Jason's 300 gallons of frustration and fun

[Radman73]

As posted in another thread I noticed discoloring on one of the anthias this morning. By the time I got a spare tank up to isolate it it was too late as the fish had passed. Appears to have been a bacterial infection. I can only assume this was one of the anthias that primarily stayed hidden and only came out rarely. I'll keep a closer eye on the others and may speed up my general cure application.

 

[Radman73]

Got in my Fluval SP6 and a Marine Depot RF200 acclimation box. One side of the acclimation box is broken. Tried a live chat with MD to no response after 7 minutes so submitted an email. Hopefully they respond fairly quick. I may just give them a call tomorrow if I don't hear back. Hopefully they can just send a replacement for the piece that arrived broken. Excited to get the new pump in. Have visitors and I've pretty much ignored everyone while I worked with the QT fish.

LA handled the refund for the anthias without issue which is as expected.

 

[Radman73]

Props to Marine Depot. I received an email with shipping notification for a new acclimation box last night. Great service.

 

[Radman73]

So, let's see, Black Friday shopping may actually be complete.

New 2016 Apex
Fluval SP6
Gyre XF250
Sicce Syncra 1.5 for the chiller
2 25w Eheim heaters for QT
Filter socks
RODI pressure gauge
Triton test kit for the fun of it(to be used later)
DI Resin refill
Acclimation box

That about sums it up! If a LFS has IO salt on sale again I may pick up another box or two.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

 

[Radman73]

Still seeing some flashing from the anthias and 2-3 of the 5 can be reclusive nearly all day except feeding time so I've dosed the tank with General Cure. Recommendations seem to be all over the map but the most common seems to be to dose again after 5 days rather than 48 hours. So, Tuesday I'll dose again.

 

[Radman73]

Woke up to three more anthias dead this morning. The have brownish markings on their sides. Not particularly thrilled with my QT prowess right now.

 

[Radman73]

Another day, another dead anthias. 5 down, 1 to go. Apparent bacteria infection for all of them. Wrasse and blenny have been fine so far though it's too early for them to out this morning.

 

[Radman73]

Lone anthias is still alive and doing well as are the wrasse and blenny. In fact, the wrasse and blenny have already learned that I'm the food source so if I'm hovering around their tank they both swim towards me like they're expecting food. Anthias is still reclusive when I'm near but out at least some of the time. At some point in a week or so I'll likely move the anthias over into the tank with the wrasse and blenny so I can sanitize that tank and not have to support 2 QT tanks for 3 fish total.

 

[Radman73]

Not expecting to see the last anthias alive tomorrow morning. It's become extremely reclusive again. I misread the dosing directions for furan2 and kanaplex and didn't keep up the dosing. So, not overdosed, just not dosed long enough. I did start the dosing regime for those 2 again today plus metro as it's been 5 days since I last dosed general cure and I've changed out about 50% of the water since then. Copper is still at it's 2.5ppm per Copper Power. Still hoping it pulls through though. Just hate that it's alone. Thinking when I do anthias again, I'll do local. May also just go lyre tail and get a bunch of them.

Wrasse and blenny are in their first dose of general cure as of yesterday afternoon. They are doing well.

Fluval SP6 is installed. The extra power is noticeable. Full siphon establishes itself easier too.

I also moved around the Stream 3 powerheads. I moved them up and more towards the center. Hoping this allows sand to actually stay in the corners! GHA issue is slowly resolving. A little bit of GFO and a little more robust CUC seem to be doing the trick in clearing out and having it not grow back.

Since 1.5 is installed and running for the chiller in the garage. Refilled my DI resin. 2nd was fully expired while first still had some blue left. Reinforces my belief that I somehow back siphoned salt water into the RODI unit . Along the RODI theme I installed the pressure gauge. At 50lbs right before the membrane which is right where it's supposed to be.

New acclimation box came in, unbroken, so it's put together and awaiting the day I manage to successfully QT a fish. Maybe Christmas Day? I like how it has a center divider so I can let one fish out but keep the other in longer if I need to.

My wife gets to wrap everything else up for Christmas!

