New 150 gallon build

[ezdive]

Thanks so much everyone. Mike, just let me know. I'm right around the corner from you.
I have an auto-top of kit coming and still have to put together the doors. If I ordered them through the cabinet company, I am looking at $450 so I decided that I am going to give it the good old college try and make them myself. I should be able to keep them at around $150, I think. Then its on to figure out how to close up the back and ventilate the canopy. There's always something.

 

[ezdive]

Some bad news I lost the Powder Blue. Seems that an outbreak of Ich made him susceptible to a secondary infection and he stopped eating and died in a couple of days. I have never had an outbreak on this or any previous tank so I am thinking that this was brought in when I picked up the new fish or corals in Ft. Peirce.

Anyhow, all of my other fish survived and the tank seems to be recovering well.

This has prompted me to add a uv light. hopefully this will help eliminate any bacteria that might still be floating in the water column. I have also added an auto-top off system. Simple 5 gallon jug with an Aqua-lifter pump. I'll post pics soon.

 

[bakeredout]

Sorry for your loss. Great tank, btw!

 

[Biggar]

Some bad news I lost the Powder Blue. Seems that an outbreak of Ich made him susceptible to a secondary infection and he stopped eating and died in a couple of days. I have never had an outbreak on this or any previous tank so I am thinking that this was brought in when I picked up the new fish or corals in Ft. Peirce.

Anyhow, all of my other fish survived and the tank seems to be recovering well.

This has prompted me to add a uv light. hopefully this will help eliminate any bacteria that might still be floating in the water column. I have also added an auto-top off system. Simple 5 gallon jug with an Aqua-lifter pump. I'll post pics soon.

Dang....Sorry to hear.

 

[blackthunda77]

Future word of caution....

When ich falls of, it doesnt REALLY fall off. Usually when you are SEEING the cysts they have been around for much longer than that, especially in the gills. When they VISUALLY fall off the ich is in the hatching and free floating stage. Usually one of two things happen...The fish MAY build an immunity to it if its eating and be able to fight off the next round of infection, but usually what happens and especially with tangs like power blues, powder browns, achillies, etc is that the next round will be worse since technically there will be more ich present this time and the fish now has a compromised immune system.

 

[ezdive]

Thanks John,
I did a massive amount of research on this when i had the outbreak. Its a horrible thing to have happen to the tank. I added the UV sterilizer as a way to possibly help keep the free floating stage of the parasite in check if not killed off altogether. For now, I will not be adding any fish for at least a couple of months of being incident free. I saw that its recommended that i removed and QT all the fish in the tank and treat them with copper or low salinity and I just can't see myself doing that. I don't have a qt tank or a place to put that tank that would be less stressful on the fish. Once I get through all of this round of problems, qt will be my only method of adding fish. Just one more thing on the checklist...

 

[blackthunda77]

Yes, leaving the tank fallow for i think 8 weeks is whats recommended, either that or dropping the salinity, or using copper as a whole tank treatment. Copper is out of the question since you will be using the tank with corals. Depending on how many corals you have it might be easier to remove the corals and run the tank in hypo for a few weeks. That way you know you killed off the ich for sure. Some people think that ich is always going to be in the tank one way or another. So they main focus is to have the fish eating well so that they can fight it off. Kind of like the common cold. Some fish though, especially tangs in the acanthurus family are ich magnets.

 

[ezdive]

Yeah, I have a hippo tang as well and he got spots on him too but he is still kicking and acting like the big shot of the tank. I cant remove all the corals. Most are encrusted or glued or epoxyed in place. Thanks for the advice. At this point everyone else seems to be without the dots associated with Ich.

 

[Biggar]

Ich can be tough. I can observe no ich for several months, then put a new fish, and see the hippo tang start to get few spots. Might stick around for a week, then disappear till the next time. Therefore.....im convinced that many tanks have ich and dont realize they do.

In your case, I think the best defense is to keep fish less stressed and feeding the correct food(garlic is supposed to help).

This will sound strange but, the only time I had a fish die from disease is when I tried to quarantine or treat ich. When I just do nothing but feed, guess what.......no more problems. Not recommended, but works for me. I fresh water dip new additions for 1 minute, thats it.

 

[ezdive]

Been a little while since I posted about the tank and I have made a few updates.
Ich has not reared its ugly little white dot.

I added an auto top off using a 5 gallon jug.

I have been using Bicarbonate in the top off water to help keep that stable. I have been thinking about using Kalkwasser instead but have been a bit skittish about doing this. I've heard about crashes because of it.

 

[ezdive]

Fuge is doing well. Chaeto and Caulerpa growing steadily and green hair algae in the DT is at a minimum. A big problem that I had in the last display.

 

[ezdive]

Got the doors up on the canopy. Still some details to work out but they came out pretty well. I still have to handle the countertop which I am pretty sure will end up being granite.

Back of the tank. Still having to work out the details of the back of the display.

 

[addictedtofrags]

WOW!! Looks amazing. Gotta say i love the way it blends with your kitchen. Great work!!!:thumbsup:

 

[KnownStrangeR]

Can;t wait to see it complete it looks amazing already

 

[Jgoal55]

nice build. Congrats!

 

[Biggar]

My God, That is so nice. I want one on my counter now.

 

[ezdive]

Thanks so much guys. It has been a labor of love. I have been trying to set up my ultimate tank. Not too big as to take up entire weekends and not too small so that its just impressive when I walk into my kitchen. I'm getting there. I just need to get the corals to grow out a bit faster.

 

[Jamiebrazell]

Awesome tank! Thanks so much for sharing. Your build has given me so much inspiration for my 150 that I'm about to start setting up over the holidays.

 

[ezdive]

Awesome tank! Thanks so much for sharing. Your build has given me so much inspiration for my 150 that I'm about to start setting up over the holidays.

You are welcome. I drew inspiration from many many builds myself. And in order to get my wife on board, there was always a bit of compromise. It's worked out great so far. Let me know if you have any questions on anything. Happy to share.

 

[ezdive]

Picked up some frags at the Swap and from other hobbyists and it's so painfully slow to watch them grow. LOL. I have a few pictures that I wanted to post but they are quite blue. Point and shoot camera and Photoshop doesn't have enough info to work with to correct the color without it looking fake. Just sharing.

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