Brian's First Time Reef Build RSR 250 - (Pic Heavy / Detailed Walk Through)

[BPC10001]

Stopped by my LFS on friday and picked up some snails, hermits & a bioblock I had been seeding in their DT. Grabbed 8 snails (4 each of nerites and astreas) & 3 small hermits. Everyone is nice and happy and crawling around the tank

Snails & Hermit:

And now where the real fun begins....

I added the bioblock to the sump to help finish off the cycle / make sure i'm totally stable and ready to go. The block had been sitting in the DT at my LFS for ~4 weeks and was brimming with life including some small brittle stars and good microalgae growth. Unfortunately, it seems I got a little Aiptasia as well attached to the block

I don't really want to throw the block out since its fully seeded so i'm wondering if I can just cut that section that he's on out and throw it away. It figures this would happen when I'm starting completely from scratch with dry rock / fishless cycle. It's only a single one I can see for now, but we all know how these guys spread. Should I just throw the whole block out?

In the meantime, I'm setting up two quarantine tanks - one for coral and one for fish. I'm not taking any chances and will be placing everything in there prior to going into my display tank. The snails / hermits i'll leave in the main tank and let that go fallow before I add my first fish. Should match up perfectly timewise with my QT plan.

 

[powers2001]

@BPC10001 you must feed your CUC. There’s nothing in there for them to eat.

Mitch.

 

[BPC10001]

@BPC10001 you must feed your CUC. There’s nothing in there for them to eat.

Mitch.

Thanks, Mitch - I've been adding flake food to the tank for them to munch on! Tank is definitely cycled at this point so next step will be getting some fish.

I am working on setting up my coral / fish QT. We are getting close!

 

[BPC10001]

Well, I've taken the plunge.

Went to the LFS last week and bought 3 easy corals (1 green mushroom, 1 GSP and 1 small red zoa colony). I got two tank bred / raised clarki clowns and everyone is settled in nicely in the display tank.

Zoas

Green Rhodactis Mushroom

GSP

Clowns

I do have a little bit of brown algae / diatom growth going on, but it's keeping my snails nice and happy. I'm not too worried about it at this point as the tank did recently finish a cycle and this is all in the normal course of action.

As I mentioned in a prior post, I have a dedicated quaratine running (40 breeder matched to DT paramaters, bare bottom with a few PVC pipes in) and a dedicated frag tang which I'll be using for all future corals before dropping into the display tank. I know I took a risk adding these clowns without putting them in quarantine, but I felt I had a pretty good shot given they are tank raised / bred and from a trusted store. I've been keeping a very close eye on them to make sure there are no issues. I've noticed some "scratching" from one of them, but they are both eating well and I don't see any issues that warrant moving them to quaratine at this point.

On the topic of quaratine. Yesterday I picked up 4 additional fish which are going to sit in quarantine for the next 6-8 weeks for observation before going into the DT. I picked up:

• 1x Diamond Goby
• 1x Hippo Tang
• 1x Sixline Wrasse
• 1x Azure Damsel

The quarantine tank is matched to display tank parameters:

• Water Temp: 78
• Salinity: 1.025
• Filtration: HOB Aquaclear 70 with cermaic biomedia / sponges that have been soaking in my DT sump
• Water movement: Small Sicce Powerhead; switching this out when my new koralife powerhead gets here this afternoon
• Other
  • SeaChem ammonia badge alert
  • 2x 3" PVC pipes for the fish to hide in
  • 100w Jager Heater
  • Bare Bottom, though will likely add a small cup of sand for the wrasse
  • Dosed with additional Dr. Tim's when I added the fish yesterday

I brought the 4 fish home yesterday and started them on a drip acclimation. I checked the salinity and temperature from the store and it was exactly the same between my quarantine and the bags they were in. Fish sat in drip acclimation for 60 minutes plus and then were added to the QT.

This morning, I woke up to unfortunately find that my hippo tang had passed. I know they tend to play dead, but this little guy was unfortunately stiff as a board / no gill movement. The other 3 fish seem to be fine (wrasse / damsel hiding, but did eat, Goby eating like an absolute pig) so I have to assume the poor little tang was just overly stressed. I know the fish store recently got these in, though I'm not sure how recent it actually was....I will be calling them when they open to have a talk. I know these tangs are finnicky but I have to say, this one didn't look good from the moment I put it in the QT.

That's my update for now - i'll do another post shortly as i'm in the process of setting up my frag coral tank. Will keep everyone updated on the progress of the QT fish, but hoping to have them moved over in the next ~45 days if I don't see any obvious signs of illness. I do have copper / prazipro on hand should anything pop up.

 

[BPC10001]

Well, just walked in to check on my QT fish. Stepped on something on the way in and realized it was my diamond goby. Guess he decided he wanted out….

Down to the six line and the damsel now. I unfortunately didn’t find the Goby in time. QT is not really going as planned.

