Blastomussa Wellsi care (minimaze your loss)

[mschriskim]

Just finished some study on how we could minimaze our loss on Blasto wellsi. Still early to say but since I belive this will work I want to share this with you guys. (My background is testing engineer for 5 years so I think I did test this condition well but I started collecting LPS 4 month ago and started Blasto 2month ago so some of you guys could give me some tips here there on this posting - even I started my reef tank 5years ago)

Well, I guess I lost $$$ during this period but I am sure some one might lost more than I did....

It's not only about money that we loosing it's like you adopt a loving puppy and cost you $300 than some time later if your dog need to have surgery to save life for some reason you will spend $$$$ to save your loving pet.... (Well, some people will still give up and get another one for $300 but it will not be the same one that you replacing with...)

Ok, since I know this will be long posting let me start.

First, I think I should put out what kind of system I have so that people could understand better.

100gallon 60" long 20" high Acylic tank
2x 1/2" seaswril each corner
2x Rio SEIO, 2x small RIO pump
2x built-in overflow each corner
120lbs of liverock
3-4" sandbed
2x 80watts ATI blue+ (Driven by ICECAP660 - It will overdrive to around 100watts each bulb)
2x 150watts HQI 20k bulbs (Have changed many times on this bulbs and number of HQIs... 1st I had 2 x10k each side than I put 3x 10k added one in the middle... than changed both side 10k to 20k than.... took out 10k in the middle)
- During this light change I brought most of my SPS to LFS and traded to blato since I could not keep much SPS anymore...

20gallon Sump
2x filter sock is used
Lifereef VS3-30 skimmer with dolphin 1200 gph pump (big skimmer for 100gallon tank but since I do overstock my tank...)
small refugium area with 4-5 mangroves and chaetos.
32watts PC 10k bulb water to light is like 21" so vary little light

10gallon above tank refugium
Full of chaetos

I have seeded my tank about 3-4 years ago with lost of pods and mysis and worms and all... so my refugium and sump and main tank is full of bugs... : )

Ok, now let me start...

Now I have about 30-35 colonies of balstos since I was doing test I need to buy some extras....

Before I even started I killed 3 colonies of nice color (Just like other reefers...) and succefully killing 3 colonies (I do not think I could save them) and 3 of them are comming back from bad condition during this test...

Case A.
100% success rate on these
New blastos go to sump and they are still in sump for about 3 weeks
Even bad looking one is making it's way back - some area that was really bad is not comming but most of area is... You could see the result from pics below

Case B.
0% success rate on these
New blasto go to main tank (put them in shade corner area)
If new blasto not doing good within 3-4 days than move them to more shade area like deep under rock

Case C.
40-60% success rate on these
New blasto go to main tank (put them in shade corner area)
As soon as your new blasto does not look good move them to sump and even low light turn off for about 2-3days and put normal light hours

Case D.
95% success rate on these
New blasto go to sump once you see them doing good for 1-2 weeks move them to main tank from under the rock vary vary shade like no light to you than you see them doing good there for 1-2 weeks move them to little more light

Case E.
70% success rate on these
New blasto go to sump once you see them doing good for 2-3 days move them to main tank from under the rock vary vary shade like no light to you than you see them doing good there for 2-3 days move them to little more light

Case F.
After frag recovery. I took 2 colonies and frag them in half from main tank move one piece frags from each colonies to sump and other put them in it's original location in main tank
Both colonies that I put in sump making recovery vary well and they are still in my sump.
One frag in main tank are really getting bad and the other one few polyps are not doing but others are ok.

During this time I found some color of blastos are more sensitive to others.

Also since when I get my new blastos I checked it's history like how long this blasto being in LFS and what light condition and so on...
From this I learn that some that are already in good looking from your LFS with MH system in you have about 95% success chance (If they had them there for more more than 2 weeks) you could put them in your main tank first. Some that are in LFS but with PC
You better start from around that light or lower maybe in sump
Some that they just got few days ago well you put them in main tank... tell me it will get killed 90%

Ok, from here I guess you guys could guess...

Blasto wellsi need much better accumulation with light and water than anyother corals and you should do it really slowly. This might not give you 100% success rate but it will increase your success rate I think. So if you are getting your blasto you should ask how was it's history if you cannot trust or do not know start with vary vary low like sump and putting there chaetos and lots of bugs... I think this will help little even it might not be a big factor.

Even i lost some good amount and lossing some (they might not come back or they might - it will be long time for them and me...)

I hope this will help everyone and if you have some other opinions than post them here so that we could all talk about them. Also if some try this later on with success stories please update on this posting so that we could all confirm this is working... than we could save more blastos (I think it is not just little more blastos... I think we are lossing about 1/4 or even 1/3 of them...)

Thanks for reading all this long postings... and bad English... : )

Oh, I need to put 2 pics when I go to my work... (I spend $$$$ on corals but do not have money to buy $12 flash card reader at home... Welcome for donations : ))
I will put the purple blasto that I picked up in really bad shape 8days ago and today (all the time in sump)

Thanks

Chris

[mschriskim]

I keep thinking maybe I put this things out too early.... but please if you ever try this out please let us know on this posting that this works so that we could all confirm and save more and more blastos.

When we think about acclimating most of us do only when we put them in to our tank and most ot LPS is ok with it... But blastos are I guess so sensive....

Also heard that Blastos that we get are collected in vary low light in wild reef.... since some might get collected in little more light area might do much better in our normall acclimation than ones that are collected in vary low light since they are so senstive...

Well, just my taught.

And here is pics (Yes, my work is only 7min away and I am not sleeping...)

Old Pic (8 days ago)


Today's pic
You could kind tell they are much better (Normally when you pick this bad ones... they will go away in 4-5 days...)
I think this purple one will stay in my sump for long time


GOOD LUCK to everyone.

Chris

[shane 1111]

thanks for the info

[JN Reef]

That's very informative. Thanks.
One question: when the blasto is placed in an area of low light, how much current should there be?
ie, low current, moderate current, high current?

[GregM779]

Nice experiment. I agree with the acclimation period taking longer with Blastos but do not think that is the only factor. I have never lost a Blasto, except when my flame went crazy, and have always acclimated in the main tank. My tank description has my light specs.
I think that a lower flow area is very important and also very stable water conditions. These pieces do not ship well at all and most retailers don't even offer a guarantee on them.
About 4 weeks ago I was given 2 blasto pieces almost dead now they are multiplying. The tank they were in does have stronger lighting but they were shaded more than they are in my tank now. I'd like to contunue this and see what other factors also varied.

[shane 1111]

do they acclimate to PC'S faster than MH?

my blasto came from MH and i have pc's

[mschriskim]

Yes, current also count here... maybe I kinda missed it to forcus... For blasto wellsi even after acclimation is done (light and water) they better be on vary low current that's also important. with high current you will loss some part of polyps that are facing high current will get damaged... sure it will take time to have this damage done and you will not see this happen to whole colony. It happend to me once so I needed to change location of powerhead...
(Most of us sump has much much low current than our main tank....)

Thanks for pointing this out.

Greg, sure let us know what you find out

Shane, MH system to PC system will be much easier than PC to MH system I think... When I move some blasto that started show little bad sign (moving from main tank to sump) they do much better than moving from PC to MH. But as they are vary senstive coral even you are moving it's location inside of main tank should be minimazed....

Oh, also when you treat really bad one you could leave them in dark no light for 2-3 days and start light vary vary little.... this also helps them to recover better than putting them in low low light.

Thanks everyone.

Chris