower PAR rating than other bulbs, which in your case will be a good thing). I would only run the Phoenix or Radium bulbs on your setup since it is such a big light for a small tank.

"Oh ya.. send me some of that.. you know.. I used to get it all the time back in the day.. you know...". Can't say the rest of that quote on here but it is a Half Baked reference. LOL.

[Conski]

Half baked is one the best movies to ever be produced.

Alrighty i was short the money by a about 30 bucks so my dad let me order it anyways due to whatever special theyre doing (not listed) so if the light comes before i buy a phoenix bulb ill just use the stock one until i get the phoenix (would only be used for a day anyways! Sunpods are great becuase they come with lunar lights and i cant stand the stock hood of the biocube anymore, bothers the crap out of me.

So far both slimer frags just were smelling up my water cept the big ones so i got them out everything else is doing okay.

im really pulling for the garf but its lookin rough :/

[Conski]

Sunny D's slowly but surely coming out! :)!

[Ace25]

Come oooooon corals.. I want to hear they all opened up by the end of the day.. ;)

[Conski]

All Corals out even acros(which did surprisingly well in the shipment) and thriving except for the Garf and slimer and the one that i dont know what it is that i posted above! Montis are beautiful! the Garf is getting some color back and you can see a few green twinkles in it. the slimer has like clear webs comming off of it! heres pics... the last three are the struggling ones \

[Ace25]

Looking good..

And that is EXACTLY why they call it the Slimer.. those are 100% normal, those snot webs, just coral snot, NOT DINO, so no worries. If you still have a tiny piece of slimer pull it out of the tank and hold it over a little cup for 10 minutes and see how much slime can come out of such a tiny piece.. it is amazing.

Dang that Garf does not look good at all. :( Crossing my fingers though that it will make it.

[Conski]

oh hahaha i thought it meant that it was dieing! i think itll do okay in a week or so.. yea the garf is looking bad i was expecting losses but not that guy! i really hope it makes it as well itd be one of the more unique corals in my tank for sure.

The spongodes is the most unusual corals ive seen lol it looks like those slugs from futurama that produce slurm or whatever!

[Ace25]

Any time you touch or bump against the slimer in the tank it will do that.. it will also do that during water changes as well.. it is like a little kid with a runny nose 24/7. lol.

So where did the "True" strawberry patch end up? Don't see that in any pics although it is a very small piece.. came off the small piece I bought just a couple months ago.

[Conski]

O YEAAA fergot about that little guy!i dk the middle of him looks like its struggling a little! some red polyps are out but the middle of it looks worn or something heres a pic of it, and one of the garf with a copepod on it actually braving the light.

[Conski]

dk if the garf or slimer will make it but im having hope!

[Ace25]

Well.. the good news, I still see flesh on the Garf. I think it may have just expelled all its zooxanthellae from the stress of being dipped and then shipped. I read certain SPS corals are known to bleach out from a revive dip, maybe the 2 stresses combined caused that on the garf. If you still see polyps coming out from the top then you will know it is still alive and will come back and color up if given TLC.

[Conski]

yup i still see some green and i do still see some flesh so i bet it makes it, the big slimer though that bad boy i see polyps on but its losing its flesh

[Ace25]

You sure it is losing its flesh and not just sliming? If you are sure it is losing flesh just pull it out and toss it. Your not talking about the big piece on the plug are you?

[Conski]

the the big on the plug yes its losing flesh staring to bleach i mean the polyps are there and its still sliming but it doesnt look good.

[Ace25]

Dang.. that sucks.. well.. now we know why "acroporas" are the hardest corals to keep.. they are so sensitive and appear to be very poor shippers. Maybe the slimer and birdsnest got cooked by the heat pads in the box since they were the closest to them.. that is my only guess on why the slimer is croaking. On the plus side the montis look great, especially the rainbow. :)

[Conski]

wierd thing is all the other acro lived (and the slimer isnt dead yet but its getting there and it smells, my water is smelling a little bit which is annoying i might change the carbon) the red planet the wild puple it looks great! yes all the montipora did fantastic on the shipping it looks incredible i love the seasons greetings and the Spongodes alot haha! the rainbow was by far the best frag in the pack, i wish the zoas woulda opened tonight but o well! and that superman monti is huge!

if tomorrow its worse on the slimer i might have to toss it! im glad the other acros made it though! i ditched the other 2 smaller frags of the slimer they were clearly bleached and doing poorly! Its down to just the garf and the Slimer sturggling.. whatever that other coral is that i posted up is the greener one (not the nathans) has its polyps out! even the blue digi is good!

cant wait to get the 250watt over this mofo and watch it shimmer harder and make the sps even happier

[Ace25]

I only have/sent 2 types of green sticks, several slimer pieces and the one Nathans Green Milli.. unless the milli broke a branch which would be obvious then it must be another slimer piece that your talking about, which is good, all you need is one small piece of that to live and it will grow pretty fast for you. Ya, superman is huge.. glad to get that thing out of my tank. LOL. I tried to put 2 pieces of each monti I could in there so you could put one in each of your tanks. So... still think you got a fair deal on the trade? :cheers:

[Conski]

um way beyond good, i wouldve been contempt with just the montis and the purple acro (i really like it) i like the superman monti haha its a mountain of fun! the little guy strawberry patch i think is okay i dk what the stuff over the center of it was kind of fuzzy.

theres like 4 pics of 4 of those frags that i dont know what it is thats green! mind iding it and if is the mili theres a greener acro i dk what it is lol

[Ace25]

Do you see any breaks on the Nathans Green? Also, the polyps on the milli are long and hairy where as the polyps on the slimer are little flowers. Need to look at the milli on the plug and see if there is a white spot were a branch broke off..

