How to make Swiss Cheese - Krunchy's 275g Closed Loop monster!

[ekrunch]

Looks like my controller issues are about to be answered! GHL has decided to throw DALI dimming abilities into the ProFilux. Looks like they'll have the module ready right about the time i'm finishing up the cycle.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1524091

Anybody want to buy an Aquacontroller III with lots of accessories? :lol:

 

[stunreefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13900185#post13900185 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ekrunch
What I wouldn't give to have the Joculator that used to live in this tank when nbd13 had it.

...or how 'bout my dream, the C. interruptus!?!

To be honest I'm working on both right now, and suprisingly things are looking good... I'll keep you posted.

I was going to say call up Live Aquaria, but it appears someone snagged their other joc.

BTW, the Profilux ROCKS! You won't be disappointed!

 

[ekrunch]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13900422#post13900422 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stunreefer
...or how 'bout my dream, the C. interruptus!?!

Stop that! Stop reminding me of that one! I love that fish too and i'm really trying to forget it exists. :lmao: I'd almost give up SPS to have one! (Although the cost of both angels is probably cheaper than the SPS habit in the long run)

To be honest I'm working on both right now, and suprisingly things are looking good... I'll keep you posted.

Just let me know when you frag them.

I was going to say call up Live Aquaria, but it appears someone snagged their other joc.

I'm pretty much going to have to wait on any more livestock until the 275 comes online. The stock tank is a bit crowded and i've still got 3 more fish in somebody else's system. Not to mention the funding issues with trying to build a system like this.

BTW, the Profilux ROCKS! You won't be disappointed!

I hope so man. My only real complaint about the ProFilux is that they're pretty proud of the components. Let's hope they're worth the extra cash!

 

[ekrunch]

My new friend has arrived! Seeing as I didn't think I had quite enough potential coral eaters, I figured i'd go ahead and get one more. :lol: Actually, this fish is something i've been wanting for a while and I finally found one!

Without further ado, I give you Chaetodon mitratus, the Mitratus Butterfly!

Here he is in the bucket getting ready to go into the tank. After having him in the bucket for about 30 minutes I tossed in a few live black worms and he made them disappear with a quickness. Very aggressive eater for a fish that just came out of the bag.

 

[ekrunch]

The Mitratus has been introduced to the stock tank along with the Bellus Angels, Coral Beauty, Bicolor Angel, Leopard Wrasses, Yellow Coris Wrasse, and Waterman Goby. Fortunately nobody really cared about him being there except the Coral Beauty. The CB is mostly concerned with his territory and isn't being overly aggressive towards the butterfly, he just won't tolerate other fish coming into his little corner of the tank.

Here's a few more of the Mitratus in his temporary home!

 

[stunreefer]

Sweeeeet!

Sweeeeet!

:eek1:

Nice pick up man!!! :thumbsup:

I love these guys, and wow eating right out of the bag?!? In the second to last pic it appears he's already nipping at the rocks too!

 

[maxxII]

Dude.....you have to start QTing these critters before introducing them with everything else. You have some gorgeous fish that arent exactly cheap. QTing them does two things: gets em acclimated to life in captivity and helps you get them onto alternate foods, (doesnt seem to be a problem for your beautiful new butterfly though!), and lets you ensure that diseases dont get introduced.

Consider yourself scolded.

Great find on a beautiful fish! If you keep him well fed, (fat), you shouldnt have to worry as much about him nipping at SPS.

Nick

 

[skrtcsr]

Looks amazing, great work. Like the CAD drawing, makes doing a project much simpler to run with.

 

[ekrunch]

Re: Sweeeeet!

Re: Sweeeeet!

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13929747#post13929747 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by stunreefer
:eek1:

Nice pick up man!!! :thumbsup:

Thanks Austin. That 275g may never see a Joc and a Japanese Pygmy again, but it's a start!

I love these guys, and wow eating right out of the bag?!? In the second to last pic it appears he's already nipping at the rocks too!

Yeah, he eats like a pig. He likes the live black worms but actually seems to prefer New Life Spectrum pellets. He loves Rods food and gets within an inch or two of my hand when I feed it. I'm sure that within a week or two he'll be up there picking it right from my hand like the angels do. I threw a cube of rotifers in my stock tub a little while ago and he came up from his cave and chowed down with the Bellus angels. Apparently he's going to fit right in! :lol:

You have no idea how tempted I am to sell the Bicolor and pull the trigger on a Joculator...

