Reef nutrition

Well that just about sucked as bad as it could (profanity laden post)

sfsuphysics

Supporting Member
So as some of you know my 375 didn't work out, a lot of issues popped up not the least of which were pests (algae from hair to bubble, and aiptasia)... so all the "awesome" corals went to a 40g breeder that I set up as a frag tank with multiple egg crate layers that unfortunately had aiptasia in it... but whatever it's on the bottom & glass.... until I noticed it popping up all inside every corner of eggcrate... WTF seriously What in the FUCK?!

Fine... time for anew... old acrylic tank that's been empty for a while, new egg crate, 100% new water, check salinity, move light over, pump to make a gyre... this thing is bad ass (from a technical standpoint)... I'll get the HOB protein skimmer on it as soon as as I sterilize the existing one (since those little fuckers love to grow on every surface imaginable including inside the skimmer). Things looking good, a couple days later a little oily sheen on the surface, no worries, skimmer is just about cleaned.... today... murky as all fuckall. Damn lets put that skimmer on... waitaminute... awwww shit... every chalice I have is dead, many of which were 6-10 inches in diameter, every acan frag I had was dead, the blastomussas look dead, strangely enough the lepastrea hasn't died yet, the favia were looking like shit, my ultimate brain coral that was pink and yellow that I've been fanatical about saving for the past 3 years... yeah that shit is a skeleton too... all the zoanthids are super closed up (we'll see if they're dead later) not sure what the fuck went wrong, maybe there was a cycle that spiked ammonia? Either way, what happened happened, now I really don't have to give a shit about having frag tanks to save my stuff, luckily a few of the things went into the temporary tank with my fish so I'm not completely wiped out... but still, a few of those corals I've had for nearly 10 years.

Not sure if this is some higher power telling me it's time to hang up my reefing gloves or what, but damnit if I don't feel like I'm almost there.
 
Could be, either way, I probably rushed things by moving them over, the few larger things I put into the temporary tank are doing great (like the dirtier water?)..

Oh well I think there are still a couple aiptasia eating nudis in the old frag tank (they really don't work that well in such a "large" tank)... need to try and find them and still them into the temp tank maybe they can eat a couple aiptasia that are on the rocks before I go into full "nuke them all" mode.
 
Yeah, the upside is I can tear down everything non-essential... and maybe try to bang out some construction work on the new tank without all these satellite tanks sitting around, (although with a new little one that has definitely got tossed to the back burner doubly so since me making banging noises has been more or less prohibited much of the day :D
 
Oh man. It was hard just reading that.

Regarding the noise with sleeping babies. I'm in construction and it's not uncommon for me to have to be working while kids are sleeping. Even doing my own projects with my kids napping I've always been surprised what the kids will sleep through. Cutting, hammering, compressor going off. Zzzzzz.
 
In regards to lasers, just like nuking them, unless you can reach them all (unlikely) then you'll never truly get rid of them.
Laser's nice to own if you're willing to fire it up whenever you spot aiptasia so more of a maintenance tool in my opinion than an aiptasia silver bullet.
 
The thing with aptasia is when they get freaked out the next day there are 5 more. I'd prefer to pull the rock and fire bomb the thing. Even then those still find a way to come back
 
I have a laser for aptasia removal if any member needs to borrow. Like anything, there are ups and downs to using it. It never really worked 100% killing those F^*£ers! I have since moved on to natural methods of removal. & the laser has since been sitting on the shelf.
 
Dang, when things go wrong, they really go wrong.
Could have been anything, or a combination of anything.

Step back a bit for a while, then start over...

For Aptasia - Joe's juice on the ones that are actually stinging corals,
and consider the rest part of the natural filtration. Same with Majanos.
Every time I try to really eradicate them, I seem to mess up something else.
 
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