[Conski]

alright i know what the mili and the slimer are now but this one is green to but i dont know what it isand i dont even think i have it listed?, its the one in the middle of my already had acro thats green and the wild purple acro

[Ace25]

One on the left is the slimer.. the pics that had 4 small green ones in it looks like the Nathans Green milli broke into a bunch of little pieces.

This is what the Milli looked like when I put it in the bag..
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2487/4164577402_2578084dd6.jpg

[Conski]

haha i know! THEN WHAT IS THIS MYSTERIOUS GREEN ACRO?!

[Conski]

the one circled is green to?!

[Ace25]

Green? I guess.. but are you sure your not color blind? LOL.

You talking the one right in the middle? The bigger Red Planet frag? I see Slimer, your acro you had, red planet, wild purple acro, and another coral you already had on the right.. can't make out the one down lower facing the camera, probably the little slimer that died.

Your talking about the wild purple one, I sent 2 of those.. that touched the green slimer at some point I am guessing and getting green pigment in it now. More of an Aqua/Teal color if you ask me. That is why I said that one is turning out really cool but my mother colony still looks like Blah.

This was the larger of the wild purple frags I sent you.. smaller one has a little branch coming off the top.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2535/4163818537_1ba24fa1db.jpg

[Conski]

the one circled is red planet? its like 100%green now lmao. i thought the one to the left of the one circled was the wild purple becuase well its purple.. ill post new pics up tomorrow when theres ligths and i can get a better shot..i think im royally confused

[Ace25]

Your confusing me now, haha.. circled one is Wild Purple Acro. ;) And actually, the red planet and wild purple like to be down lower in the tank oddly enough.

[Conski]

Really?! well then maybe the thing i think is red planet is actually wild purple acro and viseversa! and surprisingly cause not alot of my corals are out at night the red planet has all its polyps out right now its pretty rad!

[Ace25]

Ya, the red planet always looks great first thing in the morning when I get up.. those polyps are huge.. and one thing about the red planet.. it is near bulletproof.. when all my other corals show problems like when I raised the Alk to quickly the red planet is the only coral that never looks phased by anything.

[Conski]

haha i love ORA corals some of them are amazingly resilient i hope tomorrow theres a bit more flesh on the garf and it shows signs of improvement! as well as the slimer but im getting bad vibes from it!

[Ace25]

I am glad everything worked out for both of us. :) Glad you got the corals before Christmas so you can enjoy them as well.. wish the slimer would have made it but believe me, your not missing much by not having it.. it is a cheap and common coral around here.. the others I sent you are much better IMO. I learned a couple more things in the shipping process as well so the next time I ship hopefully it will go better.

So is the snow dumping there yet? I saw the storm you were talking about was supposed to start hitting your area around 3pm today.

[Conski]

Yea me too, hopefully we can do something like this in the future, i think owning some of these corals will help me get some nicer corals in my area, i know one guy fienin for some sunny d's, and theres a guy i dk if he emailed you who wants some as well.. i plan on keeping mine for a while before i feel like they could be fragged. I think you heating pad did a pretty goodjob of keeping things warm so thats good. if the slimer doesnt make it i wont be to upset but if the garf doesnt ill be pretty sad especially since you raised it from a grain of rice!

it snowd all day, not fast or crazily so in buffalo its barelly even what we consider snow, it didnt even stick to the ground. but there is supposed to be a storm so im glad we got this over with when we did.

Btw what have you done with all that bills stuff! i saw all this stuff i shoulda got you like a shot glass, some slippers! did those zubaz work out LOL!? coulda got you a nice little bills glass thing you do illicit things with if i coulda found one, i saw one a while back it was crazy haha

[Ace25]

So did the Sunny-D's ever open up? I would have thought those would have been one of the first to open up... I dipped a 50 head colony of Sunny-D's a couple nights ago for a fellow reefer and they opened up about 10 minutes after dipping and being placed in the tank..

I wish I had my camera with me.. this fellow reefer got about 30 frags from various people around here all in an evening and called me up on his way home to ask help with dipping them. He had never dipped corals before but just re-setup his tank from scratch after moving and wanted to do it right this time... and both of us were glad we dipped. Sooooo many bad guys in the corals.. first bucket with Revive there were hundreds of asterina stars, micro brittles, and stomatella snails. Nothing terrible in that bucket, just a ton of hitchhikers.. then we get to the rinse bucket where I vigorously swished the corals around before going in the tank... that bucket had hundreds of flatworms in it and even a few red bugs that were still alive and running around in the bucket. Revive doesn't kill red bugs, only Interceptor will, so that was why they were still alive. The swishing just knocked them off the corals, but an interceptor dip was needed to kill them. So.. always dip your corals (although like I said, I dipped all yours the night before they shipped and they went straight into bags, never going back into my tank to have a chance of bad guys getting back on them, but I really didn't see any bad guys come off the corals after dipping like I saw at my friends house and I don't believe I have them in my tank anyway).

