Reef nutrition

Randy’s Innovative Marine 75 Ext

I’ve been abusing the 3d printer I bought from @Srt4eric last week and just tried my hand at designing something in CAD (FreeCAD) for the first time ever. I made a holder for my Maxspect Nano-Tech Bio-Blocks so that it would hopefully stop collecting as much detritus, stop scratching the bottom of the acrylic sump and I just like things organized. ;) I seriously thought there would be a bigger learning curve for CAD design work, but there are some really good tutorials at there. Still a ton to learn obviously, I just thought it would take me longer to start from nothing and print something that was useful to me.

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Here’s a PSA for never giving up on a coral…. This was actually in my IM25 and not IM75, but I’m impressed at a coral’s ability to rebound to life.

This took fours days of in-tank Erythromycin treatment and then just letting it be with water changes only.

June 6 - on death’s door with barely any flesh.
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Jul 27
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All is (was) not happy on the IM75 coral front. Around a month and a half ago, I added some new acros and within a week and a half, I started to see some oddities occurring. One established acro frag started to show some white banding issues and tissue recession, then a different established colony starting turning an odd grey from the base, then another. Then came the torches. Couple heads bailed, then another.

Water parameters checked out and did not deviate from the normal ranges and nothing had really changed in the last couple months except the addition of the co2 scrubber.

So out of “erring on the side of caution,” the tank got blasted with antibiotics. Yes, I know controversial decision. But from experience, I kind of saw the writing on the wall. Act now, or ba-bye coral.

Started with a 5 day dose of Erythromycin and let that sort itself out for a week. It initially seemed to work, but then torches seem to continue some tissue recession and then came a torch head bail, so then came 7 days of ciprofloxacin dosing. I’m holding out hope that that works. Last dose was on Saturday.

I did lose a couple of the new acro frags, but for the most part, the torches and acros I had before are still alive, although damaged. It unfortunately seems though, that a couple of gonis will not make it (thankfully, not my favorite ones).

I love this hobby, but sometimes I really hate it.

Most acros and coral were affected, some to a greater extent than others. However, things seem to be on the mend at the moment. Here are a couple of examples of the acros and their progress over the last three weeks.

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Before this mess happened:
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Before this mess happened:
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Before this mess happened:
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Not all is sad. Here are the goni’s that are still doing well in the tank.

For the inquiring minds.

#1 Rocky Mountain Frags (RMF) Kyrptonite Glitter Goni
#2 Amazeballs Goni
#3 Randy’s Flaming Lotus Goni
#4 Bright Pink Goni from kd.reefs

 
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RandyC said:
All is (was) not happy on the IM75 coral front. Around a month and a half ago, I added some new acros and within a week and a half, I started to see some oddities occurring. One established acro frag started to show some white banding issues and tissue recession, then a different established colony starting turning an odd grey from the base, then another. Then came the torches. Couple heads bailed, then another.

Water parameters checked out and did not deviate from the normal ranges and nothing had really changed in the last couple months except the addition of the co2 scrubber.

So out of “erring on the side of caution,” the tank got blasted with antibiotics. Yes, I know controversial decision. But from experience, I kind of saw the writing on the wall. Act now, or ba-bye coral.

Started with a 5 day dose of Erythromycin and let that sort itself out for a week. It initially seemed to work, but then torches seem to continue some tissue recession and then came a torch head bail, so then came 7 days of ciprofloxacin dosing. I’m holding out hope that that works. Last dose was on Saturday.

I did lose a couple of the new acro frags, but for the most part, the torches and acros I had before are still alive, although damaged. It unfortunately seems though, that a couple of gonis will not make it (thankfully, not my favorite ones).

I love this hobby, but sometimes I really hate it.

Most acros and coral were affected, some to a greater extent than others. However, things seem to be on the mend at the moment. Here are a couple of examples of the acros and their progress over the last three weeks.

View attachment 49526

Before this mess happened:
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Before this mess happened:
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Before this mess happened:
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Click to expand...

Things are continuing to improve slowly, but surely. Just keeping with normal water changes and feeding schedule now.

TSA Rayman
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And today (9/25/22):
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BKChem Fruitloops
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And today (9/25/22):
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BKChem Crème de le Crème
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And today (9/25/22):
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And this guy was looking really good tonight.

