Austin goes Rimless - Dudester's 203g mixed reef

[martinphillip03]

Are you treating your corals before they go in the tank? I remember you had that red bug problem with your 30

Marty

Originally posted by Dudester
Hey Marcus, sorry but I haven't had a chance to get any pics. Shoot, I still haven't even photographed what I got at the coral farm last weekend. I'll get on it soon. So everyone else knows, Marcus and Dallis hooked me up with some sweet frags yesterday. THANKS A MILLION!! They're all doing well so far, although the efflo has had a little die-off. I hope it's not STN and that there will be enough living tissue for it to ultimately do well. Fingers crossed!

[GMFett]

I'll give you more efflo if you need it brotha.

GMF

[Dudester]

marty - Yes, you remember well. I didn't mind the red bugs, it was the AEFW that destroyed my tank. For all incoming corals I do a heavily concentrated dip in Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure. I'm going to add an Interceptor dip as well, but I wasn't worried this time as GMFett recently performed a red bug treatment. I should probably add a Fluke Tab dip to my regimen -- thanks for bringing this up.

GMF - It's definitely STN. The center of the frag is now white and it's advancing toward the two ends. I don't think there's much I can do, as it's too small to re-frag and I think that would only tick it off further. It seems like it died directly where it was super-glued to the plug. Oh, and tell Dallis the powder's doing just fine.

[Dudester]

whoops, dp

[martinphillip03]

Could you give more details like how long and what concentration. I understand this would only be a guideline and everyones results may differ. Or just pm me. Also is there a stiky on RC on how to treat corals?

Marty


[QUOTE]Originally posted by Dudester
[B]marty - Yes, you remember well. I didn't mind the red bugs, it was the AEFW that destroyed my tank. For all incoming corals I do a heavily concentrated dip in Tropic Marin Pro Coral Cure. I'm going to add an Interceptor dip as well, but I wasn't worried this time as GMFett recently performed a red bug treatment. I should probably add a Fluke Tab dip to my regimen -- thanks for bringing this up.

[

[melev]

It really is isn't accurate to called it an Interceptor Dip since we leave the meds running in the water for 12 hours. To me, a dip sounds like a few minutes.

Marcus, how did your tank respond to the Interceptor treatment? I meant to ask you about that.

[jnarowe]

I think he is referring to the pre-mount dipping that many people do, not the in-tank treatment. I use Interceptor before my corals get into my main system.

[Dudester]

Jonathan's right, I am specifically referring to a dip and not a tank treatment. As for the TMPCC dip, I don't really follow the directions on the bottle with respect to concentration, although I do stick to the recommended duration. When I get new corals, I float them in the tank for temperature stabilization, then pour all of the frags into a bucket in their warmed water, assuming I got them from the same place. I then add TMPCC to the water until it's the color of very strong tea (or very weak coffee) and I leave it there for 15 minutes. Next I rinse it off in a bucket of my tank water, then it goes straight into the tank. Occasionally I'll add some of my tank water to the dip bucket to acclimate for pH and salinity, and that's probably a smarter move to recommend, but it's not always necessary. I'm going to add an Interceptor dip to the above regimen, along with a Fluke Tab dip, although with heavily concentrated TMPCC the Fluke Tabs probably aren't necessary.

Update on the efflo frag - it's getting worse. I'll gladly take you up on your offer for a replacement, GMF. I'll acclimate it better next time, as it's proven to be less hardy than the other corals, and maybe we should frag off a piece and mount it, then let it adapt to being cut and glued in its home tank before moving it to the slums of my tank. I think fragging, dipping and moving in one day were too much for it to handle.

[jnarowe]

If you can, set up a QT for corals. This way you can keep them and any potential pests/diseases out of the display. I know that's not always practical, but it does help if you can do it. I now tend to keep corals in QT for about a month, but my QT has a LOT of light and flow.

[gkarshens]

You could QT in the office tank and then if anything happens to it John has to deal with it.

[martinphillip03]

Dude, Thanks

Marty


[B]Jonathan's right, I am specifically referring to a dip and not a tank treatment. As for the TMPCC dip, I don't really follow the directions on the bottle with respect to concentration, although I do stick to the recommended duration. When I get new corals, I float them in the tank for temperature stabilization, then pour all of the frags into a bucket in their warmed water, assuming I got them from the same place. I then add TMPCC to the water until it's the color of very strong tea (or very weak coffee) and I leave it there for 15 minutes. Next I rinse it off in a bucket of my tank water, then it goes straight into the tank. Occasionally I'll add some of my tank water to the dip bucket to acclimate for pH and salinity, and that's probably a smarter move to recommend, but it's not always necessary. I'm going to add an Interceptor dip to the above regimen, along with a Fluke Tab dip, although with heavily concentrated TMPCC the Fluke Tabs probably aren't necessary.

[Dudester]

I agree with you 100% Jonathan, a QT is the smartest move. I have the equipment to set one up, but I don't think I'm going to do it, not for now anyway.

