Casey's Red Sea S-1000

[CaseyP]

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What's the name of this beauty?

BC Malificent

At one point this was a nearly dead frag and is now a healthy colony ready to take off a frag or two.

Casey's Red Sea S-1000

AEFW: I've been constantly inspecting the acros with a flashlight for bite marks or eggs. So far no further signs of aefw and all the other acros have their usual color, unlike the Vinh colony that went brown and slowly bleached from the inner branhces. Also employing a technique I read about on...

www.bareefers.org

 

[Bryce.martin23]

BC Malificent

At one point this was a nearly dead frag and is now a healthy colony ready to take off a frag or two.

Casey's Red Sea S-1000

AEFW: I've been constantly inspecting the acros with a flashlight for bite marks or eggs. So far no further signs of aefw and all the other acros have their usual color, unlike the Vinh colony that went brown and slowly bleached from the inner branhces. Also employing a technique I read about on...

www.bareefers.org

View attachment 73897

Thats really pretty, the pink with ice blue tips is an awesome combo.

 

[CaseyP]

3 year update. Unfortunately since the last update tank its been a lot of up and down swings, moreso down. With life, very busy at work, and prioritizing family, the tank has taken a back seat and it shows despite how the pictures may look. I can blame it on a multitude of things but really it's lazy reefer syndrome. I stopped testing other than what the KH guardian tells me for alk. I stopped doing water changes. Lost some acros or still in the process of, gonis are all suffering still but hanging on, while others are still doing great. Just going to keep up with good practices and hope the tank restabilizes.

Nutrients: Nitrates spiked to 50+ and phosphate to 0.1 sometime in October. Highly unusual since my tank has always run on the low side. I tried vodka and vinegar dosing but got a crazy cyano bloom that's still present even though I stopped in December. Since then I've added a fleece roller, skimmed wetter, and doing water changes whenever I can. Nutrients are stabilizing around 30ppm nitrate and 0.04 phosphate but there's still more to go. Considering converting my bottom frag tank to a refugium or adding an turf scrubber.

Fish: The biggest disappointment that made me lose motivation for a couple months was losing my choati wrasse. If you've seen my earlier posts, this is my bucket list fish and third attempt. I was so happy that I finally was successful at keeping her past the 6 month mark, very fat and happy. Out of nowhere she disappeared which left me puzzled. I checked everywhere, behind the tank, in the overflow, then weeks later decided to use a borescope to look under the stand. There's less than a 3/4" gap so I was never able to look under by eye. Sadly that's where I found her along with 5 other fish that have gone missing over the years. I assume they jumped out the back then flopped under the stand. I do have a net lid but now I'm rethinking, so I need to have protection when I have the lids off when doing maintenance? Do I need make the cord holes smaller? Was it just the careless times when I took off the lid and forgot to put it back on immediately?

No motivation to do a full photoshoot so one picture and video this time. Any closer pictures you'd see all the damage done

 

[Matma]

About two weeks post transfer and I'm happy to say no losses! Doing a direct transfer from my old tank into the new, instead holding all the livestock in temporary holding tanks while I moved the old tank, proved to justify the upgrade hah. The last time I moved tanks it did not go as well. Corals are a little unhappy with drab colors but they're all opened up and alive.

Tank is slowly coming along while house moving and renovations are getting in order. I picked up a couple Kessil arms to mount the A360Xs with two more coming for a total of 6. My plan is to eventually build an extruded aluminum light rack and wall mount it. Still figuring the design with pneumatic lift arms so I can move the rack up and down for maintenance clearance.

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Temporary Ikea cabinet to house all the power bricks and EB832. Plan is to build matching cabinets on each side of the tank so it's wall to wall and have a built-in look. I also need to route two dedicated 20A breakers to the cabinet. Unfortunately I didn't have this option during construction so I'll most likely run the wires through a conduit from outside and then behind the tank.
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Can't say wire management is my strong suit
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For flow I carried over the two Octo Pulse 2 from my old tank and added two Octo Pulse 4s. I like these over say, MP40s, because they're highly flexible on where you want to point them and aesthetically IMO, wires inside the display are less ugly than motor blocks hanging on the outside of the tank.
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Next up is getting the aquascaping. I just laid out all the existing rock and didn't try to stack them in the same way they were before since it originally designed for a peninsula layout, viewable on two sides. I picked up ~150lbs of rock from @ashburn2k 's tank breakdown. Going to bleach soak them this week to remove any residual organic matter then figure out the scape. It's going to be tricky trying to combine new rock with old coral filled rock that I can't keep out of water long. I'm thinking I'll build foundational structures with the new rock and lay the existing rock over them.

