My 48g Fowlr Journey. 13 Months On...

[Miss Wiggle]

oooh i love emerald crabs, never seen any around here though

looking forward to pics as well.

 

[sparklefuzz]

Ok, so it has been a ridiculously long time since I updated this thread, and I am thinking anyone who was remotely interested may well have gone AWOL by now, but anyways, AS PROMISED, pictures! LOL

Updates - We bought a bicolor angel ages ago, can't remember exact date, I have it written down... and since then the firefish have all but disappeared. One of them pops out now and then, but they are both still alive. The one that doesn't is very thin, so can't be getting enough food.... not sure what I can do about that . We got a royal gramma this weekend just gone.. the coral, pulsing xenia is fading fast... something I have been told can just happen for no reason...? We've had it for a year, it was HUGE before, now it's an inch or so across and just a little bundle of shrivel. It's been like that for ages. I've given up, the water parameters seem fine. There is cyano all over, it comes and goes really... and we have hairy green algae (not sure of actual name) growing on the back glass... which is just annoying.

We've just ordered 2 Hydor Koralia 1's because I read the cyano will improve if I increase the flow, so we're having a bit of a rearrange. The bubble algae is gone, thanks to one of the 5 emerald crabs.. one of them is enormous, so he is getting all the credit... all but one bubble was eaten within about a fortnight - and the one bubble was approx 1.5" diameter. So I pulled that one out.

This might seem like a random odd question, but does LR reduce in size?! I mean, kinda dissolve? because it's like I keep noticing gaps where there wasn't any before?!

It's been 13 months now, and not one death *touches wood* so must be doing something right, and the coraline algae is everywhere too Still no sump or skimmer, but I am running carbon and phosphate remover in an internal filter.

Anyways, hope someone out there still cares and hi to Miss Wiggle, Ski and Chac (wherever he may be )

Pictures - recent ones are on page 2

 

[SkiFletch]

Heh, hey sparkle, long time no see . If you're having problems with Xenia, I'd start by lookin at your salinity. Have you recently had it verified by your LFS? It's quite possible that your measuring device has drifted over time and that your actual salinity is way off what you're measuring. Might be OK for fish but bad for Xenia

Otherwise, are those pics on facebook recent? Cause if so, man thats a lot of coraline algae

 

[sparklefuzz]

Heh, hey sparkle, long time no see . If you're having problems with Xenia, I'd start by lookin at your salinity. Have you recently had it verified by your LFS? It's quite possible that your measuring device has drifted over time and that your actual salinity is way off what you're measuring. Might be OK for fish but bad for Xenia

Otherwise, are those pics on facebook recent? Cause if so, man thats a lot of coraline algae

Hi Ski I hadn't thought about the salinity, I bought a refractometer about 11-12 months ago, would it go that quick? Yeah, the pics were taken a couple of days ago, I've got huge amounts of coraline! Can't get the stuff off!! LOL

What kind of salinity levels would affect the xenia?

 

[SkiFletch]

IME, a higher salinity than expected would lead to shriveled xenia. They're also sensetive to low Carbonate/Alkalinity, which may be the case in a system with exploding coraline growth.... Just tryin to think here. Only other thought that comes to mind is to check for predators. Are you sure the angel isn't bothering it? even at night?

 

[sparklefuzz]

IME, a higher salinity than expected would lead to shriveled xenia. They're also sensetive to low Carbonate/Alkalinity, which may be the case in a system with exploding coraline growth.... Just tryin to think here. Only other thought that comes to mind is to check for predators. Are you sure the angel isn't bothering it? even at night?

It may be the angel, he does pick at it, but moreso I think since it shrivelled up - could be wrong. I check the refractometer yesterday with RO and it was off by quite a bit. I tested the tank water and the sg was 1.028, so I'll add pure RO slowly over the week and drop it.

Thanks for the help Ski

Btw, before I let you go will my test kit be any good after a year? or is it time for a new one?

 

[SkiFletch]

IME, the cheaper biologic ones tend to be less accurate after a year or so (nitrate especially) but the abiotic ones tend to last for a long time (calc/alk/mg/pH)

 

[sparklefuzz]

I think I'll just buy the hagen master test kit, then I know it's good.

 

[sparklefuzz]

So, we dropped the sg to 1.023 and the coral hasn't changed as yet.

