320g build/journey/experiment :-)

[Stingray]

Hows everything going? Did your cyno die off yet? Looks great tho.

 

[Greenmaster]

Between work and sick kids I haven't been able to put the time into monitoring and dosing the sodium silicate and since I want to do it properly I'll wait till I have the time and energy. On a side note I got quite the ich outbrake and have started a "Natural" ich treatment/experiment that I think will work. The experiment started on Tuesday afternoon and I have seen major reductions of ich on my tangs (may just be falling off to breed so we will wait and see on that one)... The flame wrasses still have a fair amount of ich on their front 1/4 (I think it's cause the shrimp are scared to get near their mouths) But overall I have seen a reduction. It will take 10 days before I will say if my experiment is being successful or not.

 

[Sea Turtle]

...that's one deep tank! i must have missed this but what's the thickness of your glass? and care to share some details on your ich experiment?:wink:

 

[Greenmaster]

The glass is 10mm + 10mm laminated. I will be sharing more on the ich experiment after I find out if it works or not.

 

[Greenmaster]

I noticed the Ich on my tangs Monday afternoon and proceeded to monitor my tank. I couldn't see Ich on any of my other fish. My tangs didn't stay still enough for me to get a good picture of them, mostly the Ich was on their fins and face. But two of the less dominant ones had Ich all over. I watched closely all afternoon until lights out. When all that was left was the blue LED's I saw more Ich. My wrasses were covered in it. I couldn't see the Ich under normal light but under the blues was a different story.

 

[1986com]

how did you get are that purple to grow so fast on your rocks ??? very nice update wish you the best of luck to your family and great setup BTW

 

[Greenmaster]

It's cyano... not something you want

 

[Greenmaster]

Adding to the saga of trials and "FUN"
Well something has happened that I wasn't expecting... I'm having massive Cyano die off and some type of green algae (that I have wanted to grow) has started growing. But today it was huge the amount of Cyano that was lifting off the rocks or just decomposing where it was. There is still lots there but I would say close to 20% is dead or dieing within just a couple days... I was not expecting this and I don't finish work till later tomorrow so I hope that there are no deaths while it goes through this transition. All of the die off of Cyano is creating an ammonia spike and it's at .5, Nitrites are at .3, and nitrates are at almost 0. I was not expecting the die off to happen so quickly so I don't have any bottled bacteria on hand to help to jump start the populations in the tank... I'll keep you updated over the next 2 days (I have Tuesday off so I'll post Tuesday night if not sooner)

 

[Sea Turtle]

now i'm getting more intrigued by this experiment...

 

[Greenmaster]

So after 10 days there is no sign of Ich... I believe that a combination of three things saved my fish and put the Ich into remission.

1. Lots of Skunk cleaners... I have six or seven Skunk cleaners in my tank and they service most of my fish well, some of them are very bold, jumping onto a fish in open water and cleaning a fair distance from their post. (I also have two Fire cleaners but they don't like to clean.)
2. I added Brine shrimp cysts to my tank... lots every day, I would say that there wasn't one cubic inch in the tank that didn't have hatched brine shrimp filtering the water. Also I don't have a skimmer, UV, or anything else that can kill/remove stuff from the water, so they stay in the water column. Brine shrimp may or may not filter the Ich out of the water, but I felt it may help so I tried.
3. I fed garlic in my food. Not a huge contributor but I feel like it could have made a difference.

 

[Stingray]

Awesome! So is the cycle complete yet? Cant wait for a clear full tank shot.

 

[Greenmaster]

... Ich is gone... the Cyano is still there.