Ivan's terribly slow 225 build

[IvanTheTerrible]

I love adding new fish to the tank. It's always fascinating to me to see the other fish react to the new guy. I've got to watch this play out a couple of times lately.

While the tangs were going through TTM (and almost finished), I got a notification from LA that they had schooling bannerfish in stock. I've been searching for these fish for about nine months, so I quickly put in an order for two. Hindsight being 20/20 I should have ordered at least one more, but it's too late now. They were out of stock again less than two hours after I got the email. I didn't want to try adding the bannerfish to the DT after the tangs were established, so I decided to leave the tangs in the QT and hope aggression wouldn't be an issue.

The bannerfish came through TTM fine. They love mysis and eat like pigs. Since the tangs were in the QT, they had to go straight to the DT after the TTM. I would have really liked to observe them for a couple of weeks but I was out of tanks. My QT is a 20 long, so I was pushing it with four tangs in there. Adding the bannerfish would have really been asking for trouble. So, they went into the display tank last night. They immediately headed for the rocks and found a good spot to hide. Less than an hour later, they were both out swimming around and completely freaking out every other fish in the tank.

I planned to give them a couple of days before adding the tangs to the tank. I've been keeping an eye on the tangs to make sure aggression wouldn't be an issue. At first, everything was cool but slowly they got more comfortable with their environment and started to quarrel. The lieutenant tang is by far the biggest and would hog the nori anytime it was added. The other three fish had to wait until he was finished before he would let them have a bite. If that was the worst aggression I would have been ecstatic, but two days in a row I found the kole tang hiding in the false overflow. The kole tang is by far the smallest of the four tangs, but it's still way to small for him in the overflow. I can only assume that some aggression was going on and it was the only safe place available. Also, this morning I noticed that the lieutenant tang has a wound on his head. I don't know what happened and it doesn't look too serious but it's another sign that things are getting testy in the QT.

So, the kole tang went into the DT this evening. After a few minutes of hiding, he was out and about investigating his new home. This really messed with the other fish. The bannerfish were pretty timid and didn't push it if one of the other fish was defending "their" territory. The tang seemed oblivious to the other fish and investigated every inch of the tank. This really bothered the other inhabitants. Even the clownfish tried to defend their home. The little tang held his own and was whipping his tail around like crazy. I was a little worried that things were going to get serious but they worked it out before anyone was bloody.

It's been a great two days watching all of the fish adapt to the newcomers. They're slowly getting used to each other and the establishing new swimming patterns and new territories. I can't wait to add the other tangs in a few days and watch the whole thing play out again.

 

[acer]

Yep- even with a isolation tank,etc. it does not help with a new fish getting picked on and not eating when first put into a display community tank. My next build/ project is to make a plexiglass fish holder that will be see thru- with many holes in it for water flow. I will make it so it fits in the front/top open area of my tank and have some type of clamping system so that is it secure ( maybe runners hat rest on the front/back euro-braces). It will be large enough ( maybe about 9 x 9 x 9) to put one piece of 4-5 inch 90 pipe in it so the fish inside it will have a place to hide during its stay. It will also have a removable mesh covering so no fish can jump in or out of it. I figure it will take about a week for the fish to be seen enough so when it is released it will not get picked on much. I think this is a necessity item when you are adding a tang with tangs or angels with angels. Since I now have a very aggressive pygmy Angel and white faced powder brown tang- it will be needed when I want to add a new fish. I have looked to purchase something like this and have not found it - found a few things that are close ( insect holders) , but not quite.

 

[RedStangGA]

Yep- even with a isolation tank,etc. it does not help with a new fish getting picked on and not eating when first put into a display community tank. My next build/ project is to make a plexiglass fish holder that will be see thru- with many holes in it for water flow. I will make it so it fits in the front/top open area of my tank and have some type of clamping system so that is it secure ( maybe runners hat rest on the front/back euro-braces). It will be large enough ( maybe about 9 x 9 x 9) to put one piece of 4-5 inch 90 pipe in it so the fish inside it will have a place to hide during its stay. It will also have a removable mesh covering so no fish can jump in or out of it. I figure it will take about a week for the fish to be seen enough so when it is released it will not get picked on much. I think this is a necessity item when you are adding a tang with tangs or angels with angels. Since I now have a very aggressive pygmy Angel and white faced powder brown tang- it will be needed when I want to add a new fish. I have looked to purchase something like this and have not found it - found a few things that are close ( insect holders) , but not quite.

