LAReefer4Life
Lover of Angelfish
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Reef Squad
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Reef Tank 365
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Los Angeles Aquatics Club
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- Joined
- Feb 11, 2019
- Messages
- 2,851
- Reaction score
- 7,941
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- Location
- LOS ANGELES CA
My story begins approx. 15 years ago with me cruising down the fish isle at Petco and stumbled upon an Australian Harlequin Tusk-fish. With not knowing anything about the hobby, I still purchased him along with a 20 gallon fish tank, heater, and filter. After conducting more research on the species and I quickly realized my mistake and it was then I did what any responsible parent would do and upgraded my equipment to 75 gallon aquarium.
This was just the beginning of my long road to discovery. I didn't cycle my tank properly which caused my poor tusk-fish to struggle through this process. Its was super painful for me to watch but with beginners luck on my side, he made it through. Months later I purchased a Queen Angelfish. I immediately acclimated her to my DT and just like that my beginners luck was over. Within days I noticed strange behavior and days later I experienced my first ICH out break. I spoke with the owner of my LFS and copper treatment was advised. At the time I didn't have any LR or inverts so I dosed directly into my DT not knowing any better. Harlie my tusk-fish made it through the whole debacle but unfortunately ICH took foot hold on my Queen Angelfish and she died days later. Distraught over the loss I took some time off and kept it simple but it wasn't long before I wanted to venture deeper into the hobby.
I setup a new DOPE 120 gallon aquarium with oak stand and matching canopy since I seeded my last aquarium with copper. I had cycled it for 6 weeks prior to adding any livestock. Things were going well but months later I wanted to change up my rock scape with 60lbs of LR purchased from LFS which according to them was cured. NOPE! The ammonia levels aggressively spiked and killed all my livestock except my hardy tusk-fish. Unfortunate, I have many stories like this one that took place during my first year in the hobby. The aquarium maintenance just became very time consuming and it just wasn't fun anymore. I ended up breaking down my aquarium after just 4 years to relocate for a professional opportunity.
Fast forward to August 2018, my obsession started again when my boyfriends parents were visiting from Australia and we were killing time before dinner. We drove by a LFS and I convinced them to stop in. The Red Sea Reefer was on demo with a super sleek unlike tanks back in the day that were clunky and salt creep just made for a hot mess. I was initially interested in the RS 170 build and ordered it from Aquarium Care Center. I actually changed my order several times until I finally landed on the 625XL build V3 with refugium. The tank arrived on a giant pallet early November and I assembled the aquarium build myself, I even hard plumbed all the equipment like a bad butt.
I learned so much from my past experiences but mainly that patience is a virtue when it comes to reefing. I felt confident this time around... so I thought. I purchased a male Scribbled Angelfish but decided against a QT Setup. HUGE mistake. Three weeks after acclimation, King (my scribbled) showed symptoms of ICH and to make the situation worse I had acclimated a RS Regal Angelfish in my refugium three days prior to identifying the issue. I quickly setup two QT tanks and migrated them over. The next few weeks was stressful to say the very least. I was mixing 50 gallons of fresh saltwater and conducting 50% water changes daily. I went fallow for 80 days to eradicate the parasite from my system FOR GOOD. Thank goodness I didn't have any casualties and a big shout out to my loving boyfriend who dealt with me along with fish tanks scattered around our home for months.
I am now slowly adding my fish back into my DT. It has been 8 weeks since I've added my Regal, I wanted him to be the first addition to establish dominance because this particular specimen can have trouble acclimating under stressful conditions. My Gem tang was added second as he is only 1.5" in size, just a baby. Three weeks later my Conspicuous Angelfish joined the family. My male Scribbled coming in heavy at 7" in size still in QT. He was the first fish in QT and the last out. He got screwed in the deal due to his size but I am happy to report he is going in tonight!
See progress of my build below...
This was just the beginning of my long road to discovery. I didn't cycle my tank properly which caused my poor tusk-fish to struggle through this process. Its was super painful for me to watch but with beginners luck on my side, he made it through. Months later I purchased a Queen Angelfish. I immediately acclimated her to my DT and just like that my beginners luck was over. Within days I noticed strange behavior and days later I experienced my first ICH out break. I spoke with the owner of my LFS and copper treatment was advised. At the time I didn't have any LR or inverts so I dosed directly into my DT not knowing any better. Harlie my tusk-fish made it through the whole debacle but unfortunately ICH took foot hold on my Queen Angelfish and she died days later. Distraught over the loss I took some time off and kept it simple but it wasn't long before I wanted to venture deeper into the hobby.
I setup a new DOPE 120 gallon aquarium with oak stand and matching canopy since I seeded my last aquarium with copper. I had cycled it for 6 weeks prior to adding any livestock. Things were going well but months later I wanted to change up my rock scape with 60lbs of LR purchased from LFS which according to them was cured. NOPE! The ammonia levels aggressively spiked and killed all my livestock except my hardy tusk-fish. Unfortunate, I have many stories like this one that took place during my first year in the hobby. The aquarium maintenance just became very time consuming and it just wasn't fun anymore. I ended up breaking down my aquarium after just 4 years to relocate for a professional opportunity.
Fast forward to August 2018, my obsession started again when my boyfriends parents were visiting from Australia and we were killing time before dinner. We drove by a LFS and I convinced them to stop in. The Red Sea Reefer was on demo with a super sleek unlike tanks back in the day that were clunky and salt creep just made for a hot mess. I was initially interested in the RS 170 build and ordered it from Aquarium Care Center. I actually changed my order several times until I finally landed on the 625XL build V3 with refugium. The tank arrived on a giant pallet early November and I assembled the aquarium build myself, I even hard plumbed all the equipment like a bad butt.
I learned so much from my past experiences but mainly that patience is a virtue when it comes to reefing. I felt confident this time around... so I thought. I purchased a male Scribbled Angelfish but decided against a QT Setup. HUGE mistake. Three weeks after acclimation, King (my scribbled) showed symptoms of ICH and to make the situation worse I had acclimated a RS Regal Angelfish in my refugium three days prior to identifying the issue. I quickly setup two QT tanks and migrated them over. The next few weeks was stressful to say the very least. I was mixing 50 gallons of fresh saltwater and conducting 50% water changes daily. I went fallow for 80 days to eradicate the parasite from my system FOR GOOD. Thank goodness I didn't have any casualties and a big shout out to my loving boyfriend who dealt with me along with fish tanks scattered around our home for months.
I am now slowly adding my fish back into my DT. It has been 8 weeks since I've added my Regal, I wanted him to be the first addition to establish dominance because this particular specimen can have trouble acclimating under stressful conditions. My Gem tang was added second as he is only 1.5" in size, just a baby. Three weeks later my Conspicuous Angelfish joined the family. My male Scribbled coming in heavy at 7" in size still in QT. He was the first fish in QT and the last out. He got screwed in the deal due to his size but I am happy to report he is going in tonight!
See progress of my build below...
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