[Conski]

nope not yet :( i even changed their position away from everything else near the back where theres not as much light or flow.. i did just put a wave back up on my tank again tonight though. even in my 14 gay they havent opened! i know theyre not dead but its lame when they dont open lol. zoas are weird like that. my one sunflower zoas(made the name up cause they look ezactly like sunflowers) took a month before opening up.


Man i hate to say it but i have to ditch the slimer today. the flesh is almost all gone and the polyps dont exsist. i mean it doest hurt to keep in there but i dk if its alive anymore.. the garf i put up high and near more flow so hopefully it gets better.. its getting some flesh back but i havent seen a polyp today, and i saw 3 or 4 yesterday! SIGH i want the garf to live haha

[Ace25]

Ya, ditch the slimer, no use letting it sit in the water and foul it up anymore than it has already. I still have hope for the Garf though.. but from the looks of it if it does recover it is going to take several months to come back.. so just have patience with that one. May want to change out your carbon today as well if you haven't already.

[Conski]

Will do. just took the slimer off the plug (i try to keep the plugs theyre handy) the base and all came off not a fragment left on it jeese.

Well hopefully within this week the D's will open right up, its probably just shipping stress, and ill nuture that garf like a baby until i feel its just not gonna happen.

The Strawberry patch middle is dead and bleached but the left and right sides of it are alive.

[Ace25]

That is odd on the strawberry patch but the dead spot looks like the exact spot I placed my finger to glue it down.. not sure why my finger would have caused that though.. strange, but with caps, even if just a tiny bit is left and alive it will grow back in a short time. If you wanted you could pull the cap off the plug and cut the 2 sides off that are still good and reglue those to 2 different plugs.. they will be very tiny but they will grow back for sure, or just leave it as is.. it will still grow back.

[Conski]

im not to keen on fragging just yet, if it can do fine id rather it did it on its own and once the living side are bigger ill frag it, to small for me to feel comfortable enough to do right now!

[Ace25]

I understand.. I was very afraid of fragging corals myself early on.. it takes some time to get comfortable doing it.

I was hoping to see pics of those Sunny-D's out today dang it... but if there is no change from yesterday there is no point in posting any more pics right now.

[Conski]

nope no changes, just rearrangement of the frags and that's it ill post up some pics once the ds are open and i get my wrasse

[Conski]

CMONN LOOK AT THIS LOL! JUST COME OUT LITTLE BUDDY!

besides that (pic) i did my first real legit water change, i pretreated the water to specific temp and exact salinity before i even took the water out of the tank, usuall (i KNOW SAD) i just take the water out first and leave the pump running dry for 15 minutes while i rush getting the water to average temp and close salinity.. anything to help the garf plus this way (the correct unlazy way) takes another half hour cause my RO is freezing im sure its alot more efficient!

look at this zoa trying to come out lol:clap:

[Ace25]

LOL.. yup, it wants to come out for sure.. ;) I bet in another hour or 2 it will be out.

[Conski]

i hope so it did this 2 other times (not as much came out) but went back in plus i just fed my chalice (every thursday and sunday) so its a little stressful in the tank at the moment until the mouth gets most of it down but i gave it a pretty big piece, i love this thing :)

cant wait for my 250watt MH

think a tomato clown and a leapord wrasse would be okay in the tank? ive kinda warmed up to my tomato clown, he rarely leaves the back of the tank

[Ace25]

I am not a fan of clowns being in the same tank as leopards. Clowns can be a little too aggressive at times. The only clown I think would work would be a skunk clown, those seem very peaceful compared to the rest. JMO. You can try it and if it doesn't work out get rid of the tomato if it can't be put in with your Picasso's. It is just hard to get leopards established in aquariums, first 30 days are critical but it takes a year before you can consider a leopard in your tank a success. If it is stressed out by another fish the first 30 days it may not end well for the leopard.

[Conski]

lol my Picasso would be so scared of it plus i dont think adding a third fish to a 14gal is smart. ill probably just get rid of the tomato then. not a big deal clowns are my favorites but i have my Picasso so i need something different, and a leapord wrasse is awesome, and the colors would look real good under big MH! alright ill just get rid of the tomclown, it does say on LA that l. wrasses are hard to take care off maybe i should wait

[Ace25]

Also, your substrate I think is a little too coarse for leopard wrasses. I know you didn't want to hear that.. but if it were me I would take out 50% of your coarse sand and mix in sugar size aragonite sand. Just imagine if you were a wrasse, scared, and needed to dive into the sand for protection.. does the sand you have look like it would be comfortable diving head first into? ;)

[Conski]

same sand as the kind in my 14gal but a little smaller? hmm that would be a tough sand transfer my tank needs to be left alone for a few weeks haha so much has happened to it!

i want something neat in there though?! do mystery wrasses need to dive into sand as well?

[Ace25]

My sand in my tank is "sugar size", ie, Size 0 aragonite. I will edit with a picture of the bag. I have a couple unused bags laying around.

Yup.. they do. I am an oddball with the Mystery wrasse, I really don't find it appealing at all, but soo many others love that wrasse. If I were to get any wrasse that isn't a leopard it would be a Hawaiian Flame Wrasse (http://www.themarinecenter.com/fish/wrassereefsafe/hawaiianflamewrasse/). They go for $150 at all the LFS around me when they get them, but they are usually a special order thing because most LFS don't want to have that expensive of a fish just sitting in their tanks without a buyer already lined up unless it is a LFS display tank. Problem I see though is it says 75G is minimum for that one, I didn't know that one, they are small so I thought your 34G may work, but looks like it won't.

