Bobcat's 75gal First Reef Build

[+BobcatReefer]

Neeeded some more room on the frag rack, and since I wasn't quick enough on the draw to snag one of Dan's old ones the other day, I had to MacGyver an extension w/ what I had available... An unused twisty control stick from some venetian blinds, some leftover BRS netting, some superglue and zip ties, and wah lah:

[Dan H]

That's way more inventive than I could have ever dreamed up. Looks like it works well too.

[+BobcatReefer]

Woohoo! Starry Blenny successfully captured/rescued from the fuge and re-introduced to the display. Surprisingly easier than I thought it would be - just left the net underneath the overflow grill he kept napping on and only took me 3 or 4 times trying to sneak up on him.

[+BobcatReefer]

Here's the loot scored for winning the Urchin Photo contest - thanks so much to Aaron at Just Reef and Jake at River City Aquatics! Now I just need to figure out what all this stuff does...

Listed Out:
Aquatop Mr-20 Media Reactor W/ Pump
Seachem 5gal Collapsible Water Jug
Seachem Reef Glue
Seachem Reef Fusion1 1 Ltr (Raises Calcium)
Seachem Reef Fusion2 1 Ltr (Raises Alkalinity)
Aquavitro Fuel 350ml
Aquavitro Vibrance 350ml
Aquavitro Calcification 350ml
Aquavitro Alpha 350ml
Aquavitro Eight.four 350ml
Aquavitro Balance 350ml
Aquavitro Ions 350ml
Aqua Tongs
Fish Net
Seaweed Clips

[+BobcatReefer]

Questions here:

Paraguard is only effective against velvet if dosed daily at lights out for 21 days and only effective against ich if dosed daily for 30 days.

Week 1 Paraguard daily with a 50% water change on day 7 (no skimmer, no carbon or chemipure but heavy aeration via airstone)
Week 2 prazipro Monday, Paraguard daily with a 50% water change on day 7 (no skimmer, no carbon or chemipure but heavy aeration via airstone)
Week 3 prazipro Monday, Paraguard daily with a 50% water change on day 7 (no skimmer, no carbon or chemipure but heavy aeration via airstone)
Week 4 prazipro Monday, Paraguard daily with a 50% water change on day 7 (no skimmer, no carbon or chemipure but heavy aeration via airstone)

1) Wks 2,3,4, do you dose the Prazipro and Paraguard both on same day, or skip the Paragurad on that day?

2) On Day 7 do you do the water change first, then dose the Paraguard? I feel like that's kind of obvious, but might as well ask...

[+BobcatReefer]

Updates:

Cyano/red slime algae: MUCH better, but not quite gone. Little annoyed that adding a ton of flow and reducing light fixed 80% immediately, but the other 20% refuses to go away. Water change coming up, so hopefully that helps knock it down the rest of the way. Ready to have the extra powerhead out - can't mount the monti frag I got from the last meeting because there's so much flow it acts like a wing and stresses the epoxy to the point of breaking.

Whatever killed the Kole, likely killed all the other fish in the tank. Including the high dollar Anthia I should not have put in there. I need to start being overly cautious - it's not in my nature, but it's terrible in this hobby. Tank is now fallow. I'm sad and ashamed. 16 years of SW tanks and never killed all the fish.

Solved several plumbing issues, but can't quite get to a point where the tank is silent, unless I get super lucky. Of course, tonight I'm working on a new theory/configuration/etc and think I'm on the right track. Again.

I'm irate w/ LiveAquaria.com right now. Ordered fish, had my order cancelled w/o notification (after confirmation), re-ordered, had my shipment verbally verified, got 1/2 my order (2 fish out of 3 fish & 3 crabs) but one fish was dead (Royal Gramma) and the other looked rough (Green Canary Blenny) but is now dead (made it 5 days in QT). I've talked to 4 different people on 4 different calls and the last 3 have included lies and/or just flat being wrong.

