Vleis Visagie
Be good or be good at it
Joh,
Ek gan bietjie by jou moet kuier, ek kort bietji TAFELSOUT.
Ek gan bietjie by jou moet kuier, ek kort bietji TAFELSOUT.
Joe's 60 cube
- Thread starter Tafelsout
- Start date
Hi 
Not too much to report. Finished a fairly big clean today 120 liter Water change, changed carbon, added some new purigen, blasted the reactor - was a bit clogged, etc.
Next week I need to do a clean of the skimmer and return pump.
New equipment
Picked up the Hanna ULR Phosphorus checker. Been testing PO4 regularly.
Nutrients
After the Vibrant incident, cheato seems to be recovering nicely - @brentch I am not bad mouthing the product
Good product and I will still use it once things stabilise.
Since the last post, I lost 2 nessarius snails and an urchin. This added to another nutrient spike.
To combat this I have been performing larger water changes and dosing more Nopox.
Corals
Same 3 as before still showing signs of distress.
Not too much to report. Finished a fairly big clean today 120 liter Water change, changed carbon, added some new purigen, blasted the reactor - was a bit clogged, etc.
Next week I need to do a clean of the skimmer and return pump.
New equipment
Picked up the Hanna ULR Phosphorus checker. Been testing PO4 regularly.
Nutrients
After the Vibrant incident, cheato seems to be recovering nicely - @brentch I am not bad mouthing the product
Good product and I will still use it once things stabilise.Since the last post, I lost 2 nessarius snails and an urchin. This added to another nutrient spike.
To combat this I have been performing larger water changes and dosing more Nopox.
Corals
Same 3 as before still showing signs of distress.
- Joined
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Looking great @Tafelsout! Yeah I can imagine that stuff destroying chaeto! Corals are looking really good though 
Hi,
Will post an update later. Inspired by @brentch I thought I would also share some of the nasty crap. Just want to point out I think I missed my clean skimmer notification
Anyone know what that is? The texture was very interesting. I could not get myself to do the taste test though
Will post an update later. Inspired by @brentch I thought I would also share some of the nasty crap. Just want to point out I think I missed my clean skimmer notification
Anyone know what that is? The texture was very interesting. I could not get myself to do the taste test though
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As for the update, not too much to report.
Nutrients
Been a bit of a battle lately. So many factors I think that contributed to the spike. I lost my old tuxedo urchin - had it for about 3 years.
Added a number of snails, but only lost 2 cerith snails. I assume there were lost as I can not find any trace of them.
Sad to say this but Vibrant is not friendly to my tank. Prior to the most recent spike, I dosed vibrant again. Limited the dose to 1 ml. I have discontinued using it.
Live stock
With the aim of combating GHA I added a 2nd tuxedo urchin. This one and my old one died
Replaced this with a hairy pin cushion urchin. This one has been doing well.
Added a trochus snail and 6 cerith snails. 2 cerith snails are unaccounted for, so assumed dead.
Added some acropora crabs. These look like a tetralia species. Any thoughts?
These guys are tiny. The one In the pic was about 1cm. The second one I added was about 0.6 cm in size.
Not sure if this is just anecdotal, but the acro this guy lives is is looking happier then ever before. Polyp extention has been insane.
Corals
Nope, no new additions.
Nutrients
Been a bit of a battle lately. So many factors I think that contributed to the spike. I lost my old tuxedo urchin - had it for about 3 years.
Added a number of snails, but only lost 2 cerith snails. I assume there were lost as I can not find any trace of them.
Sad to say this but Vibrant is not friendly to my tank. Prior to the most recent spike, I dosed vibrant again. Limited the dose to 1 ml. I have discontinued using it.
Live stock
With the aim of combating GHA I added a 2nd tuxedo urchin. This one and my old one died
Replaced this with a hairy pin cushion urchin. This one has been doing well.
Added a trochus snail and 6 cerith snails. 2 cerith snails are unaccounted for, so assumed dead.
Added some acropora crabs. These look like a tetralia species. Any thoughts?
These guys are tiny. The one In the pic was about 1cm. The second one I added was about 0.6 cm in size.
Not sure if this is just anecdotal, but the acro this guy lives is is looking happier then ever before. Polyp extention has been insane.
Corals
Nope, no new additions.
Results in huge nutrient spikes. At some stage over the last week i performed a number of water changes, totaling around 140 liters or about 60%. In addition ran phosgaurd and increased nopox dosing to 7 ml per day. All this just helped me keep the spike stable and PO4 and NO3 only started declining from Friday.
It seems to really stunt the cheato. I think vibrant also contains a proprietary strain of bacteria and I am not sure if this strain impact the bacteria I feed with nopox.
In short it really counters what I run as a nutrient control system. It is such a putty though when dosing this stuff the water clarity is just crazy. I also hoped that I would be able to solve my GHA problem.