Oh ya, Mystery wrasse is in the Labridae family, same as my yellow wrasse, and are known to jump. My yellow wrasse tries to jump out about once a month, but my closed canopy prevent it from carpet surfing. I still get a water streak down the front of my tank to show me that it tried to get out. They are not as bad of jumpers as flasher wrasses, but still, they will jump. I have never seen my leopards attempt to jump at all.

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2790/4192744997_6396f27918.jpg

[Conski]

o wow i fergot what wrasse i was gonna get now! the red flasher wrasse, its been sold out for so long now on LA! im gonna get one of those LOL it was my og plan

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=15+1536+2892&pcatid=2892

the large male is always sold out, i only want a male too ugh. ill just keep my eye on it

[Ace25]

Got a link to the one your talking about? I see multiple different fish all with the red flasher wrasse name, although what are you going to do to prevent jumping? I suggest some type of netting like this person did on their tank.

http://www.discusdave.com/images/reef23.JPG

[Conski]

it didnt bring you to the single fish i want?

I just need to figure a way to get my lid on the tank that would be the easiest way to go about preventing jumping, the netting idea seems perfect, that way i dont enclose heat and i dont have to find a way to get the skimmer behind the tank! are those like cylinder/holes in those rocks in that guys tank for plugs?

[Ace25]

Oh ya.. I was looking at that one, thought I had the page open from a google search, not clicking your link. Duh.. ya, that one is very similar to the McCoskers. Very nice wrasse, but get a top made for your tank before you buy one.

[Conski]

that guy is always sold out, like its been sold out since i bought the tank. ridiculous!

im gonna go about looking for a netting once i get that fish orderd, neat thing about that flasher wrasse is that it doesnt even say 50 gallon required it says 30 and it says easy to take care off, so maybe itll get along with my clown, if not ill ditch the clown

[Conski]

http://www.marinedepot.com/Eshopps_Frag_Cave_Coral_Mounts_for_Saltwater_Aquar iums-Eshopps-QH12935-FIMTCM-vi.html

Gonna get on of these as welle, little pricey but i could really use one

[Ace25]

And then .... And then ... lol. See.. always just a few hundred dollars more worth of stuff to make your tank happy... this month. Then the cycle repeats. LOL.

[Conski]

hahaha! really all i NEED is a chiller lol and that fish!

the corals are all optional and are bonuses! my tank needs more :)

[Ace25]

With those wrasses you probably do not want a male to start with. Wrasses (at least this applies to Leopards, not 100% sure if it applies to all wrasses) are the opposite of clowns, all start off female and one turns male to make a harem. With clowns all are male and one turns female. In order to get a male you have to have a bunch of females around so one will turn male. Once that happens it probably isn't the best idea to house a male all by itself, you will need at least one female with it, preferably 2-3.

Edit: Just out of curiosity, how many polyps of sunny-d's (http://finsandcritters.net/Store/aquatic_coral_sunnyd.html) did I send you? Should be easy to count with them closed up.

[Reefer Brian]

hahaha! really all i NEED is a chiller lol and that fish!

:)

Wow, a chiller in Buffalo, NY? I would think you would need extra heaters. Hope all the corals do well, I saw them all just before they shipped out. You are a lucky man.

[Conski]

Yea dude the winters are cold and the summers are HOT as crap (by no means cali hot) but my room is the hottest in the house so i will need a chiller for my big tank i dont want to use another fan my room is already loud enough. lol its 20 degrees out and i still have to use a fan on my tank to keep it below 80 thankfully i have it all automated because when i didnt... thats when i was nuts.

ummmm i have lets see here (goes to count) five on each, still none opened up while i was home. so 10 all together but a couple of those heads are tiny!

Reefer Brian i am one lucky guy haha, sadly the slimer didnt make it and the garf is struggling really bad, the zoas havent opened up yet but they arent dead but its still frusterating as hell!

and about those wrasses really? well maybe ill buy 2 females and then get a male after and have those be my fishies

[Conski]

Wow the nathans green is bleaching all of the sudden.. the big one atleast, mannn! :/ SPS is harsh :(. I dont think the garf gonna live. no polyps but flesh is still there and getting better or worse.. i dk i cant tell.

the nathans green had full polyps all day then all the sudden its bleaching?! WTF ughh! maybe theres to much flow this is getting upsetting

[Conski]

Did a water change today

0Trates
7ALK
420CA
1.024 Salinity

i hope its just from shipping stess :(

[hmotorsol]

your alk looks a little low. and sps is hard i had a orange monti cap(they are supposed to be easy to keep) and with in the next day it bleached while the idaho grape monti was siting there full color. As for the alk i think it is supposed to be between 8-12. i keep mine at 9. And how did you get rid of your dyno algae?

[Ace25]

Although the Alk the corals were living under for the past year was around 5. I just recently raised it to 8 when I moved, but they did just fine under 5dkh... just not a lot of wiggle room with your pH with alk that low though, but if you are comfortable with your reef tank and know what your doing there is no reason you can't do fine at 5dkh. I could never imagine killing the green milli.. that is like the red planet, bulletproof in my tank, so there must be something seriously wrong if that is bleaching.

