from FO disaster to reef....

[Apone]

Well, I have successfully kept a FO tank for about 5 years. Just recently I added my first few pieces of LR to add some corraline to my exisiting "dead" rock. When I added the LR, I must have introduced ich. I treated the ensuing outbreak with Kent's RxP treatment, but after 2 weeks of that my ich problem actually got worse. I wound up losing most of my fish. My butterfly, gramma, annularis angel and yellow tang have unfortunately all died. I have two damsels, two clowns and a xanthurus angel left. In order to to treat my problem I decided to go hypo. I am running 1.009 now, with the hopes that this will kill off any exisiting parasites. I will run this for 4 weeks after all noticeable signs of the parasites have gone.

I have always wanted to go reef, but my high fish load and non-reef safe fish prevented me from that. Rather than just give up on the hobby completely, I have decided to make the best of the ich issue, and convert to reef.

I currently have my 90G, and my sump which is a wet/dry. I cant't ditch the wet/dry because I dont have LR, at least a sufficient amount to use for biological filtration. I have a skimmer as well plus a canister filter that I really just use to run my carbon and phosphate remover in. I know I need to upgrade my lighting, but is there anything else I need to keep in mind for going reef?

I also have a SEIO and two maxi jet 1200's, so mu internal circualtion is about 2100G/hour. I think that should be enough for a reef.

I will be buying a UV steralizer to avoid future ich issues and I will be upgrading my lighting from the standard fluorescent tubes ( i was going to just keep the fluorescents for a softy only tank, but I think I will now go ahead and get a better lighting system after all).

If you can recommend anything for my conversion it would be appreciated!

 

[Moe_K]

I'd recommend you build the reef out of "dead" or dry rock.
I got my dry rock from Marc at Fishy Business. Really nice stuff. There are plenty of recommendations on the Fishy Business forum and in the Vendor Experience forum. The "dead" rock will become "live" soon enough.

 

[Apone]

I'd recommend you build the reef out of "dead" or dry rock.
I got my dry rock from Marc at Fishy Business. Really nice stuff. There are plenty of recommendations on the Fishy Business forum and in the Vendor Experience forum. The "dead" rock will become "live" soon enough.

Luckily I am one step ahead of you! I already have a nice rock structure built out of dead rock that I got from reefer rocks. THis was utilized in my FO for a couple years, so it is covered with some algae/aged....it looks very similar to my few pieces of LR, just without the corraline which will spread. I ma trying to get my Ca level up now.

 

[Moe_K]

Nice!
Good luck on finding lighting. THe Equipment forum here is usually good.

 

[Apone]

good thing is I have plenty of time while I wait for my parasites to die off.....about 6 weeks or so

 

[denvig]

I currently have my 90G, and my sump which is a wet/dry. I cant't ditch the wet/dry because I dont have LR, at least a sufficient amount to use for biological filtration.

If the dead rock has been in your tank for a couple years then its not dead anymore. You now have live rock so the wet/dry can go sooner than you think.

 

[~Flighty~]

Are you sure the problem was ich and not a nutrient spike from the new rock? It is pretty tricky to add rock to a running system without having some die off. The stress from ammonia can cause ich looking symptoms.

Have you ever treated the tank with a copper based med? That will stay in the rock and substrate and would cause major dieoff in liverock.

I just want to be sure you have diagnosed the problem accurately so you aren't taking needless steps.

If you do have a virulent strain of ich you may want to stay fish less for a while. the surviving fish would be resistant to the ich by now and could be harboring a low level infection waiting for new fish to kill.

The effectiveness of a uv system in a reef tank is questionable, you may be better off spending the money on an upgraded QT system that the fish will be happier in longer.


Just some things to think about.

 

[MarkO]

I think you are doing the right thing here. (Go hypo for a month or 6 weeks). A month is probably good if you can maintain a warm tank around 82º (speeds up the ich life cycle). Then your tank should be ich free. Afterwards, I recommend you slowly start adding corals (no fish just yet). You will still have a decent bioload for a 90 gal.
If you plan on keeping stony corals, you're going to need to monitor your calcium and alkalinity.
One final note, it can be difficult to keep certain corals with moderate nitrate levels. You generally want your nitrates to be in the <1ppm to undectable.
Cindy offers good advice, I think a QT system is a better idea than a steralizer.

 

[RichConley]

good thing is I have plenty of time while I wait for my parasites to die off.....about 6 weeks or so

Thats probably the best thing you could say. Take your time, and research,etc. You'll get your equipment cheaper, and you'll be better off in the long run.

 

[Apone]

I really appreciate all the input.

I did dose with copper in this tank about 2 years ago. However that was only once. Since then, I added a small batch of macro algae which lasted about a week in my tank with my hungry tangs....but that initial batch of macro inoccualted my tank with a bunch of inverts.....since then I have had fireworms and lots of copepods living in my rock. I have never tested for copper, but I will get a copper test kit to see where my levels are. Is it true that copper stays in your system forever, and that you can never get it out? If the invertes from the macro are doing OK, is this a good sign?

I am fairly certain that this is ich, based on the white speckles I noticed on my fish that would disappear and then reappear a few days later.

If I did dose copper, and I will never be able to get it out of my system, am I totally out of luck? Would a possible cure be to get rid of all rock, substrate, drain my tank and then restart with new rock? (At this point most of my fish have died so the few fish left can be donated to my LFS)

Last question...if I test for Cu, but dont get a reading, am I safe to continue on, or should I assume that there is Cu in the system?

 

[NateHanson]

Hmm. That's a tough one. I don't think a copper test will give you an informative reading, since it's probably not sensitive enough. It's probably a good sign that you've seen copepods surviving in your tank. You could get some digitata frags from people and put those in your tank to see if they do ok. If they did, then I might just cross my fingers and go with it.

Legend has it that any tank that has ever been near copper is doomed forever. That seems a little far flung, but I don't doubt that trace amounts could linger for a while and cause mysterious grief to a reefer. Exactly where the truth lies on this matter is hard to say.

Has anyone here used a tank that had copper in it at one point in the past? Maybe folks have some anecdotal evidence that would help.

Nate