Step-by-step account of my first reef (with lots of pics)

[alien9168]

this is really sad

[fishypets]

Originally posted by alien9168
this is really sad

It was at first but now it is time to move on to bigger and better things. I am upgrading my tank to a custom brick tank with starfire glass and Mike is setting up a huge tank at the office.

We both agree that our losses were not in vain if others can recognize the AEFW and stop the cycle before the corals are introduced into you show tanks. The biggest lesson I learned is dip every coral every time no matter whom they came from.

For everyone who was kind enough to offer up frags Mike and I can't thank you enough. Just know that down the road if you need our help with anything all you need to do is ask.

[Dudester]

alien9168 - Thanks for your condolences, and I hope you'll keep following along as there will certainly be good news in the future.

Ditto to everything Clint said. We're definitely "down but not out," and we'll both rebound from our losses in a favorable manner. We're probably down to a handful of corals between the two of us, and neither of us are willing to place any of them into our tanks before a 10 week quarantine period since we couldn't possibly risk reintroducing AEFW into our systems. At the current rate of loss, we both fully expect to have no survivors, and we've finally come to accept this as a likely reality. At this point, if anything lives it will be a true bonus to our mentalities. Acceptance is, afterall, the 5th stage of the grieving process, so I guess we're both there.

[stoneroller]

AEFW?

I shouldn't have skipped to the last post. I was on page 5 and enjoying the thread, jump to the present and AEFW?

[fishypets]

Stoneroller.

Guessing by your occupation I guess you know what AEFW are and the question comes from surprise? They are brutal and you should avoid at all cost. Hey I just noticed you are from Buda....Have you checked out austinreefclub.com?

[thedude15810]

I'd like to welcome Clint and Mike both to the club.... the DELTEC CLUB!!

[stoneroller]

Freshwater biology, strictly, rivers and streams, stonerollers and stoneflies. Sure, I know what a flatworm is but I am not a reef tank expert (I am reefsitting a tank for a friend and trying my best to learn the ropes AQAP). Just discovered the Acronym page, but AEFW wasn't there. Still don't have it all!! hint hint

Not yet, I'm on my way. Thanks.

[Dudester]

Stoneroller, welcome to the thread. For some enjoyable reading, go back to page 5 and continue until you reach page 32, then stop.

If you want to learn most of what you need to know about AEFW (acropora eating flatworms), then go back to page 32 and read to the present.

[gkarshens]

I don't know what took me so long to get on your thread, and I enter during the worst of times. I am looking forward to seeing both your's and Clint's new tanks grow.

[Stoney Mahony]

Originally posted by Dudester
Stoney Mahony - How'd you find this thread, Stoney? Glad to have you here. Sorry for disappointing you with our treatment failure, I guess we didn't follow your recipe by the number, and it may have bitten us in the arse. I'll have to defer answering questions about the saltwater parameters to Clint, since I was lazy and didn't even go to his house that day to help with the treatment (guess I deserve what I got, eh?). I do know that he uses Tropic Marin Pro, which doesn't have a very high alkalinity. That's extremely kind of you to offer us frags - this is truly a great hobby filled with generous people. [/B]

Melev dropped me a link Im not dissapointed with you guys at all, just sorry that the treatment didn't work. Sorry to see ALL those corals in the can. Thats more coral than I have ever owned in my life so it's really crazy to see, I can't imagine how hard it is to have to trash it all. Definately didn't deserve this, I don't think anybody does. No problemo w/ the frags.

[Dudester]

gkarshens and Stoney Mahony - Thanks, guys


I had a little cyano outbreak, not much but enough to bother me. So I did a Chemi-Clean treatment and pretty much wiped it out in one fell swoop. I've begun adding carbon at a much lower quantity (about 1 cup) and I change it weekly, instead of my previous regimen.

