Rebuild and recovery of a dead tank

[jason2459]

I believe my angel has fluke.

See the lighter white spot spot above the gill area. That has gotten to be a larger area since I got her. I got some prazipro the other day, Thursday, and put in the recommended amount. I did turn off the ozonizer but didn't turn off the skimmer. I just turned it all the way down so it wouldn't skim. Well, it did end up skimming a little, very dry, as the prazipro did make it foam a lot more then usual. The angel is looking better already. She didn't display any other symptoms other then the slight discoloration. I think I definitely got it in time before it effected her breathing, eating, eyes and energy levels.

 

[jason2459]

Should have the tank settled in better and stabilized more in a few months and the bugs worked out. Then I'll start adding some corals. I've been thinking about what I'd like to get and where to place them.

Hope this is readable.

I saw there's a Fiji yellow leather that looks pretty awesome and I like that it hugs the rocks instead of branching up. I think it would look awesome right in the middle. The red sea fan, gorgonian, wouldn't be added till last and probably around the same time as the mandarin which wont be for close to a year still.

Any suggestions on any other kind of arrangement, other corals to add in someplace or in place of, and order I should be getting them in? Probably will only get one ore two at a time a couple months apart.

 

[Aquarist007]

I believe my angel has fluke.

See the lighter white spot spot above the gill area. That has gotten to be a larger area since I got her. I got some prazipro the other day, Thursday, and put in the recommended amount. I did turn off the ozonizer but didn't turn off the skimmer. I just turned it all the way down so it wouldn't skim. Well, it did end up skimming a little, very dry, as the prazipro did make it foam a lot more then usual. The angel is looking better already. She didn't display any other symptoms other then the slight discoloration. I think I definitely got it in time before it effected her breathing, eating, eyes and energy levels.

you have a very good eye Jason:thumbsup:

 

[Aquarist007]

Should have the tank settled in better and stabilized more in a few months and the bugs worked out. Then I'll start adding some corals. I've been thinking about what I'd like to get and where to place them.

Hope this is readable.

I saw there's a Fiji yellow leather that looks pretty awesome and I like that it hugs the rocks instead of branching up. I think it would look awesome right in the middle. The red sea fan, gorgonian, wouldn't be added till last and probably around the same time as the mandarin which wont be for close to a year still.

Any suggestions on any other kind of arrangement, other corals to add in someplace or in place of, and order I should be getting them in? Probably will only get one ore two at a time a couple months apart.

now is the time to add a couple of anemones if you are going to---lots of space for them to get comfortable.
It looks like you are going leathers and softies---mushrooms--toadstool and hairy are great along with kenya tree and colt coral.
Some zoos would be nice also.

 

[jason2459]

Thanks for the input Capn. I saw a stellar RBTA with some green in it and it got me thinking about wanting one. They just scare the crap out of me as I keep reading about them just deciding one day to just up and move around damaging/killing corals in their path. Plus I keep hearing about one should wait for a good year to have an established tank. But wow they can be beautiful. I'm still very back and forth on that.

I was also hesitant about the leather because of how huge they get but saw this one figi that was just amazing looking and it hugged the rock work. Also concerns me a little about hearing they can cause chemical warfare as their main form of defense.

Is the colt coral like the devils fingers? That was pretty cool looking. The vertical rock over to the right or on top left would be pretty cool to see a spread of something like zoos.

 

[jason2459]

Got the lighting done today and what a difference. Much brighter. I think the light was kind of cut off by the fixture itself and there is no acrylic shield to go through anymore. Plus the new bulbs I got are amazing looking. Particularly the UVL Actinic White. WOW does that make the colors POP!! Don't know why they call it white because it is far from looking white but more of a pinkish purplish color like the fiji purple I've seen online. The reds of the angel fish, purple of the coraline, and oranges of the clowns have never stood out so much. The Grim Reefer is the man on recommending that with the blue plus. Got the LEDs mounted right down the middle and have one fan mounted blowing across the hot end (label end). Ran out of time to get the other fan mounted. It was so nice having the hood opening accessible again too. We'll see what the temp is like tomorrow.

