fatoldsun
NJRC Member
Blue legs, reds and my snails. Lasted about 12-18 hours and now like you said, business as usual.
-
Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.
Dave’s 90g learning-curve glass room experiment
- Thread starter fatoldsun
- Start date
fatoldsun
NJRC Member
Well I’m adding some tenants at the old Inn. I have a few new fish. Originally the list included a coral beauty but that guy sadly didn’t make it. Also lost a Royal Gramma and one of two yellow tail damsels. Enough bad news, the good news is what’s in the QT for a short stay (to make this happen I set up a 33long as a QT – it’s running with my old bio-wheel HOB) – one angel – was told it is a Singapore but after more research I’m thinking it would be hard to differentiate between a Singapore and a Cream Angel. Pics aren’t great but these are the best I could get
There’s a foxface – kind of nervous about this guy – the whole sting thing and all
A bristletooth Tomni Tang
And a blue hippo (which doesn’t look too good – hopefully it’s just a little jet lagged
There’s a foxface – kind of nervous about this guy – the whole sting thing and all
A bristletooth Tomni Tang
And a blue hippo (which doesn’t look too good – hopefully it’s just a little jet lagged
fatoldsun
NJRC Member
Looking good Dave. Those should add some nice color to your tank.
Speaking of color, did the zoas I gave you ever regain any color after you dipped them? That pic looked like they were recovering and opening, but the colors were sort of blah.
color came back - I tried to get a pic but my phone isn't focusing right (AGAIN) anyway, it seems to be healthy and may have even grown out a bit. I read somewhere (wish I had saved a link) that some folks have experienced zoas growing (splitting) after a prolonged period of what appeared to be stress. I.e., they didn't open for a stretch of time and looked somewhat shriveled. Maybe that's what happened. I'm hoping that's what's going on with the green apple zoas I got b/c they have were fine for the first 1-2 weeks and now they've been mostly closed for about a week - My rbta moved and knocked it off it's perch - I moved it to a new spot, other side of the same rock and it was only open for a day or so and has been closed since
fatoldsun
NJRC Member
nothing too exciting is happening with the tank because most of my attention has been focused on my QT set-up and its tenants. More on that later
one thing of note – the anemone (RBTA) that’s been in the tank for a few months has continued to browse the real estate since it split. It though both were fairly well settled but I suppose I was wrong. After a solid week of neither moving, they both pulled up their proverbial “anchors” in search of sunnier pastures. Anyway I came in on Monday night after staying up way too late to watch a game and the smaller of the two was sitting on the powerhead. It hadn’t moved to the “screen” part so it was intact but it looked like it was getting a “blow-out” and had shrunk or shriveled considerably. I turned off the PH and carefully removed it and placed it on a rock that would be well positioned under the lights when they came on yesterday morning.
Here it is after 48 hours post trauma:
And for reference, here is the other piece
So I’m not sure if it’ll make it - I’m a bit concerned because I attempted to spot feed it yesterday and it showed little or no interest. The other guy behaved as normal and clutched in on itself to trap and eat what was squirted into (or near) its mouth. While it has opened up considerably since Monday night, many of the tentacles are only partially inflated and partially still shriveled.
As for the QT – I’m closing in on 3 weeks at 1.009 and anxious to start moving them up to 1.026. For those who haven’t followed, I was told the fish were in hypo for 4 weeks post indications of ich but the water they came in was pretty ugly and 1.014-1.016 so I dropped them back down to a suitable hypo and have continued with 10-15% WCs every other day and a 30% once a week. I’m going to start topping off with my new 1.009 and since this is replacing evap it will very slowly start the process of bringing the salinity up. As of this weekend, WCs will be 10% at 1.026 until I get up to a balance of 1.026 – my guess is that will be about 3 weeks and should wrap up a nice long QT and ensure everything’s ok. Everyone in there has seemed pretty happy and getting along quite well. I’m surprised given that it’s a 30g and there are 9 fish in there (granted on is a tiny damsel and 4 of sw mollies) I’m looking to re home the foxface and the damsel (and the mollies if I can find a taker – otherwise they’ll live in the sump)
Equipment update:
The ReefKeeper II I picked up has been acting weird. Twice now it lost several hours of time. No indication of a power surge or anything else weird in the house but it has concerned me that it’s not reliable. Also the temp reading is consistently 1-2 degrees off from the Ranco controller set-up for the chiller. Most recently, the pH monitor has been reading way off. It was always low (I calibrated it with pinpoint fluid – the probe is a 3 month old BRS probe – bought new with the BRS group buy. Last night it showed a pH of 5.5 and using my older (admittedly expired solution) API test read 7.8. No one in the tank appears phased so I’m assuming the RKII is off more than the old API test. Next trip to the LFS will be to get some new pinpoint calibration fluids and a new API (or better) backup test.
