My 6ft Slice of Ocean. . .

NastayNatron · #1 10-22-2011, 08:07 PM

Quote:

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.

Myka · #2 10-23-2011, 01:55 AM

Quote:

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 · #3 10-23-2011, 04:58 AM

Quote:

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 · #4 11-02-2011, 05:58 PM

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 · #5 11-03-2011, 09:08 PM

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

NastayNatron · #6 11-22-2011, 05:34 PM

An equipment update here. I ordered a shiny new 6 stage deluxe RODI system from Bulk Reef Supply along with a bunch of filters. My old RO was a Coralife I bought before I really got into the hobby and knew what was going on. I love this new RO! I also learned that my water pressure sits around 80psi which is alot higher than I thought. Deffinitly no need for a booster pump. I also insulated my salt water mix tank as the room gets fairly cool. This should help keep the heater from running constantly in the tank. A new float valve was added from BRS instead of the garbage coralife one which filled with water and refused to float!

I also received some ROX Carbon from BRS that im fairly excited about. The reviews seem great and im sure it will be better than the Black Diamond Carbon I am currently using.

I have switched salt to Royal Nature. The tank was originally set up with H2Ocean salt. I got sick of this salt quickly as it added a terrible residue to my mixing tank and with its high price tag I was not sure it was worth it. I used one bucket of IO which brought my calcium down every time I did a waterchange. I realized I should pick a good salt and stick to it. I was going to try red sea coral pro after reading great reviews. After being recommended to Royal Nature by Dave at Concept, I must say it really seems great so far, along with great reviews.

I also decided to add filter socks to the mix on my tank. They will be changed out and washed frequently to help maintain low nutrients. I bought 7" socks from BRS along with a filter sock holder. I had to modify my drains under the tank to accomadate the filter sock.

And the last thing I added was another Energy Bar 8 for my Apex. I have had only one heater running on my tank since its start because I had no extra outlets on my apex. I decided with it now being winter I better get a back up heater on the tank. This will also allow me to add my return pump, skimmer, and ATO to the controller, as well as my dosing pumps that I have recently ordered and should be here next week! (super excited)

I just thought you should see me sweet calender as well haha

lastlight · #7 11-22-2011, 05:44 PM

With pressure like that you should order their water saver kit. You'll waste about half the water and double your output. I was shocked to find my pressure is just shy of 100 psi when I picked up a gauge (needed to know pressure before ordering the kit which requires at least 65 psi).