bt's 40B upgrade

[btmedic04]

Nerite Snail eggs by the look of them

oh wow, they do look like nerite snail eggs. They're everywhere throughout the rockwork. I wonder how long until they hatch. Next question is I wonder how I'm going to feed all of them :eek:

 

[Dempsey941]

oh wow, they do look like nerite snail eggs. They're everywhere throughout the rockwork. I wonder how long until they hatch. Next question is I wonder how I'm going to feed all of them :eek:

Apparently the eggs can stay dormant for months I wouldn’t worry about feeding them they’ll just eat the diatoms or what ever algae is on your rock works.

 

[btmedic04]

It's been a while since I've posted an update, so here we go.

About 2 weeks after I added the baby yellow eye kole tang, I noticed what I thought were flukes so I dosed the tank with prazipro. I had no casualties from it but about a week after the last dose, I noticed my green clown goby was showing signs of ich. He is very susceptible to it from my experience, so I put some filter floss in my sump to seed it with bacteria and I purchased an innovative marine 10w uv sterilizer (looks like their media reactor) to see if it would knock it back. I let it ride for about two weeks but it finally reached the point where the clowns started showing a spot or two so that's when I decided that I needed to remove everyone and put them in QT.

Knowing this wasnt going to be an easy task, I came up with a plan. I made 20 gallons of new saltwater in my brute can that was staged next to the tank, then I removed the filter floss and 20 gallons from the tank and put it in the 2x 10 gallon QT systems I have. I then tried to catch who I could which ended up being only the clowns. After that I began removing rock and placing it in the brute can. Next on the catch list was the kole, followed by the gramma (who is ridiculously fast,) orange spotted goby and lastly the green clown goby. Once everyone was out, I began rebuilding the aquascape. It's not quite the same, but it's pretty close and adds a few more spots for some new sticks.

Surprisingly enough the whole process only took about an hour from start to finish. The corals were mad, and I knocked a couple off in the process, but fortunately it was only the glue that separated and was an easy fix. Today everything is open and looking happy and seeing my fish in only white light has confirmed that this was the right thing to do. Blue reef lighting does a really good job at hiding just how prevalent ich can be. The fish are still a little spooked but are eating so I think everyone's going to make it. Now we wait until march 7th before they can go back in the 40b, but I will be leaving one of these 10 gallon setups running to QT any future additions.

Last night after everything went back in

Kole tang and royal gramma ward

Clown and goby rehab center

Todays FTS

 

[Dempsey941]

I’m so thankful that this hasn’t happened to me yet. I know eventually I’m gonna have to setup a qt and just bite the bullet. However that probably wont happen until an upgrade. Just remember to sterilize that brute can otherwise you’ll have to start your clock over!

 

[btmedic04]

I’m so thankful that this hasn’t happened to me yet. I know eventually I’m gonna have to setup a qt and just bite the bullet. However that probably wont happen until an upgrade. Just remember to sterilize that brute can otherwise you’ll have to start your clock over!

Oh yeah, it's currently air drying and will be getting a vinegar bath and air dried again before it's used again. Using bleach still scares me.

Also for what it's worth, petsmart currently has 50% off on aquarium kits. I picked up a 10 gallon with hood, heater, filter, thermometer and net for $32

 

[btmedic04]

Orange spotted goby didnt make it. He was eating and wasnt showing any signs of ich or any other illness so I'm thinking either old age or stress. Everyone else is doing fine

 

[btmedic04]

Here we are, a week later. No further casualties since my orange spotted goby passed. Everyone is looking a lot better. Corals are all looking good in the 40b as well. Things are just motoring along for now.

Tang chowing down some nori

Royal gramma peeking out of his home

Clowns cruising around

Green clown goby looking a hundred times better

40B FTS

 

[btmedic04]

Added a new BTA from a local reefer over the weekend. Was kind of a hard deal to pass up as he was asking $30. Acclimated and set it near my other BTA with only the return pump running and so far it hasnt moved much except to hide its foot in a hole.