 

[ekrunch]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13930180#post13930180 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by maxxII
Dude.....you have to start QTing these critters before introducing them with everything else. You have some gorgeous fish that arent exactly cheap. QTing them does two things: gets em acclimated to life in captivity and helps you get them onto alternate foods, (doesnt seem to be a problem for your beautiful new butterfly though!), and lets you ensure that diseases dont get introduced.

I suppose you're right, maybe I do need to get something going for that. Got any recommendations for tank size / filters / medications? I guess i've always just had good luck with fish so i've never really worried about it. It never seemed important when I had my first tank and didn't know any better, then I got the 125 and just transferred all of the old inhabitants out of the 46. Now i've got the 275g so I suppose I should start acting like a large tank owner!

The other part of the problem is that I wasn't really going to buy any livestock until the tank was up and running so I wasn't worried about it. The stock tub's original purpose was just to keep the rock healthy and house a few small fish that I wanted to keep from my old tank. Then I found the healthy Bicolor ... then I found the healthy Bellus Trio ... and now the Mitratus. I actually didn't set out to buy any of those fish, I just dumb-luck'ed my way into them.

Consider yourself scolded.

Was that police brutality?

Great find on a beautiful fish! If you keep him well fed, (fat), you shouldnt have to worry as much about him nipping at SPS.

Nick

Let's hope not. He's a handsome fish and I'd really like to keep him long term. My whole point in not buying big Tangs and such was that I want to put in the fish and corals and "close the lid" on this tank. I spent entirely too much time in my old tank chasing down fish that had gotten too big or aggressive. A few mistakes while trying to catch some of them cost me some really nice corals. I'm really trying to avoid that same series of mistakes this time.

 

[ekrunch]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13930989#post13930989 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by skrtcsr
Looks amazing, great work.

Thanks!

Like the CAD drawing, makes doing a project much simpler to run with.

You're quite right about that. The drawings definitely help! SketchUp was a pain to get started with but it was well worth it to be able to visualize ideas and to try to better estimate how things were going to fit together. For a free program, i'm quite pleased with the results it produces once you get over some of the weirdness of the user interface.

 

[maxxII]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13933216#post13933216 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ekrunch
I suppose you're right, maybe I do need to get something going for that. Got any recommendations for tank size / filters / medications? I guess i've always just had good luck with fish so i've never really worried about it. It never seemed important when I had my first tank and didn't know any better, then I got the 125 and just transferred all of the old inhabitants out of the 46. Now i've got the 275g so I suppose I should start acting like a large tank owner!

The other part of the problem is that I wasn't really going to buy any livestock until the tank was up and running so I wasn't worried about it. The stock tub's original purpose was just to keep the rock healthy and house a few small fish that I wanted to keep from my old tank. Then I found the healthy Bicolor ... then I found the healthy Bellus Trio ... and now the Mitratus. I actually didn't set out to buy any of those fish, I just dumb-luck'ed my way into them.

Was that police brutality?

Let's hope not. He's a handsome fish and I'd really like to keep him long term. My whole point in not buying big Tangs and such was that I want to put in the fish and corals and "close the lid" on this tank. I spent entirely too much time in my old tank chasing down fish that had gotten too big or aggressive. A few mistakes while trying to catch some of them cost me some really nice corals. I'm really trying to avoid that same series of mistakes this time.

A Quarentine Process

I would think that standard 55 gallon tank would be fine for 99% of what you're going to be QT'ing. I have a 58 gallon that I use, (36x18x18). I start off just watching the fish and checking for disease and working on adjusting it to food and associating me with getting fed. If ich is present I like to treat w/ hyposalinity and use sodium bicarb to maintain pH.

More info later...