Candy Corals Blazing Rainbow (9/25/23)
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This is when I added it on Jan 20, 2023.
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Been a while since I've had an update. Sadly, whatever was affecting my tank was not taken care of with the Ciprofloxacin treatment. It seemed to have worked, but after a month or so, the problem crept back up and between travelling and a bout with pneumonia, It kinda edged me out in The War of the IM75. I've lost a few torches and a number of heads on the surviving torches and a good number of acros frags. My scoloy of seven years is hurtin' bad and keeping my fingers crossed it can survive. I do still have some stuff that has survived and I finally decided to try another longer cipro treatment. One last attempt. If that doesn't work, we'll have to figure out something else to try.

On a good note, I realized that these three fish have been around for right around 7 years. I'm surprised at this point the Leopard Wrasse hasn't jumped out of the tank and the Mandarin Goby is still hanging around happily hunting pods and eating mysis shrimp.

 
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Bummed to hear this. I’ve dealt with a similar issue since November where my ICP’s come back normal but I’ve lost all my torches and quite a few other corals. Hoping to be on the other side of it now.
Always look forward to your updates and coral growth pics, so I hope you sort it soon.
 
RandyC said:
Been a while since I've had an update. Sadly, whatever was affecting my tank was not taken care of with the Ciprofloxacin treatment. It seemed to have worked, but after a month or so, the problem crept back up and between travelling and a bout with pneumonia, It kinda edged me out in The War of the IM75. I've lost a few torches and a number of heads on the surviving torches and a good number of acros frags. My scoloy of seven years is hurtin' bad and keeping my fingers crossed it can survive. I do still have some stuff that has survived and I finally decided to try another longer cipro treatment. One last attempt. If that doesn't work, we'll have to figure out something else to try.

On a good note, I realized that these three fish have been around for right around 7 years. I'm surprised at this point the Leopard Wrasse hasn't jumped out of the tank and the Mandarin Goby is still hanging around happily hunting pods and eating mysis shrimp.

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Love the video. Sorry to hear about your tank and health issues. Hope all will get better despite the apparent complexity of resolving this.
 
If someone asked me what the hardiest corals were and what could survive about anything, it’d be these three. I’ve had these since they were little frags for probably 4-5 years, but they have been through quite a bit and they keep on ticking. Even when I have to frag a piece because of an issue, they’ve been able to regrow from start and manage to survive. They’re dealing with my current issue only with a little damage, but with a ton of water changes and cipro, they’ve been super troopers.

Candy Corals Blazing Rainbow
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TSA Bill Murray
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BC Bohemia
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RandyC said:
Water source? I’m in the east bay in Castro Valley. TDS out the tap is like 50, use a 6 stage RO/DI, which is overkill. So, water isn’t bad.
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I'm wondering if maybe a few changes with natural sea water or your salt mix with RO from a store would maybe rule out a few things to see if there's improvement. A little bit of a hassle I know.
 
Darkxerox said:
I'm wondering if maybe a few changes with natural sea water or your salt mix with RO from a store would maybe rule out a few things to see if there's improvement. A little bit of a hassle I know.
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Water I have is likely pretty clean and not at fault. I even had a 20” chloramine monster filter in the RO/DI setup. I’ve changed the filters too. So I doubt that’s the issue. I’ve run ICPs as well and of course everything looks fine.

It’s very likely bacterial since ciprofloxacin does improve drastically when used, but the in tank treatment didn’t seem to eliminate the bacteria completely. Enough seemed to survive and wasn’t outcompeted by “good” bacteria that it eventually made a comeback. We’ll have to see if a longer antibiotic treatment works.
 
RandyC said:
Water I have is likely pretty clean and not at fault. I even had a 20” chloramine monster filter in the RO/DI setup. I’ve changed the filters too. So I doubt that’s the issue. I’ve run ICPs as well and of course everything looks fine.

It’s very likely bacterial since ciprofloxacin does improve drastically when used, but the in tank treatment didn’t seem to eliminate the bacteria completely. Enough seemed to survive and wasn’t outcompeted by “good” bacteria that it eventually made a comeback. We’ll have to see if a longer antibiotic treatment works.
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Maybe get some sand or rocks from @thephoreefer post treatment to ensure good bacteria have a leg up? If you're going scorched earth on all the gram-negative bacteria, they're pretty much all starting out at the same levels after treatment.
 
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