Taylor's Tech 120 build

[tmantaylor18]

Originally Posted by sahin

Can you describe the issue with the sps?

A lot of them are browned out and the tissue is receding on some of them. 1/3rd of them are completely fine though and its only the SPS. My red dragon had some STN a few weeks ago but it stopped and now is just covered in brown algae where it receded.

Not sure how anything is browning out with such low nutrients and high lighting though. Im thinking of sending in a water sample to triton to see if anything is really off. I have the red sea coral colors kit and cant seem to get accurate results from it. It's saying my iodine is off the charts and that my potassium is inexistent. Red Sea is sending me new reagents soon so I will test again with the new ones.

[sahin]

Originally Posted by tmantaylor18

A lot of them are browned out and the tissue is receding on some of them. 1/3rd of them are completely fine though and its only the SPS. My red dragon had some STN a few weeks ago but it stopped and now is just covered in brown algae where it receded.

Not sure how anything is browning out with such low nutrients and high lighting though. Im thinking of sending in a water sample to triton to see if anything is really off. I have the red sea coral colors kit and cant seem to get accurate results from it. It's saying my iodine is off the charts and that my potassium is inexistent. Red Sea is sending me new reagents soon so I will test again with the new ones.

Your tank is fairly new...but not as newly setup as mine. My Acros are doing pretty well...

So; ensure you have doubled checked Ca, Mg, Alk, and Salinity with a different set of test kits.

Not sure what your Alk level is, but try and keep it lower than 8dKH since you are running a small amount of Pellets.

Also, ensure there are no pests like AEFW and Redbugs.

Lastly, if running any GAC or GFO ensure you are not over using too much.

If all that works out, then simply keep up the water changes, and run around 1/5 BRS recommended GAC.

The brown SPS will colour up...on some systems it just take a while longer for conditions to be optimal for good SPS colours.

[tmantaylor18]

I got all new test kits for Ca, Mg, and KH and tested them against the old ones. (Salifert) I always calibrate my refractometer with the calibration fluid. Maybe I'll take in a water sample to the LFS to have them go over these.

I took the bp reactor offline for now since I have such low nutrients anyways. I may bring them back on if I can manage to bring up the nutrients. My alk is at 8 right now. Do you think I should bring it down to 7.5?

I've had red bugs before and know those are not an issue at this point. I also haven't seen any aefw.

Im not running carbon or gfo right now since I have no detectable p04 as tested with salifert and hanna meter.

I have noticed that my red milli always has mesenterial filaments showing.

Originally Posted by sahin

Your tank is fairly new...but not as newly setup as mine. My Acros are doing pretty well...

So; ensure you have doubled checked Ca, Mg, Alk, and Salinity with a different set of test kits.

Not sure what your Alk level is, but try and keep it lower than 8dKH since you are running a small amount of Pellets.

Also, ensure there are no pests like AEFW and Redbugs.

Lastly, if running any GAC or GFO ensure you are not over using too much.

If all that works out, then simply keep up the water changes, and run around 1/5 BRS recommended GAC.

The brown SPS will colour up...on some systems it just take a while longer for conditions to be optimal for good SPS colours.

[sahin]

Originally Posted by tmantaylor18

I have noticed that my red milli always has mesenterial filaments showing.

Sounds like you have everything in order. Just have the Salinity checked out in case the calibration solution is at fault.

The mesenterial filaments being out most of the time suggests irritation. Only time I have seen them out on my Millepora is after feeding coral foods or my Trochus snails spawning.

Most other times people say mesenterial filaments are a sign of stress.

Since the Red Dragon has shown improvement, maybe things are on the mend. If there is no significant recovery after another week or two, I'd be inclined to run a SMALL amount of GAC.

[tmantaylor18]

Originally Posted by sahin

Sounds like you have everything in order. Just have the Salinity checked out in case the calibration solution is at fault.

The mesenterial filaments being out most of the time suggests irritation. Only time I have seen them out on my Millepora is after feeding coral foods or my Trochus snails spawning.

Most other times people say mesenterial filaments are a sign of stress.

Since the Red Dragon has shown improvement, maybe things are on the mend. If there is no significant recovery after another week or two, I'd be inclined to run a SMALL amount of GAC.

Thanks for the suggestions Sahin. Im going to send a water sample off to triton to see whats going on. I'll update the thread once i get the results.

[tmantaylor18]

Found my flame angel nipping at the red milli that has been looking pretty beat up. Looks like I found part of the problem.

My sunset milli has some really nice looking growth though which is good.

Think I'm going to remove the flame angel and my flame hawk tomorrow. The hawk fish has been been super aggressive to all of my fish.

I'm going to hit up a friend that can import Fish from Hawaii. Pretty sure I can grab a black tang and other nice fish from him.

[Benar]

My sps took off the moment I removed my majestic angel :-( sad, loved that fish

[tmantaylor18]

Looks like Im just at the 6 month mark now. Things are finally stabilizing and the SPS are starting to color back up. I am doing bi-weekly water changes of 20% right now and currently not dosing alkalinity and calcium. Levels have been stable at 8dKH, 470 Ca, 1400 Mg for about 2 months now.

