It's an acrylic tank, and very hard to keep clean. Only do the front and sides. Need to get a plastic scraper out every couple months (or sooner) to clean off the coralline. Plus it is getting very tight in there with my SPS. I have a small amount of sand, which tends to be blown bare in the middle by the pumps.

My downstairs tank is glass, and very easy to clean.

Thanks, you are very kind. Just trying to make it through the summer without too much change or effort. Then in the fall, plan to rescape it, and relocate a lot of the corals.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly...
 

Well, I knew it was going to be tough summer for my tanks, with my being gone from home (flying and at our lake cabin) a lot. But it was a lot worse than I had bargained for.

I also had a bad start going into the summer, struggling to get my phosphates down, and a jump in my nitrates when I foolishly disconnected my bio pellet reactor a few months earlier. SPS growth and colour were already suffering.

Then with my being gone so much, my KH got out of hand. I usually keep it pretty steady around 8. I would get home occasionally for a day or two, and I noticed that it was dropping to 7 and lower. So, as I've done many times before, I just dialed up the doser, and thought it would be OK. Not so, came home a week later, and it was below 6. That sure didn't make a lot of sense. Meanwhile my Ca jumped up to about 480 and had to reduce that doser. I finally had time to have a closer look, and to my chagrin, I found the KH doser line plugged at the water end. I guess I had not cleaned it for some time...

Shortly after I also changed my doser KH container with a new mix of bicarbonate. I set the doser to what I thought would bring the KH back up to what it should be, and had to leave again for a few days. When I came home again, the KH was over 9, in just 3 days. I knew that wasn't good, and have been making more doser adjustments ever since until I now have it back to about 8, where I want it.

But the damage is done. Many of my SPS are not looking very good, and lost a few of my prize colonies. What's bad, too, is that my Pearlscale Butterfly fish decided to add SPS to his diet. Up to now (for the last 4 years), he only ate aiptasia and left my other corals alone. But I guess with my being gone a lot (fish don't get fed in my absence) he got hungry and would nip (more like fleece) any SPS that was suffering. He seems to leave the healthy ones alone, or at least I hope he is. In any case, many of my SPS have taken a real beating, with some full casualties. I just hope all is not lost and most will recover now as I get my water parameters back under control.

The Good:
Orange Digi frags and colonies none the worse for wear.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps23131c8f.jpg

Hawkins Echinta has been through a lot, but still alive.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps71561e3d.jpg

Strawberry Shortcake not growing much but still hanging on.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psa3b8d013.jpg

Birdnest seem to be able survive anything.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps653b7198.jpg

Pearlberry OK, although not doing great.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps86d6dbcc.jpg

Some of my Valida is OK.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psbe696b37.jpg


Green Bali is OK.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps75996a99.jpg

Red Planet lost some color, but is OK.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6a227242.jpg

Setosa hanging in there.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps17c931a0.jpg

Bonsai Valida fighting with mushrooms.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps97e464f6.jpg

Also have a bunch of softies and LPS (no pics) that seemed to not have been affected at all. Mushrooms, frogspawn, leathers, bubble corals, and palys still growing like weeds.

The Bad:

Lost a beautiful Cali Tort.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psed6342e3.jpg

This one went early on. It was a rare Icefields Tenius. Also lost my Blue Tipped Tenuis (that used to grow like a weed). These were once very beautiful corals.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psc1224dc7.jpg

Another favorite barely hanging on.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps100ca542.jpg

I think this one could be toast. It was a very nice Tri-color Nana.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...pseba4d683.jpg

Burnt tips on this Purple Valida.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7d0e6a79.jpg

There is more I could show, but it is getting a little depressing...

The Ugly:

Wasn't able to clean the front of my acrylic tank often enough...
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psa3623638.jpg

No shortage of algae.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps49387911.jpg

Pumps need a cleaning really bad.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0c15e9b2.jpg

So there you have it. This is definitely the worst my tank has been in a couple years. It is amazing how quickly it went downhill. My intention was to redo my aquascape this fall, and still want to do it. But my first priority will be to get my tank healthy again, and the SPS growing again. That will probably take a couple months. After that, will try do a rescape.

I can sure see why people quit this hobby. Having said that, am a long way from considering that. But it definitely is a major set-back for me. Hopefully, I can get it looking good again. I think I learned a few more lessons, too. Biggest one is, don't let your KH get out of hand.

With your reef keeping skills, Reef Pilot, you should have the tank looking great again.

Do you not have any remote access to your your tank while you're gone?
(webcam, controller access?)

Thanks, I hope I can get it back, and will work hard at it. Won't be away as much now, so will have more time to put into it.