 

[BPC10001]

Went back to the LFS today. Tired to explain situation and told them I've been doing everything by the book. Store personel where great (per usual) and replaced the hippo for free, no questions

Brought another little guy home and this time took extra precautions. Drip acclimated the fish for 90+ minutes, made sure the salinity matched perfectly and then introduced him to his new (temporary) QT home.

I'm happy to say, within 15 minutes, this guy was out cruising the tank and has just been demolishing food. He looks way healthier / happier than the last one, so I'm hopeful I'll be able to keep him for a while

Baby Hippo out cruising with the Damsel

Sixline being a little jerk (per usual)

Everyone seems healthy & happy. Will be keeping a close eye and starting prophylatic copper / prazi treatment on Monday. Want to make sure they have a few days of being well fed & are adjusted to the tank.

 

[Gedxin]

Enjoyed reading your build thread. Sorry to hear about your two fish losses, that's got to be tough. Good luck with the QT and your continued adding of livestock! It's an exciting time (I'm right there with you!)

 

[BPC10001]

Enjoyed reading your build thread. Sorry to hear about your two fish losses, that's got to be tough. Good luck with the QT and your continued adding of livestock! It's an exciting time (I'm right there with you!)

Thanks, @Gedxin ! I'm going to tag along and follow your build as well.

 

[Gedxin]

Appreciate it! What'd you decide to do with you aptasia-riddled brick? Cut out the piece?

 

[BPC10001]

Ha! That was an entire saga in itself.... you can read about that here:

Aiptasia on LFS Seeded Bio-Block

Hi All, I've been working over the past few months on setting up a brand new reef tank (check my build thread). I wanted to do everything by the book so I started the tank from dry rock, did a fishless cycle, am in the process of setting up two QT tanks (one coral / one fish) and reading...

www.reef2reef.com

the "sparknotes" version:

• I posted about it in the "hitchiker forum"
• Everyone told me to just get rid of it / quaratine it
• I cut the Aiptasia off and put the block back in my sump
• I checked the block the next day and it was absolutely covered in Aiptasia
• I threw the block out and walked away with my tail tucked between my legs

 

[Gedxin]

Ha! That was an entire saga in itself.... you can read about that here:

Aiptasia on LFS Seeded Bio-Block

Hi All, I've been working over the past few months on setting up a brand new reef tank (check my build thread). I wanted to do everything by the book so I started the tank from dry rock, did a fishless cycle, am in the process of setting up two QT tanks (one coral / one fish) and reading...

www.reef2reef.com

the "sparknotes" version:

• I posted about it in the "hitchiker forum"
• Everyone told me to just get rid of it / quaratine it
• I cut the Aiptasia off and put the block back in my sump
• I checked the block the next day and it was absolutely covered in Aiptasia
• I threw the block out and walked away with my tail tucked between my legs

Oof, what a brutal first hitch hiker experience. My condolences you had to deal with arguably the worst from the beginning! I have some F Aptasia just in case it pops up in my tank. It sounds like you've got some tools on hand to deal with future pop ups now at least! I've so far only dealt with asterina starfish and bristle worms, and I hope it stays that way!

 

[BPC10001]

Oof, what a brutal first hitch hiker experience. My condolences you had to deal with arguably the worst from the beginning! I have some F Aptasia just in case it pops up in my tank. It sounds like you've got some tools on hand to deal with future pop ups now at least! I've so far only dealt with asterina starfish and bristle worms, and I hope it stays that way!

Yeah - what can you do. I'm quickly learning no matter how careful you are, stuff can and will get by. This is nature we are dealing with after all....

I admittedly got a little too excited throwing the clowns / 3 corals into the DT. I'm in the process of setting up a 30L Nuvo AIO that i've got stacked on top of my QT tank. I'm going to use that as a frag tang but also a coral QT. Goal there would be to keep it fishless (not sure how realistic that is) and wait the full 76+ days for the coral to go fallow before moving to the DT.

While I can't eliminate all the risks 100%, i'm going to do everything I can to minimze them

 

[Gedxin]

I honestly did the same thing as you. Added two clowns and 2 corals on the same day to my DT. My clowns appeared to have some parasites so I just got done with a 5-day QT medicine for them. My rationale adding them without any QT was that I didn't have anything else in the tank. Seemed...fine? Future fish I'm buying either fully quarantined (Dr Reef), or I'll do it myself for some period.

Coral though...that's where I'm going to risk things a bit more. Considering I can and have dipped all my corals, I plan to go that route. Short 24hr QT if ordering online (skip if buying from LFS) and then dip and in to DT.

If I'm going to have another tank up 24/7...I'd rather it be another DT. I struggle to justify the perma-QT system (and my wife would struggle to stomach the eyesore.) Heh.

