Cali Kid Corals

Palmers blue Millie (Bondolo)

NanoCrazed said:
@Coral reefer looks like I am striking out here as well :(

The pieces you gave me have been doing extremely well and coloring to a really bold deep blue with green tips. I had one piece RTN over night and thought it might be due to being stung by some pavona. But just now,within 24 hours, another piece located on my frag rack in the same tank is going RTN. Baffled -- all my other pieces have been doing extremely well.

Tank has been stable so really no reasons i can think of. Any ideas?
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Millis hate alk swing. Did u have any by any chance?
 
ofzakaria said:
Millis hate alk swing. Did u have any by any chance?
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I had a 1dkh swing for about a day but usually tank stays within +/- 0.5dkh. All my other millis are doing well (thankfully since all high end pieces)

Interestingly enough, the 3rd piece of the blue milli that is on the sand bed seems fine, and have a good amountof encrusting more that the 2 that RTN. Wondering if might be a PAR thing. Though the rack is about 200 - 250PAR while the first piece that RTN was at about 300 - 350PAR region of my tank

Though, that might not make sense since the pieces cam pale and colored up at where they were located rather than bleach if a PAR thing.

Only real change I did to my system was the removal of my filter mesh...and replenishing the chaeto
 
@ofzakaria come to think of it, i have been make a lot more adjustments lately to keep my alk in range. My pieces suddenly decide to take off and consuming Ca like mad. So been adjusting alk more frequently... re-tune the tank. Normally, i dose baking soda once per day at night. But there were a few days, i had to dose twice a day to maintain alk within usual ranges... might have contributed to the problem. But that was days ago so didn't think to would trigger RTN
 
NanoCrazed said:
@Coral reefer looks like I am striking out here as well :(

The pieces you gave me have been doing extremely well and coloring to a really bold deep blue with green tips. I had one piece RTN over night and thought it might be due to being stung by some pavona. But just now,within 24 hours, another piece located on my frag rack in the same tank is going RTN. Baffled -- all my other pieces have been doing extremely well.

Tank has been stable so really no reasons i can think of. Any ideas?
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I know next to nothing about which of your 37 tanks it was in so hard to offer any advice.
 
NanoCrazed said:
@ofzakaria come to think of it, i have been make a lot more adjustments lately to keep my alk in range. My pieces suddenly decide to take off and consuming Ca like mad. So been adjusting alk more frequently... re-tune the tank. Normally, i dose baking soda once per day at night. But there were a few days, i had to dose twice a day to maintain alk within usual ranges... might have contributed to the problem. But that was days ago so didn't think to would trigger RTN
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Results of Stress Dont always show up right away. Can take awhile. I would really encourage you to automate your dosing one way or another.
 
Coral reefer said:
Results of Stress Dont always show up right away. Can take awhile. I would really encourage you to automate your dosing one way or another.
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I have a DOS now just haven't had time to set it up...need to build a shelf for it.

But I think I have a plausible theory why the alk has been fluctuating. My manual dosing involved throwing baking soda into the overflow nightly. Recently i decided to once again remove my mesh filter, which corresponds with my alk fluctuations...so thinking that when i had the mesh installed, it would catch the baking soda and help dissolve it as a function of the water moving through the filter. But now without it, the stuff probably just accumulates in the sump and dissolve at a slower rate...so i am likely not getting the full benefit of the dose in a predictable way.

So yeah, head off to the lumber store tomorrow and get things squared away...in between trying to get my tax sorted, of course.
 
Looks like I am still in the game on this one!

Ironically, my third frag that was placed on the sand bed with the least flow and light spot is thriving well. Wondering now if it might be a PAR stress thing? Though hard to imagine since I'm guessing the mother colony probably got more than 200 PAR. I lost pieces at 200 and 300 PAR ranges. but the 100 - 150PAR spot is doing well.
 
NanoCrazed said:
Looks like I am still in the game on this one!

Ironically, my third frag that was placed on the sand bed with the least flow and light spot is thriving well. Wondering now if it might be a PAR stress thing? Though hard to imagine since I'm guessing the mother colony probably got more than 200 PAR. I lost pieces at 200 and 300 PAR ranges. but the 100 - 150PAR spot is doing well.
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I take that back. I moved the remaining piece off the sand and onto my rack. Took a few days and now RTN. Ugh.

