Haffs09 370gal Tank Build...Finally!

Thanks jpsika08! I haven't set up a Ca reactor, and I'm probably months and months away from needing one.

Here are my priorities (in somewhat order):

1. Get my current fish successfully through QT

2. Pick up the few remaining fish on my want list.

3. Install a HRV for my basement and DT

4. Swap out my 125 gallon sump for a 180 or possibly a 7' 210 gallon tanks (if I can convice a friend to part with his 210 and if I can get it down the basement).

5. Upgrade to a larger skimmer - the Skimz SM302 has my attention right now.

6. Upgrade my water change setup from the current 55 and 60 gallon tanks to 165 and 200 gallon drums. The 165 will be online, and during a water change, I will bypass it, pump it out and then refill with water from the 200 gallon drum.

7. In the place of the 55 and 60 gallon tanks, place a 180 gallon tank and bring that online. This will serve a couple purposes, 1) add water volume to the system and 2) have extra space so if anyone in the DT doesn't play nice, I have a place to put them until deciding what to do.

8. Add a DSB to the 75 gallon tank.

9. Decide what to do with my lighting. Right now, I only have a couple 48" T5 bulbs and a couple of spotlights on the tank. I want LED, just not sure if I'll go the DIY route or purchase something new.

All that should keep me busy for the next year or so!
 
Lovely looking build! Not a big fan of wooden framed tanks, look very old fashioned in my opinion but great attention to detail!

Sorry about the yellow tang!
 
Yes that is a hefty To-Do list. If I can get it done by next spring, I will consider that a success.

Thanks for joining in popeye ali.

I was feeding the tank that houses my majestic the other day, and it got stuck on the intake of a modded maxi-jet. I killed the power and the majestic swam away unharmed, but these pumps are dangerous!
 
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Copied from a thread I have in the Reef Disease Forum

Copied from a thread I have in the Reef Disease Forum

Well, I ended up losing my majestic angel on 9/1. On 8/18, it stopped eating aggressively. I waited 3 days and after no improvement, I placed it in a 20 gal hospital tank. I treated with Fish Zole (metronidazole) for a full 10 day treatment. During that time, it would only graze on a clam on the half shell and ignored all other foods (frozen angel formulas, mysis, nori, and various flake foods).

At the same time of the majestic move, I condensed fish from several miscellaneous tanks into a 75 gal. I was waiting on a successful rebound from the majestic before moving it into the 75gal, wait several days and then go to hypo conditions. With the passing of the majestic, I started dropping s.g. two days ago and should be at 1.009 in a day or so.

So, here's where I stand with my QT/hospital tanks:

75 gal: Goldflake and flame angels, flame hawk, six line wrasse and an oscellaris clownfish. All are very active and eating aggressively. The goldflake loves frozen foods, I'm hoping to get it interested in flake and NSL pellets soon. Tank is on its way to hypo conditions.

55 gal: Emperor and four multicolor angels started copper treatment (cupramine) on 8/23. I change ~12 gal of water every 3-5 days. The several white spots/patches on the emperor's fins have disappeared. I'll continue treatment until 9/27. All fish eat frozen foods aggressively, and like the goldflake, I hope to get the emperor interested in other dry foods. The multicolors will eat anything.
 
Yeah, that was a bummer. The reason why I got into saltwater aquariums 13 years ago was because I saw one at the LFS. I'll wait a couple months and give it another shot. I'm not sure what else I could have done with the majestic, but if anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears!
 
Well, I'm in the process of going through another round of hyposalinity for the entire system. A week ago, I noticed a suspicious mark on my hippo tang. Wishing it away didn't work and this past Monday, the hippo, achilles and powder blue all broke out with ich. So, I'm lowering my salinity. Fortunately I do not have any corals in the system. One thing I'm doing differently this time is I'm not taking out any of the rock that is in the DT or sump. Last time, I moved as much as I could fit into a 75gal tank and let that sit fallow for a couple of months. I'm monitoring ammonia and hope that I can get down to hypo conditions without issue. Once there, I'll perform 10% water changes every third or fourth day.

