pa1ntbru5h's 300+ Gallon Build Thread

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Unfortunately not really a good update..

Somehow the new fish ended up with velvet.
Not sure how it happened since I was adding only quarantined fish into the tank.

Long story short I lost most the new fish and I now have a QT set up in the garage. I hate quarantining fish myself. Mainly because I just don't have the time to constantly monitor the fish and the water quality. That's the reason I paid a premium for pre-QT'd fish in the first place. But I don't really have a choice right now if I want to give the remaining fish a surviving chance.

Some of these guys have been with me for over 7 years so I can't just let them suffer through it.

Also, tank is hitting its ugly stages. Brown algae all over the rocks. Won't be posting any photos until the uglyness is gone. I consider this to be the last step of the cycle though. I've seen this ugly stage in all my tanks 2-3 months in.

Once the ugly goes away I'll start adding more coral.

Oh.. and my new Deltec CRTT 1500 just came in today :)
 
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Aww, that sucks to hear about the velvet issue. Did you end up getting the Achilles hybrid? If so, hopefully, that was one of the survivors.
 
Unfortunately not really a good update..

Somehow the new fish ended up with velvet.
Not sure how it happened since I was adding only quarantined fish into the tank.

Long story short I lost most the new fish and I now have a QT set up in the garage. I hate quarantining fish myself. Mainly because I just don't have the time to constantly monitor the fish and the water quality. That's the reason I paid a premium for pre-QT'd fish in the first place. But I don't really have a choice right now if I want to give the remaining fish a surviving chance.

Some of these guys have been with me for over 7 years so I can't just let them suffer through it.

Also, tank is hitting its ugly stages. Brown algae all over the rocks. Won't be posting any photos until the uglyness is gone. I consider this to be the last step of the cycle though. I've seen this ugly stage in all my tanks 2-3 months in.

Once the ugly goes away I'll start adding more coral.

Oh.. and my new Deltec CRTT 1500 just came in today :)

Ohhhh man that sucks... would u mind telling us where u get ur qt fish from? You are going to love the deltect 1500... it's sooo easy to setup and tune! I love mine!
 
Aww, that sucks to hear about the velvet issue. Did you end up getting the Achilles hybrid? If so, hopefully, that was one of the survivors.

Unfortunately the Achilles and Achilles Hybrid were among the fish lost due to velvet... *big sigh*


Ohhhh man that sucks... would u mind telling us where u get ur qt fish from? You are going to love the deltect 1500... it's sooo easy to setup and tune! I love mine!

I get my QT fish from TSM Aquatics and there was a local guy Deven. I believe Deven moved to the east coast though.
I have nothing but good things to say about both. All the fish I received looked great and were eating well.
Still racking my brain on how my tank could've contracted velvet but what's the point..
Just want to fix the situation and move past it.

I need to do some rearrangement under the stand before I can fit the Deltec. It's pretty massive lol.
 
Unfortunately the Achilles and Achilles Hybrid were among the fish lost due to velvet... *big sigh*




I get my QT fish from TSM Aquatics and there was a local guy Deven. I believe Deven moved to the east coast though.
I have nothing but good things to say about both. All the fish I received looked great and were eating well.
Still racking my brain on how my tank could've contracted velvet but what's the point..
Just want to fix the situation and move past it.

I need to do some rearrangement under the stand before I can fit the Deltec. It's pretty massive lol.

Sorry to hear that man! That's horrible news. Hopefully things take a turn for the better.
 
The velvet is hitting a lot worse than I expected it to...
I've lost too many fish including my 7 year old clownfish pair that I've had since my first 10 gallon nano.

I now know what the cause of the velvet was. I had my suspicions but wasn't sure until recently. This will be elaborated on soon..
 
The velvet is hitting a lot worse than I expected it to...
I've lost too many fish including my 7 year old clownfish pair that I've had since my first 10 gallon nano.

I now know what the cause of the velvet was. I had my suspicions but wasn't sure until recently. This will be elaborated on soon..

