BornToHula's 240 Gallon Build

[FarmerTy]

I am finally breaking down my 75g this weekend, but I'm not sure what to do with some of the corals that are in the tank that won't be coming over to the 240.

I have some frogspawn, a big piece of live rock that has zoas covering most of it, a big piece of green plating coral with brown polyps - that I cant remember the name of, and some small others. Nothing very valuable.

The problem is everything is covered with vermitid snails. So I am wondering, should I trade in or give away these pieces with the disclaimer that they have the snails in them - or should I just nuke them when I acid dip the rock? I would hate to infect anyone else's tank with the snails.

I don't consider the snails a nuisance but I understand your position. I think as long as you disclose it when you sell them, should be no problem. That or just take them to the LFS and trade them in for some credit to buy new fish/corals for the 240-gallon.

Not a bad idea. I will probably just manually remove the snails that I can and trade them in for a little credit. That way I wont be intentionally killing corals which seem wrong.

As for them not being a nuisance - we'll have to disagree! They did a good job of trashing this tank, which is why I am being super careful on the 240g about them. Once they started reproducing it was a losing battle from the start.

No dice, everyone has to agree with me. Else I go into FarmerTy pester mode until you submit! Vermatiid snails are your friends.... vermatiid snails are your friends... say it with me!

[BornToHula]

Vermatiid snails have a special place in hell, right next to green star polyp

[FarmerTy]

Vermatiid snails have a special place in hell, right next to green star polyp

And ich!!!! Darn you!!!

[BornToHula]

Got everything out of the 75g besides 3 anemones that are refusing to deatch from their rocks! One of the 3 are going into the 240, the other two will be traded in.

The live rock has been dried out and will be getting an acid wash this week to remove the vermatiid snail skeletons and other dead organic matter.

I seem to have lost some of my better pics, but in its heyday I was pretty proud of my 75g considering it was my first reef tank. The 240 looks bare in comparison, I need more frags!

[FarmerTy]

Did someone say C4? [emoji3]

[BornToHula]

Did someone say C4? [emoji3]

Yep, I'm going to be loading up. I've been holding off buying frags until c4

[BornToHula]

Figure it is time for a tank update! Still struggling with diatoms. I think part of the issue was me feeding 3 or 4 times a day to keep the Sunburst Anthias healthy. Unfortunately they did not make it and now I am dealing with the algae. Lesson learned: wait until the tank matures to add difficult fish!

I have heard of a remedy for diatoms using Baker's Yeast to remove it, but I will probably give it another few months to run its course before I do anything drastic.

Corals are still looking healthy and most are growing quite nicely.

The tank's still looking pretty bare, C4 can't come quick enough!

[FarmerTy]

Great lookong SPS and growth! Are you sure you have diatoms? They are mostly concentrated on the sandbed where all the silicate usually resides. If it's mainly on your rocks, you may have cyano... Or much worst... Dinos. Sadly from the pictures, I'm thinking dinos. Can you take a better picture of it?

[BornToHula]

Great lookong SPS and growth! Are you sure you have diatoms? They are mostly concentrated on the sandbed where all the silicate usually resides. If it's mainly on your rocks, you may have cyano... Or much worst... Dinos. Sadly from the pictures, I'm thinking dinos. Can you take a better picture of it?

I'm not sure what it is, from me just looking at online ID guides I thought it was diatoms. I could be wrong. Its not Cyano.

Here are some more pics. The algae is a pale/clear brownish color with about 1/4 to 1/2" hairs.

[BornToHula]

Well now that you mention dinos... I'm a little worried

Here are some videos that may give a better view.

[FarmerTy]

Can't tell but it seems filamentous and maybe not dinos. Dinos usually looks like snot with bubbles in it. If you try to grab it, it feels gooey, sorry for the lack of a more scientific term.

If you take some and shake it in a vial, it will mostly disappear in the solution. Then give it time and it'll reform into the same snot consistency. That's how you can tell its dinos.

[Juiceman]

Yeah, it's not Dinos.. Very distinct snot look with lots of bubbles if it was Dinos. You have something else there.

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[BornToHula]

Can't tell but it seems filamentous and maybe not dinos. Dinos usually looks like snot with bubbles in it. If you try to grab it, it feels gooey, sorry for the lack of a more scientific term.

If you take some and shake it in a vial, it will mostly disappear in the solution. Then give it time and it'll reform into the same snot consistency. That's how you can tell its dinos.

