Greg's 75g

[Bblinks]

Think it's time to make a trip to my house again my friend....

[gregzz4]

Originally Posted by Bblinks

Think it's time to make a trip to my house again my friend....

Possibly, yah, Thank you
But I'm going to hold off getting any more corals until things turn around

[gregzz4]

Sorry, no pics this time around, just a long-winded post

I swear our new wrasses would eat 24/7 if I let 'em

I'm very happy with how hungry they are, and all 4 of them eat everything;
Mysis, brine, cyclopeeze, NLS pellets, freeze-dried ocean plankton

Never in my life have I ever seen a fish try to crack open a plankton before, or any food for that matter
The little Coris grabbed a plankton and started 'whacking' it against the UV pump and then the surface skimmer
I have been told it's how they crack open 'verts, but I'd never seen it 'till now and was so surprised, especially from a fish who is only an inch long

In the wrasse QT I went through a small NH3 battle, but it was easy enough, and nobody suffered. I used some Am Guard and kept up with the Stability. The Seachem Ammo Alert is very useful. If you don't use one, consider it ...
Currently there's no NH3, about 5 NO2 and 1 NO3
I'd say it's coming along nicely

I started a 4 week Hypo treatment 2 days ago as there is definately some MI on the McCosker's, so it's going to be another 6 weeks or so before these guys hit the DT, possibly 8 weeks
I'll probably go 8 weeks as there's no point in risking the DT for a simple 2 weeks of extra monitoring

I cooked up a pound of baking soda and am glad I did so. Last time I did Hypo, I had no problems with the pH staying above 7.8, but this time, with this many dirty fish, I've had to start adding some of the sodium carbonate to keep the pH above 7.8
It dropped to 7.78 when I stopped the drop, and will now be adding it when needed to keep it closer to 7.9 or 8.0
So, that's about it for the QT



The DT has some other issues, and if you've noticed my post about my acans, you'll know that I've had some bleaching SPS and receding Acans

It's curious how, when you aren't used to keeping SW, you look at your corals over time and don't realise how much they've changed, unless you look at older pictures

Turns out I haven't been feeding the tank enough, so the corals have suffered
With zero NO3 and PO4, the corals have expelled their zoo and started bleaching due to my intense 8xT5 fixture
I've cut my lighting back, started feeding the fish twice as much, and have also started feeding the corals with coral frenzy and coral vitalizer, and phyto for the tank
Not all at once, or daily, but slowly added and will boost it up over time while I watch what happens

It was suggested that my Potassium could be low, so I bought a kit
I'm between 3-400ppm, so that can't be it

It was also suggested that I raise my Alk from 7 to as much as 8, so I've upped my dosing of both the Alk and Ca. I'd like to see my Alk at about 8 and my Ca around 420

I'd also changed my WC schedule from 7-10 days, to 14 days, in the hopes of raising my non-existent NO3 and PO4
This raised a suggestion from one I trust, who told me to heavily feed the corals once a week, and then do a 10% WC the next day. And do this every week
I'm going to go with this idea as it makes the most sense to get the corals fed and export the waste
So, I'm going back to my 7-10 day WC routine, even though I was happy with the lower salt usage

One other suggested I remove my GFO and Carbon reactors for a bit, but I am hesitant to do so as I'll surely see a HA, or some other, algae bloom if I do so
I also don't want to change too many things at once as there is already enough to keep an eye on as it is

Well, that's about it for now
Thanks for reading

OK, lets have a pic, just 'cause
Web pic ( obviously not in my tank )

[gregzz4]

So I had this totally original idea. I put some travertine in the QT to cut down on reflections and it appears the fish like it
I know it looks kinda bright in the pic, but it has cut down on glare when I look top down



The wrasses are doing very well while in Hypo. They are eating pellets and mysis, and the orange-back and mccosker's even eat nori



Who, me ? Nooo, it wasn't me

[ensquire]

I picked one of those beauties up in Edmonton last week. Gorgeous fish.

[Kryptic4L]

<3 the purple and yellow one. What a stud

[lastlight]

yeah that fish is a stunner!

LOVE the garbage bag background btw =)

[gregzz4]

Yup, that Orange-back is a beauty, and what character too

Glad you like the backdrop Brett. It's another Greg original
I think I already mentioned that Albert suggested I try to subdue the tank a bit to keep stress levels down

Over the last 2 days, the McCosker's has taken to swimming without using his tail fin and goes to the surface quite a bit
He's still active and eating well, no stringy poops, no body marks
Just suddenly started this
I'm hoping it's a bacterial infection from the new coris that will be easily treated

There's lots of aeration from the AC50 and HOB UV return, ammo and nitrites are 0 and nitrates are almost nil
I can't find anything wrong with the params or equipment, so it's onto meds
Last night I tried to re-calibrate the pH probe and broke it
Today I grabbed a new probe and some API E.M. Erythromycin
If you've been following along, you'll know that the wrasses have already gone through a round of Maracyn-Two, so now I'll try some gram positive medication
And if you know me, you'll know I hate using meds, but when something is kinda obvious I'll be the first to use it
I'm currently waiting for some 1.008 water to come up to temp before I add the meds to the QT, just in case someone freaks out

Hopefully the dude pulls through - I really like him
Wish us luck !

[gregzz4]

Update time

We lost our McCosker's wrasse Looks like it was possibly cyanide poisoning/capture methods
He went all weird for a few days and then he was gone

Corals are starting to look better

Bought an iPhone5, so here's a FTS - washed out as I turned all 8 bulbs on
Next time I'll get a pic with half lighting

[lastlight]

that gorg has some incredible polyp extension. can you post a closer shot? are you feeding any gorg specific food to the tank?