Reef nutrition

NanoCrazed's Lazy Tank(s) Journal

AquaJapan85
====
Ugh. Woke up this morning to RTN on my BKChem Crack Juice... rescue ranger time! Or is it hail mary time?!

Hopefully catching it early enough to stop the decline. I've saved worse. But will be up to the reefing gods now...

Wish i saw it last night when i was doing dips on new pieces that I picked up. Could've killed two birds with one stone then.

That said trying all the pieces i lost over the summer:

MC Prom Queen
TGC redwing
RR Pink Floyd
WWC 500

Will get to the BigR candyland again later.
What do you use to dip/save them?
 
Colors are looking good! The MattV acro is one to watch as the rainbow comes in.
Thanks! Yeah, very much looking forward to see how it grows out. It was green and not interesting for a long time...then suddenly it started pulling different colors at every tip.

I had thought to frag a piece or two but with the colors coming in, I'm now thinking to let it grow into a bigger colony and see what comes of it...
 
What do you use to dip/save them?
My typical protocol is:

2.5ml pond melafix to 1 pint for 30 - 60 secs
Rinse
250mg amoxicillin to 1 pint for 15 - 20 mins
Rinse
125mg ciprofloxacin to 1 pint for 5 - 10 mins

Use a baster or dropper to blow loose any dead tissue during the amoxicillin and ciprofloxacin steps.

Depending on severity, i might do this 2x daily for 2 - 3 days, then 1x for 3 days. Sometimes all you need is 1x for 3 days. Key is to watch for signs of the sps no longer shedding.

I would say I have about 80% success rate with this treatment especially if you catch it early.

That said, i failed miserably today. My Crack Juice completely RTN'd.

Partially, it might have been my fault as I decided to use 250mg of cipro dose instead for a more aggressive treatment, despite my better judgement. Some corals don't respond well to this dose. Some tolerate it... normally i reserve this high concentration for a true hail mary.

Case in point, I treated 2 frags at same time today. the ASD rainbow milli stabilized while the BKChem Crack Juice looked fine then went into rapid decent.

It could also very well be that the piece was dead or dying for a while already. Usually when this happens, i noticed pieces that darken in coloration (vs browning) and look richer / saturated in color...then followed by flaking a day or 2 later. These usually have been very poor success rates -- though I have managed to save some nonetheless. Even though I know what to look for, i still fail to act in time.

Here's a visual... I helped a friend try to save his colonies when he had a tank wide rtn. I lost the bottom right piece in the pic below but saved all the rest... the one at bottom looked the most promising but was probably too weak and too far gone (the smell from it was pretty bad).

20201220_231755.jpg
 
My typical protocol is:

2.5ml pond melafix to 1 pint for 30 - 60 secs
Rinse
250mg amoxicillin to 1 pint for 15 - 20 mins
Rinse
125mg ciprofloxacin to 1 pint for 5 - 10 mins

Use a baster or dropper to blow loose any dead tissue during the amoxicillin and ciprofloxacin steps.

Depending on severity, i might do this 2x daily for 2 - 3 days, then 1x for 3 days. Sometimes all you need is 1x for 3 days. Key is to watch for signs of the sps no longer shedding.

I would say I have about 80% success rate with this treatment especially if you catch it early.

That said, i failed miserably today. My Crack Juice completely RTN'd.

Partially, it might have been my fault as I decided to use 250mg of cipro dose instead for a more aggressive treatment, despite my better judgement. Some corals don't respond well to this dose. Some tolerate it... normally i reserve this high concentration for a true hail mary.

Case in point, I treated 2 frags at same time today. the ASD rainbow milli stabilized while the BKChem Crack Juice looked fine then went into rapid decent.

It could also very well be that the piece was dead or dying for a while already. Usually when this happens, i noticed pieces that darken in coloration (vs browning) and look richer / saturated in color...then followed by flaking a day or 2 later. These usually have been very poor success rates -- though I have managed to save some nonetheless. Even though I know what to look for, i still fail to act in time.

Here's a visual... I helped a friend try to save his colonies when he had a tank wide rtn. I lost the bottom right piece in the pic below but saved all the rest... the one at bottom looked the most promising but was probably too weak and too far gone (the smell from it was pretty bad).

View attachment 23510
Sorry to hear about the crack juice! And thanks for the very detail step by steps dipping info.
 
@Coral2Coral

Just to expand a bit more... the melafix is mainly for pest removal in case there are any (including pods eating the piece), amoxicillin works by destroying bacterial walls so fast acting, and cipro is for limiting bacterial reproduction.

Also, increases spectrum of coverage of varying gram positive and gram negative bacteria, too.
 
@Coral2Coral

Just to expand a bit more... the melafix is mainly for pest removal in case there are any (including pods eating the piece), amoxicillin works by destroying bacterial walls so fast acting, and cipro is for limiting bacterial reproduction.

Also, increases spectrum of coverage of varying gram positive and gram negative bacteria, too.
I lost quit a lot of sps the last time it happened and still can’t figure out the cause(s). I tried the amoxicillin only but still no help, will try your approach but hoping doesn’t need to go there again! Thanks!
 
AquaJapan85
====
I make it a point never to throw away coral skeletons particularly LPS as they always carry a potential for resurrection.

Case in point, here was a lobo that completely died off... after months of nursing it, a bit of tissue emerged and grew bit by bit. Now have a full head...and best part, the colors morphed into something 10X as nice. It was a decent blue with orange highlight lobo...but not terribly interesting. Now look at these colors...full on rainbow:

20210125_030314.jpg
 
On impulse, decided to splurge on a roughed up but promising bleeding apple scoly. I normally wouldn't take on a challenge project like this (esp not at a price I can get a solid piece for), so I am blaming cabin fever from sheltering and have wild imaginations of what the future for this piece may hold. hah.

1611603965513.png
 
Aquajapan85-ish
===

My 5G add-om has turned into the perfect euphyllia tank... everything is doing well and growing fast. Part of the reason I added the HG...Still have some other pieces fo move in, too...

20210126_141143.jpg
20210126_141155.jpg
 
AquaJapan85
===
Well that didn't take long to blow apart my resolution...

Added a few more impulse buys:
JF Sunday Driver
20210129_043621.jpg


MattV Orange Envy (my stubborness made me get a replacement for that DOA colony over the summer...at least how I rationalize it)
20210129_043744.jpg


RRU Ultimate Orange Passion
20210129_002418.jpg


POTO Goofy Homewrecker
20210129_002432.jpg


Not recent but figured I'd post anyway since not many out there... had this for awhile. JF Hot Pursuit
20210129_043448.jpg
 
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