As I alluded to, I got some new fish two days ago. They include a yellow tang, a powder blue tang, and a Swale's reef basslet (Liopropoma swalesi). The yellow is, well, a yellow tang, not much else to say about it, except for the fact that it's been at John's shop for a year and if it dies on my watch, I'll never hear the end of it. The powder blue is simply exquisite in coloration and there's not a speck of ich to be seen. These two tangs have already rid my tank of almost all algae. I'm going to get some nori and broccoli tomorrow as well as some veggie cubes for these guys. They're both larger than I had hoped for, but they looked so good I couldn't pass them up. I don't think I'll have a problem when I eventually add a Chevron tang, since it's in a different genus, but I'll need to get a pretty good-sized purple tang or it will get completely harrassed by this yellow dude. As for the Swale's basslet, it's been in hiding since it went in the tank. I've located it in caves on opposite ends of the tank and it appears healthy, although it doesn't come out to eat. I'm providing enough food so that the current takes food particles to every hole in the tank, so it's probably getting enough. If not, it's also known to eat small crustaceans, and since my tank is teeming with pods I feel fairly certain that it's not starving. This fish is fairly squeemish and will occasionally remain out of sight for weeks to months before venturing out, but its colors are so stunning that I really wanted to give this fish a try.

I had another issue with the OM 4-way, although this was easily solved. On Friday when acclimating my new arrivals I heard the CL return plumbing smacking and rattling around with a loud thumping sound. After some inquiring on the OM forum I deducted that this was a "water hammer" which was fixed by removing the lid of the 4-way and cleaning off the magnets and relubricating them. Pretty quick fix. While doing this I realized something that I could have improved upon. At first I thought the water hammer was created by something, perhaps a snail, inside the return plumbing that was being banged around. Withought SUBVs directly beneath the tank's returns I realized that I simply don't have the ability to remove or replace any section of plumbing between the 4-way and the tank. When I eventually get a larger tank that's something I'll do for sure.

The last bit of news is that I got an early holiday gift, a PAR meter. I took some readings yesterday that were very interesting. Tomorrow if I have a chance I'll map out the data and post them here. Marcus, I'd really like to take some readings on your tank, as well as my office tank, to see what we get.

[reef / aholic]

Finally someone with a ATI Powermodule has a PAR Meter!!!!

[CAreefer]

Too bad he's nukin all of his corals with it (the ATI).

J/K Mike.

[GMFett]

Dudester when you come by this week bring on over that PAR meter. I'll have some goodies for you!

[Dudester]

I know you're not kidding Marshal, but thanks for the gesture . Marshal is referring to a post I made on the ZEOvit forum regarding my new frags. I finally put some SPS in the tank 9 days ago, and some of them are losing their color despite good PE. At first I thought it was attributable to something I may have been doing wrong with the ZEOvit method, but I also suspected bleaching from excess light. Since I got this PAR meter I thought I'd take some objective measurements. Here they are, with the ATI Powermodule located 6" above the water line. It should be obvious but I'll just mention that larger size numbers are closer to the camera, and smaller size numbers are farther away. Oh, and these photos are old and don't show my new corals, although most of the PAR readings were taken at areas where I have new corals mounted. For instance, I have a frag of Paletta blue acropora that's located at the "580" marker, and this coral is now a light sky blue as opposed to the deep rich blue of its parent colony.





So what do you think, PAR masters out there? Those are some pretty steep numbers, eh?

[Dudester]

Sorry, Marcus, missed your post up there. I don't think I'll be able to come by this week, hopefully next week will work with your schedule.

[GSMguy]

those numbers are hot looks like its 200+ in the shade

[hawaiianwargod]

Dudester

Wow! Awesome tank bro! I love your scaping....lots of cool spots to place corals and fish to hide...and your pair of true percs looks so cute!... again, stunning tank!

[jnarowe]

I think you have some great areas to grow a variety of corals. That info. is priceless. I have got to get a PAR meter. I just wonder how I would reord the numbers since my lights move?

[GSMguy]

Originally posted by jnarowe
I think you have some great areas to grow a variety of corals. That info. is priceless. I have got to get a PAR meter. I just wonder how I would reord the numbers since my lights move?

you could leave the meter in all day at one spot and check it multiple times to get an average number for each spot, but it would be more work than normal.

[tanya72806]

where did u get the meter ?

[jnarowe]

I think what I would do is take multiple readings during the light movement and time it so I can get a decent picture of how long each area gets various light levels.

Now I miss Ashy Larry...

[Dudester]

GSMguy - Yeah, it's hot all right. I'm really anxious to test out this PAR meter on some other tanks in the area, like my office tank for one, and some other local reefers with MH's. That'll be a good comparison of just how much light this Powermodule puts out. This thing is really bright!

hawaiianwargod - Thanks man, glad you like it. Now that I have a powder blue and a yellow tang, I guess my tank is part Hawaiian .

jnarowe - I agree, I think the aquascape lends itself nicely to a mixed reef. It's so nutrient poor, however, that I don't think I'll be able to keep many ricordea and the like. And with that much light in the 'shaded' areas, I might also struggle with dendros. I'm going to use the information I gleaned from the PAR readings to help monitor when I need to change my lamps, and of course where to place new corals. I can even measure PAR readings from parent colonies and try to duplicate their light exposure in my tank. Wow, this raises the geek meter to an entirely different level.

tanya72806 - I got it here.

[bleedingthought]

Those numbers are about average for the T5 numbers I've seen. Yours does seem to have a different/better spread but the count is close to the norm. Still not quite like MH numbers, though.

But I'd love to see some new shots with the new frags/corals.