crvz's hole in the wall

[plyr58]

I know this comment is days late and dollars short, but I just finished reading your entire thread. It has been very interesting as I also believe strongly in much thought and fore planning. Great read.

Regarding hypo salinity treatment for parasites, I had a friend a few years ago that kept large angels and Tangs and predators in VERY large tanks and had many fish that were more than 20 years old. Whenever he saw any sign of ich or other parasites, he would immediately drop the salinity of his tanks from 1.023 to approximately .6 to .8 with a massive water change of straight RO water. I was skeptical of this practice until I personally observed the almost immediate impact this had on the parasites. He would run the tank with a salinity at this level for about 20 days before slowly raising the salinty back to that of natural seawater without the fish showing any ill effects.

He obviously had the benefit of running FOWLER tanks where invertebrates would not be an issue.

TIFWIW.

 

[crvz]

Thanks, plyr. I definitely learned a few lessons of my own, and I wish I would have treated my fish sooner. Oh well. Now that the few I have are in good shape, I'll move them into the display and never again add a fish directly to that tank. Hopefully this will yield good results. I've got the benefit of having a 120 gallon tank always in the ready for a QT/hospital system, though, so it's easy for me to make this work.

 

[crvz]

Purple tang and canary wrasse are in the display. I also bought 4 emerald crabs today, as I've had a lot of bubble algae on the marco rocks. Hopefully they'll help.

 

[drummereef]

Purple tang and canary wrasse are in the display. I also bought 4 emerald crabs today, as I've had a lot of bubble algae on the marco rocks. Hopefully they'll help.

:thumbsup: Keep me posted on how the emerald crabs do in regards to the bubble algae. I have the same issue at the moment.

 

[crvz]

Alright, a long overdue full tank shot, but seeing as I've just been waiting stuff out (and continue to do so) I don't feel bad about the delay. You can see some hair algae on the one rock in the middle. I also added a few rocks to the side and back of the tank. You can also see how light colored the stony corals are (look at the red monti cap on the back right, and the purple rim monti cap on the left overflow in particular). The one yellow stag is a recent addition, so I'll have to keep feeding the tank to hopefully get them colored back up.

 

[Padrino]

Chris,
I think once you have coral on those pillars, it will look awesome. looking forward to more updates

 

[crvz]

I like the potential as well, Padrino, but would rather be in a place of adding coral.

 

[veloboy]

Looks like things are stabilizing..I know from your last tank once you get rolling things start lookin good quick...

Weren't you bare bottom in the last tank? How do you like having substrate?

 

[crvz]

I was bare bottom on the last tank, and I preferred the ease of maintenance, but certainly not the aesthetics. I think on this one it will take longer to get everything settled in, as it's harder to remove wastes, but hopefully I'll get there with a few wise additions to the system (including some livestock to stir up the sand for me, which I've yet to include).

I did load up the QT today with a few additions. Here's a tease.

 

[psteeleb]

I was bare bottom on the last tank, and I preferred the ease of maintenance, but certainly not the aesthetics. I think on this one it will take longer to get everything settled in, as it's harder to remove wastes, but hopefully I'll get there with a few wise additions to the system (including some livestock to stir up the sand for me, which I've yet to include).

I did load up the QT today with a few additions. Here's a tease.

AWESOME!!!
is it a "01100011 01101000 01100101 01110110 01110010 01101111 01101110 00100000 01110100 01100001 01101110 01100111" ?

where did you pick it up?

 

[gotfrogs]

Chevron Tang I hope?

 

[flipsideleo]

Chevron tangs one of my favs, bro. Is that one?

 

[Taqpol]

Holy crap, baby chevron tang! When I got mine the fish store owner assured me that she had never seen one outgrow its baby colors in captivity, but as I approach three years with mine I can definitely say it is much more brown then the neon orange of when I picked mine up. It still has the unique pattern and cool personality though!

 

[crvz]

Yep, a chevron tang. There's a guy locally who has a small warehouse with some tanks who is trying to move into another unit. He was just trying to clear out his stock, which is the only way I justified the fish. I got 5 fish for, lets say, less than my last water/sewage bill. The only one I'm particularly concerned about is this one, which I am apparently stupid enough to perpetually attempt.

I believe it to be another male, and he's very shy and not showing a ton of interest in food. But, he's fat, and hopefully he'll take to the new setup. Again, these guys are all in the 120 gallon stock/QT tank. And here's the gem.

Probably under 2 inches. I also picked up a beautiful lavender tang specimen. The colors are washed out in this image due to the flash, but I've seen many of these fish with very bland colors. And to be fair, they arent terribly colorful, but this one had very specific purple and yellow fins with the spotted face. For $10, I couldnt resist.

Also, an adult christmas wrasse. I think this is a male (2 spots on the dorsal fins), but I'm uncertain.

And this guy I picked up without an ID. The owner of the store said it came in without being on his invoice, and turns out it is a Coris venusta, Elegant wrasse, a hawaiian endemic. I'm a little weary of adding it to the display, but we'll see how well it does QT. I hear they are similar to the canary wrasse and christmas wrasse, but some online sites imply it will go after shrimp and crabs. We'll see!

 

[Mr. Right]

Nice fish selections. I hope you workout all the bugs in the new system. Have you given anymore thought towards a new skimmer? Just wondering…

 

[drummereef]

Great new fish Chris! And what a steal of a deal.

 

[Padrino]

Chris,
Nice Pickup. i love when those deals come up. You almost need to pick them up. You will always be able to turn around and sell for more if you ever change your mind. Anyways nice work.
Rob

 

[crvz]

Thanks, guys. I had to pass on the $20 maculiceps tangs and cheap dussumiers. I dunno, maybe I'll have to head back over there.

 

[veloboy]

Nice Chevron! Those Naso's are beautiful too-

 

[prop-frags]

Great picks, Chris. Love that Ornate wrasse, and of course the Naso.
That Elegant Coris is a great find...from the looks of it, you've definitely got a juvenile. The wrasse book we have says "this is a great aquarium coris. It is both beautiful and small. It can be kept in a medium-sized tank that has at least 2" bed of fine sand. While it will eat ornamental worms, snails, and crustaceans, because of its small size, it is less of a threat to loose coral colonies."