Be prepared for the hippo to get ich, they all do I think. Look at lowering your salinity to deal with it 1.009-10(gradual from LFS water to there try no more then 3 points a day). Give the guy a boost for his immune system with garlic and selcon with his nori/mysis. Then 3 weeks minimum after it goes away you should start to raise the sality to normal and you ought to be good to go. If he actually doesn't get it you are really lucky.
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75 Gallons of Entertainment! The build begins...
- Thread starter TanksNStuff
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Thanks for the tips on the hippo JR. The salesman actually instructed me to lower the salinity a bit, so I started it at 1.023 in the QT tank. I'll just gradually add some fresh ro/di water over the next couple days to get it to the ranges you suggested.
I've also been using a copper sulfate to help with preventing ich. However, I've been dosing as instructed on the bottle yet my salifert copper test kit is reading it at zero still. This after about 48 hours. Since I got a zero (clear) reading again this morning, I doubled the daily dosage and will check tonight to see if it's in the water. I've been told that the glass and anything else in the tank will absorb the copper at first so it may not be detected in the water until the glass is saturated. Anyway, I'll keep a close eye on that.
As for the immune system boost suggestion, well to be honest I have only fed it flakes for the past two days but planned on getting some frozen foods today for it. I heard good things about selcon too, so I'll pick that up tonight as well. For the garlic, are you talking about a supplement that you buy at the store, or can I use that minced stuff I already have in my fridge?
Thanks again for the help. I'll try to get some pics up tonight!
I've also been using a copper sulfate to help with preventing ich. However, I've been dosing as instructed on the bottle yet my salifert copper test kit is reading it at zero still. This after about 48 hours. Since I got a zero (clear) reading again this morning, I doubled the daily dosage and will check tonight to see if it's in the water. I've been told that the glass and anything else in the tank will absorb the copper at first so it may not be detected in the water until the glass is saturated. Anyway, I'll keep a close eye on that.
As for the immune system boost suggestion, well to be honest I have only fed it flakes for the past two days but planned on getting some frozen foods today for it. I heard good things about selcon too, so I'll pick that up tonight as well. For the garlic, are you talking about a supplement that you buy at the store, or can I use that minced stuff I already have in my fridge?
Thanks again for the help. I'll try to get some pics up tonight!
We use Brightwell garlic, you can buy it at most stores and we like it. We don't have tangs but we use garlic to boost all of our fish. We have been using selcon for about a month as well to help out with the fish. So far so good, and our flamback angel got over his ick with no problem. We did not QT him or treat him with anything else but food.
For frozen food we use Rods and really like it. We still use mysis every now and again, but use the Rods when we have it.
For frozen food we use Rods and really like it. We still use mysis every now and again, but use the Rods when we have it.
I would suggest picking up the seaweed with the garlic in it. I don't know which one it is Will just pointed it out to me the first time. Plus this will give your tang an additional food group. I mix the selcon with the mysis that I feed. I actually use it almost daily, ie when I am not in a hurry and forget. Understand copper is a poison. Fish are bigger and less sensitive to it but it is still hard on them. Reducing the salinity is actually short term easier on the fish then normal salinity but can over an extended time also hurt your fish. That said I prefer to use the other solutions. Carbon will also obsorb copper so if you have carbon in your QT that will obsorb it.
Hmm, I guess I'll have to check the ingredients on the flakes I have before I go buy anything.
Mnat, yea, I have heard great things about Rod's food and almost bought some when I picked up the tang. I should have because I don't think they sell it locally here in SJ (if someone does, please let me know.) As for the Brightwell, I'll try to find that if I can't get the kind JR suggested with garlic already in the seaweed, which seems like a better solution to me. Especially since I'm unsure of how much garlic to mix in, etc.
Mysis is also frozen? Sorry for my ignorance, I'm new to this stuff. I know it's shrimp, but that's about the extent of my knowledge. I will get some to mix the selcon into like you suggested JR.
I don't have carbon in the QT, although I did think of it. I'm due to change the carbon in my main tank this weekend, and thought I might add some to the QT at the same time. Maybe I'll skip that for now.
Now I'm concerned about lowering the salinity. Should I just get it to the 1.009 and then gradually ramp it back up after 24 hours or so at the low salinity?
Thanks for all the advice guys, I really appreciate the help.