Oh man... sorry to hear that!

Can't leave us hanging though... what did you find out about the source?
 
Okay I really had to think about writing this post. The last thing I want to do is ruin someone's reputation, but in this case I suspect malicious intent.

A little back story on my tank..
This is my dream tank. I've done everything I could possibly do in order to keep this tank disease free.
The fish I added were established fish that I've had for years from my previous Red Sea Reefer 250 I just broke down.
The rock was all dry rock. No live rock at all.
The inverts were also from the Red Sea 250. So there were no outside additions that could have hitchhiked a disease like ich/velvet.

Everything was doing great in my tank so it was time to start adding new quarantined fish. I saw a post about Deven on here and the other SoCal forums. He was vouched for by some reputable folks in the hobby so I said awesome I'll give it a shot!

I ordered a bunch of quarantined fish from Deven. Sunburst Anthias trio, Copperband butterfly, Achilles tang, Whitecheek x Achilles Hybrid Tang, and a Gem Tang.

The Sunburst trio were the first additions from Deven. A few days before adding the Sunburst Trio from Deven, I had added a Bimaculatus Anthias trio and Dussermieri tang from TSM Aquatics. This is very important for later on.. The Sunburst trio lasted no longer than 2 days in my tank. All 3 perished without any explanation. Deven said he was willing to give me credit for the 3. Awesome! What a stand up dude!

So using that credit, I bought a Gem Tang from him that he said had been in his care for a couple months. It was done with QT and in his display. So he drops off the Gem Tang and I add it to my tank into an acclimation box. After a day of being in the acclimation box, the Gem breaks out in spots. At first I think ich, but over the next few days the spots get worse and the Gem is absolutely covered. It must be velvet!

These couple days where the Gem shows velvet, my established fish show zero symptoms including the fish from TSM Aquatics. A few more days pass and the Gem looks worse than ever and eventually dies in the acclimation box. My fish start showing small amounts of spots.

I'm here racking my brain trying to figure out how ich or velvet could've possible entered my tank.. I'm texting Deven and he says it must have been from my inverts or the TSM Aquatics fish or etc. Basically saying its impossible it came from his fish. Okay fine I believe the guy. He seems to know what he's talking about and so far he's been friendly and even gave me credit for the Sunburst Trio.

I ended up installing a UV Sterilizer to my tank and start dosing hydrogen peroxide (experimental cure for velvet in a display) During this time, Deven is QTing the two achilles for me and I even had to pay him to hold an extra 2 weeks to give me time to get the UV running and H2O2 dosing.

Mind you, all during this time my fish including the TSM fish are still healthy and happy. The couple spots that showed after the Gem tang died are gone.

So the extra weeks passes and Deven hits me up saying hey time's up! I gotta drop off your fish or pay me to hold another week. So I arranged for him to drop them off.
He shows up with the two fish and the Hybrid achilles is skinny, showing rib cage. Deven says Oh don't worry this is normal because the tang was in QT. It'll fatten up over time.

I'm a little hesitant but I trust the guy. I think alright sure I guess as long as it was eating in his care it should fatten up no problem.

I add the two achilles and over the next few days the achilles end up breaking out in velvet. Completely covered. They looked so bad. They were all white and fuzzy and I felt so bad for the fish.

Over the next couple days the achilles end up dying and not only that my established fish are now showing symptoms of velvet. At this point it's spreading throughout all my fish and wiping them out.

I had 16 fish in total including the achilles tangs. Now I'm currently down to 6. Unfortunately I've lost so many beautiful and expensive fish that were years old. Including my pair of 7 year old clowns I've had from when I started in the hobby.

After having posted on this thread stating that I lost fish due to velvet, and that the only fish I've added were from TSM and Deven, I started getting private messages from other members of the forum.

I will not drop any names. But I got PMs basically saying they had bought from Deven as well and had similar issues. Their tanks were disease free and then all of a sudden they get an outbreak of Ich or something else.

