BornToHula's 240 Gallon Build

[BornToHula]

Linked image isn't working but it sounds bacterial which is always the #2 worry with QTs besides ammonia being #1.

Ah, I'll just post the pics on here. Ammonia was not the culprit, that was my first thought too. I was thinking bacterial infection as well and had dosed melafix yesterday, but it was too late by then.

[FarmerTy]

Sorry, worded that funny. I thought it was bacterial. I was just mentioning ammonia because that's usually the biggest worry and the #1 killer with QTs.

Hard to tell with the dead fish but I could see it being bacterial. If so, I'd recommend using a different medication than Melafix. Melafix is just an antiseptic if I remember correctly.

I would use an antibiotic if possible. I usually lean on Furan 2, erythromycin, tetracycline, or kanaplex/metroplex to treat bacterial infections. The problem is figuring out if you are fighting a gram positive or gram negative bacteria so if one doesn't start working, I usually switch to another.

For my emperor, he kept getting bacterial infections in QT and couldn't shake it so I used kanaplex, furan 2, and tetracycline combined and he kicked the infection. I would not usually recommend running multiple antibiotics unless you were unsuccessful in your initial treatments. Its more of a last ditch effort, mainly because adding each medication can lower the oxygen level in the tank to dangerous levels.

[BornToHula]

Thanks for the info.

I was mistaking the red sores as bruises from the blenny instead of an infection until it was too late. I bought a book on marine fish diseases because I am definitely not well versed in the subject. Hopefully next time I can react quicker.

From what I can tell bacterial infections don't spread like ich or velvet do. I will be keeping a close watch on the fish I put in the 240 to see if any signs of infection appear.

[FarmerTy]

Thanks for the info.

I was mistaking the red sores as bruises from the blenny instead of an infection until it was too late. I bought a book on marine fish diseases because I am definitely not well versed in the subject. Hopefully next time I can react quicker.

From what I can tell bacterial infections don't spread like ich or velvet do. I will be keeping a close watch on the fish I put in the 240 to see if any signs of infection appear.

You are correct on that, only my emperor had a bacterial infection while the other 15 fish in the tub had no symptoms. He must have been in there with them for a week before I realized he even had it.

That's the main issue with using a tub as QT, you really can't monitor the fish as well from above. Unfortunately, I don't have a spare tank that can hold 16 fish, some quite large.

Most bacterial infections I see are associated with pink to red patches on the skin with often tail rot as a secondary symptom. My blonde naso got it once in QT and his infection was dark gray though.

[fightinghippo]

D**n Ty. Just when I thought I could be a ok reefer. You start throwing all this medicine names and gram +ve and -ve. I give up. I was lazy growing up and that's why chose to make a career in IT . Looks like this hobby is harder than I thought.

[FarmerTy]

D**n Ty. Just when I thought I could be a ok reefer. You start throwing all this medicine names and gram +ve and -ve. I give up. I was lazy growing up and that's why chose to make a career in IT . Looks like this hobby is harder than I thought.

Uh, I think IT is way harder! At least for me it is!

You don't need to know any of that stuff, just let reef nerds like me remember it and then when you're having fish issues, post on ARC and all the nerds will chime in like usual. [emoji4]

[fightinghippo]

[emoji12] oh it is like IT then. Instead of googling it. Just have to TY it, TIM it.

[BornToHula]

So far the two Anthias and Blenny are still looking healthy - doesn't look like they contracted the bacterial infection (assuming it was one) *knock on wood*.

The larger Anthias is being aggressive against the smaller one, but I expected that to happen. It is a little surprising its happening when they are in the larger tank instead of the QT though. So far no signs of stress and its still eating, just having to hide a lot. I am hoping it submits and they pair up.

I'm out of town this weekend but as soon as I get back bio-pellets are going to go online. Once the Nitrates come down I'll move over some zoas and frogspawn to see how they do. Nitrates are about 10 or 20 ppm now. (The color test is hard to read!)