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Appreciate the insight. It'll probably end up be a 50/50 mix of existing live rock and bleached out rock. I'll probably do as you suggested to avoid risk and cure the rock in a tub for a while before getting the aquascape together. Just to get some bacteria and biofilm going and leech out anything that still might be residual. Patience is the most key and most hard to accept skill of this hobby.

@CaseyP, congrats on the new tank and thank for sharing the journey. I am about to upgrade from a RS260 to a Waterbox Reef 230.6. I am planning to direct transfer as well but wonder if I should transfer the sand. Any advice?

 

[Kensington Reefer]

@CaseyP
Tank looks good
My sympathies for the crispy fish chips under the tank!
They were most likely healthy fish that made poor life choices
Now you just need to keep those healthy prized specimens in that box
Best fishes

 

[SupraSaltyReefer]

Your tank looks amazing the last time I was there. Pictures does not do it any justice.

Sorry to hear about your Choati wrasse. Getting it to live 6+ months is a huge accomplishment! I've tried many times and have temporarily given up. Will try again later probably lol. I'm always worried about my wrasses jumping out when I'm doing maintenance as well. I've thought about creating a net or screen that blocks the rear of the tank that comes on and off during maintenance.

 

[Darkxerox]

Your tank during LARS still looks better than most of ours at peak attention. Do you think the fish got through small gaps or just the short times you have the lid off? I like @SupraSaltyReefer 's idea of having some acrylic or something plug the back gap.

I honestly only ever fully getting rid of those blooms with chemiclean. Regardless of nutrient levels or flow.

 

[tribbitt]

Still a spectacular reef looking about as good as a reef tank can possibly look. Better than most can do by far

Those colonies are looking really large and healthy

 

[CaseyP]

@CaseyP, congrats on the new tank and thank for sharing the journey. I am about to upgrade from a RS260 to a Waterbox Reef 230.6. I am planning to direct transfer as well but wonder if I should transfer the sand. Any advice?

I only transferred a couple quarts of sand because most of it was pretty mucky. Just enough to seed bacteria and micro organisms. Didn't want to nitrate bomb the system with too much.

I've thought about creating a net or screen that blocks the rear of the tank that comes on and off during maintenance.

I've been thinking about a solution to use the existing screen lid as a backstop. Either a bracket on the back of the tank to rest the lid upwards like this. Or to get fancy, a string and pulley system using my wall mounted light rack to pull the lid back and up.

Your tank during LARS still looks better than most of ours at peak attention. Do you think the fish got through small gaps or just the short times you have the lid off? I like @SupraSaltyReefer 's idea of having some acrylic or something plug the back gap.

I honestly only ever fully getting rid of those blooms with chemiclean. Regardless of nutrient levels or flow.

Honestly no idea but not taking any more chances so plugging all the hole. Most likely will do chemi-clean since it's not going away.

Still a spectacular reef looking about as good as a reef tank can possibly look. Better than most can do by far

Those colonies are looking really large and healthy

Heh if i took close up pictures it might be a different story. A handful of the colonies have bleached from the base and interior branches. That's not including corals completely lost.

 

[iani]

Your tank has a euro brace as well correct? That is crazy that you lost that many fish with a net. It has be be managing a way with the lid on. You might be correct about your cord slots.

 

[Alexander1312]

Most people would not see what you are seeing but you know your tank best and have your expectations. I am very sorry about what happened to that delicate fish. I believe that a different cover will solve this issue easily (and I would be surprised if they jump out during maintenance).

I vote against the refugium idea as it would compete with corals for trace elements. A few months ago I started using Zeolite to reduce nitrates and I am super happy with the results. It takes a while and seems to go down gradually, and I was not (yet) able to reduce nitrates below 10 mg/L, but I got to where I wanted to, and replacing this only every 4 weeks does not involve a ton of maintanance.

