Classroom Reef and Herps

[Jbissell1289]

Got the tank transferred to my apartment for the next week while the power is off at the school for finishing up the hvac project. I can't wait to get it moved back to the classroom. My living room is crowded... lol

The remaining plumbing components should be here Friday and some on Monday. So I'm hoping to have it plumbed by the time the power is turned back on, which should be Wednesday assuming the company stays on their schedule of 4 days.

Then I will fill with RODI and mix it in the tank as mixing that much salt water in 5 gallon buckets will take a bit too long. I'll let it run empty like that for a couple days and then add everything back in, hopefully next Friday if everything goes to plan. Maybe Sunday Dec. 1st if not.

 

[Jbissell1289]

The tank is back in the classroom for the past week or so. Getting into the uglies with the added new rock. The kids are loving the new bigger set up and are wondering when we are getting more fish especially since my yasha goby went MIA the last 2 days of being at my house before coming back to the school.

Thank you again @Chris.Sturgis for getting me back into the hobby! I wouldn't have made the jump back in with out you donating the start-up tank to my classroom!

 

[Chris.Reef]

The tank is back in the classroom for the past week or so. Getting into the uglies with the added new rock. The kids are loving the new bigger set up and are wondering when we are getting more fish especially since my yasha goby went MIA the last 2 days of being at my house before coming back to the school.

Thank you again @Chris.Sturgis for getting me back into the hobby! I wouldn't have made the jump back in with out you donating the start-up tank to my classroom!
View attachment 213334

I’m glad that you could use the proceeds of the tank that I donated to fund further upgrades! We all know nothing is cheap in this hobby and I’m glad that I could help you out to put a saltwater tank in your classroom!

 

[Jbissell1289]

I’m glad that you could use the proceeds of the tank that I donated to fund further upgrades! We all know nothing is cheap in this hobby and I’m glad that I could help you out to put a saltwater tank in your classroom!

I'm still using the light and was able to get the return pump and some test kits and filter socks with the proceeds from the tank and stand!

 

[Jbissell1289]

Haven't posted an update in a while, got some live rock that ended up having flatworms on it. Thankfully no acro eating ones. Just the ugly ones. I took a chance on a lemon meringue wrasse and later a green mandarin, both of which are happy and plump eating flatworms.

Also, any thoughts on setting up my Red Sea Reefer nano that has been in storage as a display fuge plumbed into the same sump?

 

[Jbissell1289]

So haven't updated in a while, but I had a huge crash where I've lost a lot of coral and a few snails. It was my mistake, so I'm sharing as it's all part of the journey. Thankfully I was able to save some of the corals that I can't get duplicates of from a friend in his tank. Before you start attacking, I know I made mistakes that I am learning from the hard way. *Sigh*

Side note, I haven't lost a single fish, crab, or shrimp.

So the story:
I did a 3x dose of Flatworm exit back in January or February. I had flatworms crawling around after 30 minutes of treating, so after big water change and running carbon, I regrouped and prepped to do a series of 3 higher dose treatments. My second dose was 6x recommended dosage to make sure to kill the ones that survived the first round. After this dose, I didn't see any flatworms crawling around at all and I siphoned all out as they were dying. This round, there was not that many free floating flatworms. Maybe 30 minutes after dosing, I started running carbon and did a 10 gallon water change which is about 20% of the water volume.

I waited 2 weeks to make sure to have all eggs hatched before doing my second dose. In the limited research that I could find it seemed that most flatworms hatch within the 9-13 day window, so I chose 14 days as they aren't supposed to be able to lay eggs for another 2-3 weeks after this from what I could find.

Shortly before my second dose however, a lot of my coral started to decline. First to retract, loose tissue, and/or have polyp bail out was the pocilopora and pagoda cup. GSP and hammers were next and then all of zoas started to close up and mushrooms were sprinkled in there periodically.

Before my second dose, I did a 15 gallon water change then did my second dose which was 4x and did a 20 gallon water change and ran 3 lbs of carbon consecutively and started running a skimmer.

I'm not sure if it is a reaction to the medication, which isn't supposed to be possible, or the flatworm toxins. But the few worms that were dying doesn't seem like enough to have caused such a big reaction in the coral, but not the fish/shrimp/crabs.

Some corals are coming back or looking like they might. Zoas, cloves, and pocilopora are opening up and starting to get color back. Mushrooms are still declining. All but 2 hammers are gone and the 2 that are left were almost gone. No tissue with only the filaments/guts open and exposed with skeleton. Tissue has started to grow back over the filaments slowly and seems to be reforming a mouth now. I would be very surprised if they do survive honestly.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Duds]

Any chance you tested nutrients at any point during dosing or even now out of curiosity? Maybe it bottoms everything out, and if you do have those test results what did your tank used to run at before?

