Scott's 270g aka Project Mayhem

Scythanith · Aug 3, 2019

So long story short ad a meltdown in the system around February. Slow, methodical death and recession in SPS. No pests identified. I let it play itself out and now I am back to growing stages but have a clove issue I am going to use Panacur to deal with. Wish me luck lol!

Tahoe61 · Aug 3, 2019

You got this.

Hope you are able to keep some of those sps.

If you had to make a guess what do thinkcaused the melt down?

Scythanith · Aug 10, 2019

Thanks Tahoe, I'm not throwing in the towel by any means. Mostly just didn't want to overreact and cause even more damage. The only things I really lost (meaning no frags left) were the acrolandia and the Walt Disney. The home wrecker, rainbow loom, space invader, OG bounce, etc all survived and are back to growing.

I have a clove outbreak now and am going to start dosing the tank with fenbendazole to nip that in the bud. Once that's cleaned up I will get back to manicuring the tank and getting some new residents growing healthy and happy.

If I had to guess I'd say some alkalinity swings caused by the SPS to stop growing suddenly. They weren't showing damage, just stopped growing. Then the alk and ca did their thing and as much as I tried to adjust I just ended up chasing my tail. Then I could see the recession beginning and started doing ~60g water changes weekly thinking enough of those would force the water to correct itself but nope. Couldn't get it stable so I simply stepped away for 6 months. Things are now growing. Weird.

Scythanith · Sep 12, 2019

I'm 24 hours into the Fenbendazole treatment, wish me luck lol!

Wrangy · Sep 12, 2019

Fingers and toes crossed for you mate!!

Scythanith · Sep 14, 2019

Immediately after adding the fenbendazole.

15 minutes later.

24 hours later.

Scythanith · Sep 14, 2019

64 hours later. Current appearance.

Some sections are starting to get a stringy texture.

Scythanith · Sep 15, 2019

Just tried to vacuum the matt off of the rocks. It still won't come off without a fight. I did a 40g water change and started the skimmer, still no carbon though, I don't want to take the medicine out of the water.

Scythanith · Sep 17, 2019

5 days in. Bristle worms are dying off now. No other secondary death that I can tell. May take longer for the more complex organisms to show the effects of the medication.

Sorry about the crappy white balance.

Really starting to get thin now! Corals are just over exposed, not bleached lol

Scythanith · Nov 24, 2019

Tank is completely clear of cloves. Had some algae outbreaks as expected. Still cleaning that up but way better! 100% happy with the treatment.

Scythanith · Dec 14, 2019

Just going to refresh my CUC. Most of it was toasted by the treatment. I'm thinking that will help the mild algae problem. Really getting close to being excited about it again!

CoralWealth · Dec 15, 2019

What do you normally use for cuc

Scythanith · Dec 30, 2019

A mix of nassarius, verity, turbo and margheritta snails. A handful of scarlet or halloween hermits, a black cucumber, abalone, and just added 4 emerald crabs. I have a magnificent fox face and a yellow tang but they seem somewhat useless lol.

Scythanith · Dec 30, 2019

I think there is still some residual fenbendazol, lost some snails faster than I can attribute to natural attrition. Time to get the carbon ripping a little harder.

Scythanith · Jan 5, 2020

Sorry for the blue WB, all off the phone. Things are getting better everyday

I feel like I can start adding all of the higher end SPS back and get this looking like a reef tank again! It's still so bare.

Scythanith · Apr 11, 2020

The Space Invader was hungry last night!!

Scythanith · Apr 17, 2020

Some pics from last night.

Wrangy · Apr 19, 2020

Gorgeous!!

Scythanith · Apr 20, 2020

Thanks Wrangy! The corals are finally all healthy again... took forever but in this hobby nothing good happens quickly. Now I just need to start filling it in with SPS

All is on the low side but the SPS love it.