BBMarlin's 125G - Skimmerless SPS Reef

[jolt]

I see, the acans and the blastos get no love.  Apparently you are a stick head  (like me)!

[BBMarlin]

Haha, I just can't kill those coral (no matter how hard I try)!  I suppose the sticks keep things interesting 🤣

[BBMarlin]

Been battling a nasty outbreak of dinoflagellates the last week or so.  Had bubbly brown slime all over the sand, brownish water and brown stringy snot just about everywhere else. Confirmed it as Ostreopsis with my microscope.  Lovely!  And, to top it off the tank and the upstairs of my home smelled like dead snails (which my wife kept reminding me of about 3X/day).  I think I’ve turned a corner now after turning off my daily AWC, increasing nutrients via additional feedings, followed by a 3-day darkness period, including copious amounts of carbon and a dose of Vibrant.  All of my snails made it through but I lost 2 tuxedo urchins.  I was able to save my pincushion urchin by removing him to a QT tank.   No coral loss.

Looking back, I think I probably I got a little aggressive with my AWC in my young tank.  My biological filter is not mature enough to fight back against the dinos and I exacerbated the problem by changing too much water.

Speaking of biodiversity, has anyone signed up with: https://aquabiomics.com/ ?  I’m thinking about trying a subscription for a few months.

Edited January 11, 2020 by BBMarlin

[jolt]

I've read about the aquabiomics but have not tried it.  It's an interesting concept but I'm not sure what I would do with the results.  Say it comes back lacking biodiversity, then what?

[victoly]

handfuls of substrate from other areas of biodiversity !

 

[Timfish]

I'm definitely looking into it.   SOmething like 90% - 95% of the microbiome  cannot be cultured so changing the microbiome will have to be done by changing the corals, sponges and algae as well as the maintenance techniques and practices as these are all manipulating the different components of the microbiome and pushing it towards heterotrophic, oxygen consuming and potentially pathogenic species or pushing it towards autotrophic and oxygen conserving species.   Rohwer's "Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" is a good inttroduction to these processes.  Here's some more links identifying some of the specifics:

 

Aura-biomes are present in the water layer above coral reef benthic macro-organisms

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5562181/

 

Influence of coral and algal exudates on microbially mediated reef metabolism

https://peerj.com/articles/108/?utm_source=TrendMD&utm_campaign=PeerJ_TrendMD_0&utm_medium=TrendMD

 

Effects of Coral Reef Benthic Primary Producers on Dissolved Organic Carbon and Microbial Activity

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0027973

 

Biological oxygen demand optode analysis of coral reef-associated microbial communities exposed to algal exudates

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3719127/

 

Global microbialization of coral reefs

https://www.nature.com/articles/nmicrobiol201642

 

Visualization of oxygen distribution patterns caused by coral and algae

https://peerj.com/articles/106/

 

Macroalgae decrease growth and alter microbial community structure of the reef-building coral, Porites astreoides

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22957055

 

Biophysical and physiological processes causing oxygen loss from coral reefs

https://elifesciences.org/articles/49114.pdf

 

Excess labile carbon promotes the expression of virulence factors in coral reef bacterioplankton

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28895945

 

Differential recycling of coral and algal dissolved organic matter via the sponge loop

https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2435.12758

 

Coral and macroalgal exudates vary in neutral sugar composition and differentially enrich reef bacterioplankton lineages

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23303369

 

 

Dealing with "snot" algae like BBMarlin describes, was one of the motivators for developing the use of plastic straws then stainless steel straws to remove unwanted stuff from around corals. For years when I get what I consider excessive algae I'll start siphoning it out. There have been a couple of instances with clients where 3-4 times a week I was siphoning out snot algae to keep it from affecting the tank. Fortunately it's rare to need to do so.

