I thought someone might be interested in following along in my tank restart journey. It starts back in October or so when I got my initial cyano problems that turned in to dinoflagellates. I treated the tank with some red slime remover that killed all my snails, all my acros and all but 4 fish. All the larger active fish died so I'm thinking it was an oxygen problem. Well I fought back, turning lights off, cut back feeding to once a week, massive water changes. The stuff just wouldn't go away. I had it almost gone and got more snails but about 3 weeks later they were all dead again, some corals started to look bad. I had my wife take water sample to her lab to be tested. They all came back great.
I just got sick of it and decided to take the tank down, remove all the LR and sand and cook the live rock for at least 2 months. My problem was I needed a place to keep the fish and corals. Sue offered to help out as she had a recenlty emptied 75 gal tank up and running.
I started taking some LR out of my tank about 2 and a half weeks ago now and have had them in tubs in the garage cooking. The process I'm using is rince and scrub the rocks in bucket 1, then dip and swish in buckets 2 and 3 and finally put them in the tub that has a heater and power head in it. I keep that covered so no light gets in. You would not believe how much crud comes out of the rocks even after dipping and swishing them 2 times a week. I change the water in the tubs every weekend also. With the 1/4 of the rock i started 2 -3 weeks ago I have killed off the hair algae but the turf macro algae is still going strong.
This past weekend I got all my coral and fish out of the tank and over to Sue's. I decided to keep a hold of my Leopard wrasse in an attempt to get him to eat prepped food. I set up a little 10g quarantine tank. As of sunday the 135 had 1 mushroom rock some sand and the wrasse. I had the 10g tank set up for about 3 weeks now with some macro algea and live sand from the main tank.
On saturday before going to sue's I stopped by petland to get some tigger pods so she could repopulate her tank for my mandarin. Well they were out but I saw some really nice blackcap basslets. They have been one of my favorite fish since i've gotten into the hobby. They didn't have a lable so I asked for the price and was told $18. I couldn't believe it, but didn't think it was wise to get another fish so i passed, until I went back sunday for brine shrimp stuff. I decided to get a blackcap and put it in my qt tank. I just couldn't pass it up and the guy workign told me once they figure out the price they expect them to bump them up.
So now on sunday evening I set up a brine shrimp hatchery to try weening the leopard wrasse off of pods. Yesterday I got home and the shrimp had hatched. I decided to try to get all the sand out of the 135, and if i was doing that it was time to move the wrasse. I cought him easier than I thought I would and put him in the 10g tank. He looked pissed. I was scared because all he does all day is hunt for food and I didn't have much in the 10. I decided to put some of the live brine shrimp in. I took some from the hatchery and dumped them in the tank after the lights when off. I didn't realize how many i actually had in the net but it looks like a snow globe in the 10g tank. I hope it doesn't pollute the tank but I'm changing a little water daily. I did notice this morning that the wrasse was up. He wasn't eating the shrimp out of the water, but was getting the ones that were on or near the one rock I had in the tank. Thats a good sign.
Over the next week I plan to drain the tank and clean it up. I'm going to redo some of my plumbing and have been thinking of doing some mods to my ASM G3. I'm thinking the recirc with it fed by the overflow. I just hate the idea of drilling something and breaking it. I'm also going to try a maxi jet mod or two. My problem is I had a detached fuge that is an eye sore in the living room. I'm trying to figure out how I can plumb it from the room behind it. I'm also working on replumbing the RO unit to make it easier to fill my topoff tub.
I ordered 120 lbs of sand and 2 buckets of salt from Drs Foster & Smith 2 weeks ago and that was 220 lbs for $15 shipping... Not bad!!
I'm not sure how I'll update this but I might try for some pics of the wrasse and basslet tonight, if they are out of hiding. Maybe Sue can add her part in the care of my fish and coral. I think she was excited to take care of corals that she has never had before and maybe she will get lucky to see my cardinals breeding, or the male carrying the eggs at least.
Drew
Starting over... somewhat. My 135 revamp thread
Moderator: snoopdog
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Amphiprion
- Astrea snail
- Posts: 1472
- Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2005 10:41 pm
- Location: Mobile, AL
I think Sue was talked into it by Phil. With the skimmer in the sump it doesn't need to be water tight. The ASM's aren't made to be water tight from what I understand anyway. Mine leaks a little bit somewhere but its not a big deal. There is also a mesh wheel mod for the ASM's but that requires destroying the impeller thats in there. Like I said I'm just not too sure if I want to go in and rip things apart on the skimmer.