I would guess you just rushed things.. putting SPS in the tank too soon. I thought that would be a strong possibility.

What is your Phosphates and Silicates at? Both of those are killers to SPS corals.

[Conski]

ill get a test kit for both of those things on sunday, happen to be broke at the moment and dont get paid until monday but i get enough tips to get what i need if i have to over the weekend. id imagine they are in check because of the phosphate/rowaaphos and i didnt overdue the rowaphos so i cant see it being to low either.

i feel like a total jerk that sime of your corals died that would been fine otherwise in your tank :/

and to get rid of my dynos i did a 100% water change with a turkey baster... sucking each drop out with it and getting all the dynos out with the baster... then washing the rocks, all the equpiment, vacing the sand a little, and then darkness for a week.
positive note....

[Ace25]

Problem is, the natural bacteria population probably didn't have time to get established in that short of time. While the standard parameters you can test for may seem ok, the things you can't test for, like biological filtration, is not at its peak yet from all the recent work you have done.

I am really not liking GFO much anymore myself. I know there are people strongly against using it, but I have seen nothing but stellar success with it, Phosguard. My buddy with the 300G had his phosphates up to .08 on my Hanna Meter, told him it was time to replace his GFO, he did, tested 24 and 48 hours later, still .08. Took out the GFO, replaced with Phosguard, tested again 24 hours later, and now .02. Much better. Just not having a lot of faith if GFO recently and it can get spent very quickly (if you have high phosphates you can use up GFO in as little as 24 hours!). Also, for SPS corals, a Hanna Meter is required for testing Phosphates. Standard test kits won't cut it at all.

Live and learn... as long as this teaches you something a few small frags dying isn't the end of the world. It happens to everyone, including myself. :)

[Conski]

right so a hanna meter is in need, and your saying i should by phosguard instead of rowaphos?

Well so far ive had the slimer,the mili, and hopefully not but the garf die.. 3 out of around like 26 frags isnt a heart breaker, as long as the others stay alive, i love all the montis and the sunny d's were the peices i was looking forward to the most, so i hope they continue to live and it doesnt seem like they are having problems, the spongodes is turning out to be on my favorite peices along side the rainbow monti of course. and the sunny ds are opening, two heads now :)

[Ace25]

The proper way to use Phosguard is to just toss some in a filter bag, rinse it in the sink good before you use it (it gets hot and crackles like rice crispies), and then put it in a place that will get flow through it for about 3 days and then take it out.. that is the "proper" way to use it, although my friend puts it in a reactor and uses it 24/7 for over a month and it still works great after a months use. The aluminum it releases back into the tank is the problem people have issues with, and I have seen the "studies" written on it, but to me there is a big difference between a perceived problem that a scientest says could happen and actual real life reports from reefers that had a real problem due to using it. Not that it can't happen, but I have not witnessed a single problem from using it so far, but I also don't have a ton of experience with it to make a claim it is 100% safe to anyone to use 24/7 so you have to decide if the risks are worth the benefits.

[Conski]

i suppose i should get a hanna meter and see what my phosphates are actually at before switching. i think i rushed the sps thats why some of it is dieing, it still is a pretty new tank, and the black out didnt help out at all

[Ace25]

The blackout would have had no ill effect on bacteria. All that would do is slow the growth of any algae in the tank, which is usually a good thing to do.

The dinos, cleaning out all your rock, etc, that would have distrupted the biological filtration more than the blackout.. but it had to be done or your tank would be just a nasty snot filled dino tank by now.

Again, the colorful sticks are always the hardest ones to keep alive, so don't feel bad about the losses. I still am holding out hope for the Garf though. Don't do anything with that (like toss it) until you post pictures and/or see lots of flesh peeling off of it. As long as there is still flesh, there is a chance it will survive.

I do think I made 1 major mistake myself in the shipping process. I used newly mixed SW in the bags.. well, mixed for 24 hours and heated, but I should have used water out of my tank, not new water for shipping the corals in. My mistake that probably played a big role in the demise of some of them.

[Conski]

I belive the deaths are now over. The mili is hopefully gonna be the last one, the garf is sadly doing poor but im not tossing it, i want that coral to its old self is so amazing. i saw its polyps when i first pulled it out and they were so green. i can usually tell when a coral is dead in my tank cause ironically my shrimp will stand next to it lol

well i shoudlnt speak so soon because the mili was fine all day yesterday then as soon as the light went out it bleached

[Conski]

starting to see brown alage............................................. ...............

post updates when or if it i believe its coming back :(

im seriously not catching any breaks

[Conski]

yea its coming back :/ its really minimal right now but i can see snot strings starting to come on my phos pump heater and mp20...

Im gonna call an aquatics company and have them help me with this if it really is dino!

[Fishfriend1]

Awesome tank man. Good luck with the DINO problem. The Gods of Super Cool Marien Tanks should give you a break.

[Conski]

Agreed :(

[Fishfriend1]

Hey if you have any suggestions for a newbie SW aquarist i can always use them. Thi thread gave me a ton of ideas. 30gal

[Conski]

Big suggestion if your gonna do a reef startout with anything not SPS and us RO/DI, really work your way up to it!
if you have any specific questions just ask away on my thread!

[Fishfriend1]

What is SPS and RO/DI? Im going to bed so i wont respond till tomorrow. Good Night.