Other equipment (I will probably ask about this in the equipment forum so I’ll keep this brief) I picked up an Aqua Medic Kalk reactor. It was given to me by the guy selling it because he couldn’t locate some parts when I went to pick it up. Long story short, Aqua Medic NA worked with me to get replacement parts for ~$50 which is a lot for parts but what I thought I’d pay for the used, functioning reactor. I couldn’t just let it go because it worked well and seemed like an effective design. Hopefully I can put it into service and get my Ca and Alk in line.
Ok, that’s all for this check in – too much to follow I’m sure….
one thing of note – the anemone (RBTA) that’s been in the tank for a few months has continued to browse the real estate since it split. It though both were fairly well settled but I suppose I was wrong. After a solid week of neither moving, they both pulled up their proverbial “anchors” in search of sunnier pastures. Anyway I came in on Monday night after staying up way too late to watch a game and the smaller of the two was sitting on the powerhead. It hadn’t moved to the “screen” part so it was intact but it looked like it was getting a “blow-out” and had shrunk or shriveled considerably. I turned off the PH and carefully removed it and placed it on a rock that would be well positioned under the lights when they came on yesterday morning.
Here it is after 48 hours post trauma:
And for reference, here is the other piece
So I’m not sure if it’ll make it - I’m a bit concerned because I attempted to spot feed it yesterday and it showed little or no interest. The other guy behaved as normal and clutched in on itself to trap and eat what was squirted into (or near) its mouth. While it has opened up considerably since Monday night, many of the tentacles are only partially inflated and partially still shriveled.
As for the QT – I’m closing in on 3 weeks at 1.009 and anxious to start moving them up to 1.026. For those who haven’t followed, I was told the fish were in hypo for 4 weeks post indications of ich but the water they came in was pretty ugly and 1.014-1.016 so I dropped them back down to a suitable hypo and have continued with 10-15% WCs every other day and a 30% once a week. I’m going to start topping off with my new 1.009 and since this is replacing evap it will very slowly start the process of bringing the salinity up. As of this weekend, WCs will be 10% at 1.026 until I get up to a balance of 1.026 – my guess is that will be about 3 weeks and should wrap up a nice long QT and ensure everything’s ok. Everyone in there has seemed pretty happy and getting along quite well. I’m surprised given that it’s a 30g and there are 9 fish in there (granted on is a tiny damsel and 4 of sw mollies) I’m looking to re home the foxface and the damsel (and the mollies if I can find a taker – otherwise they’ll live in the sump)
Equipment update:
The ReefKeeper II I picked up has been acting weird. Twice now it lost several hours of time. No indication of a power surge or anything else weird in the house but it has concerned me that it’s not reliable. Also the temp reading is consistently 1-2 degrees off from the Ranco controller set-up for the chiller. Most recently, the pH monitor has been reading way off. It was always low (I calibrated it with pinpoint fluid – the probe is a 3 month old BRS probe – bought new with the BRS group buy. Last night it showed a pH of 5.5 and using my older (admittedly expired solution) API test read 7.8. No one in the tank appears phased so I’m assuming the RKII is off more than the old API test. Next trip to the LFS will be to get some new pinpoint calibration fluids and a new API (or better) backup test.
Other equipment (I will probably ask about this in the equipment forum so I’ll keep this brief) I picked up an Aqua Medic Kalk reactor. It was given to me by the guy selling it because he couldn’t locate some parts when I went to pick it up. Long story short, Aqua Medic NA worked with me to get replacement parts for ~$50 which is a lot for parts but what I thought I’d pay for the used, functioning reactor. I couldn’t just let it go because it worked well and seemed like an effective design. Hopefully I can put it into service and get my Ca and Alk in line.
Ok, that’s all for this check in – too much to follow I’m sure….