Okay, how about some good news for a change? As John alluded to, I've joined Club Deltec. I went ahead and got the Deltec MCE 300 HOB skimmer after seeing the nasty skimmate that Deltecs put out. I've been happy with my Remora, and I've never had any measurable nitrate or phosphate despite having 4 fish, lots of corals (prior to being ravaged by AEFW), and fairly hefty daily feeding. But when I saw the crap that Deltec skimmers were pulling out, I just had to have one. A few modifications were necessary for it to fit onto my sump. First off, this unit is a few centimeters wider than the Remora, and if it were 2 mm more in width, it wouldn't have fit within the constraints of my sump's skimmer compartment. The next problem was that the return tubing from the skimmer to the sump was too long, as it was running into the shelf inside my cabinet. Here's the skimmer, without the drain pipe connected.



In this close-up you can see what I mean about the pipe running into the cabinet shelf.



The next hurdle was that the drain pipe extended out into the refugium compartment. Both of these horizontal tubes had to be shortened, and this was safe to do according to Doug at Deltec. The return tube was easy to remove and cut, but the horizontal drain tube was mistakenly glued into place by the manufacturer, and I broke it trying to get it out (it's supposed to be a slip fitting). Fortunately John and Brian at Kingfish Aquarium gave me a new one from their shop, and Deltec will send them a new replacement. This new tube was cut to proper length, then installed.



When I installed the skimmer, I then realized that the strainer of the drain pipe was still above the water level. I fixed this by heating up a segment of 3/4" vinyl tubing which was slipped over the strainer and the riser tube. Sorry the orientation is reversed in this next photo, but you're a smart audience and you can compensate for my inadequacies as a presenter.



I didn't feel the need to clamp this connection, since I don't want to accidentally do it too tightly and risk cracking the material. Also, it's fairly low pressure and a tight fit at that, so it should be sound.

The skimmer began producing foam almost immediately (it had help, as I had recently treated some cyano with Chemi-Clean). After the first 48 hr of operation, here's the skimmate that was produced.





And here's the tissue I used to clean the riser tube inside the skimmer body itself.


So much for a 2-day "break-in" period, hu? I'm going to have to cut off the lowest 6" or so from my light rack in order to facilitate removing the collection cup. As it is currently, I have to loosen the skimmer's attachment clamp and slide the skimmer back to remove the cup, which isn't very convenient. But I am happy with this skimmer. It's extremely quiet, much quieter than the Remora. The skimmate appears richer, although I have to say that the Remora was much easier to clean than this one is. I'll reserve additional comparisons until I've had more time to work with this new one.

[Dudester]

I had mentioned that I picked up a couple new corals. The first is an open brain (a little out of focus, sorry).






The second is a montipora sp., danae I think? It's just over 4" tall.

[Dudester]

Here's what my tank is looking like without the acros









You can tell I'm not myself, as I didn't even go to the trouble of turning off the pumps, cleaning the salt drip on the glass, or even moving the Mag-Float for the pictures.

[thedude15810]

Don't worry Mike I ordered a big glass box that can hold plenty of acros today .

MCE looks good and should break in with time, the guys who have been using them for 2 weeks now have said that the skimmer is working better and better.

That montipora isn't a danae as the structure under the polyps doesn't match. Clint's superman isn't a danae either, it's whatever montipora yours is. I'm thinking it's a montipora mollis but it could possibly be a nodosa. Check out pictures of all these corals here for differences http://www.meerwasser-lexikon.de/eng...rals%20SPS.htm

John

[fishypets]

Mike,

What model skimmer are you going with on your big tank?

John,

Did you order my glass cage today?

[thedude15810]

AP902

Yes

[Stoney Mahony]

Tank still looks really good for no acros Nice new skimmer there, can't wait to see what it's pulling in a month!

Nice gator in that avatar fishy, I see suckers that big all the time around here. The little 2-6 footers arent very scary but when one of those suckers comes swimming up to your conoe, no fun. I saw one last year swimming just under the surface of the water with a deer in it's jaws, it looked pretty crazy.

[Dudester]

Originally posted by thedude15810
AP902

Yes

Thanks, Mike .

Stoney - Thanks for the good cheer. Today will be the 2nd 48hr interval with the new skimmer, and looking at the cup this morning, I can already tell that the skimmate will surpass the initial 48hr aliquot in both quality and quantity. (It's not often that I get to use the word "aliquot" in a sentence.) I definitely have high hopes for this skimmer.
I only now noticed you're in Orlando. I spent 6 yrs in Gainesville (go Gators!), and during that time I spent many months in Orlando as well. I've seen the alligators that you speak of, but never with a deer in the mouth . How cool is that? My golf ball did land about 10 feet from a 7 footer once - I took a stroke.