I do have internet access to both my Apex and a webcam. Problem is I was often in the boonies, with no internet access. And at our lake cabin (Harrison) reception is marginal, so I wasn't looking at my webcam.

But really can't tell that much from the webcam, just good to see the fish swimming around. Mostly just able to monitor power and temp with my Apex (biggest fear is always a power outage). I did make it home from time to time, but didn't have the time to do any major maintenance.

Good news, is that my fish are as healthy as can be.

Have you thought of a whole house generator?
Generac makes some dependable units. I put in one that was a pretty straight forward installation.

Not really, or at least not an automatic one. We don't really get a lot of outages, mostly just in late fall if we get a big wind storm. If I am home, no problem, as I do have battery back-ups that are good for a day or so. I also do have a diesel generator, but never had to use it.

Not sure I would want an auto generator running at my house when I am not home.

I thought the same way and wasn't comfortable with it until I was home during a few power outages.
Now I don't give power outages a second thought.
Also, at my location, outages have lasted for a couple of days.

Do you have a fully automatic cut-over to your generator back-up that will function when you are not home (and can't get home for a week)? And how much did all this cost?

Yes, the generator cuts in about 10 seconds after the main power supply fails and switches off about 30 seconds after the power supply is restored.
The generator switches on every 7 days for a 10 minute period to perform maintenance checks. All automatic.
The size of mine is 13KW on natural gas. (14KW on propane) I have ours directly plumbed to natural gas.

The cost for it hooked up 6 years ago was about $4,000.

That does sound good and cost is reasonable,... if it all works as it should. At our office we had auto UPS and a generator back-up system. But I can tell you also that it didn't always work and usually required some intervention by our IT staff. So pardon me if I am a little skeptical.

I still have a real problem with a generator running in my absence, and not really knowing for sure if everything is working properly. I would still be stressed out about that. Maybe my fears are totally unreasonable, but just saying how I would feel. I guess I just don't trust technology..., maybe because I worked with it all my career...

I have had short (up to a few hours) outages happen in my absence, and no harm occurred. I do have my Apex running all my pumps and skimmer (with 5 min delay on start-up), and it tells me that I had an outage (also know it when I can get through on the internet). So far that has all worked fine.

And my son lives 20 min away, so if a serious prolonged outage happens, I could walk him through setting up my back-up batteries. I have not had to do that yet.

Anyway, like I said, just another thing to worry about with the tanks. At the moment, though, I have other issues with the tank parameters that I have to deal with, and want to get my corals looking good again.

Thanks for your feedback and suggestions.

Anytime.
We're pretty remote for assistance here, so any potential damage from a power outage would quickly surpass the cost of the generator for us.
If you have resources that are close, that should be be taken into account.

Quick update: Was not the best summer for my tank. Between my flying and our cabin, was away a lot this summer, and the tank suffered a bit. Biggest problem was my KH dropped to 5 before I realized that my dosing line was plugged. A lot of my acros had burnt tips as a result, and I lost a few of my prized ones.

Hair algae also got out of hand a bit, which was caused primarily (I think) because I had earlier disconnected my bio pellet reactor and allowed the N03 to get up to about 30 ppm.

Anyway, everything is under control again and SPS are recovering well. Still don't have the bright colors I had before, but are definitely coming back.

I want to do a tank reset, to rearrange my SPS, so I can properly clean my glass and rocks again. But will be going to Maui for a couple weeks in Nov, and don't want to make any major changes until then. So maybe after that.

I am a lazy pic taker, but here are a couple I just took today.

My Pearlberry has come a long ways from the tiny frag it was last winter.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps267726ce.jpg

My Orange Digi frags are turning into colonies on my neglected frag rack.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps69da941a.jpg

Not exactly sure, but I think this is some kind of sponge that just appeared on my rocks.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7aa3d607.jpg

Pearl Berry is lookin awesome Walter!

+1
I sure like that sponge

Glad to hear things are rebounding!

Thanks. I was pleased/surprised that it survived so well with my tank problems.
Yeah, it is quite pretty, very bright orange. I wonder if it has a name or can be identified?
So am I!! Seemed to be a latent effect. Even after I fixed the parameters and tank conditions, some corals still continued to STN. Tried to save a couple by fragging, but they died too.

Anyway, learned a few lessons,... albeit the hard way.

Oh no!

I Hope everything goes back on what it use to be. I was actually planning to drop by again and get some more frags.

No fear... things are actually looking pretty good right now. And I do have frags and could clip some more again, depending on what you are looking for.

I was just busy and away a lot during the last few months, so wasn't advertising. But back home now mostly, and can sell frags again if anyone is interested.

I wouldn't mind getting my hands on some of that Pearl Berry once I am up and running. Just stunning!

Thanks. I was pleased this one survived OK through my tank problems.