Mnat, yea, I have heard great things about Rod's food and almost bought some when I picked up the tang. I should have because I don't think they sell it locally here in SJ (if someone does, please let me know.) As for the Brightwell, I'll try to find that if I can't get the kind JR suggested with garlic already in the seaweed, which seems like a better solution to me. Especially since I'm unsure of how much garlic to mix in, etc.
Mysis is also frozen? Sorry for my ignorance, I'm new to this stuff. I know it's shrimp, but that's about the extent of my knowledge. I will get some to mix the selcon into like you suggested JR.
I don't have carbon in the QT, although I did think of it. I'm due to change the carbon in my main tank this weekend, and thought I might add some to the QT at the same time. Maybe I'll skip that for now.
Now I'm concerned about lowering the salinity. Should I just get it to the 1.009 and then gradually ramp it back up after 24 hours or so at the low salinity?
Thanks for all the advice guys, I really appreciate the help.
No the salinity works by interupting the life cycle of the parasite. It cannot live in one of its forms at that salinity so you need to keep it there until you are sure that you have completely eliminated it. I would suggest 3 weeks either after the last outbreak or 3 weeks after you start then bring it slowly back up to your DT salinity or close. That is sort of minimum. Don't worry when I said longer term I meant longer then that. Short term it is easier on the fish so ... of course inverts cannot handle the lower salinity FYI...you need to keep it lowered for a greater length of time then 24 hours.
I think copper is harder on the fish but that is IMHO.
I think copper is harder on the fish but that is IMHO.
We used to dose copper in our QT in the beginning but now we just go with food. PE mysis seems to be the mysis of choice around here so I would look for that. Also realize that these are cures WHEN you get the problem. If the fish does not have signs of ick yet you don't have to go to extreme measures yet. However, as James said blue tangs are VERY susceptible to ick so we just want to make sure you are ready. We also have the seaweed with garlic, very easy to find. Ick is like the flu, if you are healthy you just shake it off, if you are not healthy it can kill you, same with fish. Diet and supplements can go along way to making your fish healthy enough to shake off the ick. The blue tang is my fiancees favorite fish and when we upgrade I see one in the near future.
The last post each of you made were extremely helpful! I thought that I needed both copper and lower salinity to keep ick out of my main tank, regardless of whether the new fish showed signs or not. The hippo tang doesn't show any signs of ick that I can tell (no white spots, no itching, etc.) but I will definitely keep an eye on it.
Since copper seems to be the harsher treatment, I think I will stop adding that to the QT (still don't have any showing on my test kit so either the Salifert test kit sucks or the copper sulfate is bogus, lol.) Anyway, I'm going to gradually lower the salinity just to make sure. I got it down to 1.020 last night and will drop it down a few more points tonight.
As far as the feeding goes, I went to Aquarium Center and picked up some frozen mysis. They didn't have any selcon, so I couldn't get that. I also couldn't find any seaweed with garlic as an ingredient, so I just added a few pieces of minced out of my fridge and mixed it in with the mysis. I don't remember the name brand, but it was a bunch of individual cubes that you pop thru foil. I chopped it into small pieces and mixed in the garlic, then fed the hippo a small amount with a medicine dropper. "Dory" seemed to go crazy for it so I was happy about that. I added a vid at the bottom that shows her eating some. The rest of the cube I gave to the pair of clowns in the main tank. Man did they go crazy for that stuff! The bigger one was flying all over trying to get every little scrap. It was fun to watch.
Should I feed them mysis every day or every other day? Should I still feed them the veggie flakes at the same intervals as before, and then treat them mysis every other day? I think I read that's how some people do it.
I hope to find some Selcon and/or the seaweed w/garlic (Rod's if they have it) at OGII tomorrow when I go pick up my snails from the group buy. That should cover me on food for a while.
Now, for the pics I promised:
Here is the new addition... "Dory" - Yes, it has a tailfin, it just didn't make it into the pic. :'(
Here is a short vid of Dory eating the mysis, it hides behind the heater most of the time. - Not sure if it will work, my first vid upload to photobucket.
Here is the "Fan" thing forming with the brown algae on the LR - It's in the center, a little to the left and there are a couple of those green algae "stalks" next to it. If you look closely, you can see the other one up to the right, but it's facing the opposite direction.
And here is a close up of a green "stalk" thing forming on the LR
Any idea what either of those last two might be? Sorry for picture quality, I don't have the greatest camera in the world.
