Quarantine 40-50 fish from existing 500 gallon reef

[Jeffdstafford]

All fish are out, just waiting and watching for a bit to make sure no one pops out from hiding in the sand. Gonna move that last bit of coral too just to make sure there's no stragglers.. And then begins the put-back.. I'm very confident I'm about to set a personal best time for aquascaping, and it's not gonna be pretty, but it will be done

 

[Jeffdstafford]

Ah ha! Sneaky lil jerk

 

[Jeffdstafford]

r

 

[Brew12]

Great job so far!

 

[Humblefish]

@Jeffdstafford My hat's off to you sir! This was a heck of a undertaking.

 

[Brew12]

@Jeffdstafford My hat's off to you sir! This was a heck of a undertaking.

I think I'm going to link this thread to everyone who says setting up a 10g QT is too much work and isn't necessary. Might help them put things into a different perspective.

 

[Jeffdstafford]

Whelp, despite my best efforts, I awoke to this nightmare of a sight.. My Pencil Wrasse either hid in the sand or in a rock crevice.. I'm so tired, not sure if I feel like weeping uncontrollably or applauding his survival skills. I also saw a little 2" goby pop his head out, so at this point I'll try to catch them, but I'm not too hopeful since they're quick little boogers.

All fish and coral are fine though, so I'll keep you posted as the nightmare continues!

 

[Jeffdstafford]

Sorry for the double picture post

 

[Jeffdstafford]

Good luck! I've done this from a 250-gallon tank. I used the same qt tub you're using. I probably had half the fish you do. I'm a bit concerned about the size of the qt compared to the number of fish so I'm glad you're doing it in stages.

Hey did you end up covering your QT with screen or anything? I do have some jumpers, so need to figure out some sort of a top for mine

 

[Jeffdstafford]

Good luck! I've done this from a 250-gallon tank. I used the same qt tub you're using. I probably had half the fish you do. I'm a bit concerned about the size of the qt compared to the number of fish so I'm glad you're doing it in stages.

Hey did you end up covering your QT with screen or anything? I'

 

[Brew12]

Egg crate is your friend! Cheap, easy to get, and lots of uses.

 

[Jeffdstafford]

Good call, probably the best option for that wide of a container

 

[Humblefish]

@Jeffdstafford Don't feed the tank and try baiting this to catch the wrasse & goby:

 

[Jeffdstafford]

That's a plan; I have a fish trap but it would never work for these small fish, that's a much better option. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a shot!

 

[Humblefish]

That's a plan; I have a fish trap but it would never work for these small fish, that's a much better option. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll give it a shot!

Might help to punch out some small holes in the bottle and run fishing line through it, for easy retrieval once they go in.

 

[Jeffdstafford]

1 down, 1 to go!

Fish in rock


Rock in net


Fish outta there!

 

[Humblefish]

Good job! Looks like a Bicolor Blenny.

 

[Jeffdstafford]

Yep, got a few of those and some tail spot blennies, funny little fish. I'll keep my eye out to make sure no others got smuggled back in the rock

 

[melypr1985]

Man I missed a lot while I was work! You did an amazing job! You'll get that straggler... I have faith

 

[Jeffdstafford]

Ha, yeah it was a busy day! I came within roughly a millimeter of netting the wrasse a bit ago, which means I'll have zero change of ever getting close to it with a net again. Gonna make a bottle trap like humble suggested and give that a whirl.

I've already had a casualty in the QT, my Diamond Goby did a suicide dive through the egg crate, and it's been less than 24 hours, so I'm going to have to find something else. I have 3 of the BulkReefSupply DIY net tops for the tank, so I think I'm going to try to make a frame that will hold 1 or 2 of those, and that's solid other than the cutouts. Maybe some plywood wrapped in a tarp, or something really ghetto like that..it will keep me busy in between fishing sessions in the tank!