I also bought the test kit, but then at the weekend I decided to take the bull by the horns and sort the coraline out. I used a stanley knife blade and finally, we have a clean tank:

I also rescaped the rock and realised after I'd taken it all out that one of our firefish must have died We hadn't seen him out and about in ages, and when I did see him around the back of the rock he was really thin, so I guess that's that. Our first death.

I haven't done any testing yet, but I will be tomorrow after everything has settled back in. We did a 6g change when I did the rearranging, so we'll see what we end up with. I've added the 2 new powerheads and put the rock with the coral on, right at the top... for what good it'll do. Anyways, I'll post test results tomorrow, see if that sheds any light.

Before and After pics here - http/www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=7929...mp;id=809560036 (new ones from #34 onwards

 

[SkiFletch]

Lookin good there, lets see what the tests say

 

[sparklefuzz]

Lookin good there, lets see what the tests say

OK, got started on this late, and MAN these tests are complicated, and there's me complaining about the nitrate test in the other kit needing shaking for a minute. LOL

Question... the new hagen kit reads PH at 8.5 - when it has always read low, at between 7.8 and 8.2. I tested with the old kit, and it read 8.0. Thoughts???

The Xenia seems to be less shrivelled, so maybe making a recovery, what's left of it...

Anyway, some results so far for your professional opinion Ski

Temp - 79 degrees
Specific Gravity - 1.023
PH - 8.5 (new kit) 8.0 (old kit) ??
Ammonia - 0mg
Nitrite - <0.1mg
Nitrate - 10mg
Phosphates - 0.25mg
Calcium - 360mg
KH - 150mg
Iron - 0mg ---- do I need to test this??


It says the KH should be between 105 and 125, erm, help!

Anything so far anyone?!

 

[SkiFletch]

Humm, well I'm not used to units in mg. First off, you don't need to test for iron. Unless you start throwing steel in the water and let it rust you'll be fine

As for the pH, how old is the old kit? Are we talking month, few months, year, well over a year? I'd believe the new kit though IF KH is high (again, not sure what the KH of natural seawater is in mg). High KH in conjunction with high magnesium, and low CO2 will often lead to an elevated pH (calc doesnt have much effect on pH). This is probably why you're having explosive coraline algae growth too incidentalliy. Coraline thrives in high alk conditions, so I guess everything hangs together. There are only two ways to lower KH. First, to just wait, and natural calcifying organisms will use it up. Second is to waterchange. BUT you have to make sure your newly mixed saltwater is not the cause of the high KH in the first place . So run a test on a small batch of saltwater and see what you get there. Lastly on this subject, are you dosing anything?

My other concern after seeing that is the Phosphate. Phosphate should be not-detectable (or at least nearly so) in reef aquaria where coral growth and health are concerned. The presence of phoshpate will inhibit calcification and stress hard corals. Best ways to remove phosphate are to add refugiums, use granular ferric oxide phosphate chemical removers (rowaphos/phosban), or waterchange (again, make sure you test your fresh mix before trying this ).

HTH

 

[sparklefuzz]

As for the pH, how old is the old kit?
Lastly on this subject, are you dosing anything?
Phosphate should be not-detectable (or at least nearly so) in reef aquaria where coral growth and health are concerned. The presence of phoshpate will inhibit calcification and stress hard corals.

Thanks Ski


I bought the kit November 06, so 14 months old. I was surprised at how high the PH was in the new kit, which I would assume to be correct. Could it be the recent rearrange affecting anything?
Not dosing anything, never have.
The phosphate has always been around 0.25, my test kit says anything up to 1.0mg is ok? Also, concerning the corals, we only have 2 x T8 bulbs, so we'd only ever have soft corals anyway. It's been at that kind of level since the beginning and the xenia has thrived all year... so I can't imagine it to be that causing an issue there

Does that help any?!

Oh, and I shall run some tests on the saltwater, as advised - thank you

 

[SkiFletch]

If you're only keepin softies and don't have troubles with nuisance algae, you shouldn't really have to worry about phosphate. As for what caused the pH rise, the re-arrange could have caused a change in water circulation ultimately changing CO2 levels in the tank and preventing them from keeping pH low...

 

[sparklefuzz]

If you're only keepin softies and don't have troubles with nuisance algae, you shouldn't really have to worry about phosphate. As for what caused the pH rise, the re-arrange could have caused a change in water circulation ultimately changing CO2 levels in the tank and preventing them from keeping pH low...

I did the rearrange on sunday, when would you expect the PH to drop again, do you think?

I have trouble with cyano. BIG trouble... and green hairy algae aswell. GRR.