This is pretty frustrating as I thought I was in the clear. It has been over two months since I completed my first attempt at hypo. So where could I have failed? There are a couple things that may have caused this. First, I moved a couple small rocks from the 75 to my sump when I moved the purple tang there. I believe the 75 had been sitting fallow for 7 weeks, which may have not been long enough. Second, I will not use hoses or pumps that I have in common between my other tanks in the basement (mainly for water changes). If this were the cause, I would have expected to get ich in some of the other tanks, but this hasn't happened. Then again, I treated one tank with copper for another reason, and I'm finishing up hypo treatment on another tank as a preventative measure.

I was preparing to move my multicolor angels into the display tank this weekend, but that will be put on hold for a couple of months now. If I can find some time, I'll post some pics of them.
 
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Sorry about the ick
In the past 2 years I killed more fish since I upgrade
Over 30 large angel, 40 large tangs and countless innocent fish because of ick despite of QT even going fallow couple for even 2 months.
Ick still show up in the tank.

Ozone and cleaner shrimp help the spread of the infection but don't rid of it.
Luckily my tank is doing better now that I let it be ( I haven't clean the tank in 2 months)
And all the fish are still alive and fat even with mild ick.
:)

Good luck
 
Haffs09 said:
Well, I'm in the process of going through another round of hyposalinity for the entire system. A week ago, I noticed a suspicious mark on my hippo tang. Wishing it away didn't work and this past Monday, the hippo, achilles and powder blue all broke out with ich. ---------------.
Click to expand...

I bought a small hippo several months ago that broke out with ich, which all Tangs seem highly susceptible. I quarantine it , treated with copper, marchite green/formaldehyde for weeks and it kept coming back. Poor little guy was pretty beat up and covered with white slime when I tried to put him back into the main tank. Some icy spots showed up again. I started enriching his mysis with Selco (vitamins and amino acids). After a week he is starting to look normal and the ich appears to have resided. Worth a try.
 
Alot has happened since I was last here, Sorry about the angel losses. Having just gone through a Hypo of my DT I have some recent experience, so some issues that plagued my thoughts are,

What do you use to measure SG? it should be a refractometer.

Have you calibrated it?
you need to calibrate it using a SG solution of the SG you aim to measure, this is because the gradient of the instrument may be out so calibrating with RO is useless to begin with and calibrating with 1.025 will make sure you read 1.025 acurately but if the gradient of measurement is out then when trying to hit 1.009 you could be "measuring" as that but the reality could be the water is at 1.010 or above and that isnt low enough (which I'm sure you know.)

With QT angels do you do a prophylactic treatment of prazi? as most angels are highly succeptable to flukes and can result in death due to malnourishment or be the reason behind why the fish isnt putting on weight.

Lastly (lol sorry for the long post) but with all the angels and goldflake in the tank which corals are you hoping to keep?

Good luck, it sounds as though you have a decent plan of action.
 
bullitr - Fortunately, I haven't suffered an ich related loss with any of the fish that made it through QT. I'm extremely patient and determined to beat it out this time!

GrahamJr - Hippos are notorious for ich. I have thought about food supplements in the past, but haven't pulled the trigger to purchase any, yet. I'll see how it goes. Be careful, because although your ich seems to have resided, it might come back and get you at your weakest hour (Murphy's Law). Mine hippo appeared ich free for ~ 2 years before I stressed him out with the tank move. Good luck!

rnscross - You bring up a very good point that I overlooked. I never considered that my refractometer could be off at the lower range. I'll dig into this more...thanks!

