Haffs09 370gal Tank Build...Finally!

Basement friends...

Basement friends...

A couple of weekends ago I snapped some photos and videos of my friends in the basement. In preparation of getting a new shipment of fish, I tried to consolidate all of them into a 75 gallon tank. I fully anticipated aggression between the emperor and goldflake angel, so I divided the tank with eggcrate. i also notched out several areas so the smaller fish could swim between the two sides. What I didn't anticipate was that my large multicolor angel (~2.5" long) did not like the goldflake. I moved the fish over and shortly after the multicolor showed some serious aggression to the goldflake. I had to leave, but a couple of hours later when I returned, the multicolor was still intermittently attacking the goldflake. So, I decided to move the goldflake into its own 40gal with a bunch of live rock.

Enough of the chatting, it's time for some video and pics!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/59152633@N05/6545712563/

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Thanks for the update and beautiful Multicolor Angel! Still working on getting a step closer with water in my complete system and taking it a day at a time!

Keep up the good work and let's hope the next year brings you better luck than this one with the battles in the reef!
 
Dustin-I do follow your thread and enjoy watching your progress. You're developing a nice system.


On an equipment note, I picked up a used Tunze Master DOC 9440 skimmer. I look forward to hooking that bad boy up in a few weeks. It should be a significant upgrade over my current, undersized LifeReef VS-36.
 
Thanks and feel free to chime in any time you want on my thread.

The skimmer should double/triple the expected volume of water your supporting so I'm sure you'll see that thing skim like crazy!
 
I know understand...

I know understand...

I now understand...why folks quit this hobby.:(

Well after the second round of hypo, I thought I was in the clear. I wanted to wait a couple of months to make sure I had successfully overcome that PITA parasite. It wasn't meant to be. I think it was on 1/8 or 1/9, I noticed the tell take signs of ich on my achilles, powder blue and hippo tangs. Nothing more than a half dozen spots. They were there for 2-3 days and then disappeared. Knowing the next breakout would completely cover the fish I came up with this plan:

1. Remove the 5 tangs and foxface from the DT and divide them between a 30gal and a 55gal QTs.
2. Treat the fish with cupramine at a level of 0.5 for 4 weeks
3. Meanwhile, drain the entire system, fill with RODI water and run for two weeks.
4. Drain the fresh water, refill, add salt and then cycle.
5. Keep fish under observation for an additional 4 weeks after Cu treatment.

This past weekend, I caught all the fish. I used egg crate to divide the DT and fortunately 5/6 fish were in the section that I could easily remove the live rock. The powder blue was the lone one out and was a PITA to catch, but I was successful.

I put the achilles, desjardini, foxface and hippo in the 55gal tank. The yellow and powder blue went into the 30gal. I started the first dose of cupramine on 1/17. Yesterday, I came home to find the powder blue dead. It did not have any physical signs of disease or anything unusual. I have no clue what happened there. The Cu levels in both tanks were 0.2-0.3 as read with a SeaChem test kit and no measureable ammonia was present. I dosed the second round of cupramine yesterday.

Today, I looked at the 55gal tanks and did not see the achilles anywhere. I looked in all the PVC tubes and nothing. I then looked at the modded maxijet pump and to my horror, the achilles was stuck to the intake. I turned off the pump and the poor thing sunk to the bottom. It is still moving its gills, but like an earlier mishap with a yellow tang and MP60, I'm pretty sure this is it for him. That fish was my pride and joy. I got it in Feb '11 and it was only 3-3.5". It had grown to ~4.5" and nearly 1/2" thick. Man this sucks. I guess I'll just have to carry on with the plan.

On a positive side, all my other fish that were waiting to go into the DT are doing very well. I sure hope that continues...
 
sorry to hear about your troubles man. i know the feeling.

now might be a good time to pick up a PBT and Achilles from DD. Treat with cupramine but ramp it up real slowly. I think the initial .25ppm cupramine dose all on one shot is a bit much with these sensitive fish. I would take 3 days to get to .25ppm and another 3 days to get to .4-.5ppm depending how well the fish is eating.

With my Aquaclear70(big sponge) and ~10lb piece of Dry rock(w/beneficial bacteria), my 29g QT tank is fully cycled. I feed heavy and never have ammonia problems. I will do 5-10g WC here and there, that keeps the water quality up and the cupramine level steady.

Its been a couple of weeks since your last post. Any updates?

g'luck!
 
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Hello geaux xman. The remaining tangs and foxface from the DT just finished up their 2nd week of cupramine. All are eating well except the yellow tang. The yellow is very reclusive but does come out to eat with the others and just nibbles on a little bit, nothing like prior. It may not like the Cu treatment. I'll continue to monitor and if he gets too thin, I'll reduce my Cu level. I'm currently around 0.5ppm. I was running a little closer to 0.6ppm for a while, but brought that down with the last water change.

I was going to wait to get another achilles until after all the fish were through with Cu treatment, but I had an opportunity to get one on 1/24. This one is ~3.5" long. After a long acclimation, I put it in the 30gal. I watched it on and off for several hours and noticed it flashing against the bottom of the tank. I decided to start dosing Cu immediately. Last March, I had a lavendar tang do the same thing in a QT tank with a yellow and tomini tang. I waited, thinking that maybe it would be fine...big mistake. A week later, the entire tank broke out with a severe case of ich and I lost all the fish within 24hrs. The achilles grazed off nori for the first 3-4 days and I then noticed a half dozen patches on its side, back and under its pelvic fins. The fish was stressed out and grayish in color. The patches were black. It stopped eating and started flashing and twitching again. A friend recommended a formalin bath and I went ahead and gave him a bath for 55 min. I used 1mL formalin (37%) to 1 gal of water. After returning the fish to the tank and then putting a light on the tank, I immediately saw the problem. The fish was loaded with flukes in the patch areas. I counted a couple dozen flukes on the fish with one end attached and the other end wavering in the water. By the next day, they had fallen off and the achilles took a slight interest in red/brown nori again. I ran carbon in the filter and after a day, performed a 80% water change and then dosed prazi pro.