[BBMarlin]

6 hours ago, Timfish said:

 

Dealing with "snot" algae like BBMarlin describes, was one of the motivators for developing the use of plastic straws then stainless steel straws to remove unwanted stuff from around corals. For years when I get what I consider excessive algae I'll start siphoning it out. There have been a couple of instances with clients where 3-4 times a week I was siphoning out snot algae to keep it from affecting the tank. Fortunately it's rare to need to do so.

Thanks for the research links.

I tried the manual removal route and there was no controlling what I just experienced.  I've had some of this stuff in my previous systems (dynos) which I could syphon out during maintenance no problem.  This time around it was everywhere and it would come back just about as quickly as I would remove it into a sock, never experienced anything quite like it.  And, I could not believe the smell!   Really nasty stuff, I think the lights out treatment is what ultimately re-balanced my system.

[BBMarlin]

8 hours ago, jolt said:

I've read about the aquabiomics but have not tried it.  It's an interesting concept but I'm not sure what I would do with the results.  Say it comes back lacking biodiversity, then what?

Ya, I'm wondering the same thing.  I might give them a call to see if they offer any sort of guidance with the results.

[victoly]

Every tank is a dissertation. I can only imagine that theyre just getting started at understanding natural systems, much less the unnatural systems we build. 

That said Im still super interested. 

[BBMarlin]

430 On The Sand?

Rented RCA's PAR meter this week and took measurements.

I decided to take two measurements, one with Channel 1 @ 90% and another with Channel 1 @ 50%.  Channel 2 was static at 85% for both measurements.  The Ocean Revive lights are 16" above the water line.  I'm currently running channel 1 at 50% to see how my coral respond with their existing placements.  Decent coverage!

 

 

 

 

[BBMarlin]

Whilst scrolling my FB feed I have seen this ad many times.  And, each and every time I see it, the only thing that pops into my mind is: “Free, Unlimited Frags!”.  Lol, I need help.

[victoly]

you got a problem

[BBMarlin]

Thanksgiving update!

A lot has happened with my reef over the past year, many ups and downs during the early part of 2020! After much hair pulling and frustration over the spring, as I moved into the summer months things started to stabilize and now the tank has found its equilibrium a few months ago.  Looking back over my logs and the issues that were had with Dinos and hair algae, I believe that once I installed a dedicated UV on the system things started to turn a corner.  And, I’m sure the age of the tank has helped. 

The tank is just over a year old now.   I have kept everything as simple as possible, which has made maintenance a breeze.  My CaRX has been rock solid.  I run a very small amount of GFO for PO4 as needed, other than that there is no filtration on the tank other than a mesh screen in the sump for large particle filtration.

Looking forward to big colonies in 2021!

 

[bgautrea]

Your tank looks great @BBMarlin.

Reading your update is almost like looking in a mirror. I started my 180 a couple of weeks before you and have had stability issues throughout the year too... dinos in particular here but I feel like I'm finally turning the corner.

Edited November 30, 2020 by bgautrea

[BBMarlin]

On 11/30/2020 at 1:48 PM, bgautrea said:

Your tank looks great @BBMarlin.

Reading your update is almost like looking in a mirror. I started my 180 a couple of weeks before you and have had stability issues throughout the year too... dinos in particular here but I feel like I'm finally turning the corner.

Thanks @bgautrea!

What is your success story with the dinos?  UV or was it just a matter of letting the tank mature?

[bgautrea]

I had a fairly long and multi faceted approach. It definitely took time, and I monitored the results from each step for several weeks before trying something new.

First, I confirmed the dinos with a microscope (see the attached pics).

I tried siphoning into a filter sock. This was a real PITA. It left the tank looking good... for about 24 hours.

I added UV. The UV was admittedly undersized by probably close to 100 gallons, but it is what I could afford.

I began dosing silicates using SpongExcel. The thought was diatoms need silicates to grow and the increase of diatom population would out compete the dinos.

