Is this cycle going ok?

[brandon429]

now you would get a few frags/add them.

proceed in using the reef, stocking it. remember, anything other than salinity and temp I won't discuss because they're guesses, the test kits aren't accepted as accurate in the hobby only guesses. if your ammonia rises slightly in the future, I expect that, it's why we don't want to factor ammonia again on the tank/or have other posted params like nitrate, phosphate etc be posted/they are only guesses and not the real readings a calibrated digital kit benchmarked on a known stock solution would show. you have to get really in depth with testing before it becomes a factor in anything you'll do with that reef.


since you are skipping disease preps, disease now factors in any future challenges along with acclimation. Be sure and read the disease forum: hour long floats are hard on fish/not the right way to acclimate though they'll be fine I bet.

if you start having fish losses, the top two things, the only two things you'd revisit are: acclimation techniques and fish disease preps. you'll be tempted to think a parameter you're measuring with api matters, but it won't be that.

 

[deepsynth]

now you would get a few frags/add them.


since you are skipping disease preps, disease now factors in any future challenges along with acclimation. Be sure and read the disease forum: hour long floats are hard on fish/not the right way to acclimate though they'll be fine I bet.

So should I just relax and walk away. I don’t want to mess around I would rather leave the tank alone

 

[brandon429]

I want to officially ask

what have you read in the disease forum, it's been mentioned a bunch so far

have you read all the stickies, for example? any of the posted threads for help?

 

[deepsynth]

I want to officially ask

what have you read in the disease forum, it's been mentioned a bunch so far

have you read all the stickies, for example? any of the posted threads for help?

Actually nothing. Let me go read. Sorry man

 

[brandon429]

only for this reason: the clowns alone are low/medium risk disease vectors, lots of folks skip preps with them and the majority survive

but a tank that size is destined for mixed species beyond clowns...that's where the important details about acclimation and disease controls will stand out/in Jays forum

 

[ilikefish69]

nce you are skipping disease preps, disease now factors in any future challenges along with acclimation. Be sure and read the disease forum: hour long floats are hard on fish/not the right way to acclimate though they'll be fine I bet.

Brandon - what is the word on floating bags? I’ve done this for all my fish and is first time I’m reading it. Would love to know the reasoning behind it. I also have not QT my fish, as the first two that went in weren’t QT, so I figure I had missed my window of opportunity

 

[ilikefish69]

Also holy cow this is a good read

 

[brandon429]

I thought this was a neat thing Jay had mentioned in this thread/lemme find the recent one.

I'm sure lots of fish endure the ammonia backup in the bag if any/but his way below was more of a quicker transfer vs floating in bag:

 

[ilikefish69]

I thought this was a neat thing Jay had mentioned in this thread/lemme find the recent one.

I'm sure lots of fish endure the ammonia backup in the bag if any/but his way below was more of a quicker transfer vs floating in bag:

Also is there a thread on doing retroactive QT? Possibly QT the 10 fish I have (ughhh) and then reintroduce? DT go fallow for the 70ish days to get rid of the stuff and simultaneously QT residents?

 

[brandon429]

I couldnt find the thread/too many posts in my content but it was in the fish forum just a few days ago

for sure Jay was saying that matching the receiving tank's salinity to the source tank for the fish within .003 units of measure is ideal-then just put the fish in if we are ok with disease preps at that stage. he was saying that to go from low salinity to high should be done over the course of many days, in a receiving tank. not hour or hours via bag drip acclimation, so buying fish from places held in very low salinity to be added to a reef invites all kinds of acclimation errors. reefs should be well above .02 for example, i run mine at .025 on average. he was saying to buy fish from stores that sell for reefs and don't extend the acclimation time.

if you are having disease expression then yes that's basically the summary of renewed preps, but if you're not getting anything right now many would recommend to hold course.

 

[Dburr1014]

Only ones that come in a kit or bundle are unreliable. Stick to salifert, red sea or hanna

BRS sells "bundles" of different brands. They might be cost effective.

 

[ilikefish69]

I couldnt find the thread/too many posts in my content but it was in the fish forum just a few days ago

for sure Jay was saying that matching the receiving tank's salinity to the source tank for the fish within .003 units of measure is ideal-then just put the fish in if we are ok with disease preps at that stage. he was saying that to go from low salinity to high should be done over the course of many days, in a receiving tank. not hour or hours via bag drip acclimation, so buying fish from places held in very low salinity to be added to a reef invites all kinds of acclimation errors. reefs should be well above .02 for example, i run mine at .025 on average. he was saying to buy fish from stores that sell for reefs and don't extend the acclimation time.

if you are having disease expression then yes that's basically the summary of renewed preps, but if you're not getting anything right now many would recommend to hold course.

