Hi. I just stumbled across your channel researching builds, and you, sir, are criminally undersubbed! The amount of information and the quality of the videos is incredible. Thank you!
If were talking about the shrimp in the video, it's blurry footage but I'd be surprised if that was a Lysmata Wurdemanni (the true peppermint) or a Lysmata Boggessi, which are similar & what usually gets sold in the hobby trade as "Peppermint shrimp". There are many shrimps sold under the name "Peppermint" & they are very difficult to tell apart, which is exacerbated by the fact there is quite a lot of variations between individuals within the same species. Some are behave the same way as a Wurdemanni & some do not. Even amongst Wurdemanni (& Boggessi) there will be some coral eaters just like with cleaner shrimps, bloods etc. I've constantly kept around 25 to 30 "Peps" amongst my various coral tanks for the last 10 years & touch wood I've not had a coral eater as yet although I have had a cleaner that loved to eat Xenia. I'm sure I will get one 1 day but it seems as though they are the exception rather than the rule (with certain species) & considering the amount of work they save me by keeping my tanks Aip free it's a gamble that's well worth it for me anyway ✌
@@northeastcorals I think they're also much more likely to attack corals and whatever else they can get their claws on if they're extremely hungry. I keep peppermint shrimp (all L. boggessi so far) because I think they're adorable, rather than for Aiptasia control. So they're fed daily, sometimes by hand. The only live animals I've seen them go after are adult brine shrimp, which are there as feeders anyway.
Fun fact: polyp inflation/tentacle extension correlates to coral health only up to a certain extent. If you look at corals such as Micromussa, Dipsastraea, Cycloseris, etc. in the wild, they are way less fleshy than their captive counterparts. I have shown wild (true) Goniastrea to some reefkeepers and they were surprised at how drawn tight to the skeleton the corals were.
I always struggle with LPS, all the parameters are bang on, it's stable, then one day I'll lose a polyp head from my hammer. This hobby completely baffles me
@@richishere82 always appreciate help! 35.2ppt, KH 9, calc 450, mag 1400, nitrate 10, phos 0.08. light is 100 par on the rock that the hammer lived and I just dropped the flow as "a just in case" but it shod it's other head today. I've stuck them in a plastic tub with some rocks, I doubt they'll live but I can hope
+1 on the magnesium, my nano got down to 1200ppm and my candy canes were sulking. Once it was back to 1350ppm they were happy as anything! I also find usually people are loosing lps when nutrients are low too.
Regarding salinity issue: be sure to check whether you are using densimeter or salimeter! Those are two different things. :) Corals started dying and then I've found out my salinity is almost 40 ppt! Turned out I had a densimeter, LOL
I remember when I first got started with my nano reef. A local store sold me some other shrimp that we’re supposed to be cleaner shrimp but they were hired killers if you ask me. They ate everything, including new fish that I would add. And then peep out from behind the rocks and dangle the left over flesh from fish 😢 I couldn’t believe it until I researched and learned about camel shrimp being sold as cleaner shrimp 😳
Yes. Salinity. I have 4 ways to measure it because I’m paranoid about it. I check it daily 😂 I’ve crashed my Fluval three times because of screwing up this parameter. Never again if I can help it.
I was losing some lps and finally figured out what was wrong. Refractometer calibration solution evaporated cause its a 3yo bottle so the refractometer was totally out of calibration too. I only found out after getting a new bottle of solution after my mag was testing 1600+. Salinity was 40ppt! And it was at this salinity for monthssss. And during this time most new lps i added were not doing good. Now i got it back stable
My calc and mag were Elevated so I turned my doser off, then forgot to turn them back on till my torches started wilting, checked everything, turned them back on put the mag up to 1400. And presto happy torches again.
I just had a year old duncan coral which started with 1 head and had like 10 mini heads all around it die in a matter of a week or two. Just started melting away. All other corals were fine and the only thing I could determine was the cause is that I switched from All for reef to a combination of All for reef and Kalk, but in the transition I had a quick drop from 9 to around 6 Alkalinity. Don't know for sure though. Agree with the shrimp free part. Very annoying that I can't spot feed since that little psycho goes nuts and rips food out of them
Hmm… I’ve had some LPS loss and maybe it is my peppermints. Usually they eat all my aiptasia and then get eaten by my wrasse but for some reason my wrasse are leaving my latest alone.
