JapanReef - 450 gallon In-Wall system
- Thread starter JohnL
- Start date
jeffbrig
Premium Member
Formalin will kill just about anything (including fish) given enough time. It's probably pretty effective against surface parasites, but I don't think the formalin is able to get to the ich that's burrowed deeply into the fish's tissue. At least not in the short duration of a dip. Besides, if ich is potentially reproducing in the tank, pulling the fish out to do a dip is never going to eradicate it.
That is....unless you tear down, wipe out, and refill the tank each time. But that's getting into the tank transfer method, where you move the fish to a new tank every 3 days so that ich never reproduces in time to re-infect the fish. (Which, BTW, is a VERY interesting concept and makes sense considering the life cycle of the parasite)
That is....unless you tear down, wipe out, and refill the tank each time. But that's getting into the tank transfer method, where you move the fish to a new tank every 3 days so that ich never reproduces in time to re-infect the fish. (Which, BTW, is a VERY interesting concept and makes sense considering the life cycle of the parasite)
I'm expecting 6 new acro colonies in a few hours. :bounce3: :bounce1: :bounce2:
Well, no worries on the Blue Line. It is an absolute pig! It loves mysid and I have no doubt it could devour a whole cube in one sitting. Also love New Spectrum pellet and Prime Reef flake. I have hungry tangs but never have I seen a fish eat quite like this. :eek1:
This fish is stunning. If anyone can get one around this size (4") or a little smaller then I urge you to jump on the chance.
The downside is that the baby regal doesn't venture out much. It lives in a pipe that has a sponge tucked into it and will dart out to grab a pellet or piece of flake. It's a little thin but it is eating so I'm hoping it will be fine.
I started the drop into hypo a few days ago and should be at 1.009 tomorrow night and will keep it there for a month or 5 weeks.
Hooked up one of the Vortechs on the right side. The flow is great but I'm unsure of how low to put it. I want the corals to get as much flow as possible without putting them the direct path. You can see it in this pic on the right:
Thinking about dropping it a bit lower. Either level and front-side of the bulkhead or directly under. Any thoughts?
Well, no worries on the Blue Line. It is an absolute pig! It loves mysid and I have no doubt it could devour a whole cube in one sitting. Also love New Spectrum pellet and Prime Reef flake. I have hungry tangs but never have I seen a fish eat quite like this. :eek1:
This fish is stunning. If anyone can get one around this size (4") or a little smaller then I urge you to jump on the chance.
The downside is that the baby regal doesn't venture out much. It lives in a pipe that has a sponge tucked into it and will dart out to grab a pellet or piece of flake. It's a little thin but it is eating so I'm hoping it will be fine.
I started the drop into hypo a few days ago and should be at 1.009 tomorrow night and will keep it there for a month or 5 weeks.
Hooked up one of the Vortechs on the right side. The flow is great but I'm unsure of how low to put it. I want the corals to get as much flow as possible without putting them the direct path. You can see it in this pic on the right:
Thinking about dropping it a bit lower. Either level and front-side of the bulkhead or directly under. Any thoughts?
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I was just perusing the Icecap forum and saw some setups. Most people have higher than this so I guess I'll leave. I seem to remember when you posted a video about your beta model it looked really low but my memory also sucks. 
So I'm going to put the other on the left side at the back. It will need to be higher there as the rock structures are higher at the back. With right-front and left-back installations I should get some nice vortex kind of flow as the water moves in a clockwise direction.
So I'm going to put the other on the left side at the back. It will need to be higher there as the rock structures are higher at the back. With right-front and left-back installations I should get some nice vortex kind of flow as the water moves in a clockwise direction.
Kennyboy1984
Member
What do you do in Japan? Are you an American or a Japanese citizen? Great tank and fish btw.
I'm actually English.
I run a webhosting with my best friend and business partner. We started it when I was in Australia 5 years ago and it's grown steadily and surely. I try and keep its growth in check so I can still manage it remotely but it's a challenge. But with 3,000 clients, 100+ servers and over 40,000 domains hosted it runs pretty well. Haven't spent much time on RC lately because we are working on a new site, new systems, training new staff, replacing servers etc - it's alot of work.
I run a webhosting with my best friend and business partner. We started it when I was in Australia 5 years ago and it's grown steadily and surely. I try and keep its growth in check so I can still manage it remotely but it's a challenge. But with 3,000 clients, 100+ servers and over 40,000 domains hosted it runs pretty well. Haven't spent much time on RC lately because we are working on a new site, new systems, training new staff, replacing servers etc - it's alot of work.
Kennyboy1984
Member
Good luck. A prosperous business equals a bigger fish tank!