Since copper seems to be the harsher treatment, I think I will stop adding that to the QT (still don't have any showing on my test kit so either the Salifert test kit sucks or the copper sulfate is bogus, lol.) Anyway, I'm going to gradually lower the salinity just to make sure. I got it down to 1.020 last night and will drop it down a few more points tonight.
As far as the feeding goes, I went to Aquarium Center and picked up some frozen mysis. They didn't have any selcon, so I couldn't get that. I also couldn't find any seaweed with garlic as an ingredient, so I just added a few pieces of minced out of my fridge and mixed it in with the mysis. I don't remember the name brand, but it was a bunch of individual cubes that you pop thru foil. I chopped it into small pieces and mixed in the garlic, then fed the hippo a small amount with a medicine dropper. "Dory" seemed to go crazy for it so I was happy about that. I added a vid at the bottom that shows her eating some. The rest of the cube I gave to the pair of clowns in the main tank. Man did they go crazy for that stuff! The bigger one was flying all over trying to get every little scrap. It was fun to watch.
Should I feed them mysis every day or every other day? Should I still feed them the veggie flakes at the same intervals as before, and then treat them mysis every other day? I think I read that's how some people do it.
I hope to find some Selcon and/or the seaweed w/garlic (Rod's if they have it) at OGII tomorrow when I go pick up my snails from the group buy. That should cover me on food for a while.
Now, for the pics I promised:
Here is the new addition... "Dory" - Yes, it has a tailfin, it just didn't make it into the pic. :'(
Here is a short vid of Dory eating the mysis, it hides behind the heater most of the time. - Not sure if it will work, my first vid upload to photobucket.
Here is the "Fan" thing forming with the brown algae on the LR - It's in the center, a little to the left and there are a couple of those green algae "stalks" next to it. If you look closely, you can see the other one up to the right, but it's facing the opposite direction.
And here is a close up of a green "stalk" thing forming on the LR
Any idea what either of those last two might be? Sorry for picture quality, I don't have the greatest camera in the world.
What most people do in their QT is throw in some PVC pipe or coffee mugs to give the fish some hiding spots to swim around in. Not quite sure what the green stalks are but the rest of it is hair algae. I good way to get rid of it is just pull the rock out, put it in a seperate bucket and scrub it with a toothbrush or other semi rigid brush. Rinse it off and put it back in. I don't know if you have a phoban reactor or phosban/chemipure but it will help.
I do have a couple 3" PVC fittings in the QT, but Dory seems to be content with hiding next to the heater. I think it will be fine with hiding back there until I put it into the main tank.
Well, the group buy order got canceled again due to lack of communication from the supplier. So, I decided to just buy some inverts locally. I went to Aquarium Center but they didn't have much of a selection. I ended up getting a small cleanup crew from East Coast Aquatics in Prospect Park, PA. The staff was very friendly and helpful with suggesting things to get and what not to get for my needs.
I ended up getting 6 large turbo snails, 12 mexican hermit crabs, and 1 sand-sifting star fish. I wanted to get a fighting conch or a sea cucumber to help clean the sandbed, but they didn't have any in stock. I settled for the starfish, but unfortunately he didn't make it. I checked on him to find him dead this morning before leaving for work. :'(
It's probably my own fault because I think I rushed the acclimation process and/or didn't do it correctly. I wasn't sure how to do it and I found instructions online that said to add a cup of my tank water into the water they came with, then every 10 minutes take a cup out and replace with another cup from my tank for an hour or so. I did this for an hour and then put them in without even checking water parameters first. I didn't realize the impact at the time, but I did notice that the tank water was much warmer than what they had been adjusting in. Also, my main tank salinity was a bit high to begin with (around 1.029-1.030). I'm pretty sure I screwed up the acclimation and I expect to have some issues due to my negligence.
Shortly after putting the inverts in the tank, I noticed some of the turbos were turning on their side and emitting what looked like smoke. I thought it was just part of their digestive process, but it made me nervous and so I did some more searching on the internet. Then I found out that I should have set up a slow-drip acclimation instead. I wish I had known that these were that delicate to water quality changes... and I hope the star fish will be the only casualty. Most of the turbos looked like they were sleeping this morning too. I nudged them and found they were all still alive, but they didn't appear to be grazing. They haven't done much grazing on the algae yet either.
The hermits seem to have adjusted well and have been pretty actively eating the algae, but they are so tiny that they barely made any progress.
I'll update the invert situation in a day or so.
