Thanks @mrjantzen I'm sure you could have taught me a thing or two when I was trying set up my bait on the hook, etc. My vision isn't too bad and it was a challenge threading the fishing line into that tiny hole on the hook, so I see what you mean! Seems like flyfishing is quite an art form and some of the flies I've seen are beautiful. Thanks for the well wishes and all the best to you with your tank and other endeavors.
125 Gallon Reef w/ Bean Animal Overflow Build
- Thread starter josho923
- Start date
Thanks @CAPSLOCK The amount of hours, in total, that I spent agonizing about the dottyback and trying to capture him were quite a few, lol. My tank seems to be so much happier and healthier now that he is gone.
I made sure that the accepting party of the dottyback was well aware of the bullying tendencies (the more I read, this seems to be be the common case, rather than the outlier, with the more aggressive dottyback species with attacking anything of similar size and body shape) beforehand. I would never want to "sell someone a bill of goods" when it comes to stuff like this
Definitely a lesson learned for me about really doing research on a fish before choosing to add them to a reef tank. The magenta dotty was an impulse buy as one of my very first saltwater fish 1 1/2 or so years ago (have had planted discus and Altum angel freshwater tanks, etc. for many years). It was sold as a community fish. Now, I read and then read some more about each species and value other people's experience/advice with them before adding any coral, fish, livestock to my reef tank...
I made sure that the accepting party of the dottyback was well aware of the bullying tendencies (the more I read, this seems to be be the common case, rather than the outlier, with the more aggressive dottyback species with attacking anything of similar size and body shape) beforehand. I would never want to "sell someone a bill of goods" when it comes to stuff like this
Definitely a lesson learned for me about really doing research on a fish before choosing to add them to a reef tank. The magenta dotty was an impulse buy as one of my very first saltwater fish 1 1/2 or so years ago (have had planted discus and Altum angel freshwater tanks, etc. for many years). It was sold as a community fish. Now, I read and then read some more about each species and value other people's experience/advice with them before adding any coral, fish, livestock to my reef tank...
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Anybody have advice for slowing dying off SPS (especially Acropora)? Over the last few months, numerous species of SPS that were thriving and growing/spreading quite nicely for a long time began to slowly all die back :-( The fish and other coral species, anemones, etc. are all thriving still. I dose with 2-part and use Reef Crystals for water exchanges. I have ROX/GFO in a reactor but admittedly, I go wayyy too long in between media changes. Interestingly, I had issues with cyanobacteria for quite a while and without any intervention, it starting to slowly die back during the same timeframe that my SPS also started to die off.
Here are my parameters:
Temp: 79-80 F
pH: ranges between 8.2ish-8.4ish in 24-hr period
SG: 1.024-1.025 (salin 32.5 ppt)
calcium: 410-430 ppm during die off (now up to 460 because all the clam and SPS losses; I cut back on my calcium dosing in response to this)
alkalinity: 9-9.5 dKH during die off (now up to 10.5 because all the clam and SPS losses; I cut back on my alk dosing in response to this)
phophorus/phosphate: 0.066/0.20 ppm
nitrates: 0
Seems like my phosphate is way higher than the recommended goal (I use an automatic feeder for my anthias, etc. during the day while I'm at work and may be the main culprit for this; I feed frozen at night). But the strange thing, knock on wood, is that I have zero algae issues! The more I've read about phosphates, it seems like them getting high is not ideal and causes algal blooms, etc., but it seems like maybe the jury is out as to whether it truly kills coral/growth (? inhibits coral skeleton growth?). Is this true or is this maybe what's killing my SPS? I was gonna go change out my ROX/GFO now and cut back on the automatic feeder use. It's so sad to watch all the hard work and money and hardscaping with the SPS frags that had grown beautifully all die off! Thanks in advance and I welcome any thoughts/advice!
Here are my parameters:
Temp: 79-80 F
pH: ranges between 8.2ish-8.4ish in 24-hr period
SG: 1.024-1.025 (salin 32.5 ppt)
calcium: 410-430 ppm during die off (now up to 460 because all the clam and SPS losses; I cut back on my calcium dosing in response to this)
alkalinity: 9-9.5 dKH during die off (now up to 10.5 because all the clam and SPS losses; I cut back on my alk dosing in response to this)
phophorus/phosphate: 0.066/0.20 ppm
nitrates: 0
Seems like my phosphate is way higher than the recommended goal (I use an automatic feeder for my anthias, etc. during the day while I'm at work and may be the main culprit for this; I feed frozen at night). But the strange thing, knock on wood, is that I have zero algae issues! The more I've read about phosphates, it seems like them getting high is not ideal and causes algal blooms, etc., but it seems like maybe the jury is out as to whether it truly kills coral/growth (? inhibits coral skeleton growth?). Is this true or is this maybe what's killing my SPS? I was gonna go change out my ROX/GFO now and cut back on the automatic feeder use. It's so sad to watch all the hard work and money and hardscaping with the SPS frags that had grown beautifully all die off! Thanks in advance and I welcome any thoughts/advice!