Anyone want a famous, award winning urchin? The algae issue is flat out gone! HUZZAH! Purple urchin up for $10. White one likely to follow. I think the sea hare can handle it, and she's much less...aggressive than those two lunks!

Anyone have a better epoxy suggestion than the red/gray AquaStik? Not really a fan. Unless it's wedged into a hole, it's meh at best.

[+BobcatReefer]

Parameters:

Salinity .026

pH: 7.84

Nitrate 2

Nitrite 0

Ammonia 0

Phosphate 0, .04, .13 over the last 7 or 8 days (rising)

Alkalinity 7.28

Alkalinity has been fun...I have 2 Hanna checkers because I'm not smart enough to remember I bought one a couple of months before, nor was I smart enough to look at the expiration date on the reagent before buying the 1st one used. I've done two tests to see if the 2014 reagent was bad, but I think it's ok.

Checkers - C1, C2

Reagents - R14, R16

Value in PPM

Test 1 (4 or 5 days ago):

C1, R14, 128 :: C1, R16, 141

C2, R14, 132 :: C2, R16, 126

Test 2 (tonight):

C1, R14, 127 :: C1, R16, 129
C2, R14, 130 :: C2, R16, 130

I figure that's a pretty good grouping. 2 more like that and I'll sell one of the checkers.

[+BobcatReefer]

Current DT Livestock:

Coral Banded Shrimp

5 (?) Emeral Crabs

1 Porcelain Crab

3 Nassarius Snails (1.5" bigguns), 5 or 6 little ones

3 or 4 Trochus Snails

1 Sea Hare

1 Big Arse Conch (willing to part with for $10)

2 Pincushion Urchins

1 Shortspine Urchin

1 Rainbow BTA

1 Branching Hammer (6/7 heads)

1 Wall Hammer

1 Pocillopora (+1 frag)

1 Bubble Coral (not placed)

1 GSP rock

1 Duncan (5/6 heads - not quite as happy as it was)

1 Trumpet (15+ heads)

1 Frogspawn (5 heads or so - been grumpy for a couple of weeks now)

1 Blue Fuzzy Mushroom

1 Open Brain

1 hurtin Torch. Last head is holding on like a champ - dude wants to survive.

1 Jason Fox purple tip Nana

4 Metallic Green (I think?) Shrooms

2 Chalice-like corals...can't remember their real names.

2 Red Montipora (only 1 placed where they'll live so far)

6 Acans (3 placed, 3 not)

1 Candy Apple Paly (want more cool Palys like this - PM me if you want to sell me some frag sized)

1 Alien Eye Chalice (not placed)

4 Superman Rhodactis Mushrooms (not placed)

4 med, 6 tiny Blue Mushrooms (not placed)

2 Zoa colonies (sm)

QT livestock:

1 Helfrichi Firefish

2 Ocellaris Clowns (1.5")

[Dan H]

Don't be ashamed, everyone kills fish in this hobby and it's not as though you were neglectful. It's unfortunate but it happens. Hopefully it results in learning - not just for you but for others reading about your experience.

[Bobbyb3]

Sucks about fish in tank and shipment. Hope everything starts turning around.

[Christyef]

How long have u had sea hare? I read they only live up to a year

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[+BobcatReefer]

Just a couple of weeks. She's a BEAST!

[Christyef]

I looked into getting one yesterday bc I bought a filefish AND a peppermint shrimp to get aiptasia and NEITHER have touched a single one. [emoji19]. But then read they only live 6-12 mos, so decided not to (bc there was no way to tell how old the one for sale was)

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[+BobcatReefer]

Oh, I also applied some ARC learning to my QT setup and made a nuxx condo so the fish would have some other places to hang out for the time they were there. Not needed so much now that there's only 3 of them in there instead of the 6 planned, but whatever....

[+BobcatReefer]

Why is my Frogspawn grumpy and how do I make him happy again?

Before:

Now:

[Reburn]

Questions here:

Paraguard is only effective against velvet if dosed daily at lights out for 21 days and only effective against ich if dosed daily for 30 days.