[Conski]

SPS is small stony polyp corals! or color hard sticks haha much different from LPS(Large Polyps) that are more bubbly looking and much easier to take care of then SPS which are basically rocks(and difficult and stressfull to take care off)

RO/DI is Reverse Osmosis Deionized(di?) completely pure water that is (in my opp and alot of others) very essential to having a sucessful reef! you can either find a depositor or buy your own you unit for anywhere from 150 to 300 (which is the better route to go)

[Fishfriend1]

Cool thanks.

[Conski]

its back im so fed up with this

[Amphiprion]

How long did you leave the lamps off? Most reports show a good, solid 72 hours are needed.

[Conski]

an entire week.

i need professional help cause i tried my absolute best on my own to get rid of it and now its back.. its gotta be in the rock or in the sand or something have no idea how to deal with it anymore.

my apologies on the swearing, it was just a vent post... :/

[Ace25]

Several suggestions to try in this post.

http://www.reefland.com/forum/reef-aquariums/15307-dinoflagellates.html

[Conski]

Internal Filter it is, with a raise in PH and no light. gonna do all those things at the same time..

if it doesnt work im probably just gonna put the phophate remover on my 14 gal, put the mp20 onto it as well, and put a 250watt MH over it as well and have one hell of a biocube and either make the tank into a freshwater setup or sell it.

i dont wanna say im giving up but its really putting a damper on me :(

[Ace25]

Just so you know, almost every tank in my area is experiencing problems right now. We are all thinking the water source was poisoned somehow because we all use RO/DI, have very different tanks, but all seem to have similar problems all happening right after some heavy raines and the local cities dumped an excessive amount of chloramines in the water (heavy sliming in the tanks, filter socks glogged in under a day, and cloudy water). We are thinking it is poisons from the farm fields that had run off into the water table since he haven't had a good rain in years. Happened to too many of us all at the same time period and all using RO/DI water made from tap water. Not a fun time for any of us either.. so don't feel alone. IT SUCKS.

[Amphiprion]

You'll pull through ;). I've experienced and heard of far more disheartening things.

[Conski]

So my PC4 is faulty so im sending that in tomorrow. I programmed my oother RK to my 14 gal because i dont need any lights or anything over my cursed dinotank.

i dont think ive ever seen a 14gal biocube so stocked, looks really cool!

Havent made my mind up on what im gonna do with my 34 gal yet but im gonna tomorrow, whether it be consult a pro or just try all the methods on the link ace suggested

BTW ace check it out ;) love them

[Jaykit]

That is one very cool looking 14g tank. I've been following your thread since the beginning and I would hate to see all that time and money be for nothing. Don't be too disheartened though, we have all had our shares of problems, I know I sure have.

[Ace25]

Wow! They look better in your tank than they do in mine. ;)

BTW - The problems your having.. all part of the game. What doesn't kill you, or your tank, will only make you stronger. I lost count over the years how many times I crashed my reef tank due to every reason under the sun.. had to learn my lesson the hard way each time (with deaths to corals and/or fish). I didn't have a nice forum like this one to get help when I had problems though.. and my LFS at the time was of little help (1980's knowledge and knew it all so no point learning anything new type of mentality) so many times over the years I had a SW tank with just live rock.. no fish and no corals due to something happening (most of the time it was my fault I learned after the fact).

Heck, as I type this I have 1 big coral that has almost died in the last 3 days, not one I cared much for, cheap ORA Blue Bottlebrush that has been a problem coral for over a year, but it has grown quite a bit even with the problems, until now. I think I am narrowing down the issues on my tank but believe me, it is like fighting an alligator. Just when you think you are starting to get the upper hand, BAM, hits you right in the gut just to prove to you that you really don't quite have a handle on things. That is how I am feeling the last 6 days or so now.. and I will admit, several times over the weekend the thought of "tossing in the towel" entered my mind.. but I just can't let something I care so much about get the upper hand on me to the point I give up and just let it die. That is the easy road out, and one I personally can't agree with. I watched 2 reefers locally that had SPS tanks I looked up to, much better than my tank has ever been, and both experienced a big issue in the last year and just gave up, letting everything die in the tank. These were tanks that inspired me and made me want to get into SPS corals just last year.. now I feel like I am just about the last man standing in my area doing SPS corals.

[hmotorsol]

Thats why i am so afraid of doing sps its so fragile and can bleach so easily. Tank is looking awesome. How is the dino coming. I know a local reefer told me that raising the ph to about 8.4 will help also.

[Conski]

thanks for the word of encouragement everyone! i already have my heart set on SPS and its not even the corals that are giving me problems.. i dont mind losing a few so im not gonna stop buying the,. i need to get this parasite out of my tank for good that way i can lose corals to my own faults as opposed to disease! that way i can correct it if it goes wrong instead of not being able to do anything about it.

Dino grows fast everyone so watch out. and it like to grow on sps alot and its no joke at all.

Ill post updates with what im gonna do soon

[justkillin_time]

Read this all from the beginning! I was just looking for some info on clams and got sucked into this. I hope your 14 holds together and you can get your 34 back on track.

I had a similar situation, I had a major aptasia (it's the devil!) bloom - it completely took over my tank. I ended up taking out all of my live rock and bleaching it. Removed all of my pumps/power-heads and scrubbed the heck out of them with a toothbrush/pad. Rinsed and re-installed. I left the LR in 50/50 (water/bleach) for a week. Then for a week I hosed it off and let it cook in the sun, plus we had some rain come through.