 

[Radman73]

Not that there's really anything new but:

 

[Radman73]

I'll be shocked if the final anthias is alive tomorrow morning. After a couple of days of doing "okay" the last 2 have seen a significant decline. Yesterday it largely just hid in a pic tube and this evening it's in a corner breathing heavy, not even swimming away when I shine a light on it. It will absolutely suck to be 2 for 8. As for those 2, still doing great. Both act like puppies now when I come to feed the tank.

 

[Maritimer]

Dispars ain't easy . . . I picked up a trio at a Black Friday LFS price I couldn't refuse ... Down to one, she's pretty slender, though she does eat.

I hope that your remaining one manages to turn it around somehow! They do make a heck of an impact in a group.

~Bruce

 

[Radman73]

Dispars ain't easy . . . I picked up a trio at a Black Friday LFS price I couldn't refuse ... Down to one, she's pretty slender, though she does eat.

I hope that your remaining one manages to turn it around somehow! They do make a heck of an impact in a group.

~Bruce

Last one didn't make it. I might just stick with a group of lyre tails since I've read they're hardier.

 

[Radman73]

Wrasse and blenny are still doing just fine. Got them transferred to a sterile QT on Friday and they've been out and exploring their tank over the weekend. If all goes well they should be in the DT next weekend.

 

[Radman73]

Interestingly enough, I'm finally getting some diatoms. At least, I think they're diatoms. Showing themselves mainly on the rock. Perhaps time to refresh the GFO. At least I'm keeping the fighting conch and Mexican turbo's well fed and happy.

Wrasse and blenny still doing great. Expect to introduce them to the DT tonight or tomorrow.

 

[Radman73]

Busy weekend but I was able to add the tail spot blenny and the flasher wrasse to the DT on Saturday! Happy to have new fish to view and they seem to be settling in nicely. The flasher has already buddied up with the orange back. They spent a few hours in an acclimation box but were largely ignored by the clowns and fairy wrasse other than initial curiosity.

Blenny

Wrasse

 

[Radman73]

So, all that Black Friday stuff I let my wife wrap up? ;Woot

2016 Apex is up and running. Need to double check pH as it seems to be reading low and salinity is saying 0 lol! Whatever, time to fix that later this week. Just happy to have the return and skimmer tied to it. And, while doing that, remembered that with a return pumping over twice the water that I moved the return nozzles lower in the tank. Thankfully didn't flood, but it was close. So today I'll shut off flow one return at a time and drill a few siphon breaks.

I now understand why people love their Gyre's so much. Turned mine on and at 50% it cleaned out all of my rocks for me. This thing moves a ton of water.

Later this week I'll get the H380 and garage EB8 all wired up and mounted too. All in all, the tank is coming together nicely.

Good times and a Merry Christmas for sure. Kids made out like bandits as always and I even surprised my wife with a couple of things. Great time with friends and family and a great reminder that friendship and companionship is more valuable than anything material.

A friend bought their son a 13gallon AIO and asked if I'd be willing to help them out. Couldn't be happier to. Told him at the very least I can supply his water for the near and possibly long term future plus some LR to seed whatever they get. Always happy to help someone enjoy this hobby.

 

[Radman73]

Just placed an order with TBSaltwater for some live rock. Plan is to put in in the fuge. This should allow me to slowly inspect for pests and, if there are a couple of pieces I like, move them over into the DT. Didn't go with "The Package" though I was sorely tempted. Just need rock at this point though. Hoping that the diversity of life that real live rock can provide will prove to be beneficial.

 

[Radman73]

Finished up last night’s project. Completely ghetto light hanging job but it works and also let me hang the fuge return. I’m going to need to create a screen/egg crate cover though.

 

[Radman73]

Unfortunately TBS won't be able to fulfill the order so looking for other options that I can still drive to.

Salinity probe reading has been slowly climbing. I think I did read somewhere that it can take days to a couple of weeks for it to settle in and read properly.

I do hear the Gyre a little bit when it's above 50%. A slight high-pitched whine but it's not bad and I can certainly live with it. I can certainly live with the flow it generates!