Gonna put this checklist in action straight away to hopefully cure my hammer and a goni. Question: Let's say you move a hammer to a lower light area of your tank. How long do you give it without improvement before you start to think it's something else? I've been moving my fading hammer to lower light areas for weeks and it still is not regaining color even though it is extended fairly nicely. If I want to put it under lower light, I'll have to bury it under a rock.
Dinos can be very demoralising (I've been there myself) but they are actually relatively easy to deal with but only when you know what type you have - join this FB group and they'll tell you how to identify and treat whatever you have facebook.com/groups/macksreef/
I am getting different results from my refractometer and hanna salinity checker.... not sure which one to trust... however, I zero the refractometer with distilled water, and then check salinity, and it still doesnt jive....
I’ve never checked Mg levels nor what my PAR is lol. And my salinity is at about 1.026 specific gravity. So far things have been going well, but now I’ve got enough in that tank that I **REALLY** don’t want to mess something up. Here’s a tank status overview, please critic anything that can be improved! Tank age: 6months Tank size: 40gal cube, internal filtration sections AIO. Salinity: 1.026 Ammonia: near 0, test kits always the same color & accuracy is questionable. Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 0-5ppm Calcium: 380 Phosphate: near 0. Mg: unknown All other elements or chemistry: unknown. Light PAR: unknown, AquaIllumination(AI) Hydra 32 light. Filtration: sponge cube, followed by media baskets of carbon, then filter material, then 2 sections of porous rock. Occupant corals: 1 Pulsing Xena, 2 Kenya Trees, 1 Zoa, 1 Green Star polup, 1 unknown, 1 long legged anemone. Fish&other: 2 clownfish, 1 diamond back gobie, 1 skunk shrimp, 1 emerald crab, 4 red legged hermit carbs, 1 tiger conch., 1 tuxedo urchin (I think).
I had issues in my aquarium. Howver everything was perfect. Icp came back perfect. Regular water changes and nothing improved. Then as a last ditch effort i sent out a aquabiome dna test which came back saying i had stony coral tissue loss disease in my reef tank.
@@so_so_reef no, it'd still only be coming from one direction - I tried just 2 powerheads either side of the weir box at first but the flow is so much better with this setup. If the tank was bigger, it'd be easier to place the powerheads for aesthetics and performance
@@ReefDork thanks Alex, About gonis, would you say as long as the parameters are in range that you don't really need the additional manganese for gonis.
@@jameswithers3066manganese has definitely contributed to my success with gonis, but they're still a tricky coral and the coral I have most problems with in this tank
can Torch corals repair themselves? I tried fragging one and it split. I used a bit of epoxy to piece the fragments together, will this work? Also, my torches keep dying (vermetid snails keep popping up, also not sure if shrimp are eating them like yours), and I'm frustrated trying to figure out why. A lot of conflicting information. Too much flow, too little flow, too much light, too little light... most frustrating hobby ever
They can do but that's often a death sentence - superglue is better than epoxy. Torch corals are difficult to keep - I'd personally avoid them for now if they keep dying in your tank.
I put a little xenia frag in my tank and it just sat there for a year. Then I quit buying saltwater from the LFS (Inst Oc) and got an RO/DI and Tropic Marin Classic salt and the silly thing started pulsing and then started growing. Now it is everywhere!!! 😋
@@ReefDork Yeah, I've learned to feed the shrimp first (preferably lure it as far away as possible from the coral I'm feeding). Cleaner shrimp are greedy little bstrds but are fun to watch.
Hi Alex, #5 is getting me as we speak. I have a 110 gallon and I have not been able to keep sps coral and have been wracking my brain as to why. Additionally, my alk, calc, mag, ph levels have also been off. Did some tests, went to my LFS who first thing told me is my salinity was reading 39ppt. Hanna was telling me 35. I’m in the middle of doing bigger and several water changes to lower salinity and get back to baseline. Not sure what cause all my issues in the first place but resetting my tank water parameters with big/frequent changes seem to be helping so far. Great video.