I'm just having fun with the different corals. 
I've always liked Euphillids, but getting some experience with them this way is really nice. My favorite is definately the branching Hammer. I have noticed some heavy Cyano spots on a couple of the Favids so I think I will need to be a bit diligent in removing it. Finally found a spot the Sinularia seems to like, in a little less water flow.
Love that Cryptic sixline, Drew. If you decide you don't want him, he's welcome to stay.
Everybody looks good.
I can't find the species name for that fish though.
I've always liked Euphillids, but getting some experience with them this way is really nice. My favorite is definately the branching Hammer. I have noticed some heavy Cyano spots on a couple of the Favids so I think I will need to be a bit diligent in removing it. Finally found a spot the Sinularia seems to like, in a little less water flow. Love that Cryptic sixline, Drew. If you decide you don't want him, he's welcome to stay.
Everybody looks good. I can't find the species name for that fish though.
which one? The cryptic sixline? The new book I have has them listed as Pseudocheilinops ataenia and the other common name it goes by is Pinstreaked Wrasse.
Reefermadness has them and is calling them Midget Wrasses
http://www.reefermadness.us/RMD_Pseudoc ... taenia.htm
You like the branching hammer that much. I personally like the regular hammer.
Reefermadness has them and is calling them Midget Wrasses
http://www.reefermadness.us/RMD_Pseudoc ... taenia.htm
You like the branching hammer that much. I personally like the regular hammer.
Last edited by Fishfood on Tue Feb 06, 2007 9:25 pm, edited 2 times in total.
I sure hope he does ok. So many of those fish die and you've had such good luck with him so far. He's a sweet one.
The sixline has such a good attitude for one of that particular group of Wrasses, he's quite comfortable with the other fish and isn't aggressive at all. So often they are downright obnoxous. Of course, it could be an individual thing, whatever it is you got a good one.
The sixline has such a good attitude for one of that particular group of Wrasses, he's quite comfortable with the other fish and isn't aggressive at all. So often they are downright obnoxous.
Of course, it could be an individual thing, whatever it is you got a good one.Well the Cryptic or Midget or whatever you want to call it wrasse is not anything like a sixline. A sixline will be a holy terror with other wrasses and many other fish. I had one once before and saw how bad they can get. I think its the same for the 8-line wrasses coming out of hawaii. They are said to get real mean once they are established and get a little bigger. The 8 line flasher wrasses are a different story. They come from the Red Sea i believe and are 10 times better looking and probably 5 times as expensive.
You should think about getting a cryptic.
You should think about getting a cryptic.
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Amphiprion
- Astrea snail
- Posts: 1472
- Joined: Sat Mar 05, 2005 10:41 pm
- Location: Mobile, AL
You know I thought the same thing about them and knew of someone who had them and they would hide in the rocks all day, but I'm sure Sue can back me up on this, mine is out all day long and isn't that shy. I was really surprised after it took a beating the first day from my yellowfin wrasse that he was out and about on the second day in my tank.
Yep, he's out regularly, always watching and moving. Fascinating little guy. He learned quickly to anticipate the Tang's movements, and there hasn't been any problem at all. I do like the fact that he's out alot, when they are someone elses fish, you really do a good count a couple of times a day. All I would need is to have one who hides for long periods.
The Cardinals are getting a little bolder, especially at feeding time. They've realized the Tang is a pig and will eat all the food so they zip in and out pretty good. Is the male the one with the purple stripes? If I'm looking correctly one seems to have some purple vertical stripes and the other, if it has them they aren't as pronounced.
The Cardinals are getting a little bolder, especially at feeding time. They've realized the Tang is a pig and will eat all the food so they zip in and out pretty good. Is the male the one with the purple stripes? If I'm looking correctly one seems to have some purple vertical stripes and the other, if it has them they aren't as pronounced.
You know I never noticed that. They both have the markings on them and when I looked at them in your tank neither seemed to have them. I guess they were stressed. The only way I can ever tell is when the male is carrying the eggs. Maybe the markings are different though. The Yellowfin had been bugging the cardinals recently in my tank. I think he is catching on that they carry eggs and release them into the tank. He might be trying to force them to spit the eggs out even when they aren't carrying any. Since all my larger fish and wrasses died the yellowfin has become the master of the tank.