Cali Kid Corals

Derek's 225g - Magnifica / SPS Reef

derek_SR said:
The magic of the mirror! There's a mirror taped to the right side of the glass in this video. You can see all the assholes totally obsessed with it, and the new fish is completely alone and peaceful on the other side. (sorry about the background noise, we are potty training our 2 year old :) )


I added this longnose butterfly from Kenny at HTA yesterday - a risk with 7 tangs (including 2x yellows, purple, PBT) and a CBB. Did my usual routine of moving a bunch of rockwork around, taping a mirror to the glass, and feeding like crazy. So far so good...
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Awesome seeing the old man yellow tang in the tank looking happy.
 
Did a big water change (don't do this very often with AWC, but am coming out of an oxo treatment) so tried to get some top down shots with the water level low. Had to turn off the T5s to minimize the glare so the pics turned out a little dark:

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Also took some macro shots, also unfortunately too dark. Normally I crank up the LEDs if I'm going to take pics with T5s off but forgot!

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Top left is a Walt Disney, still healing from some frags I made. Top right is ARC Master Yoda . Bottom left is strawberry shortcake. Bottom right is Merlin's staff.
 
tribbitt said:
Spectacular as always. Thanks for sharing
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MichaelB said:
Totally inspiring.
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Coral reefer said:
I’m curious if I would want to start a tank up or be too intimidated if I saw this in person.
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Thanks for the kind words, I've got my share of problems too though! Just spent several months coloring up my Bill Murray back to a nice red and it RTNed (from the bottom?) earlier this week. It's always been such a healthy, easy, fast grower. Very strange.

Also the huge red digi colony is starting to die in the center. I noticed a colony of aiptasia wayyyy down in the middle where the CBB can't reach. Going to have to finally pull this monster out pretty soon, I think.

I am pretty happy with things in general though. Especially since I do very little these days to maintain.
 
I stopped feeding frozen for a while once the CBB acclimated to freeze dried, it honestly seemed like my corals started to suffer (though this could be for other reasons, of course). I lost my Immortal tort, which I was very sad about. Strangely - it wasn't traditional RTN/STN, but it started with loss of PE. Then the flesh, throughout the entire coral, just started to get thinner and thinner - like it was wasting away. I tried a 6 hour cipro dip, which has saved acros in the past, but to no avail. Fragging it up didn't work either.

This is kind of what prompted my SPS flesh health post - when I lose acros it is rarely due to traditional STN/RTN. It's almost always what happens here with the immortal - a slow thinning of the flesh over many weeks. Sometimes this happens while they continue to build skeleton and branch out.

Anyway I started feeding frozen heavy again to get the longnose butterfly going (see him the pic below!) and coral color and health seem to be improving in general. I think the longnose is going to make it - successfully acclimated into a tank with a PBT, 2x yellows, purple tang, kole tang, convict tang, tomini tang, and a CBB. Just about ALL of the fish listed picked on him at some point, and still occasionally give him a swipe - but everything is generally harmonious again.

Also removal of the huge red digi is now officially on the "to do" list in my tank chore journal....

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Polyps come out to try and feed, right?
Food in the water column more often might help that.
When I started to dose vinegar I thought I saw more polyp extension on my sps. I reasoned that maybe they were eating the bacteria I was feeding. Who knows. Probably not.
 
Coral reefer said:
Polyps come out to try and feed, right?
Food in the water column more often might help that.
When I started to dose vinegar I thought I saw more polyp extension on my sps. I reasoned that maybe they were eating the bacteria I was feeding. Who knows. Probably not.
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When this happens I don't think it's related to feeding- though I share your sentiment generally. I get a feeling it's bacterial. The coral just decides to close up shop and kind of waste away. The giveaway when it starts to happen is that there isn't any PE at night - I know it's really grumpy then.

I did stop dosing vodka around the same time I stopped feeding so heavily (and recently started that up again too) so I wonder if that's what triggered it. It was maybe used to feeding on the bacteria and suddenly couldn't adjust when I stopped the vodka dosing. I really need to stop changing more than one thing at once!
Turkeysammich said:
I was just watching this last night. Dong said cipro dip does nothing. He said iodine is the way to go for bacterial infections.

I remember back in the day. People used to say the same thing. Dunno. Just throwing it out there.
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I'll try this next time, I've got some Lugol's onhand. I've had luck with the 6hr cipro bath in the past, although like with anything else - who knows. This time it seemed to make things worse. I do love Dong and am generally pretty aligned with what he's got to say!
 
derek_SR said:
I did yes. no luck

Fish sauce?!
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Dong’s been dosing anchovy fish sauce, apparently.

After hearing that I did a short experiment dosing MSG because I thought it might be the free l-glutamate causing polyp extension, but I didn’t see anything happen—and the tank crashed shortly after, so the experiment was truncated early
 
tribbitt said:
Dong’s been dosing anchovy fish sauce, apparently.

After hearing that I did a short experiment dosing MSG because I thought it might be the free l-glutamate causing polyp extension, but I didn’t see anything happen—and the tank crashed shortly after, so the experiment was truncated early
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Does Dong talk about that somewhere? The link Will shared above is broken now.

I pretty much worship the Dong.
 
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