Angela's Dream Tank (for now lol)

[CanadianReefer]

Has anyone ever tried out the biodenitrator? I purchased the korallin one a while back but haven't tried it out yet. I'm excited but apprehensive at the same time. I'm curious to hear from those who have used one of they found it to be a good or bad thing???

 

[Maritimer]

The 300 should be fallow for 76 days, with all of the rock, coral and inverts from all of the smaller tanks in it.

The fish currently in the smaller tanks would remain there for the duration, being treated (if necessary) in situ.

Could the new tangs, when they're finished with QT, go into one of those tanks along with the existing fish?

Random thoughts, reading what appears to be the beginnings of a magnificent project . . .

~Bruce

 

[CanadianReefer]

Anyone have experience with this fish?

www.1fish2fishdartmouth.com/products/maculiceps-tang-acanthurus-maculiceps?variant=25558443336

Sounds like he has a pretty mellow disposition for a Tang. Wonder if he would be a good match for my naso, given that he's pretty mellow as well?? I've heard that the freckle face is a bit hardier too, which can't hurt...

I'd love 1 more Tang, but I don't want anything too aggressive, since I find the purple aggressive enough for my liking. Too bad the Achilles and Sohol are so aggressive because they are beautiful fish...

 

[CanadianReefer]

So I have pieced together the new sump. Turns out it is not so easy to get your fingers in the crevices of the smaller spaces. Definitely not a pretty job, but it will do the trick ;-)

Again, sorry if the pic is upside down. I'm not sure why the site keeps changing the orientation...

 

[Killer Karma]

Looks like its going to be an amazing new tank! This is a good marine ich article if you want to check it out
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forum/index.php?threads/marine-ich-myths-and-facts.23132/

 

[ff2807]

Well, today I received my 300g system (220g + 80g sump). I'm one happy girl! I will finally get to amalgamate all my little tanks into one gloriously large one. I would have gone even bigger, if I could have, but this took 4 strong men and removing all the railings to get it in place. Any bigger and it would have been a no-go.

It won't be up and running for a while, but I figured I'd document it as it progresses... and I may need a little help from you folks along the way!


I can picture my pair of crosshatch triggers swimming around in it now. So exciting!

Awesome tank !!!

 

[CanadianReefer]

I'm about to give up on this hobby :-(

So I put my copperband, naso, and foxface in and all the fish were doing well. I had my purple Tang in the sump, but eventually felt bad for him since he was in QT for nearly 3 months, and decided to put him in my main display so he could really swim without restriction. It took him a day to settle in, but the 3 amigos became 4 amigos and were loving the big tank.

Yesterday I noticed that at certain angles, my purple Tang looked to be covered in dust. He's still eating like a pig and appears to be functioning normally otherwise. I noticed something similar in the tail of my copperband, but he's also eating normally and swimming without issue.

Since it is very difficult to believe this could be velvet, I decided to observe them rather than pull them out immediately.

To further this, I'll explain a bit more. All these fish were QT'd. The purple was QT'd for 3 months! All but the copperband had been in a copper treatment for 30 days while in QT, and the copperband had never shown signs of being anything but heathy the entire time I've had him. Nobody has ever been sick from this lot...

I took every precaution with this new tank. I cycled mostly dry rock. What little live rock was put in had been in a fishless tank for over 10 weeks. Nothing from any of my other tanks made its way to the new one.

I've checked the water parameters daily, and everything is spot on - no ammonia or nitrite and very little nitrate. The tank had been seeded with colony when I was cycling the rock, as well as Tigger pods in anticipation of eventually moving over my Ruby Red.

Long story short, though everybody is still alive, the naso and foxface aren't accepting food today, despite the fact they are not showing any signs of "dust". The copperband and purple Tang are eating without issue, but the purple is covered in dust and I see a bit of a sprinkle on the copperband's tail fin.

I don't know what to do :-( I could pull them out, but without having a clue what this is, I'm not convinced that putting them through that stress without knowing what to treat them for makes sense.

Any thoughts on what this could be, if it is not (I hope to God) Velvet? Any thoughts on what I should do? This is a huge setback to what what otherwise a very exciting project :-(

 

[CanadianReefer]

BTW, I've never had a velvet breakout in any of my tanks...

 

[CanadianReefer]

And there are no corals or inverts of any kind in this tank - only the rock and the fish

 

[Brew12]

I'm so sorry you are going through this. Can I recommend that you try to take a picture or 2 of the affected fish and create a thread in the fish disease section?