I wonder if the fleece roller hat an impact on the skimmer effectiveness?

 

[CaseyP]

Since you guys don't believe me

Large tricolor stag. Fading for months and now RTNing. I'm thinking of putting some encrusting montis on the skeleton to cover it up, might look cool and be isolated to the branches. I'm on the hunt for this bright yellow with blue/purple polyp encrusting monti I saw yeaaaaaars ago at Atlantis Aquarium.

Blaiseballs goni colony. Grew it from a booger size frag and now it's almost gone. I have a couple frags that are doing ok though

CB Malificent. Slow STN from the middle. Might be infection because like a grey band that slowly creeps further into the colony

Fox Flame fading away

Your tank has a euro brace as well correct? That is crazy that you lost that many fish with a net. It has be be managing a way with the lid on. You might be correct about your cord slots.

It's eurobraced only only on the sides and front. I have a 2x2" cutout in each rear corner for cords with no eurobrace so the more I think about it, that might be the culprit.

I vote against the refugium idea as it would compete with corals for trace elements. A few months ago I started using Zeolite to reduce nitrates and I am super happy with the results. It takes a while and seems to go down gradually, and I was not (yet) able to reduce nitrates below 10 mg/L, but I got to where I wanted to, and replacing this only every 4 weeks does not involve a ton of maintanance.

I wonder if the fleece roller hat an impact on the skimmer effectiveness?

I'll have to look more into zeolite. When I initially researched it, carbon dosing required less maintenance so I went that route but the cyano side affects are a no go. Does it take down phosphate? I would assume the roller takes a load off the skimmer but I've been running it wet anyways to strip out as much nutrients as I can.

 

[iani]

Yeah, fish are going to get out of that cutout very easy.

 

[Alexander1312]

I'll have to look more into zeolite. When I initially researched it, carbon dosing required less maintenance so I went that route but the cyano side affects are a no go.

From my understanding, simple carbon dosing (vodka, vinegar) is not recommended as it promotes less bacterial biodiversity, which is why folks often see cyano when doing this. I have been carbon dosing for quite a while but only use Tropic Marin’s Elimi NP, which seems to work differently/delayed/complex carbon etc, think sugar vs. Oatmeal, at least that is how I understood the difference in the most simple way.

Does it take down phosphate? I would assume the roller takes a load off the skimmer but I've been running it wet anyways to strip out as much nutrients as I can.

No impact on phosphate by Zeolite. I have settled on GFO for that, after ruling out everything else due to their downsides. The impact on trace elements is not too bad as per the last few ICPs. I mix the zeolite with GFO and GAC. Works great, but still need to get phosphate below 0.1, currently at 0.14, but creeped up to 0.3 at one point.

 

[Adauqua]

Have you considered anaerobic-block to stimulate growth of anaerobic bacteria?

Nano-Tech Anaerobic-Block (2 pcs)

Natural & Low-Maintenance Nitrate Reduction Efficiently removes nitrate from aquariums Designed to stimulate growth of anaerobic bacteria Nano-ceramic, porous structure that will not degrade over time Can be used directly in sump Lasts approximately 6 months For freshwater and marine aquariums...

www.bulkreefsupply.com

I have been putting 4 of them in low-flow area in sump, together with dosing 30ml vinegar/day to keep my nitrates 5-10 with heavy feeding for 25 fish (daily feeding: 1/2 nori sheet, 6-7 frozen mysis cubes, 7 x 2min plank with reef jerky, flakes, freezed-dry mysis, and hand feed some tdo pellets depending on my mood)

 

[tribbitt]

Fading Didn’t @derek_SR also have this issue? Do you think this is a nutrient starvation kind of problem, bleaching, or infectious?

Best of luck. Keep in mind that while some corals are struggling others clearly are thriving and enjoying life, your tank still looks great

 

[derek_SR]

Yeah seems like something bad is going around! Too soon to update my TJ but I think my tank is finally stabilizing.

Definitely similar to what Casey has going on here.

 

[CaseyP]

Yeah, fish are going to get out of that cutout very easy.

Printed out some covers. After nutrient issues getting sorted I may try new fish again

 

[Kensington Reefer]

@CaseyP
Yuurp!
Gitter done!