MrX's 120G Build

[MrX]

Yesterday I noticed some white dots and slimy stuff on the bigger, female clown. She also appeared to be slowing down and not eating. After talking to a couple people it sounded like either Ich or Brooklynella disease. When I went to the LFS to see what they thought and maybe get something to try and treat it I realized I had a small bottle of Herbtana that I won at the February meeting. Back at home I dosed the tank. A couple hours later the white spots seemed to be gone and I thought I actually saw her eat a bit of fish-goo. I've tried frozen brine, Thera+ pellets, and some fish goo but she won't eat; barely makes an attempt to grab something floating right past her.

This morning the female clown has been staying right above the sand line between some rocks... slowing down more than she was yesterday. Looks like some of the white spots are back. Going to go to the market and get some garlic and a press and see if that helps. Not sure what else to do at this point.

The little guy is chugging along and eating well. The emerald crab and all the snails also appear to be doing fine.

I did a water test and when I went to the LFS they did one as well. Both tests were spot-on.

Water temp has gone down to 76.4 so I'm trying to bring that back up to 78 or so. The LFS suggested that the tank might not be getting enough oxygen so I removed the glass tops, which I imagine were holding heat, and angled my returns up a bit to agitate the surface more. I really don't think flow/oxygen is the problem... if anything I think I might have too much/too strong of a flow.

Any suggestions greatly appreciated! Would like to save the clown if I can. FWIW, I don't have any spare equipment to do a QT/Hospital tank, so anything you think of would have to be applicable to the entier tank.

Thanks!

 

[MrX]

Clown is still kickin' but doesn't appear to be eating. I've been mixing a variety of food and soaking it in garlic to see if that helps. She seemed a little more active today so I still have hope she'll pull through. The smaller clown, emerald crab, snails, and Kryponite all appear to be doing just fine.

Today FinsUp! came to check out the system and brought me a tank-warming present. A rock frag with 4-5 heads (I guess that's what they are called) of green paly. Seems happy, they are all open and doing their thing.

Late this afternoon I emptied the frag tank and in the process caught the two yellow-tail damsels to return to the LFS. There's no way they were going into my DT! While I have the tank drained I'm going to take it back to the LFS and have another 1" drain hole drilled. Having just the one drain makes me nervous; it's really the only single point of failure, related to flooding, in the system.

Time to start reading about ALK/CAL and how to keep that in balance in the system. Did my first CAL test today and it came back at mid-300's if I recall correctly (17-18 drops I think).

Next on my list is to get a cleaner shrimp or two sometime next week.

 

[jeremy052274]

haha, good riddance you evil yellow-tails!

I'll have to come over and see it, keep the updates coming, I'm enjoying the thread.

 

[FinsUp!]

Thanks for letting me come check out the tank. It looks great so far! It was nice to meet familyX too. And thanks again for the RODI water! Glad the palys are looking good. Soon enough you'll have more of them than you know what to do with. They're fast growers

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[MrX]

Well, whatever the female clown had finally caught up with her, despite my efforts to the contrary. Yesterday I thought she was perking up a bit, swimming a bit more, and even looked like she was trying to eat. Thought the garlic food soak might have been making her hungry.

Woke this morning to not being able to find her; she ended up between some rocks. Looks like something in the tank had a few bites.

Little guy is still going strong. No signs of spots or not eating with him. Fingers crossed!

 

[HuuTa]

sorry to hear bro.always crappy to loose a fish.even crappier when it's one of the first fish u got.

 

[MrX]

sorry to hear bro.always crappy to loose a fish.even crappier when it's one of the first fish u got.

Thanks. You're right, it was pretty crappy. Not sure what else I could have done to try and help it. Now my goal is to try and keep the little guy going. He has a couple spots, nothing like the other one, but is at least eating pretty well.

 

[MrX]

Did my first water change tonight using my "quick change" valve. Pretty happy with how it went... now if I could just automate the whole process.

I had 55gal of water/salt mixing and heating today while we were out at the relatives. After getting home tonight I started the water change at about 9pm. The process went as follows:

- pre-mixed/heated the 55gallons of water
- checked salinity before starting; it was at 1.025 which I thought was fine, system was at 1.023 and I wanted to bring it up anyways
- hooked garden hose to quick connect fitting on my "quick change" outlet
- turned off skimmer
- closed drain #1 to sump, opened drain #1 to "quick change"
- drained sump down to about 2-3 over return pump input (return pump was running the entire time)
- closed drain #1 "quick change", opened drain #1 to sump
- fired up maxijet 1200 from salt-mix bucket into sump
- filled sump until salt-mix bucket was empty; i have enough room in the sump to hold another 35-40 gallons over my normal operating range so this was easy to do
- once salt-mix bucket was empty I opened reversed the drain valves again and let the system run until the water was back at the normal operating level, then put the valves back into their default positions

All-in-all this gave me a 35-45 gallon "old" water change (straight out to the back yard) and an additional 10-20 gallon "mixed" water change. I could do the total volume change as "old" water but this would require that I use a pump to drain some water in the DT over the overflow into drain #1. I don't think it's a big deal at this point.

Final salinity 1.024. Going to mix up some more salt in a 5 gallon bucket so I can raise this up to 1.026 by using the mixed water to top off for a few days.

The remaining clown and the two corals didn't seem to notice or care one lick.

Total time about 45-60 minutes. Could probably do it quicker once I get used to doing it.

 

[MrX]

After my water change my parameters are:

pH = 8.0-8.2
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 0.0-5.0
cal = 400-420

Anyone have any suggestions for a good REEF test kit? Red Sea, Salifert, Elos? Is there a 'master' test kit with everything I need to test or do I have to buy the separate tests?

Thanks!