[Dapg8gt]

Nice pics Taylor what camera are you using? Quality looks great and so does the reef but Where's the stick shots =)..

[tmantaylor18]

Originally Posted by Dapg8gt

Nice pics Taylor what camera are you using? Quality looks great and so does the reef but Where's the stick shots =)..

Thanks Daniel. The camera is a t2i I believe. I just borrowed it from my brother for these shots. I wasn't able to get any decent Sps shots but should have access to it again soon. I'll upload some crappy iphone shots later too.

[tmantaylor18]

Here are some poor iPhone shots from the other day. Im going to try and get my hands on another DSLR soon.

Recovered red dragon that is looking super deep red now. I have this pretty low down with good flow



ORA blue tort that almost didn't make it



pink lemonade that had zero polyp extension and was completely browned out.



random reef raft piece I grabbed during a sale about 9 months ago. It's slowly looking better but the polyps used to be red/purple.



Icefire is somewhat new and has retained its color. I slowly moved it up to one of the highest spots. Hoping to get the pure white with blue tips.



reef raft sunset milli that has taken off. To the right is a tiny SSC frag that I got $5 during a sale. This piece has started to develop color the last week or so.

[tmantaylor18]

Also did an extensive water change last weekend to get all of the detritus out of my refugium. I haven't had great luck with growing chaeto but this red gracilaria grows crazy fast.



I keep a bunch of live rock and live rock rubble in my refugium. It's mostly hidden by the macro algae. I wonder if removing these from the water has any effect on all the sponges in the rock.



all cleaned up

[sahin]

Corals are looking pretty nice now. Keep doing what you are doing, hopefully it will just get better and better from here on.

[Dapg8gt]

Corals are looking great man I may need to hit you up for a small starter piece of the red algae once I set up the big fuge on the frag tank. ..

And on the sponges in your LR I do believe it's best to keep them submerged at all times, I've always read that sponges die when air gets inside of them..

[guc32]

Looking good Taylor. Would like to stop by one day and see your tank.

Been mia from reefing. Slowly starting to get back into it.

[tmantaylor18]

Originally Posted by sahin

Corals are looking pretty nice now. Keep doing what you are doing, hopefully it will just get better and better from here on.

thanks Sahin

Originally Posted by Dapg8gt

Corals are looking great man I may need to hit you up for a small starter piece of the red algae once I set up the big fuge on the frag tank. ..

And on the sponges in your LR I do believe it's best to keep them submerged at all times, I've always read that sponges die when air gets inside of them..

I'll give you a few nice sized pieces. I also have two kinds of chaeto that dont really grow for me.

I've heard that about sponges too but everytime I take them out they're full of sponges still. Maybe just reproducing fast?

Originally Posted by guc32

Looking good Taylor. Would like to stop by one day and see your tank.

Been mia from reefing. Slowly starting to get back into it.

Yi-Woei right? (probably spelled wrong)

Did you break everything down? You're welcome to come by any time. I have a ton of zoas if you want some help getting started back up.

[markalot]

Looking good, nice to see everything coloring up. I'm coming from a brownout as well ans everything is coloring back except my millis, which are lagging behind.

[tmantaylor18]

Originally Posted by markalot

Looking good, nice to see everything coloring up. I'm coming from a brownout as well ans everything is coloring back except my millis, which are lagging behind.

What caused your brownout? That sunset was the first to show some decent color and now my bubblegum is starting to look better. Do you have a build thread?

[markalot]

Originally Posted by tmantaylor18

What caused your brownout? That sunset was the first to show some decent color and now my bubblegum is starting to look better. Do you have a build thread?

Yep, in my signature. I had a Phosphate spike which resulted in a KH spike that I did not correct fast enough. Silly mistake.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2419443

[tmantaylor18]

Originally Posted by markalot

Yep, in my signature. I had a Phosphate spike which resulted in a KH spike that I did not correct fast enough. Silly mistake.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh....php?t=2419443

Went ahead and skimmed through the thread. Great looking tank! You liking the T5s over LED?

[tmantaylor18]

Sunny Delights mixed with Rastas and Tubs



Red Dragon



Sunset Milli



Icefire Echinata



SSC nub

[tmantaylor18]

Tyree Purple Unknown



Pink Lemonade



ORA Blue Tort

[tmantaylor18]

Green Slimmer



Raspberry Sarmentosa



This is a recovering Pearl Berry



Bubblegum Milli

[tmantaylor18]

no idea what this piece is but the coloring/swirling looks really cool. Anyone know what it is?

[Dapg8gt]

That's a super nice piece it's definitely different.

Looks like a grafted acro search green fluorescent protein infection or green jacket should point you to some corals that look similar or lead you to a possible ID.

The rest of the sps are looking good also looks like the tank is getting into its groove.