I will try the vial test tomorrow to be certain, but I would not describe this as snot like.

Yeah, it's not Dinos.. Very distinct snot look with lots of bubbles if it was Dinos. You have something else there.

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I'm relieved its likely not dinos but I don't like that its not an easily identifiable algae/bacteria.

[BornToHula]

I also have had a outbreak of what I believe to be Pineapple Sponges and Spirobids in my sump. I noticed a lot of what I thought was the same brown algae in the sump yesterday, I took a closer look today and this is what I see. Crazy how fast it bloomed up. From what I have read both the sponges and spirobids are harmless and should run their course.

[FarmerTy]

Yeah, you'll most likely lose those pineapple sponges over time. In my new tanks, they almost always get replaced with other types of sponges and I see less and less of the pineapple ones over the course of a year.

[BornToHula]

One of the anemones that has been refusing to release from their rock finally let go after about 48 hours of being blasted by a powerhead. I put him in the 240 last night but no sign of him today. No idea where he crawled off to, hopefully not in the overflow!

Also found some time this morning to build my filter sock holder.

[BornToHula]

Can't tell but it seems filamentous and maybe not dinos. Dinos usually looks like snot with bubbles in it. If you try to grab it, it feels gooey, sorry for the lack of a more scientific term.

If you take some and shake it in a vial, it will mostly disappear in the solution. Then give it time and it'll reform into the same snot consistency. That's how you can tell its dinos.

So I did this test yesterday and it doesn't really reform into "snot" it just stays broken up. I've been searching online more to ID it and the closest things I can find is maybe chrysophytes or calothrix.

[BornToHula]

I hope to start building the dosing pump reservoir this weekend. Each section will hold a little more than 1 gallon.

I'm getting an apex breakout box and float valves to put in each reservoir so it will alert me when it is nearing empty. I still need to figure out how to actually mount the float valves, and the apex coding to set up the alerts.

[+BobcatReefer]

What goes in each of the reservoirs?

[BornToHula]

What goes in each of the reservoirs?

Alkalinity and calcium 2 part in the first two. Debating if I want magnesium for the 3rd or if I want to dose something like Acropower. Probably will go with mg even though my uptake is pretty low currently.

[+BobcatReefer]

Thanks!

[+BobcatReefer]

So I did this test yesterday and it doesn't really reform into "snot" it just stays broken up. I've been searching online more to ID it and the closest things I can find is maybe chrysophytes or calothrix.

Any progress here? I'm following along as I think I have something similar.

vid:

[BornToHula]

So I did this test yesterday and it doesn't really reform into "snot" it just stays broken up. I've been searching online more to ID it and the closest things I can find is maybe chrysophytes or calothrix.

Any progress here? I'm following along as I think I have something similar.

The stuff in your video looks very similar to mine, but a little thicker. It doesn't look like its all over your rocks like mine is though.

While the stuff initially appeared while my tank was cycling, I think it has been staying around because I was over feeding my tank and created a nutrient problem.

To update my progress I seem to have stopped most of the growth. Now whenever a snail cleans an area it stays clean for several days. It also took about two weeks to grow back where I scrapped it off the back glass, where before it would be about 2 days.

I have done:

• A lot of 25 gallon (~10%) water changes. At least 2 times a week (sometimes more) since mid July. Salt has been expensive!
• While doing water changes I scrape off anything on the glass and siphon out. Its very hard to remove from the rock (a toothbrush wont cut it) but it comes off the glass fairly easily.
• Reduced feeding to once a day since the beginning of August. I now feed either half a cube of frozen or 1/4 cube plus a half sheet of nori. I had been feeding several times a day trying to keep my Anthias alive.
• Rotating in new carbon & GFO every 2 weeks.
• Slowly Increasing biopellets - I started with about a cup and have been adding 1/4 cup about once a month.

Testing really hasn't been too helpful. Nitrates and phosphates have continually read zero, most likely due to the algae uptake.

Things seem to be slowly turning in my favor, still a long ways to go though. The algae hasn't seemed to have any impact on coral growth.

[+BobcatReefer]

I have it on my rocks too, but it's much easier to see, and more dense, on the overflow box. Not nearly so much so on the rock. What worries me is that I haven't seen any pods since it showed up, which I find odd, and not particularly logical.

[BornToHula]

I see. I have pods, so the brown stuff isn't killing them in my tank at least.