Taylorhardy1

How much? 

I have a magnifying glass I normally inspect everything with. I'm not quite sure where they came from. Current living situation just doesn't allow time, or space for a quarantine tank. I always dip my new acros and sps in heavily concentrated Bayer dips. Then inspect for eggs, and any other pests. I know I should quarantine, and I plan on it in the future once I'm in a position where I have the space and time for it. As of right now I'm kinda looking for just good management methods to keep everything somewhat happy and alive until I can move to quarantine. Then it will be geared towards eradication.

4 minutes ago, albertareef said:

Sorry I don’t have any great advice to give you Taylor but hoping you pull as many through as possible - I know you accumulated a pretty nice collection before the AEFW hit.  Good luck!

It seems like most are actually pulling through fairly decently. The worst piece they took out quickly was my homewrecker. That one hurt. Annoyingly enough they're entirely uninterested in my low $$ tenius. I still tracked down, and added a few really nice acros that Ive wanted for a while and couldn't miss out on. Most things, aside from my torts and valida I think are actually doing alright it seems. Been buying cheap acro frags lately just to keep the addiction fed, and the heartbreak from losing my homewrecker to a minimum so hopefully at the very least the cheap frags I've been buying keep the fw off the rest of my higher end acros..  

Unfortunately I'm moving in the next month, so a quarantine right now would just make the move even more difficult haha. 

As some of you know, I've recently found myself living the worst nightmare of an acro lover. I have already lost my favorite teal/rainbow tenius colony to it, and a homewrecker frag I put in literally a day before I found the flatworms.😭 Now they've spread to heavily attacking my tri color valida, and torts. They don't seem to touch anything that has longer pe, which thankfully most all of my acros have. I have so many pieces encrusted to rocks now that even dipping is tough, and a quarantine at this point just isn't in the cards. Anyways, my current methods at brutally murdering these terrible little bastards.

1-the natural approach: I have a yellow corris wrasse, and a possum wrasse (I don't think the possum touches them though) as well as blowing all of my acros and surrounding corals off with a turkey baster or powerhead every other day. Would be interested to hear of other approaches on this front.

2- Bayer dips every 6 days: I love this approach, and I hate it. I have almost 30 different acros still, so this process takes me hours. But I enjoy knowing hundreds die everytime I do this. I'm trying to reduce cross contamination by dipping and rinsing the infected corals in different containers than the pieces that still look healthy, with great pe, and no bite marks. Mostly just to find which corals they're attacking the most. Usually don't see any flatworms on any acros other than the ones that are clearly infected. When I do it's only 1 or 2. I also inspect for, and scrape egg clusters during this process. The acros I have encrusted to rock also get dipped to the edge of encrusted tissue, and rinsed thoroughly after. 

3- keeping the corals as happy as possible, and water stability. This one has been tough. With so many angry acros my alk consumption has been all over the place and quite difficult to keep in line. However Ive been able to minimize fluctuations by just manual dosing, and daily testing. After dipping corals and rocks go back to as close to their original spot as possible. 

Is there any other approaches I can take short of a full blown qt? Ideally I'd like to reduce the frequency of dips, but I'm still finding so many after dips I'm actually considering increasing the dip frequency currently... 

48 minutes ago, cjmdh said:

OK, they are both the same kind but don't look like it in the pictures.

I already have a very similar shroom, but I'd be happy with either piece! 

I want the zoas! I can throw you a frag in return for them as well if you wanted.

Share the love. 

Nice pieces! That PC rainbow grows like a weed. I got a nice multi branch frag from cnc a few weeks ago, and even while fending off aefw, weekly dips, and multiple bastings throughout the week, each branch has grown 1/4"-1/2", and it's very well encrusted Hahah. 

7 hours ago, youcallmenny said:

Poker Star and Rainbow are my favorites so far.  JF Burning Banana is my all time favorite but I've never come across a frag of it.  Going to snap that up in a hurry when the day comes though!

I saw a few frags of burning banana at paradise corals while I was there yesterday. Could be worth checking out!

Are the front/side panes scratched? 

I have a few pieces Ive been meaning to clear out. Though Im currently fighting aefw so would only recommend to someone with no acros, or a well equipped quarantine, or at least a good dip regimend. Have a 2 head purple tipped hammer, 5 head frogspawn, a green/blue polyp monti cap, and some good ol green cap chunks, and a tri color valida that's definitely been nibbled on by an aefw or 3, just has some bite marks, has atleast 98% tissue. Not sure if I still have the aefws, but the required weekly dips, and transfer to qt definitely isnt making it too happy. Have a few other random pieces laying in my tank as well. 

53 minutes ago, ChrisQ said:

The problem that i may have with my truck i was told it might be the fuel pump or the fuel pump relay. I really need someone to tell me what is actually the issue so i can order the parts and try and get it back on the road, being that it doesn't run at the moment i cant get it to a shop very easy.

Yeah man that's definitely something I could look at! I'll shoot you a pm, and we can go from there. 

No matter what corals or fish you're keeping you should monitor nutrients, and elements in my opinion. Then again, I've kept hard corals since I got back into the hobby. Your alkalinity can and will effect ph, phosphates, and many other factors. Your alkalinity can be reduced by those same factors, and many many more. Id say a basic test kit should be ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, alk, cal, and Mag. P04 should be monitored, but it's not as relevant to soft corals as it is to sps. 

