My 6ft Slice of Ocean. . .

[NastayNatron]

Originally Posted by MMAX

Lookin great, I too am jealous about your Pil socks.

Thanks! They are pretty badass i must admit haha

[NastayNatron]

Originally Posted by asmodeus

buds well done I did notice that you has white caulking in the sump. I hope that isnt the anti fungi ones

I can't remember now what kind exactly it was. . . GE window and door maybe? I did research on what kind of silicone to use for it and it is the proper kind I know that forsure. I just can't remember what it was now. . .

[NastayNatron]

Originally Posted by MarkoD

all looks good. but why didnt you stain the inside of the doors?

My eagerness to get everything up and running. Now that is my one regrets - not painting the entire interior white. I do plan on going back and painting just the inner doors white. A good winter project.

[NastayNatron]

Originally Posted by daniella3d

Very nice tank but your crocea clam is not going to be happy directly in the sand like that. I hope it's not already attach to the bottom. They have delicate filtering system and do dably in the sand, they prefer to be on a rock, in something clean and close tot he light.

I did read that somewhere. . . he has only been in the tank for about a week. Ill get him up and onto a rock this weekend. Thanks for the advice!

[NastayNatron]

Originally Posted by Myka

You did a great job documenting the whole build, thanks for sharing! I really like that you are quarantining all new arrivals. Why do you treat all incoming fish with Cupramine though? How long are you treating for and how long are you quarantining for? Be careful with copper as many fish are very sensitive, like Angelfish and Butterflyfish (although apparently your Angel made it through).

I decided to cupramine all fish due to not being able to be 100% sure they are not disease carrying. Even if ich is not visible it could still be present. I get too nervous otherwise second guessing myself if a fish has ich or not. So far it has worked great for me. I have put two dwarf angels through as well as anthias, purple firefish, and the rest of my fish and they all ate constantly and did great. I follow Seachem's directions almost exactly except I slowly introduce the cupramine over 4 days to watch the fishes reaction to it. I leave them at full concentration for exactly 2 weeks and then flush it out of the tank, monitor them for another week and then into the display they go.

[NastayNatron]

Originally Posted by Lampshade

Looks great, i like the planter boxes on the sides, frames the tank in nice. You should see if you can get mangroves growing in there!

Haha now that would be sweet! I never thought of that before. . .

[Myka]

Originally Posted by NastayNatron

I decided to cupramine all fish due to not being able to be 100% sure they are not disease carrying.

Why not just do hyposalinity for 6 weeks? It's a lot easier on the fish, plus the quarantine should be 6 weeks anyway. Copper is one of the few treatments that I refuse to use on my fish. Absolutely will never use it because there are safer treatments available. Copper only treats Ich and Velvet, but it is not very good at treating Velvet. I use Formalin dips for Velvet because Formalin is useful against a broad spectrum of disease and I prefer a dip over a short-term treatment any day. Just my two cents.

[NastayNatron]

Originally Posted by Myka

Why not just do hyposalinity for 6 weeks? It's a lot easier on the fish, plus the quarantine should be 6 weeks anyway. Copper is one of the few treatments that I refuse to use on my fish. Absolutely will never use it because there are safer treatments available. Copper only treats Ich and Velvet, but it is not very good at treating Velvet. I use Formalin dips for Velvet because Formalin is useful against a broad spectrum of disease and I prefer a dip over a short-term treatment any day. Just my two cents.

I thought about trying hyposalinity but after reading about people using it and still have ich reoccurring it turned me off it. I believe it works but is a fair bit more work than cupramine. I work 12 hour shift work days and night and didn't want to worry about salinity constantly. If I have any bad experiences with copper I will quickly change but so far it has worked great and doesn't seem to stress the fish too much. I plan on getting some harder to keep fish (copperband, leapard wrasse, mandarin) in time and for these I do not plan on using copper and they will have a much longer quarantine period. For now my quarantine is approx. 2 weeks of observation and good feeding - 2 weeks medication - 1 week observation and then the display. So 5 weeks total and this is working well for me. Thanks for your advice though! I will do more research into hypo for new arrivals. You have a very beautiful tank!

[NastayNatron]

Alright well I have added my newest additions into quarantine. They are a Diamond Head Goby, Leopard Wrasse, and Copperbanded Butterfly. It is day three and they are all eating well. The reason I bought both the Copperband and Leopard at the same time is because they were both in the same tank at the LFS and eating like crazy. I figured id give them a shot. And as for my quarantine method, I did some research after what Myka brought up and decided to not treat all fish with cupramine. In a way its kinda like treating every human with radiation just in case they have cancer. So instead ill be watching them closely for 6-8 weeks and if they are healthy, they will hit the display! Videos to follow.

[NastayNatron]

Alright here are the videos! This is from day 2 in the quarantine. They are munchin even harder now haha. Enjoy

Diggin
http://youtu.be/GgLgP4A9-f0

Feeding Time
http://youtu.be/_jH5EIq6NtQ