FarmerTy

I know after the fact and not helpful but I would highly recommend QT'ing fish in the future. It could have been worse and the disease could have spread and killed all your existing fish in the display while at it.

That's odd indeed. Sometimes you just can't really explain deaths as we only know a myriad of the fish diseases out there and there are plenty more we know nothing about. Have you had anyone double check your parameters in the DT just in case?

Cloudy eyes are usually a symptom of ich, sometimes marine velvet, and bacterial infections. At the speed that you noticed the symptoms to its death, I would imagine a bacterial infection. Those are pretty uncommon in a healthy and established tank. Did you notice any other symptoms in the naso? How long as the tank been running? How long have you had the tang? Do any other fish have any symptoms? Did you add any new fish recently?

I had the same issue with a tiger tail cucumbers, where they would pile sand around the rock structures over time. I went with black and pink sea cucumbers. They tend to distribute the sand better but aren't as voracious as the tiger tails so you need more of them. I'm a big fan of conchs... they do a great job of keeping the sand clean.

Did Brian read carefully and see the words "young" and "strapping" in the Title? [emoji23]

What fish do you currently have in the display? How was the wrasse doing in QT? I'd be surprised if bouncing around on the colander caused any physical injuries, or at least enough to kill it. Sorry for the loss by the way. This hasn't been a good year for wrasses in general for the club as a whole.

Jeez! I don't get on ARC one night and I get mauled on this thread! See why I'm paranoid not to check ARC every day! [emoji14] Lighting and flow do have major impacts on the growth form of the acro colony. My personal observations have been, higher light, more distributed branching. Lower light grows more singular and longer branches. Higher flow causes a bit more tabling and better growth rates in general. It also causes the acro to grow thicker branches. Lower flow allows for more vertical growth and the branches are thinner. But the most important factor to me is just the acro species itself. Some naturally table, such acropora microclades, which is your aussie shortcake you got from me. Its encrusting as it should to build a good base to table out from. Stags (generic name for a bunch of subspecies) will tend to grow vertical. You just have to be patient, give them a good amount of light and flow, and they'll grow into the form they will naturally grow into. I would just avoid unidirectional flow that never changes as you'll see a leaning effect on some colonies. Also, frags, when getting adjusted to a new tank and new parameters, will sometimes just sit there for months before one day, boom, they'll grow like mad. If everything stays stable in the tank during this time, you'll get that moment soon enough.

I am a little skeptical of the true colors you'll see in person. The main thing I focus on is the color of the plugs. They are supposed to be white. You can tell that there is a decent amount of actinic light on the frags as the picture was taken. This is pretty rampant on the classifieds of a larger forum I frequent. I'm not saying the frags won't probably look great in person but I'm skeptical that they'll look radioactive like in the picture. Zeovit does pull out some great colors though. I honestly dislike the fact that the vendor posts and sells pictures of their acros like that. One, it makes everyone have a inferiority complex as they wonder why their acros will never look like that. Two, they don't often include the fact that they run zeo on their systems. I've asked them multiple times on their sales posts if they are running zeo and they never answer. I think it's deceptive to sell to the average hobbyist that is not running zeo as they will not maintain their colors. Sorry if I sound like a grumpy Gus this morning but vendors like this drive me nuts.

Jellyfish is my guess.

I use coralife and don't usually get any buildup. Way back in the day when I used RSCP, there was buildup everywhere. FWIW, if you are dosing alk and Ca via other means, there is no reason for you to spend more on RSCP, I'll even say it may be detrimental as it can spike your Ca and alk levels. It was really designed to be used as a dosing replacement for tanks that just do water changes to maintain Ca and alk, hence the crazy high alk and Ca in the mix.

Sadly, as you have realized, you cannot treat the CUC so I just employ a 30 day QT with no new additions before adding them to the tank. Ideally, 76 days would be better but I think I'd have issues with CUC dying of lack of food before I get them into the tank. The real goal is to decrease the odds of bringing in an ich cyst with them but with any form of prevention, even TTM, the odds are never 100%. We just try to play the odds in our favor as best as we can.