Bulb layout right now is
front to back
Aquablue Plus
Actinic White
Blue +
Blue +

Have the front two on one ballast and the back two on another. This way I can easily unplug the front two when I need to open the hood door. My hood has two top doors but I used a few metal brackets and used as one long door with two bulbs mounted to it. I started running out of time and just screwed the ballasts to the inside of the canopy. I have some aluminum sheets to make a heat sink out of but will do that at a later time. They don't seem to run that hot. Their advanced ballasts I guess.

While I had the light fixture off and the canopy off the Gramma decided to try some puddle jumping. Unfortunately for him my living room doesn't have any puddles next to the tank for him to land into. Found him a several hours later. I went to grab my long baster standing up in a bucket behind the tank and saw him there on the floor. No more gramma's, any more fish, for me. I think my tank is stocked well enough and will just keep with what I have until I get a mandarin.

 

[jason2459]

Well, like it or not I already got a replacement for the gramma. :hmm3:

Wife felt bad for some reason, really didn't need to I wasn't even close to bummed out about this, and took a trip to the LFS to find me a replacement. I think she just needed to get out of the house and that was just as good of an excuse as any but she really needs to stay away from there.

She saw this little tiger pistol shrimp and wanted to get me that. The LFS wouldn't let her buy it though with out buying the yellow watchman goby that was paired up with it. So, she got both... :spin2:

The pistol shrimp is pretty cool looking and the goby is a tiny sliver of a fish. Looks healthy and has nice coloration with blue metallic freckles all over just a very young fish. Definitely not something I would have picked out as the shrimp will probably not like the dolomite gravel all that much with the UGF plates under it and the goby will probably get picked on and looked at as food to the cardinals and the angel....

Got them both acclimated and against better judgment I added them to the tank knowing there will be no way I'll ever get these two out with out totally destroying my tank in the process. The shrimp instantly found a little cave and buried itself and the goby was attacked by the cardinals and angel. I was one out of two on that I guess. The goby did find another little cave to hide in and escaped death. Hopefully, eventually, the pistol and goby will find each other again.

 

[reeferoo]

I have had two yellow watchman gobies. One was grumpy and territorial and the other is pretty cool. I have a dwarf flame angel and have had up to 3 pyjama cardinals (admittedly slightly less aggressive than bengaiis) and they never gave each other any problems. The goby is a bottom dweller preferring caves. With the shrimp he will be busy on guard duty. I bet you will grow to like him! Mine takes bits of sand and eats pods (I assume) and spits the rest of the sand out of his gils like a sand sifting goby. He is brilliant yellow and has grown to 2"+

Tagging along

 

[reeferoo]

Also on you coral choice- LPS right up my alley. Almost everything you have chosen can sting like hell and grows big if given the opportunity, so I would really make an effort to give them good space between each other. I think you have chosen very strategic places for each of the corals given their needs. I have also seen galaxia successfully kept on the sandbed. Maybe a plate coral would be fun too (long tentacle plate corals look very similar to anemones)

Anemones can be lots of fun. With a HoB overflow, you take the ultimate risk as that is one critter that can actually crawl into your overflow box and break your siphon. I had 2 BTA's- one grow to 10" across easily. We blew a powerhead at it when we needed it to move and we were able to coax it onto the glass when it was time to go to the LFS for store credit. My maroon clowns loved it- that was when they first spawned. Anemones are so amazing beautiful and truly fun to watch open and ball up. They are fun to feed too. If you can get them happy, they don't necessarily have reason to move.

 

[jason2459]

Thanks reeferoo for the input and pics. I might just try out a RBTA. I'll let my tank settle in here for a few months and by then I should have a good idea if I want to make that jump or not. I'm kind of nervous about corals and anems as I've never done either of them before and just want to make sure my water quality is good enough.

So far the YWG is just hanging out under the big rock on the right if you look at the FTS. Have no idea where the tiger pistol is? I'm sure he'll turn up at some point and hopefully team back up with the YWG.

