My simple QT

[rogersb]

I've never done a QT before and I guess I've always been lucky that the fish didn't bring a disease that killed my whole tank. I got an achilles tang 2 weeks ago and decided to QT to make sure it's eating and not sick. My tank is pretty much where I want it with fish and what not so I'm trying to be as safe as I can here

As you can see it's bare bones. A tank, little heater, canister filter from my freshwater days, a small pump for some serious surface agitation, and a light I had laying around. I pulled the rock from my sump so there would be no need to cycle the tank and used some water from a water change to fill it initially. Here's the resident:


I did buy a new ammonia test kit and checked it daily for the first week but now I'm soing water changes every 3-4 days so I'm not worried. The fish is only eating spiriluna brine and eats a cube a day but is still pretty thick so I'm not worried.

 

[Holsteiner]

He's a pretty big guy, how big is he?

 

[rogersb]

7". I paid for and was planning on a 3.5" fish. The day I was meeting the guy he emails me and says there was a mix up and I am getting a 7" tang. I previously had a 3.5" achilles that ate everything but lost after a tank crash. He just never started eating again and wasted away. This one came from Quality Marine so it should have been eating at their facility before being sold and I have it eating here so I am pretty stoked this one will be a great addition to my tank. Here is his home after QT:

 

[Holsteiner]

That's awesome, he looks very similar to mine ;-) I picked mine up at the airport directly from the wholesaler, so I didn't know at the time if he was going to be 2" or 12".

 

[jrod738776]

Where did you buy him at that was direct from quality marine?

 

[Holsteiner]

Are you asking me jrod738776? I was fortunate enough to get mine thru a friend with a wholesale account. I believe it may have been Renaissance he came from, I was able to pick him up directly at the airport (along with picking up other fish for my friend)

 

[ParanoidObseshn]

lol an actual FTS?!? Is this really happening?

 

[rogersb]

Where did you buy him at that was direct from quality marine?

Johnny. He lives in a Pococno Country Place. I saw his ad on craigslist but he said he was doing an order for DVRC.

 

[rogersb]

lol an actual FTS?!? Is this really happening?

no joke - I hate you, Kyle.

 

[rogersb]

Now that I reread that, may it should have had one of these so everyone knows me and Kyle are buds

 

[rogersb]

Since getting the tang he has had 2 bouts of ich. The first was terrible and the second was not so bad. Good thing I didn't add him to the tank right away. I have been slowly lowering the salinity. Today I thought I got it to 1.009 but then I checked the calibration and it was at 1.012. That means my reef is .003 high as well. I have lost half of a large colony of frogspawn lately and I'm hoping that bringing the salinity down will stop the wasting away since it's not an alkalinity issue that normally goes with polyp bailout.

The point of the post was to check your refractometers often. If I had not then I would have gone the whole quarantine with my salinity too high, not killed the ich, and been a nonbeliever in hyposalinity.

 

[rogersb]

1 week at 1.009. I seem to get ammonia readings and have been changing lots of water. I do a small water change (5-10g) on my reef then use 2g and mix with 3g of fresh to make my 1.009 water and do a WC on the QT. Hopefully bacteria population will increase soon and I will be able to not do a WC every other day.

 

[rogersb]

Yesterday Kyle and I ran to a couple stores and I picked up Hikari mega marine algae cubes. I didn't want them but the store only had regular brine and not spiriluna brine so I thought I would try this too. The achilles took to it pretty quickly and seems to like everything in it. Up to this time, he had only eaten spiriluna brine so I thought I would update here about it. He has also started taking small amounts of purple nori yesterday and a little more today.

 

[rogersb]

Well, everyone loves to document success but this time it's a failure. The fish was eating everything but Friday it barely ate and Saturday when I woke up it was dead. I checked salinity and it was at 1.009 as it has been for weeks and the ammonia was at 0. Only thing I can think of is there could have beena pH drop. I don't test for it and it's the only thing I have seen people say can happen.

I was at Greg's (Breadman) house this week and we discussed the tank transfer method. I think for future purchases I will be doing that. On a side note, I thought I was having some sort of hair algae and a little cyano. I did a 3 day lights out and the hair algae was still there. The closer I looked the more I got to thinking. I think I have bryopsis. Time for some Kent M and see how that goes.

 

[Holsteiner]

I'm sorry :-( it's always such a let down when you try so hard.

 

[Breadman03]

That stinks, Brad. I've got an assortment of tanks that you can can use anytime. There's even a pair of 40 breeders that could handle a larger purchase.