Nick

 

[maxxII]

I'm not super genius, but I do pay attention to a fish before I buy it, or if I buy it from an online retailer, I'm really picky about who I buy from. I pretty much only buy online from LiveAquaria/Divers Den and PhishyBusiness, but I have purchased from Vivid Aquariums without issue also. If the fish looks healthy(locally), I wil put it in QT and begin watching. My main concerns are ich, velvet, isopods, flukes, and intestinal worms. Keeping the fish in QT for a month ensures I get to see how it does before possibly exposing my other fish anything it might have. Flukes, brooklynella, and isopods can be treated with formalin baths. The link I gave you earlier will have info on formalin baths. I've done them in the past with no issues. Ich is treated with hyposalinity as its the easiest way for the fish. I use a ph monitor and drip sodium bicarb to the tank to keep ph and salinity stable. Hyposaline water is not stable ph wise.

There are various meds which can be used to treat for worms/intestinal parasites...jungle actally makes a food with the meds in them.

Its not hard to QT, and the benefits far out weigh the hassles. I had some problems with AEFW's and lost all my acros....shortly after that, I got a pair of white bonnet clownfish and the promptly came down with Brooklynella. After that, I decided to QT everything.

BTW, that wasnt police brutality, and I'm not the tang police either...



Nick

 

[ekrunch]

Okay, now that makes sense. Seems like a sensible approach to the whole thing. Everyone I've talked to about gave me some crazy sounding instructions on how to perform QT and they tend to lose >25% of their fish during QT. Needless to say, I have a hard time believing those people. :lol: The other thing is that until this most recent purchase, i've bought all of my fish locally and been able to observe them for a few days before I bought them. I usually try hard to support my LFS's and give them my business as much as possible. I also never did a "rescue", if the fish wasn't perfectly healthy and eating in the store then I didn't purchase them.

I'm going to have to get something like this going before the 275g comes on line. I think i'm going to go ahead and sell the Bicolor, then fork out for the Joculator angel or possibly the C. interruptus Japanese Pygmy. I may also get another Mitratus but I have to read up on if you can pair them or not before I drop that kind of cash on another one! I'm certainly going to need something to protect all of these guys.

Thanks for the information Nick.

 

[ekrunch]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13940853#post13940853 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by maxxII
BTW, that wasnt police brutality, and I'm not the tang police either...

I think the Tang Police might intervene when I bring my tangs home. Once the 275 is online and stable, i'm going to move the tangs from their current home in Reefkeeper's fuge. The sad part is that they're actually getting downgraded to come home. :lol: They're currently in a 300g fuge that's covered in macro and they basically have it to themselves. The fish are the definition of "fat and happy" where they are now, it's almost a shame to move them to my house. :sad1:

Here's their current home.

 

[maxxII]

Ed,

read this thread......Sorry John... But I am calling out COPPS!!!

John Coppolino has the most amazing collection of fish. He has angels the rest of us can only dream of...on the page I linked you to, he explains his views on QT'ing. His success rates with rare/difficult fish are incredible. Read the whole thread after you read pg 5.

Buying locally doesnt prevent disease, but it gives you the advantage of seeing the fish before you buy it. QT doesnt have to be difficult, but its definately worth any inconvience IME.

Look at it this way...with all the fish you have right now, you've got close $1000 invested in them, most likely more than that. Its only smart to protect you're investment by QT'ing your subsequent additions.

Nick

 

[erics3000]

Who's fuge is that? Do they have a link to build thread or something. I asked this a little back not sure if you missed it ..
'
Thanks

 

[SaraB]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13947691#post13947691 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by erics3000
Who's fuge is that? Do they have a link to build thread or something. I asked this a little back not sure if you missed it ..
'
Thanks

I think they were "moved-on'd"

 

[ekrunch]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13947691#post13947691 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by erics3000
Who's fuge is that? Do they have a link to build thread or something. I asked this a little back not sure if you missed it ..
'
Thanks

Oh yeah, sorry about that. Yes, that belongs to ReefKeepersCorner, my 'fallen RC brother'. Yeah, he got a little rowdy and well, you know the rest. Maybe one day there will be a build thread, it's a magnificent tank.

 

[erics3000]

It is a sweet FUGE for real.

On the QT note. You do have some nice fish. I just lost a impulse buy. I noticed it had ich s little after putting it in the display. I didn't QT and I have been saying I have been meaning to QT all new livestock. It hurt but I would have really been ****ed if all my other fish that have been rock solid would have caught something. I was going to try and get him out but it is hard to get fish out of a system and I didn't want to stress him. I am going to get a little QT together NOW.