Kennyboy1984
Member
I see that you guys have been discussing quarantine. Do you quarantine and employ hyposalinity on every new fish you get? If so have you ever lost a fish to hyposalinity? Or are most fish pretty tolerant to hypo? I am afraid to use hypo on some of my more expensive fishes. I currently have some tangs in 1.009 specific gravity. Thanks
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I quarantine and hypo all new fish. The parasite is widely found on all wild caught (or otherwise) fish and I treat all fish as if they have it as the probability of carrying is statistically high. Most people will say that as long as you provide a nice environment for your fish they will remain healthy enough to fight off the infection. But in my mind providing that optimum environment is an unattainable goal due to too many varying factors. Who knows the effect that certain additives, changes in salinity, chemical balances, food etc have on a fish. A glass box full of fish also has aggression issues. Too many things can happen to even the most experienced reefer's system - we've all seen it.
So if you can eradicate something potentially harmful before it enters the system then why not? I have lost fish in hypo, yes. Would those fish have made it if they went straight into the display? Hard to say but even if they did make it initially but carried a parasite into the system that could wipe out half the population a year down the road when I was more experienced and as everything was going so well I also added an Angel that cost me $800.....yea, I'd be pretty gutted.
On my last QT cycle I lost a 3-4" Regal Angel. Not sure why and I could have killed it by dumping 5 gallons of water on it while it was sleeping because it was fine before that and dead the next day. The water was display tank water because hypo had finished and I was equalising the water between teh tanks. To invest 2 months into a fish (and hypo/QT is hard) to have it up and die at the very end was a real disappointment and that I'd prolly caused its end had me kicking myself for days. The Heniochus pair and 6-spot goby made it through that one okay.
The cycle before that had my 6 Lyretail Anthias and the Powder Blue. I lost one Anthias due to some kind of internal fluke or parasite. If I had dipped in Formalin I may have been able to save it but that wasn't part of my regimen at the time - now it is. Another Anthias was going the same way and lost its colour and looked terrible. Three formmalin baths later and it was healed.
The cycle before that was a disaster. I let water quality drop and I had a green tank. I lost a powder blue and a sixline wrasse and one other fish I can't remember now. It was that QT cycle that led me to a dramtic rethink of the way I approached QT and hypo. After that I added a UV unit and started more regular water changes. I now do weekly water changes in the QT tank but twice a week I rinse out the filters on the maxi-jets and the pre-filter sponge of the HOB Remora Pro. The weekly water change also involves a through tank clean, clean out of powerheads, pipes - everything.
The system is a 50g glass tank.
Has 2 maxi-jet 900s for flow.
Another maxi-jet powering the 8w UV.
HOB Remora Pro skimmer.
Three chunks of LR.
Two sponges tucked into pipe elbows.
The LR and sponges help with the biological filter as a bare tank can get filthy pretty quick due to no or hardly any denitrification. QT is somewhat of an art AFAIK and takes a while to perfect or come up with your own process but well worth it in my book.
So if you can eradicate something potentially harmful before it enters the system then why not? I have lost fish in hypo, yes. Would those fish have made it if they went straight into the display? Hard to say but even if they did make it initially but carried a parasite into the system that could wipe out half the population a year down the road when I was more experienced and as everything was going so well I also added an Angel that cost me $800.....yea, I'd be pretty gutted.
On my last QT cycle I lost a 3-4" Regal Angel. Not sure why and I could have killed it by dumping 5 gallons of water on it while it was sleeping because it was fine before that and dead the next day. The water was display tank water because hypo had finished and I was equalising the water between teh tanks. To invest 2 months into a fish (and hypo/QT is hard) to have it up and die at the very end was a real disappointment and that I'd prolly caused its end had me kicking myself for days. The Heniochus pair and 6-spot goby made it through that one okay.
The cycle before that had my 6 Lyretail Anthias and the Powder Blue. I lost one Anthias due to some kind of internal fluke or parasite. If I had dipped in Formalin I may have been able to save it but that wasn't part of my regimen at the time - now it is. Another Anthias was going the same way and lost its colour and looked terrible. Three formmalin baths later and it was healed.
The cycle before that was a disaster. I let water quality drop and I had a green tank. I lost a powder blue and a sixline wrasse and one other fish I can't remember now. It was that QT cycle that led me to a dramtic rethink of the way I approached QT and hypo. After that I added a UV unit and started more regular water changes. I now do weekly water changes in the QT tank but twice a week I rinse out the filters on the maxi-jets and the pre-filter sponge of the HOB Remora Pro. The weekly water change also involves a through tank clean, clean out of powerheads, pipes - everything.
The system is a 50g glass tank.