[Dudester]

It's been a while since I gave an update, so here's the 411. I've been in a bit of a funk with the absence of SPS. Clint and I are down to about 2 colonies and 2 frags. Along with my funk has come about some laziness in husbandry and maintenance, and as a result I've suffered another loss. About 3 weeks ago, I was due for a water change. The tank water was at 1.027, so I thought I'd add a slightly dilute water mix to get the S.G. down to 1.026. Well, I didn't do any measurements and I added some ultra-dilute water to the tank. After the water change I took a measurement and the S.G. was down to 1.023. The only rebellion came from my blastomussa welsii colony, which shriveled up in disgust at the sudden drop in salinity. Two days later my topoff reservoir became empty. Instead of filling it with RO/DI immediately, I just unplugged the Tunze Osmolator and figured I'd top off when I got home from work. That night, I filled the reservoir and allowed the system to fill back up ... with kalkwasser. The pH jumped from 8.29 to 8.62 in a matter of 10 minutes. Look, I know this was stupid, but like I said, I was in a funk. Let the beatings begin. Anyway, long story short, over the next few days the tissue on the blasto colony began to peel away, and I'm now left with a calcareous skeleton. There are about 3 tiny polyps that survived, so I'm leaving it in the tank with the hopes that they'll rebound. I feel like an idiot and it was ridiculous of me to allow this to happen. Very irresponsible, indeed. I'm actually lucky that this was my only loss. Tomorrow I'm doing a water change, and I'll test all the parameters afterwards. Everything else looks healthy, so I'm expecting good results.

My new Deltec skimmer is doing a good job, I guess, as I haven't noticed any difference in the tank's appearance. The skimmate is definitely more fowl than what the Remora produced, although the volume is fairly equivalent. The new montipora sp. coral that I got is already noticably growing. I've got another 3 or 4 weeks to wait to ensure that no AEFWs or their eggs could have possibly survived in my tank, then I'll be ready to add some new acros. Frankly, I can't wait.

I hope Santa is good to me this year. I've put together a nice wish list for some upgrades. Sure, in case you were wondering, I've been good this year.

[gary faulkner]

Dudester
Hey, we all make mistakes and thats how we get better at whatever we do.

Cheer up, Santee will make it all better : )

[fishypets]

Mike,

I remember one time I added about 1/2 pound of kalk to my kalk reactor and did not wait until it all settled before turning my top-off on. My tank was completely white in a matter of minutes and my P.H. was over 8.8. Luckily the only thing I lost was a fat clown fish.

[thedude15810]

Yep I've also nuked a tank with kalkwasser. It's part of the kalkwasser learning curve

[drummereef]

Tank looks great! Nice brain pics there.

[jnarowe]

Hey Mike...sorry to hear about that...when it rains it pours eh? Gabriel is here spending the night. Finally at 1am were are going to sleep...it's been fun talking with him and we have spent some time talking about you rrecent misfortunes. With you rdedication I know you will rebound nicely.

OK, so we had a few beers and that would explain my mispellings right?

[Dudester]

Yep, it just goes to show you, it's better to be lucky than good.

Gary - No worries, I'm all full of cheer now. The future's looking bright!

John (thedude) - When my office tank is up and running (I can't believe it's only 2 months away ) I'm planning on transferring my mimic tang into it. Any ideas on what I could replace it with in my current 30g? I love the yellow color, but I don't want to get a jumper, if you know what I mean. I actually think I could get 2 more fish, which would give me a total of 5. I'm sure the Deltec can handle the bioload.

Clint (fishypets) - Was my number accurate regarding the number of acros we have left?

drummereef - Thanks!

jnarowe - Yeah, it was a stupid mistake. I'm acutely aware of the detrimental effects of overdosing with kalk, but I was in a "WT*" mood and just let it happen. Stupid, careless, foolish -- it'll never happen again. 1 a.m. hu? Gabriel's usually just getting started by then .