Manny

Put me on your waiting list


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I'm pretty sure Manny is somehow to blame!

Once you catch it, document it for posterity!

No, no ability to evaporate. I was just thinking that maybe it wasn't mixed enough and kind of settled into a hyperconcentrated layer, although your point is well taken. You would think that there would be a gradual increase instead of a quantum leap at the end of the container. I'll turn my dosing back on tomorrow once it gets back down where i like it and see how a days worth of dosing affects the tank.

I still owe mckenna, by proxy of you, some cyphastrea. Once my work schedule clears up a bit, I'll meet you at the asian market and we can do noodles, alk and frags.

Super excited

That's a shame Manny. I'll be happy to give you 2 frags for everytime you've bought coral from me directly. [emoji57]

. . . ummm. . . . people. My SPS have all died over the last few minutes while I caught up on my mentors page here. Seems they had a massive heart attack and all died. Can I have free frags too? I mean if you are all being generous and all. . . .

Sadly I have no par mapping and a meter isn't in the budget right now. Naturally distance makes renting one from an Austin Lfs kind of impractical

I can lend you my par meter for as long as you need

I meant frags from other systems that are LED to his Manny but thanks for the clarification.

I'd personally let it get back down to their comfort range for the alk as long as it's not dropping too fast. I'd also stop any additional dosing, feeding, and get back to the basics before there were issues.

You've kept SPS long enough to know that what you're really seeing now is the delayed effect of the alk spike prior so I'll only mention for others that are reading along.

Another thing not often looked at is the light shock from going from LEDs and predominantly lit 20k tanks to your 10k lighting.

When I ran a 10k frag setup, I'd see similar issues of some frags not acclimating well to the change of spectrum which is why I stopped running 10k in my frag system.

One question, are Sam's frags you just got affected?

Sascha, if I may, I have watched you talk about an apex for a while now. I have seen you post that you are saving up for one and then that you are selling coral to save up for the apex. I saw you post somewhere where a debate, for lack of a better term, was going on and you were set on an apex. Now I don't own an apex but it is in my future. As having seen your previous comments I would advise against the reef Angel. Only due to the fact that you have been so set on an apex and this would be your settling for a RA. I think it better to hold off a tad bit more, keep watering those pennies of yours and wait for them to grow just a little bit taller. I just hate seeing when,someone settles for something and then is unsatisfied months down the road and say "I should have waited". Totally objective though.

You're right Manny. I can appreciate an honest opinion. I have been debating with myself and fighting the necessity for a controller for a long time. Over the last year or so I thought it was between Apex and Reef Keeper. That's it. I probably would have gone with the RK long ago if the reviews weren't so bad. There are few things in this world that get to me more than feeling like I've wasted money. That left only one option, but the price tag is more than I can justify spending for what I am going to use the controller for. Part of me is just looking for a substantial reason to pull the trigger and just never found one. About a month or two ago I heard about the Reef Angel and started to research that one. The reviews are shockingly good on every website, much like the Apex. I'm not a tech wizard and I didn't delve too deeply into the mechanics, so they look near identical to me. The main difference is that the Apex is $700 for the unit and all of the modules I need while the Reef Angel is $400. The price minus the gift cards I won would bring me into the acceptable range of what I think the controller functions are worth. Truthfully, I still don't think I need a controller. The reason I want one is because my pH monitor went down and I need something to keep the calcium reactor stable. Right now it swings too much. I'm going to have to buy a pH monitor anyway for somewhere between $125-200 so I may as well spend the extra $200ish and get the controller.

Sascha, if I may, I have watched you talk about an apex for a while now. I have seen you post that you are saving up for one and then that you are selling coral to save up for the apex. I saw you post somewhere where a debate, for lack of a better term, was going on and you were set on an apex. Now I don't own an apex but it is in my future. As having seen your previous comments I would advise against the reef Angel. Only due to the fact that you have been so set on an apex and this would be your settling for a RA. I think it better to hold off a tad bit more, keep watering those pennies of yours and wait for them to grow just a little bit taller. I just hate seeing when,someone settles for something and then is unsatisfied months down the road and say "I should have waited". Totally objective though.

Haha dude you're in the future. Today is only the 27th of January 2015.

I do run an overrated skimmer. It could have been that the dino was just about to for our when I started NOPOX and I accept that. But there it's a small chance that out helped. Anyhow, sorry to correct you on this but NOPOX actually does not have any vodka.

It helped for me.

Hey so I am not saying this is fact but I started using NOPOX 4 days ago. I had a thick dino film all over my sand bed and after day 1 of NOPOX I noticed it diminished dramatically. Each day I use it reduces how thick it is. 4 days later it is virtually non existing. If you have the same results we might be on to a breakthrough here. I would try it. It cost about $15.

Did you use peroxide during the 3days darkness?

Doesnt show this on my laptop

I did take pictures but have since upgraded phone.

