My minimalistic 180g SPS tank

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by Rakie

Had dinos, beat it, came back because I thought it was done. Effectively, beat dinos twice. Here's the basics, in not the best order (sorry, it's late!). Do as many of these things as possible, because they can and will destroy your entire tank if you don't do a complete assault.

Warning: It will OBLITERATE your SPS. This second time, I almost lost everything. Literally everything.

- Run Carbon, run lots and lots of carbon -- It rids the toxins they create. Get ready to change it frequently.

- DO NOT DO WATER CHANGES -- It's what brought mine back with a vengeance... I jumped the gun and they were back literally overnight, like starting from day 1.

- Dinos once dying will encase themselves in a cyst, which means they very likely WILL come back... (This is why some people never lose their dinos, they can encase themselves for months on end just waiting)

- MANUAL REMOVAL -- Absolutely essential. By itself, this does nothing, but with the advice above, and below, this will help you beat it...

- Filter socks / Floss are great manual removal aids. Don't be afraid to scoop out w/e comes to the surface when blasting the rocks with a turkey baster either.

- Dose bacteria -- I like Dr Tims, and AF pro bio S

- Make sure there's nutrient in the water to feed your algaes / bacterias (some dino species are actually hampered by nutrients)

- Dose h202 in the skimmer line (been awhile -- do some research here! Don't overdose but it's pretty safe)

- LET ALGAE GROW -- This is huge. Algae will outcompete the dinos, so when you see that green stuff growing on the glass, he's your new best friend... You let him grow as much as he wants.

- Bubble -- It really helps with manual removal. Bubbles get stuck on dinos, dinos separate, dinos are taken to filter sock or floss.

All of these things helped. A final last ditch effort for me was this -- Dosing Metronidazol. It works with *some* species of dinos, and worked for me so far.

Thanks a lot! I will try a lot of these, I am not sure I want to run carbon when I am away from the tank for a week from this Sunday to next Sunday but I am pretty much willing to try everything else as I do not see how it could have a bad effect.

The corals were looking great yesterday and also this morning, some of the best PE I have seen in this tank.

[codydemmel4]

still have dinos but the corals are doing great so I am very hesitant to change anything besides to feed more or add some good bacteria to raise phosphates

[Pife]

I just kept dosing good bacteria.

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by Pife

I just kept dosing good bacteria.

What bacteria did you use? I am still researching on which one to use

[reefmutt]

I thinks that a great plan, assuming the dinos don't overrun anything and the corals are happy like you said, they very well may just run themselves out.

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

I thinks that a great plan, assuming the dinos don't overrun anything and the corals are happy like you said, they very well may just run themselves out.

That is what I am hoping. Also from Big E's suggestion I am going to feed more natural food and make my own food mix with a ton of different seafood

[Pife]

I used several. Mb7, stability, fritz I just wanted as many different strands as possible.

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by Pife

I used several. Mb7, stability, fritz I just wanted as many different strands as possible.

I will look into these.

Thanks!

[codydemmel4]

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One month progress which I thought was pretty good.


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[codydemmel4]

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[codydemmel4]

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[codydemmel4]

So I really want a sohal tang or an achilles tang but I am worried with the other tangs I have.

What do you guys think?

[reefmutt]

Good colour and growth progression in that first post.
looking good.
Sohals are pretty tough tangs and hair trigger temper. They tend to like to rule the roost.
Achilles, too. Not to mention their propensity to getting and dying from ich..
You probably have a better chance of adding the sohal without problems because of how tough they can be. Even with good qt, the stress of adding an Achilles to a tank with established range may kill it.... BUT maybe not... I'm presenting worst case scenarios here.
Both stunning 'I wish I had one' fish but often heartbreaking.
I had an Achilles for around a year. It was stunning but died in a nick outbreak along with my mitratus bfly last year..

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Good colour and growth progression in that first post.
looking good.
Sohals are pretty tough tangs and hair trigger temper. They tend to like to rule the roost.
Achilles, too. Not to mention their propensity to getting and dying from ich..
You probably have a better chance of adding the sohal without problems because of how tough they can be. Even with good qt, the stress of adding an Achilles to a tank with established range may kill it.... BUT maybe not... I'm presenting worst case scenarios here.
Both stunning 'I wish I had one' fish but often heartbreaking.
I had an Achilles for around a year. It was stunning but died in a nick outbreak along with my mitratus bfly last year..