In terms of QT, this is my current regimen for all fish (majestic included):

1. Receive new fish, observe for 3-5 days for any visible ailments.
2. Nothing visible, treat with praizpro for two weeks.
3. Give them a week off from treatment.
4. Treat for ich (unless #1 requires treatment that also takes care of ich). I favor hyposalinity and am still honing my skills at this. So far, I only lost one fish while at hypo (flame angel), and I fully believe that was because I pushed the limits of making a water change. Although an ammonia test kit showed the water was okay the night before, I suspect it wasn't accurate at the lower SG. Now, I won't bother measuring for ammonia while at hypo and just make frequent water changes. On my 75 gal tank, I typically changed 15 gallons every 3 or 4 days.

In terms of corals, I plan to go the SPS direction. I need many things to fall into place before I place any corals in the tank (see post #161). When coral time comes, it will be trial and error. The ones the fish leave alone will stay and those they take a favoring too will be placed in another tank.
 
What type of paint/epoxy did you use on stands in basement? I'm getting ready to put down the speckled floor epoxy in my basement today after it's emptied/clean. Your build is inspiring and want to keep mine clean much like yours:) On your floor epoxy did you use clear coat too or not? I'm on fence whether I need to put clear coat on or not...
 
Hello Dustin1300 - I used a Rust Oleum Garage Floor Epoxy Kit I purchased at Lowe's or Home Depot. I only used the epoxy and overall, it has held up very well. Make sure your floor is dry before applying it. I had a couple small areas that were damp and the epoxy flaked off over the last couple of years.

For the stands, I used a couple coats of a high gloss latex paint (after priming) and I laminated all the top plywood surfaces.

I haven't forgotten about posting a few pics of the basement setup in your thread. It's a bit cluttered right now and that's why I haven't posted.

Cheers
 
Sounds good. I ended up waiting it out and applied the epoxy and flakes a few hours ago. Looks really good from what I can tell but wanted to know the durability since I have the easy option of buying the glossy clear coat kit right now. I got same basement kit at Menards and just included the two part epoxy and paint flakes.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
 
I applied it 4 years ago, and I'm very happy with the way it has held up. Other than a couple of areas that were damp when I applied it, and I few cracks that I caulked in with masonry caulk, it has been great. If you like the look with the glossy clear coat, go for it!
 
I think I'm passing on the clear cost as I'm happy with the finish! I had leftover and went ahead and did the furnace and sump area...very happy with out and think I will do garage in spring with the clear coat...Thanks for the encouragement and savings on doing the clear coat!

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using Tapatalk
 
I'm glad you enjoy the build, mseepman. I'm long over due for an update, so here's the latest...

This past weekend I finished raising my salinity to normal levels. To combat a second round of ich, I lowered the s.g. to 1.008 for 8 weeks. I hope I'm through with that issue!

Not sure if it was related or not, but 3 weeks ago, I noticed that my purple tang wasn't eating his nori. I moved him down to the sump due to aggression with the yellow tang the last time I was coming back from hypo conditions. He was in an area of ~50 gallons with a bunch of live rock. It was always tough to get a good look at him, but as long as he was eating, I didn't pay much attention to him. Well, when I noticed the nori was untouched from the day prior, I looked closely for him and to my sadness found he was respirating rapidly and listing near the surface. On his one side there was a hole the size of a 1/4" around his stomach area. It almost looked like something had burst out of it. It was grey in color and the perimeter was fluffy white. I pulled him out and treated him 9 days with metranidazole. He would not eat anything. After the 9th day, I did a large water change and then treated with Maracyn for two days, but it was too late.

When I realized the purple tang was in trouble I looked over the fish in the DT real well and noticed a few suspicious spots on the hippo tang, yellow tang and desjardini tang. The achilles and powder blue looked great. It took a week or so, but I finally narrowed it down to lymphocystis. After reading more on it and looking at pictures I'm confident that is what they have. I suspect the purple tang had it and then got some sort of secondary infection. All the fish except my hippo tang are eating very well. The hippo eats, but not with his typical voracious appetite. He has slimmed down as well. Hopefully, with the tank back to normal conditions and regular water changes, he'll rebound.

I plan on observing the tank for a couple of months before moving up all my fish from the basement into the main system.
 
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