"Big Kid" Tank v2

ksfulk · Jun 20, 2016

Picked up a couple of newcomers to the tank this week. Im going to be redoing my rockwork this weekend and back to the QT for all of the fishes. The longnose butterfly has been horking down anything that comes close to him - frozen, pellets, blackworms, anything. Im cautiously optimistic. The Lamarcks Angel is one of the fish Ive always wanted but had never pulled the trigger on. He's a little guy (about 1.5 - 2") but a voracious eater.

These guys are hanging out in the fuge for the next few days until I get the tank cleared out and the kids all in QT.

ksfulk · Jul 13, 2016

Updates -

Some sad news - the longnose went after something that must have been around the mp10 in the QT and got his face blendered off.

It was too bad, as ones that eat readily at that size are generally not found without some difficulty. It was weird, since there isnt much in that tank at all, but something must have spooked him or there was something really tasty that was hiding therein.

Anyhow, sad news aside, Ive been working upto the apitasia remediation project for the tank.

Acquire some berghia nudis and get them started working on the rockwork thats in the sump.
Once aiptasia population begins to wane, then transfer rock from the DT into the sump to provide more munchings for the berghia and maintain bacteria populations in the tank so I dont nuke my biofilter.
Remove some larger fish from the tank (Tangs, Rabbitfish, Melanurus wrasse, etc) I want to lessen the bioload in the tank a bit and getting rid of some of the big poopers ought to help that out.
Scrape walls, vacuum sandbed, manually remove all aiptasia from glass/overflow/sand
Move all remaining fish into QT (treat for flukes and ich - not sure what is happening but there appears to be something causing pop eye in my fish my guess is flukes - but once they get a bulgy eyeball, they show some salt grain like spots)
Run DT empty for three weeks
Move newly cycled rock from the storage bins and into the DT with a new aquascape
Continue QT on fish for another three weeks
Mount remaining corals, stabilize water chemistry (should be fine, but new rock = weirdness sometimes)
Add fish back into DT
Enjoy an adult beverage

I had already added about 100lbs of rock to my sump when I built the rack for that tank a few months ago. Its underneath the eggcrate rack, so I cant see it, but there is a few brittle stars down there that I see once and a while and they seem to be doing just fine down there. I was a little concerned that I would be able to fit all of the DT rock into the sump, as its another 100-130lbs of rock. I moved it all the other day, kicking off as many bristleworms and snails/crabs off as I could. Some corals (mostly zoas) ended up as sump sacrifices, but given that the fuge light hits the portion of the sump the rock is place at, maybe they'll keep growing

I cut frags of what I could though, so once things get back to normal, I should have some ready to put down in a new place.

What has stumped me, is that in order to get ALL of the rock out of the system, I have to get my minimaxi and rock anemones to get off of their current rocks, but Im not sure how to do that without killing them. I'll make a seperate post, but thats whats holding me back at this point.

I have a pair of newcomers that will be put into QT with all of the other DT fish once I get back from business travel this weekend - a copperband butterfly and a yellow pyramid butterfly. One of the local places had both in while I was picking up live blackworms and I couldnt pass up either. Both have an intense feeding response and even the copperband was going after pellets in the shop. Since Im tearing it all down anyhow, they got acclimated and then placed into the DT in my Synergy FallOut Shelter (social acclimation box) so the tangs didnt go gangbusters on them and yesterday I let them loose. The copperband immediately went after a few rogue aiptasia that were connected to the glass and overflow, so I was pretty happy to see that. Theyve been eating mysis like crazy and both are quite thick through the belly, so Im cautiously optimistic about these ones.

Anyhow, the tanks in transition, but hopefully with the plan outlined above I'll start seeing the turn around I hoped for and by the time MACNA rolls around, I can bring home some goodies for the tank!