I've always had my suspicions that the problems started once adding Deven's fish but I gave him my blind trust and benefit of the doubt. He seemed like a good guy.

So I messaged Deven and I said hey.. other people are messaging me saying that your fish introduced diseases into their tanks.. I've always had my suspicions but didn't really have anything to go off of until now. Can you refund me for the fish I bought from you?

Yes I asked him for a refund knowing that livestock doesn't carry a guarantee. But I thought maybe he would make this right and refund me since he sold me sick fish.

He responds by basically saying no, i'm not issuing you a refund just because other people are saying their tanks are having issues. There are no refunds. What happens to the fish after I deliver is your problem.

I try to reason with him by saying okay fine how about refunding me 50%? That way you still made money off the fish you bought at wholesale, and you're basically just refunding me the premium I paid you to quarantine the fish.

Then Deven got really aggressive with his texts saying I'm only targetting him and asking him for a refund because he's a small business. He only knows of 1 other person that has had issues with his fish and it was their own fault also. Then he starts pointing fingers at TSM saying how do I know I didn't get it from TSM?

First, TSM has an immaculate reputation for QTing fish. They have a huge facility and full staff to care for the fish. Also, my TSM fish showed zero symptoms until his fish showed up and they outlasted his fish as well.

I told him I currently know of 4-5 people who have bought from him and have had issues. And he asked me to name them so he could confront them individually. I told him I wouldn't drop names and that it's their decision whether or not to contact him.

At this point he's arguing with me and I don't really want to argue with him anymore.

I told him he's obviously not going to admit guilt for selling me sick fish and I'm not going to argue with him. The fact that my tank broke out in velvet after adding his fish didn't phase him whatsoever. Also the way he snapped back just makes me believe that he knows he's guilty and he's trying to hide it.

If you were really trying to build a good business and brand, why would you not settle at 50%? That alone would've cleared your name and I wouldn't be writing this post right now because that would tell me you actually care about your customers and not just about the money.
 
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Okay I really had to think about writing this post. The last thing I want to do is ruin someone's reputation, but in this case I suspect malicious intent.

A little back story on my tank..
This is my dream tank. I've done everything I could possibly do in order to keep this tank disease free.
The fish I added were established fish that I've had for years from my previous Red Sea Reefer 250 I just broke down.
The rock was all dry rock. No live rock at all.
The inverts were also from the Red Sea 250. So there were no outside additions that could have hitchhiked a disease like ich/velvet.

Everything was doing great in my tank so it was time to start adding new quarantined fish. I saw a post about Deven on here and the other SoCal forums. He was vouched for by some reputable folks in the hobby so I said awesome I'll give it a shot!

I ordered a bunch of quarantined fish from Deven. Sunburst Anthias trio, Copperband butterfly, Achilles tang, Whitecheek x Achilles Hybrid Tang, and a Gem Tang.

The Sunburst trio were the first additions from Deven. A few days before adding the Sunburst Trio from Deven, I had added a Bimaculatus Anthias trio and Dussermieri tang from TSM Aquatics. This is very important for later on.. The Sunburst trio lasted no longer than 2 days in my tank. All 3 perished without any explanation. Deven said he was willing to give me credit for the 3. Awesome! What a stand up dude!

So using that credit, I bought a Gem Tang from him that he said had been in his care for a couple months. It was done with QT and in his display. So he drops off the Gem Tang and I add it to my tank into an acclimation box. After a day of being in the acclimation box, the Gem breaks out in spots. At first I think ich, but over the next few days the spots get worse and the Gem is absolutely covered. It must be velvet!

These couple days where the Gem shows velvet, my established fish show zero symptoms including the fish from TSM Aquatics. A few more days pass and the Gem looks worse than ever and eventually dies in the acclimation box. My fish start showing small amounts of spots.