It's just a suggestion and if anyone has something to add or say don't do, please chime in... it worked for me, doesn't mean it works for everyone.

BTW Ace25 - you the man! :thm: It was great reading a dedicated reefer helping another.

-jkt

[Conski]

Ya know i just realized i have never changed anything on my RO unit?! im gonna take pictures of it?!

should i flush the membrane?

disregard this i decided to be a big boy and read the instructions

[Reefer Brian]

Servicing your RO on time is key to good water quality.

[Amphiprion]

Flushing the membrane doesn't really accomplish much. I don't even own a flush kit.

At any rate, as a rule, you should change all sediment and carbon blocks every six months or sooner if need be. Change resins and membranes as needed and dictated by TDS readings.

[Conski]

SO i think ive made a new plan for my big tank.

i think im gonna take some live rock out so its not so bulky looking then im gonna just try a DSB in this tank, i know its not that great of an idea but i really want a ornate or leapord wrasse and i want to make it suitable enough for one, ive never seen a DSB with a Solana and its probably not the best idea. but i dk i dont want a regular Solana.. or maybe even a smaller Marine Betta.. im going by size charts... no information on them and if this is an automatic no just say so its just something that came into mind

Pros/Cons?

[Conski]

Another thing i might do is move all the coral from my 14 gal.. ALL of it into my solana and just have an anem picaso clown tank. and then have my solana as my reef tank.. i dk well see these are all repetitious ideas i get over and over again that i never do

[Conski]

Another set back

my mp20 is not working.. have to send that in along with my PC4

i tried red slime remover on my tank as suggested by one of my LFS guys, said hes sure thats what it is when i showed him the video of when it was really bad.. just dosed it yesterday and will take off the veils in a week.

its just set back after set back.

As suggested by my gf im gonna have a priest bless some RO and make it into holywater and poor it into my tank...

cant even describe my discouragement at this point :/

[Ace25]

Ha... At least you still have corals in your tank... all of mine are just about all dead. :(

I really question your LFS saying it was Cyanobacteria. That is very easy to spot and treat and it won't grow on corals like the Dino's you had were doing.

What is wrong with your MP20? My MP40 had a problem when I moved (stupid me forgot, never take the wet side out and let it dry!) and I thought I broke it. The controller would turned on for just a few seconds, do its normal thing, then just die and flash really weird colors. Taking the wet side out and apart and cleaning it well solved my issue. I thought I fried my controller. I also hit some buttons in the wrong order once and made it think the wet side was disconnected and I had to reset the controller to fix that (not documented and I forgot the steps now to resolve that one)

[Conski]

dude what?! omg why are they dieing?! ive always wanted to know if corals have a life span? when did this start happeniing

i dont think its red slime either.,. wasnt gonna tell him hes wrong, he said i could return the product if it doesnt work becuase its 15 dollars i didnt need to spend. so maybe itll work, its the last thing to do before i take it down and buy new rock and sand and bleach the tank.

[Amphiprion]

Just keep fighting it. It can take a long, long time. I had to fight it in a 10g nano and it took about 3 months, maybe more, to get rid of.

Ace, I feel your pain. Sorry that all of that is happening, especially considering how far along your tank is now.

[Ace25]

Our local water supply changed from using the State Aqueduct to using old well water that hadn't been tapped into in over a year because the pipe that fed most of the county from the aqueduct was damaged and needed repair. It was supposed to last less than a week, ended up lasting over a month. The well water was foul... so the county dumped in (according to the water guy at the city) over 25x the normal strength of chloramines to get the water safe for humans.. well.. it isn't safe for fish. I had a chloramine block in my RO/DI but the water guy told me with the levels as high as they were, a new chloramine filter would be spent in less than 20 gallons. I just learned about this on Monday when I called the city to ask what was going on because it was never announced on the news or in any local paper. So dummy me, started seeing corals dying, and first thought is "do more water changes".. and the next day when things are looking worse, I again, did another large water change.. so I was just killing my corals faster by doing water changes and wasting a box of 200G worth of salt in less than 2 weeks. This was the city just north of the one I am in I talked to (the one I work in), and the city I am in has its own separate wells that is always in use, but according to the water guy the city I am in also raised their chloramine levels around the same time, although not the such an extreme.

Even Guillo1's 300G solar lit tank is doing exactly the same thing as mine, all his corals are dying as well, but he didn't do a water change in the month the well water was in use, only used the water for top offs, and it is still killing his corals.

[Amphiprion]

That's a scary scenario. One reason I am glad our municipal water supply doesn't utilize chloramine. We do have some of the highest trihalomethane levels, though, but those are removed relatively easily.

[Conski]

wow that is totall bull**** you should be reimbursed or something for the amount of money you spent on your tanks.. i hope everything gets better in the long run man, i thought my problems were bad but thats just not right.

[Ace25]

Nothing I can do.. the city doesn't make any guarantees that the water is going to be safe for fish tanks, only safe for humans and within EPA guidelines. I am past the "pissed off" stage of it all.. and the depressing stage.. now I am on the "move forward and rebuild" stage. Anger leads to the darkside, as Yoda would say... ;) Look at the positive side, I haven't lost any of my precious fish during all this.. I can replace corals a lot easier than I can replace some of the fish I have.