Amazing videography of your corals. With the top 3 being brilliant advice for all corals. 🙌 Those Goni's look incredible and that amazeballs coral has some serious pop. Love your frag tank reef. Looking forward to the next video 👍.
Hey, what about flow? I noticed some of my LPS retracted when I put them in a higher flow area and didn't open anymore. It wasn't that strong flow, it didn't blow the flesh off, etc. Just moderate flow that caused polyps to wave a bit more.
My nitrate and phos have been at 0 for 5 weeks now not gone up at all my corals won’t grow pls help tried feeding every day and even turned my skimmer off what can I do without adding liquid nitrate
would you be able to maybe directing me to a video that can help me help my candy cane coral? I have a Duncan that is doing really well but the candy cane isn't happy and idk why.
So much of this hobby is based on anecdotal advice...true scientific methodology/experimentation is expensive and time consuming. Just ask anyone that works in a real-world lab.
What do you use to test Magnesium? I've been wanting to get the Hanna Checker for it but several bad reviews for Mg in particular make me reluctant to trust the accuracy.
I love Hanna checkers generally but not the mag one. I use Salifert - it's quick and easy and not difficult to read the result, unlike say nitrate and phosphate tests which is where Hanna shines.
Hi. I just stumbled across your channel researching builds, and you, sir, are criminally undersubbed! The amount of information and the quality of the videos is incredible. Thank you!
I needed this video. My gonis have been struggling lately. Thank you for giving me a check list to go through
Im glad you talked about peppermint shrimp they are carnivorous glad you exposed them for what they truly are!
If were talking about the shrimp in the video, it's blurry footage but I'd be surprised if that was a Lysmata Wurdemanni (the true peppermint) or a Lysmata Boggessi, which are similar & what usually gets sold in the hobby trade as "Peppermint shrimp".
There are many shrimps sold under the name "Peppermint" & they are very difficult to tell apart, which is exacerbated by the fact there is quite a lot of variations between individuals within the same species. Some are behave the same way as a Wurdemanni & some do not.
Even amongst Wurdemanni (& Boggessi) there will be some coral eaters just like with cleaner shrimps, bloods etc. I've constantly kept around 25 to 30 "Peps" amongst my various coral tanks for the last 10 years & touch wood I've not had a coral eater as yet although I have had a cleaner that loved to eat Xenia. I'm sure I will get one 1 day but it seems as though they are the exception rather than the rule (with certain species) & considering the amount of work they save me by keeping my tanks Aip free it's a gamble that's well worth it for me anyway ✌
@@northeastcorals I think they're also much more likely to attack corals and whatever else they can get their claws on if they're extremely hungry. I keep peppermint shrimp (all L. boggessi so far) because I think they're adorable, rather than for Aiptasia control. So they're fed daily, sometimes by hand. The only live animals I've seen them go after are adult brine shrimp, which are there as feeders anyway.
Love your channel I am a new sub and new to the salt water hobby been keeping fresh water aquariums for 25 plus years
The video I need but don't deserve!
Just had an LPS torch die and i've got no idea why, every other coral is fine, even my frogspawn.
Thank you!
Torches are a pain in the arse!
Mine seems to have lost a head in 2 days, no idea why
Glad you talked about how Hanna salinity checker blows
It’s a quick gauge for mixing but you need another more accurate test on hand
What do you recommend for the most accurate salinity measurement?
@@fadijohn tropic Marin hydrometer
That’s your source of truth
Everything else is a backup test to use for a quick gauge
thank you! @@Merknilash
@Merknilash this is a good hydrometer, ?
Thanks
@@jacklawer6389 it’s not like other cheap ones
It’s basically a super accurate thermometer looking device
Very fragile
Great vid Alex. I'm going to turn my lights down a bit!
Great video 👍🇦🇺
Thanks. Very helpful. My acan has the same issue as yours in sps tank. It doesn’t grow but I have now reduced the light. Hopefully it will grow.
Fun fact: polyp inflation/tentacle extension correlates to coral health only up to a certain extent. If you look at corals such as Micromussa, Dipsastraea, Cycloseris, etc. in the wild, they are way less fleshy than their captive counterparts. I have shown wild (true) Goniastrea to some reefkeepers and they were surprised at how drawn tight to the skeleton the corals were.
