Lunchbucket's New 58gal RR inprogress - LOTS OF PICS

[melev]

Eric, I use a toilet cleaning brush to clean the neck of my skimmer, similar to how a chimney sweep works. Since you don't have a lot of room, you might try heating up the handle to melt it at a 90 degree angle, so you can get it inside the stand and down the neck.

Just a thought.

 

[Lunchbucket]

Atlantis - glad you are watching....keep watching my baby reef mature

spazz - yeah the clean neck works great. i've known that a clean neck works the best but i've never cleaned it out unless i was emptying the cup. now everyday i clean it w/ a tooth brush...works great.

what seams and edges are you refering to? the ouside of the bayonet has a flaw but i knew that when i got it.

Lunchbucket

 

[Lunchbucket]

the toothbrush works great. just takes a little longer.

i do have a ER brush that i bought from them...but the handle is too long. so i use the toothbrush for now

Lunchbucket

 

[jay24k]

Make sure to brush your teeth afterwards. Then give your wife a big fat kiss! Puts hair on your chest!

 

[spazz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7119645#post7119645 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lunchbucket
Atlantis - glad you are watching....keep watching my baby reef mature

spazz - yeah the clean neck works great. i've known that a clean neck works the best but i've never cleaned it out unless i was emptying the cup. now everyday i clean it w/ a tooth brush...works great.

what seams and edges are you refering to? the ouside of the bayonet has a flaw but i knew that when i got it.

Lunchbucket

what im refering to is the router marks on the outside of the flanges and the marks on the twit lock of the neck. for what you paid for that thing it should have been perfectly smooth and not look like that. i know there a great skimmer but there craftminship is not what you would expect from a german made product. to me greman made says high quality craftsmanship.

 

[arconom]

Lunch why is your base sticker on the main tube?

 

[Lunchbucket]

spazz - i knew about those when i got it....a little discount was involved i didn't care about being perfect because it doesn't affect performance...plus i got it for less the ones that go out are PERFECT. mine is NOT the typical one!!

arconom - it came off the base plate and was floating around my sump...so i picked it up and stuck it on the body

Lunchbucket

 

[Lunchbucket]

well...my buddy Travis has just found out that he has the dreaded Acro Eating Flat Worms

i'm not sure if i have them. i have gotten frags from Travis who confirmed has them....so now i'm scared. i'm not saying that i even have them or that i even got them from Travis as i have gotten MANY frags from different people. since he has them it is just setting me into alarm/panic mode!!

i have seen NO signes of recession other then blasting a coral w/ too much flow from a Tunze, seeing recession in very shaded areas on the bottome of a coral. i have not lost a coral in 5-6months and that was a baby sized frag that my yellow eye kole tang "cleaned" too much.

well i have been searching all of my corals w/ a flashlight at night and have seen nothing...but i guess sometimes you don't see them. i dont' seen any damage people are describing either besides the recession on the underside of some corals that wouldn't get optimal light or flow there.

i did just get a A loripies (maybe) colony that i inspected really well last night and thought i notieced what i thought was two clutches of eggs. they might have been the size of a pin head (each clutch) but they were down on a part of the acro that had been receeded since i got it (~1month ago). i can't tell from everyones pics how big the eggs acually are...ours were TINY...if there were even eggs. i looked the acro over and noticed nothing that i could tell was an AEFW. there was recession on the bottom but i'm not sure if it was due to the lack of light and flow down there or if i'm freaking myself out and thinking i have the dreaded AEFW's. what other things would make clutched of eggs (if that is what they were)????

i have a buddy who is gonna start a treatment this weekend....do i just tear out all my acros and treat them just in case or do i wait and see if i actually do have them???? i guess i'm at a loss for what i do or don't have and what to do

i have thought about tearing the whole tank down and starting over. i have bryopsis and hydroids and i guess it would let me start over clean. also i could do a good cleaning on all the pumps and such. tear the whole tank down and leave it dry for 2wks or so. then add a new sand bed and NEW LR (w/ no hydroids). then add my small fish back after about 1-2wks...then add the bigger fish back after 1-2wks after that. then i would slowly add the SPS bcak in. sadly enough i have thought about leaving the tank down completely if i did get the AEFW's...or going LPS or just FOWLR. just my mind running in different directions i guess

later
Lunchbucket

 

[melev]

I wouldn't change it over unless you have them for sure.