Week 1 Paraguard daily with a 50% water change on day 7 (no skimmer, no carbon or chemipure but heavy aeration via airstone)

Week 2 prazipro Monday, Paraguard daily with a 50% water change on day 7 (no skimmer, no carbon or chemipure but heavy aeration via airstone)

Week 3 prazipro Monday, Paraguard daily with a 50% water change on day 7 (no skimmer, no carbon or chemipure but heavy aeration via airstone)

Week 4 prazipro Monday, Paraguard daily with a 50% water change on day 7 (no skimmer, no carbon or chemipure but heavy aeration via airstone)

1) Wks 2,3,4, do you dose the Prazipro and Paraguard both on same day, or skip the Paragurad on that day?

2) On Day 7 do you do the water change first, then dose the Paraguard? I feel like that's kind of obvious, but might as well ask...

Both Paraguard and prazipro on the same day.

Yes after change and then redose Paraguard.

Make sure to not be running a skimmer or carbon they will suck out the meds.

[Reburn]

Don't feel too bad about the fish. Honestly those of us that qt commonly lose fish in qt. it's kinda the dark side of the hobby that no one talks about.

Look at it this way.

In qt there is nothing for a fish to pick at, no pods, no worms, absolutely barren.

Some fish just can't take the stress of a bare bottom qt without sand and rock.

The only thing they get to eat is what you give them and it's a vicious circle. They are stressed so they don't eat which makes them sick and not want to eat and they don't want to eat so they get sicker.

10% of qt is treating diseases and the other 90% is conditioning to you and to eat frozen / prepared foods.

Another member and I were just talking last week about how we hate running qt's. But at the end of the day getting the fish disease free and conditioned is what's best for the display community. Generally speaking if a fish can make it through qt and makes it into the display they are bomb proof and will almost certainly survive.

[+BobcatReefer]

Thanks Reburn. My "Monday" is Thursday, just because of how the shipping worked out, and I did the dosing/change like you said. No carbon or skimming. I do have an HOB skimmer I can use come week 5.

QT seems to be going rather well. I've been super nervous about another high dollar fish (Helfrichi), but he seems to be doing great. Very responsive to feeding - attentive and alert as soon as food is in the tank, eating well and showing no signs at all of stress or discomfort.

Assuming the disease was Velvet or Brooklynella, I want to make sure it's not still in my tank when I re-introduce fish. Any suggestions on how to make sure it's gone from the DT?

[Reburn]

Ty is going to be the expert on fallow times. I think 76 days fallow, meaning no fish in the display will suffice.

And don't give me too much credit for the QT procedure. It is Nuxx's procedure. I just learn fast.

For what it's worth it takes a hot minute to learn how to run a QT. I lost some fish when I first started. They can be kinda difficult to find their stride.

[FarmerTy]

Standard is 42 days fallow for velvet and 76 days for ich. I do not know for brooklynella.

[+BobcatReefer]

Thanks Ty. I'll aim for 72 just to be safe.

[FarmerTy]

Thanks Ty. I'll aim for 72 just to be safe.

76? [emoji4]

[+BobcatReefer]

dangit! OK, that too!

[+BobcatReefer]

Had a scary/lucky moment this morning...

On the way to the coffee maker at 6:30am, I happened to look down and see some water on the shelf my sump sits on, low water in the return chamber of the sump and immediately had heart palpitations... 1st thought is that since it's a small puddle (barely any spilled onto the floor) and looks like only a couple gal are missing, that the sump has a small leak, and since you can't really see that w/o breaking the whole thing down and re-testing it, palpitations turned to indigestion. Figured I needed to shut down the sump (leaving the powerheads on in the display to keep current flowing), I killed the return pump and shut off the overflow valves. That's where I found the culprit - union fitting had come loose from the valve I 'm always having to adjust going into the sump. I'm still nervous I 'll get home and the tank will be empty, but that's just my paranoia.

[jolt]

Hopefully you took care of it and all is well now !