Congrats on hitting 4 digits with the reply count! :lol:

Oh ya, tank looks great too. :cool:

hey Greg, how are things with your tank? I hope things are going ok after some of your tank upsets.

Awesome tank! So Corix helped you out with the fittings and pipe? Great company!

Which pump is that? I can't believe you had a frag IN the pump!

Looks amazing

All three pumps are Reeflo Darts. Normally, something that big could not get past the intake screens. In this case, the intake screen in my sump was not in place for a few weeks. I'm not sure how a coral frag got into the sump in the first place. That is another mystery.

dart pump
 

Just wondering that when you take the pumps apart to clean them, do you need to buy a seal kit or do you just use the old seals?

It has been almost 4 years and I've only replaced the seals on one pump. (and those seals were bad since the pump was new) For basic service you don't get near the seals. All that needs to be done is to remove the volute and clean the impeller. You only get into the seals if you remove the impeller. I also clean and regrease the volute o-ring.

What do you use to grease the O-ring and how often is a good rule of thumb?

I use silicon O-Ring grease that I picked up at a dive shop. I don't know if it is toxic or not, but it works.

I re-grease an O-ring every time I see one. So anytime I break apart a pump or union fitting, I re-grease. O-rings keep my world dry.

Tank is looking amazing Brad. Good to here it has rebounded from your earlier problems.

Chris

When the lights came on today, My female blue throat trigger had locked herself into a coral head directly below one of the return jets. She refused to move, even when I reached in and pushed her with my hand.

When I redirected the water flow, she swam off and has been hiding ever since.

Her belly looks like she just ate, even though she had not been fed in a day.

I'm worried....stay tuned.

Uh Oh! :sad: I hope she's ok.

Saying a fishy prayer for ya :neutral:

i've looked through about 50 pages of this build and its frikin amazing.

i dont know if its been asked. but how much does a tank like this cost?

Thanks. The tank itself cost about $3000 (as I recall). Of course, that hardly scratches the surface of the cost of the entire system. I've not added up what I've spent, so don't ask for a total because I don't know.

Day II: Hera, my female Blue Throat, continues to look well fed and is acting strangely. I'm suspecting a case of constipation and hoping she will work it through (literally).

Good news! Sort of. Hopefully she becomes her old "regular" self again.

Saw this tank yesterday, all I can say is WOW. The tank is beautiful, the fish are huge, and their colour is awsome. Thanks for tour Brad. And the frag. Hope Hera is doing better.

Steve.

Day 4: Hera continues to struggle. She hides for the entire day, coming out only during feeding time. While she looks fine, she has lost the ability to suck food in and I'm not sure if she can still close her mouth.

Some food continues to get in, so this could be a long decline.

I suspect she has some sort of tumor in her jaw/throat area which is finally interfering somehow.

Day 6: It is difficult to say if Hera is any better today. She still hides all day, coming out only at feeding time. Today, she had more success eating than yesterday. She had a little more "pop" in her bites today. Maybe some recovery?

Awesome any progress is good news.

+1 - really hoping for the best here for you..

Hera dies...
 

Sometime yesterday, Hera (female blue throat trigger) died. It took until this AM to find the body. My best guess is some sort of tumor growing in her mouth/throat killed her. She lived in the tank for just over 3 years.

Sept, 2007 - Jan, 2011.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/IMG_1720.jpg

Aww, sorry to hear that Brad. I was really hoping she'd pull through :neutral:

Sorry to hear that..

Sorry to hear that man.

Sorry to hear that Brad.

3 Years is a great accomplishment, you did your best.

So sorry to hear this Brad.

Sorry to hear that too Brad.
Will you be getting a replacement?

Yes, but I'll be very patient to find the right fish. I'm thinking a blue throat, sargassum or
Crosshatch...but it will have to be small and young. I have not seen too many like that. I should probably find a job before buying a crosshatch!

Sorry to hear about Hera

Really sorry to hear this.

[quote=untamed;242243]I got tired of removing the skimmer cup every time it got full....so I put this little modification on yesterday. A little 1/4 inch line with a valve on the end so that whenever the cup looks a little full, I can drain it without shutting down the skimmer.

I'll put one other bulkhead in as an emergency overflow. Emergency overflow will just fall back into the tank. If the cup gets too full, the skimmer starts percolating like a coffee maker.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0188.jpg


Enjoyed your journal immensely and it was very informative. You have a beautiful tank and basement setup. Congratulations
Where can I get one of these fitting, I need one in the worst way and of course Yellowknife would never have anything like this.
This would do the same thing for me, drain skimmer,one with a 90 degree elbow would be better but I could make this work.

Freckles in Trouble!!!
 

Very sad news, I'm afraid.

Freckles (vlamingi tang) is not doing well. About 3 days ago, I first noticed a white-grey-ish area on his lower right side. At the time, he seemed to be his usual hungry self.

However, over the next two days the area spread in all directions and now covers a significant part of his lower right. A 2nd lesion has now appeared on the upper right, now a third on his upper left. In each case, the lesion seems to have a starting point spreading outward from there. The smaller lesions have a distinct fan shape as a result.

By Day 3, the largest affected area is now showing three very reddish areas along his bend lines. Since this characteristic developed later, I don't think that any physical injury is to blame..athough it looks like he has been scratched by some three-toed beast.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...s/101_0899.jpg

He is now hiding most of the time. When he is tempted out with food, he seems prone to sudden outbursts of very violent and dangerous swimming.

Most concerning is the fact that this looks VERY similar to whatever killed my gold-rim tang nearly 2 years ago. That was a horrible, decaying death which I don't want to see on the scale of Freckles!

He is still eating, so I've been able to get a good bit of Seachem Kanamycin into him.
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/sc...+-+5+Gram.html

I have no idea if this is a proper medication for this particular problem. As I read the instructions for differing medications, none really seem to recommend feeding the medication directly to the fish. As of now, there is still no chance of removing Freckles from the tank for external treatment.

I have some Maracyn as well....but the instructions don't say to feed to the fish.
http://www.jlaquatics.com/product/md...16+Packet.html The ingredients say it is Erythromycin, so that could be effective internally...but I have no idea what might be a safe or unsafe dose.

Any suggestions?

Any chance of getting him into a quarantine tank with UV while you treat with antibiotics?
Are the 3 slash marks a result of scratching the affected area, or is the white patch a result of something spreading from them? Is he rubbing against objects?
Not nice to see.:sad:

No... No rubbing. I get the impression that any touch is painful and that is causing the panic swimming. The white patch is first...as it got larger, the red lines appeared.

It is very unlikely that I could get him out of the tank at this point.

Each antibiotic has a spectrum of bacteria which are susceptible to it, and under-dosing may result in the creation of a bacterial population resistant to the antibiotic that you were using.
I guess if it was my tank I would try to section the tank off using some egg crate and try to catch him. Remove him so the infection and treatment doesn't affect the other aquarium inhabitants.

Erythromycin dosage is recommended at 250 - 500 mg per 20 gallons every 24 hours with a 25% water change before each treatment. Treat for 10 days.

What if I fed it to him? Wouldn't it be more effective than trying to dose the whole tank?