I'm here racking my brain trying to figure out how ich or velvet could've possible entered my tank.. I'm texting Deven and he says it must have been from my inverts or the TSM Aquatics fish or etc. Basically saying its impossible it came from his fish. Okay fine I believe the guy. He seems to know what he's talking about and so far he's been friendly and even gave me credit for the Sunburst Trio.

I ended up installing a UV Sterilizer to my tank and start dosing hydrogen peroxide (experimental cure for velvet in a display) During this time, Deven is QTing the two achilles for me and I even had to pay him to hold an extra 2 weeks to give me time to get the UV running and H2O2 dosing.

Mind you, all during this time my fish including the TSM fish are still healthy and happy. The couple spots that showed after the Gem tang died are gone.

So the extra weeks passes and Deven hits me up saying hey time's up! I gotta drop off your fish or pay me to hold another week. So I arranged for him to drop them off.
He shows up with the two fish and the Hybrid achilles is skinny, showing rib cage. Deven says Oh don't worry this is normal because the tang was in QT. It'll fatten up over time.

I'm a little hesitant but I trust the guy. I think alright sure I guess as long as it was eating in his care it should fatten up no problem.

I add the two achilles and over the next few days the achilles end up breaking out in velvet. Completely covered. They looked so bad. They were all white and fuzzy and I felt so bad for the fish.

Over the next couple days the achilles end up dying and not only that my established fish are now showing symptoms of velvet. At this point it's spreading throughout all my fish and wiping them out.

I had 16 fish in total including the achilles tangs. Now I'm currently down to 6. Unfortunately I've lost so many beautiful and expensive fish that were years old. Including my pair of 7 year old clowns I've had from when I started in the hobby.

After having posted on this thread stating that I lost fish due to velvet, and that the only fish I've added were from TSM and Deven, I started getting private messages from other members of the forum.

I will not drop any names. But I got PMs basically saying they had bought from Deven as well and had similar issues. Their tanks were disease free and then all of a sudden they get an outbreak of Ich or something else.

I've always had my suspicions that the problems started once adding Deven's fish but I gave him my blind trust and benefit of the doubt. He seemed like a good guy.

So I messaged Deven and I said hey.. other people are messaging me saying that your fish introduced diseases into their tanks.. I've always had my suspicions but didn't really have anything to go off of until now. Can you refund me for the fish I bought from you?

Yes I asked him for a refund knowing that livestock doesn't carry a guarantee. But I thought maybe he would make this right and refund me since he sold me sick fish.

He responds by basically saying no, i'm not issuing you a refund just because other people are saying their tanks are having issues. There are no refunds. What happens to the fish after I deliver is your problem.

I try to reason with him by saying okay fine how about refunding me 50%? That way you still made money off the fish you bought at wholesale, and you're basically just refunding me the premium I paid you to quarantine the fish.

Then Deven got really aggressive with his texts saying I'm only targetting him and asking him for a refund because he's a small business. He only knows of 1 other person that has had issues with his fish and it was their own fault also. Then he starts pointing fingers at TSM saying how do I know I didn't get it from TSM?

First, TSM has an immaculate reputation for QTing fish. They have a huge facility and full staff to care for the fish. Also, my TSM fish showed zero symptoms until his fish showed up and they outlasted his fish as well.

I told him I currently know of 4-5 people who have bought from him and have had issues. And he asked me to name them so he could confront them individually. I told him I wouldn't drop names and that it's their decision whether or not to contact him.

At this point he's arguing with me and I don't really want to argue with him anymore.

I told him he's obviously not going to admit guilt for selling me sick fish and I'm not going to argue with him. The fact that my tank broke out in velvet after adding his fish didn't phase him whatsoever. Also the way he snapped back just makes me believe that he knows he's guilty and he's trying to hide it.

If you were really trying to build a good business and brand, why would you not settle at 50%? That alone would've cleared your name and I wouldn't be writing this post right now because that would tell me you actually care about your customers and not just about the money.