My wife and I have been compiling a list of our what other fish to get. Our selections tend to be more on the agressive side so the more agressive ones probably wont be going in anytime soon. So far on the wish list we have:

Bluethroat Trigger

Purple Tang

Melanurus Wrasse

Regal Angel (I'll only get one if its already eating food)

Mystery Wrasse

Pair of Peppermint Angels

Just Kidding . I would like another Lemonpeel or a flame angel.

[jolt]

Haha - got me with the Angels for a moment ...

[BornToHula]

The Blenny jumped into the overflow . A cover/wall to stop it from jumping over again just went to #1 on the to do list. Now... how to get that bugger out...

[FarmerTy]

Check out NYAquatics for Regals that are eating already.

[nuxx]

Peppermints need a cold water tank, better off with captive bred masked or clarion angels

[BornToHula]

I am having an issue with microbubbles in the display tank. I think it may be the flow from the returns producing the bubbles, the bubbles don't appear to be coming from the skimmer/sump.

Any way to eliminate this? Installing Loc-Line flair nozzles maybe?

[FarmerTy]

For sure, put a nozzle on it or an eductor/penductor.

[BornToHula]

It's not the easiest thing going from 1" return to 3/4" loc line. The hard part was finding a reducer that goes from 1" slip to 3/4" threaded.

Once the parts come in the returns will be:

1" PVC Pipe -> 1" Slip x 3/4" FPT Female -> Loc Line 3/4" Male Adapter -> Loc Line Y fitting -> Loc Line Hose -> Loc Line Flair Nozzle

[BornToHula]

I also got the bio pellets hooked up this weekend. I went with silicon tubing and like it a lot so far - sooo much easier to work with than that braided tubing you find at Lowes. I should have gone with black instead of white though.

I've been using Dr. Tims biopellets with pretty good success on my 75g so I decided to stay with the same brand. The directions call for 3.5 cups of pellets for the tank size, but I just moved over the 1 cup from the 75g and added another 1/2 cup for now.

I did have the output tube hooked up to the skimmer intake, but it was shooting water up the air-line. I'll have to settle for the output to just be nearby.

[BornToHula]

Frustrating night on the reef.

The Blenny decided to jump out of the tank when I was cleaning the glass with the magnet cleaner. I noticed he was missing almost immediately, but he just happened to land behind some bracing that made it almost impossible to see him. Since I didn't see him on the ground I figured he was in the overflow again, so I started searching for him in there with a webcam and flashlight. When he wasn't in there I started tearing apart the plumbing thinking he was maybe stuck in the siphon's gate valve. Once he wasn't there I knew he had to be outside somewhere but didn't find him until it was too late.

Also since I messed with the gate valve on the siphon drain I cannot get a siphon to form again. I'm not sure what I changed since the plumbing all went back to the same place. I've been playing with the gate valve's position with no luck so far, it seems like its not purging air for some reason.

[FarmerTy]

Sorry for the loss! Jumping is the most frustrating because there was nothing wrong with the fish and if you would have noticed in time, a life could have been saved.

Thought about turning off all flow, letting the system settle, and then restarting everything? Sometimes, you end up with bubbles stuck in the plumbing that can't vent themselves or pressure-locked situations that just shutting everything off and restarting remedies.

[+KimP]

Frustrating night on the reef.

The Blenny decided to jump out of the tank when I was cleaning the glass with the magnet cleaner. I noticed he was missing almost immediately, but he just happened to land behind some bracing that made it almost impossible to see him. Since I didn't see him on the ground I figured he was in the overflow again, so I started searching for him in there with a webcam and flashlight. When he wasn't in there I started tearing apart the plumbing thinking he was maybe stuck in the siphon's gate valve. Once he wasn't there I knew he had to be outside somewhere but didn't find him until it was too late.

