Pretty new reefer with a pretty big tank

[FishSkedee]

Definitely a nice build. Look forward to watching this.

Appreciate it! Just added the rest of my tangs, purple/sailfin are flexing for top dawg but no real aggression, keeping the nori flowing!

 

[FishSkedee]

Can’t believe it’s finally happened, moved everything from the 75g into the big tank this weekend. We have a full house now, so I’ll work on a video soon. An order came in from DR reef but a few didn’t make it, x1 of 3 pyramids, the F blue throat, and x1 convict tang all DOA. I think it’s just too hot in TX now so I’m not shipping anything else. Newest additions are a nice size maxima to complement the Gigas, a small convict tang, and x2 pyramids who are in observation. All of the coral is in and I’m set up for dosing, CAPTIV8 kalk going through an ice cap reactor and all for reef powder mix with the doser head, plan tonight is to test everything and establish a good baseline.

 

[OneZenReefer]

Appreciate it! Just added the rest of my tangs, purple/sailfin are flexing for top dawg but no real aggression, keeping the nori flowing!

No problem at all and that is a huge plus 100%

 

[FishSkedee]

Yesterday when I got home I went to feed the tank and check everything out, well my heart sunk back into my chest, I’m back to square one. My favorite fish, the Hippo tang has ich all over it and others are just starting to show the signs. I don’t know how this happened, after 6 weeks fallow @85f and then another 4 weeks of my sailfin tang being in the tank with 0 symptoms. Unless there was something on the clam I’m at a loss. I have a new baby due in 2 months so ripping this thing apart again, pulling coral, and catching fish is no longer an option. I’ll be pushing my luck with the ich management route and hoping for the best.

Current action is:
*Turned 60w UV back on from sump to display (will add another one asap)
*Added x2 marineland diatom filters to catch free swimmers
*started dosing 3% hydrogen peroxide @50ML X3 times a day
*Keeping nori avail on the clip 24/7
*soaking all food in selcon + feeding fresh clams and salmon
*upping water changes to 5G per day

If anyone has advice or can tag someone who does I would greatly appreciate it, this is making me sick and it’s really hard to put on the happy front during work meetings and with the family. At this point it’s better not to stress my wife out so I need to focus on nesting for the baby and not fish issues

 

[FishSkedee]

Everyone is still swimming normal, no major flashing or sticking to high flow areas, this is only day 2 so I expect things to get worse before getting better.

 

[FishSkedee]

#ich Day 3 of dosing the 50ML of H202, I upped the dose to x4 so one would hit during the night, so the system is getting 200ML daily now. The Hippo and purple tang are the only fish really showing spots, others are very minor or no outbreak. All corals/clams/nems seem ok!

 

[FishSkedee]

Well it’s been about 1 week since first seeing spots on the tangs.. I have been feeding like a mad man, up to 7 meals a day, lots of greens, and selcon soaking, 2 60W Pentairs, one sump to display and one display/display, not the prettiest but it’s probably most effective. Im remaining hopeful since so far no other fist have spots and the hippos are almost gone. Now is this the calm before the storm or are all these methods actually paying off, then will tell!

 

[FishSkedee]

Day 10, living with #ich so far no losses, spots have returned on the Hippo tang and are pretty much isolated to that one fish. Continuing H202 dosing, daily 5G WC, and tons of food. So far no other inhabitants seem affected by the hydrogen peroxide, can’t wait till I can stop adding it though, my plan is to taper down after a month if all spots disappear. Here’s a video of this mornings feeding, they are skittish of the phone but everyone seems to be looking ok.

 

[FishSkedee]

I finally checked a few parameters,
Alk- 10.6 (will start back off the Kalk)
Magnesium- 1405
Nitrate- 28.9 (better than last month @35)
I need to add all of the #Viparspectra lights, but everyone is still settling in so I'm not pushing it.
PH has been between 8.1-8.3, but just dipped below 8 this morning, I'm not sure if that relates to the H202 dosing, but I'll have to keep an eye on it. Full pic attached, still have a lot of cleaning up to, slowly but surely!

 

[David_CO]

as long as you can continue to get the fish to eat well you should be okay. As im sure you know hippos are ich magnets. I would avoid adding any additional fish for 3-4 months to keep the stress levels down in the tank. You will continue to see cycles of ich and clearing for a pretty long time but eventually the fish will gain some immunity and/or the life cycle will break/diminish significantly. I dealt with this w/ a hippo and purple tang too and I havnt seen a spot in over 9 months.