This is so upsetting and scary... I have two fish from Deven (my Regal and Moorish Idol), and really hoping they didn't bring anything into my tank too. I've been VERY careful with my QT (no fish or even inverts go in without QT- fish are medicated proactively).

Really sorry to hear about this.
 
i'm sorry... this sucks big time.. =/ I know how anxious you were to get that tank going... this is a huge setback
 
Really sorry to hear about this. You’ll rebound. I know that probably sounds patronizing but I really believe it. You’re really good at this and you really care and that’s the recipe for success.
 
Oh man the reading gets worse. Very sorry to hear. Lessons learned on this but qt fish may need to be QT further once in your hands. It just suck to hear that he would not work with you as well. He should have a his small business and rep is important. The good news is you will now get fish from another person or and LFS and they will appreciate your business as he sounded like he did not. Hang in there ride or put and try again you will get past this.
 
Thanks everyone for the kind words. Definitely a huge setback.

If you guys know me, this sort of thing doesn't normally bother me to the point where I feel the need to share with everyone on the forums. But this seemed too malicious especially after I heard it happened to other people as well.

I've lost plenty of corals and fish in the past so that stuff doesn't really bother me. It's the fact that someone came into our hobby and community purposely to make a buck and has no respect for our hard work and dedication to our tanks. If he had worked it out with me then I would've just brushed it off and continued along. But I couldn't let this go quiet otherwise he's going to take advantage of other people here and I would hate for anyone else's tank to crash because I didn't do my part to warn others of his practices.

I'm currently QTing my remaining fish and will allow the tank to go fallow to starve off any remaining diseases.
 
Deven is a absolute disaster and no one should do business with him. The guy went a long way in destroying the trust I had in doing business with strangers.

I spent about $1,800 with him and for that I got dead fish, diseased fish and a tank which was 100% pest is now infested with ich and lymph.

I could post an equally long post about my awful experience with the guy. Bear in mind, after I started having issues and confronted him, the first thing I said to him was "I'M NOT LOOKING TO GET MY MONEY BACK". You would think he would relax at that point and be willing to maybe take some responsibility when confronted with very clear evidence of his culpability. Nope. If I shared with you guys the back and forth I had with him about the ich I found, his excuses would be f'ing laughable. The guy is a total amateur who got in way over his head. He was looking to make some quick money and exploited some peoples trust to get there. This hobby is great and most of the folks on the forums are awesome but this time we came across a real dud.

Please do not make the same mistake we did.
 
Thanks everyone for the kind words. Definitely a huge setback.

If you guys know me, this sort of thing doesn't normally bother me to the point where I feel the need to share with everyone on the forums. But this seemed too malicious especially after I heard it happened to other people as well.

I've lost plenty of corals and fish in the past so that stuff doesn't really bother me. It's the fact that someone came into our hobby and community purposely to make a buck and has no respect for our hard work and dedication to our tanks. If he had worked it out with me then I would've just brushed it off and continued along. But I couldn't let this go quiet otherwise he's going to take advantage of other people here and I would hate for anyone else's tank to crash because I didn't do my part to warn others of his practices.

I'm currently QTing my remaining fish and will allow the tank to go fallow to starve off any remaining diseases.

Totally understand. The guy ruined like 3 weeks of my life as I stressed about this ****.
 
Man, that totally sucks and I feel your pain. Anyone worth building a good reputation would be willing to work with their customers/clients. Hopefully this guy will work himself out of business by keeping up this behavior. I know it's hard posting stuff like this, so good on you for doing the right thing. You have the support of this community. Good luck with your rebuilding and me know if there's anything I can do to help? If you need to find quality qt'd fish, let me know, I know a guy who is awesome and has amazing customer service/satisfaction.


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While there have been many opinions and emotions expressed I’m merely here to provide the facts of the situation. I have gone dark on my social media as well as changed my phone number in order to stop these individuals from harassing me all hours of the day and night. They are consumed by this witch hunt and refuse to be rational. It seems they are intent on engaging in creating a “mob mentality” in order to destroy my reputation.

