Meredith's 180 In-wall happy place

[Fr4nkthet4nk]

UPDATE TIME!!

Meet the newest addition to the tank! He's been through a heck of a QT that lasted something like 3 months! I'm writing all about it right now, so that story can wait. For now, just know that he's been through everything a fish can go through. He's pretty skinny now, but he's eating everything I have to offer including Nori daily, LRS fish frenzy, several types of pellets and with multiple feedings every day. He'll fatten up in no time. He's also getting his butt kicked by the purple, but it seems like it has mostly calmed down to an intense dislike instead of murderous intent. lol

@4FordFamily @Humblefish @eatbreakfast @evolved What do you guys think about this behavior? Totally normal yes? Getting better like I think?
Check it out

First day in the tank... well... minutes into the tank.


two days ago


And today

Why did you quarantine for 3 do you advice to quarantine that long for that type of fish?

 

[melypr1985]

Why did you quarantine for 3 do you advice to quarantine that long for that type of fish?

He was in quarantine for that long because the parasite he had wasn't responding to conventional methods of treatment. It had me stumped for a while as I tried everything I knew to get him healthy. Normally my fish are in QT for 1 month followed by two weeks of observation before going into the display.

 

[melypr1985]

It's update time again. It's funny because with all the quarantine I do with all my critters, I still mess up just like everybody else. Unfortunately this is one of those times. I messed up big time. I cross contaminated. I ended up with velvet in the display.

Two weeks ago, a short time after adding the new achilles tang and copperband butterfly to the display, I came home after work to find the achilles and butterfly covered in velvet. They both ate readily which was good, but I noticed most of the fish swimming into the flow of both powerheads and the returns. There was also flashing and scratching in evidence. Boy, that was a really sickening feeling. Luckily, I had the means and ability to take care of it then and there. My husband helped me with every step. We brought in the 75 gallon from the garage after cleaning it. Filled it, mixed the saltwater and started removing everything from the display. I didn't take pictures of the process because I was not really feeling in a sharing mood at the time. It was a sad few days for sure.

All the rocks and corals came out along with about half the water. We removed the fish into a 10 gallon tank with Ruby Reef Rally for a 1 hour dip before going into the QT. We stayed up until 1 am getting all the fish out and I still couldn't find the Blue Star leopard. I raked through all the sand as best I could to find her without success. I decided to wait until morning for when the lights come on to get him when he comes out. The corals went back into the tank and most of the rock. Everything else waited until morning (powerheads were running the whole night so the water wasn't stagnant).

I did catch the leopard the next morning and was only 10 minutes late to work after putting the rest of the rock and water back into the tank and getting it running again. The boss understood so I was good there. I couldn't get the rocks back to they way they were before, so I picked up another 60lbs of rock at work and went to work on the new aquascape when I got home. This is what I ended up with.

I'm fairly happy with it, though it's nothing like what I originally wanted. It will provide more filtration, hiding places and spots for corals so that's good.

After all that happened, I've now got cyano going on. That will be worked on tomorrow with a bit of chemi clean. Hopefully my unhappy corals will become more happy after that.

I've also been working on getting my levels correct. Some of my corals were looking pretty pathedic before all this happened so I tested my Alk, Ca and MG. All of them were low, but the big surprise was that my alk was at 6.8 dkh (or something close to it anyway). I was shocked!! Out comes all the test kits permantly and the dosing supplies. I've gotten my ca and mg up to 470 and 1480 respectively. My alk keeps dropping though. Yesterday it was 10.9 and today it's 9.8. Pretty darn frustrating! Ah the joys of reef keeping.... I guess I can contribute a lot of this to the tank coming up on the 1 year mark.... maybe.... hopefully. lol

I'm still trucking with this stuff and will try not to change things too quickly and make things worse. I do have an Eshopps doser and containers coming in this week.

 

[leahfiish]

I like the new aquascape. How are your fish doing?

 

[melypr1985]

I like the new aquascape. How are your fish doing?

Thanks! I can't believe I didn't include their condition! They are doing as fine as they can be. I dosed CP at 60mg/gallon. Everybody is spot free, no scratching, no swimming into the powerhead and all are eating well. Knock on wood that it continues to go well!

 

[Barrett]

Thanks! I can't believe I didn't include their condition! They are doing as fine as they can be. I dosed CP at 60mg/gallon. Everybody is spot free, no scratching, no swimming into the powerhead and all are eating well. Knock on wood that it continues to go well!

Sorry to hear about your fishies, at least there in very capable hands.

 

[VJV]

Hey Mely, sorry to hear this [emoji20]. It really sucks. Do you think it could have been from a clean up crew or coral that you may have added? How do you think the cross contamination happened?

Glad to hear that all fish are doing well [emoji4].