I can only think that it's PAR or flow...

@Coral reefer any idea what PAR your colony is at?
 
Mine is sitting at around 300 or so, but then another tiny nub I got from him that started to puddle out out of the blue lightened up greatly, which may have been flow issues since that was when I transitioned from glass box to tub on the floor
 
what confuses me is the stick did well at lower flow and lower PAR spot... and fizzled with a vengeance at high flow, higher (medium) flow.

The piece(s) started out kinda brown so was assuming it was in the shade, hence I've been acclimating at lower PAR and then slowly bring up higher...
 
I'd have to look back at my old tank journal, but my first piece was a tiny little browned out nub I think, and I was happy as can be that it puddled out, but i never branched out any further, then some time later he gave me a healthier chunk when he was doing some pruning and that piece has been amazeballs, again would need to compare to initial shot but man it's grown quite a bit I think, and hairy as hell which something that I've always had issues with, never got terribly large polyp extension from most acros
 
mine was puddling on the sand bed really nicely and was branching so was feeling confident that it would do better on my rack with my other pieces ... there was a scrape on one of the tips that even healed quickly while on the rack... so yet more confidence. ... until this morning.

really would like to try again as it's an amazing piece. Just need to figure out the mystery on why it's been so temperamental. Coincidentally, it was on the same spot where the pink lemonade RTN'd. Just replaced the pink lemonade with the palmer's. it's surrounded by other millis that continue to do well.

My system has been stable except for a 24 hours alk swing... when my alk like fell on the floor... so a drop 1.2 dkh drop and raise in 24 - 36 hours. but can't imagine that it's the cause since other sensitive pieces are holding.
 
When you say high flow, what do you mean? Tank has a lot, or there’s a lot in that spot? Like powerhead pointed rift at it? My tank has a lot of flow, it’s spread out really well tho. I will check the or hopefully tonight or tomorrow so I can pass on the meter. I remember it being around 300 or a little more from awhile back.
 
Coral reefer said:
When you say high flow, what do you mean? Tank has a lot, or there’s a lot in that spot? Like powerhead pointed rift at it? My tank has a lot of flow, it’s spread out really well tho. I will check the or hopefully tonight or tomorrow so I can pass on the meter. I remember it being around 300 or a little more from awhile back.
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i meant higher flow than on the sand bed... but fairly gentle flow in the middle between two XF 330s running random, just higher than what it got a few days ago.
 
Glad to be back in the game... thanks @Coral reefer !

Pic of on of the pieces... great PE! Thisbis lower in tank. I put the other piece up top

20200829_011018.jpg
 
Update:

Piece high in tank didn't work out... was at high PAR and high flow that seem to make most of my millis happy. But didn't work out for the palmers. Was nice and hairy and then sometime over the last few days it went RTN. Alk is holding steady now at 8.8 +/- 0.15...which is pretty stable in my opinion. Probably a 0.7dkh drop over time since the Palmer's was introduced. So, don;t think it's an alk swing...

The second piece much lower in the tank at about 250PAR seems to be doing OK... started encrusting. Hoping it continues to hold and it's not that the Palmer's hate my tank.
 
Man -- looks like the Palmer and I aren't meant to be... the second piece also RTN'd today. Even more surprised given the amount of encrusting. :(

I don't think any single SPS has given me as much of a challenge as the Palmers.

So, here are my learnings and theory to help the next lucky recipients of this amazing piece...

Things that did not make a difference to prevent RTN:
  • Flow -- tried high, medium, low
  • PAR -- High @ 350-400PAR, Mid @ 250PAR, Low @150 PAR (though lower PAR seemed to have made the piece last longest by a week or so)
My theory on why the piece RTN'd...best guess is Alk swing / shock. When I took on the Palmer's, I was running 9.5... I believe @Coral reefer runs at about 8. So, likely tanking the pieces straight from @Coral reefer's tank and into mine, gave the piece(s) enough of an Alk swing to stress the milli. And we all know milli's don't like stress...

The first time, I think my system was running closer to 8.5... but then had a 1dkh swing before RTN.

And unfortunately, RTN from alk swing stress doesn't show for about 2 weeks... Aaaaaaand, my latest attempt is at the 2 week mark, despite having my alk fixed about 8.8 +/- 0.12 the entire time.

Seems to me, this particular piece is extra sensitive to alk swings...
 
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