Timfish

@ recordeafreak Anthias are sequential hermaphrodites like clowns and wrasses but the terminal phase is male like the wrasses. It's best to get a group of females and let one change sex on it's own. Getting a male might be an issue if one of the females had already started changing sex and progressed far enough it could not switch back. Some anthias are very particular but I've kept Disbar and Lyretail successfully with an autofeeder feeding .5mm pellets mixed with Two Fishes Zooplankton (Reef Roids should work as well or better) 4 times a day along with occasional frozen.

A bacterial infection certainly could have done this. But as pathogens are found on healthy corals what might have been the stressor to cause a rapid onset of infection? Could a new or different strain have been brought in with one of the new additions? We have solid research showing ULN methods have a negative impact corals immune system and ability to adapt so was there an sudden change in environemntal or nutrient variables? This was in an office so is it possible someone unknowingly did something and there aren't any environemntal or nurtrition issues (I've certainly had problems with "housekeeping" over the decades I've had my maintenance business)?

Latest video including a view from the upper balcony.

What about a temp swing over the weekend? Are you keeping PO4 really low? What are your nitrates at? Were any amino acids dosed last week or over the weekend? If you're using ULNS methods this research shows even though the zooxanthellae provide a higher percentage of the sugers they make to corals for growth it also makes corals much more sensitive to changes in light, temperature and sudden increases in nitrogen. http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/Nutrient enrichment.pdf https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2015.00103/full https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X17301601?via%3Dihub

Fans and evaporative cooling can extend your usage time. With good airflow evaporative cooling can keep the water at the average daily low temperature. In theory you could keep fish and hardy inverts all summer long.

This was a bittersweet addition. A client I've had for 21 years moved to CA and shut down their fish only system. It's sad to lose a system running for so long but I did get to move some very nice fish to my other clients. This Purple Tang was in initially purchased in 2004:

Seems like making your "X" with some aluminum bar stock that fits through the links of the chain seems like an easy way to help with cable organization. Since you're familiar with Sci Grip #40 for your Sea Swirls you can get acrylic tubing for clear return nozzles. If you don't have a miter saw it's easy enough to make miter cuts by hand to make 22.5° or 45° elbows (or whatever angle you want) glued to a PVC fitting that matches the connection on the Sea Swirl.

Interesting discussion, if anything Forsmen, et al, showed how how feeding needs to be tailored to the specific species and some species clearly will not need any feeding.

To eliminate reflections it's best to have the room completely dark with only the aquarium light on. Eliminating shakes when holding my cell is something I'm still working on but youtube (and maybe your cell phone) has software to reduce some of it.

Where at? Is it one of the mitered corners? (They give a really clean look but are a bit more of a challenge than a typical butt joint.)

Hmmmm, competition.

Tracking long term trends can be real helpful identifying increases in growth, developing problems or troubleshooting.

+1, lead fishing weights might help the chains to hang straight. (But to be honest the first thing that caught my eye was the really clean glue joints on the acrylic. )

Pentair has some aquaculture tanks that might work. https://pentairaes.com/rectangular-tanks.html

I guess I should have said "PVC, CPVC, fiberglass, plastic, acrylic pipe or rods." As far as the putty I would not expect it to stick to anything long term even if it sticks well initially. I do use it to help stabilize structures very occasionally but it's like making a small rock as a "shim" to keep a larger rock from shifting around. As to how fast dissolution happens that's pretty hard to say but obviously it's a very slow process. The density of the rock is a factor and it's difficult to quantify microenvironments that can have a pH low enough to dissolve calcium carbonate rock directly. What I have seen over the years, fortunately very rarely, is rock break along fracture lines I'm pretty sure I didn't see originally and when putty or cement failed algae and/or sponges had worked into the joints.

It would be nice to know the nitrogen and phosphate content of Acropower. The problem some people have with overdosing amino acids may not be the amino acids per se but they've created a nitrogen/phosphate imbalance.

This is a major frustration I've run into over the years. The more I dig into the science the more complicated it gets. Each coral species and genotype can have subtle differences in their photobiology and nutrition is a factor. So one question is has something caused a subtle shift in how those two corals photobiology? I seriously doubt the chemiclean had any direct effect, I can't remember where I heard this first but commonality is not causality, but it does bring up the question of a shift in the microbial processes. We know from Matz's research at UT the different genotypes of a given species can have widely different immune systems and responses to changes in bacterial populations. I can't say how probable but a possible explanation to what you're seeing is different responses to a combination of changes weeks ago. It could easily be two different issues, a small injury to the Undata that caused an infection, the purple digitata growing too fast for the amount of nutrients it could get from the water. I'm inclined to think the Rainbow Stylo just wasn't getting enough light on the underside, this is a concern as an infection can get started though where the polyps have died so super gluing it is prudent.

