Greg's 75g

[Aquattro]

Originally Posted by Madreefer

Don't fiddle Greg. Your parameters are fine and your corals look great.

Good advice. Leave it alone, the alk isn't going to make a difference. If I test alk, which is rare, I want somewhere around 7 or 8, which translates to anything from 6.5 to 9 is acceptable.

[gregzz4]

Thanks for the advice guys
I'll just carry on as I have been then

[hillegom]

Good thinking

[gregzz4]

After an internal tug-of-war about when to add the new fish from QT, I transferred them from the QT to the DT last Sunday
They were all eating everything I wanted them to, and nobody had any signs of issues, so into the DT they went
For the record, I only QT'd them for 2 weeks, instead of my previous 6 week regimen
I don't recommend 2 weeks for anyone, and encourage all of you to QT your new critters for at least 6 weeks to monitor for anything that may 'pop up'

All the fishies we added looked really good, except for the filamented flasher
It was being picked on by the lubbock's and we were pretty sure it wouldn't make the night
We were right and I found the flasher in the morning with a hermit picking on it
RIP Levi

Beyond that, all has been good
I've had no NH3 readings, nor any NO2 or NO3 for that matter
I'm very surprised as I've doubled my fish load
The only thing I've noticed is some thicker nog and I've tweaked the adjuster on my skimmer to try and get some more goo
After a week, my skimmer is producing more crap relative to the amount of new fish and not overflowing, so all is good

I've brought my PO4 down from 0.24 before the new fishies, to 0.02 after the new additions, so all is under control there
All I did was go back to using the recommended amount of GFO and within 2 weeks it was back to normal
After 1 week of the new fish my PO4 is still only 0.02 - ish so all is good

All the new fish are getting along and have found their night-time locations

Guess I'll have to add some pics soon

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

After an internal tug-of-war about when to add the new fish from QT, I transferred them from the QT to the DT last Sunday
They were all eating everything I wanted them to, and nobody had any signs of issues, so into the DT they went
For the record, I only QT'd them for 2 weeks, instead of my previous 6 week regimen
I don't recommend 2 weeks for anyone, and encourage all of you to QT your new critters for at least 6 weeks to monitor for anything that may 'pop up'

Just curious, why you didn't go the full length with your QT? Don't mean to put a damper on with your new fish, and truly hope everything turns out OK.

But I say this, because as you may or may not know QTing new fish is my personal soapbox. A year and half ago, I decided to play Russian Roulette just this one time, and I lost. What happened is that I bought a couple fish from "our favorite LFS". I put them in my QT, but because I also bought a couple shrimp, was not able to do my usual hypo routine (2+ months for me). So I observed them for a couple weeks, and got them feeding. Everything looked good, so I added them to my display tank.

Well, just my luck (not), a couple weeks later, I see a few of my fish scratching. And sure enough, I got another Ich attack. It took about 3 months, losing several fish, before that finally subsided. Ironically, none of my new fish (orange spot sleeper gobies) got the Ich or showed any symptoms. But they obviously were carriers.

[gregzz4]

Walter, I was thinking about a few things when I decided to cut the QT time short
I've lost fish in QT before and wanted to avoid it for their benefits
Why risk healthy fish due to paranoia ?

Top of my list was a bunch of wrasses that may not do well in a small tank with no LR etc. I use a tray of sand, but only 2 of the 7 fish were using it, so the rest were 'hiding' behind stuff at night. I felt they could be happier

Next thought was they look good, are eating very well and if they had MI, now it's in the QT so I'll get them out before it hatches and jumps back on them. And if they had MI at the time, they would have shown signs, which they weren't. No flashing, rapid breathing etc. And by 2 weeks, if there were any other nasty diseases it (hopefully) would have shown by then. As I stated, they were all perfectly healthy with no marks, worms etc

Third thought was I couldn't feed them as much as I wanted to without doing more than one WC per week as the AC50 couldn't keep up and I wasn't about to lose another wrasse due to high NO3. I wanted to ensure they stayed fat without risking their health

And as I also stated, they were eating everything I threw at them, so they had to be in good shape

There was no point in hypo, and waiting 6 weeks was going to be a risk of their lives
That's about it

[Reef Pilot]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

I've lost fish in QT before and wanted to avoid it for their benefits
Why risk healthy fish due to paranoia ?
.
.
.
There was no point in hypo, and waiting 6 weeks was going to be a risk of their lives
That's about it

Well, I can certainly understand your thinking, and I'm sure is popular opinion with many on canreef. But consider this.

Fish can be carriers, and have some MI that will not be visible, as I described with my experience.

If a fish dies in QT, then either your QT was inadequate, or the fish was sick and would have likely died anyway (good that it happened in QT and not your DT). I have a very, very mature QT, using DT water for W/C's. It is running all the time with a canister filter and some live rock. I also use it to house some frags from time to time.

Water quality stays high in QT, first because of frequent initial changes to get the salinity down, and then later more changes with DT water to bring it up. I actually extended that time even further, and the fish looked even stronger and healthier as time went on.

The extended time allowed the fish to get feeding with the foods they will be receiving in the DT. Your wrasses may have been OK early with this, but some fish need a lot more time to adjust to the new food.

And with wrasses, you can put in some sand (maybe use a container), but not sure if that is even necessary.

Here is a good article about all the benefits of a hypo routine. Not sure if you have read this one.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2007/6/fish

What it comes down to, I think, is patience. And that, I think, is the hardest thing. But it my case, I add fish so infrequently now, it is definitely worth the while, considering what may happen if I don't. From a risk standpoint (cost of risk = probability or frequency X cost of bad outcome), the cost of mitigation is very small compared to the cost of risk. Like I said, I gambled once, and lost... And not to mention my early hard lessons learned when I didn't QT.

Greg, you have taken a very methodical and cover all bases approach with much of your tank and sump design. And IIRC, you got burned in the past with not QTing. So that is why I was surprised when you took this shortcut.

Anyway. your tank and inhabitants are looking very good. So I do wish you continued success, and look forward to more great pics.