Timfish

Third week stuff.  Water changes are 10-15 gallons twice a week.  Purple Tang is looking a lot less stressed and swimming much better and Xenia is growing well as well as the algae that settles on the glass.

The grey DIY canister filter in the first picture in the first post was moved to the sump after a couple days.  It was refilled with new GFO this week.

Here's the second week.  Some secondary infections are causing issues.  Water changes are going to be reduced 10-15 gallons twice a week.  Anything looking questionable (ie, brown or white slime on corals) is being siphoned off as well as as much nuisance algae as can be done with the given water changes.

These three pics of the system were taken a day after the last three pics in my first post. Comparing the change in turbidity it's a good example how things can change very quickly.

On a daily basis there is subtle but noticible improvements in the expansion of polyps. 

Algae has been wiped off the glass a couple times since the crash but now is growing back with a vengeance.  This is just 3 days of growth.

13 hours ago, ckyuv said:

 . . . I just don’t want to let go of my control yet 😂 . . .

  Like you really have any kind of control of a reef system!!? 

Sorry to hear your loss! :(

Here's a bunch of links for you to check out.   The material will be covered on the semester final.

"Coral Reefs in the Microbial Seas" This video compliments Rohwer's book of the same title (Paper back is ~$20, Kindle is ~$10), both deal with the conflicting roles of the different types of DOC in reef ecosystems.  While there is overlap bewteen his book and the video both have information not covered by the other and together give a broader view of the complex relationships found in reef ecosystems
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-R2BMEfQGjU

Changing Seas -  Mysterious Microbes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c7hsp0dENEA

Microbial view of Coral Decline
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAD26LGERj8

Nitrogen cycling in hte coral holobiont
https://youtu.be/DWItFGRQJL4

BActeria and Sponges
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oLDclO7UcM

Maintenance of Coral Reef Health (refferences at the end)
https://youtu.be/dGIPveFJ_0Q

Optical Feedback Loop in Colorful Coral Bleaching
https://youtu.be/oadKezUYkJE

DNA Sequencing and the Reef Tank Microbiome
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghxVSmLhxUg

Richard Ross  What's up with phosphate"
https://youtu.be/ZRIKW-9d2xI

15 Answers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqTuQDzjlv4

You can hook you RO/DI directly to your sump but it's risky, sooner or later float valves can have issues.  If you do I'd set up a couple different alarms for going off if the water level gets too high and if water actually makes it to the floor.

Over the years I'd say 98% of the pests I've run into have been from other aquarists, not from live rock.  The sponges especially are hugely beneficial for reef ecossytems.  Even if you put rubble like Grog mentioned in your sump the sponges will migrate to your tank.   Once ammonia drops you can start adding easy corals, they'll help mature the system faster by competing against nuisance algae for nutrients.

Initially and periodicly you going to want to get in your tank to siphon algae out so don't be afraid of getting into it.  See these threads on algae control.

http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/34556-hair-algae-a-case-study/?tab=comments#comment-275433
http://www.austinreefclub.com/topic/39043-hair-algae-a-second-case-study/?tab=comments#comment-325744

Looks like a great start to a nice build! 

FWIW I wouldn't bother with filter socks or filter rolls.  FIsh poop is an important part of the carbonate cycle on reefs as well as urea , ammonia and phosphates for corals.  (Good to see you don't have a skimmer on your list )  Be sure to use some maricultured live rock (Gulfliverock, tampa bay or KP aquatics) to get sponges and other stuff that can't be stuck in a bottle. 

Dr. Reefs Quarantined Fish sells conditioned and quarantined fish as well as Biota's captive raised yellow tangs and other fish (Tigerpyges angels are on sale for $1799.99)

I'll put $50 on the galaxia

How did easy did you find installing and using the PARwise app?

Mike, you should be proud of what you accomplished.  One of the things that stands out for me was the high participation rate compared to the bigger forums.  This was especially apparent when the various social media platforms started impacting the forums and ARC kept a higher participation rate and posting rate.  I'm grateful for your friendship, thankful for the opportunity to build such a cool tank for you (been thinking about that design for a couple decades) and honored you chose me to take the reins!  (But don't call me if you ever decide to move that tank!)

They make spring loaded door hinges that will close doors. 😁

What!  You;re feet aren't wet yet?!

I haven't messed with one but since it's pulling 185 watts it's going to generate a fair amount of heat at full power.  Looks like the heat is vented out the ends so it's not blowing down on hte tank.  The light itself will heat the water and corals a bit but your pumps are likely going to be the major source of heat.  If you'r erunning a UV it can add quite a bit also.  CHeapest and easiest way to cool a tank though is with evapoartive cooling and mounting a fan in the stand to lower the heat and himidity in it would be an unobtrusive way to do it.  

Oooooops!

Got 4 tangs in this system and none are easy to get full shots of.  None are particularly shy but when someone is in front of the tank they're each trying to beat everyone else to where food might be. 😏

Here's some current pics:

Two different Pagaoda corals.  The larger brown polyps are Turbinaria peltata.  The smaller green, T. patula.

Yellow tang purchased in 2022

Purple Stylo

Toadstool, there's a couple in this system that are daughter colonies of a wild colony purchased in '97 or '98.  Unlike some others that have been very fast growing these have been pretty slow.  This colony is about 2 decades old.  The mother colony started to decline and died about 10 years ago, but one curious item was the daughter colonies displayed very different behavior from the mother colony.  While the mother colony was "moody" or would often be closed up the daughter colonies would usually be open and on occasion might be closed while the mother was open.

Not very neighborly behavior!   Looks like some nice sponges ans a big tunicate just behind it on the right side.

Could be a curlique anemoe

They can be anchored pretty deep into holes or crevisas.  I try to identify it'd hiding hole and bore inyo iy with a screwdriver and rinse it well ina bucket of saltwater to flush off any remians.

There's a couple species that are found threw out ttemperte and tropical Atlantic, mediteranian and caribbean.  It's rare I get it on live rock, far more likely to get it from other aquarists.

First is an aiptasia, not a majano.  My suspion is it's a different species than the brown one that causes issues in aquaria but best to get rid of it.  (For just one I'd put use a bucket of aquarium water to hold it in and dig it out with a flat blade screwdriver.  The second is sponge and beneficial, looks like two different species, actually.

Sorry to hear about your Coral Beauty. ☹️

Keep in mind it may have had a problem long before you added it to your system.  I've had a several times over the decades when a group of fish ordered at the same time all die about the same time even though they were distributed to different systems. 

Scientists discover cause of Sea Urchin die off in the Caribbean 

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/apr/24/scientists-discover-why-sea-urchins-are-dying-off-from-us-to-the-caribbean

Here's the research paper

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adg3200#sec-3

Depending on the filter they can help alot.  Also, friend of mine has gotten pretty good pics with an aftermarket camera app.

Here's a pic.  Had to play a little with color temp to get it to present the colors it shows in person.  Pic is close but to my eye it's not quite as purple as it looks.