PS I assume you don't see any issues with the fish in QT. I have used tank water to move my salinity up with no issues. Your tank water is very light bio load and you can save a few bucks that way. I would in the past do my 10 % water changes with water from my tank...it moves the salinity at a slow clip and matches the PH etc too.
fatoldsun
NJRC Member
actually saw my first concern tonight. Looks like the tomini tang got in a fight. This is a bad shot but it's hard to get it to pose. You can see (I guess it's the bottom of the anal f'in) is a bit chewed up. Hopefully it's not getting too bullied in there.
fatoldsun
NJRC Member
Here's a better shot of the nem's condition. Still has decent color but you can better make out the status of the tentacles.
And if you're bored here's a short video of the QT set up. Everyone seems happy and hopefully the Tomini is ok and just caught a bad nip from someone...
http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee503/dzipin/492636cb.mp4
And if you're bored here's a short video of the QT set up. Everyone seems happy and hopefully the Tomini is ok and just caught a bad nip from someone...
http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee503/dzipin/492636cb.mp4
Hard to tell due to the glare of the flash, but I'd say overall the nem looks ok. The tips that aren't glared look good at least. I'd say you have a pretty good chance that it will be fine after it settles down a bit.
It does look like something nipped at the Tomini. The QT is tight quarters for all those fish, so that sort of thing is almost impossible to avoid. Maybe toss in a few more PVC fittings so there are more options for them to hide? The fin could grow back in time with a healthy diet and a more stress free environment (once it goes in the DT and it has more room). You might want to try to add some Melafix or Pimafix . You can buy it at Aquarium Center if you don't want to wait for mail order, I know they stock it. I would go with Melafix for the fins... but it's probably not a bad idea to buy both of these and have them on-hand just in case there are other issues.
Glad to hear the zoas colored back up after the sand storm.
Keep up the good work.
PS, now I'm going to go reply to your PM.
It does look like something nipped at the Tomini. The QT is tight quarters for all those fish, so that sort of thing is almost impossible to avoid. Maybe toss in a few more PVC fittings so there are more options for them to hide? The fin could grow back in time with a healthy diet and a more stress free environment (once it goes in the DT and it has more room). You might want to try to add some Melafix or Pimafix . You can buy it at Aquarium Center if you don't want to wait for mail order, I know they stock it. I would go with Melafix for the fins... but it's probably not a bad idea to buy both of these and have them on-hand just in case there are other issues.
Glad to hear the zoas colored back up after the sand storm.
Keep up the good work.
PS, now I'm going to go reply to your PM.
fatoldsun
NJRC Member
Thanks for the tips to help the fin(-tip, pardon the pun) George.... In my short stint so far, I've seen lots of fin damage come back quickly so I'll keep my fingers crossed that it'll come back – I am just worried because I know the quarters are tight and I’m torn between doing everything in QT by the book and being patient, and getting all of them the he77 outta there and settled into their new home – afterall, the QT is as much for the safety of those guys as it is for the DT – I don’t want to sacrifice anyone to a QT process – that just seems bass-ackwards.
The zoas closed back up 2 days ago – they’ve been good for a while and then out of no where – all closed up. They are securely glued down now and away from the nems so I’m not sure what pissed them off - maybe I’m just catching them at a bad time of day. Hopefully I’ll get this kalk reactor up and running soon and see a boost to my pH and Ca (and hopefully Alk and Mg will follow along with some gentle dosed encouragement) and what I have in there will start to take off so I can grow the reef a bit. I just need to make some investments in lighting, flow (and for the bio-load skimming) and things are tight right now – and tips on how to convince my wife that LEDs or an mp40 would be an appropriate xmas gift? She doesn’t like me to shop for my own gift and she’s intimidated because she knows “zero” about the tank and it’s needs so I think she’ll just avoid that and go with ‘safe’ stuff – having hobbies that your family know nothing about is a blessing and a curse I suppose…..
Good to hear on both accounts – as I said above, I’m anxious to get everyone into the DT but I don’t want to do anything prematurely. As with everything else for me so far with this hobby, my patience is being put to the test.
Dave,
Just an FYI: I put in a GBTA (medium size) in my tank. It walked and walked and never found a spot it liked. I went to bed every night worried about where it would be in the morning (with many 2am checks). Often I couldn't find it being hidden behind rocks. One morning (after about 3 weeks) I couldn't find itm, later in the day I found it in the filter sock in the sump in really bad shape. Unfortunately it didn't make it. (I think I put him in a little two early in the tank's life). Hopefully you have much better luck than I did.