All fish continue to improve as well. No more white spots from the ich, however they still have 3 weeks to go before I start removing the cupramine

 

[King Turkey]

looks great!!! I have a 40g breeder also!

 

[btmedic04]

looks great!!! I have a 40g breeder also!

Thank you! This is my first 40B and honestly I cant understand how I lived with only 12" of width for so long. These really are awesome little big tanks

 

[King Turkey]

Thank you! This is my first 40B and honestly I cant understand how I lived with only 12" of width for so long. These really are awesome little big tanks

I agree.

 

[btmedic04]

Took a couple top downs under blues with the filter. Tank is looking good though this weekend I'll be cleaning out the sump. I'm growing cyano down there and it's starting to cover the chaeto.

 

[btmedic04]

Earlier this week, I noticed that I needed to adjust my gate valve in order to maintain water levels in my overflow box. That told me that it was probably time to clean my return pump so I took the opportunity to do some sump maintenance as my tank has been running for 4 months. When I began cleaning, I very quickly realized why my nitrates have been in the 30s range. I haven't run sock since the beginning and the massive ball of chaeto and ulva became the sock o_O

My plan of attack was relatively straight forward. Remove and clean the return pump and skimmer. Next I removed the marinepure plate (which has disintegrated into 5 pieces :mad: ) and scrub the cyano off of it. Next came the marinepure spheres which thankfully didnt require any cleaning since the macros caught most of the detritus. Lastly I grabbed as much ulva and chaeto as I could and put it in a bucket, then used my net to catch the smaller pieces of algae and larger pieces of detritus. The fuge area was a mess at this point, so I took my mj1200 and began vacuuming as much of it out as possible. Much to my surprise (and to its I'm sure) I found my emerald crab with the intake of my mj1200. I quickly cut power and it skittered away. I had sumped it after it ate one of my acans back in september.

Next came the skimmer section which had a pretty good amount of red and green cyano. I scraped off as much as I could and tossed it in the bucket then began vacuuming.

Lastly I took apart the fuge baffles and removed the aquamesh pad, cleaned and returned them into position, returned a handful of chaeto and a handful of ulva then refilled my sump. Total time was approximately 2.5 hours, but I'll let the picture speak for itself. Hopefully this in conjunction with some nopox will get these nitrates back down to reasonable numbers again. As always, thanks for following and feedback is always welcome!

 

[btmedic04]

Note to self, mesh socks will now be used from here on out :p

 

[King Turkey]

Dang sounds like a rough day.

 

[btmedic04]

Dang sounds like a rough day.

And I have nobody to blame but myself. Consider it lesson learned though!

 

[King Turkey]

We all make mistakes. I put new dry rock in my tank once couldn't figure out why I have a huge algae bloom. Did it again and realized the rocks were leaching... so I swar to never add rock again. Stupid rocks

 

[btmedic04]

Tank is looking good. I decided to remove most of the ulva from my refugium since it really limited flow through my sump and collected detritus. I still have a little under the marinepure spheres and can trim it as needed. I also started dosing nopox to get a handle on my nitrates. They were running around 30 and the plan was to tune the dose to get down to 5ppm then tune the fuge to run at around 3ppm. So far things are looking good but I've started feeding the tank a small amount of food daily instead of twice a week. Definitely dont want to bottom out my n and p!

The copper treatment for my fish is complete and is a success. I moved my clowns out of the hospital tank and into my 20L and picked up a bonded pair of yellow watchmen gobies to take the place of my orange spot who passed away. Dozer hasnt ventured much from his cave but I think he'll be happy to have an extra set of eyes. The ywg are currently in QT and will be some of the first to go in once my fallow period ends.

I also picked up a few things to start mixing my own all for reef. A magnetic stirrer is a must if you're going to try this.

Enjoy some pics and videos and as always, I welcome questions and feedback.

 

[btmedic04]

Hopefully the videos show up on this post o_O

 

[Dempsey941]

The only way I’ve gotten videos to work here laying is to post them on YouTube and embed them.