Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
Long as the fish is healthy and eating which is keeping their immune system strong, ich wont be that much of a problem in my opinion. Tank is looking sweeeeeeet.
CT 265 Build
- Thread starter ca1ore
- Start date
Thanks! Pretty happy with it overall. Frag tank hasn't fallen down yet either
I'm going with the 'hope it won't get worse' approach to dealing with ich - hoping something won't go wrong isn't the ideal mitigation strategy, but I really don't fancy breaking down the tanks so that's my play for now.
Eight Month Mark!
Eight Month Mark!
Tank continues to do generally well, though with the notable exception of one torch, LPS are less than completely happy. Fortunately I don't have many of them, but I suspect they may be getting nipped.
Top FTS without flash; bottom with.
I did recently wire both my Reefbreeders lights to a single controller that is mounted to the front of the light canopy. Drove me nuts, though the fish didn't seem to notice, that the two fixtures were constantly going out of synch. No longer!
The combination of GAC, GFO, my new mongo skimmer and a big ATS continues to keep nitrates and phosphates at the bottom of the detectability range, despite heavy feeding. Five clams tax my ability to keep the alkalinity and calcium at acceptable levels.
Fish are all doing generally well, with ich controlled for now.
Eight Month Mark!
Tank continues to do generally well, though with the notable exception of one torch, LPS are less than completely happy. Fortunately I don't have many of them, but I suspect they may be getting nipped.
Top FTS without flash; bottom with.
I did recently wire both my Reefbreeders lights to a single controller that is mounted to the front of the light canopy. Drove me nuts, though the fish didn't seem to notice, that the two fixtures were constantly going out of synch. No longer!
The combination of GAC, GFO, my new mongo skimmer and a big ATS continues to keep nitrates and phosphates at the bottom of the detectability range, despite heavy feeding. Five clams tax my ability to keep the alkalinity and calcium at acceptable levels.
Fish are all doing generally well, with ich controlled for now.
I have, yes. I'm running the big MTC calcium reactor, dosing 2-part, and adding kalk to the ATO water. I think it's just that as my clams and SPS grow, the demand also grows and it requires pretty regular testing and adjusting to keep up. I've had pretty rapid clam growth, in particular, with three of them now in excess of 7 inches, which seems to really suck up the alk/cal.
Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
I totally agree. I get that all the time with fish. when they font want fish to suffer I'm the tank man to call. they get unlimited visitation rights to see their fish.
On a better note, tank is looking good and I'm glad the ich is in control as we speak.
Laughed myself silly over that one! Imagining all those clandestine late night meetings in dark parking lots ..... exchanging frags or fish :lol: In my case, it's been clams. There's a chap upstate from me who has the knack for growing these things, so I ended up buying a 7" Deresa and 9" Squamosa from him. No Gigas unfortunately.
Some of My Favorite Fish!
Some of My Favorite Fish!
I'm not going to sit here and say that I have done it perfectly, but in this current tank build I have been able to get to a fish population unlike in any tank I've had before (and I have had a lot) .... and I chalk that up to a strict QT process. OK, I do have a low level ich problem in my tank, but I believe that traces back to the original acquisition of a 'craigslist special' and my failure to properly QT those initial fish. Interestingly, though, symptoms only appeared after I had moved from that initial 90 to my current 265 (almost 7 months). Since then (8 months plus) I have seen occasional spots on the usual suspects (hippo and achilles), but on a declining rather than increasing frequency.
BUT, my goal here is not to spark a debate about managing ich or the benefits of QT; rather an opportunity to show a few pictures of my favorite fish (my poor photography skills notwithstanding). I will start with a fish that is among my absolute favorites; though hoping that she will become a he shortly.
All pictures taken with flash, so they are in these pictures as they look in real life. The only fish that has been a bit of a struggle is the male Bipartitus leopard wrasse in the last picture. Its a bit out of focus, but I have been unable to get him to put on weight. He eats aggressively (with a swollen stomach to prove it) but remains quite thin. Though I treat with prazipro in QT regularly, I suspect this fish has internal worms. The only fish I have lost in this tank was a female Naso Tang who, following 12 weeks in QT, got sucked to the side of my Vortech pump and then died two days later with these weird lumps all over her body. Still not entirely sure what happened
Some of My Favorite Fish!
I'm not going to sit here and say that I have done it perfectly, but in this current tank build I have been able to get to a fish population unlike in any tank I've had before (and I have had a lot) .... and I chalk that up to a strict QT process. OK, I do have a low level ich problem in my tank, but I believe that traces back to the original acquisition of a 'craigslist special' and my failure to properly QT those initial fish. Interestingly, though, symptoms only appeared after I had moved from that initial 90 to my current 265 (almost 7 months). Since then (8 months plus) I have seen occasional spots on the usual suspects (hippo and achilles), but on a declining rather than increasing frequency.
BUT, my goal here is not to spark a debate about managing ich or the benefits of QT; rather an opportunity to show a few pictures of my favorite fish (my poor photography skills notwithstanding). I will start with a fish that is among my absolute favorites; though hoping that she will become a he shortly.