Just an FYI: I put in a GBTA (medium size) in my tank. It walked and walked and never found a spot it liked. I went to bed every night worried about where it would be in the morning (with many 2am checks). Often I couldn't find it being hidden behind rocks. One morning (after about 3 weeks) I couldn't find itm, later in the day I found it in the filter sock in the sump in really bad shape. Unfortunately it didn't make it. (I think I put him in a little two early in the tank's life). Hopefully you have much better luck than I did.
fatoldsun
NJRC Member
An update to my ongoing QT/fish rescue...
Salinity has been on the upswing since last weekend. (following 4 weeks at 1.009) and is now at ~1.016) so I'm a little more than half way there. PWCs in the 30g QT are performed every other day removing ~5g and replacing with 3g from my DT and 2g of New SW. I had only done 2.5-3g on that schedule when I was keeping it at 1.009. I ramped it up to move things along. I'm also topping off with NSW. I hope to be caught up by next weekend and possibly moving some fish to the DT shortly thereafter - with a goal of having everything wrapped up by Halloween.
The only setback I've had so far is the Tomoni Tang. It has what I guess is some fin erosion. At first I thought it was getting nipped by someone in there, but after observation I saw it going for the pellet (New Life Spectrum) food and spitting it back out – perhaps too hard and the other tank mates polish off all that I put in within about 20-30 seconds. I started using some homemade prepared food which seems easier to eat. Also, I picked up some melafix on Tank’s suggestion. Hopefully it holds out until I can move it.
Here’s a pic – this is a screen capture from a video - it was hard to get a shot that was clear and was the best I could get.
Here are 2 short video links of everyone swimming around – of course focused on the tomini
http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee503/dzipin/e6ca2126.mp4
http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee503/dzipin/73cd5b91.mp4
Anyone who has some ideas of something I may be missing on my assessment of the Tomini – please chime in. I don’t want to miss anything that I could be doing to help it
Salinity has been on the upswing since last weekend. (following 4 weeks at 1.009) and is now at ~1.016) so I'm a little more than half way there. PWCs in the 30g QT are performed every other day removing ~5g and replacing with 3g from my DT and 2g of New SW. I had only done 2.5-3g on that schedule when I was keeping it at 1.009. I ramped it up to move things along. I'm also topping off with NSW. I hope to be caught up by next weekend and possibly moving some fish to the DT shortly thereafter - with a goal of having everything wrapped up by Halloween.
The only setback I've had so far is the Tomoni Tang. It has what I guess is some fin erosion. At first I thought it was getting nipped by someone in there, but after observation I saw it going for the pellet (New Life Spectrum) food and spitting it back out – perhaps too hard and the other tank mates polish off all that I put in within about 20-30 seconds. I started using some homemade prepared food which seems easier to eat. Also, I picked up some melafix on Tank’s suggestion. Hopefully it holds out until I can move it.
Here’s a pic – this is a screen capture from a video - it was hard to get a shot that was clear and was the best I could get.
Here are 2 short video links of everyone swimming around – of course focused on the tomini
http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee503/dzipin/e6ca2126.mp4
http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee503/dzipin/73cd5b91.mp4
Anyone who has some ideas of something I may be missing on my assessment of the Tomini – please chime in. I don’t want to miss anything that I could be doing to help it
+1 on feeding seaweed.
Tangs need this EVERY DAY.
I use the sushi type seaweed available at all oriental markets….a half a sheet for three tangs every day.
Tangs need this EVERY DAY.
I use the sushi type seaweed available at all oriental markets….a half a sheet for three tangs every day.
fatoldsun
NJRC Member
I've read that garlic should be added. How do you soak the nori? It falls apart as soon as it's wet. I've just crushed a garlic clove in a press and dropped that in. Everyone goes nuts but with the limited filtration in the QT the whole basement smells like an Italian restaurant. Just need to add dome basil. I guess it's the warm water but the smell just permeates the air.
fatoldsun
NJRC Member
I'm using the seaweed sheets (Omega One, I think- not nori from the Asian market. I know that now for the future) and just the pressed fresh garlic. Filter is a bio-wheel HOB and the cartridges have some carbon. The only meda thus far are the Melafix. 2 days so far on that. Salinity is up to 37 on the pinpoint which I think is ~1.016-1.017 sg. I font have the conversion chart with me