Hi everyone! Just wanted to offer my services to you all here. I work on cars for a living. I've been doing it professionally for 5 years now, and have been turning wrenches for as far back as I can remember. I've worked on a few members cars now, but I am looking to expand my business and continue growing my customer base in order to open a larger shop, and truly make this my career and impact on the auto repair industry. I specialize in earlier obd2 VAG cars specifically 96+ vw, Audi, Mercedes, Porsche's, and many other European makes, though I have experience in most everything ranging from Ferrari and Lamborghini racecars, to Diesel Hino 268 box trucks. I have great parts resources, and I don't ask for the 250% upcharge on parts like most shops. I warranty all of my work, as any reputable mechanic or shop should. I try to be as competitive, and fair as possible when it comes to labor rates. I've even traded work for reef equipment, and corals in the past. Best of all I can even come to you! Shoot me a message if you need anything done on your car, and we can figure out an attack plan and go from there!

I dose 3ml a day to keep stability in my 93 cube. But alot of things use magnesium, including coraline algae.

Well, my worst nightmare has become reality and I have aefw. I'm gonna be setting up a qt for all of my acros, and other sps just to be safe tomorrow. But I need some equipment to get things going smoothly for the next little while. Getting really busy with work, and was hoping to let my system cruise on autopilot for a while.. Gonna have to update some equipment for the qt, and the display. Im currently looking for-

Protein skimmer: something reliable, and easy to maintain rated for atleast 200g

Return pump: jebao dct12000 or 15000 preferred. Open to other quiet pumps. 

Wavemakers/powerheads

24w/24" blue+ or similar t5 bulbs

Reliable dosing pumps

Fuge light 

Any acros? 

You could benefit from more of a bioload on your tank, and bringing your alk back below 10. As far as overdosing nutrients, yes it can definitely cause algae issues, but if you stay within an acceptable range on the Redfield ratio you could have really high nutrients, and alk at 12, and have no algae issues, great growth, and coloration. I'd double your acropower dosing, and feed more. I've even dumped skimmate back into my sump before when nutrients dipped a bit low. Now would be a great excuse to add another fish or two to help add to that bioload as well. Get your nutrients detectable, and cut back on alk dosing, and then things should all balance out. 

2 minutes ago, Optimusprime3605 said:

I feed 6 to 8 cubes a day, I'd think that would be sufficient enough for nitrates. I also, started dosing Acro power 2 weeks ago to raise nitrates.

Sent from my man cave while drinking Coronas at Holly's
 

Dose more, feed more. My acros show their best colors with n03 at 5, and p04 at .04, alk 8.2. Your nitrates and phosphate feed the symbiotic algae in sps skin. How do your zoas, and other softies/lps look? 

Your alk is really high for undetectable nutrients. Probably alk burn.

What's your phos, nitrate, and alk at? 

Do you mean white growth tips? 

I just have a tough time vacuuming and maintaining a sandbed covered mostly in corals, so I never maintained it. I figured a few dozen nassarius snails, a sand sifting starfish, and an eel that's constantly stirring sand would have prevented this issue, but I guess I was wrong. I do run a 2000gph return pump, 2 rw8s at 80% power on the w2 setting, and a hydor gen 3 sweeping the back of my rock structure ran in 45 minute intervals. So I definitely don't think I particularly have a low flow issue. However I have come across some very apparent deadzones through my sandbed that I had no idea existed though. Seems as though the detritus built up in small sections, and just created massive problems. Im gonna try out bare bottom and see how I end up liking it. I figure bare bottom will help make moving the tank much easier in a few months as well. 

My biggest issue was with how low nutrients had gotten. I stopped vodka dosing very early on with this battle. I was getting near the same results as I would with freshly mixed water, and my corals were turning extremely pastel. Having roughly 4 dozen+ species of corals I'm trying my hardest to keep everything happy and alive. When I was heavily feeding to counter the low nutrients, it actually seemed to stunt the cyanos growth for a short period of time, and seemed to leave a positive impact on the corals. As of today I've been able to cut back on feedings, and Ive gotten down to about 1" of sand. The cyano is still very apparent within my system, but I almost feel like I've been able to watch it recede with the more sand I remove. My prized teal tenius colony began to stn/rtn at some point earlier this week, and I had to chop it all up into frags. Hoping all pieces pull through and heal and I can get a good restart on a patchwork colony. The rest of my corals are looking much much better though. My nitrates/phos are once again detectable, and seem to be starting to fall back within the Redfield ratio. Ideally I'd like nitrates at 5, and phos 0.03-0.05. Currently Nitrates are at 10, and phos is at .03. Getting there, but it's definitely been a process. Going to siphon out as much additional sand as I can get with another 10%wc today. I've also stopped dosing everything for the time being, considering I've been doing small daily waterchanges, just enough to keep stability in major elements. Feeding has been cut back to every other day, and my light intensity/ duration has been reduced as well. Hoping to be able to quickly find a good balance once this issue is gone, then kind-of just let my system run on auto pilot for a while. This much maintainence, fighting this ridiculous issue is beginning to burn me out. 😴