Well, the group buy order got canceled again due to lack of communication from the supplier. So, I decided to just buy some inverts locally. I went to Aquarium Center but they didn't have much of a selection. I ended up getting a small cleanup crew from East Coast Aquatics in Prospect Park, PA. The staff was very friendly and helpful with suggesting things to get and what not to get for my needs.
I ended up getting 6 large turbo snails, 12 mexican hermit crabs, and 1 sand-sifting star fish. I wanted to get a fighting conch or a sea cucumber to help clean the sandbed, but they didn't have any in stock. I settled for the starfish, but unfortunately he didn't make it. I checked on him to find him dead this morning before leaving for work. :'(
It's probably my own fault because I think I rushed the acclimation process and/or didn't do it correctly. I wasn't sure how to do it and I found instructions online that said to add a cup of my tank water into the water they came with, then every 10 minutes take a cup out and replace with another cup from my tank for an hour or so. I did this for an hour and then put them in without even checking water parameters first. I didn't realize the impact at the time, but I did notice that the tank water was much warmer than what they had been adjusting in. Also, my main tank salinity was a bit high to begin with (around 1.029-1.030). I'm pretty sure I screwed up the acclimation and I expect to have some issues due to my negligence.
Shortly after putting the inverts in the tank, I noticed some of the turbos were turning on their side and emitting what looked like smoke. I thought it was just part of their digestive process, but it made me nervous and so I did some more searching on the internet. Then I found out that I should have set up a slow-drip acclimation instead. I wish I had known that these were that delicate to water quality changes... and I hope the star fish will be the only casualty. Most of the turbos looked like they were sleeping this morning too. I nudged them and found they were all still alive, but they didn't appear to be grazing. They haven't done much grazing on the algae yet either.
The hermits seem to have adjusted well and have been pretty actively eating the algae, but they are so tiny that they barely made any progress.
I'll update the invert situation in a day or so.
With inverts drip acclimation is key as they are very sensitive to water changes. Drip acclimation happens to be very easy though, so it is not a big deal. I would go with the conch if you can, cucumber have been know to crash a tank if they become stressed/die. Unfortunetly the only invert that eats hair algae is a sea hare, but don't rush out to buy just yet. They will starve after they wipe out your hair algae, so be careful.
Yea, I will definitely do it properly for future inverts. It doesn't look hard, I just didn't know that was how it's supposed to be done before it was too late.
I'm probably going to get a conch to replace the star They are just harder to find locally.
And I know of the sea hare and have read they work great/fast and then tend to starve. I've seen a few of them recently at LFS's and thought about getting one, but I wouldn't be comfortable if it died on me. I know there is a thread where a NJRC member previously bought one and then passed it around when their tank was clean... but it died somewhere along the way.
I think that would be a great option if we could start that up again, but switching tanks frequently is probably not good for the hare either... even if we could keep giving it new feeding crops.
I may actually just go get more hermits because they seem to be eating it actively at least. I guess I'll wait and see how the turbos make out because they looked like they were munching it pretty good when I first put them in there. If they live, they will probably do a nice job on the hair algae.
I'm probably going to get a conch to replace the star They are just harder to find locally.
And I know of the sea hare and have read they work great/fast and then tend to starve. I've seen a few of them recently at LFS's and thought about getting one, but I wouldn't be comfortable if it died on me. I know there is a thread where a NJRC member previously bought one and then passed it around when their tank was clean... but it died somewhere along the way.
I think that would be a great option if we could start that up again, but switching tanks frequently is probably not good for the hare either... even if we could keep giving it new feeding crops.
I may actually just go get more hermits because they seem to be eating it actively at least. I guess I'll wait and see how the turbos make out because they looked like they were munching it pretty good when I first put them in there. If they live, they will probably do a nice job on the hair algae.
Well, it's been a crazy month or so since my last update. My tank has changed a lot since my last post, but I lost my Aunt to cancer about 2 weeks ago and I've been spending most of my spare time with the family since we found out she wasn't going to make it much longer. She is at peace now and no longer feeling the pain she has been going through, so everyone is grateful for that. She was a great woman and will be missed by everyone who knew her.
I also got engaged last weekend and therefore spending even more time with my fiancee's family as well as my own. Anyway, I've been keeping up the maintenance on my tank and even have some new additions to show. I just haven't had the time to post until now.
