Lurking danger 75g Dragon Lair

[vlangel]

I decided to buy a Coralife Turbo Twist 12Xs UV sterilizer that is 36 watts. I can plumb it inline with my BioMaster canister which is a nice clean way to incorporate a UV to my tank. The BioMaster allows me to turn a valve to cut the flow by 50% without damage to the motor of the canister which will optimize the parasitic control aspect of the sterilizer. I don't know that I will get it soon enough to save the foxface or the Midas blenny which seem to be the worst effected fish but it will provide some amount of protection for future fish.

 

[vlangel]

I see that my UV sterilizer shipped. I believe it should be here by Monday when we get home from Nashville. It will be good for future fish, (which I wont be getting any for a couple of months).

The fish that are left don't love eating the medicated food. They do eat some but not all of it. This morning I fed their first feeding without meds and they gobbled it down. Its a balancing act to make sure that they are being medicated but also adequately nourished. I plan to add meds to tonight's meal and I will repeat this plan tomorrow.

If I had to guess (fingers crossed) I am thinking that for the most part the disease has run its course. I don't see the Midas and he might be holed up somewhere dead or dying but everyone else looks pretty good. If that is the case its a bummer but I still have a cardinalfish, a Solon wrasse, a Foxface, a Hawkfish, a Bridled goby, a Masked goby, a ywg, a neon cleaner goby and a firefish goby. I also still have the aged percula, clownfish Perky in the 20g in the cabinet and will move him up to the display in a month or so. (That 20g can be an acclimation tank to observe new fish in the future where they have a more natural enviroment than an austere QT, but where they are not immediately put in the main population.) If we get back from Nashville and still have all of these guys I will feel pretty good that we are through it. So if it plays out this way; although it was bad it wasn't a complete crash and that is something to be thankful for.

Another cool thing is Dave bought me a mini web cam for my birthday. I set it up and can easily see if things appear to be operating normal with the aquarium: flowing feather dusters, water level, surface rippling, clarity of water and fish swimming. That will give me peace of mind when we travel.

 

[vlangel]

As expected the Midas passed . So it seems the only fish that exhibited sickness and survived was the foxface. The remaining fish that I have left never showed symptoms of sickness. Perhaps the meds helped it not to spread and most certainly helped the foxface.

So today I plan to do a big water change, clean the tank up and no medication until I come back from Nashville. Once I return I will look at the tank and decide what course of action to take from there.

 

[vlangel]

We got back from Nashville Monday evening. All the fish were still alive and looking pretty good so I feel the worst is over. Also the new UV sterilizer that I ordered was waiting for me on the patio.

When it comes to UV sterilizers, I've heard that one should go big or go home. So I bought the big Turbo Twist 12Xs, 36watts rated for 300g. I wasn't exactly picturing just how big this unit is, LOL. I probably should have gone smaller.

I set it up with different configurations trying to keep it discreet. The 3rd time was a charm. Changing bulbs isn't going to be the easiest but I don't plan to have it on 24/7 either, so hopefully that will just be an every other year event. The main thing is its installed, it works and there are no leaks!

 

[vlangel]

The tank seems mostly settled down so, where do I go from here?
I plan to let the UV sterilizer run and do 12g water changes for the next 2 weeks. Then I will add my aged percula clownfish (from the 20g in the cabinet) and see how it does. I expect that Perky will do fine because I have used water from the 75g and added it to the 20g so I am sure that he has been exposed to ich.
Next I will let the tank run for 2 months with the UV sterilizer and doing my 10% water changes every week. I will also cut back on feeding since I have only 10 fish and not 17. These steps should improve water quality and also reduce the amount of ich in the tank to a manageable level. From there I will begin stocking again.
The 20g will be empty so I will add new fish to it for observation for a few weeks. That should further reduce the risk of and manage disease in the 75g. I will also feed all the fish medicated food when I am buying and getting ready to add new fish.

 

[vlangel]

Today I caught Rice Krispies, the murderous pistol shrimp who lived in the 20g with Perky. That was a bit of an ordeal with the huge live stoney coral that was in there. Rice Krispies dropped both his claws even though I didn't think that I was that rough with him. He's in a tiny 2 and a half gallon aquarium with a nano filter. I sure hope he will be ok.

Now the 20g can be treated with Prazipro when I buy more fish in 3 weeks or so.

