Aquavim 150 Gallon Corner Tank

[Gumbies R Us]

Picked up my Aussie Live Rock yesterday morning. Gave it a quick dip in SALTY water 1.040 and then right into the DT. It looks awesome. All crazy branches with all kinds of life in them and on them. I used my rock as a base and then just kinda slapped these all together on top and it came out pretty good. Today I turned on the lights and was so surprised at the color that bursted from these rocks. In was not expecting that at all. I will see how the cycle goes and I will also be getting doing an aquabiomics test to make sure all is well, but as of now I cannot say enough good things about Jason Giannas and Pristine Marine Aquariums. His rock is amazing and for anyone interested you can get it here - https://pristinemarineaquariums.com/products/australian-ultra-supreme-live-rock

Sad news from the QT... a few days ago I lost my whitejaw cardinalfish and today my poor Hippo Tang died as well.

Sorry about your loss!

 

[alabella1]

14 days of copper completed. All fish had a 45-60 min Formalin bath and went to their observation tanks where they will stay for a bit. In 7 days or so they'll get some Prazi. A few days ago one of my chromis succumbed to Uronema and this morning another one of the trio also passed on. The final chromis looks very healthy compared to the other two, but I'm VERY VERY nervous about him staying with the rest of the gang because, well, he is a Chromis. He's isolated for now. If there is a way I can ensure I've knocked out any chance of Uronema I'll add him back to the mix, but for now, he's alone.

 

[alabella1]

I totally forgot to add an update from earlier in the week. I went to petco to take advantage of the 50% off tanks to grab a couple 10g tanks for $12. While there I was checking out their fish. This is a rare Petco where they actually have a nice saltwater section and some staff who cares for the fish. That said, I am always hesitant, but they had some beautiful maroon lightning clowns and some healthy looking banggai cards and all were on sale. So I grabbed a pair of each and planned to try my hand at HTTM. I did my first tank transfer on Friday after a 60 min Formalin bath. I added my transexual Bellus in with them who also had a bath and will go through HTTM with them since she/he did not go through the copper. They are all doing well in their 10g tank. The clowns are picking on each other a bit as they are not a mated pair, but I'm hoping the aggression breaks down soon.

 

[alabella1]

Well... after the full HTTM routine, I lost one clown to severe bullying by it's counterpart and I lost the two banggai cards after their second formalin bath. The Bellus Angel and other lightning maroon survived and were moved into observation with the other fish. Today I start both my observation tanks on prazipro. Everyone seems to be doing well, eating well, etc. DT is still going through it's cycle. I am continuing to add nitrocycle and testing periodically to see how fast the ammonia clears. Want to get it good and ready for all these fish. I want this tank to thrive this time so I'm taking my sweet time with everything!! CUC in a couple of weeks and maybe I start turning on the lights for a bit and see if anything ugly happens. Oh, last but not least my chromis is on day 8 of it's 1ml Formalin treatments. I'm going to make sure there is as little chance of uronema as possible before bringing him into gen pop.

 

[alabella1]

Microbiomics reports are in... anyone wanna do some light reading??

 

[alabella1]

Been awhile since I've updated. I think the DT is cycled. I've been adding dr tim's ammonia or nitrocycle nightly following directions to produce an ammonia level of 3ppm and in 24hrs ammonia and nitrites hit 0. Here are some pix of it currently.

Fish are all still alive and kicking in QT. No losses since the petco fish that didn't make it through the HTTM. My one remaining chromis has made it through 16 days of formalin to make sure no Uronema. He's now getting some prazi. The rest of the fish all made it through 3 doses of prazi. I had a bit of a bacterial bloom so I did a huge WC and stopped using tap water for the QTs and went back to rodi and things look much better.

I'm a bit worried about the Vibrio Fortis on the aquabiomics report so I may just treat for that to make sure i covered all bases.

 

[alabella1]

I want to bring over my inverts... or what is left of them... but I'm not confident in their QT. I don't know that their tank stayed at 81 for 6 weeks. The heater in there kinda sucks and I don't trust that it has not dipped. That being said though I desperately want them out of that death trap of a QT tank. I didn't really speak about my woes with this tank, but I have lost, so far - My black and white tuxedo urchin, a longspine urchin, a nice large brittle star, a large red brittle star, a harlequin serpent star, a queensland biscuit star, a huge red serpent star, scarlet cleaner shrimp, tiger tail cucumber, tiger cowry, sand dollar and various snails, hermits and a conch.

I think this is on my tbh. I tried to be cute and setup a tank with some sand for the guys that like to dig. The sand was an old bag out in the garage and it smelled a little off when i added it but i was like... it's sand... well... i had plenty of ammonia issues and bad smells that continued with this sand and probably claimed most of the things that died.

I ended up emptying the tank and going with nice new sand but still... i lost a bunch of snails and hermits and i'm just not sure why. This was my first time QTing inverts so I'm sure I'm doing something wrong. Anyhow. I'm wondering if there is anything else i can do to ensure these snails and hermits are clean before moving them over or if I need to just give it more time.

 

[alabella1]

As for the Coral QT, things are doing well... dare I say thriving compared to in the DT. The DT was killing everything slowly. I am waiting on my Oxolinic Acid to arrive today so I can treat and make sure I've wiped out any and all traces of SCTLD-associated Planktotellea sp. which came up on my Aquabiomics report. So long story short, things are progressing well and in a little over a month, my DT might be looking like a DT again!

