Reef nutrition

Randy’s Innovative Marine 75 Ext

Darkxerox said:
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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I have noticed that cipro definitely does not eradicate nitrifying bacteria. After a few in tank treatments sessions, the tanks are still very much capable of processing ammonia and nitrite.
 
But that's only a portion of the bacteria. There's a whole microbiome that live directly in/on/around the corals are probably being disrupted.

There's a lot of new work looking into beneficial types of bacteria in and around corals: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41396-018-0323-6 that can aid in reducing stress-related events like bleaching, infection by Vibrio coralliilyticus, or death.

Very crude analogy, but after antibiotic treatment, a lot of people find their gut flora destroyed and have a lot of issues with digestion for weeks. Some people get fecal transplants in extreme cases.

So I figure there's no risk here in introducing donor rock/sand/frags from a known healthy tank to hopefully outcompete or colonize before any pathogenic bacteria take hold.
 
I was disappointed in my pH levels after installing a co2 scrubber and it turns out it was because my skimmer wasn’t pulling in enough air. I was using a Nyos Quantum 120 and swapped it out with my old Reef Octopus Regal 150 that had a VarioS 2 pump.

Before I was getting between a pH range of 8-8.2. Well, here’s what I get now:

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My solenoid automatically opens every so often now to suck in room air instead of scrubbed air, especially when I’m on vacation and no one’s home.
 
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ashburn2k said:
what did you use to measure co2?
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Telaire Ventostat T8100-D 18W15 CO2 Ventilation Controller connected to an ASM module.

Club - Would a lender CO2 meter be a good addition?

Regarding plants and CO2 levels indoors, it isn’t a myth, but quantity matters. If you want to offset the CO2 production of a 150 lbs person you are going to need a similar or even greater mass of actively respirating plant material (not counting soil/pot/etc). So yeah not just a decorative...
www.bareefers.org
 
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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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An update on my very likely bacterial infection. I used cipro for a 7-day treatment and everything seemed to go well, then I followed up with a 5-day erythromycin treatment. This is extreme, but the problem I was having kept coming back after a 5-day cipro treatment. Erythromycin was definitely a much harsher treatment than cipro on the coral. Most acros seemed unhappy and went very pale or brown. While most things seem to be on the rebound, I think some coral may be too far gone to recover. I’m cautiously optimistic because last time after a cipro treatment things were good for a bit, to only back downhill again 2-3 months later.

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Mar 19
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RandyC said:
Most things seem to be continuing the trend to being on the healthier side though not all. Here’s a pretty stark example of a “good” one on the mend.

Battle Corals Backdraft the Movie the Table Acro
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Tank still looks like it’s doing okay after the antibiotic treatment. Fingers cross that it continues and doesn’t make a comeback like last time.

Some acros are just so much better at recovering from sickness/stress than others. This seems to be one of them.

This is Battle Corals Backdraft the Movie Acro.

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Is it a granulosa? Really interesting color combo since the ones I always see are either pale green or blue with a bright tip.
 
Darkxerox said:
Is it a granulosa? Really interesting color combo since the ones I always see are either pale green or blue with a bright tip.
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I dunno. I’ve always been terrible at ID’ing acros. Maybe granulosa, maybe caroliniana, could maybe be a weird lokani? Maybe I’ll ask Adam over at battle corals and see what he thinks.
 
I have Neptune solenoids hooked up to my ATO reservoir and my RO/DI bin so I can just flip a switch in Apex to fill them when they’re low. Plus, the ATO reservoir has float switches that trigger automatic filling once it’s low. Unfortunately, they’ve started to leak when they’re powered off (should be closed), so I was looking for a replacement that wasn’t a solenoid. I have used a stainless steel motorized ball valve for the co2 scrubber, but there wasn’t a PVC option that was easily sourced until now. I was looking for a PVC option to prevent any potential leeching of the metal into my RO water. Amazon finally listed one! Plus it’s from the same company as my stainless steel one which has been great since I installed it.


They’re run off a voltage range of 9-36V so I just snipped the 1Link cable off the old solenoids and spliced the wires so I could plug it into the 1Link port and now no more leaks.

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