I think the biggest impact was dosing NO3 and PO4. Both were very near 0 all along. I went with the NeoPhos and NeoNitro and it still took several weeks to find the increased but stable dose. Got NO3 up to 15ppm and PO4 at 0.1ppm. Both seemed relatively high to me, but that's where I'm hanging out now, and have been for about 2 months with good success. I will probably begin dialing those back soon, but until I increase the livestock, I likely will continue to some degree.

A couple of side effects I've noted:

The sponges in the tank have probably doubled or tripled in size. They aren't huge by any means and I'm not sure that they are very beneficial but I do look at them as adding diversity to the tank.

The increased NO3/PO4 resulted in improved chaeto growth. I had tried stopping my fuge light to leave more NO3/PO4 in the tank but this caused my pH to barely crack 8.0 during the day. Now, with the improved chaeto growth the pH overnight stays higher and the pH during the day is also higher.

I've noticed that my lawnmower blenny is feeding on algae more during the day.

And finally, I've also noticed that snail and pod populations are increasing which I'm attributing to the overall improved algae growth.

 

Lots of things have gone on during this, but I do feel like I've gotten the tank to a little better place that it was before.

[BBMarlin]

18 hours ago, bgautrea said:

I had a fairly long and multi faceted approach. It definitely took time, and I monitored the results from each step for several weeks before trying something new.

First, I confirmed the dinos with a microscope (see the attached pics).

I tried siphoning into a filter sock. This was a real PITA. It left the tank looking good... for about 24 hours.

I added UV. The UV was admittedly undersized by probably close to 100 gallons, but it is what I could afford.

I began dosing silicates using SpongExcel. The thought was diatoms need silicates to grow and the increase of diatom population would out compete the dinos.

I think the biggest impact was dosing NO3 and PO4. Both were very near 0 all along. I went with the NeoPhos and NeoNitro and it still took several weeks to find the increased but stable dose. Got NO3 up to 15ppm and PO4 at 0.1ppm. Both seemed relatively high to me, but that's where I'm hanging out now, and have been for about 2 months with good success. I will probably begin dialing those back soon, but until I increase the livestock, I likely will continue to some degree.

A couple of side effects I've noted:

The sponges in the tank have probably doubled or tripled in size. They aren't huge by any means and I'm not sure that they are very beneficial but I do look at them as adding diversity to the tank.

The increased NO3/PO4 resulted in improved chaeto growth. I had tried stopping my fuge light to leave more NO3/PO4 in the tank but this caused my pH to barely crack 8.0 during the day. Now, with the improved chaeto growth the pH overnight stays higher and the pH during the day is also higher.

I've noticed that my lawnmower blenny is feeding on algae more during the day.

And finally, I've also noticed that snail and pod populations are increasing which I'm attributing to the overall improved algae growth.

 

Lots of things have gone on during this, but I do feel like I've gotten the tank to a little better place that it was before.

That’s interesting to see how similar our approaches were to this nasty menace. 

Truth be told I bought my daughter a microscope last Christmas so I could confirm my dinos as ostreopsis lol.  I then basically did everything that you have tried notwithstanding the SpongExcel, that’s one that I’m not familiar with but sounds like an interesting idea for sure!  I would add that I also tried the full on nuclear option of Dino-X (I do not recommend).  I didn’t have any issues with 0 or low NO3/PO4, so there wasn’t much for me to do there. 

I caught a thread on ReefBuilders talking about raising tank temperature to 82, this alone knocked them back significantly for me; however, they were still around - mainly on the tank corners and around the powerhead cords.  I then followed up with an appropriately sized UV and dedicated powerhead with recommend GPH and within 2 days they had disappeared, and I have not seen them since (~5mos)!

FWIW I keep my PO4 @ .06 - .08 ppm and NO3 which I rarely test for comes in around 5 ppm.  Still running the tank fairly warm at 80.

 

[bgautrea]

What size UV did you go with?

[BBMarlin]

2 hours ago, bgautrea said:

What size UV did you go with?

25Watt Aqua and Jabeo DCW-2000