My First Tank and Build Process

[benbarfield]

a much needed day off from work

a much needed day off from work

After 2 days of dark and the protein skimmer up and running my cyanobacteria is basically gone. I had an old powerhead that I put into the tank for some additional flow until my EcoTech Marine VorTech MP40 arrives. I finished the bracing in the sump area so I was able to put up the soundboard piece. That piece will be hidden behind the cabinet doors when I finish building those. Last pictures show my cleaner shrimp and peppermint shrimp out and about looking for food.











The remainder of my cleanup crew should arrive this weekend as well as the rest of my live rock. I will add that to the tank and monitor for any potential die off or hitchhikers. Hopefully my bacteria is built up enough that the live rock doesn't cause any issues and we can add some fish here shortly.

 

[benbarfield]

Nitrate and Ammonia was tested today and read 0. Lights have been turned back on and some of the cyanobacteria came back. So, I have been using a turkey baster to blow it off the rock and suck it up. We went to look at some corals to get an idea of what me and the wife want, and this is happened... A black Snowflake and a DaVinci clownfish"¦

 

[benbarfield]

Water parameters has been rock solid for me the past 2 weeks after adding the clownfish. I added 20 hermit crabs, snails, and another emerald crab to the tank this past weekend and all are happy. I also added 25 lbs of live rock that was run in a separate system to get most of the die off out. I added a EcoTech MP-40wQD to the system as well. My only parameter that was out of range was my alkalinity at 6. I am going to add a buffer solution to the tank tonight to try and get this value back up to around 10. Below are current pictures. This weekend I will finish the braces for the soundboard pieces for the upper access points and the side access point. The plan is to add another fish to quarantine this weekend (a goby or blenny of some kind "“ whatever the wife wants). Cabinet doors will be coming soon as I find some more wood to match. Feel free to leave any thoughts, comments, criticisms, I'm new and learning"¦

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[benbarfield]

We have Corals

We have Corals

You have to love when you go to the store to get one coral, and you come home with 5 corals and a new fish (Pearly Jawfish). He came from the same tank as we got the clowns from a few weeks ago. The first picture shows my first water change in the tank. It's been through a cycle and parameters have stayed steady.

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The picture below is of CoralRx Coral Dip with the new corals soaking. I was able to pull off a small starfish and some green worm looking things off the frags. After a 10-15 min dip and me using a turkey baster to blow off the hitchhikers, into the tank they went.

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The next two pictures are of the torch coral. It was closed up when I first placed it in the tank and the next morning it is wide open. I put it in the corner where the clownfish are hanging out to see if they take a liking to it.

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These next two pictures are of the orange ricordea frag. I decided to not trim off any of the plug. I will just let the ricordea grow all around it.

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These are of the orange zoa frag that my wife picked out.

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This last picture is another ricordea. It is a blue and green ricordea and was already starting to grow over the plug so I decided to leave it whole. The frags were adhered using Loctight super glue.

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[benbarfield]

A few more pictures of the Fire and Ice zoa frag my wife picked out. She loves zoas so she got to pick those out. The last picture shows the new jawfish being camera shy. The plan is to get a yellow tang, kole tang, and either an achilles or powder blue and start the quarantine process. The emerald crab has already started to take a liking to the torch coral and after watching for 30 minutes or so i decided he was picking off too much of the coral and I relocated him to my sump.

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[benbarfield]

The sound boards are up and in place. All I need now is to finish up the cabinet doors. Also added a few more friends... Yellow tang, purple tang, and kole tang. All getting along and eating well.

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[fishresponse]

Looks great!

 

[benbarfield]

And I fear the purple tang has ich. He was already treated before going into the display tank. He is eating great, not scratching on rocks or gasping for air. What should I do? I was looking at Polyplab Medic as a first attempt to see if that helps otherwise he is going back into quarantine for treatment again. I fear the rest of the tank is screwed though...

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[Scottedontknow]

Absolutely ich. They tend to stress easily in smaller tanks as they need a ton of east to west swimming room


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[Scottedontknow]

Best bet is to remove all fish and TTM /QT and leave your tank fowls for 72 days


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[fishresponse]

I've used Medic a couple times and it's worked great. Most people that use Medic do twice the recommended dose.

 

[benbarfield]

Thanks for the responses. I started Medic today and plan on adding an additional cleaner shrimp into the tank. The current shrimp has been all over the purple tang last night and today. If the Medic doesn't work then I will pull them all out and put them in QT and treat with cupramine. Now feeding 3 times a day with mysis x 2 and added garlic soaked nori to the tank for them as well.

 

[fishresponse]

Read up on how others have used Medic. Some people have done triple dose and it's worked we.. just all depends on what is working. And key is consistency in when you dose. Good luck with it

 

[benbarfield]

The ich has dropped from the purple tang (now named Ich) and is somewhere in the free floating or encrusting stage in the sand bed. I am currently dosing the PolypLab Medic to the tank and will continue to do so for 2 months to ensure that I try and kill all the ich during it's different free-floating lifespans. Hopefully this works.

Otherwise the tank is doing well. I have added a few corals into the tank and a new skunk cleaner shrimp. The updated corals that have been added are an orange mushroom frag, frogspawn, torch coral, fire and ice zoa frag, an orange zoa frag, a red candy cap montipora, green slimmer sps frag, leprechaun birds nest frag, and an acropora turquoise frag. I will start hand dosing calcium as needed for now and will be getting a calcium reactor in the next month or two.

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[benbarfield]

Does anyone know what this is on my montipora? Is it a vermatid snail?

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[vitodog]

Looks like a Vermetid to me.

 

[benbarfield]

I ended up cutting off the snail from the montipora. When I did this it split in half so now I have two frags. I attached them back to the rock. We also picked up a hammer coral frag, a Jedi Mind Trick montipora, an Oregon Tort frag, and a sunset millepora frag. All were dipped in Coral RX and have been attached in the tank with epoxy. Pictures to come later. I'm still dosing the Medic for the ich and have seen no signs of it on any fish. Will continue to dose to ensure it's completely gone. It took all my will power not to get the Leopard wrasse in the store today...

 

[benbarfield]

As promised here are the pictures of the new additions. I think one of the red montipora frags is not going to take it. Very white washed.

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[Maggie321]

My red monti did that in the beginning. After about 3 weeks it was not pale anymore. 2 more weeks it was clearly growing. Now I think it's growing faster than the other stuff in the tank.

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[fishresponse]

How's the medic from polyplab working?