Like this?

https://www.marinedepot.com/Marine_...MI7O3y8PL31gIVEIGzCh3G3gS8EAQYAiABEgL2cPD_BwE

 

[acer]

Close - yes- but again, there is no way to secure it to the top of the tank , have you actually had any suction cups holders work when you have any weight in it ( I want to put a piece of PVC in it for a hiding place) and I also have pretty good tank flow which would be hitting the box? I have not had good luck with suction cups - so the poor fish would be floating all over the place as the flow in the tank would be pushing the box all over the place. The vision seems a bit limited because of the design of the hole/slats- so the fish looking in would not see the new inhabitant well. But , close - I could figure out an option - maybe glue some type of holder/brace on it and clamp it onto my Eurobrace.

 

[IvanTheTerrible]

Well, the plan is to move the other tangs to the DT in the morning. Hopefully, the other fish and bigger tank will be enough to eliminate pressure on the kole.

I've also got a cardinal missing. I had 5 which seemed to be two pairs and one fifth wheel. Something happened to one of the pair members, so now I've got one pair and two others. I'm not sure what happened to the 5th one or where it went. I've searched everywhere and can't find it (dead or alive). I've checked the overflow, pipes, sump, everything. It's like it just disappeared.

- Ivan

 

[IvanTheTerrible]

OK, quick update.

Never did find the missing cardinal. Just disappeared into thin air.

All of the tangs are adjusted to the big tank and are everyone is doing well. The 4 tangs, 2 schooling bannerfish, and foxface constantly hang out together. There are some rare squabbles, but nothing serious. I also added a cleaner shrimp and a watchman goby, which might be the last fish I add. It's fun to add new fish, but after a while all of the transfers, equipment cleaning, feeding multiple tanks, etc. gets a little old. It's nice to be done with all of that.

The coral frags seem to be happy, and most are starting to grow. I'm still battling some algae issues, but I think I might be winning (at least for now).

- Ivan

 

[iced98lx]

Sounds like a good update! Photos might help us conceptualize

 

[vitodog]

If you don't mind, and I know this question may sound like its coming out of left field, but can you tell me what size was the Yellow Watchman as indicated by the distributor (Sm, Med or Lg)? I am having the hardest time finding a Yellow Watchman large enough to survive being placed in my tank (125g). All of my fish have reached adult size. Thank you.

 

[acer]

Pics, pics, pics....

 

[IvanTheTerrible]

Pics, pics, pics....

Sounds like a good update! Photos might help us conceptualize

Yes, pics. I will try to get a few tomorrow. It's been a while since I had the DSLR out, so it might take a few tries.

- Ivan

 

[IvanTheTerrible]

If you don't mind, and I know this question may sound like its coming out of left field, but can you tell me what size was the Yellow Watchman as indicated by the distributor (Sm, Med or Lg)? I am having the hardest time finding a Yellow Watchman large enough to survive being placed in my tank (125g). All of my fish have reached adult size. Thank you.

Sorry, but I don't think I'll be much help. I got the diamond watchman rather than the yellow, but they are pretty similar. Regardless, I bought mine at the LFS so there really wasn't a size indicated. Also, none of my fish are full grown so size wasn't really a concern. Mine was pretty timid and hid a lot when first introduced. He's since built a really nice burrow and is starting to be a little more bold. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

- Ivan

 

[vitodog]

Thanks Ivan.

 

[winterpeg]

How is your vector m1 working on your 250g?

I just got mine for my 250g..

How did you connect it is see so many different ways.

Thanks

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

 

[IvanTheTerrible]

How is your vector m1 working on your 250g?

I just got mine for my 250g..

How did you connect it is see so many different ways.

Thanks

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

I love my vectra pumps. They are SO quiet. I'm using the M1 to feed my skimmer and the L1 as a return. The return also feeds 2 reactors (only using 1 currently) and my refugium. The return piping forms a "Y" with each leg going to a Sea Swirl. There is a picture of it here. Both are probably oversized, since I'm not running either at full speed. Hope that helps.

