Myka's 69 SPS Tank 2015

[Proteus]

I would almost speculate that the coral snow was being caught buy the "algae" and with the particulate holding organic matter may have feed the bloom.
But I'm only guessing

You may find it cheaper to switch to food grade bentonite rather than coral snow.
A $9 bag from Amazon has lasted me over a year

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Proteus

I would almost speculate that the coral snow was being caught buy the "algae" and with the particulate holding organic matter may have feed the bloom.
But I'm only guessing

You may find it cheaper to switch to food grade bentonite rather than coral snow.
A $9 bag from Amazon has lasted me over a year

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but the Coral Snow seemed to knock back the algae/bacteria, not fuel it.

Bentonite, eh? I've never really looked into what was in it. I assumed it was something calcium-based. From Wiki: "Bentonite is an absorbent aluminium phyllosilicate clay consisting mostly of montmorillonite." Where did you get this information? I'm assuming it's a "best guess" sort of a thing since Zeovit won't actually say what's in their products.

[Proteus]

Originally Posted by Myka

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but the Coral Snow seemed to knock back the algae/bacteria, not fuel it.

Bentonite, eh? I've never really looked into what was in it. I assumed it was something calcium-based. From Wiki: "Bentonite is an absorbent aluminium phyllosilicate clay consisting mostly of montmorillonite." Where did you get this information? I'm assuming it's a "best guess" sort of a thing since Zeovit won't actually say what's in their products.

My bad I read in your post that you stopped the sponge power and coral snow. (misread)

It was reef central where I originally found out about bentonite. Some holistic people also eat it as a way to clear toxins from digestive tract

[Myka]

I stopped Sponge Power, but upped the frequency of dosing Coral Snow. I was only dosing Coral Snow maybe once a month on average, and right now I'm dosing it every 3 or so days to help with this bacteria/algae since it seems to be making a significant difference. The effect of the Coral Snow dosing showed up before I stopped the Sponge Power, but maybe the stopping of the Sponge Power has helped as well. I'm not totally sure at this point. Once it's all cleared up I'll start the Sponge Power dosing again and see if it comes back.

[ALBERTA REEF]

Your tank looks great.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by ALBERTA REEF

Your tank looks great.

Thank you, I'm glad you like it.


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My tank is suffering zero nutrients again...

SG 35 ppt (calibrated with 35 ppt solution)
Cal 405 ppm (new Salifert kit), 390 ppm (end of an Elos kit) <--- this is usually 400-410 ppm
Alk 6.8 dKH (new Hanna reagent), 6.85 (new Salifert kit) <--- this is usually 7.0-7.2 dKH
Mg 1240 ppm (Red Sea Pro)
NO3 0 ppm (Salifert), 0 ppm (Red Sea Pro)
PO4 0 ppb (Hanna)

Dosing kalk, and needs a bump up I see.

A few weeks ago I was getting a whiff of nutrients and the tank was looking better. Now the nutrients are gone, and everything is uber pale again. I do have some fluffy brown algae growth everywhere that I'm not sure what it is. It's particularly growing on the powerheads and back glass. It starts by looking like diatoms, but then gets fluffy if I don't scrape it off. It comes off super easy like diatoms. I added some more clean up crew to try to help: 6 Ring Cowries (2 weeks ago), 3 small Turbos, Peppermint Shrimp (had a couple tiny Aiptasia and he got em), 1 small female Emerald Crab (bubble algae is getting out of hand too).

Another thing that I hesitate to mention is pH. Ever since day one with this tank, I haven't a reading over pH 7.7. I am using a calibrated handheld meter. It's probably a decade old, maybe more. Every time I calibrate it I read the solutions with the meter first and they always read 7.0 and 10.0. Then I calibrate and they again read the solutions at 7.0 and 10.0. Today pH just before the white light cycle is 7.6. I've tried messing around with opening windows, and that doesn't help. I want to do with pH test with outside air, but it's been really cold here (-30C), so the water will freeze before the 1 hour aeration is done. Today it's only (-6C) so I'll see what I can do to get it done today. I'll use a big jug of water and put it in a cooler with a heat pack maybe.

The skimmer has been driving me nuts overflowing lately, so I put a couple sheets of eggcrate under it to prop it up a bit. It was in 8 5/8" of water, and now it's in 7 7/8" water.

I cleaned the back glass and powerheads 2 weeks ago, and this is what they look like now:



Here are some of the worst affected pale corals:











Here's that nice wild Aussie Acro, and it's paled as well. It has a little nubbin growing where I took a frag off and the colors are looking quite nice, though still pale. Right now the tips of the corallites are looking neon yellow in person.

[Myka]

Originally Posted by Myka

I don't have much exciting to report. I bought a browned out maricultured A. plana yesterday. Not much for PE yet - it did not enjoy the Bayer dip.

So I was talking to the LFS owner and he said the "plana" came is as a desalwii. It looks too bush-type to be desalwii to me, but I sure am hoping! That's the coral I miss the most from my old SPS tank. To me, plana and desalwii are impossible to distinguish until you have a good growth pattern established - if it tables it's desalwii, and if it's a bush it's plana.

Here it is today, starting to show a bit of color, but not much.



In comparison, here's a known plana frag that I ordered (it arrived brown as a turd). With close pics like these though, it does appear that the corallites are shaped differently. Hmm...


Here's that maricultured mille (or prostrata?) that's an interesting color. I still can't quite get the burnt orange color of the tips on the camera. It's certainly different than a typical Sunset Mille.
Polyps out:


Polyps in:



A new smooth skin I bought yesterday that came in as caroliniana. I could believe that, but maybe multiacuta? It was brighter when it first arrived at the LFS, but it's been there awhile. Can anyone spot Little Kenny's cousin Tiny Tim? He thinks he's tough enough to handle insecticide, but I told him only adults are allowed to choose to be exposed to that type of drug, and when he's 18 he can decide then. Hopefully Snoopy (the Yellow Coris H chrysus) will leave him alone, or he'll have worse problems than a close call with insecticide!