Timfish

Just graphed the last 30 days, and mine is pretty stable, slightly increasing overall. . .

It's hard to tell the dates but it looks like your pH had a noticable drop on the 13th like Victoly's when ACL got rained out.

It's certainly reasonable to think the changes in the trend of pH daily highs and lows is associated with the changes in CO2 in the room the system is situated and seems to me the better explaination for the differences between Victoly and Jestep's charts. But considering photosynthesis in the corals is using up CO2 might not the corals reaction to weather changes influence the rate CO2 is absorbed? The most dramatic example I have of a coral responding to seemingly rather insignificant outside influences was a Bubble coral which opened and closed not with the cycling of the MH lights it was under but with the rising and setting of the sun. Even though the tank only got very brief direct sunlight each morning it closed up when the sun set irregardless of when the MH lights turned off.

Off hand I don't remember which days we got rain most of the last, well, year. But the 13th is when ACL got rained out. So the 11th, 12th and the 13th it looks like the high pH reading for the days was pretty close to the the same then it dropped with the rain. Does cloudy or rainy weather have any effect at all on your system like I've seen on another? Or is it mostly how often you all are inside or how much your AC is running? (Or some average of those variables.) It will be interesting to see what happens as it cools off and your heat is running more.

On the pH chart it gives a time with the date and the time stamp is gradually getting later. Is the time stamp given when the data is actually taken or just happen stance? My perception is you are getting quite a few data points throughout the day but if the time stamp is the actual moment the pH is tested the time of day might be a factor.

I've also seen the pH of a tank have noticiably lower highs and lows on cloudy days even though the tank was in a room with only north facing windows. It would be interesting to see the chart lined up with rainfall besides outside temps.

Tim, you know the most random things lol

(My cats whisper them in my ears at night! )

I looked up Uronema marinum in the "Aquariology" book I have. It recommends the combination of parasiticides and freshwater dips. It adds multiple treatments may be necessary if the parasite has burrowed under the skin and antibiotics may be necessary for secondary bacterial infections. I would be treating the QT itself, Uronema is free living so leaving a QT empty won't work to remove it from the system like the obligate parasites "ich" Velvet or Brooklynella.

The reflection you are seeing is from looking through the glass. Neither fish or you would see a reflection from inside the tank. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but to be honest it sounds like your fish had a problem before you got it. Keep trying different foods and hopefully it will start eating.

I've had dwarf angels that demonstrated pretty normal behavior and started eating almost as soon they were put in my QT. Tangs should start swimming around normally with in a day although it may take a few days to come out as soon as I put food in the tank if they see me standing in front of the tank. If it's in a QT skittish behavior like you're describing is almost always demonstrated by fish that have health issues. If it's in your DT skittish behavior could also be caused by it perceiving another fish as a threat. Is another fish "flashing" or getting sideways and spreading it's fins and maybe doing short darts or starts and stops? (This is their equivalent of screaming obscenities and flipping the finger.)

It does depend on the species. I've get tank raised Regal (Hippo) Tangs and they are just as jumpy as wild caught.

I've been using Instant Ocean since '87. Reef Crystals is a high calcium mix Instant Ocean came out with in the '90's. Like Robb said just about any brand will work. Also the mixes that have enhanced calcium don't usually preclude needing to supplement calcium

Totally deflated and is skeleton now the lights are on. I'm going to watch it late tonight and try to spot feed it some shrimp ~4:00 AM or so. I'll be hungry for a snack then!

Maybe it is a night owl? Did some reading and found this is not uncommon. Was not what I expected as my other inflates with the light schedule and is puffy in the day and a skeleton at night.

I'm considering some red LED strips on a separate circuit so I can observe night time shenanigans.

I'm really curious how this works with your fungia polyps. Red light works for a lot of the higher animals because their eyes do not have the recepters that detect red light. With the fungia though their chlorophyll a and b have absorption peaks in the red spectrum so they may perceive it as daylight. Take pictures!

and somewhere between the surface and the sand.

I think we can all agree on this at least.

Consensus at last!

Here's a photo of a frag of Strawberry Chalice I got from Robin and Dave Pettet about 5 months ago under 14000K MH:

And here's a photo of a similar sized frag of the same coral under BuildMyLED.com Custom Reef and Super Actinic for the same amount of time:

If you want good color out of many "sps" I would go with 8. And I am so glad to see you are not going with T12, it's getting harder and harder to find the bulbs now they are illegal for new residential or commercial installation. I would worry about not being able to find the bulbs at all in a few years.

I've been generally disappointed with chromis. Seems like there's always an aggressive one and I end up with one or that harasses the others so they're not schooling and the only time I had a school was because I ended up with two males that just didn't leave the main group any space.

At best I would say the recommendations I see online are very generalized. Most of the species/variants we keep are adaptable, some are vary adaptable. It's best to see the conditions a prospective coral is grown in (yes that's a plug for keeping Austin weird).

Getting the right spectrum and intensity like Victoly said. A significant difference is the UV in many LED fixtures which seems to promote more green fluorescing protein development and is removed from most MH spectrums I've looked at. A specific example is an A. millipora which was blue under 14000K MH turned green under LED which was similar to 14000K except for the additional UV.

I certainly haven't had problems going skimmerless so I don't feel it's necessary. Considering all the pests that come in on live rock the animal that has by far caused me more grief are BTAs. Your tank is relatively small so you should be able to remove the excess "relatively" easy or if you don't mind ending up with a BTA tank go for it. Someone else here on ARC talked about that last year but I don't remember off hand who it was. Looking forward to watching your tank develop!

I've personally never seen it take over but it is hard to get rid of once it gets ahold, seems like it is using a hold fast that has to be scraped off thoroughly to get rid of it.

Looks like what is colloquially called "turf Algae". It can be a problem if it gets going in a DT since it's unpalatable to most herbivores.

I've never known of any causing problems when they die. Considering how many Bergia nudibranchs have been added to systems there should be some anecdotal reports.

That looks more like detritus or sand had settled on spots long enough to choke the tissue. For partial bleaching I would expect larger areas more like a band in an area that was perpendicular to the light.

I've tried UPS but even though an air pump only pulls a few watts an UPC will only run it for a short time. Something that is designed to run 24 hours or more I think would be much better.

Already flushed it. Thought about it but I was hesitant with it ending up with somebody who wasn't familiar with how invasive it can be.

If I don't like gardening why do I grow animals I need to hold under water while I prune them with bone cutters?

Time to toss some Xenia. This was a single clump of Silver Xenia.

Yes, Montipora capricornis can bleach just like any other coral. I have seen partial bleaching but it's going to be where a coral get's more intense lighting. Areas of a colony that are perpendicular to a new light source will get more light than surfaces that are at an oblique angle and can loose color while the areas at an oblique angle retain their color. If this is what's happened the silver lining is the color loss is mostly because of intensity and much less because of spectrum. As pointed out above you can manipulate intensity by moving or shading your lights. Remember it can take weeks or months or like Victoly pointed out may not ever regain it's original colors.