jaws789832
Active Member
For the past 2 years I havent really been enjoying the hobby anymore, because of pests and multiple other issues. A few years back, my tank was looking fantastic. A mix of sps and lps, all thriving. then I got struck with vermatid snails. they spread so fast that within 2 months they covered everything. pretty much destroyed all my corals other than softies. I had spikes everywhere, on all the rockwork and all the corals. there was no way I could keep up with them using the traditional methods. so at this point I just said the heck with it, it is what it is. then I noticed an aptasia. I immediatly tried to kill it using aptasia x. No luck, they spread like wildfire. On the bright side they seemed to choke out the vermatid snails because now I dont seem to have any more of thos but the tank is covered in aptasia.
Fast forward to about 6 months ago. I decided to try and get the aptasia under control. tried everything. Aptaisia x, aptasia F, shrimp, berghia, copperband (only thing that worked, cleared them, died of starvation then they returned). All the other fish in the tank are fat and happy, thriving, laying eggs ect. So at this point I decided to try a multi prong attack. The plan is to flood the tank with peppermint shrimp(about 30, as its a 125 gallon tank), get a few aptasia eating filefish, and on the bigger ones use aptasia f. So I ordered the peppermints, 3 lots of 12 from 3 different venders, recieved 2 of them, added them and they are doing a little damage but nothing to write home about. the last 12 was shipped by fed ex overnight and twice took over a week to get here so I got 2 bags of dead shrimp and still waiting on a resolution. vender said he was switching carriers but had to wait for approval.
Now this is the part I am a little upset at because its my fault. I ordered 2 filefish. I was planning on not quarantining, as the tank was a disaster anyways, but since I have had the fish in there for over 8 years at the last minute I couldnt do it. I do keep a sponge in my sump and tons of ceramic bioballs so I hasitly set up a 15 gallon qt tank. Used the sponge from sump and the marine pure bio balls, tank water from a water change, set it up 2 days beforehand and awaited the fish. They arrived lathargic but alive, I acclimated them per the vender's directions, and freed them in the tank. Now if anyone has this fish they probably know that you cant really tell if they are diseased or have ich because they are mottled and spotted already LOL. They were eating but not really thriving. they just sat in a corner nose down all day untill feeding time then would eat and go right back into the nose down position. I also threw a couple of aptasia in there just to get them used to it but they never touched them. I did 3 gallon water changes every other day. monitored the ammonia alert badge (big mistake) and dosed stability as per the directions. About a week later both of them were belly up. I was upset (in my 8-10 years in the hobby these were the first fish that I killed other then arriving DOA) so I wondered what went wrong. Broke out my trusty kits and checked the water to find that my ammonia was over 5ppm. So none of the supposedly tried and true methods worked. Ammonia badge never read, seeding from existing tank did nothing and stability failed. they probably wouldnt have lasted week if it wasnt for the water changes and me making sure I sucked out the uneaten food.
So now I decided I am still going to get the filefish but I am going to cycle the qt tank properly. so now to my current dilemma. Tank has been up for about 4 weeks now. I added a shrimp for the cycle, used unseeded media, but still used stability. within a day I had 3ppm ammonia and 5ppm nitrite. I was thinking this is going to go fast, if ammonia is converting to nitrite already and nitrite to nitrate.... boom almost done. Well 4 weeks later and nothing has changed. Is it possible for a cycle to get stuck?
If anyone has any suggestions on anything I put in this post would love to hear it. This is my last ditch effort. If this doesnt work I am just going to tear the whole thing down,kill everything inside and maybe get a smaller tank and start all over.
Fast forward to about 6 months ago. I decided to try and get the aptasia under control. tried everything. Aptaisia x, aptasia F, shrimp, berghia, copperband (only thing that worked, cleared them, died of starvation then they returned). All the other fish in the tank are fat and happy, thriving, laying eggs ect. So at this point I decided to try a multi prong attack. The plan is to flood the tank with peppermint shrimp(about 30, as its a 125 gallon tank), get a few aptasia eating filefish, and on the bigger ones use aptasia f. So I ordered the peppermints, 3 lots of 12 from 3 different venders, recieved 2 of them, added them and they are doing a little damage but nothing to write home about. the last 12 was shipped by fed ex overnight and twice took over a week to get here so I got 2 bags of dead shrimp and still waiting on a resolution. vender said he was switching carriers but had to wait for approval.
Now this is the part I am a little upset at because its my fault. I ordered 2 filefish. I was planning on not quarantining, as the tank was a disaster anyways, but since I have had the fish in there for over 8 years at the last minute I couldnt do it. I do keep a sponge in my sump and tons of ceramic bioballs so I hasitly set up a 15 gallon qt tank. Used the sponge from sump and the marine pure bio balls, tank water from a water change, set it up 2 days beforehand and awaited the fish. They arrived lathargic but alive, I acclimated them per the vender's directions, and freed them in the tank. Now if anyone has this fish they probably know that you cant really tell if they are diseased or have ich because they are mottled and spotted already LOL. They were eating but not really thriving. they just sat in a corner nose down all day untill feeding time then would eat and go right back into the nose down position. I also threw a couple of aptasia in there just to get them used to it but they never touched them. I did 3 gallon water changes every other day. monitored the ammonia alert badge (big mistake) and dosed stability as per the directions. About a week later both of them were belly up. I was upset (in my 8-10 years in the hobby these were the first fish that I killed other then arriving DOA) so I wondered what went wrong. Broke out my trusty kits and checked the water to find that my ammonia was over 5ppm. So none of the supposedly tried and true methods worked. Ammonia badge never read, seeding from existing tank did nothing and stability failed. they probably wouldnt have lasted week if it wasnt for the water changes and me making sure I sucked out the uneaten food.
So now I decided I am still going to get the filefish but I am going to cycle the qt tank properly. so now to my current dilemma. Tank has been up for about 4 weeks now. I added a shrimp for the cycle, used unseeded media, but still used stability. within a day I had 3ppm ammonia and 5ppm nitrite. I was thinking this is going to go fast, if ammonia is converting to nitrite already and nitrite to nitrate.... boom almost done. Well 4 weeks later and nothing has changed. Is it possible for a cycle to get stuck?
If anyone has any suggestions on anything I put in this post would love to hear it. This is my last ditch effort. If this doesnt work I am just going to tear the whole thing down,kill everything inside and maybe get a smaller tank and start all over.