Hey Sascha sorry for the late reply. However, everyone seems to have touched up on several key points to defeating this. I am not at all familiar with nvrenufs method. I did get a dino outbreak a few months ago and I was able to defeat it fairly quickly. I did a lot of research on the subject and was able to filter out the advice on forums that made no sense and used what I thought was best and made sense. Here's my recommendations:

First do absolutely uses H2O2. I removed several samples of dino from my aquarium and transported it to the lab. There I, with an experienced biologist who is also a biology instructor, dove into figuring this thing out. Out of the 10 samples I took to the lab 100% of them were eradicated with peroxide. I used different amounts of peroxide on each sample and still every sample died. But we used peroxide as the last experiment. First we cover them in a box and starve them from light. 70% of the samples seemed to have died but then when we hit them with a 48 hour photoperiod 3 of those 7 still came back. we were purposely trying to get them to come back to prove whether or not they were actually dead or just dormant. This disproved a common misconception that dinoflagellates are only photosynthetic. They are actually mixotrophic meaning that while they get most of their nutrition from light they can also feed off of the trace elements in the water and survive long periods without light before truly dying out. So while lights out helps tremendously, it doesn't get rid of them completely. So dose peroxide. The general consensus seems to be 1 ml per 10 gallons. I actually did .2 ml in a ten gallon sample and had the same results. I would still recommend 1 ml per 10 gallon though because that is what I used at home in my reef tank and it worked. Dinoflagellates are really bad for the aquarium. Even in the wild they wreak havoc. You can see the effects if you google red tide. They will take out your snails and coral if allowed to. Your snails will be first to go. I lost a lot of my snails during that period.

At the same time I would also do a 3 day blackout period. Might as well attack this full force.I wouldn't do more than one period a month because your coral will start showing signs of stress. During the 3 days make sure you are dosing H2O2. You can break the dosages down like Ty did but it is not necessary. I did mine all at once. It is better to do it when the dino's seem to be less visible. During the day they seem to get really thick and the peroxide doesn't seem as effective. If you combine these two after the 3 days the dino's will seem to be gone. Don't stop dosing peroxide. Do this for at least 2 weeks to ensure you are battling any remains of it still. I wouldn't do it for longer than 2 weeks for fear of damaging my sps. They don't take well to H2O2. So if you need to dose for longer than 2 weeks make sure to give it a week break between.

As the days go by you will notice a ton of bubble trying to form all over the aquarium but more so on the rocks. 3-4 times a day I would go in there with a turkey baster and blow all the bubbles off. They seem to stick together all the way down the overflow. Do not allow these to build up. It seemed to me that these bubble were toxic but that was just speculation. Once they build up enough they start turning red and slimy and eventually get stringy and start suffocating the coral. If you see them starting to build up on coral make sure to blow them off as well. If you see red patches of dino on the sandbed blow those around with the turkey baster as well so they can go down the overflow. once they go down the overflow, I don't see them make their way back up to the DT. I don't even see them in the refugium so that makes me assume they aren't making it past the skimmer. I would stir up the sandbed slightly each day and try to get it to float around and into the overflow or bury it in the sandbed. Don't bury too much though or mix the sandbed too much. You don't need a nitrate spike. This takes a lot of effort on your part. I wouldn't worry about pulling the rocks out if you are blasting them with a turkey baster daily.

You need to also scrape it off the glass. It gets really thick on the back glass and becomes easy to overlook. Please do not let it grow on the glass. Scrape it off as soon as it becomes visible and let it go down the overflow.

Stop doing water changes. Water changes replenish trace elements. Remember that dino's not only feed on light but can live on trace elements as well. Most people report seeing them multiply right after a water change so while you are battling them, try to avoid water changes unless absolutely necessary.

I never actually reduced my photoperiod. It didn't seem necessary. Now, the dino's were not completely eradicated in my aquarium. They went away for several months but seem to be trying to make a comeback. I noticed it early on this time. First signs of it were multiple bubbles all over the rocks. Next the snails started behaving lethargic. It is important to identify it early on. You want to hit it with the blackout as soon as you see come back and dose peroxide. I chose not to do a blackout this time because when I do my anemone goes crazy and I don't need it sitting on my sps. I have followed all of the other steps though and have kept them at bay. It is taking longer to defeat them this time around but they have not multiplied any and havent even bothered my coral. I am not worried about them. I feel I am already winning the battle with all the other steps.

From everything I wrote, if I had to choose one step and call it the most important I would say the peroxide is the most important. This is not set in stone and is based off my experience with it in my aquarium and in the lab. I wish some million dollar company would spend some money and provide us with an actual scientific experiment to figure out whether or not the peroxide helps. But for now I will go with what has worked for me. Your zoas will be mad but they will get over it 5 minutes later.

I hope this helps. I feel like I am leaving so much out but if I remember anything else I will be sure to let you know.

pH Meters can be had cheap. A pH controller is the more expensive item. Just mentioning in case you guys are talking about two different things.

Can you explain to me exactly what a goofball is sir? Lol

How do I vote?

Thank you for bumping the bump.

My sand sifting goby won't even sift the sand.

I'm going to have to take a similar approach as yours for documenting my own progress on my build. Keep the pictures coming.