Eckreef

was perusing RC and came across this thread. 2 yr old tank with ZERO coralline Here is an excerpt from the thread: Quote: I use bulkreefsupply 2 part solution and use D&D salt mix with RODI water, I top off with RODI water and do not dose supplements besides the cal/alk/mag. Reply: This is going to sound odd, but I think there's your problem. According to some old-timers with AWESOME coraline growth, coraline algae growth declines with increased 2-part dosing. They hypothesized that it was due to the build-up of NaCl that comes with dosing two-part. This makes perfect sense if you look at the two-part labels again -- you'll see that all of these are mixed with either Na or Cl to make a complete salt (also helps to balance pH). If you dose two-part, it's almost as if you are dosing NaCl and significantly artificially elevating sodium and chloride levels FAR BEYOND what is found in the wild. As further evidence, after hearing their advice, I did not listen and dosed 2-part every day. After approximately 6 months almost all of my coraline was gone. Don't get me wrong, I think BRS 2-part helps corals grow and I think Ryan @ BRS is awesome and a genius for coming up with 2-part. My suggestion: quit 2-part for 6 months and do a massive water change. Then continue to do water changes when your calcium gets low instead of dosing. You may slow your sps growth, but I think you'll see a huge change in your coraline growth. Best of luck! p.s. you may have to re-seed your tank with fresh LR for coraline to be active again. This got me to thinking. I have had a 40g breeder with 6x39W T5 setup for almost 6 months now and have seen almost no coralline growth and in fact the existing coralline on the LR has completely faded. I have been dosing 2 part and Kalk for almost 4 months and all my parameters have been in the normal range. Anyone else have this experience. Great coralline growth with 2 part?

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I would like to go 50/50 on a box of reagents. Thanks again for organizing this Mark.

Mark, Count me in for one. Just let me know how to pay you. John

http://www.oregonreef.com/sub_worm.htm Check out the above link

Excellent plan! Good luck and God Speed. I have nearly a full bottle of flatworm exit if you would like to borrow it.

I recently used flatworm exit with good results... at least as far as getting rid of the flatworms were concerned. I have not seen a flatworm in over a month. Definitely treat them before they get out of control. IME..if you are seeing 50-100 then you have thousands in your tank. Within a minute of treating my tank with Flatworm exit I had a sandstorm of flatworms. I had tried to suction out all that I could see but there were literally thousands hiding in the rock. The dying flatworms release a toxin that is harmful to your tank so wet skim and use carbon and have big water changes ready. flatworm exit is not harmful itself to the tank inhabitants so treat while the numbers are small. I did not lose any fish or softies but did lose most of my SPS frags and my frogspawn is still recovering. I bought it from marine depot. I think aquatek carries it though. Just my experience...

Will the super glue technique work well for ricordea as well?

What type of overflow drain do you have. The noise is usually due to several reasons. If the water is falling to far in the overflow box then that makes a lot of noise. You should have the water level inside the overflow set at less than an inch to avoid this. Also the type of oveflow matters. If they draw in too much air then it will make a lot of noise. Check out the hofer gurgle buster for an easy and quiet solution Stockman and durso's are also an option but the HGB worked best for me. Post of pic of your overflow so we can help

I have been dealing with microbubbles and loud tank noise for the last 3 months I redid my sump which eliminated the microbubbles but the gurgling was even worse. I could hear my tank which is located in a front office all the way in the back bedroom of the house. I had a DIY durso with an air valve but could never get it fine tuned enough to be quiet. I tried a HGB today since I figured I had nothing to lose but time. Spent less than $3 at Lowes. OMG!!! Took me less than 20 minutes to make and only minutes to fine tune. My overflow is now SILENT!!!! If you are struggling with a loud overflow then I strongly recommend you give the HGB a try. http://home.everestkc.net/jrobertson57268/HGB/HGB_construction.html Just an FYI but I have no affiliation with Hofer and received nothing for the above endorsement

Oh and Dave...I have been following your blog. That is one of the other reasons I decided to treat my tank.

It is definitely flatworms. Interestly the skimmer has not been producing as much as usual the last few days but good suggestion...I will adjust it to skim wet for a while.

So here is my story. About 6 weeks ago i got a frag and noticed a small red spot on the base when putting it into my tank. Didn't think much of it at the time until I noticed several more red spots a few days later and they were slowly moving. Low and behold they were red flatworms. I tried siphoning and a 6 line wrasse but after 6 weeks they were taking over the tank but thankfully not causing any damage. Due to this plague I have now "officially" learned my lesson on dipping corals. I have been reluctant to use any medication on my reef but after reading multiple good reviews on Salifert's flatworm exit I reluctantly decided to give it a try. I siphoned out as many flatworms as I could see and dosed the tank appropriately. Within minutes I had a flatworm snowstorm that was impressive. Literally thousands appeared from every nook and cranny. Based on my reading the medication is not harmful to the other reef inhabits but the toxin released from the dying flatworms is. I continued to siphon flatworms for the next hour and had a filter pad in the sump that caught a lot. I ran a TLF canister with GAC the whole time to try to remove the toxin. I have continued to run carbon and did a 20% water change after 5 hours. Now for my problem...the medication seems to have worked great however my inhabitants are not happy. The fish are fine. All my SPS, Acans, favia, ricordea look ok with good color but have not had any polyp extension for 2 days. My frogspawn really gave me a scare yesterday as it looked like it was melting. It released a slime that looked like white cotton candy (no the brown jelly thankfully). I immediately placed it in a QT tank and siphoned off the slim. It still has tentacles though they have been severely retracted. I also did a 10% water change with the water I had on hand. I placed the frogspawn back in the DT today and it is looking like it will pull through but still very retracted. I will do another 20% water change tonight. All measurable parameters are fine (pH, S.G. Alk, Ca, Mg, and NH4, NO3, NO2 and phosphates are all zero) Now what? I assume I just ride it out...was wondering if anyone has any other suggestions or similar experiences. I have several cups of carbon in the reactor and it was new 2 days ago. Would replacing it make a difference? Thanks, John

Dave, It is a standard 20 gallon long which I beleive is 30x12x12. Southside has dibs but if it falls through then I will let you know. John

I upgraded my sump recently and have a 20g long with baffles already installed. It needs cleaning but works good. The baffles are siliconed in place and can easily be removed or modified. $30

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+2 for Misti at Sea Clearly. You can reach her at 512-600-4779 I used her recently when I was gone for a week of vacation. I had a friend come feed the tank a couple of times and had her come midweek just to check on everything (an experienced eye) and ensure that everything was running properly. My neighbor that comes and feeds the fish always points to some of my SPS and asks "now...is this really alive".

definitely a bristle worm. They are a good part the cleanup crew and benifical as long as they don't get terribly big.

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Great Pix! What kind of camera setup are you using?

Yes. i can access my apex at home just fine using both my computer's web browser and aquanotes on my iPhone. I cannot access the apex from abroad. I need to setup "port forwarding" but need to figure out how to do this on a mac. Eck