- Ivan

 

[winterpeg]

I love my vectra pumps. They are SO quiet. I'm using the M1 to feed my skimmer and the L1 as a return. The return also feeds 2 reactors (only using 1 currently) and my refugium. The return piping forms a "Y" with each leg going to a Sea Swirl. There is a picture of it here. Both are probably oversized, since I'm not running either at full speed. Hope that helps.

- Ivan

Thanks

We can't get the l1 in Canada so im going to use the m1 for now...

Sent from my SM-G950W using Tapatalk

 

[IvanTheTerrible]

Yes, pics. I will try to get a few tomorrow. It's been a while since I had the DSLR out, so it might take a few tries.

- Ivan

Well in my excitement I forgot to clean the glass before snapping the pictures. So, things are a little speckled. I could have edited the specks out but my laptop died and I'm stuck using my daughter's laptop. This thing is SLOW, so I didn't really do much editing. Santa should have been better to her last year. :lol2: Anyway, here are the pics.

I'll try to get some better pics over the holidays.

- Ivan

 

[IvanTheTerrible]

It's been a bad week. First, my goby died. Not exactly sure what happened. It seemed to be fine and appeared happy and well adjusted. Then one day it stopped coming out of its burrow. Wouldn't even come out to eat. It would just wait for some food to float by the opening and then stick its head out and grab it. I never saw any aggression occurring, so I'm not sure what was going on. This went on for about a week. Then, I quit seeing it altogether. After a couple of days I got nervous and figured it was a goner. I decided to investigate so I lifted the rock it was living under. To my surprise, no fish. I filled the burrow in with sand and looked around the whole tank. I couldn't find it anywhere. Then, a couple more days go by and it suddenly appears on the sandbed. It was looking pretty thin and lethargic. After it didn't move for over an hour (including a tank feeding), I decided I needed to do something. I filled a bucket with a mixture of fresh saltwater (sligtly lower SG than the DT) and tank water, and added some PraziPro and an air line. When I went to net the goby, it didn't even try to swim away. I moved it to the bucket and hoped for the best. The next day it was dead.

On Saturday evening, my return pump decided it would die too. It was acting weird near the end of December - took a long time to start after being shut off. I cleaned it then and that seemed to help. Then on Friday, it started randomly shutting off for a couple of seconds. It would shut off just long enough that you could hear the water in the return lines start to drain into the sump. A couple of seconds later it would restart and appear normal. Of course, this freaked the fish out since they were expecting to be fed since that is what normally happens when the pump shuts off. Anyway, it only happened a couple of times on Friday. On Saturday, it seemed to be getting worse. I recruited my wife to sit and watch the controller until the pump shut off to let me know if it flashed any colors (being colorblind finally came in handy). She said it went from green to flashing red/white and within a few seconds was back to green. By this time, it was getting late in the afternoon so I just sent an email to Ecotech and figured I would get a response on Monday.

As Saturday night rolled around, the situation got worse and the pump was restarting nearly continuously. I knew this wasn't good for the pump. It was also filling the display with bubbles and making a ton of noise, which was pretty annoying. I decided to shut it off and see if I could find anything wrong. I did a quick inspection, of the pump and the initial piece of return plumbing but everything looked good. I hooked the pump back up and turned it on. Nothing. It would try to start for a few seconds and then the controller would restart. I decided to take it apart and see if maybe a snail or something was jammed in the impeller.

I took the dripping wet pump out of the sump and set it in the sink, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Whatever you do, don't disassemble your pump in the sink. The vectra pumps are pretty simple with just four screws holding the volute in place. The nut for one of these screws is captured, but the other three are free to fall out. I knew this but wasn't thinking clearly at this point since I was worried about my tank. So, I lost control of one of the nuts and it went down the sink drain. :headwallblue: Fortunately, because of the unique way I plumbed the sink the nut couldn't actually go anywhere. I have a section of horizontal pipe after the sink that runs to a floor drain. This isn't how I would want my bathroom plumbed, but it works just fine for a fish room. Anyways, the nut was laying in that horizontal piece of pipe. Getting it out of that pipe was a pain in the butt. The sink is screwed to the wall, which keeps it from moving around when I bump into it - which happens all the time. At the end of the horizontal pipe is an elbow and a few inches of pipe that stick down into the drain. That makes it nearly impossible to get the horizontal pipe out but eventually I got it and retrieved the nut. Now back to the pump. I removed the volute and inspected everything. It was perfectly clean (as expected) and there was no sign of a stray snail or anything else that could be causing a problem. I cleaned everything again even though it didn't need it and put the pump back in place. I crossed my fingers and turned in on. No luck. Didn't even try to spin.