Interesting stuff 👍
Great video and even better goniopora garden
where have you been you have been missed
I always struggle with LPS, all the parameters are bang on, it's stable, then one day I'll lose a polyp head from my hammer. This hobby completely baffles me
Probably bad bacteria built up.
Maybe it's flow of lights. When you say parameters are spot on give a list maybe I can help ?
@@richishere82 always appreciate help! 35.2ppt, KH 9, calc 450, mag 1400, nitrate 10, phos 0.08. light is 100 par on the rock that the hammer lived and I just dropped the flow as "a just in case" but it shod it's other head today. I've stuck them in a plastic tub with some rocks, I doubt they'll live but I can hope
Possibly a bacterial/pathogenic issue
@@Pastronomer69 yet nothing wrong with those parameters TBF. Have you ever sent off for an icp ???
man its been years since ive been on your channel, i just restarted my reef keeping hobby. Im as bald as you now! lol
+1 on the magnesium, my nano got down to 1200ppm and my candy canes were sulking. Once it was back to 1350ppm they were happy as anything! I also find usually people are loosing lps when nutrients are low too.
Regarding salinity issue: be sure to check whether you are using densimeter or salimeter! Those are two different things. :) Corals started dying and then I've found out my salinity is almost 40 ppt! Turned out I had a densimeter, LOL
I remember when I first got started with my nano reef. A local store sold me some other shrimp that we’re supposed to be cleaner shrimp but they were hired killers if you ask me. They ate everything, including new fish that I would add. And then peep out from behind the rocks and dangle the left over flesh from fish 😢
I couldn’t believe it until I researched and learned about camel shrimp being sold as cleaner shrimp 😳
That was spot on.
I am having a hard time keeping cleaner shrimp alive for some reason.. maybe you could do an episode on things like that?
Yes.
Salinity. I have 4 ways to measure it because I’m paranoid about it. I check it daily 😂 I’ve crashed my Fluval three times because of screwing up this parameter. Never again if I can help it.
I was losing some lps and finally figured out what was wrong. Refractometer calibration solution evaporated cause its a 3yo bottle so the refractometer was totally out of calibration too. I only found out after getting a new bottle of solution after my mag was testing 1600+. Salinity was 40ppt! And it was at this salinity for monthssss. And during this time most new lps i added were not doing good. Now i got it back stable
My calc and mag were Elevated so I turned my doser off, then forgot to turn them back on till my torches started wilting, checked everything, turned them back on put the mag up to 1400. And presto happy torches again.
I just had a year old duncan coral which started with 1 head and had like 10 mini heads all around it die in a matter of a week or two. Just started melting away. All other corals were fine and the only thing I could determine was the cause is that I switched from All for reef to a combination of All for reef and Kalk, but in the transition I had a quick drop from 9 to around 6 Alkalinity. Don't know for sure though. Agree with the shrimp free part. Very annoying that I can't spot feed since that little psycho goes nuts and rips food out of them
My cleaner shrimp keep messing with all my corals on my next water change he’s coming out
Good video
Great video! Question: Would you consider a salinity swing from 35 to 32 to be too much?
Yes, absolutely - 32 is too low. 34 is ideal, 33 or 35 are acceptable
And, coral prblms, like many ppl prblms, you won't find the answer at the bottom of a bottle.... HAHAHA 😅😅😅 Very good. Thank you.
Hmm… I’ve had some LPS loss and maybe it is my peppermints. Usually they eat all my aiptasia and then get eaten by my wrasse but for some reason my wrasse are leaving my latest alone.
Gonna put this checklist in action straight away to hopefully cure my hammer and a goni. Question: Let's say you move a hammer to a lower light area of your tank. How long do you give it without improvement before you start to think it's something else? I've been moving my fading hammer to lower light areas for weeks and it still is not regaining color even though it is extended fairly nicely. If I want to put it under lower light, I'll have to bury it under a rock.
Corals recover slowly so you're talking weeks, not days.
any idea why my zoas seem to be getting very drab? they seem to be losing color, yet they are growing...