OK, first off, I had a pretty bad algae bloom again as I explained in one of my last posts. The group buy cleanup crew was doing ok, but not wiping it out like I had hoped. I noticed that the large turbo snails and the hermits were doing the best job of eating it. I had plenty of crabs and didn't want to overload the tank with them, so after a few more turbo's died (I think a couple of them fell off the rock and couldn't right themselves up) I decided to go buy a few more of those to help.
I ended up buying 5 more large turbo's and was very happy to find the Aquarium Center finally had a fighting conch! I bought all that and am happy to report that my hair algae has been almost completely wiped out! ;D I put a couple vids below to show before and after shots of the tank and algae. The best part about buying these 5 turbos was the bonus freebies that were hitchhiking on one of them... about 5 small feather dusters:
Oh, I promised last month to post some pics of the hippo tang. Here is one of Dory hanging with the clowns:
I kept her in the QT tank for about 4 1/2 weeks and she never showed any signs of ich or anything else. She was very shy in the QT tank and would always hide when my hands got near her, but she holds her own in the main tank now. I thought she might get bullied around a bit by the big clown and even though it tries to push her around a lil, she fends for herself pretty well. She's small enough to get into lil hiding spots when she needs to.
Some other additions to my tank are all corals I got at the August NJRC meeting. I won a raffle for a red cap montipora. Then I followed Tony and Terri home and they were nice enough to help me glue it to a rock. It's actually a bit redder than the pic shows... my camera sucks
:
Then Tony and Terri also gave me a Xenia frag which I'm happy to report is now doing much better than it looks here. Here is a pic of it with the red cap. You will see it again in the vids and you can see it's thriving:
Then I got a call from Mike (Mbodell) who told he he picked up my invert group buy order, so I went over to his house to pick it up. He was also gracious enough to give me two small frags too, a mushroom and one I can't remember the name of.
Here is the mushroom that I finally got to stick to a small piece of rubble:
And here is the other small frag he gave me. I'm still not sure what it is, but I think it's either a bubble anemone or a carpet anemone. It has really small pink tentacles and a bright fluorescent orange center. Not the greatest pic in the world, but:
Well, that's all the new stuff in the main tank. Here are a couple before / after vids of the algae. The after also hi-lites the corals in their current state:
Before - This was actually after the group buy cleanup crew ate a bunch of it and when I first bought the extra turbos:
After:
And, last but not least, is my newest fish that I had in the QT tank for a week or so. It's a Yellow Watchman Goby:
The glass on the QT had something on it that smudged the shot, but he's a cool looking fellow! The only problem is that he doesn't seem to eat much. He ate when I first got him home, but very little at a time. The last few days or so, I've yet to see him eat more than a nibble of flakes. He doesn't even flinch when I put some frozen mysis in there. ??? He looks healthy otherwise though. No signs of diseases or any weird behavior. Are these guys just very shy and only eat when you're not watching? Should I try some other type of food for him?
I also got engaged last weekend and therefore spending even more time with my fiancee's family as well as my own. Anyway, I've been keeping up the maintenance on my tank and even have some new additions to show. I just haven't had the time to post until now.
OK, first off, I had a pretty bad algae bloom again as I explained in one of my last posts. The group buy cleanup crew was doing ok, but not wiping it out like I had hoped. I noticed that the large turbo snails and the hermits were doing the best job of eating it. I had plenty of crabs and didn't want to overload the tank with them, so after a few more turbo's died (I think a couple of them fell off the rock and couldn't right themselves up) I decided to go buy a few more of those to help.
I ended up buying 5 more large turbo's and was very happy to find the Aquarium Center finally had a fighting conch! I bought all that and am happy to report that my hair algae has been almost completely wiped out! ;D I put a couple vids below to show before and after shots of the tank and algae. The best part about buying these 5 turbos was the bonus freebies that were hitchhiking on one of them... about 5 small feather dusters:
Oh, I promised last month to post some pics of the hippo tang. Here is one of Dory hanging with the clowns:
I kept her in the QT tank for about 4 1/2 weeks and she never showed any signs of ich or anything else. She was very shy in the QT tank and would always hide when my hands got near her, but she holds her own in the main tank now. I thought she might get bullied around a bit by the big clown and even though it tries to push her around a lil, she fends for herself pretty well. She's small enough to get into lil hiding spots when she needs to.