 

[BPC10001]

I honestly did the same thing as you. Added two clowns and 2 corals on the same day to my DT. My clowns appeared to have some parasites so I just got done with a 5-day QT medicine for them. My rationale adding them without any QT was that I didn't have anything else in the tank. Seemed...fine? Future fish I'm buying either fully quarantined (Dr Reef), or I'll do it myself for some period.

Coral though...that's where I'm going to risk things a bit more. Considering I can and have dipped all my corals, I plan to go that route. Short 24hr QT if ordering online (skip if buying from LFS) and then dip and in to DT.

If I'm going to have another tank up 24/7...I'd rather it be another DT. I struggle to justify the perma-QT system (and my wife would struggle to stomach the eyesore.) Heh.

I hear ya there! I'm doing all of this out of a small NYC apartment and I assure you, my girlfriend is not thrilled. It all started with "wouldn't it be cool to have a small tank in main room" to, i've got a reefer 250, double stacked stand with 40 breeder QT / 30 Nuvo AIO QT in the bedroom, 32 Gallon brute "mixing" station, tons of buckets, hoses, parts, etc all under 800 sqft

It's an absolute must on dipping your corals. I did the same with the three I threw in the tank last week and will be doing it with every other that comes home.

I'm going back and forth on the clowns. They are both eating, but one of them to me is scratching more than is normal and is slightly more hesitant than the other to eat. I'm thinking i'm going to move them over to the QT and just do all the fish together (Prazi then copper). I can wait the 76 days on the DT and i'll know i'm good at that point. Problem is, I'm getting my first diatoms / brown algae now and I know i'm going to need to introduce more snails to deal with it. Every time you do that, you reset the clock on your fallow period. Oh well

 

[BPC10001]

Lost one of the clownfish this afternoon. I had noticed he was scratching a bunch and decided to move both of them over to the QT tank on thursday. The one that was scratching refused to eat, was lethargic and got weaker and weaker to the point where he eventually passed. Not sure what the issue was. Aside from the scratching, there were no white spots, I did a FW dip and there were no flukes, so i'm a little confused on this. The other clown has a ton of energy and is eating well / looks great.

I started the QT today on copper. Will be ramping up to theraputic levels over the next ~6 days as to not stress anyone too badly.

 

[Gedxin]

So sorry to hear you lost another fish. That's got to be really frustrating to go through, especially because there's no clear indications what happened (other than scratching.) Crossing fingers your other fish pull through!

 

[powers2001]

@BPC10001 I can’t remember, do you still have your Sixline? Or did you take it back to the LFS? I plan on having one but then again everything in the tank will be considered semi-aggressive so it should be a balance of power.

 

[BPC10001]

@BPC10001 I can’t remember, do you still have your Sixline? Or did you take it back to the LFS? I plan on having one but then again everything in the tank will be considered semi-aggressive so it should be a balance of power.

Still got him. He's in QT with the Hippo, remaining clownfish and the damsel.

He's honeslty not been much of a problem as of late, though I do notice at night, if the clown or damsel go into his corner where he's "sleeping" he will nip at them. During the day, everyone seems to get along.

Of everything in the tank, the hippo tang is actually the most aggressive. It's hard for me to get food to the other fish as the tang will just bully everyone out of the way

 

[BPC10001]

One other weird thing I forgot to mention. My display tank had all sorts of brown algae growing on the sand / rocks as of friday morning.

I was out of town Friday / Saturday and before I left, had moved the clowns from the DT to the QT. When I got back last night, the DT was SPOTLESS. There is not a single piece of algae in the tank. The glass was also covered in what I can only describe as little "bugs" which i'm pretty sure are some sort of copepod.

Not sure how it happened as I think there was way too much growth for my CUC to consume in 48 hours. Nothing has changed (lights still on their normal schedules, corals still in there), except I took the clowns out and i'm not feeding, though I never overfeed my fish and I don't think that was the cause of it in the first place. Another mystery for me to figure out....

 

[powers2001]

One other weird thing I forgot to mention. My display tank had all sorts of brown algae growing on the sand / rocks as of friday morning.

I was out of town Friday / Saturday and before I left, had moved the clowns from the DT to the QT. When I got back last night, the DT was SPOTLESS. There is not a single piece of algae in the tank. The glass was also covered in what I can only describe as little "bugs" which i'm pretty sure are some sort of copepod.

Not sure how it happened as I think there was way too much growth for my CUC to consume in 48 hours. Nothing has changed (lights still on their normal schedules, corals still in there), except I took the clowns out and i'm not feeding, though I never overfeed my fish and I don't think that was the cause of it in the first place. Another mystery for me to figure out....

@BPC10001 Sound like brown jelly disease. Funny thing IME, some nasties disappear as mysterious as they appear. Just part of a cycle. IME nature is always cycling, reef tanks do too and get more diversified as they mature with microflora and microfauna.

Mitch.