 

[Maritimer]

Velvet is a tough bugger...

If this hobby didn't present challenges, we'd all be bored out of our skulls - but it really stinks when you do _everything_right_ and wind up in this sort of situation anyway.

The new 'scape looks good - room to swim, and room for corals to grow. Cyano will go away quickly enough, and the fish will have a field day with 'pods upon their return.

~Bruce

 

[Brew12]

I'm so sad to see this!

At least you had everything you needed to begin immediate treatment to help minimize any losses. It drives home how important it is to have a properly stocked fish medicine cabinet. If you would have needed to wait 3 days while meds were delivered it could have been much worse!

 

[Bronc]

Sorry to hear to about your velvet, Mel. I know your fish are in capable hands though!

 

[Tro]

Wow!!! This will be amazing ! And you've already accrued much experience for the build so you can do it your way and right from the start !! So cool.

Well. All I can say after my first jump into a build , a good pattern of conversation is spouse,tank,spouse.

Can't wait to see it all !

 

[Radman73]

Sorry to hear about the set back but thank you for sharing your experience. It will help others down the road for sure.

 

[melypr1985]

Sorry to hear about your fishies, at least there in very capable hands.

Thanks Barrett. I'm going to do everything I can for them.

Hey Mely, sorry to hear this [emoji20]. It really sucks. Do you think it could have been from a clean up crew or coral that you may have added? How do you think the cross contamination happened?

Glad to hear that all fish are doing well [emoji4].

Well, I'm 99.9% positive it happened with the water changes. I was stupid a couple times and used the same hose for both tanks thinking that rinsing it with rodi water and wiping it off with a towel would be good enough. NOT! Boy, and I know better than that. lol

Velvet is a tough bugger...

If this hobby didn't present challenges, we'd all be bored out of our skulls - but it really stinks when you do _everything_right_ and wind up in this sort of situation anyway.

The new 'scape looks good - room to swim, and room for corals to grow. Cyano will go away quickly enough, and the fish will have a field day with 'pods upon their return.

~Bruce

Very True!!! The pods are already going crazy in there. My leopard will be a fat pig when she gets back in the tank.

I'm so sad to see this!

At least you had everything you needed to begin immediate treatment to help minimize any losses. It drives home how important it is to have a properly stocked fish medicine cabinet. If you would have needed to wait 3 days while meds were delivered it could have been much worse!

It definitely could have been much worse. I was very lucky to have everything I needed on hand including an embarrassing assortment of empty tanks in the garage to choose from.

Sorry to hear to about your velvet, Mel. I know your fish are in capable hands though!

Thanks Bronc! I hope so.

Wow!!! This will be amazing ! And you've already accrued much experience for the build so you can do it your way and right from the start !! So cool.

Well. All I can say after my first jump into a build , a good pattern of conversation is spouse,tank,spouse.

Can't wait to see it all !

Thanks for checking out my thread! Good luck with your build.

Sorry to hear about the set back but thank you for sharing your experience. It will help others down the road for sure.

Very true. That's the whole idea of this forum and I'm glad to contribute.

 

[spiraling]

I was shocked and sorry to hear about the velvet. glad you go thing sorted.
But I had to laugh as you are one of the very few reefers who get velvet on their fish and you are more concerned about how the aquascape looks. I wish I had you knowledge and confidence!

 

[melypr1985]

I was shocked and sorry to hear about the velvet. glad you go thing sorted.
But I had to laugh as you are one of the very few reefers who get velvet on their fish and you are more concerned about how the aquascape looks. I wish I had you knowledge and confidence!

LOL. Thanks for the confidence boost. I hadn't looked at it that way and hadn't realized that you are right. I was more concerned with the aquascape even if I was severely disappointed in myself for not following my own QT protocols.

 

[melypr1985]

On the status of the display. I've got cyano going on and in different colors. Mostly the red but there is black as well. So ugly. There's hair algae in some spots and aptasia... the last of which is a norm for me. Chemiclean was dosed today, skimmer turned down, reactors turned off and fingers crossed.

 

[DLHDesign]

So sorry you're having such troubles. :-(

I keep waiting for my big OOPS involving cross-contamination or the like. Then I'll have an excuse to redo my scape as well!

 

[Bronc]

ChemiClean works wonders for me.

 

[melypr1985]

ChemiClean works wonders for me.

It usually does for me as well. I've had two instances where it didn't do anything at all, so I'm always a bit hesitant of it.... just a bit

 

[Flippers4pups]

(In my head talking to myself after reading the cross contamination

“Umm, note to self, need new hoses........”

(Okay, now in my regular voice....)

Glad it worked out! Hope your fish have a speedy recovery!

P.s. thumbs up on hubby helping out!