Advice on HLLE

[Stones]

Originally Posted by George

That's a beautiful blue face you have there. I am an angel nut myself so I am glad some one likes angel fish as much as I do.
Apparently you have done you research and as you said in your post no smoking gun has been found for HLLE.
I just wanted to throw out 2 suggestions here:
1. Diet. Sponges and tunicates are their primary diets in the wild. The only food that has sponges as the ingredient is ON angel formula. Unfortunately it's not available in Canada. You probably have to bring it from the states by yourself somehow. I also read a lot about angelixir and concluded that it's another snake oil.
2. Environment. From my reading of all HLLE stories. Sometime it could be cured by switching tanks. See if you have another tank or someone else's tank to host the angel for some time. Not sure what's in the original tanks that caused the HLLE.
Good luck and keep us posted.

Thanks for the information. Large angelfish are definitely my favorite and I may have shut down my system in the past had I not had one of these beauties in my tank to keep me going.

Too bad about the Angelelixor being snake oil. I was hoping that would be the silver bullet to nip the HLLE in the butt.

I work on the SK/ND border so I can get some of the ON angel formula shipped to my package holding facility when I'm back to work. Sadly that might be July this year going by the current weather and the current record snowfall we have sitting on the ground.

Switching tanks will not be an option. There is no way I could net this fish and all of my SPS are too close to the glass and eurobrace to allow for a large fish trap to be put into the tank. I'll just have to take whatever measures I can to treat the fish in tank if possible.

Originally Posted by gregzz4

IMHO, there are 2 things that cause HLLE;
-Lack of trace elements ( usually caused by over-use of carbon )
-Carbon introduction to the DT

If I'm wrong, I hope someone will chime in

I'd suggest you pick up some trace elements for the HLLE, and keep your Carbon and GFO running
These 2 are readily available to me, so I linked them for you

Brightwell

Zeovit

From what I've read, you can usually run your tank with both reactors running without issue, but there are some cases/times when the trace elements can be stripped enough to show up on your fishies

The Carbon is the culprit when you get HLLE in tangs, BUT, it's usually caused by carbon entering the DT, not by the use of carbon
Make sure you thoroughly rinse your carbon before turning your reactor on.
If this helps at all, I put my media in a bag and wash it out with RO water, under my RO spout in a bucket, until it runs clear. Sometimes it takes 10g to rinse the media, but it's worth it
When I put my reactor back online, I run the outlet into my socks for a couple mins. That's it

Dose the linked trace elements and all should be good

Of course, I'm just a newb, so take this for what it is ... my 5 cents

Thanks for the information as well. Since I overskim slightly (Vertex Alpha 250) I usually add trace elements once per week or whenever I'm back home from work along with Strontium, iron, manganese, iodine and marine snow. I've been using the kent line of additives for years but recently started switching over to Brightwell anyways. I'll order up some of the brightwell additives and start dosing those instead and see if that makes a difference.

I did recently change out my carbon about 3 weeks ago just prior to the symptoms showing up so I wonder if I didn't accidentally get a bunch of fine particulates into the DT. I always fill my reactor with carbon and then run water through it in my sink for 5-10 minutes until the water runs clear while keeping the carbon tumbling in the reactor. I also have the reactor draining into a filter sock in the sump but it's a mesh sock so the real fine particulates could have still made it into the tank.

In light of this, I'll try to get in as many water changes as I can and use a fine felt filter sock to help remove any carbon particulates from the water column.

Thanks for the additional information and I'll keep you posted on the status of the fish. Hopefully this information can help shed some light on HLLE for any others that have similar problems down the road.

[Madreefer]

I'm sure you've already seen this as it sounds like you've done your research. But thought i'd post just in case.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-06/sp/index.php

[pinkreef]

i would pull any carbon out and reduce any stress to the fish add selcon to food or garlic
just some ideas

[phreezee]

Try feeding brocolli if he'll eat it, my angels certainly do. Does the trick for my tangs.