 

[CanadianReefer]

I tried to get a picture and video, but it is so tiny you simply can't see it. On the plus side, the foxface ate this afternoon, and so did the naso after some coaxing. He did throw a bit of it up afterwards though... Nonetheless, a step in the right direction. I'm almost certain this isn't velvet. Just wish I knew how to help them. They aren't breathing heavy or acting strange, at the very least. I'll just keep observing.

A piece of good news - I had a baby hippo in QT who wasn't looking awesome. He had ich, which became evident within a day or two of bringing him home... So into the copper he went. He was basically floating at the top for days on end, clinging to a plastic plant. He would sort of eat a few bites but that was it. The last few days, he seems to be coming back around. Today he was swimming around normally. He's obviously not out of the woods and has 2 more weeks in the copper, but there's hope for him

Having said all that, he certainly won't be put in the DT until I have everything figured out and it's safe.

 

[CanadianReefer]

FYI, here's a quick picture of how things are looking these days, for those who are curious [emoji4]

 

[CanadianReefer]

That's about the best I can do in terms of pictures. If you blow it up and look very closely, you'll see the tiny dots

 

[Maritimer]

In his tail fin, yes?

That's a lot of very tiny dots, and there is a part of me that whispers "velvet" - though you say you've never had it, and the timeline sounds all wrong. When was the last time _anything_wet_ - snails, shrimp, crabs, rock - went into the tank?

~Bruce

 

[CanadianReefer]

In his tail fin, yes?

That's a lot of very tiny dots, and there is a part of me that whispers "velvet" - though you say you've never had it, and the timeline sounds all wrong. When was the last time _anything_wet_ - snails, shrimp, crabs, rock - went into the tank?

~Bruce

Never. The only thing that went into the tank was the dry rock that I seeded and cured myself, and a small amount of live rock. The live rock had been in a fishless tank for over 10 weeks, so it wouldn't make sense that velvet or ich would have came from that. That's why velvet would be so hard to fathom - but at the same time, that's what it looks like to me... I did use live sand (out of a bag, not a tank) so maybe it carried something in it??? I've never heard of that happening though.

I've had ich in another tank, but that tank is nowhere near this one (it's on another floor in the house) and nothing from that tank went anywhere near this one. That tank had gone fishless for 70 some odd days and I still had ich within a few days of putting the fish back in. The difference was that I had put corals in the tank during that time and I would guess it was from that. It was dumb of me, but I had assumed at the time that using coral dip would eradicate anything going in. We learn from our mistakes....

So yeah... A mystery :-(

 

[Maritimer]

Going to give the pros a buzz, and see if they can offer insight or reassurance; @melypr1985, @Humblefish, have you ever seen spots like the ones on that CBB's tail (three posts up), in a situation where velvet would seem impossible (post #47 for timeline)?

~Bruce

 

[Humblefish]

It does look like that may be velvet on the CBB's tail. ;Nailbiting @CanadianReefer You say you QT'd the CBB but he was never exposed to any medications? I don't see any corals in your tank, but did you recently add any snails/inverts? Also, I remember you were going fallow at some point in your DT, but can't remember which disease or how long you went fallow for?

 

[CanadianReefer]

Going to give the pros a buzz, and see if they can offer insight or reassurance; @melypr1985, @Humblefish, have you ever seen spots like the ones on that CBB's tail (three posts up), in a situation where velvet would seem impossible (post #47 for timeline)?

~Bruce

I'm going to go with velvet. It's spread to my naso. Not a blanket, but I see some on its side. That is new.

I'll figure out how to take them out and treat them with copper :-(

I don't know what to do with my copperband. He's such a healthy and interactive fish. I don't think they do well in copper typically. I'm so scared to lose him, especially if I'm wrong with the diagnosis.

Some days, this hobby sucks :-(

 

[Maritimer]

Sometimes I wonder if it isn't the endless challenges and frustrations, as well as the learning and the beauty, that keep me coming back to aquariums. Intelligent creatures seem to require puzzles to solve . . .

~Bruce

 

[Humblefish]

Sometimes I wonder if it isn't the endless challenges and frustrations, as well as the learning and the beauty, that keep me coming back to aquariums. Intelligent creatures seem to require puzzles to solve . . .

This is going to sound harsh, but anyone who wants "easy" should stick with a freshwater aquarium. A reef aquarium in particular is very complex and filled with endless challenges. There's always something going wrong that needs fixing: Fish/coral diseases, nuisance algae, some coral is dying or isn't doing as well as it should, a piece of equipment is causing headaches, etc. etc.

So many reasons why our hobby has such a high turnover rate, and quite frankly only the best of the best survive long-term. You just gotta decide you want to be in that number and then do whatever it takes to overcome the many setbacks you will face. No one is immune to them, we've all had to go through hell to achieve this comfort level where we at least feel like we know what we're doing now.