On 2/1 I gave the achilles another formalin bath because it continued to twitch its head and rub up against things in the tank. After this bath, I did not see any obvious signs of flukes. I'm keeping a close eye where the flukes were to make sure those areas don't get infected. The achilles behavior is still the same, so I'll try a freshwater dip. Hopefully, that will give it some relief from whatever is going on. I'm still struggling with getting it to eat anything substantial. I've tried green nori, red/brown nori, red gracilaria, frozen brine, mysis, rod's food, various flake foods and pellets. The only think it will occasionally pick at is the red/brown nori. The small flame angel that is in the same tank loves the food variety. I was extremely lucky with my first achilles, as it ate flake food the second day after acclimation!
 
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hey Haff, trys some bloodworms. I have a ~4" AT in .5ppm cupramine too about 10 days now. Mine will devour bloodworms when hes not eating anything else. Although tonite was the first time mine didnt want to eat. It'll also go after some Sally's for Angels and Butterflies packs. Comes in light purple pack that says"for all omnivore fish".
 
I've always wondered why multi-color angels are relatively cheap compared to their (in my opinion) less attractive kin. They've always been my favourites.
 
Thanks for the comments and well wishes!

Dustin, I did rearrange my stacks last night. I now have two islands with a lot of space in between. I think it looks way better than before, but it's still a work in progress. I'll snap and post a few pics later today. I'm having good luck with an order of fish I got in on 12/7. I'll post some pics of them too.

geaux xman, I do have frozen bloodworms and the thought of trying those never crossed my mind. I'll give it a shot today. I've tried Ocean Nutrition Angel Formula without luck. I think my LFS carries the Sally's so I'll pick some up when I'm near there tomorrow.

Six Line, the multicolors haven't been in a tank with decent lighting yet, but I think they will look spectacular once they get into the display tank. Their purple is very deep, yet electric at the same time. I actually never had intentions of getting any for the tank, but over the summer when my buddy was putting in an order, he was able to get them for a reasonable price, so I made an impulse buy and got 4 of them. They have been by far the easiest dwarf angel to acclimate for me. Maybe they came from a good batch that was collected and handled properly, who knows. My favorite dwarf angel is the flame. On three occasions, I tried to create a harem and I failed all three times. All three attempts came from different vendors too. I always ordered small ones and I think that the smaller flames just don't ship and acclimate well. I only have one survivor from my attempts. My friend has a larger one that he'll give me, so I may see if I can get both of them to get along while I'm in this holding pattern.
 
Glad to hear. Kind of discouraging seeing all the problems you've had with the fish but fight through it, you're doing things the right way. Sometimes some things are out of our control in this hobby....I about threw in the towel on a tank crash a couple years back but glad I didn't!
 
Dustin - it's definitely a hobby that can bring you down to your knees!

geaux xman - Thanks for the bloodworm idea. Yesterday, achilles ate some and seems to have a renewed interest in nori. Although it isn't eating alot at once, a little food a step in the right direction. Today, it also ate a little flake. The fish still twitches, but I haven't tried a FW bath yet either. If it keeps eating I give it a couple days before reconsidering the bath.
 
New aquascape

New aquascape

Original:
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Current:
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There are a couple of loose rocks on top of the right stack. I may keep them, I may not. The few in the middle are there just because I was too lazy to take them to the basement. I may get some tonga branch down the road an make a low lying structure out of them...we'll see. I really like the openness the scape creates. It doesn't look like much, but there's probably 150-175lbs in there.

I think I'm going to remove 3/5 returns from the tank as well. I'll get rid of the two returns that are along the front panel of glass because I'll have MP60s pretty much right next to them. I'll also remove the back center return too. That will leave me with both returns in the back corners of the tank. On the left side, I'll keep the return relatively high in the water column. In the back right side, I'll use loc-line and drop it down 18" or so. I want to add eductors to them as well. This should get a good gyre effect going in the clockwise direction. I also have a MP40 that's currently on my 75gal tank. If I can find a way to attach and maintain the pump, a nice place for it may be in the back center of the tank.
 
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New additions

New additions

Here are a few pics of fish I got in on 12/7. They're all doing very well.

My 2nd favorite tang after an achilles:

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The fish the caused me to get into saltwater 14 yrs ago:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/49249553@N04/6833383771/" title="IMG_7833 by Haffs09, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7141/6833383771_0b38066a83.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_7833"></a>

A nice pair of black onyx clowns:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/49249553@N04/6833382691/" title="IMG_7800 by Haffs09, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7005/6833382691_42ab6fbc22.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMG_7800"></a>
 
thats terrific that the AT is eating a little better now.

maybe dose prazi every 4-5 days with a 25% WC in between. 3 treatments. i add more than what the directions calls for each time also.

5mls prazi/20gal. i use a 29g QT and i do 10mls.

is your tank 3/4" starphire glass?

how big is the nav angel?
 
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