 

[Jbissell1289]

Not actively during it. But shortly after and before I've been doing testing regularly and my phosphates were between .3 and .5 and nitrates in the 5-12 range. So I can't imagine they were bottoming out. Now with the skimmer in, I haven't gotten a chance to test. But I'll try to do it before I leave for the day today.

 

[JPags]

Wonder if your oxygen level went way down. I know with some medications they tell you to add an air stone, I did not see that on the Flatworm x box but maybe you dosing so high caused your Oxygen level to drop. But I would assume that would kill the fish too. Maybe it was just too much medication.

The box says only to do 50% more if they are still alive.

I just think you might have hit the threshold for the medication.

I have used this successfully but I actually removed some rocks and dipped to get rid of most of the worms first. Then did a second and even a third treatment but at the standard does not a lot higher.

That and a wrasse got rid of my Flatworm problem.

If you get your tank stable again. I have some extra corals I can give you to help restock.

 

[Duds]

Not actively during it. But shortly after and before I've been doing testing regularly and my phosphates were between .3 and .5 and nitrates in the 5-12 range. So I can't imagine they were bottoming out. Now with the skimmer in, I haven't gotten a chance to test. But I'll try to do it before I leave for the day today.

Not that then, I wonder if the toxins from the flatworms dying still lingered through carbon and water changes.

 

[Jbissell1289]

Wonder if your oxygen level went way down. I know with some medications they tell you to add an air stone, I did not see that on the Flatworm x box but maybe you dosing so high caused your Oxygen level to drop. But I would assume that would kill the fish too. Maybe it was just too much medication.

The box says only to do 50% more if they are still alive.

I just think you might have hit the threshold for the medication.

I have used this successfully but I actually removed some rocks and dipped to get rid of most of the worms first. Then did a second and even a third treatment but at the standard does not a lot higher.

That and a wrasse got rid of my Flatworm problem.

If you get your tank stable again. I have some extra corals I can give you to help restock.

Hadn't considered the o2, but, I agree, I think that would have affected the fish too. I was thinking it might be the medication in the water just because there were not too many flatworms the second round and I was meticulous to siphon out any flatworms I could see into a filter sock in the sump.

Thank you, I appreciate it! Not sure I'd be able to make it down to you anytime soon though.

 

[Jbissell1289]

Not that then, I wonder if the toxins from the flatworms dying still lingered through carbon and water changes.

Possibly, I'm just not sure with how few of the flatworms I saw around the tank. But then I've never had any size of die off of flatworms, so maybe all it takes is a small number.

 

[Jbissell1289]

Been a while since I posted in here! But thought I’d put a quick update. Up to 3 tanks in the classroom. The main 47 gallon which is in a funk and a lot of coral isn’t thriving. Swapped black sand Hawaiian sand for white aggregate sand. Wondering if it’s an issue with iron or other metals.

So main tank is a cloudy mess right now.

Started a reef club and they were helping with the swap today also gave a few of them the task of mapping out the par in the frag tank and this is what they came up with!

Also have 2 new additions to the classroom. Two baby crested geckos hatched last week. First of one of my 3 females clutches. The male has been struggling to impress 2 of the females… so we will see what we get this year!

I will have to upload a couple of the missing pictures later… I guess I took raw photos of some of the stuff. The frag and nano tank are from a while back. I’ll get updated tomorrow.

 

[Jbissell1289]

Here are the pics. Students mapping out the par readings for the frag tank:

Also, the tank cleared well and all of the fish are accounted for so I was able to get the rock rearranged. Buried my pagoda cup. Still messy, but it will clear.

 

[Jbissell1289]

Well, I had the perfect storm of bad luck. Came in this morning to find the frag tank cloudy, the classroom stinking like dying coral, and a couple colonies of hammer corals almost completely melted from the top down.

Immediately start to diagnose with my students wondering what the smell was. First I realized that I left the flow unplugged overnight by accident after feeding the fish yesterday around 12pm. But I've done that in the past and never had that bad of a reaction, no coral was left uncovered during this. I then feel the tank and it's noticeably warm. my probe is down low in the tank and was reading 83. So the top was likely quite a bit higher.

So far the worst of it is the hammer colonies and the top of one of the torch colonies. Lost probably around 40-60 heads, about half of those were splitting. Lost 1 torch head and maybe 5-8 more at least. The highest portions of one of the chalices are melting as well.

 

[Jbissell1289]

Looks good if I could I'd recommend a better feeding station for your Cham though. I loved using something like these for mine
Screen Feeders

Local guy too

Just picked one of the screen feeders up for my new panther chameleon, thanks for the suggestion!

I will try to post an update with all of the new creatures in the classroom after Feb. break.

 

[brandon.l.young84]

Just picked one of the screen feeders up for my new panther chameleon, thanks for the suggestion!

I will try to post an update with all of the new creatures in the classroom after Feb. break.

You and the kids will love them!!!