An update
 

Color and growth coming back now that P04 and N03 are back down to zero.


http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3884f728.jpg

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...psa2c6b546.jpg

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps203e5faf.jpg

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps843f364c.jpg

http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps59665197.jpg



http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0cacfee0.jpg

Beautiful photos Walter.
Was this taken with your underwater camera?

What's the name of the 3rd sps? Thanks

Yes, with my Olympus TG-2 (TG-3 is out now). If I have enough patience (rarely), can take some really sharp macro pics with it.

Haha, yeah, everyone asks about that one... Can only call it Acropora.sp for now. It is a very nice piece, though, and really deserves a designer name...

Very nice. I have the same camera TG3 but have yet to try taking reef photos with it yet.

I believe that sps is called purple plasma. However I could be wrong. I have a peice as well and looks next to identical under lower nutrients.

Yeah, nice thing with that camera, too, is that you can set your white balance by just pointing it at the sand, and save it.

I have sold a few accidental frags of it to people (maybe even you, Thomas, haha), but have never had a name. Gets more color as it matures and grows larger. It's multi colored, actually, only tips are purple. It has lime green and beige, too.

Wow good to know about the camera, maybe I'll try it out this week and can show you a photo of that purple plasma acro. Its similar however the tips might be slightly different. I picked it up as a Purple plasma acropora, but we will see what I get a good photo like yours. Too bad you can't make it to the frag swap.

Yeah, bummer,.. I missed it last time, too, when it was out there,... can't remember, but was gone somewhere again. But I was at Dave's, the last one here in Langley, and was a great turn out.

That camera has a lot of capabilities with the different scene settings and super macro mode. Also, can play with flash and exposure, too. And that manual white balance setting is great to get rid of that blue or purple hue that you get with the lights. But it takes time and patience to experiment with it, and find what works best for you. Sure is nice to just put it in the water, though. I think the TG-3 is still rated as the best camera of its type when you read the reviews.

Snapped a quick shot earlier tonight, not with the TG3 but with my cell phone instead haha.

Looks similiar?

http://i1017.photobucket.com/albums/...psyj4gf1na.jpg

Yeah, definitely similar in color. Your branches look thicker, though, but with smaller tips. But could be just differences in lighting and nutrients as I know acros can really vary by tank. I will have to do some searches and see if I can get more images of the purple plasma and compare.

Ooooh....I would like a piece of that

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

After looking at ORA and other sites, don't think it is a purple plasma. Coloring and polyps are different. Having said that, I did find some called that may be similar, but with no credible pedigree.

Here is another pic of my coral from a year ago. It is a lot bigger now of course.
http://i1304.photobucket.com/albums/...ps00e850fd.jpg

Great thread! Been reading with interest. Beautiful tank and pics!

I know what you mean about being away, and not even trusting other people with feeding LOL. I get nervous months before leaving! It's always the thing that 'never' happens when you're home that WILL happen when you are away!

Had the drop in ALK happen to me too. Power went out for a few hours... and I assumed autodoser had memory. A few days later corals didn't look quite right. Checked parameters and ALK was around 5. Autodoser had not resumed! All settings were at zero. No ALK or CA had gone into tank for about 4 days.

Anyway, I am another Langleyite... and if you ever want me to check parameters or feed when you are away would be happy to :biggrin: Anything to help alleviate any worries.

Love to see your tank one day :wink:

Thanks, and anytime you want to drop by, let me know.

Butterfly?
 

Great tank and great shots Walter. Very inspiring. Your coral looks so healthy!

What kind of butrterfly fish is the one in yesterday's full tank shot? Sorry if this was adressed earlier in the thread.

Thanks. That's a Pearlscale Butterfly. I have one in each of my tanks. Had them for almost 4 years now, and they keep my tanks clear of aiptasia. If you go back early in my journal, I describe my initial tank conditions and all the aiptasia I used to have. The Pearlscales totally decimated the aiptasia and have kept my tanks clear ever since. And contrary to popular opinion, they don't bother my corals (have all types incl softies, LPS and SPS). Plus they make nice peaceful tank mates and eat all kinds of foods.

Having said all that, you can't just buy them and plunk them into your display tank. They likely won't survive, and if they do, will probably go after your corals. But there is a way...

Gorgeous! Clearly someone around here knows what they're doing :)

Yeah, like EZ PZ,... haha, I can only wish... But thanks for the comments.

I never suggested that it was easy. Just that you seemed to know what you're doing. :biggrin: reefing is far from easy! If it were easy everyone would be doing it :-)

No, for sure it's not easy and I have had my share of challenges this past summer again. For me the key has been trying to understand what went wrong, and then correcting it. And lots of patience. Tanks can go bad fast, but they sure don't turn around for the good fast.