 

[Lunchbucket]

well i'd rather live w/ bryopsis and hydriods then have to deal w/ AEFW's...but i guess i'll keep my eyes peeled and my late night flashlight watched up.

so should i set up an SPS set up again, LPS, FOWLR or leave the tank down? just running ideas in my mind

Lunchbucket

 

[maxxII]

Yet another similarity between my tank and yours.....but I cold live w/o this one.

I've got em too...but mine are confirmed. I'm currently making up more RO/Di water for a 20 gallon QT. I'm planning on finding some Levamisole, removing all acro's and leaving the main tank acro-less for about 4 months. Whatever is left from weekly Levamisole treatments, will be returned to the main tank. Hopfully, buy then, any remaining egg's from AEFW's will have hatched and starved to death. Then I can go back to enjoying my reeftank til the next dreaded pestilence comes my way.

I just keep reminding myself that if this hobby was easy, everybody would be doing it, and I would be bored with it.

Nick

 

[Lunchbucket]

maxx - dang sorry to hear man. how did you find yours? i still haven't confirmed it and i HOPE i never do!!!! i'd be sooooooooooo happy if i can't find any or any eggs (not sure what those thigns i found were though )

4months huh??!! wow hard core. well i wish you luck and hope you don't loose much.

yeah i guess nothing is easy in this hobby. it was easier a few years ago though...seemed to be less nasties around.

i had the po4 crash, bryopsis problems, hydroid problems, and now possibly this...when will it end?? just wondering if a FOWLR would be easier

Lunchbucket

 

[Travis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7139782#post7139782 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by maxxII
I'm planning on finding some Levamisole, removing all acro's and leaving the main tank acro-less for about 4 months.

Did you mean 4 weeks?

 

[Travis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7140210#post7140210 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lunchbucket
yeah i guess nothing is easy in this hobby. it was easier a few years ago though...seemed to be less nasties around.

Hard to say for sure. It could be that years ago these pests were in our tanks but we just didn't know about them. Red bug infections could have been passed off as unhealthy corals. AEFW's could have been passed off as STN. Either of them could have been passed off as poor water quality or a parameter that is out of whack. Or it could also be that these pests weren't around back then. Maybe in the Ocean they are specific to Bali or Vanuatu, etc. or other places that just recently started exporting corals.

 

[maxxII]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7141137#post7141137 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Travis
Did you mean 4 weeks?

I thought 4 months was what everyone was saying due to potentially unhatched eggs? The shortest duration I saw was 6 weeks to be sure, and that was assuming you could make your tank acro free. I have an A.nobilis encrusting some lava rock that I cant chisel off. Its a small area thats encrusted, and I'm willing to "sacrifice" that if I observe it being munched on. Obviously, if I see it getting munched, the QT time starts over.

How long were you planning on keeping acro's out of your tank?

Nick

 

[Travis]

4 weeks is the recommendation with the Levamisole treatment. Treat the acros at 40ppm once per week and return to QT. Keep display tank acro free (including any little piece of acro tissue or encrustation for the 4 weeks. Then return acros to display. That is what I'm planning on.

Here are some interesting notes I took during my research:
-The FW's can only live for 5 days without a host acro to feed off.
-Eggs take 10-14 days to hatch.
-Hatchlings can take up to 3 months to reach a size where they are visible with a magnifying glass. All that time they are still capable of reproduction.

You would be suprised what can be chiseled or cut out of a rock with a dremel. But it does require removing the rock from the tank. I had 1 coral that started as a 3/4" frag. It only put on about 1.5" a vertical growth but put out a 4" round circle of encrustation. I tried to cut out the encrustation and leave it as 1 but the coral snapped at the base so I just saved the vertical part of it. Then spend the next 15 minutes with the hammer and flathead screwdriver knocking off all of the encrusted area so I wouldn't have to throw out the rocks. Just have to be careful because some branchy rocks are very soft and will crumble with the hammer anc chisel. I crumbled a few of my nicest rocks. I did have a few exotic corals that broke off at the base and I also wanted to save the base if possible. In these situations, the dremel with a diamond cutting wheel came in really handy. I also used the routing bit for wierd angles that the cutting disc couldn't get at. Just cut as slot around and under the base and then use a flathead screwdriver to "pop" the base off the rock.

 

[Lunchbucket]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7141147#post7141147 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Travis
Hard to say for sure. It could be that years ago these pests were in our tanks but we just didn't know about them. Red bug infections could have been passed off as unhealthy corals. AEFW's could have been passed off as STN. Either of them could have been passed off as poor water quality or a parameter that is out of whack. Or it could also be that these pests weren't around back then. Maybe in the Ocean they are specific to Bali or Vanuatu, etc. or other places that just recently started exporting corals.

very true!! guess i never thought of it that way. sort of like human diseases the more we go alone the more we seem to find that someone has somehting wrong

nice tips on using a dremel and other tools.

