Cali Kid Corals

Simple 40

Changes over the past month some negative, but mostly positive.

Changes in the past couple of months.
  • Adding more rock. (Caribsea I think)
  • Adding more coral - will add pictures once they look better ;-).
  • Introducing Chaeto, Burning Bush, and Pom Pom Macro.
  • Adding Pods
  • Turning off the UV.
  • Increase surface and sump water agitation - redesigning the sump areas.
  • Dosing Kalk.
Negatives
  • Fish aggression: after removing the flame angel, the six-line wrasse targets the Starki Damselfish. Six Line has a permanent home in the sump as of today.
  • Algae is starting to show up in the tank, not sure what kind
  • Alk, Phosphate, and Nitrates have been unstable due to the changes.
Positives
  • All the changes have been closely monitored and hopefully stabilizing in a few weeks.
  • All corals purchased have survived, even the Acan I accidentally cut in half with a bone cutter.
  • PH jumped from 7.9-8.05 to 8.05-8.25
  • Introduced first Acropora on 8/15/2024 - hoping it stays alive.
 
Negatives aren’t bad at all. When you add or remove a fish. They need to figure out the new picking order.
Adding or removing rock will change the chemistry. It just has to resettle. Thus algae and chemical swings.
All negatives are normal.
 
Turkeysammich said:
Negatives aren’t bad at all. When you add or remove a fish. They need to figure out the new picking order.
Adding or removing rock will change the chemistry. It just has to resettle. Thus algae and chemical swings.
All negatives are normal.
Click to expand...
Thanks! Getting a group of fish to leave together in peace seems to be a challenge.
 
Maricultured vs Aquacultured

There has been quite a bit of discussion on this subject so I wanted to find out for myself what is myth and what is reality from my own experience.

Torch Corals:
I purchased 1 Indo tamer aquacultured and on 1 new york nicks maricultured.
  • Both came in without pests that I can tell and healthy.
  • The maricultured new york nick color was much nicer while the Indo tamer more dull. (just an observation)
  • the maricultured torch open/closed up more frequently but still extended full length of the tentacles.
  • Overnight the maricultured torch seems to nearing end of life. The aquacultured torch that was placed next to it seems to be doing well.
Acans
  • Aquacultured acans seems to hold their colors. Below is a maricultured Acan. Notice the rim is turning orange when it use to be more white. I have a feeling the acan will be orange soon.

These are my test corals. I wanted a path of success before I made a bigger investment. If the torch coral dies, this would be my first coral casualty (For this reset) :=)


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Tank has been hit with BJD. If I can track it back to one event, the first appearance came from my mariculture torch. At the time I didn't know it was BJD, I only remember the nasty smell from the water. Since the other torch wasn't affected, I assumed everything was good.
CFM: I picked up a few more torches at CFM to grow my torch garden. Unfortunately over the past couple of weeks, BJD is spreading to other torches.

List of torches affected:
Torch 1(NY Nicks): mariculture - first torch to show symptom of BJD. (dead)
Torch 2: ( NY Nicks) CFM - dremel off the infected head/ reeef primer the other head. (So far still alive)
Torch 3: Jester - died overnight to BJD, did not get a chance to dip in reef primer/or iodine.
Torch 4: Dragon Soul aquaculture from fellow reefer: 3 heads show signs of BJD / reef primer dipped.
Torch 5: Cotton Candy - died after dipping with Reef Primer and Iodine


10/1 1st night of Cipro tank treatment.
 
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10/15 Update

Things are super good with this little tank! BJD is gone! I haven't had any coral losses in the past 10+ days.

Changes:
  • Rock scape & Flow has changed for the 1 millionth time, but I think this is somewhat final.
  • Fish Aggression: thinking of cichlids and spreading the aggression, added 4 more damsels. Oddly enough, I have a peaceful damsel tank.
  • Nitrate/Phosphate: switched over from Neo Nitro/Phos to DIY Nitrate/Phos
  • Parameter range: p03 .01-.08, Nitrate 10-20, DKH 7.7-9.0, Mag 1300-1350, Calc 400-430
  • PH 8.0-8.3
  • What's in the sump: Bio Media, a small skimmer, and Atomic Broccoli. /removed filter socks, chaeto, pom pom, and UV sterilizer
Things to Add shortly
  • Reserved space on the rockwork for 2 more torches and 4 Gonis. Once these corals are added, the tank should be full.
FTS
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6-month update

Things are going well and the tank is dialed in.

The Good Things!
  • No Pests - just pods!
  • No bad Algae - just green film/hair algae!
  • Testing reduced from daily --> weekly --> to now 1x or 2x month
  • Parameters are dialed in. (Alk 8.4, CA 430, Mag 1360, Phosphate .03, Nitrate 5)
  • Dosing (All for Reef/ Kalkwasser), (DIY p03/n04)
  • Refugium - Atomic Broccoli is the size of a volleyball but broke up in the center once it was too big to spin.
  • Acropora - two test Acropora are alive and growing.
The Bad things!
  • BJD - I lost half of my torches to BJD. I have learned more than I want to know about bacterial infections. The positive spin. All 10 torches that I had were affected or eventually affected. I tried so many different kinds of treatments but the majority of them failed. I saved the last 5 torches with a combination of KFC and observation (timing is key). I do not know if the torches have been saved, but it has been about two months since they had symptoms.
Additions:

As much as I hate having another tank, when BJD hits you need to do something quick.

Introducing my Coral treatment tank.

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Based on your experience, it taught me that we might need to treat/quarantine maricultured or wild euphyllia prior to adding to a tank. Similar to what people do with elegance corals or carpet /magnifica anemones.
 
Your experience with BJD made me secure the antibiotics for KFC just to have on hand worst case. Hopefully I won’t have to use them but seeing your experience and how fast things can go south, I think better to have on hand just in case.
 
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