Good luck on that basslet. I'd starve the tank out to increase your chances. An empty stomach is a great motivator to take some risks. The clowns should be easily swooped by a net at night when they are nestled into the anemone. Just put on a red LED headlamp and get in there with a net in the wee hours of the night. I've never had my clowns go into the trap... it's like their butts are glued directly to the anemone. For the powder blue tang, you will need an ich-free tank for its continued health. That means 76 days fallow in the DT and QT'ing all additions for at least 30 days prior to introduction into the DT, sadly yes, this includes CUC. I would say most will not want to do that so I'd think long and hard about if you want to do the same. Also, like mentioned before, it will probably be the last tang you get into the tank as it will kill any you add after that once it establishes a territory. There are tricks such as the mirror trick to distract it long enough but more often then not, they will not relent and will kill any new additions of tangs. If you do try to add some later, I'd add a batch of fish instead of just one. That way the aggression can be spread out. Let me know when you're done with the trap, got someone lined up right behind you to use it.

Nice! I think you've been hanging out with Reburn too much. [emoji4]

I know off topic but you can go to most LFSs and just ask them to order them for you if they don't have any in stock at the time.

That's awesome!

Same, two small nets and a lot of patience.

I know... I capitalized it just in case the Real Estate police were watching. [emoji12] Sounds like you have a plan moving forward.

I'll try to make this one but not in the clear to attend yet. I know if I do, I'll come hungry. [emoji4] I'm happy to add to the talk if I can make it. I can talk all day on most of those subjects except for turf scrubbers as I have no direct experience there.

$3/lb of dry rock to replace it? Or a potential $2k ER visit? I think you're winning out by tossing it or if you don't want to kill the corals, trade it in.

I was mainly responding to Bfrench's texas trash paly rock. For yours, it appears to be what people generically call a button polyp, which has been associated with palytoxin as well. Actually, the infamous story of the guy and his wife that had to go to the ER was because he cooked his rocks, literally boiled them in a pot in the kitchen to kill off probably the same type of button polyps that your hitchiker is. After my experience with palytoxin, I don't think it's worth it but I'm obviously biased.

Just to continue the discussion in your own build thread, I'd just toss the rock honestly but that's coming from a guy who still has flashbacks of the recent ER visit I had with palytoxin. It was quite painful and I couldn't breathe right for weeks afterwards. I'm lucky I didn't kill myself honestly. Otherwise, I'd just leave it in the sun for a month and then scrape off what you could of the dried, crusted palys and cure/cycle the rock again. Or you could just add some muriatic acid and cook the rock after letting it dry in the sun. Personally, tossing and buying new rock seems like much less work to me but I'm lazy.

Moving this over discussion over to your build thread as not to take over TxSkyGuy's thread.

Coming from a Realtor, if your tank looks nice, I'd just leave it in the house when you list the property. If it is unsightly and full of algae, definitely break it down and remove it. If it does look nice, by the time you get under contract, it'll be at least 30 days usually before you close. Not sure if your new house purchase is contingent on the sale of your current house (doesn't sound like it is), you could setup a QT tank at the new house and transfer your fish over there while you are under contract on the old house with plenty of time to make it all happen.

I'd be very careful removing those palys. Honestly, if they are on one rock only, I'd take the whole rock out and dry it out in the sun to cook them off. Personally, I'd just throw the rock away, not worth it.Whatever you do, don't boil the rock, and don't scrape them in the tank. Do wear eye protection and gloves. They look like Texas Trash Palys and are known to have palytoxin, the 2nd deadliest toxin known to man. You could kill your entire tank scraping them in the tank. Someone did that a couple years back and lost most of his fish and corals. Or you could send yourself and your dog to the ER and pay thousands in hospital bills... I did that early this year, though from a different paly. http://www.austinreefclub.com/index.php?/topic/36543-Palytoxin---My-Experience-With-It

Wow, I'll let someone who's buying to keep grab this pack. Such a deal! I won't hog! I'd end up selling half of it off at swaps if I bought it. It's easily worth double what he's charging.