 

[alabella1]

Small updates. Lost my chromis who was QT'd on his own. He made it through 16 days of Formalin to make sure no uronema, but after starting prazi he died after 3 days. I'm bummed I lost him, but I'm still learning to QT... and learning I'm not great at it. I ran another round of tests with aquabiomics and sent them off on Friday. DNA and biome on the DT and DNA on my coral frag tank. Want to be sure everything is clean before making any moves. Going to order some QT'd inverts this week most likely to get some life in the DT and then wait on my reports. Once I'm confirmed clean, I'll slowly start introducing fish and coral.

 

[alabella1]

Things have been quiet. Just watching everyone's health and waiting for the 6 weeks at 81 degrees to pass so I can start adding my inverts and coral to the DT. I'm also waiting on my latest reports back from Aquabiomics on the DT and Frag tank. I treated the frag tank with Oxolinic Acid for 6 days. 3 doses on alt days. Everything seems to have made it through treatment just fine and hopefully I wiped out the SCTLD-associated Planktotellea sp.

I had some leftover credit at Dr. Reef's so I ordered a goby and pistol shrimp pair quarantined which I will be observing/treating before adding to the DT for obvious reasons. Also grabbed some QT'd inverts as well to replace those I lost in my own QT. I also grabbed some QT'd inverts with some credit I had to TSM. So this will allow some inverts to be added ahead of my own getting through their own QT.

Yesterday because I can't resist a great deal/am a glutton for punishment, I met up with a fellow reefer who was tearing down her tank and got a huge piece of rock covered in hairy mushrooms, a ton of green and purple hammers and a giant piece of nephthea. I threw them all into their own 20g tank where they will stay for a long time, until I consider them clean. She def. had aiptasia and who knows what else in the tank, so I'm obviously trying to play it safe as possible while still taking care of getting all this cool stuff for FREE!!

Finally, because my little maroon clown was bullied to death I picked up a larger one at Petco and it's on it's way through the HTTM with a prazi chaser, lol.

Experimenting with this schedule.

2/12 - Day 1: fish go in
2/13 - Day 2:
2/14 - Day 3:
2/15 - Day 4: formalin bath, fresh tank
2/16 - Day 5:
2/17 - Day 6:
2/18 - Day 7: fresh tank
2/19 - Day 8razi
2/20 - Day 9:
2/21 - Day 10: formalin bath, fresh tank
2/22 - Day 11:
2/23 - Day 12:
2/24 - Day 13: fresh tank/observe
2/25 - prazi

 

[alabella1]

2/22 - Just did a 30% change on my DT and added some QT'd inverts from TSM. Nice to finally see some things moving around in there. I also created a 6 hr/day lighting cycle. We shall see if any uglies start to pop up but I'm hoping the full cycle, addition of cope/amphipods, inverts and the 6+ weeks of dark prevent it.

 

[alabella1]

TSM inverts, Dr Reef inverts and my remaining QT'd inverts are all back in the DT. Nice to see stuff going on in there! I grabbed a pistol shrimp/wheeler goby from Dr Reef as well. They are currently in day 6 of HTTM. The rest of my fish are ready to roll. I should have my newest Aquabiomics report sometime today or tomorrow and as long as it's clean it's time to add some of my fish from QT. They are all dying to get out of their 30 gal prisons.

 

[alabella1]

Updates GALORE!! Finished the Oxolinic Acid treatment on the DT around 3/15 and it was time to start moving the fishies back in. First ones in were my wheeler goby and yellow pistol shrimp. Not sure where they found a home, unfortunately I have not seen them since. Next up were some little guys. The 2 lightning maroon clowns, the pajama cardinal and the melanarus wrasse. They all did well and are loving their new home. A week later, the Marine Betta, Bellus Angel and Magnificent Foxface joined the fold. Last, but not least, today, I added my Sailfin Tang, Blonde Naso Tang and Humu Trigger. Forgot to add that in this time I snagged a small-toothed whiptail from the LFS and ran him through HTTM w' H2O2 and he went in as well. Before moving fish in today, I also did a good sized water change. So much going on, I also forgot that I finally plumbed in my UV to the return line.

As far as the fish... on the way to the DT, they each got 45 min formalin bath, 5 min freshwater dip and off they went. Want to make extra sure any lingering chance of uronema and flukes were gone. It was almost ALL good news... but unfortunately... I lost my Yellow Tang on 3/23. He had some ups and downs over the weeks. Red face, red mouth, not eating. I tried methylene blue baths a couple times and a metroplex/kanaplex combo but nothing quite seemed to help whatever was ailing him.

At any rate... the long reboot journey for these fish is finally over and they are all in the DT. Next up is coral. They've all been QT'd for plenty of time, but I'm concerned about the ameobic gill disease and dinos that showed up on my last aquabiomics report. I want to get this stuff clean as possible before moving it back to the DT. Now that I'm not juggling 3-4 QT tanks and I can enjoy all my fish in one place, I can focus on cleaning up the corals and slowly introducing them back to the DT. I'm just going super slow and steady on everything and hoping and praying this time will finally be the success I've been dying for. I'll post a pic later on... waiting for the haze from the coral snow to clear out. For now, here is the UV and the sump looking great. Oh, got a new custom cap for my skimmer as well which holds the Apex LLS.

 

[alabella1]

Things are coming along... but unfortunately, I think it might be time to rehome the Humu. He is crushing my CUC and I'm sure he will feast upon my coral. If anyone is interested, let me know!! He's healthy as a horse and eats like an absolute beast. He is full of personality, will spit water at you, a real character. He'll light up any fish only tank!