got ethical husbandry?

Will's 300g Re-Do

Coral reefer said:
Poop. Any theories as to why?
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Well... I have random RTN anywhere from once a month to once every 6+months. I've had my water ICP tested and nothing is glaring other than marginally high aluminum. It's been suggested that it could be a bacterial infection? Not sure. I've stopped chasing it cuz it give me more angst than anything else. It's only a bummer when I completely lose a really nice colony.
 
Dang, that stinks.
But I know the feeling. Which is why I ended up mostly giving up on pointy stick corals.
For me, I am pretty sure the overall problem was lack of quality feeding.
When I target fed oyster feast and such, I never seemed to have problems. But when I got lazy, there were random deaths.
And if I fed too much, I ended up with an algae or cyano problem.

But as Erin said - just look at it as an opportunity for something different.
 
Another thought, have you been keeping ahead of the growth with more flow? Way back when with m6 180 cubish I had a lot of empty space when things started to really grow in good things started acting funny, my theory is the flow patterns became too restricted that allowed them to grow then pift not so good. Or it could just be a matter of other factors too :)
 
Wlachnit said:
My alk has been running at 7 for the last 4-6 mos and I would say my tank is happier. Prior to that, I targeted 7.5-8.5. Knock on wood, but I haven't had any RTN which had been a problem for a year or so. I'm going to leave it at 7 and see how things continue.
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I get best colors when alk is 6.5 to 7dkh.
 
I rarely feed any of my corals (mostly cuz I'm lazy). I should reconsider feeding.
Flow is definitely a challenge these days. I thought I had planned well and setup gyre flow rather than chaotic flow. But, I can see that I don't have enough flow now with everything grown in.
As for temperature, I haven't seen any correlation.
 
Asleep at the Wheel:

So, I noticed that my corals don't seem too happy (At least less happy than usual). Well, time to test some parameters (I typically only test when something doesn't feel right...so 1-2x/yr). Sure enough, my Alk had crept up and my PO4 were 1.48! My PO4 had been running <0.03. Ahh well....so much for a low nutrient tank o_O. And my Chaeto had stopped growing (maybe cuz my NO3 had been <1?). I will probably have to setup my LaCl3. I'm kind of surprised that corals look as good as they do (maybe I have the Rich Ross touch ) ;)
 
Yeah for now, I've decided to leave the PO4 alone..but it does make me nervous. I do have other issues such as flow and lighting. I can't quite keep up with trimming my caps and they have done a great job in blocking both flow and light. Not only that, but my sticks just keep growing up (surprise, surprise) and end up shading themselves. At some point, I will have to bite the bullet...and re-scape :(
 
So... I noticed that my refugium had a thick layer of anoxic sludge at the bottom and decided to vacuum it out over the last 3 water changes. I'm sure that is part of my high nutrient problem. Anyway, as I was doing that on my last water change, I found a large 1"+ Berghia nudi!. I had added about a dozen 3 months ago and had kinda forgotten about them not noticing any real improvement in my Aptaisia problem. But, now that I've paid more attention, I do notice very few Aptaisia on the right side of my tank...so they are doing their thing! Kinda surprised that they are also in the fuge. Hopefully, I didn't lose a lot of them by vacuuming the sludge.
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Chaeto balls are a very popular spot for aiptasia so seeing a fat one there still around may point to exactly that, although I'm not sure if they grow terribly well under red light like you have.
 
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