Do not turn off your UV!

 

[FishSkedee]

as long as you can continue to get the fish to eat well you should be okay. As im sure you know hippos are ich magnets. I would avoid adding any additional fish for 3-4 months to keep the stress levels down in the tank. You will continue to see cycles of ich and clearing for a pretty long time but eventually the fish will gain some immunity and/or the life cycle will break/diminish significantly. I dealt with this w/ a hippo and purple tang too and I havnt seen a spot in over 9 months.

Do not turn off your UV!

Appreciate the support! It's good to hear about others going through similar situations. I am running dual UV now, 1 pulls from the sump to the display, and the other circulates in the display, both pumps suction from the bare bottom to target free fallers. It's been 17 days since first noticing spots on the hippo, and they haven't spread to other fish. unfortunately, she is still showing symptoms, her cheeks are a bit raw from the scratching. Did you experiment with peroxide? I've been dosing it the whole time but am going to start slowing it down, I think its driving the skimmers to overflow and with all of this additional food I really need clean water, still doing the 5g daily WC so nitrates are staying under 30. I believe Humble fish stated their cycle taking up to 4 years to completely break, I do have some Butterflys in QT now so I'm unsure what to do with them..

 

[FishSkedee]

Tested Nitrates today and they are @ 50! This has to be in correlation with the peroxide dosing. I suspect its either A hurting my beneficial bacteria, or B The other day when I got home all 3 skimmers were overflowing into the sump (which pushed out all the previously collected skimmate) The only other change I've made was a new live phyto, my assumption has always been that it would photosynthesize and actually consume nitrate, then again, I'm sure there's a lot more factors regarding fertilizer, filter feeders, etc.. Well, I guess I'm going to cut the H202 in 1/2 and up the daily WC to 10G, maybe that will get it trending back down.

Last update for the day, my Ecotech L2pump took a crap last week, it was just over 2 years old. I sent it in, and they did return a brand-new pump, power supply, and controller for under 100 so that was cool, closed loop is back in action

 

[FishSkedee]

I believe it's time for an update, tank is settling in nice, we are @ 5 months old now. Still no ugly stage or algae to deal with so that's been a blessing. Still continuing the daily 5g water changes and heavy feedings to keep the fish happy. All signs of ich are gone and a few new additions have been added with no problems. I'm going to start highlighting some of the fish/coral now, starting with #anthias. There's (3) #blotched anthias, (1) #sunburst, (4) Lyretail, (1) purple queen. One day I'm hoping for a few large squareback, I saw some the other day for $100EA and they were absolute units! I believe thats it for now, if anyone has ? lmk!!

 

[FishSkedee]

Seems like nutrients have been creeping up pretty high. Recent Hanna tests shows #Nitrates @ 41.7 and #phosphates @ 0.90 LPS/Softies are looking good, no algae, but SPS is lacking the bright color. I've been doing daily 5g WC for the past couple of months, but I guess 10% a week isn't cutting it.. Daily maintenance is, blast rocks, clean glass, bubble scrub for 15mins, and the 5g WC. Weakly empty (3) skimmers, replace filter floss, replace (2) marineland polishing filters, and refill my 100g saltwater storage tub. Now here is where it gets interesting, I just tested the storage water and nitrates are @ 26.3 and phosphate is .12 I'm not sure how/why this is happening because the TDS meter is showing 0 and I replace the RODI filters pretty often. My next move is making up fresh salt water in a new vat to see if there's something going on with my storage container, anyone ever dealt with a similar scenario?

 

[FishSkedee]

Things have just been coasting along for the tank, nutrients are still on the higher side, but shes starting to settle in.. I've been blasting rocks/sand daily trying to rid a dino like film, but it isn't tooo bad, hopefully the gulf live rock I got will aid in the combate.. If anyone has advise on this, please let me know!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Things have just been coasting along for the tank, nutrients are still on the higher side, but shes starting to settle in.. I've been blasting rocks/sand daily trying to rid a dino like film, but it isn't tooo bad, hopefully the gulf live rock I got will aid in the combate.. If anyone has advise on this, please let me know!

Your tank is looking amazing!