At this point I decided to consult the Ecotech website. That is where I found a video showing how to clean a Vectra pump. In the video, they pull the entire propeller out and clean it. Previously, I'd just run the pump through a strong vinegar/RODI mix and cleaned the impeller/volute with a brush, but didn't really disassemble anything. So, following the instructions on the video I grabbed the impeller and gave it a tug. Now, I had half of an impeller in one hand and the rest of the pump in the other. Needless to say, I was not impressed. I tried to finish the disassembly just out of curiosity. I wanted to see if something was jammed in the pump internals. If there is, I'll never find it because I couldn't get the pump apart. I also can't spin the shaft by hand, which is not good. After a few minutes I gave up on it and turned my attention back to the tank.

At this point I decided to get some heat and additional water movement in the tank. I have a few spare heaters, so I stuck the biggest two into the DT. I had to stick them to the front glass since the only EB8 that is over the tank is above the front/center of the tank. It looked like garbage, but at least my fish had some heat. I moved a temperature probe from the overflow box to the DT and did some quick programming of the outlets in Fusion. With heat addressed, I decided to add an airline for some additional water movement. I still had the gyres running but wasn't sure how much surface movement was enough, and I figured the airline couldn't hurt. I stuck the airline to a piece of rock with a rubber band and dropped it in the tank. That really freaked the fish out. They didn't know what to think of this strange new beast.

With heat/circulation taken care of, I returned my attention to getting a pump going. In the back of my head I always thought that I would use the skimmer pump if the return pump ever died. That sounds like a great plan, but plans don't move water. The output on the L1 and M1 Vectras are a differnt size. I knew this, but figured I had enough left over plumbing parts to make it work. I was wrong. Apparently I have every fitting known to man except for the one I need to connect the M1 to my return pipe. By the time I discovered this, it was 8:55. Lowes and Home Depot are only 10 minutes from my house, but they close at 9:00. I decided to give up and try again in the morning. I went into my Apex and turned off everything connected to the sump - ATO, dosing, cheato light, and heaters. I also turned off the display lights, figuring one day of blackout wouldn't hurt anything. First thing this morning, I went to Lowes. I grabbed what I needed (and some supplies for a different project) and went to church. After church, I glued the plumbing together and checked on the fish. They were still alive and seemed to be adjusted to the airline bubbling away in the tank, or maybe they were just sleepy from the lack of light. It was at this point when I realized that turning the heaters off in the sump was a bad idea. First, I didn't want to get a pump working and then pump a bunch of relatively cold water into the display. Second, the cold water could kill the bacteria/pods/etc. living in my refugium. Although it wouldn't be a lot of die off, it still wasn't a good idea. So, I turned the heaters back on and used a small pump to circulate the water in the sump. My kids had an event this afternoon, so I let the plumbing cure while I attended that.

When I got home the sump was back up to temp and the plumbing was ready to go. I figured this was as good of a time as any to clean the sump, since I was going to be moving things around in there anyway. After cleaning up the sump, I hooked up the M1 and turned it on. I'm happy to say that it is humming along and pumping water like crazy. Not a permanent solution since I don't have a skimmer now, but it shouldn't be a problem going a few days without one. I guess I'll call Ecotech on Monday regarding the L1. I'll decide how I'm moving forward after talking to them.

- Ivan

 

[RedStangGA]

Sorry to hear of your troubles but glad you at least have a temp workaround in place. Strange about the goby though, sorry for your loss.

 

[IvanTheTerrible]

Sorry to hear of your troubles but glad you at least have a temp workaround in place. Strange about the goby though, sorry for your loss.

Thanks man. The goby was one of my favorite fish. I'll get another one soon.

I called Ecotech today during my lunch hour, and they are sending me a new pump under warranty. Their customer service has been excellent every time that I have called them.

- Ivan

 

[acer]

Man- I wonder what happened to the Vectra pump. Sorry to hear of the trouble- hate purchasing an expensive piece of equipment and have it fail badly. I am also having some issues - check out my thread if you want to.