LFS keeps fish at 1.019, mine at 1.025, that is very good to know. I am planning on purchasing from them a falco hawk fish, and will try out a light QT on him, dip the toes in if you will, and then also try to increase salinity much slower than I have in the past. Thanks for trying to look it up for me, I’ve got plenty of time to work today to search myself as well lolol

 

[brandon429]

Found the acclimation thread

Need help! Fish are dying but inverts are fine

150g DP (first fish 9/5/22) 55g sump theiling roller mat for filter 3- AI Hydra 32's used a blend of white rock and "life" rock Sand bed is about 1-1/2 inches thick Neptune Apex (PH Temp ORP) Dr Tims One and Only had been added occasionally, especially after adding new fish Fish Status...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[brandon429]

In my opinion this hobby didn’t know that thousands and thousands of fish losses blamed on cycling, the .25 we expect to see now, were actually acclimation kills. I didn’t know until recently it was that big of a deal, I just knew it wasn’t ammonia control issues causing the very very few losses of fish found within the first week of installation

I learned from Jay there that increasing is a big osmotic shock to fish systems / days long acclimation


which informs me further: the art of not buying fish and adding them right to the display has side benefits, it’s not just about bare tank quarantining to scare fish or to give them meds

receiving tanks that are fallow pass-through setups for disease control can also be salinity adjustment setups. You adjust that initial receiving tank only slightly higher than the fish bag, tested on your salinity meter of course.

what good does salinity matching do if it’s not our same meter, I tell friends in cycling chats now to take their own salinity meter to the lfs to know the real deal their home tank presents vs the holding water. Ammonia was never killing any fish during cycles

now that we get to know acclimation techniques better, imagine the thousands of fish preserved once we attach acclimation technique AND disease prevention to updated cycling rules. They’re more important than ammonia fear, that part works itself out by day ten maximum we can see on common charts. New tankers need to know the juice out of the bottle worked fine. Now time to read up five straight days on fallow, quarantine, and acclimation…the real fish killers.

 

[ilikefish69]

In my opinion this hobby didn’t know that thousands and thousands of fish losses blamed on cycling, the .25 we expect to see now, were actually acclimation kills. I didn’t know until recently it was that big of a deal, I just knew it wasn’t ammonia control issues causing the very very few losses of fish found within the first week of installation

I learned from Jay there that increasing is a big osmotic shock to fish systems / days long acclimation


which informs me further: the art of not buying fish and adding them right to the display has side benefits, it’s not just about bare tank quarantining to scare fish or to give them meds

receiving tanks that are fallow pass-through setups for disease control can also be salinity adjustment setups. You adjust that initial receiving tank only slightly higher than the fish bag, tested on your salinity meter of course.

what good does salinity matching do if it’s not our same meter, I tell friends in cycling chats now to take their own salinity meter to the lfs to know the real deal their home tank presents vs the holding water. Ammonia was never killing any fish during cycles

now that we get to know acclimation techniques better, imagine the thousands of fish preserved once we attach acclimation technique AND disease prevention to updated cycling rules. They’re more important than ammonia fear, that part works itself out by day ten maximum we can see on common charts. New tankers need to know the juice out of the bottle worked fine. Now time to read up five straight days on fallow, quarantine, and acclimation…the real fish killers.

truly I think acclimation is something that has fallen through the cracks in terms of proper fish handling and care. you should see the "acclimation guide" the LFS sends everyone home with when they buy new fish. Float, drip until bag is tripled over an hour, and drop it in. All of those ideas are almost completely backwards from what this says. Really scary stuff.

 

[ilikefish69]

In my opinion this hobby didn’t know that thousands and thousands of fish losses blamed on cycling, the .25 we expect to see now, were actually acclimation kills. I didn’t know until recently it was that big of a deal, I just knew it wasn’t ammonia control issues causing the very very few losses of fish found within the first week of installation

I learned from Jay there that increasing is a big osmotic shock to fish systems / days long acclimation


which informs me further: the art of not buying fish and adding them right to the display has side benefits, it’s not just about bare tank quarantining to scare fish or to give them meds

receiving tanks that are fallow pass-through setups for disease control can also be salinity adjustment setups. You adjust that initial receiving tank only slightly higher than the fish bag, tested on your salinity meter of course.

what good does salinity matching do if it’s not our same meter, I tell friends in cycling chats now to take their own salinity meter to the lfs to know the real deal their home tank presents vs the holding water. Ammonia was never killing any fish during cycles

now that we get to know acclimation techniques better, imagine the thousands of fish preserved once we attach acclimation technique AND disease prevention to updated cycling rules. They’re more important than ammonia fear, that part works itself out by day ten maximum we can see on common charts. New tankers need to know the juice out of the bottle worked fine. Now time to read up five straight days on fallow, quarantine, and acclimation…the real fish killers.

this LFS was keeping their fish in 1.012. Imagine the rate of change in that acclimation. Completely disregard the whole idea of 'cycling' because with this type of acclimation, no fish would ever make it into the DT. How fast can the hobby CYA ? lol

*Acclimating process (in a speciman container adding 1oz. of tank water ever 5min until salinity reaches 1.020+)(this usually takes 2-3 hours)
starting Salinity was ~1.012
as the salinity reached 1.018 and about 2 hours had gone by the fish were swimming at an upward angle and starting to lay on the ground of the container and struggling to breath
I scrambled to put a hospital tank together but to no avail they both died within 6 hours of getting them home and trying to acclimate them.

 

[Jwise]

Red sea test kits are super accurate and have a super slim margin that the tests are within.

 

[deepsynth]

Well to give an update. The two clowns are still alive. I don’t know how but they are. They still don’t look in great condition

salinity is 1.026

 

[ilikefish69]

Well to give an update. The two clowns are still alive. I don’t know how but they are. They still don’t look in great condition

salinity is 1.026

clowns could live in a toilet bowl. Sorry to hear of this I would avoid that fish store if their tanks are 1.012, it would take a lot of time to properly get them acclimated. my LFS runs at 1.020 and it's frustrating but they do it to keep costs down.

I am also looking at completely reworking my acclimation process after this post. I've noticed the first couple of minutes even after a long acclimation there is heavy breathing, so I know I'm not doing what I should be doing either.

 

[brandon429]

Really good input thread for sure good to have as a read for new cyclers