Reef_Geek's tanks

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by Reef_Geek

definitely crowded if they reach larger sizes. At present, they're only about 5 inches. Always have the option to sell or use opportunity to convince wife to let me upgrade tank size. Have worked years in the fish/aquaculture business... and you can see the crowded conditions in LFSs when you visit... often it's about water QC more so than space. Not much aggression/nipping/tail swipe so far. There's also the "malawi cichlid" set up effect... that is, put enough fish in the tank and not one fish bears all attacks... one fish is chasing one guy but then quickly loses focus to another fish... whereas if you put very few fish in, there's typically one winner and one loser.

Outbreak definitely from intro... it's only been days upon arrival.

Good thought though.

You are my greatest source of inspiration

[Reef_Geek]

wow, that's high praise. thanks.

[mrhasan]

Originally Posted by Reef_Geek

wow, that's high praise. thanks.

My pleasure

[Reef_Geek]

Well, my battle with Cryptocaryon irritans continues...

I'm now doing 30 minute dips as the standard. Have done it to a Flame Hawk, Clowns, and all my Tangs (Powder Blue, Naso, Yellow, Blue/Palette/Hippo/Regal/Royal). After freshwater dips at night, the fish look great through to next morning, but by evening their spots have returned. So I got sick of catching them (if I can) out of this:


This one I believe deserves a Klondike bar. I caught all my tangs out of the 65 gal reef without dismantling any rock work. The bigger tangs were easy as I know their paths of escape into the rock work, so I just bait the other end of the tank with their nori clip, and quickly move a net into place along their travel path between them, the rocks, and the glass. The little blue tang took about 3 hrs of chasing around with wooden dowels throughout the rock work, until he got under a rock that was near the top, I quickly shut off the lights to confuse him, and chased him into a black coloured net.

I've since removed my frags/hermits/snails/rack and turned the 25 gal cube into a holding tank for easier catch & FW dips. No medication, considering lowering salinity to 75-50%... but not as low as true hyposalinity. In the dip/bath bucket, I'm using a bit of Herbtana (came with a bunch of crap I got in package deals) aprox 1/3 cap full, along with Stress Coat (for chlorine) aprox 5ml, and just tap water (aprox 2-3 gal)... 30min bath once daily (twice if I have time).




While I have the camera out...

Blastomussa that had receding tissue and exposed skeleton continues to look good after relocation to a dimmer spot on the sand bed



Acquisitions from Tidal_Waters over the weekend looking solid. They were Acropora formosa, Acanthastrea, and (no photo) Pocillopora.




Other photos from around the tank... Acanthastrea from Lee9 this summer, my other Blastomussa that did not get light shocked, and some amphipods having sex.

[Reef_Geek]

An update to my battle with Cryptocaryon irritans.

it was Oct 19th when I got really sick of catching my fish at random (whenever I had success catching them) for several minutes of freshwater baths. Oct 19th, I caught all the infected fish, turned my frag tank into an isolation tank (no medicine), and house them for easy catching and daily dips. This is in essence a mix of pseudo-hyposalinity and pseudo-tank-transfer method.

I left behind in the main display: my fake hawkfish (Geometric Hawk), my real hawkfish (Flame Hawk), my two mandarins (Green & Blue), and my Royal Gramma. I was unable to catch them and/or they showed no spots.

Today (Oct 22, day 4 of treatment) the infected fish show 95% spot free with a few at 100% spot free.

Treatment as follows:
1) isolation tank held at pseudo-hyposalinity at 20 ppt. Noticed my amphipods and isopods in the live sand weren't happy upon dilution (emerging and swimming frantically) but many are still alive when I dig in the sand/rubble. I also see a chiton still trucking along the glass. At the very least, the lowered salinity made the infected fish (w/ parasite ridden gills) more comfortable at osmo-regulation, and may have curbed infectious phase parasite viability.
2) fish continued to eat like nothing was wrong... nori, frozen Artemia enriched with Spirulina for HUFAs, and frozen Mysis.
3) daily freshwater baths at 30 minutes on tangs & clowns, using water conditioner to neutralize chlorine (StressCoat and then AquaPlus when I ran out), matching temperature but otherwise tap water with Calgary tap water pH. A few times I added Herbtana to the baths but not sure that it really did anything.

I'll likely treat one or two more days and move them back to the main display. Two tangs have already returned. I've increased my isolation tank salinity to 26 ppt as I don't want to kill my live sand biodiversity and bio filter critters.

[Reef_Geek]

It's been a little while since I updated my journal. I went away for a fantastic vacation to Costa Rica. Thread here with photos: http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=90538
Nearing my departure date, I was still at the winning end of a battle with Cryptocaryon. When vacation day came... well, flights are booked so here we go... Came back with many fish not making it, but most corals ok. Pretty dejected for a while. Oh well. If I fear for my tank, I'd never go on vacation... life's too short to miss out on seeing the world.

Anyway, things have come back to normal now since that late October trip. On Nov 19, I added a second light to my 65 gal reef. Now it has two Innovative Marine 92 watt LED tablet Skkye lights (dual spectrum model). Got the new unit from Wai's for $500 + GST and was pretty pleased, as this unit sells for $581 USD mail order out of US and Pisces in Calgary sells for $675.

BEFORE:


AFTER:


I've recently added an Elegance coral. Picked this up on Black Friday at Pisces for $80, though it wasn't on sale. The size of its skeleton is the size of a regular hard shell taco... actually I told my wife it was a taco coral... silly non-aquarium folk. This piece was a good deal, as Ocean's wanted in excess of $110 for his piece that was not neon green with pink tips... he has a few like that too but said those were more expensive and I didn't bother asking further.



Full tank shot 65 gallon Nov 24:


25 gal cube frag tank currently housing 5 new acquisition fish under observation, using herbtana. There's a Powder Brown Tang, a Naso Tang, a Yellow Tang, a Flame Angel, an Arc Eye Hawkfish.

[kien]

Nice! Love that elegance! Might have to visit the OC and tell him the big P is selling theirs for $80 :-D