Amino acids are organic nitrogen which corals will consume along with or instead of inorganic forms. What you don't know is what the daily production and consumption of organic and inorganic nitrogen is in your system. That you saw a drop in PO4 suggests the acropower was probably a noticable increase in the the overall total of available nitrogen. The risk is creating or exacerbating a phosphate deficiency. This paper and this paper done on corals maintained in a ULN system found the coral/zooxanthellae simbiosis is really screwed up when the nitrogen/phosphate ratio gets out of whack.

If any aquascaping is going to be semipermanant I only trust gravity and PVC in holes to hold stuff together. As soon as a system is running endoliths will start to work on dissolving any calcium carbonate substrate. Epoxy putty, superglue, tie wraps and hydrolic cement all work short term and long term can help stabilize aquascaping but I've seen them all fail over time when they are holding stuff together.

Looking good! (post the pictures from your Kessil thread, it's easier to see how it will look.) +1 on more arches/bridges and I would have one tower, either one of the islands or the main structure go all the way to the surface. It looks great just the way you have it but fish feel more secure having places with overhead protection so the more I can work in without getting to "busy" I'll do. They still have the fear of predators attacking from the top and when spooke I see a lot of fish scoot under overhangs but they are still curious and will start looking around so they're not out of sight or fighting for a few hiding spots. Looking at my tanks with a tower going all the way to the surface seems to accentuate how tall a tank is better than a rock wall, kinda the same way a channel going all the way to the back accentuates the depth/width of a tank.

Here's a update, not that anything has changed though: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-04/fijis-coral-exporters-await-clarification-after-ban/9302496

Thank you! For about a decade one of my clients was an artist who illustrated children's books. Since the aquarium was in their studio we ended up having many conversations about the color wheel and color harmony and balance. The "rule of thirds" and Fibonacci ratio or golden ratio also came up and I was pleasantly surprised and got some valuable insights discussing how an artist applied all these to aquarium design. Just like with art every client has their preferences but the basic rules artists and architects and photographers use really helps. (It was fascinating to see Dr. Haas' research at C4 in 2015 showing how the rules developed over time by artists could be used to quantify the health status of reefs.)

Finally got around to testing the water. Nitrate wasn't tested. Got two noticably different readings forn Nyos and Red Sea so tested them against a standard. Red Sea was off by 10X and the Nyos was off by 25X. Checked the Red Sea and it's reagent expired two months ago, Nyos was current but it sits in my van. Fresh water after going through a water softener: Alkalinity 0 dKH (API seemed to show a color change at 1 but colors were very, very faint and I know I don't have the best color perception) Ph >8.8 (API) Calcium () Magnesium >2000 mg/l PO4 (.8) mg/l (Nyos, estimated .5< (.8) <1.0) New Saltwater after sitting about 15 minutes. After going through the water softener and a carbon filter water sits in a barrel that's had Carib Sea's Buffer Plus (calcium and bicarb) dumped in months and months ago, no agitation: Alkalinty 9 dKH pH 8.4 (API) Calcium 480 Magnesium 1600 PO4 (.8) mg/l (Nyos, estimated .5< (.8) <1.0) Aquarium Alkalinity 9 dKH pH 8.4 (API) Calcium 480 (API) Magnesium 1600 mg/l PO4 >1.0 mg/l For reference here's the parmeter's from the last time I tested in March Alkalinity 12 dKH (API) pH 8.3 (API) Temp 75 Salinity 1.024 Calcium 380 (API) Magnesium 1200 (Red Sea) Nitrate 12 mg/l (Nyos) PO4 2ish (API) pH 8.3 And here's a video from this week:

After having a plague of them in one system I now remove them when convenient during water changes reasoning being too much of a good thing is bad. Each water change would stimulate a breeding frenzy with dozens of 4"-6" worms. What I also noticed was there were no small bristle worms which I interpreted as to much competition among the adults for them to survive which which is not a healthy sign in an ecosystem.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out. Tonga did the same thing 9 years ago but it didn't take long to change their minds and allow coral exports. Walt Smith Int. has been working at sustainable aquaculture and mariculture in Fiji since the late '90s so depending on the wording and fine print some items may still be available.