 

[vlangel]

This morning I thought Rice Krispies had died and I was very sad. I figured the stress must have been too much for him.
It turns out that Rice Krispies had merely molted and the pistol shrimp is doing fine. Rice Krispies is very excited about frozen food or pellets added to his aquarium and appears to be eating heartily. I think he is going to be ok.

 

[vlangel]

I've been noticing the temperature creeping up the last 2 weeks or so. At first I thought that I must not have my inkbird temperature controller set properly as the directions were confusing to me. However I watched some YouTube videos and am confident the controller is correctly set. This afternoon the temperature was 79.9°F which is unacceptable. If the controller is set to turn off the heater at 77°F then some other equipment must be generating heat. I was almost ready to turn off the old tunze nanostream when I remembered the new UV sterilizer. Then I knew where the heat was coming from. I unplugged the sterilizer and the temperature has come down 2/10th in an hour or so. I guess I will have to watch that closely while I am sterilizing.

 

[vlangel]

I didn't get to my waterchange on Friday but I got to it today. When I got done with the waterchange I decided that I would blow any detritus off the rockwork and to my surprise I didn't get any to speak of. I have to assume from that, that my flow is effectively keeping the detritus in suspension until it gets filtered out, which is great. I will check PO4 and NO3 soon.

 

[vlangel]

Tinkerbell, my Solon fairy wrasse jumped out a small hole I have cut in the back corner for the canister inlet & output tubing. Luckily I was on the sofa when it happened. I was quick enough to prevent him from becoming fish jerky but not fast enough to catch him before he hit the floor. He seems OK, he came out to eat some dinner. I sure didn't expect a fish to squeeze out of that hole. I am not sure how to remedy that, I may have to think on that.

 

[vlangel]

I worked on the hole where the wrasse jumped and no fish are gonna jump there again.

The other side is trickier since that is where the auto feeder is set up. The corner is blocked off but there obviously needs to be a hole for the flake food to enter the tank.

 

[vlangel]

I moved Perky, the aged percula clown up from the 20g in the cabinet to the 75g display. He will be happier in a bigger world and that will leave the 20g empty to start a fallow period. I will enjoy seeing him in the display as it looks a little empty since I lost 8 fish to disease. I will think about buying new fish mid/late summer to move into the 20g which will be treated with Prazipro. When they have been observed for a few weeks/month and if they appear healthy, then they can be moved to the 75g. At that time the UV sterilizer will be turned on and these measures should help manage disease.
With being on the brink of spring I am less focused on the aquarium because the outside gardens and such are calling me so I don't think this plan will frustrate me. Plus I am still buying more coral at a local show in April!

 

[vlangel]

This morning my half hour Friday waterchange turned into a 3 hour ordeal! I am sure that never happens to any of you! It started with me deciding to add to the waterchange, cleaning the prefilter. No biggie, I've done that a handful of times now without a problem. Except this time the canister filter was acting up when I put the prefilter back and turned it on. I decided to take a peek at the impeller to see if it needed cleaned. It did but I had a horrible time getting it out. Like everything else on this filter, the first time something is opened, its is very hard to move. It didn't help that aquarium grime had settled in around the impeller and its housing. Finally I had to ask Dave if he could open it for me and even he needed channel locks, a screwdriver and a small hammer. He did get it opened without breaking it, which I was afraid that I was going to do. I will say that the impeller to this Oase filter is the best made impeller that I have ever seen (and I have taken a lot of pumps apart when I serviced tanks for the Seahorse)! It is sturdy with O rings on the top and bottom. Anyway I got a toothbrush and some Q tips and cleaned the impeller and the housing and then put it back together. Well almost,,,I had everything back up and running when I realized that I had forgotten a locking arm that went over the impeller housing!!! Uhhg, mind you that I couldnt get the top plate over the impeller off without Dave's help so how important was that locking arm anyway? Still, I took it all apart again and added the locking arm. This was all before even a drop of water had been changed. Anyway everything got done and the tank is back up and running and I am more familiar with the canister now.

