Lyle's 150H in-wall build (with pics)

[Greenmaster]

Inverts don't carry or get effected by Ich. Most LFS carry them. They have other names too. Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, Indo-Pacific White-Banded Cleaner Shrimp, Indo-Pacific White-Striped Cleaner Shrimp, Skunk Cleaner Shrimp or the Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp.

 

[jlylec]

Inverts don't carry or get effected by Ich. Most LFS carry them. They have other names too. Scarlet Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, Indo-Pacific White-Banded Cleaner Shrimp, Indo-Pacific White-Striped Cleaner Shrimp, Skunk Cleaner Shrimp or the Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp.

thanks for your help man. I really appreciate it!

 

[jsehlms]

That really sucks you got Ich on the first sign of fish
If it's any consolation, Petco is going to have their $1/gal tank sale next week. Maybe get a 55 and set it up at a QT to get them in there and let your tank go through the ich fallow cycle.

 

[jlylec]

That really sucks you got Ich on the first sign of fish
If it's any consolation, Petco is going to have their $1/gal tank sale next week. Maybe get a 55 and set it up at a QT to get them in there and let your tank go through the ich fallow cycle.

Yeah thanks man. I really appreciate the heads up on this sale! I think I'm going to look into a 46gal or something (space limitation) and go ahead and set up a hospital tank. Then I can move these new fish into it and treat with cupramine while letting the DT run with just inverts until the Ich has run it's course and is fully gone (6 weeks?).

Then I'll have a QT set up already too. Thanks again!

 

[boombox3]

I would recommend for future purchases that you buy a nice size quarantine tank. Then when you buy new fish you medicate them to make sure they will not infect any fish in your DT. After a month,drop them in. I learned the hard way but after medication my fish survived in my display tank thank god. I used the Microbe-Lift Herbtana. Mix this with Microbe-Lift Artemiss. There was mixed reviews about this but after using it myself I was happy and will use it again. :dance:

 

[jlylec]

I would recommend for future purchases that you buy a nice size quarantine tank. Then when you buy new fish you medicate them to make sure they will not infect any fish in your DT. After a month,drop them in. I learned the hard way but after medication my fish survived in my display tank thank god. I used the Microbe-Lift Herbtana. Mix this with Microbe-Lift Artemiss. There was mixed reviews about this but after using it myself I was happy and will use it again. :dance:

yeah I'm in the process of putting that together now. I'm looking at setting up a 40gal breeder with a couple sponge filters. One powered by a powerhead and one with an airpump. Of course I also need a light, stand, etc. I wish I could find one locally on CL or something, but didn't see anything today and I don't want to wait too long to get this going. I'm basically going to have to hope the fish make it through this cycle of Ich in the DT since I won't be able to put them in the hospital/QT until it cycles.

 

[jlylec]

so this is what i came home tonight. doesn't look good. the worst part is that she's doomed to fight it off because i'm not set up to treat her anytime soon. ugh.

Any tips on getting her through this? She is still eating and acts OK.

 

[Greenmaster]

Get a cleaner shrimp. It won't get rid of it but it will help to take some of them off of her.

 

[jlylec]

She didn't make it but I got her body out of the tank before she could cause an ammonia spike. I'm working on setting up a hospital/QT tank now so I can put the fish in there to treat while letting the main tank run fallow for 6 weeks to kill off the ich. I've had a couple people tell me to get a UV sterilizer with a wiper built in now. Not sure I want to buy another $300+ piece of equipment!

 

[jlylec]

So it's been a little while. I've been out of town for the last couple weeks and crazy busy before that. I think leaving my tank in the hands of the Apex and my dad for 2 weeks was the best thing I could do for it. My constant dicking around seems to be my biggest problem. I came home to find the fish looking great...no signs of ich anymore! And my test corals are really plumping and coloring up nicely. I think I'm going to finally start moving some of my better pieces home this week. Maybe next, but certainly soon. I'm starting my research on what fish to get next too. I'm going to try my hand on another tang or two. May just avoid the hippo for now due to the ich propensity they carry. I'll try to get some new update pics tonight to share. I'm stuck with iphone photos for now though as we had a second camera fall prey to the sand at the beach this year!

