Question for the experts..

[Cuttlefish]

Which of the following are the most INtolerant to parameter issues?

Xenia
Porites Coral
Cocoworms
Christmas Tree worms
Coraline Algae
Mushrooms
Zoos
Polyps
Finicky Fish

Silly question i know. But can the health or behavior of any of these animals help indicate things are ok with water issues? Rather than freak out and test everything, everytime my coralline algae looses its pigmentation or regresses, can I relax a bit for example when say, my xenia is actively pulsing and growing?

Im just trying to find something other than testing every parameter that might have me rest assured that things arnt going south. I think yall know what Im trying to say.. Im just looking for helpful indications that things are either going good or bad, based on the animals I have. Make sense to anyone?

[motorslave]

coraline bleaches. just its nature. Just test, its the best way to keep tabs on things. Why do you think we all test? Different critters even of the same species will vary in sensitivity. Just test.

[reefandfish]

+1 ^^

[Loverotties]

+2.

[Phishnoob]

I do know that the Xenia would be towards the MOST tolerant end. Mine grew great when my tank was started, but with life on the tank and better quality it is growing not nearly as well.

[bb0029]

I can't keep zoo's alive to save my life. I don't ever end up losing any but they pretty much go dormant in the tank. The good thing is the LFS store gives me full credit for them because I have dealt with them a bunch and they know my personal situation.

[Cuttlefish]

I dont understand whats going on in this **** tank. Somethings wrong but I cant find it with any tests. Im really losing my patience, never thought Id say that. I just keep spending money, this time it looks like Ill have to buy new tests cuz they arnt revealing anything. The phosphates must be low, green algae doesnt want to grow anymore in the MT, so that test is most likely correct. But coralline growth has also halted.

Most recently I bought a longnose BF who was in the LFS for a long time and doing well, eating frozen brine, active, all that. After one night in my tank, I turned the light on in the morning and he looks oblivious. Bumping into things, including anenomes! He has like, dots around one of his eyes, not sure how that happened. Not ich dots, more like, lack of skin dots if that makes any sense. Really, really frustrated. This is becoming another car payment. Where $300-$400 is spent monthly. I know it will all be worth it when the tank gets to where its supposed to be, but I thought all this effort and spending would bring me there already.

[Reeftanker3295]

These tanks are wierd man, they have their ups and downs. My biocube has fine parameters but corals wont even open anymore and when i put them in my 10 gallon they open fully within 2 days

[Cuttlefish]

Hmm, you know what, maybe things are ok. Remember how I was saying I tested everything but Mg? Well last night when I bought the LN BF, I asked the LFS guy whats up with my constantly dropping KH. He said it could be a number of things but one of the things he mentioned was a low Mg. Something about a balance not being there and thats why I keep waiting for the Ca to drop so I can add the 2 part Ionic B. The Ca never drops because the Mg is low and the Ca isnt being absorbed.

Anyway, I tested the Mg last night. Of course I couldnt find the detailed instructions for the test so I wound up following the instructions on the back of the color card. Which worked but I couldnt find an explaination of what the "regeant left" actually meant. All I know is after the final titration there was only .10 of regeant C left in the syringe, when it finally turned dark blue. Im assuming and hoping the fact that I had to use so much regeant to titrate means that the Mg was LOW and not high.

So, I added a mild dose of Mg/strontium plus. After two hours of turning the lights on, miraclulously I notice the areas of the $150 encrusted polyp rock that were turning white, now have color. Its purple again when for days it was very noticeably bleaching. So at this point I guess Ive learned what I hope is one of my last fundamental lessons in this reefkeeping gig. That Mg CAN be used up quickly even though you do somewhat frequent water changes with elevated Ca, Mg levels. Theres alot of contradictory info out there, on the web as well as within LFS's. A week ago i asked the same question about the dying off coralline, at the very same LFS. I asked another employee specifically if it could be because of low Mg and he said I seriously doubt it. That was someone who knows alot about reefkeeping too. So its a tricky business with reef, especially in the first year when youre learning. I can see why people spend so much on every high tech reactor, controller and what not. Im sure along with those components comes alot less headaches, but for me I still feel like that there are very viable ways around spending $1000's extra on all that hardware. But then Im getting OT again.

The important thing is overnight it seems things are getting back towards teh realm of ideal. Not sure whats up with the Longnose, maybe he was just blinded by the light turning on. The LFS had very low light conditions and he was there for quite a while. Perhaps hes not used to intense brightness. Not sure whats up with the area around his eye, ill by a new camera cord and post a pic of him, among other things.

Thanks for the help all

[Cuttlefish]

Originally Posted by Phishnoob

I do know that the Xenia would be towards the MOST tolerant end. Mine grew great when my tank was started, but with life on the tank and better quality it is growing not nearly as well.

Thanks man thats the useful info I was looking for. Xenia = not a good indicator of quality tank conditions. In less than a week, my little xenia frag has split twice into separate stalks and has almost completely taken up the silver dollar sized disk it was fragged onto. So apparently it is indeed growing like weeds, which is what I wanted. Now Im waiting to see if it will expand outside the disk onto the big shelf rock its sitting on. My goal was to get this whole rock covered in Xenia. I wanted to experiment with natural filtration in this section of the refugium. Exclusive Xenia and Fanworm/Featherduster area, then downstream in the right section is the macro/mud fuge that overflows back into the MT.

[motorslave]

The thing is, each tank is different some tanks will keep xenia, some wont, some will do well with zoos, some wont. Every tank has different characteristics and balances. There's no way around it. Just test, its a sure way to know where you tank is at.

[tdwyatt]

It will depend on which parameters we're talking about...

pH can swing a lot (7.6-8.6) without having much effect on any tank critters, however, if O2 were to swing by the same percentage as pH does in reef systems (say from 5 down to 3.5 mg/ml), active organisms like fishes would be the first to go. Not true if we speak of the same percentage changes in salinity, there the crustaceans and echinoderms would be at risk, whereas the fish can be relatively (depending on specie) tolerant, especially if salinity changes occur over time.