Looks like a bacterial film? I love finding pockets of gunk and getting it clean, it's therapeutic
Sorry about the vibrant not helping. The corals all look great so sure things are doing well! Very lakker
I thought so too, but the texture was something similar to a sponge.
Thanks Brent. I am happy with them but they can have better colours. This is my 1st full blown sps tank so I hope to get the colouration better as I progress. Also curious to see if the tetralia crabs positively impact the corals they are living in.
Vleis Visagie
Be good or be good at it
Corals still looking leke......
Hi,
1st clean done of my tank in 2 weeks after being hit by COVID.
My GHA is doing brilliantly. Picked up some CUC today to assist with the battle:
1st clean done of my tank in 2 weeks after being hit by COVID.
My GHA is doing brilliantly. Picked up some CUC today to assist with the battle:
- 2 cerith snails (not sure if they specifically eat GHA but know they all round good cleaners)
- Sea hare
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Hi,
"Quick" update.
Equipment
With some corals growing like they get paid to (just joking nothing has hit that stage yet), shadowing is starting to become a real problem.
I really thought the LED and T5 combination would eliminate that. I took the plunge and picked up 2 LED bars (Aqualum 55b units). So far happy with the units. Could not find much info on the units so time will tell.
My ATO died on me Friday night. It was the pump of the kit that died. Picked up the Autoaqua Smart ATO Duo. So far happy with the unit.
Fish
My female anthia got in a fight with another fish (suspect my wrasse). She is still hanging on but unable to swim. Assuming her swim bladder was damaged in the fight. She moves around on the sand and up the corners of the tank. Unfortunately she is not eating either
Nutrients
I have finally got the high nutrients down to something more acceptable.
Now to keep it there
Corals
Nothing much to report here. One new addition. Just know it's some montipora.
A few pics of the existing corals
"Quick" update.
Equipment
With some corals growing like they get paid to
(just joking nothing has hit that stage yet), shadowing is starting to become a real problem.I really thought the LED and T5 combination would eliminate that. I took the plunge and picked up 2 LED bars (Aqualum 55b units). So far happy with the units. Could not find much info on the units so time will tell.
My ATO died on me Friday night. It was the pump of the kit that died. Picked up the Autoaqua Smart ATO Duo. So far happy with the unit.
Fish
My female anthia got in a fight with another fish (suspect my wrasse). She is still hanging on but unable to swim. Assuming her swim bladder was damaged in the fight. She moves around on the sand and up the corners of the tank. Unfortunately she is not eating either
Nutrients
I have finally got the high nutrients down to something more acceptable.
Now to keep it there
Corals
Nothing much to report here. One new addition. Just know it's some montipora.
A few pics of the existing corals
Last edited:
Hi,
No pics today too lazy after cleaning the tank.
Fish
The female anthia that I thought would not make it is still hanging on. Still not swimming but I assume she is eating - not sure anthias last long without food.
Equipment
New LED bars and ATO seem do be doing fine.
After 2 weeks of running the front bar I do not see anything bleaching. After a week of running the back bar I did note some Acropora losing some colour. If it get worse I will run that bar on a timer for a few weeks.
Parameters
Tested my pottasium tonight. Pottasium is sitting at 278 ppm. Some of the corals were showing signs I had during April 2020 when pottasium was low. My hystrix is showing some patchy spots of dead flesh and as my montis are looking rubbish.
No pics today too lazy after cleaning the tank.
Fish
The female anthia that I thought would not make it is still hanging on. Still not swimming but I assume she is eating - not sure anthias last long without food.
Equipment
New LED bars and ATO seem do be doing fine.
After 2 weeks of running the front bar I do not see anything bleaching. After a week of running the back bar I did note some Acropora losing some colour. If it get worse I will run that bar on a timer for a few weeks.
Parameters
Tested my pottasium tonight. Pottasium is sitting at 278 ppm. Some of the corals were showing signs I had during April 2020 when pottasium was low. My hystrix is showing some patchy spots of dead flesh and as my montis are looking rubbish.
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Hi,
Sorry @Seabass , been very busy. Changed jobs recently.
Things went downhill fairly quick since my last post. Lost a few coral. I am still not sure what caused this to be honest.
I lost 3 antheas
all three had the same symptoms. Stopped swimming - remained on a spot with fairly heavy breathing. Each took about 2 weeks to pass away when symptoms started. When the 1st one showed symptoms, I did feed medicated foods to treat internal parasites and infections, but did not help at all.
The one I bought to replace the initial one that died, seems fine. I added this one after that so it's not something she brought into the tank. Considering a lawnmower blenny to help me with my algae issue.
