It's all @Paul B's fault... my journey to an immune reef (hopefully!)

[Land Shark]

I ordered a 18 v uv and when it gets here I am planning on hooking it up to feed from the overflow section of the sump. The water coming directly from the dt will be pumped into the uv from the sump and pumped back into the same section of the sump. Being that this is the same section that my ozone feeds into the skimmer, the refugium section, which is next, should have a low parasite count. Hopefully any new additions should have time to build up some resistance before being added to the dt.

The OP recommends sizing UV at what works out to 1/3 watt per gallon. Did you mean 18v or 18w?

 

[fishybizzness]

Sorry, 18 w

 

[fishybizzness]

I have a 55 gal dt and a 30 gal sump, about 1/2 full. Comes out pretty close to the required w per gallon.

 

[Land Shark]

I have a 55 gal dt and a 30 gal sump, about 1/2 full. Comes out pretty close to the required w per gallon.

Sounds good! Let us know how things progress...

 

[fishybizzness]

Will do

 

[MnFish1]

Nice pictures Gweeds, and I don't see no Ich. Not even on those ich magnets, Tangs. But no matter how many pictures you, Atoll I or others post, there are doubters that won't believe fish, including tangs should never get sick.

The fact that there is no ich on these fish doesn't mean 'fish, including tangs should never get sick.'. I'm also not sure that tangs are 'ich magnets' (though it seems a common idea). Tangs can become immune to ich just as other fish can.

No offense to Gweeds - the tangs in this tank look malnourished.

 

[Paul B]

I could use a little malnourished looks myself.

 

[Land Shark]

Fishybizzness followed this method to the best of his knowledge. This begs the question as to what is the average success rate of this method? 100%? 50%?

 

[Nopy117]

Fishybizzness followed this method to the best of his knowledge. This begs the question as to what is the average success rate of this method? 100%? 50%?

Not sure, I’m trying it out right now on my Nuvo 25 lagoon, got a 9w UV, have been feeding a selcon soaked diet of frozen foods multiple times throughout the day! Fingers crossed! My only worry is I don’t have access to natural seawater.

 

[cancun]

Hi! I also am WAY late to the party.....I have enjoyed the OP and all of his posts, including all the info by Paul.....I have thought that way in the several years I have had a reef tank.....immunity......I don't QT.... I have seen countless fish lost due to QT....now I have mostly Wrasses.....and other than the occasional Fluke they have proven to be really disease resistant. This is a great topic that has always interested me. I hope this thread keeps on going!

 

[Greenstreet.1]

Not sure, I’m trying it out right now on my Nuvo 25 lagoon, got a 9w UV, have been feeding a selcon soaked diet of frozen foods multiple times throughout the day! Fingers crossed! My only worry is I don’t have access to natural seawater.

No everyone use natural seawater if I remember correctly Atoll don’t use it.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Fishybizzness followed this method to the best of his knowledge. This begs the question as to what is the average success rate of this method? 100%? 50%?

That is my reason for not following, i dont doubt you can have a successful tank in a parasitic management tank.

I doubt mine or the average reefers success in attempting.

Reading through this forum and others most disease threads are on new tanks or new to the hobby.

I think would go along way to ease my nerves if there was a poll of mature tanks(for this purpose ill say 3yrs+) running parasite management.

How many without disease incidents and how many with. For this poll i would also consider inverts lost to a pest as a disease, for the inverts make the tank a reef.

Btw that moment your at the lfs for a specific fish only, but somehow still spend $30 on food when they dont have it. [emoji23]

 

[Gweeds1980]

The fact that there is no ich on these fish doesn't mean 'fish, including tangs should never get sick.'. I'm also not sure that tangs are 'ich magnets' (though it seems a common idea). Tangs can become immune to ich just as other fish can.

No offense to Gweeds - the tangs in this tank look malnourished.

Certainly not malnourished!! Ate like pigs - all of them... all the time! In those pics, the Mata tang could look a little under weight as he was rescued... covered in spots and a (query) bacterial infection. Recovered well and was eating by the time he went - is still doing well now in a friend's tank.

It may be because they weren't in a 4 foot tank like most tangs and hideously overweight... they had near 8.5ft of swimming room

 

[MnFish1]

Certainly not malnourished!! Ate like pigs - all of them... all the time! In those pics, the Mata tang could look a little under weight as he was rescued... covered in spots and a (query) bacterial infection. Recovered well and was eating by the time he went - is still doing well now in a friend's tank.