Some other additions to my tank are all corals I got at the August NJRC meeting. I won a raffle for a red cap montipora. Then I followed Tony and Terri home and they were nice enough to help me glue it to a rock. It's actually a bit redder than the pic shows... my camera sucks
:
Then Tony and Terri also gave me a Xenia frag which I'm happy to report is now doing much better than it looks here. Here is a pic of it with the red cap. You will see it again in the vids and you can see it's thriving:
Then I got a call from Mike (Mbodell) who told he he picked up my invert group buy order, so I went over to his house to pick it up. He was also gracious enough to give me two small frags too, a mushroom and one I can't remember the name of.
Here is the mushroom that I finally got to stick to a small piece of rubble:
And here is the other small frag he gave me. I'm still not sure what it is, but I think it's either a bubble anemone or a carpet anemone. It has really small pink tentacles and a bright fluorescent orange center. Not the greatest pic in the world, but:
Well, that's all the new stuff in the main tank. Here are a couple before / after vids of the algae. The after also hi-lites the corals in their current state:
Before - This was actually after the group buy cleanup crew ate a bunch of it and when I first bought the extra turbos:
After:
And, last but not least, is my newest fish that I had in the QT tank for a week or so. It's a Yellow Watchman Goby:
The glass on the QT had something on it that smudged the shot, but he's a cool looking fellow! The only problem is that he doesn't seem to eat much. He ate when I first got him home, but very little at a time. The last few days or so, I've yet to see him eat more than a nibble of flakes. He doesn't even flinch when I put some frozen mysis in there. ??? He looks healthy otherwise though. No signs of diseases or any weird behavior. Are these guys just very shy and only eat when you're not watching? Should I try some other type of food for him?
Tank looks really good. ;D Looks like you took a lot of time and care with things, OK starfish was an exception(I would actually say better to not have one in the tank).
You could try some black worms, I generally give them as treats but my fish love them. PaulB some gobies forever and he feeds the blackworms alot, sort of the codfather of blackworms.
You could try some black worms, I generally give them as treats but my fish love them. PaulB some gobies forever and he feeds the blackworms alot, sort of the codfather of blackworms.
Thanks JR! Yea, other than the starfish and a couple snails, everything seems to be doing well. I'm happy with the progress so far and I think I'm getting to the point where I can start adding more corals to color it up a bit. My plan with adding fish will be to get one at a time, and QT it for 4 weeks before adding to the main tank. Basically 1 per month until I've reached my max.
As for the Yellow Watchman Goby (named him Herman), I went out and bought a small cup full of black worms last night. I threw a couple in my main tank and they got gobbled up in a split second. However, when I put about 5 of them into the QT, Herman swam right by them and looked for a hiding spot. I left them sitting on the bottom of the tank (all powerheads off) for about a half hour thinking that he might just be shy... but he never ate any of them.
I tossed in a few flakes and it didn't look like he wanted those either. I'm getting a bit worried now because he's not eating anything as far as I can tell. :'(
I put a couple pieces of uncured rock in there to give him a few hiding places and it seems like he just sits and hides under them all the time. If I remove them, he swims quickly over near the pvc pipe pieces I put in there. He doesn't look unhealthy in any way that I can tell, but how long can that go without him eating?
Do you think I should move him to the main tank sooner than 4 weeks? Or could this be a sign that something is wrong and then moving him might affect the other fish too? I thought it might be a problem for him without any sand on the bottom, which I don't have in the QT?
Oh, I also forgot to mention that the chaeto in my sump is thriving and growing. I started with a small ball and it's now in a nice block about 3" thick x 10" wide x 10" high. It's sitting in the fuge section of my sump, basically standing upright against the right wall. I have some live rock piled up on the left side that sort of holds it in place vertically. I thought that this would act like a nice filter layer because all water going through the fuge goes through the block of chaeto. I flip it over daily so it gets an even amount of light throughout. There are a bunch of pods growing in there too. They are the little crawling kind, I haven't seen many (if any) of the swimming kind since I first setup my tank. (Some were present when I got it from the original owners.) I was going to take some pics last night and post them, but the battery died in my camera. I will put some sump pics up tonight. I was able to grab one and put it in my main tank, and the large clownfish gobbled it up. Once I have them growing a bit better, I'll use them to feed as treats occasionally.