 

[shaggss]

remember Ich goes in a cycle, so even though your fish show now signs doesn't mean that its not there anymore. The only true way to rid your tank of Ich would be to leave it fish-free from 8 weeks.

HTH and good luck!

 

[jlylec]

remember Ich goes in a cycle, so even though your fish show now signs doesn't mean that its not there anymore. The only true way to rid your tank of Ich would be to leave it fish-free from 8 weeks.

HTH and good luck!

yeah thanks shaggss...i do understand that unfortunate reality! i was considering removing all the fish for a couple months to let the ich die off but now that they're settled in i hate to stress them out again. I'm going to add the next fish after a quarantine period and treatment for ich. If that fish then succumbs to ich I'll have no choice to run the tank fallow and put the fish through the hospital experience. i know in the long run it's probably the best thing to do, but i'd love to avoid it if possible!

 

[jlylec]

I'm hoping to have my quarantine tank set up and running this week. I bought a couple 40B from a guy on craigslist for $50/ea. I set them up so I can run 2 QTs or 1 QT and 1 hospital, or 1 as a frag tank or something. I don't know. I'm going to plumb them up to tie into the main system or run individually or tied just together. The only problem I see with this plan is that I'll have to use overflows which I've heard can have issues. I'd rather drill them but one is labeled tempered on the bottom and I don't want to risk it on the other. I could drill the back of them but then I'd have to build an internal overflow, etc. Trying to keep things as simple as possible while maintaining my options!

Here's a pic of them. They're to the left of my little fish room.

The bottom is going to be the main QT for now. I'm starting with 2 sponge filters, a 150W heater, strip light, and a Koralia for flow. I'll probably put some of the left-over PVC pieces I have in there but nothing else. I'm going to fill it with tank water to start.

I have a couple questions if anybody has any advice:

1. Do you think I'll have much of a cycle? If so, any idea how long? I'm going to stick the sponge filters in my main sump for a week or so before filling with tank water.
2. How often and much water should I change? I'm a little nervous about depending on just sponge filters, but that's what I read in a couple places for a good QT set up.
3. Should I run a normal light cycle or darker to make the fish feel more secure?
4. Any special food? I read about some flake food that is good for parasite control. Is that just a marketing thing?

Here's an updated pic of the rear of my set up. Everything's holding up nicely although I get a slow drip in the plumbing of my emergency drain pipe. Fortunately it rarely has water in it, but I do need to fix that.

Here's a pic of the big SPS colony I broke. It looks really great for a pile of coral that shattered on the floor! Color is good and extension is really good. I think the dip really helps the coral a lot. The pieces I dipped before introducing them look great and the one piece I didn't dip is still slow to color up. I may pull it out and dip it now.

 

[jlylec]

updated shot of my nano at work without the green acro colony.

it's incredible to see how much of it is spreading across the back of the tank like coraline. i'm guessing that wouldn't be easy to scrape off!

this is the next (and last) piece I bring home. everything else is infested (as I see it!) with mushrooms or palys.

anybody need any purple/blue shrooms? i have a couple.

 

[jlylec]

I think I may actually finally be done with this build. Biggest mistake was not quarantining those first fish so I got a QT/frag setup in and I think this is it. I really can't fit anything else in the space. Only last considerations are: a door-wall in front of the 40s; and maybe a UV because I've had several people now tell me I should have one especially since ich has already been introduced.

Final QT set-up

Stack set up

All tank area

Closed up

I'm really happy with how it all turned out and am excited to finally settle in and start enjoying watching things grow.


-Lyle

 

[jlylec]

updated FTS...still have a ways to go on adding new corals and fish and letting it all grow in, but everything seems happy and doing well...

which leads to my conundrum over the ich issue. i've read a lot about this so i feel i understand the problem and the cure, and i agree with all sides of the issue but am passionate about none. at this moment there are no signs of ich and all my fish are eating and healthy...corals are growing and happy...but i know i have ich because i lost a hippo tang to a nasty ich outbreak. my only 'cure' is to remove all my fish and treat them in a QT/hospital tank while leaving my DT fallow for 8 weeks (have heard as little as 4, but if you go down this road why rush and risk it?).