 

[jt628]

After my water change my parameters are:

pH = 8.0-8.2
ammonia = 0
nitrite = 0
nitrate = 0.0-5.0
cal = 400-420

Anyone have any suggestions for a good REEF test kit? Red Sea, Salifert, Elos? Is there a 'master' test kit with everything I need to test or do I have to buy the separate tests?

Thanks!

Sailfert...

What are your alk and mag readings???

Also Be very careful with the LED lighting... if not dialed in correctly it can spell disaster...

 

[MrX]

Sailfert...

What are your alk and mag readings???

Also Be very careful with the LED lighting... if not dialed in correctly it can spell disaster...

No clue on ALK/MAG at this point. I don't have test kits for those yet. Right now I have the API Master Kit (ph, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) and a stand-alone test kit for CAL. I'll look around tonight and order something to fill in the gaps.

My LEDs right now are scheduled on the Apex as follows:

10am - 12pm: ramp up from 0 to 45% over two hours
12pm - 6pm: Stays at 45%
6pm - 8pm: ramp down from 45% to 0 over two hours
8pm - 10am: moonlights only (may change this so there is a period with no lights at all)

The two corals I have in there now seem to be doing fine with this level of lighting. Like everything else in this hobby, time will tell.

Assuming this is GHA starting to grow:

 

[jt628]

JMO, But I would put the heater in the sump...
Keep an eye on the CLOWN, It looks lit it has as touch of Ick...

you should also put that single rock in the sump also before the GHA gets aout of control...

LOOKS Great!

Just my .02

 

[MrX]

JMO, But I would put the heater in the sump...
Keep an eye on the CLOWN, It looks lit it has as touch of Ick...

you should also put that single rock in the sump also before the GHA gets aout of control...

LOOKS Great!

Just my .02

Yeah, I've been watching him. Making sure he eats and I have a mix of pellets/brine/mysis/flake that was soaked in garlic juice. I also picked up some Garlic XTreme which I will start using tonight. The little spots I saw appear to have disappeared since that picture was taken.

I have a 300W heater in the sump... this one you see in the DT is temporary until I get the temp stable (again) and the clown past the ich trouble.

Will moving that piece of rock into the sump kill the algae on it? Other than normal daylight/cellar lights there is no direct light down there.

I'm starting to see some brown algae on the rocks/powerheads now. Guess this would be diatoms?

 

[jt628]

The brown algae is normal, the garlic does wonders keeping him eating, that's the trick to build immunity to kick the ick,
Hair algae will go away in the sump as long as there is no direct light, Again this is all from my experience...
The brown algae will turn into coralline once fully established.

 

[MrX]

Earlier tonight I went out with DaughterX and we picked up a new A.ocellaris Clownfish and a Cleaner Shrimp. After acclimation both are in the tank. The shrimp took up residence almost immediately in a cave in the taller rock tower (the kids call it a bubble tower for some reason, maybe I should put a bubble-line in there!). The new clown went directly to the original and now they are best friends.

I feed them about 6pm and they both ate well. The original clown bullied the new one a bit but I made sure both ate.

I just happened to look over at the tank and saw them exploring together! So cool to see them swimming around together! Actually doing somethng besides sitting in one corner... lol.

They just went half-way across the tank and I think original clown ran back to his corner... the other clown went back and got him and they started out again. Even when they are in the 'safe' corner they swim up and down a lot more. The new clown is definitely more adventurous!

 

[willray]

Things are looking good,the trumpets are encrusting nicely.I would not even put the rock in the sump...it will grow and spread to the DT from there as well.Why risk it? Just remove it,looks small an unneeded anywho.
Bleach it, rinse and rinse again then put in the sun for a few days if you want to keep it.

 

[frank180reef]

you might want to test for the alk and mag as you will likely want the coraline algae to grow and IMO mag is very important to this. If your using the medium end salt you are likely low in mag

 

[FinsUp!]

Salt definitely plays a major role in coralline growth. I hadn't seen any growth when I used IO to start my tank up. Once I switched to red sea coral pro? Bam! Coralline growth sprouting up all over my side and back glass as well as my rocks.

Sorry to hear about the female clown... It looked like whatever she had was pretty bad when I came over. Looks like the new one is making friends pretty quickly though.

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[MrX]

Things are looking good,the trumpets are encrusting nicely.I would not even put the rock in the sump...it will grow and spread to the DT from there as well.Why risk it? Just remove it,looks small an unneeded anywho. Bleach it, rinse and rinse again then put in the sun for a few days if you want to keep it.

I'll pull that out later tonight once things settle down for the day. It's not needed but I'll clean it and put it back later.

you might want to test for the alk and mag as you will likely want the coraline algae to grow and IMO mag is very important to this. If your using the medium end salt you are likely low in mag

I didn't get to ordering/buying those tests yesterday but I'll try and do so today. Right now I'd guess most of the salt in the system is from my Reef Crystals bucket. I just got two buckets of Red Sea Coral Salt delivered yesterday so I'll start using that once the Reef Crystals is gone.

Salt definitely plays a major role in coralline growth. I hadn't seen any growth when I used IO to start my tank up. Once I switched to red sea coral pro? Bam! Coralline growth sprouting up all over my side and back glass as well as my rocks.

Sorry to hear about the female clown... It looked like whatever she had was pretty bad when I came over. Looks like the new one is making friends pretty quickly though.

I need to find a better place for the rock/frag you gave me. The powerstreams keep blowing the sand around in the front left corner and it was starting to cover the rock. Last night I moved it up a bit higher onto another rock. I need to get some superglue gel at lunch and lock it in place.

Thanks and yeah, the new guy made friends quick. Seems to have brought the other clown out of his shell. Can't wait to see what they do today.

 

[willray]

Cleaning it will not do it,it will still grow back.Need to kill it somehow.