I also bought some acrylic sheets and cut them to make a large skimmate collector. I have a bunch of clamps and cut some 2x4 wood to brace it on the inside while it gets glued. I have the Weld-on #4 and now just need to find some time to put it together. The size of the container will be 3" wide x 16" long x 16" high, so it should hold around 3 gallons of skimmate. That should give me some extra room in case the skimmer goes crazy on me. The best part is I'll be able to run the skimmer without a 5 gal bucket sitting outside my stand. The container will fit just inside, between the doors and the sump tank... totally hidden when closed. I'll post some pics of that once I start putting it together.
As for the Yellow Watchman Goby (named him Herman
), I went out and bought a small cup full of black worms last night. I threw a couple in my main tank and they got gobbled up in a split second. However, when I put about 5 of them into the QT, Herman swam right by them and looked for a hiding spot. I left them sitting on the bottom of the tank (all powerheads off) for about a half hour thinking that he might just be shy... but he never ate any of them.I tossed in a few flakes and it didn't look like he wanted those either. I'm getting a bit worried now because he's not eating anything as far as I can tell. :'(
I put a couple pieces of uncured rock in there to give him a few hiding places and it seems like he just sits and hides under them all the time. If I remove them, he swims quickly over near the pvc pipe pieces I put in there. He doesn't look unhealthy in any way that I can tell, but how long can that go without him eating?
Do you think I should move him to the main tank sooner than 4 weeks? Or could this be a sign that something is wrong and then moving him might affect the other fish too? I thought it might be a problem for him without any sand on the bottom, which I don't have in the QT?
Oh, I also forgot to mention that the chaeto in my sump is thriving and growing. I started with a small ball and it's now in a nice block about 3" thick x 10" wide x 10" high. It's sitting in the fuge section of my sump, basically standing upright against the right wall. I have some live rock piled up on the left side that sort of holds it in place vertically. I thought that this would act like a nice filter layer because all water going through the fuge goes through the block of chaeto. I flip it over daily so it gets an even amount of light throughout. There are a bunch of pods growing in there too. They are the little crawling kind, I haven't seen many (if any) of the swimming kind since I first setup my tank. (Some were present when I got it from the original owners.) I was going to take some pics last night and post them, but the battery died in my camera. I will put some sump pics up tonight. I was able to grab one and put it in my main tank, and the large clownfish gobbled it up. Once I have them growing a bit better, I'll use them to feed as treats occasionally.
I also bought some acrylic sheets and cut them to make a large skimmate collector. I have a bunch of clamps and cut some 2x4 wood to brace it on the inside while it gets glued. I have the Weld-on #4 and now just need to find some time to put it together. The size of the container will be 3" wide x 16" long x 16" high, so it should hold around 3 gallons of skimmate. That should give me some extra room in case the skimmer goes crazy on me. The best part is I'll be able to run the skimmer without a 5 gal bucket sitting outside my stand. The container will fit just inside, between the doors and the sump tank... totally hidden when closed. I'll post some pics of that once I start putting it together.
By the way, I think that unknown frag that Mike gave me was a Ricordea mushroom. My pic is very blurry, but it looks something like this which was identified as a Ricordea (mine is more pink in color, with an orange fluorescent center... This pic is NOT my frag!):
Yea, I was thinking the same thing about risking the others. But I also thought putting him in a better environment might help him survive. It's a catch 22 I suppose. Hopefully some other opinions will give me some direction on that.
GOOD NEWS!!! Today, Herman (yellow watchman goby) gobbled up a bunch of black worms! I left all the rock pieces in the QT tank today during feeding and dropped the worms in one at a time. He snuck out and pounced on them when they got close to the bottom. I guess he just needed to "hunt" for his food. Anyway, I'm happy now. I think he ate about 15 of them.
Well, here are some pics of the sump as promised...
Sump - Side View
Fuge Section - Closeup Side View (Chaeto on the right side, LR piled on the left. That's the red/purplish macro algae that you saw in the vid, sitting in the plastic dish... something was eating it all up so I decided to moved it to the sump to regrow some.)
Fuge Section - Top Down View
Skimmer cup - Skimmer is turned off until I build that acrylic container... yes it needs a good cleaning.
Well, here are some pics of the sump as promised...
Sump - Side View
Fuge Section - Closeup Side View (Chaeto on the right side, LR piled on the left. That's the red/purplish macro algae that you saw in the vid, sitting in the plastic dish... something was eating it all up so I decided to moved it to the sump to regrow some.)
Fuge Section - Top Down View
Skimmer cup - Skimmer is turned off until I build that acrylic container... yes it needs a good cleaning.