I have terrible Dino’s my corals are going south and I don’t know what to do!!
Dinos can be very demoralising (I've been there myself) but they are actually relatively easy to deal with but only when you know what type you have - join this FB group and they'll tell you how to identify and treat whatever you have facebook.com/groups/macksreef/
I had a salinity spike and my Hanna checker was reading 1.019 but salinity was at 1.36 smh. It’s taking 2-3 weeks for my lps to bounce back.
I am getting different results from my refractometer and hanna salinity checker.... not sure which one to trust... however, I zero the refractometer with distilled water, and then check salinity, and it still doesnt jive....
Optical refractometers (especially good ones like the D-D or Red Sea) are more reliable
Can you give any advice for my previous comment
I’ve never checked Mg levels nor what my PAR is lol. And my salinity is at about 1.026 specific gravity. So far things have been going well, but now I’ve got enough in that tank that I **REALLY** don’t want to mess something up. Here’s a tank status overview, please critic anything that can be improved!
Tank age: 6months
Tank size: 40gal cube, internal filtration sections AIO.
Salinity: 1.026
Ammonia: near 0, test kits always the same color & accuracy is questionable.
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0-5ppm
Calcium: 380
Phosphate: near 0.
Mg: unknown
All other elements or chemistry: unknown.
Light PAR: unknown, AquaIllumination(AI) Hydra 32 light.
Filtration: sponge cube, followed by media baskets of carbon, then filter material, then 2 sections of porous rock.
Occupant corals: 1 Pulsing Xena, 2 Kenya Trees, 1 Zoa, 1 Green Star polup, 1 unknown, 1 long legged anemone.
Fish&other: 2 clownfish, 1 diamond back gobie, 1 skunk shrimp, 1 emerald crab, 4 red legged hermit carbs, 1 tiger conch., 1 tuxedo urchin (I think).
Calcium too low, defo test your Magnesium and your alk. Otherwise good!
I have a pico tank with a couple sexy shrimp and have always heard they are harmless. Well they absolutely murdered my button Scoly and a couple acans
Ah, I've just remembered I had a sexy shrimp nibble on my SPS corals in this tank a couple of years ago too! Little blighters.
@@ReefDork cant move them to bigger tanks cause they are just snacks for my wrasses lol
I had issues in my aquarium. Howver everything was perfect. Icp came back perfect. Regular water changes and nothing improved. Then as a last ditch effort i sent out a aquabiome dna test which came back saying i had stony coral tissue loss disease in my reef tank.
I'm looking forward to that service coming to the UK
I still can't get over the power heads on the front of the glass 😂
Yeah, it looks bad! Same as the powerheads at the end of my peninsula tank.
@@ReefDork would gyres on the side give you the flow you want with less obstruction?
@@so_so_reef no, it'd still only be coming from one direction - I tried just 2 powerheads either side of the weir box at first but the flow is so much better with this setup. If the tank was bigger, it'd be easier to place the powerheads for aesthetics and performance
Audio is low on this one
Alex, how long do you run your blades compare to your kessil?
Kessils 12 hours, Blades about 11 hours
@@ReefDork thanks Alex,
About gonis, would you say as long as the parameters are in range that you don't really need the additional manganese for gonis.
@@jameswithers3066manganese has definitely contributed to my success with gonis, but they're still a tricky coral and the coral I have most problems with in this tank
@@ReefDork thank you
38ppt??????????????Wow.....
can Torch corals repair themselves? I tried fragging one and it split. I used a bit of epoxy to piece the fragments together, will this work? Also, my torches keep dying (vermetid snails keep popping up, also not sure if shrimp are eating them like yours), and I'm frustrated trying to figure out why. A lot of conflicting information. Too much flow, too little flow, too much light, too little light... most frustrating hobby ever
They can do but that's often a death sentence - superglue is better than epoxy. Torch corals are difficult to keep - I'd personally avoid them for now if they keep dying in your tank.
Now tell me why I can’t grow Xenia in my tanks? Softie lps and sps all grow fine. My wife loves Xenia. I know I know. But it just dies in my tanks
Many people say that usually indicated low iodine
It's a blessing mate hahaha!