 

[jason2459]

The retro fit into the canopy made a huge difference. Temp last night at 8:30pm with all lights on for 5.5 hours was only at 81.4f. Perfect! That's with just one fan setup right now. I may not add the other fan. Less noise if I don't have too. The reflectors are not hot at all. In fact the side I have the fan where the hot lines run into the end caps is actually cool to the touch and the side with no fan is just warm and I can keep my fingers on them.

Did not see the blenny last night which concerns me. Usually he's out and about with the clowns. I would not be happy if I lost him some how. Looked all over in and out of the tank and did not see him. Hopefully he'll be around tonight when I get back home. If I do loose him I hope the wife doesn't notice and come back home with another fish. :fun5: At least she's into it.

I think I've decided on trying out a RBTA. I'll probably just set him right in the middle and let him find a home then work around that. I figured I never had one before and this would be the best oportunity for me to try one out. Better now then later as Capn mentioned.

The angel's almost completely rid of the white blemishes now. I'll do a second treatment of the prazipro tonight or tomorrow after I do a water change. Where there was white and placed I didn't realize there was fluke I guess has kind of turned a dark to blackish color. I assume that's where the fluke was. If I just saw her for the first time I'd think it was hole in the head forming.

The Tiger Pistol hasn't not wasted any time and I can see little holes poping up all over the place coming out from under the rocks on the left side of the tank. Just hasn't reached the right side of the tank yet where the YWG is camping out. A matter of time I suppose before they find each other again.

 

[Aquarist007]

this tank has now been up for three weeks. I used seachem stability and quality indo live rock from my own system so there was no ammonia or nitrate spikes.

 

[Paul B]

Looks good Capn. Maybe instead of water we should just fill our tanks with "Seachem Stability"

 

[jason2459]

LOL Paul.

Nice job on that one Capn. Looks good. I bet they love it in the store front there. I love the GSM. What's that white thing mid way up on the left? Are you going the route of fake corals?

I've been gone out of town seeing family since last Thursday. Long weekend. Nice to be back home. The bicolor blenny reappeared. Don't know what that was all about. I don't know how they breed but wonder if the he is a she and really was wanting to mate with the clowns. Went off laid some eggs in hopes the clowns would reciprocate? Have no idea. She's back to her deep orange color again to match the clowns. My YWG has teamed up with my fireshrimp! They both hang out under the same big rock on the right. I see them all the time just standing there next to each other and then the YWG will pop out for a bit and the fireshrimp will follow but as soon as the YWG pops back in so does the fireshrimp.

So, I have a zombie blue leg crab, a flame angel that thinks she's a dog having to chase fast moving objects, a fireshrimp that thinks he's a pistol shrimp, a bi color blenny that thinks she's a clown fish, and my banggai cardinals think they are mandarins eating up my pods. My tank is so confused.

 

[jason2459]

Little update, I'm all done with the prazipro treatment on the angel and now dosing melafix and pimafix to hopefully help with healing the black and dark spots left over from where the white areas were or anything else that may be wrong. She is still acting and eating like nothing’s wrong though which is good. I did end up turning off the protein skimmer because it just started foaming way to much with the medications and placed a air stone in the HOB refugium. It's going to be two weeks before I turn that back on and done with all treatments. I hope the water back there will be okay with just the airstone working away. It's basically just a small stand alone tank back there now.

The tiger pistol has tunneled everywhere now and made the YWG a nice little cave under the smaller rock that has the bigger rock propped up. Don't really seem them hanging out all the time yet. The pistol is still rearranging the dolomite and seems to be having a fun time with it. He'll push, shove, and then pick up and bring back some pieces. I hear him at times snapping away now. I think I'm down to three peppermints now. I'm assuming one of them got in the pistol shrimps way and got shot down.

Otherwise everyone seems alive and well in the tank and acting like they should be, or really not acting like they should be but at least acting as normal as can be expected from a delusional and confused set of inhabitants.

