1000 gallon tank for a beginner!

[SlowAndStupid]

Why not just dip your corals and place them in the tank ?

I'm considering doing just this from now on. I'm not sure quarantining the corals has offered any further benefit after dipping them when they arrived.

 

[RJKain-777]

Really struggling with my torches in quarantine. I have slowly been losing them over the past couple of weeks 1 at a time every few days. The first loss was a torch that came in retracted and by the following day had bailed out and there were signs of brown jelly. I immediately removed it and began dosing cipro daily. I continue to dose cipro daily.

Daily I am also doing approximately 2 gallon water change in my 20 gallon quarantine tank. I also continually monitor temp and daily check salinity, alkalinity, nitrates, and phos (about 15-30 mins after the water change) and dose back up my nitrates to keep them at 8 and phosphates at 0.1. When I check daily the nitrates typically are at about 5 and phos of 0.06.

I am now in the process of losing my 4th of 10 torches. It's first head showed signs of brown jelly disease so i excised it. The remaining head is beginning to lose its flesh band and the polyps appear to be bailing out. I have removed it from my QT as well. I'm not really sure where to go from here. I fear quarantining is doing more harm the good but worry about putting my corals into my main tank and then seeing them spread something into it. My hammers and frogspawn in the QT continue to look healthy and unphased.

I don’t understand what’s with torches lately. I just had a shipment of 46 colonies come in, all DOA with brown jelly.

 

[SlowAndStupid]

I don’t understand what’s with torches lately. I just had a shipment of 46 colonies come in, all DOA with brown jelly.

dang, that sucks! I was so confused at the slow decline on mine. Each happened days apart from each other despite stable water parameters and also dosing cipro to boot. I don't think I'll be quarantining, just dipping from here on.

For better or worse, I spent a good hour and a half putting my torches, hammers, and frogspawn in the main tank last night. Will see how the rest do.

 

[SlowAndStupid]

Thought I would pop on for an update as it has been some time. I ultimately lost all but 3 of my torches but those 3 have since been thriving throughout. I will order another round of torches likely in the coming month and they will go directly into the main tank after dipping. I hope to avoid another big loss that way.

The hammers and frogspawn did fine throughout as did the handful of other corals I added in. Coraline algae took a long time to show up in my tank but there are dots of purple everywhere now as it begins to take hold everywhere.

Along with dealing with my torches all dying, one of my yellow tangs decided to become a murderer. The tangs coexisted peacefully for just over a year and then suddenly 1 of the 3 yellows decided to gang up on 1 yellow tang beating him up. Oddly, the purple tang which at the beginning was the murderous bully seemed to swim by the bullied yellow to keep him company. I came down the following day to find that the purple tang had been killed. After the purple tang died the bullied yellow gets pushed off to one edge of the glass or otherwise gets bullied.

It's been about a month now and the yellows seem to have a bit of a truce. As long as the one bullied yellow stays in his corner he is left alone. His beat up fins have healed and he seems to be holding weight for now as well.

Within the next month or two I would like to add more fish as well. I plan to add some more anthias and royal grammas along with a pair of mandarin dragonets and perhaps some peaceful damsels.

 

[FishTruck]

Thanks for posting you progress.. I think you are doing great... I see the coralline. LPS are a little tricky sometimes to figure out where you can and can't place them... some are just duds. Keep at it!

I have a yellow tang that has killed at least 10 fish over the 15 or more years that I have had him. I have finally figured out how to distract him when he gets in his moods, and for the most part... he has also mellowed out over time.

 

[buruskeee]

Putting up a mirror might help with the aggression.

 

[SlowAndStupid]

I recently got a few more fish in from Dr. Reef: a group of springeri damsels along with my 2 bucket list fish, a pair of mandarin dragonettes and a copperband.

Unfortunately half of the damsels quickly died from something. They came grouped in 2 bags and one grpup died while the other has thrived.

The mandarin pair came in tiny, as I had read and was expecting, but I was not prepared for just how small they were. I harvest pods every week for the main tank but on that day the pods went into the holding tank for them. I monitored them for 2 days and put them straight in the main tank to ensure they had plenty of food. Unfortunately, I have only ever seen 1 mandarin since putting them in the main tank. He likes to hang out in the front left corner. I have not spotted the female since initially putting her in and have no idea if she is alive or not, sadly. I continue to harvest and dump in copepods into the main tank every week. Hopefully, they can thrive.

Finally, my Copperband is doing very well so far. I ordered the larger size from Dr. Reef, and he was eating frozen mysis on day 2. I am extremely pleased with how well he has done!

I started him off by himself and have added over the springeri damsels to his tank so that he would have to compete with others for his food. I am hoping to train him to be an aggressive eater. I am worried about how he will do once in the main tank with a lot more fish eating their frozen mysis.

Here he is with the mysis:


Since they are so notorious for not eating I also had purchased some frozen bloodworms and as much as he enjoys the mysis, he seems to absolute love the worms.


Finally, I had 2 rocks in the holding tank completely covered with aiptasis and several majano anemones. Not any more... I have a number of aiptasia in the rockwork that I hope he picks at and keeps in check for me.

My final decision to make is when to put him in the main tank. I think he is ready but still worry that the change could put him on a hunger strike and he is doing so well to see that happen!

 

[Mrhappy]

I’ve been following your build from the beginning. Love the work you have done.

 

[SlowAndStupid]

Put the fish into the main tank about 20 minutes before lights out this evening, just after a big meal for the copperband. Oh boy, the PBT is not happy at all. He tried to rough him up shortly after he went into the tank, and I had to repeatedly chase him away with a bright flashlight. Meanwhile, the copperband was just blissfully minding his business hunting for small meals in the tank.

This was what I was worried about once I made it past the copperband eating phase. Lights went out in the tank for the night, and I put up my mirrors on the tank in the hopes that it will help with aggression in the morning. Will see how tomorrow goes.

 

[smitten with ocean life]

Wishing you the best! Keep those mirrors up for a couple of days at least.

 

[SlowAndStupid]

The PBT did much better after the lights came on this morning. With all the mirrors back up on the tank the aggression was evened out and I have not seen him try to fin the copperband today. The other bit of good news is the copperband also ate both at lunch and dinner feedings. Good to see for day one! I will plan to leave the mirrors up for the next week I think.

 

[Reefer Brent]

Do you still get in the tank?

 

[Baldyreef]

The part I was dreading the most is now complete: the clean up. All water, sand, rocks, and wood have been removed from the old freshwater scape and I have deep cleaned the tank. It is now a clean slate.

Next up is breaking down and cleaning the maintenance room.

 

[SlowAndStupid]

Do you still get in the tank?

If necessary though I try to limit that. Don't want to freak out the fish.