Oh, and the cyano I was seeing in my fuge was spreading like wildfire (black slimy wildfire) and had covered everything in a matter of a week. It was forming a mat that wouldnt allow light to penetrate through and the macros were starting to die because of it. I read through a lot of forums posts, but came across a lot of the work that @twilliard has done using peroxide, and I started dosing 30 ml of H202 every 12 hours and WOW... what a difference. The cyano in the fuge is almost completely gone in 12 days. There's still some stranglers in the corners where the flow isnt much, but the macros in there have never looked better. A little bit has reared its ugly head in the DT (well, now sump, since I moved the rock) but I think its because thats the farthest away from the fuge (when looking at the water path) that it can be. I might have to dose in two places in the future if it doesnt resolve itself. Still, amazing what $1.09 will do in 12 days. Thats why this forum is so great - people can learn so much just from spending a few hours reading the experiences of others and applying their experience to their own tanks. Its simply wonderful.

Wall of text completed - pictures of things below!

twilliard · Jul 13, 2016

ksfulk said:
Updates -

Some sad news - the longnose went after something that must have been around the mp10 in the QT and got his face blendered off. It was too bad, as ones that eat readily at that size are generally not found without some difficulty. It was weird, since there isnt much in that tank at all, but something must have spooked him or there was something really tasty that was hiding therein.

Anyhow, sad news aside, Ive been working upto the apitasia remediation project for the tank.

Acquire some berghia nudis and get them started working on the rockwork thats in the sump.

Once aiptasia population begins to wane, then transfer rock from the DT into the sump to provide more munchings for the berghia and maintain bacteria populations in the tank so I dont nuke my biofilter.

Remove some larger fish from the tank (Tangs, Rabbitfish, Melanurus wrasse, etc) I want to lessen the bioload in the tank a bit and getting rid of some of the big poopers ought to help that out.

Scrape walls, vacuum sandbed, manually remove all aiptasia from glass/overflow/sand

Move all remaining fish into QT (treat for flukes and ich - not sure what is happening but there appears to be something causing pop eye in my fish my guess is flukes - but once they get a bulgy eyeball, they show some salt grain like spots)

Run DT empty for three weeks

Move newly cycled rock from the storage bins and into the DT with a new aquascape

Continue QT on fish for another three weeks

Mount remaining corals, stabilize water chemistry (should be fine, but new rock = weirdness sometimes)

Add fish back into DT

Enjoy an adult beverage

I had already added about 100lbs of rock to my sump when I built the rack for that tank a few months ago. Its underneath the eggcrate rack, so I cant see it, but there is a few brittle stars down there that I see once and a while and they seem to be doing just fine down there. I was a little concerned that I would be able to fit all of the DT rock into the sump, as its another 100-130lbs of rock. I moved it all the other day, kicking off as many bristleworms and snails/crabs off as I could. Some corals (mostly zoas) ended up as sump sacrifices, but given that the fuge light hits the portion of the sump the rock is place at, maybe they'll keep growing I cut frags of what I could though, so once things get back to normal, I should have some ready to put down in a new place.

What has stumped me, is that in order to get ALL of the rock out of the system, I have to get my minimaxi and rock anemones to get off of their current rocks, but Im not sure how to do that without killing them. I'll make a seperate post, but thats whats holding me back at this point.

I have a pair of newcomers that will be put into QT with all of the other DT fish once I get back from business travel this weekend - a copperband butterfly and a yellow pyramid butterfly. One of the local places had both in while I was picking up live blackworms and I couldnt pass up either. Both have an intense feeding response and even the copperband was going after pellets in the shop. Since Im tearing it all down anyhow, they got acclimated and then placed into the DT in my Synergy FallOut Shelter (social acclimation box) so the tangs didnt go gangbusters on them and yesterday I let them loose. The copperband immediately went after a few rogue aiptasia that were connected to the glass and overflow, so I was pretty happy to see that. Theyve been eating mysis like crazy and both are quite thick through the belly, so Im cautiously optimistic about these ones.

Anyhow, the tanks in transition, but hopefully with the plan outlined above I'll start seeing the turn around I hoped for and by the time MACNA rolls around, I can bring home some goodies for the tank!

Oh, and the cyano I was seeing in my fuge was spreading like wildfire (black slimy wildfire) and had covered everything in a matter of a week. It was forming a mat that wouldnt allow light to penetrate through and the macros were starting to die because of it. I read through a lot of forums posts, but came across a lot of the work that @twilliard has done using peroxide, and I started dosing 30 ml of H202 every 12 hours and WOW... what a difference. The cyano in the fuge is almost completely gone in 12 days. There's still some stranglers in the corners where the flow isnt much, but the macros in there have never looked better. A little bit has reared its ugly head in the DT (well, now sump, since I moved the rock) but I think its because thats the farthest away from the fuge (when looking at the water path) that it can be. I might have to dose in two places in the future if it doesnt resolve itself. Still, amazing what $1.09 will do in 12 days. Thats why this forum is so great - people can learn so much just from spending a few hours reading the experiences of others and applying their experience to their own tanks. Its simply wonderful.