Has 2 maxi-jet 900s for flow.
Another maxi-jet powering the 8w UV.
HOB Remora Pro skimmer.
Three chunks of LR.
Two sponges tucked into pipe elbows.
The LR and sponges help with the biological filter as a bare tank can get filthy pretty quick due to no or hardly any denitrification. QT is somewhat of an art AFAIK and takes a while to perfect or come up with your own process but well worth it in my book.
I have both Vortechs hooked up now. I noticed after the first one was powered up that the skimmer was producing wetter skimmate. When the second one was switched on so much crap was kicked up that the skimmer bucket overflowed for the first time. I installed a bulkhead and elbow on it at the beginning so it overflows into the sump and this was the first time I saw it in action. Simple but effective.
I turned off both closed loops a few days ago. The one on the Dart is not needed as the first Vortech is there and I turned off the big Sequence 1000 that runs through the rock racks to see once and for all if the microbubbles would dissipate. They didn't.
Anyhow, I was able to align the second Vortech as well as the first. The next morning I found the motor section by the side of the tank. The tab that was stuck to the tank and zip-tied to the cable had simply pealed off its glue sticky thing. So this leads me to believe that the propeller section had spun off due to misalignment and without the magnets to hold it in place the motor fell off. I now have two of those tabs stuck above teh motor. Anyhow the soft gasket that goes on the inside of the tank which the propeller section sits on disappeared under reef so I powered teh big Sequence up to flush it out and it did come out. I left the Sequence running now.
One thing I've noticed with both Sequence pumps off is that it's easier to maintain a cooler temperature. I think the two pumps add at least 1.5C to the temp as it's been 34C (95F) all this week and the reef hasn't topped 27C (80.6F). I also lowered the night-time temp to 25.7C (78.2F) as with the halides off and air con on it gets chilly in there at night and the Finnex heaters kick in. So heating up that extra degree takes time so doesn't give the tank so long to heat up after it hits 27C. I've also been running the A/C in my office 24/7 so the QT tank doesn't overheat and I usually leave one of the access doors open. So all these things have helped me battle the heat.
The halides are going off in 45 minutes and the reef is now at 27.5C (81.5F) with the big Sequence running. I really think 27.5C (81.5F) is as hot as a reef should get in order to keep the corals healthy.
I suck at aquascaping! I pulled the left island apart because (a) I wanted to build it a bit higher, (b) in order to place the new corals better and (c) in order to move the LTA over to the far left out of harm's way. Unfortunately I found it had split (yet again) and one half is living under the reef. So it could pop out anwhere at any time and that makes me nervous. It's still towards the left so I left an opening to coax it out that way if it wants to come out.
The new corals are great but I need more to make any kind of impact.
I turned off both closed loops a few days ago. The one on the Dart is not needed as the first Vortech is there and I turned off the big Sequence 1000 that runs through the rock racks to see once and for all if the microbubbles would dissipate. They didn't.
Anyhow, I was able to align the second Vortech as well as the first. The next morning I found the motor section by the side of the tank. The tab that was stuck to the tank and zip-tied to the cable had simply pealed off its glue sticky thing. So this leads me to believe that the propeller section had spun off due to misalignment and without the magnets to hold it in place the motor fell off. I now have two of those tabs stuck above teh motor. Anyhow the soft gasket that goes on the inside of the tank which the propeller section sits on disappeared under reef so I powered teh big Sequence up to flush it out and it did come out. I left the Sequence running now.
One thing I've noticed with both Sequence pumps off is that it's easier to maintain a cooler temperature. I think the two pumps add at least 1.5C to the temp as it's been 34C (95F) all this week and the reef hasn't topped 27C (80.6F). I also lowered the night-time temp to 25.7C (78.2F) as with the halides off and air con on it gets chilly in there at night and the Finnex heaters kick in. So heating up that extra degree takes time so doesn't give the tank so long to heat up after it hits 27C. I've also been running the A/C in my office 24/7 so the QT tank doesn't overheat and I usually leave one of the access doors open. So all these things have helped me battle the heat.
The halides are going off in 45 minutes and the reef is now at 27.5C (81.5F) with the big Sequence running. I really think 27.5C (81.5F) is as hot as a reef should get in order to keep the corals healthy.
I suck at aquascaping! I pulled the left island apart because (a) I wanted to build it a bit higher, (b) in order to place the new corals better and (c) in order to move the LTA over to the far left out of harm's way. Unfortunately I found it had split (yet again) and one half is living under the reef. So it could pop out anwhere at any time and that makes me nervous. It's still towards the left so I left an opening to coax it out that way if it wants to come out.
The new corals are great but I need more to make any kind of impact.