 

[Aquarist007]

LOL Paul.

Nice job on that one Capn. Looks good. I bet they love it in the store front there. I love the GSM. What's that white thing mid way up on the left? Are you going the route of fake corals?

I've been gone out of town seeing family since last Thursday. Long weekend. Nice to be back home. The bicolor blenny reappeared. Don't know what that was all about. I don't know how they breed but wonder if the he is a she and really was wanting to mate with the clowns. Went off laid some eggs in hopes the clowns would reciprocate? Have no idea. She's back to her deep orange color again to match the clowns. My YWG has teamed up with my fireshrimp! They both hang out under the same big rock on the right. I see them all the time just standing there next to each other and then the YWG will pop out for a bit and the fireshrimp will follow but as soon as the YWG pops back in so does the fireshrimp.

So, I have a zombie blue leg crab, a flame angel that thinks she's a dog having to chase fast moving objects, a fireshrimp that thinks he's a pistol shrimp, a bi color blenny that thinks she's a clown fish, and my banggai cardinals think they are mandarins eating up my pods. My tank is so confused.

who was looking after your tank?

 

[Aquarist007]

LOL Paul.

Nice job on that one Capn. Looks good. I bet they love it in the store front there. I love the GSM. What's that white thing mid way up on the left? Are you going the route of fake corals?

Its an anemone--fake corals--nope--I do have one tank I am caring for that has fake plastic plants and a big castle in it:hammer:


a better shot of it

 

[jason2459]

who was looking after your tank?

No one. I figured they could fend for themselves. If the fish got hungry they could have an escargo, crab, and shrimp dinner. But leaving out of touwn was another reason I turned off the skimmer. It was foaming a lot of filling up way to much. So, I just shut it down and didn't have to worry about anything. Lights on a timer, ato bucket topped off, gave an extra little helping of food on Wednesday, and they got fed on Sunday when I got back. Figured that would be fine.

Its an anemone--fake corals--nope--I do have one tank I am caring for that has fake plastic plants and a big castle in it:hammer:


a better shot of it

Nice looking anem. Love those banner fish. Wish I could have one but I would feel bad having one cramped into my tank. If I had a bigger tank I'd definitely have one of those.

 

[jason2459]

Looks like the tiger pistol finally figured out that the YWG wasn't going to leave it's home under the big rock and decided to build a really neat looking cave and did some landscaping outside of it. My wife called me yesterday and was wondering if there was something wrong with the shrimp as he kept moving the substrate back and forth and in and out of the hole he was making. He then went around the entire tank picking out a couple choice empty snail shells and moved them right in front of the entrance. The wife got a kick out of that. I guess the tiger shrimp was being very picky and turned over and tried out just about every single snail shell before ending up with two he liked. Really wish I was home to see that and take a video of it. But when I got home the YWG and tiger pistol were right there together like long time palls hanging out.

I do need to fix that digital camera still. Got MORE family coming this weekend so I might get a chance to work on it while they are distracted with the baby.

Looks like the black spots are starting to heal up on the Angel. BUT it also looks like she's getting ICH!! :crazy1: Had a few white spots damn it. We'll see what comes of that. I know most people on here are on the mind set of rip it out and quarantine. I really think that if I did that she'll not make it. She's been through a lot of stress which is also why I think she is showing signs of ich. I had a tang before that would do that and the next day or two later it was all gone.

 

[jason2459]

The angel sure has had a rough time of it all. Read around and seems like the flame angel can be a delicate fish and lately has been prone to diseases in the fish trade. Looks like there's only two spots of ich left on the angel last night. Will keep a close eye on that before doing anything drastic. Actually stopped by a LFS the other day and they had a smaller flame angel in. Looked to me like it had a whitish area starting in the exact same place mine did. I warned them it might have fluke. Doubt they do anything as they also had a Moorish idol there missing an eye and had massive fin rot. I hate going into places like that. All the tanks are a mess of algae, cyano, aptasia and most all of the fish look sick.