 

[TheWB]

This morning my half hour Friday waterchange turned into a 3 hour ordeal! I am sure that never happens to any of you! It started with me deciding to add to the waterchange, cleaning the prefilter. No biggie, I've done that a handful of times now without a problem. Except this time the canister filter was acting up when I put the prefilter back and turned it on. I decided to take a peek at the impeller to see if it needed cleaned. It did but I had a horrible time getting it out. Like everything else on this filter, the first time something is opened, its is very hard to move. It didn't help that aquarium grime had settled in around the impeller and its housing. Finally I had to ask Dave if he could open it for me and even he needed channel locks, a screwdriver and a small hammer. He did get it opened without breaking it, which I was afraid that I was going to do. I will say that the impeller to this Oase filter is the best made impeller that I have ever seen (and I have taken a lot of pumps apart when I serviced tanks for the Seahorse)! It is sturdy with O rings on the top and bottom. Anyway I got a toothbrush and some Q tips and cleaned the impeller and the housing and then put it back together. Well almost,,,I had everything back up and running when I realized that I had forgotten a locking arm that went over the impeller housing!!! Uhhg, mind you that I couldnt get the top plate over the impeller off without Dave's help so how important was that locking arm anyway? Still, I took it all apart again and added the locking arm. This was all before even a drop of water had been changed. Anyway everything got done and the tank is back up and running and I am more familiar with the canister now.

It's always something, isn't it?

 

[vlangel]

It's always something, isn't it?

Yes, it is!

 

[vlangel]

Spike the foxface seems to have developed a special friendship with Perky the percula clown. I had noticed that Spike seemed to miss Blondie the kole tang after she was gone. He tried to buddy with Hawkeye the hawkfish but Hawkeye wanted nothing to do with it. It strikes me odd that he would even consider Perky because when he first came into the tank, Ozzie the ocellaris clown was nasty to him and he was forced to throw his spines up at Ozzie. He and Perky often hang together and even rub against one another when the tank is just waking up. Its sweet! Who would think that fish could have a friendship with a fish of a different specie?
In other news, the UV sterilizer seems to stay within about a degree and a half temperature wise with the heater turned off. That's a bit more of a temperature swing than I would like but its doable. It might be more in warmer weather but most likely I will add fish in cooler weather anyway so I can make this work. I plan to only turn on the UV bulb right before adding fish to the display and then running the UV for a couple of weeks after they have been added.

 

[vlangel]

I am still having persistent algae on the sandbed. Its not much on the rock but the astrea snails are always busy cleaning so its hard to know what the rock might look like without the CUC. I think its diatomous because of how it looks. Its not a mat of slimy algae, but rather a rust colored powdery looking algae. The tank is blasted with a plant grow light (4hrs) for the mangroves + the ReefBreeder Photon so that's a lot of light. No doubt that is not helping because the algae is at its worst each day when the grow lights are on. If it is diatomous algae, I am perplexed where the silica is coming from as the tank is over 6 months old and the sand was my old sand. Maybe my tap water? I could try cutting back on how much water change I do and see if that helps. I am feeding less since I have less fish so that is reasonable.

Other than that, the tank is doing amazing. The LPS are so full and puffy, all the palys/zoas are open, the scroll coral is growing and the codium and macros are also growing. The fish also seem to be doing pretty well health wise. I still have a nice combination of fish with differing shapes and color and just adding Perky made the tank seems less empty and more active. He swims more than most clownfish. Spike now eats nori plus always on the lookout for algae growing on the rock.

 

[vlangel]

I see no symptoms of ich/disease in any of the fish so the UV bulb is off and I am back to using the heater plugged into the inkbird for temperature stability.

Friday water change day, except I tested NO3 and PO4 first. Nitrates might have been 2 as there was some color but very little. Phosphates were probably .5 like they usually are. I decided not to do a water change and I didn't even clean the pre-filter in the canister since flow is good. I am dosing some ESV B-ionic nitrate daily to see if I can increase the nitrates a bit. I'd feel more comfortable with them at least at 10. I probably should not feed any more as I dont want phosphates to go any higher.

I added 2 Sea Lab #28 cubes today since I am alternating between using Sea Lab and AFR. Finally I finished off with dosing CheatoGro for trace elements for the macros but also the coral seem to respond well to it.

Everything looks great except the dirty sandbed. I read a post from an aquarist who cleaned up his sandbed by pouring straight Instant Ocean salt through a funnel and tube right onto the sandbed with the pumps off. He was careful not to get any salt on anything else and he let it dissolve. He also removed tank water ahead of time and let his ATO replenish it so the salinity would remain stable. Have any of you tried this? It seems better for the tank than chemiclean if it works.

 

[Tahoe61]

Would not even consider that method. A less than pristine sand beds is much easier to deal with then potential for notable swings in sg.

 

[vlangel]

Would not even consider that method. A less than pristine sand beds is much easier to deal with then potential for notable swings in sg.

I understand your hesitation. The bigger the tank the less impact this should have. I would also think it is best where there is a lot of open sandbed.