Wall of text completed - pictures of things below!

Glad my work can be of assistance to your tank success!

ksfulk · Jul 22, 2016

First dose of Prazi done. And I lost one of the flasher wrasses - either the mccoskers or the carpenters - hard to tell at this point. Not sure if he was not eating or if he got smashed by a piece of PVC... Its sad either way. Got rid of a few other fish as well - Yellow Tang, Hippo Tang, Scribbled Rabbit, 6 blue green chromis, Solon wrasse and the Lubbocks wrasse. Local fish store gave me a great deal for the big fish, so I was able to part with them without too much sorrow - and I can keep the rest in my 40g QT without having to do water changes every 12 hours because of NH3!

So - the tank is sad and sparse, but the corals seem to be rebounding from the hippo's reign of terror - it was ripping zoas off and "chewing" on them before spitting them out into the tank. Thats why she got voted out of the tank. Fuge is looking really good now, thanks to the peroxide dosing. Now its just a waiting game. I'll wait another 5 days, run another dose of Prazi to make sure there arent any flukes (had a lot of weird issues with pop eye in several fish - always the same eye) - then I'll start 30 days of CP treatment. Meanwhile, I'll take the overflow off the DT, clean up some of the plumbing (have some salt creepin issues) and in about a week or two, I should have the pukani rock thats been cooking for a month or so in another tote, ready to aqua scape and get into the DT. Its going to be a long long wait.

Tomorrow Im headed off to the MBI (Marine Breeders Initiative) Workshop. I attended last year and it was really really good. Loved all of the speakers and networking - not to mention just hanging out with fish nerds for the day! Found out that Im probably not going to MACNA this year though - work is going to keep me from heading out to SanDiego. At least its far enough in advance that I can get back most of my airline points on my plane tickets. Good news about that, means I can go to the local frag swap in early August and pick over some gems with my saved up MACNA moneys.

Enough text - some pictures!

ksfulk · Jul 24, 2016

Wow.... the MBI workshop yesterday was amazing. So great to see all of the passionate breeders out there and the work that is being done not only in research labs and large facilities, but also the work that people are doing in their basements - breakthroughs with live foods, and what we are learning from the work at OI with yellow tangs and the work being done in florida with the blue tangs.

As someone thats simply a hobbyist and not a breeder (though Im tempted to start something as a project for the winter) its amazing to get to listen and talk to those people that are really making strides in the hobby - people that most of us only read about in news blurbs and facebook posts. Not only that, but all of the great people that support these guys and their work - Larrys Reef Services (@ReefFrenzy), Reed Mariculture, Sustainable Aquatics and hundred more - the representatives that were in attendance werent just there to move product - they are passionate members of the community that have a vested interest in the success of all breeders and the work that they are doing worldwide.

The talks were great and it was great talking with all of the presenters there. I didnt manage to win anything in the raffles, but I was excited to score a few shirts - particularly the super awesome MBI print of LRS Fertility Frenzy shirt that Larry was nice enough to hand out at the end of the workshop. If you have any interest I highly suggest checking out the 2017 workshop when it comes around next year

ksfulk · Jul 31, 2016

Some more work being done. Pulled out the overflow so I could clean it out. Had to scrape a few aiptasia off it - cleaned out a pound or so of sponges. Ive lost all but two of my wrasses in QT. Not sure what happened but they all dropped after about three days. I finished my rounds of Prazi, and started my CP treatment earlier this week. Everything else seems to be going well - though I suppose only time will tell.

ksfulk · Aug 8, 2016

*Sigh*

Im tearing this all down. Some issues with the walls in the house are making me break this tank/system down so we can fix some of the walls in the basement. Im pretty bummed about it. But, I think Im going to end up with a RedSea Reefer when everythings said and done. And Im a little excited about that.