It may be because they weren't in a 4 foot tank like most tangs and hideously overweight... they had near 8.5ft of swimming room

It wasn't meant as a criticism - it could also be the angle of the pictures. But - 2 of them look thin compared to pictures of the fish in the wild. JMHO. Perhaps they had internal parasites.

 

[MnFish1]

Hi! I also am WAY late to the party.....I have enjoyed the OP and all of his posts, including all the info by Paul.....I have thought that way in the several years I have had a reef tank.....immunity......I don't QT.... I have seen countless fish lost due to QT....now I have mostly Wrasses.....and other than the occasional Fluke they have proven to be really disease resistant. This is a great topic that has always interested me. I hope this thread keeps on going!

There is no doubt that people can have tanks for years without Ich. I have said many times that I don't QT - don't feed Live foods, don't use an Ozonizer or UV and have no Ich in my tank (that I can see) - I have a pair of Goldflake angels that have spawned - and clowns that spawn regularly. I also haven't added anything to my tank (fish or coral wise) for over a year. Do I have an immune tank? Was I lucky? Did I get healthy fish? Did I happen to get immune fish to start? I don't know. But I have the same results as Some here claiming they 'know' their tank is immune.

I think there is benefit to learning from everyone's 'experience'. IMHO my success is that I bought my fish from an LFS that I trust. I have been able to observe the fish (in a reef-type tank with no medications before purchase), when they are eating well and healthy. They are in a bag for less than 15 minutes and are in my tank (so no shipping).

The time I have had problem with disease is when ordering from the low-priced internet based companies - I did it twice to try to lower cost 2-3 years ago - and lost every fish every time. Since then I won't order from the internet.

 

[MnFish1]

Some species of Tangs don't have as strong of an immunity against ich because it isn't necessary. Fish which live in a small section of the reef their entire life need to have a stronger immunity than fish that swim large distances. They swim away from parasites preventing them from reaching dangerous levels.

Curious - Where does the information come from that tangs 'swim large distances' and which species do. When I have seen them on the reef they are always schooling near coral heads.

 

[Kactai]

@Paul B

I'm looking for details regarding your Ozone system and how you run your skimmer effluent over the 4' trough. Do you run an internal or external skimmer?

I use an internal skimmer and I'm not looking to continuously run carbon on my skimmer effluent. I'm still looking for the most cost effective and maintenance effective solution for the filtration part of the "method". UV, Oxydator or Ozone. For a 180g tank - UV has a high upfront cost and bulb replacements, oxydator requires constant refilling of Peroxide and are difficult to find in Canada (I have found a supplier) and Ozone seems to have it's downsides as well like needing to run effluent through carbon and potential for overdosing.

I did find this somewhat low cost ozone generator.

https://www.amazon.ca/Weipro-ozoniz...1-fkmr0&keywords=Ozone+generator+for+aquarium

We have three people experienced in this approach who all use a different method of filtration/parasite reduction. I'm still debating which way to go on this one.

Any and all input appreciated

Thanks

 

[cancun]

There is no doubt that people can have tanks for years without Ich. I have said many times that I don't QT - don't feed Live foods, don't use an Ozonizer or UV and have no Ich in my tank (that I can see) - I have a pair of Goldflake angels that have spawned - and clowns that spawn regularly. I also haven't added anything to my tank (fish or coral wise) for over a year. Do I have an immune tank? Was I lucky? Did I get healthy fish? Did I happen to get immune fish to start? I don't know. But I have the same results as Some here claiming they 'know' their tank is immune.

I think there is benefit to learning from everyone's 'experience'. IMHO my success is that I bought my fish from an LFS that I trust. I have been able to observe the fish (in a reef-type tank with no medications before purchase), when they are eating well and healthy. They are in a bag for less than 15 minutes and are in my tank (so no shipping).

The time I have had problem with disease is when ordering from the low-priced internet based companies - I did it twice to try to lower cost 2-3 years ago - and lost every fish every time. Since then I won't order from the internet.

I totally agree! I love learning from everyone on here......I know people are passionate about QT everything.....and passionate about the way we think. I am glad we can all be open minded and have a educated discussion about it! [emoji16]

 

[Brew12]

Curious - Where does the information come from that tangs 'swim large distances' and which species do. When I have seen them on the reef they are always schooling near coral heads.

Here is one about 2 types of Naso tangs.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00338-011-0770-2
Blue tangs
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1007653318174

 

[MnFish1]

Here is one about 2 types of Naso tangs.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00338-011-0770-2
Blue tangs
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1007653318174

Thanks - not sure this makes the point that tangs shouldn't be kept in (large) tanks. It seems the bigger the tang the further they go from their home base. But - this is off topic here . thank for the links