Yeah that makes. Unfort I never QT my fish either so I dont want an ich break out from one either. I would buy it locally so I would know whats going on with it. The sohal is my favorite tang probably or the white tail bristle tooth but I already have a kole so I dont wanna another. The sohal I feel will fight with the powder blue tang I feel, same with the achilles will do the same thing. I have so much room in the tank for them all to swim around so I know they will be fine for now but I fear like 1-2 years from now when they grow. I mean I have the other tank if something bad happens to move them there but idk. Dont wanna cause a fight.

Obviously have the normal chase around the tail thing but no biting

[Ucantwin]

Nice progress on the first pic. You went from having struggles to getting some nice growth.

If you have a powder blue with no ich currently, count that as a blessing! If you add the Achilles they will both most like come down with ich.

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by Ucantwin

Nice progress on the first pic. You went from having struggles to getting some nice growth.

If you have a powder blue with no ich currently, count that as a blessing! If you add the Achilles they will both most like come down with ich.

yeah he doesnt have ich (knock on wood) but I would love a show piece fish.

[codydemmel4]

well I made my own fish food tonight and I have a feeling that after a little bit of this. I am going to have no problems with my nitrates and phosphates being low anymore, we will see though.

Turned the whole tank cloudy and the fish were going NUTS for the bigger pieces and some of the corals had the best daytime PE I have seen in one long time.


In other news, my one clownfish died out of nowhere.

[codydemmel4]

thinking about adding some more fish to get my nutrients up.

like 6-7 more chromis, another clownfish and probably a bluethroat trigger since it would be stupid for me to add an achilles unfortunately.

[reefmutt]

Nice fish, the blue throat. Also love the niger.. not to mention sargassum or crosshatch.. but to keep it in the normal realm of $, the bluehroat is nice. Big eater.. good for nutrient increases.

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by reefmutt

Nice fish, the blue throat. Also love the niger.. not to mention sargassum or crosshatch.. but to keep it in the normal realm of $, the bluehroat is nice. Big eater.. good for nutrient increases.

I bought a pair of blue throat triggers and should be getting them tomorrow!

[bshow24]

Did you have a pair of clowns before? If so, and if you want them to pair up, I'd look at getting a juvenile one. This way the clown in your tank already can take over the female role. If you didn't have a pair before, well, just ignore this

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by bshow24

Did you have a pair of clowns before? If so, and if you want them to pair up, I'd look at getting a juvenile one. This way the clown in your tank already can take over the female role. If you didn't have a pair before, well, just ignore this

Yeah I did have a pair, no idea what happened to the one besides seeing it stuck to my powerhead the one morning. I barely saw them because they were always in the anemones in the back of my tank but thanks for the suggestion.

I will definitely get a juvi once I get another clownfish.

[Ucantwin]

How are you corals doing lately?

[codydemmel4]

Originally Posted by Ucantwin

How are you corals doing lately?

just got back from vacation yesterday and lost some corals due to the alk creeping above 8, it was closer to 9 when I try to keep it around 7.

Everything else is doing great, including the 2 new triggers. They still hide a lot but anytime I feed the tank or the auto feeder, they are out eating the food which is good to see.

I am still having a hard time of keeping the alk steady long term at like 2 weeks+ (going on all the vacations I have makes it pretty much impossible unless I thought somehow how to test the alk, etc)

I am not going on any other vacations anytime soon so hopefully I can keep everything stable at around:

7 Alk
420 Calc
P04 above 0.05
Nitrates within 4-8

I really liked when I was making my own fish food, I have to do that again. (just smells the house up for a couple hours ahah)

[codydemmel4]

Corals looked really good this morning with PE which was good to see. Still trying to keep alk stable around 7-7.5. Have to figure out the sweet spot dosing wise.

I also started up dosing FWS and coral
Booster again to see if that'll help color or accelerate growth. I also have aceopower being dosed once a day after lights out, only 10 ml. I did order Reef actif and I may start dosing that.