[hmotorsol]

Wow that sucks. I would be completely pissed. sorry to hear about the bad news.

[Conski]

i think my 250watt sunpod is now broken as well....fml

[Amphiprion]

Well, if it makes you feel better, I've ended up spending over $400 on busted equipment within the last two weeks. First, my LiterMeter croaks, then one of my out of warranty IceCap ballasts dies, then the AC adapter on the brand new LiterMeter dies, then I notice my auto top off (also a mini version of litermeter) stops accurately measuring the water level and dumps FW into the tank (lol?). After that, one of the T5 lamps blows out, shutting off one entire ballast, which was followed shortly by one of the (fortunately cheap) screw in CFL 'fuge lights. I feel your pain, brother.

[Conski]

650 dollars of brand new equpiment broken lmao. it sucks doesnt it amph?! why do they make these things 500bil;lion dollars if it breaks when you go near it.

okay so vortech is sending me a new power supply becuase that's the problem they are shipping me one by tomorrow (i just called today) i dont have to return anything, amazing thats so clutch
im finally shipping out my reefkeeper to get fixed today as well.

i just have to worry about my light now which isnt the biggest deal, but ive only turned it on three or four times LOL.

within the week im breaking the tank down anyways to finally once and for all kill the dino

[Conski]

i have 300 dollars saved..

theres two things i can do.

1) Sell my live rock to someone who knows it probably carries dino for a cheaper cost. tank the tank down clean everything, buy new sand and replace the live rock and live stock (i assume the snails will carry it on them or something and the clown)

2. Call a professional aquatics company that services all my LFS and have them take a look at the tank.

option one would be more expensive, but the dino would be gone for sure.
option 2 is a little sketchy, but i would be able to keep my rock that i like, and not have to change anything

what should i do? i feel like i have enough for both

[Ace25]

Option 3, boil all your rocks, replace all your sand, and stick a couple known good pieces of live rock in the tank to re-seed it and wait a month or two before putting things back in it. That is the cheapest method. You could even use a bottle of SuperBac to boost the bacteria and get things going a little faster.

[Conski]

I have no more known live rock to seed it with! wont the boiled rock be dead for good or will it regrow coraline.. how long should i boil it for?

get rid of all the live stock?!

[Conski]

?

[Ace25]

?? Livestock?

[Conski]

hahaha the snails, the maroon clown, the fighting conch, the sifting star, the shrimp.. selll it?

how long to boil the rock?

[Conski]

althought ive been really thinking about selling my big tank because of urges to get a panther chameleon (random i know right?) i have been thinking of chemistry in my tank.. everyone says so raise PH in the tank, which i never tried... but i realized i use ROWAphos!? doesnt that indirectly lower the PH of the water? if were to unhook the phosphate remover from the tank and then start dosing something like umm... maybe baking soda or something suggested by one of you, do you think this would greatly aid in fighting dino (for all i know the dino is gone, i havent had a light over that tank in 2 months) but the [arts that indirect light get into have a brown glaze over the sand..

does my theory of rowaphos actually hindering the removal of the dino sound correct?

[Ace25]

Rowaphos doesn't lower pH, it lowers Alkalinity, which in dumbed down terms is the ability to buffer the pH. From what I have read it doesn't lower it to dangerous levels if used correctly, but it does drop it a point or 2 when first changed out, which in the SPS world can be a pretty drastic swing meaning you have to take action accordingly.

[Conski]

man i just went back to page eight when the tank was just starting up and looked really great.. i wish this dino crap never happened. i havent had any motivation for this tank in the longest time, i think seeing those old pictures has put a little spark back into me. i need to quit being lazy and get back on top of this tank

[Conski]

Cloudiness is up! i finally found a nice little rockscape for what i had! i dont think ill be seeing any cycle and if i dont by friday im just gonna do the transfer.. the dinos in my 14gal are scaring me so i need to get this show on the road.. might be against better judgment but its a MUST at this point.

i need to know these things for sure.
Will a revive bath on all the corals for SURE kill any dino on the corals? if any gets into my solana.. i will back out of this hobby.
Will the corals be able to acclimate to 250 watt MH's or is there something i should do?!
Will the Star fish, fighting conch, Skunk shrimp from the rubbermaid bring any dinos into the tank with them?

Pics!

[MGDMIRAGE]

I don't see the shrimp or starfish bringing anything with them, the conch i guess you could probably scrub off his shell.

[Conski]

Hmm but what about the corals?

[Conski]

ugh the dinos :( i need to get these babies moved its gettin ugly!

[Conski]

sorry to bump this but i need these questions answered dont wanna post it on NR either

Will a revive bath on all the corals for SURE kill any dino on the corals? if any gets into my solana.. i will back out of this hobby.
Will the corals be able to acclimate to 250 watt MH's or is there something i should do?!
Will the Star fish, fighting conch, Skunk shrimp from the rubbermaid bring any dinos into the tank with them?

[Conski]

WOW!!! im so stupid and now i feel terrible.. i dropped an electrical outlet that was plugged into the wall into my rubbermaid.. didnt even realize it was in there for like 10 seconds... my shrimp was going nuts!!!!

i woke up and the star, all the snails, and my favorite shrimp were all dead :(

the conch might be alive but i dk :(
and i need those questions answered im panicking here guys!