Also since I messed with the gate valve on the siphon drain I cannot get a siphon to form again. I'm not sure what I changed since the plumbing all went back to the same place. I've been playing with the gate valve's position with no luck so far, it seems like its not purging air for some reason.

That all sounds very frustrating! Sorry about the fish

[+BobcatReefer]

Man, hate to hear it Hula.

2nd Ty's suggestion. As someone who sells software, I cringe when I go to my engineers w/ a customer issue and I get "I dunno...reboot?" as the answer, but it really does work in a lot of situations.

[BornToHula]

Thanks for the condolences everyone. If you are in the mood for some dark humor, I had ordered the clear netting from bulk reef when he first jumped into the overflow a few days ago... it was just delivered a few minutes ago. Talk about timing! I'll still be putting it up either way since I plan on having a few wrasses.

Good idea on turning off all the flow for a bit. I have tried turning the return pump on and off a few times but probably didn't give enough time for everything to settle. I'll give it a shot a lunch.

[BornToHula]

Got the siphon working, turning off the return pump for a bit did the trick.

[BornToHula]

I need to get moving a little quicker in transferring things over to the 240. Maintaining the 240g, 75g, 40g quarantine and a 40g freshwater planted tank is going to drive me insane if it doesn't end soon.

The biggest issue I have is the vermetid snail infestation in the 75g tank. This prevents me from just transferring over the live rock because I reallllly don't want another infestation in the 240.

To take care Vermetid snails:

1. I have a canister filter on the 75g. Its just filled with filter floss and changed out every 3 days. Pain in the rear but I couldn't think of any other way to do mechanical filtration (filter socks wont fit).

2. Superglue closed any snails that I can - I've been doing this for awhile. Not sure if it helps or not.

3. Get melanarus wrasse this weekend and put into QT. Hopefully there is one available locally, if not I'll order it online. I'm going to take a risk and just do a 7 day quarantine on him, I want him in the 75g asap so he can start eating the snails.

4. When (if?) the snails are dead, move the live rock and wrasse over to 240.

Transferring livestock from 75 to the 240. Going to start moving things this Sunday.

1. Get a fish trap and move any fish/shrimp/crabs I catch to the 240

2. Attempt to move anemones - I am moving over 1 rose BTA and 1 green BTA to the new tank. The other two will be sold or traded in.

3. Move over LPS and zoas to see how they do.

4. If 3 went OK for a couple days, move SPS over

Once the SPS is moved over I'll be moving the dosing pumps over as well. I think I'll eventually get a calcium reactor, but for the time being I will using dosing pumps.

[FarmerTy]

Good plan!

Juiceman has my fish trap but if he's done with it, you're more than welcome to borrow it. I'll let you two work out the details of exchanging it. Here's how I use it if it helps.

If you don't have a sea squirt to administer the food to the trap, let me know and you can grab mine. Juiceman didn't need it because he has one.

My only suggestion is to maybe wait a bit longer on the SPS just to be safe. All parameters may look good but the fluctuations of a new tank may cause you to potentially lose all the SPS. Maybe just transfer one as a test piece and if it does well, then transfer the rest of the SPS.

When you get to the CaRX stage, give me a holler. Been fiddling with those for years now.

[Juiceman]

Good plan!

Juiceman has my fish trap but if he's done with it, you're more than welcome to borrow it. I'll let you two work out the details of exchanging it. Here's how I use it if it helps.

If you don't have a sea squirt to administer the food to the trap, let me know and you can grab mine. Juiceman didn't need it because he has one.

My only suggestion is to maybe wait a bit longer on the SPS just to be safe. All parameters may look good but the fluctuations of a new tank may cause you to potentially lose all the SPS. Maybe just transfer one as a test piece and if it does well, then transfer the rest of the SPS.

When you get to the CaRX stage, give me a holler. Been fiddling with those for years now.

I'm done for now. next time I catch fish, I won't have rock in my tank! haha