All pictures taken with flash, so they are in these pictures as they look in real life. The only fish that has been a bit of a struggle is the male Bipartitus leopard wrasse in the last picture. Its a bit out of focus, but I have been unable to get him to put on weight. He eats aggressively (with a swollen stomach to prove it) but remains quite thin. Though I treat with prazipro in QT regularly, I suspect this fish has internal worms. The only fish I have lost in this tank was a female Naso Tang who, following 12 weeks in QT, got sucked to the side of my Vortech pump and then died two days later with these weird lumps all over her body. Still not entirely sure what happened
Sorry, you mean what equipment on the tank? On vacation, so will add some more photos when I get home. Am a little concerned about power failure with all this bad weather. I can handle the tank during a power loss if I am home; a little trickier if not (just hope the vortech battery kicks in like it's supposed to).
Got home after 8 days away with all of those 'disaster' scenarios playing around in my head - I am a pessimist, after all - but ....... nothing, nada ...... glass needed a good cleaning and the fish were tripping over themselves to get the the feeding end of the tank, but everything looks good. No sign of any 'stress' related ich spots, no STN/RTN (though I do need to do some pruning), so all is well.
At the risk of repeating myself .....
At the risk of repeating myself .....
Almost nine months up and running, with pretty nice results. Not problem-free, but overall very satisfying. Lingering issues:
Very happy with MTC skimmer and calcium reactor; about the only thing I'd change would be to go with a slightly larger main sump (120 instead of a 75).
From a husbandry perspective, I use no dedicated mechanical filtration, preferring to employ settling chambers in the sump, never vacuum the sand, preferring to have the CUC keep things clean, and change 40 gallons every other week. Dosing is kept to a minimum: alkalinity, calcium, magnesium as required, and iron. Proof is in the proverbial 'pudding' .....
.... and a FTS today .....
..... versus Day 1 .....
I've had to move things around a bit, particularly a soft coral that was over-shading my blue maxima clam - latter seems much happier for the clearer neighborhood. I keep telling myself that I'm done with fish, and I am close, but a Chevron Tang proved too nice to pass up. That will be it though. Most of the SPS are now growing to the point that I'll have to start fragging them; I have a few spots remaining for something spectacular than may present itself at some point. The open sandy area towards the middle will remain that way unless I can find myself a Gigas clam at some point. Still need to get a Crocea, just haven't seen one at what I'd consider a reasonable price.
At the risk of repeating myself .....
Almost nine months up and running, with pretty nice results. Not problem-free, but overall very satisfying. Lingering issues:
- I am still having some issues with keeping alkalinity at my preferred level of 9 dkh. Currently tank is stable at about 7, despite my efforts to increase dosing of 2-part.
- This tank also seems somewhat 'intolerant; of LPS - a large frogspawn that was doing very well is now quite significantly less extended than it was, despite my having moved it a few times; likewise for one of (but not both) the torch corals. Only coral I have lost so far in this tank was an open brain, so perhaps they are getting picked at.
- Ich problems seem to have passd off - its been close to two months since I saw any spots (on the Achilles, of course) so perhaps the problem has resolved itself without drastic intervention on my part
Very happy with MTC skimmer and calcium reactor; about the only thing I'd change would be to go with a slightly larger main sump (120 instead of a 75).
From a husbandry perspective, I use no dedicated mechanical filtration, preferring to employ settling chambers in the sump, never vacuum the sand, preferring to have the CUC keep things clean, and change 40 gallons every other week. Dosing is kept to a minimum: alkalinity, calcium, magnesium as required, and iron. Proof is in the proverbial 'pudding' .....
.... and a FTS today .....
..... versus Day 1 .....
I've had to move things around a bit, particularly a soft coral that was over-shading my blue maxima clam - latter seems much happier for the clearer neighborhood. I keep telling myself that I'm done with fish, and I am close, but a Chevron Tang proved too nice to pass up. That will be it though. Most of the SPS are now growing to the point that I'll have to start fragging them; I have a few spots remaining for something spectacular than may present itself at some point. The open sandy area towards the middle will remain that way unless I can find myself a Gigas clam at some point. Still need to get a Crocea, just haven't seen one at what I'd consider a reasonable price.
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Ats
Ats
Hard to see from the prior photos, but here is the waterfall ATS that I had build for this system (pictures are older, prior to seeding the screen).
Unit is lit from both sides with a Reefbreeders fuge light; screen is sized for 5-6 cubes of food per day, plus a bit. The flow is approx. 350 gph across a 12 wide screen. I scrape the thing about every two weeks, removing about a packed 1/2 cup of algae each time.
Ats
Hard to see from the prior photos, but here is the waterfall ATS that I had build for this system (pictures are older, prior to seeding the screen).
Unit is lit from both sides with a Reefbreeders fuge light; screen is sized for 5-6 cubes of food per day, plus a bit. The flow is approx. 350 gph across a 12 wide screen. I scrape the thing about every two weeks, removing about a packed 1/2 cup of algae each time.
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