Since I began Doc’s Aquatics to today I have worked with about 60 individual customers. Unfortunately a very small number of customers who approach me lack the discipline to maintain a disease free tank. The good news is the vast majority of my customers are dedicated to the proper procedures to maintain healthy fish.
The customers who have launched complaints about me expressly acknowledged they have never followed proper quarantine procedures and they knew the risk it posed to any new purchases. Before purchasing any fish from Doc’s Aquatics, they did not quarantine their existing fish and they were purchasing from multiple sources. They also acknowledged and agreed with the fact that there was a no guarantee policy. Even having addressed a no guarantee policy I still helped where I was able and did favors for these customers in order to make them happy. It seems they have gone back on their word. After several months of helping these customers including texts, phone calls, advice, and even new fish I was approached by both of them in a way that seemed to be a conspired attempt to receive a FULL refund for their lack of discipline in their personal tanks.
I have not come here for an argument so I’ll be addressing each individual issue and will not be engaging further. This will be long and I hope you all will listen.

1st I would like to address Jesse aka Tangwich aka rorroreef. The issues with Jesse are more personal than business, as seems to be the norm when anyone deals with him. Jesse never claims to have received any sick fish from me. I made the mistake of being manipulated into a “friendship” with Jesse. He describes himself as some sort of hero that was here to help this quote “disabled vet and family man”(I have more to say on how inappropriate that is at the end). What he failed to mention in his post is that he was purchasing a QT’d yellow belly regal angel for $100(it retails for $280 without QT). I was consistently in contact with Jesse about this regal so his claims are just exaggerated accusations in order to insert himself into a situation he has nothing to do with. Just as he’s done before with others. I was under the impression that all was well until I received a text from Jesse saying he was listening to the gossip of others and no longer wanted to do business with me. I refunded his money immediately.
He also failed to mention the blue squamosa clam that he got for a wholesale price of $125(they retail for $270). From my perspective I was the one taken advantage of by Jesse. He claimed to be a good friend and to have stuck his neck out for me but when I actually needed him to stand up for me he threw me under the bus. He believes that his original good review was responsible for my business success and feels entitled because of it.
He claims that I “got very angry and belligerent” but the truth is I simply explained to him why him listening to other people and not speaking to me was upsetting since we were supposedly “friends”. He then got emotional and informed me he will “go back to living my peaceful, drama-free life being a good person and u guys figure ur **** out.” When I said “ok good luck dude” he proceeded to text me 5 more emotional texts with not one response from me. He then involved himself by posting on the forums about my business contradicting his statement that he wants to live “drama-free”.
Jesse retracted his good review not based off of the quality of service but based on his inability to manage his temper. All the while promoting his “white knight” image.
I have already heard this exhausting story of Jesse’s reputation and how much he helps people. To be honest I have never had to be obsessed with my own reputation since it has never been called into question, unlike Jesse’s. He inflates his own morality and character to convince others that he is “good”. In my experience if you want to know if someone is of good moral character they’ll show it to you with their actions, not just tell you with their words.
He says he’s not here to trash me yet he’s done nothing but trash me in this post as well as through texts to me. The truth is I was always worried about this happening with Jesse. Just some browsing through his post history reveals how much drama he has been involved in. When Jesse assured me he was a good person I took him at his word and believed him. But this community can decide for themselves Jesse’s true nature.

On a more personal note I need to address an issue that everyone should be angry about...Using my military related disability to try and prove how much of a saint you are is unacceptable. DO NOT mention someone's personal disabilities in a public space that was discussed with you in confidence. I’m extremely disappointed that you would stoop to such a low level. There are hundreds of disabled United States Military Veterans trying to carve a way for themselves in this country and we do not need people like you exploiting us. We are able to achieve success on our own merits. I can honestly say Jesse that your involvement in this and your conduct throughout has been the greatest disappointment. You have revealed to everyone here what kind of man you are and it does not match up to the man you claim to be.
 
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