Lunchbucket

 

[melev]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7142628#post7142628 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Travis
You would be suprised what can be chiseled or cut out of a rock with a dremel. But it does require removing the rock from the tank. I had 1 coral that started as a 3/4" frag. It only put on about 1.5" a vertical growth but put out a 4" round circle of encrustation. I tried to cut out the encrustation and leave it as 1 but the coral snapped at the base so I just saved the vertical part of it. Then spend the next 15 minutes with the hammer and flathead screwdriver knocking off all of the encrusted area so I wouldn't have to throw out the rocks. Just have to be careful because some branchy rocks are very soft and will crumble with the hammer anc chisel. I crumbled a few of my nicest rocks. I did have a few exotic corals that broke off at the base and I also wanted to save the base if possible. In these situations, the dremel with a diamond cutting wheel came in really handy. I also used the routing bit for wierd angles that the cutting disc couldn't get at. Just cut as slot around and under the base and then use a flathead screwdriver to "pop" the base off the rock.

This would have been an excellent time to photograph how you do it so others can benefit. Plus you'd have felt even better, because odds are you'd be helping others with their corals later on in the future.

I realize your main purpose was life-saving, but it would have been neat if you could have done this in addition.

 

[MiddletonMark]

Marc, sometimes my wife looks at me a little annoyed when I hand her some safety goggles and the digicam and ask her to get sprayed by marine bacteria
That said, I may be doing the same and will do my best.


I'll be reading your experience, Travis. I'm thinking the recession I've seen on the base of my slimer, now starting on a millie - is the aefw I've got a 100g rubbermaid in the basement, farm and fleet had Levamisole yesterday, and I'll be getting a new 250w bulb [perhaps take one of my display's MH for the month to the basement]. Do not like the idea of moving all my Acropora in it's own tank in the basement ... all my eggs in one basket, so to speak.

I didn't want to think that part of having a SPS tank was having another tank in the basement for treatment/QT, but I'm starting to believe that's the only way. Treat everything for everything, sadly stress out all your new corals for a month or so - but having defeated the red bugs without a loss, losing many Montipora to the nudibranchs, now concered over aefw ... I think I've had enough with pests.

Hopefully I'm wrong ... will pull out two pieces and see what I think today/shoot some photos. Then nurse everything through the treatment ... and it's going to take a bioluminescent coral to get me to add another to my tank. I just might be able to say that another coral would not be worth the risk or bother - I guess my wife finally won :lmao: I might not need any more.

What would we do without domesticated animal `bug' treatments? The part of reefing I never saw coming ....

 

[Travis]

melev, good point. I do need to start bringing my digi cam on my adventures. It would have been really cool if my wife was there filming when I cut my soli (in my avatar) off of it's rock. I had to use the dremel router bit and apparently I didn't have it fastened securely in the chuck. While I was cutting away the router bit came loose and unbalanced, eventually flinging off at light speed across the room slicing a 3-4" chunk off the soli and pulverizing the chunk along its way. But something tells me the wife would never volunteer to video one of these demos again.:lol:

MiddletonMark, I sure hope you don't have them too. They are not fun to deal with. Pretty much just as bad as the monti eating nudis if not a little worse. I think you are right in that keeping a successful tank these days means having another tank setup for "properly" quarantining all incoming livestock. I put properly in quotes to emphasize doing it the right way. Most people (myself included) go the easy way out and perform a series of dips at best and the coral is in the display within 24 hours. With pests like the AEFW's and monti eating nudi's, the dips just aren't sufficient when there could be eggs hiding out somewhere unseen and unaffected by the dips. This means having a tank setup that can keep the type of corals that people keep in their display alive and happy for a 4-6 week quarantine period, and the same goes for fish. Otherwise, there is the risk of infecting the entire display. I too am thinking about throwing in the towel with bringing new acros into my display. I am going to wait and see how the treatments go and how many losses I suffer. If the losses are too great then it probably isn't worth it to spend good $$ on some uber-colored frag that only has say a 50% chance of surviving through the quarantine/treatment process. I may just take the acros that survive through these treatments and focus on keeping a small amount of large colonies in my display instead of a garden of frags that are bonsaied. Or maybe start keeping more of the other sps like stylos, seriatoporas, montis, and poccis. There are cool sps out there besides acros.