Xenia can be like that, sometimes easy, sometimes a bit of an enigma. But I'd double check all your test results as a start point.
I put a little xenia frag in my tank and it just sat there for a year. Then I quit buying saltwater from the LFS (Inst Oc) and got an RO/DI and Tropic Marin Classic salt and the silly thing started pulsing and then started growing. Now it is everywhere!!! 😋
This video couldn't have came quick enough lol
Will cleaner shrimp eat my torches? I just bought one yesterday. Boyyyyy I’ll sell him so fast
Nope, they're good boys. They might steal any food it catches though.
@@ReefDork Yeah, I've learned to feed the shrimp first (preferably lure it as far away as possible from the coral I'm feeding). Cleaner shrimp are greedy little bstrds but are fun to watch.
holy shit, that peppermint shrimp is passionate about feeding on your torch!
Hi Alex, #5 is getting me as we speak. I have a 110 gallon and I have not been able to keep sps coral and have been wracking my brain as to why. Additionally, my alk, calc, mag, ph levels have also been off. Did some tests, went to my LFS who first thing told me is my salinity was reading 39ppt. Hanna was telling me 35. I’m in the middle of doing bigger and several water changes to lower salinity and get back to baseline. Not sure what cause all my issues in the first place but resetting my tank water parameters with big/frequent changes seem to be helping so far. Great video.
Great video mate.
The old classic salinity pen issues. I have 2 pens and within a week, one dipped to 1.020 whilst the other was 1.025
A lot of people seem to overlook their salinity which can directly have an impact of the corals health. Well done Alex.
Thanks for this. It is disheartening how quickly LPS can head south when something is off.
I just added my first corals to my tank! gonna be LPS and this helps so much lol makes me less nervous
This ur tank alex ? Loving the green Goni mate
Yep, my Waterbox. I'm going to shut down my main tank soon and move these corals into the upgrade...
@@ReefDork nice mate can’t wait to see updates 👍
Amazing videography of your corals. With the top 3 being brilliant advice for all corals. 🙌 Those Goni's look incredible and that amazeballs coral has some serious pop. Love your frag tank reef. Looking forward to the next video 👍.
Thanks Jay, appreciate it 🙂
Glad you mentioned shrimp, mine ate two of my Scoly and when I found out it was too late :((
Hey, what about flow? I noticed some of my LPS retracted when I put them in a higher flow area and didn't open anymore. It wasn't that strong flow, it didn't blow the flesh off, etc. Just moderate flow that caused polyps to wave a bit more.
LPS can tolerate much more flow than most people think, but they don't like strong flow and really don't like direct flow.
Yor gonnis are amazing!!
My nitrate and phos have been at 0 for 5 weeks now not gone up at all my corals won’t grow pls help tried feeding every day and even turned my skimmer off what can I do without adding liquid nitrate
Raise nitrate to 20 , keep phosphate at 0.5
would you be able to maybe directing me to a video that can help me help my candy cane coral? I have a Duncan that is doing really well but the candy cane isn't happy and idk why.
This one!
Does anyone know whats the name of the first green coral in the video at 1:00
It's a glitter bomb goni - this exact one to be precise prestigereef.co.uk/collections/lps-corals/products/glitter-bomb-goniopora
So you start by giving a list of anecdotal advice you shouldn’t trust, then the entire video is you giving your own anecdotal advice. 😂
Are you saying low magnesium and high salinity won't harm corals...?
So much of this hobby is based on anecdotal advice...true scientific methodology/experimentation is expensive and time consuming. Just ask anyone that works in a real-world lab.
Is that a tomini tang at 0:15? I'd love one of those
Yep - he's grown on me and I think he's cool as well as functional now!
What do you use to test Magnesium? I've been wanting to get the Hanna Checker for it but several bad reviews for Mg in particular make me reluctant to trust the accuracy.
I love Hanna checkers generally but not the mag one. I use Salifert - it's quick and easy and not difficult to read the result, unlike say nitrate and phosphate tests which is where Hanna shines.
@@ReefDork thank you! I'll give it a try.
Hanna Mg just doesn't work. Lots online about it.