i know this will be a HUGE pain in the ***, cause a significant amount of stress to the fish (if I can even catch them), and I could even lose some of the fish during the process. i guess i know that this is still the best thing to do in the long run but i can't get past the thought that i do all of this and still end up with ich somehow in a year. i hate the thought of adding a bunch of beautiful, healthy new fish just to watch them suffer and die though so i feel like now's the time to try to do whatever i can to rid the tank of ich completely. Some people think this is not really possible, but the science on running a fallow tank and treating with copper sounds pretty solid to me. then all future fish are treated with copper in QT regardless of signs of ich.

so assuming i go down this road do you guys think i have any chance of catching all of my fish without removing all of the coral and rock? the only one i think i may be able to catch pretty easy is the purple chromis, swirly. the anthias' are ridiculously fast and the gobies have underground cave homes to hide in. on top of all that my tank is not the easiest to work in because of it's depth and my rock work and coral placement make it so i have to be very slow and deliberate working in there so i don't knock everything down. not sure how i could do that while trying to catch 6 little fish. any suggestions? ugh.

 

[ludiNano]

Been following for some time now, you've made some great progress. I agree it sucks, but I would say removing all fish and letting it go fallow for 8 weeks would be best.

You can try to remove as many fish as you can with a net and then try to use fish traps to get the rest. It would tank more time but it may be best not to add all of them to your QT/ hospital tank at once anyway, a couple a week or somthing.

Good luck and keep us updated.

P.S.- love the nano.

 

[jlylec]

Been following for some time now, you've made some great progress. I agree it sucks, but I would say removing all fish and letting it go fallow for 8 weeks would be best.

You can try to remove as many fish as you can with a net and then try to use fish traps to get the rest. It would tank more time but it may be best not to add all of them to your QT/ hospital tank at once anyway, a couple a week or somthing.

Good luck and keep us updated.

P.S.- love the nano.

thanks man I appreciate it. After talking with some guys in my local reef club I think I may actually try to add one more round of fish (only a couple) and see what happens. I'll QT them first and likely go ahead and treat them with cupramine even if they don't show any signs of ich. If they make the transition to the DT well then I'll breathe a little easier. If not I'll break down the whole thing and run fallow. I just hate disturbing and risking the fish I have now that are healthy. Not too mention it's so daunting a task to consider. I'm really not trying to rush anything or be lazy at this point...just thinking through all the options.

thanks for the note on the nano too...I'm working on new plan for that as we speak. Right now I just have a clarkii, 3 blue chromis', and a red scooter blenny in there. I have been slowly moving most of the coral i have home. I think I'm going to try and retrofit LEDs in there, work in a sump of some sort so I can use a better skimmer, and go another direction with it. I'll either leave the fish as they're happy and healthy and try my hand at some different corals, or move those fish home to the big tank and turn it into a seahorse and delicate species tank with zoa carpets or something...since I pretty much have my 150 done i need something new to do!

anyway, thanks again...the tip on moving the fish to QT in batches is a good one I hadn't thought about!

 

[jlylec]

checked out some fish today at the LFS in Staunton, VA. Not sure if this sail fin is completely healthy. He's been there for about a month and has something weird over his right eye. They say he's eating well and I did see him take a dump so that's a good sign I guess. They're going to isolate him in a hospital tank and I'll check him out again next week. I need to check compatibility on him anyway.

They're asking $50 and I can get a similar sized one on LiveAquaria for the same which may be more healthy. Although if I could rescue and save this one I'd feel good about that.

Not sure what this blue striped on is but he's very cool in person. Next step is research!

Another cool fish I'm going to research.

 

[jlylec]

Got a few fish yesterday. They're in QT now and looking really good. Eating well. Etc. I'm not going to treat with anything unless necessary. They've been at Pet Forum for a while and showed no signs of ich so I don't want to add anything to stress them since they'll be going into ich anyway!

I ordered a Kole and Hippo (second shot!) too. They'll be picked up tomorrow.

The hawk is really cool and I like having a pair of true percs. It'll be cool to see if they host my frog spawn. I'm not going to put an anemone in this tank. I realize this means I can't move my clarkii into this tank now, but I'm OK with that. He can just stay in the nano.