Crap Crap Crap

[intricable]

So, BF and I went on a 11 day vacation to his home state and left the tank to be cared for by his roommate who also has a reef tank. A few weeks beofre we left I had moved my millepora frag to the refugium (easier to direct feed and move about for flow and light and safely removed from the clown). We got back and my millepora is NOT happy. It has gone from a soft peachy pinkish tanish color to straight out brown. We did chemistry tests and nitrates are higher than desirable, so we'll have to do a big water change. Is it the nitrates that are doing this to my millepora or is he pissed about living in the refugium as well?

 

[SkiFletch]

More pissed about the lighting/flow in the refugium likely. So long as calc/alk/mg are in good shape and phosphate is 0, really only lighting and flow is a big deal. I've seen Mille's grow in 40ppm nitrates...

 

[intricable]

Hmm, phosphates you say? I asked the boy about phosphates- we do like 7 tests each time we do chemistry- but I didn't recognize the phosphate one. He told me he ran out of tests for phosphates a little while ago and he hadn't re-ordered. How picky are milleporas to phosphates? what kind of range do they like? I'll go on dr fosters and smith to order a phosphate test kit (and maybe reef bugs too!).

 

[SkiFletch]

Anything over 0.03ppm is too much . So basically if your hobby-level test kit measures any phosphate, you've got too much. It's rarely a problem with users running a refugium (phosphates that is), but should be double checked

 

[intricable]

K, I'll make sure theres no phosphates... I see theres some filtery-type material I can employ to remove phosphates if neccesary. Otherwise, do you think it would be avisable to move mille back to the main tank? part of me thinks this browning thing is from the whole clown hating frags nonsense where he was getting moved around the tank on a daily basis and then getting moved to the refugium. Should I instead leave him in the refugium and if I don't notice any change then move him back? How long should I wait? I've read that milleporas live in very shallow water, so I would expect him to be happy in the refugium, but I don't want to kill the guy in my inexperiencedness. I'm very capable of fusing over something too much that I make matter worse rather than repair- I once gave a pleco from my freshwater tank to the university tank because I thought he was having failure to thrive- he didn't grow for 3 months!- so I don't want to screw up taking care of my first sps.

 

[intricable]

Sorry- few more questions- things I didn't think of until just now-


The refugium will probably be a few degrees lower in temp- problem? perhaps? what temp will my mille like to live in? I've read 80F is a good number.


I've also read that mille's don't like phyto plankton, they like buggy-alive type stuff. Any recommendations on buying another coral food? I direct feed my leathers phytos, and they get rotifers and marine snow when the fishes are fed, but the marine snow is so syrupy that it doesn't work so well for using the pipette with. I really like the concept of "reef bugs", a product on dr. fosters and smith website.

 

[SkiFletch]

Mille's don't need feeding, mine do just fine without it. As for temp, anywhere from say 75-85 is fine. Preventing swings within a day (lights on and lights off) is the key as far as temp goes.

Remember, your refugium likely has significantly less light than the display tank and also likely contains less blue light which coral species prefer for photosynthesis. When in the right conditions a Mille should color up or start to show signs of coloring up within a minimum of 2 weeks. So were I in your shoes, I'd leave him in the refugium for two weeks, if it still doesn't show signs of coming around, back to the main tank.

 

[intricable]

K. Will do. I don't think the tank swings muchs in temp- the heaters are on a controller box that the bf wrote software for (silly engineers)- so that shouldn't be a huge problem. I'm going to bug him about magnesium again, I have a nagging feeling that it could be that. Also, whats strotinium.. stronimun.. stro... whatever its called? I read about it, but don't know if thats something in the kalkwasser or something we should add extra.

 

[SkiFletch]

Stronium is one of those debatable minerals. It is in very low concentration both in seawater AND hard coral skeletons. Certainly MUCH lower than calcium, carbonate, and magnesium (like 100 times lower). As such, it is my personal OPPINION that stronium does not need dosing and can be adequately replaced via waterchanges.

 

[intricable]

Hmm... well I talked to the boyf about all the things that are going on differently in his tank than his roommates flourishing acropora-rich tank (same ro, same house chemicals, same salt, ect). The difference are: BF has water moving out of the tank WAY more than the roommate- half through the refugium, half through the sump/protein skimmer, with the refugium being a relatively new addition. Bf doesn't dose the ridiculous amounts of Kalkwasser that his roommate does, mostly because the tests say its not neccessary, but maybe if he started, the critters would start demanding more. I don't know if thats a logical conclusion, but I'm learning, so I blame illogical conslusions on that. The BF tank is deeper (its a corner tank), the roommates tank is long and more shallow but same gallonage.

The refugium has 50/50 flourescent lights, so we don't think its the blue light deal. I think its the magnesium, I have a feeling its too low and being dosed to quickly (ie, mix magnesium, dump in sump) whereas the kalkwasser has a nice little container with a drip system.

Also, the tank had to be ripped down recently, I hear wierd things happen (weird bacterias you can't test for, ect) when tanks are set up or ripped down and re-set up.

 

[intricable]

Oh, and the refugium now has hard curly-cue purple and white flat snail type things growing on the glass as well as pac-man ghosts shaped dudes and bug looking things with legs that scurry about. What are they? Are they from the fiji mud?

 

[SkiFletch]

Umm not sure, maybe colonista snails and amphipods?