Nutrients are under control again. Slowly brought PO4 and NO3 down. I achieved this by increasing nopox dosing, large water changes and at some point dosing lanthanum. Something here that sunk in on this topic relates to the effectiveness of a water change is not determine by how much you change but by how much you take out at a time - doing a 100 liter Water change means nothing if you take out 20 liters at a time as this amounts to a reduction of parameters/elements at a very low effective rate. If memory serves when changing a 160 (representing about 69% of my tank volume) liter on my tank with me siphoning out 20 liters at a time resulted in a reduction of pollutants/elements at about 40%. The long and the short of it, when doing a water change try and match the input and output in 1 go.
Cheato for some reason no longer survive in my system. I added a large ball of cheato 2 weeks ago. This has shrunk to the size of a golf ball.
I am planning to get a ICP test done in the near future. Not sure if there are some pollutants or heavy metals in the water that caused the problem.
The last thing I investigated were pumps. All I noted here was the my reactor was offline for a few weeks due to the pump being clogged and dirty. Cleaned this and it's running like a champ again. Did note the shaft if completely broken and waiting for a replacement pump - the pump still works but gets stuck sometimes.
I'll post some pics as soon as I have some time to take nice pics of the chaos - record to see how things recover.
Sorry @Seabass , been very busy. Changed jobs recently.
Things went downhill fairly quick since my last post. Lost a few coral. I am still not sure what caused this to be honest.
I lost 3 antheas
all three had the same symptoms. Stopped swimming - remained on a spot with fairly heavy breathing. Each took about 2 weeks to pass away when symptoms started. When the 1st one showed symptoms, I did feed medicated foods to treat internal parasites and infections, but did not help at all.The one I bought to replace the initial one that died, seems fine. I added this one after that so it's not something she brought into the tank. Considering a lawnmower blenny to help me with my algae issue.
Nutrients are under control again. Slowly brought PO4 and NO3 down. I achieved this by increasing nopox dosing, large water changes and at some point dosing lanthanum. Something here that sunk in on this topic relates to the effectiveness of a water change is not determine by how much you change but by how much you take out at a time - doing a 100 liter Water change means nothing if you take out 20 liters at a time as this amounts to a reduction of parameters/elements at a very low effective rate. If memory serves when changing a 160 (representing about 69% of my tank volume) liter on my tank with me siphoning out 20 liters at a time resulted in a reduction of pollutants/elements at about 40%. The long and the short of it, when doing a water change try and match the input and output in 1 go.
Cheato for some reason no longer survive in my system. I added a large ball of cheato 2 weeks ago. This has shrunk to the size of a golf ball.
I am planning to get a ICP test done in the near future. Not sure if there are some pollutants or heavy metals in the water that caused the problem.
The last thing I investigated were pumps. All I noted here was the my reactor was offline for a few weeks due to the pump being clogged and dirty. Cleaned this and it's running like a champ again. Did note the shaft if completely broken and waiting for a replacement pump - the pump still works but gets stuck sometimes.
I'll post some pics as soon as I have some time to take nice pics of the chaos - record to see how things recover.
- Joined
- 11 Jul 2011
- Posts
- 1,680
- Reaction score
- 1,058
Hey @Tafelsout how have things been going? Get to the bottom of the issue?
Also, how have you liked the aqualum LED bars? I need some fill light and these seem to fit the requirements.
Also, how have you liked the aqualum LED bars? I need some fill light and these seem to fit the requirements.
Hi @brentch
So far things have been going well. After the massive water changes things seem better. Still no clue what caused it.
I am back to performing my usual water changes and keeping a close eye on those "canary" corals. At the 1st sign of distress I will take a water sample for the ICP test and then perform huge water changes again. I want to perform the ICP test when whatever the problem is, is present and not when things are doing well.
Something that baffles me is that most corals gave 0 ....... some of these being sensitive species of acro's like donae and tenius.
I am really happy with the LED bars. I personally think that price vs performance and purpose is spot on. No issues thus far with them either. Definitely reach out to ReefCritters about them
However, if I had more space in the canopy, I probably would have gone with Orphek bars. I would not have been able to fit the 60cm bars in my canopy. If memory serves, pricing was fairly close. Last comment, the blue version of the bars are very blue. Reminds me of the maxspect razor blue so just make sure about the spectrum you are looking for.
So far things have been going well. After the massive water changes things seem better. Still no clue what caused it.
I am back to performing my usual water changes and keeping a close eye on those "canary" corals. At the 1st sign of distress I will take a water sample for the ICP test and then perform huge water changes again. I want to perform the ICP test when whatever the problem is, is present and not when things are doing well.
Something that baffles me is that most corals gave 0 ....... some of these being sensitive species of acro's like donae and tenius.
I am really happy with the LED bars. I personally think that price vs performance and purpose is spot on. No issues thus far with them either. Definitely reach out to ReefCritters about them
However, if I had more space in the canopy, I probably would have gone with Orphek bars. I would not have been able to fit the 60cm bars in my canopy. If memory serves, pricing was fairly close. Last comment, the blue version of the bars are very blue. Reminds me of the maxspect razor blue so just make sure about the spectrum you are looking for.