Reef nutrition

bondolo's defunct tanks

FeliciaLynn said:
I bought some Flatworm Exit but I've been too scared to use it because the toxins from the dying flatworms can crash a tank, especially a small tank like mine.
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I researched this point in detail to know how much I should reduce the population by with vacuuming before switching to poison. The answer seems to be that you would need to have hundreds/dead per gallon to pose a significant risk to your tank. In my case I probably at maximum only had several hundred in my tank. The infestations that people worry about where the red planaria are smothering coral (and that's all they do) contain thousands and thousands of individuals. This is when the risk of the flatworm death toxin becomes significant.

The best paper I found regarding "the enemy": Convolutriloba retrogemma
 
lattehiatus said:
Has it been definitively established that FW Exit's active ingredient is Levamisole?
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Yes. Someone found the MSDS that Salifert filed with the poison control center and since that was disclosed they have apparently no longer been secretive about it.

lattehiatus said:
My own experience with FW Exit was mixed. Initial dose wiped out perhaps 80% of the visible planaria population, however successive applications were less positive, even at double the recommended dosage. At one point I put a few planaria in a known volume of water, and it required something along the lines of 5 times the recommended dosage for the planaria to begin detaching. It seemed they may have built up some resistance to the active ingredient in FW Exit. :mad:
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This seems entirely consistent with what I have read unfortunately. It's apparently not just resistance but flatworms have odd metabolism and effects may vary between applications. If the flatworm is dormant and not actively respiring it may not absorb the poison. I believe this is, in part, why they suggest application during the early part of your light cycle and not adding the carbon (which removes both Levamisole and the death toxin) or starting water change for 90 minutes.
 
Yeah, I had read all the stuff about it not effecting flatworms if they are dormant, and so it seems like you'll never get the full population with flatworm exit. It seems you'll always have some left that you have to keep in check from what I read. This is why I really want to get that nudibranch since they only thing it will eat is flatworms. Unlike with a wrasse, you know it will eat them and then it will eat every single one it can find until they're gone. At that point the nudibranch will starve to death, but it can always just be passed on to someone else since flatworms are common.
 
I finally "finished" the setup of the ReefAngel and Rapid LED lights I inherited from yardartist. (Yes, it did take me more than year). It was a fun project and I learned a lot in the process. I have reached another milestone though--first light!

Positioning of the fixture was done with a paper template laid on the cover glass and a plumb bob. The hanger ended up within a half centimeter of where I wanted it. The hangers are affixed to the ceiling with metal hollow wall anchors. If this turns out to be inadequate I will run an aluminum stringer between ceiling joists and then attach the hangers from that. There's no indication that the two anchors can't support the 11 pounds of the fixture.

I hope to finish up the basic installation including tidying up all the wires in the next couple of weekends. I will be switching the connections from wire-nuts to a weatherproof automotive connector. I don't like sloppy work so I will probably fiddle with it for quite a while. I broke the lens off of one of the LED stars and I am also not sure I like the color. I may replace the red LEDs with white or cyan LEDs.

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Sweet!!!

I am sure the wall anchors will hold fine ..... until you accidentally lean on the fixture
while messing with a coral way in the back. :rolleyes:
 
It turns out that corals like light. I've been slowly ramping up the daily maximum on the LEDs and the growth is starting to go nuts. They are much happier under the increased light and I still have a ways to go.
 
Something died. Either the cowrie or the urchin I think. And it happened on a day when I was away from my tanks. Came in my office this morning to a nasty ammonia smell and the skimmer filled with foam. The skimmate is vomit inducing putrid smelling. This combined with the high temperatures caused a lot of other things to die. Bleaching everywhere in both tanks and lots of coral skeletons. Really bummed. Not sure what is gone for sure and what will recover. I think all the swimming stock is OK though reef lobster and wrasse are both hiding.

I've dosed the tank with Amquel as an emergency nitrate/ammonia measure, put new carbon into the reactor, cleaned the skimmer and done two 40+% water changes. I was able to get 55 gallons of sea water from Erin and that sure helped with being able to do another water change right away. Carrying 475 pounds of sea water upstairs was a back breaker. I'm going to follow the "change the carbon and do a big water change every day until stuff stops dying" practice and hope that at least some things survive. Ironically, the Australomusa and Trachtophyllia seem happier than they have ever been. Not surprising for lagoon species I guess.
 
Yeah hopefully you figure out what's wrong. I've been there more times than I would care to imagine. Something goes wrong, you think you fix it, but then you have the systematic failure of everything... and then there will be one "touchy" coral that like "Hey this is awesome wooooooo"
 
Mr. Pinchy (Hawaiian Red Reef Lobster, Enoplometopus occidentalis) didn't make it unfortunately. Damn. Damn. Damn. Super bummer to have killed something which should be immortal. He was moving about last night but dead up against the return (where he never goes) this morning. No sign of cowrie but urchin is back to cleaning rock and wrasse has reappeared. I've cleaned disgusting skimmers again and will be doing another water change shortly. Some corals are looking less dead.
 
It was definitely the high temps directly attributable to insufficient cooling and airflow. I had taken off one of my evap fans that was squealing and near dead and that combined with unexpected hot weather and no open windows. I suspect the tank temperature got close to 85 or possibly even higher. Evap fans are restored and I have ordered the controller upgrade so I can implement overtemp lights off. I am still running 150 MH on the frag tank which generates a lot of heat.

In the heat something died and started a chain reaction taking out progressively more stuff. I am lucky to have lost only what I did. The acans, montis, euphylia and blastos suffered the worst and were nearly a total loss. Most of the LPS were fine or, in a few case, thrilled about the change. The Australomussa, favids are still radiant even after the water has been cleaned up.

Still doing daily water changes. I moved the softies to my quarantine tank. The large nepthea may still not survive and I was worried it might kill other things in it's death throes.
 
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