FarmerTy

Nice grab!

3 letters Bigsby... DVR.

Thanks Jim! Looks like I have my first true victims: The powder blue ended up having secondary infections that took him down much quicker than the other fish. The two mandarins health deteriorated very quickly over the last 24hrs as well. The midas has secondary bacterial infections as well and I'm treating him now but it may be too late for him too. Otherwise, all other fish look good and healthy and the only one I'm watching closely is my chocolate tang... as he had some white spots but nothing terrible.

I was heading to the fish room to do a final check before I went to bed last night and the flame angel was hanging out in the trap. That's the first I've ever seen him in it. I thought to myself... just give it a quick shot and see if I could catch him. The entire time, the leopard wrasse has been swimming in and out of the fish trap like nothing but I didn't want to catch him yet because he emboldened the flame angel when the leopard went in there. Lo' and behold, a little food in the fish trap and a couple of tense seconds when the trap door fell but didn't close all the way... and I have the leopard wrasse and the flame angel in QT now. I decided to push my luck and try to net the clownfish and the other mandarin with the ol', cut the lights and stun them with darkness trick. So I killed the lights real quick, flipped on my red LED headlamp, and managed to snatch up the other mandarin and big momma clownfish before their eyes could adjust. The only fish left is the dartfish. He retreats in his hole with any sign of a net or the lights going out so it's going to have to be the fish trap for him. I'm going to have to starve him for a couple days to get that to work since he has had zero interest in the food in the fish trap. As for the fish being treated... here's the report: *powder blue tang* Getting only slightly better in the treatment. It is still covered in white dusting but it seems a little less now. The tail still appears to be slightly rotted and it's hard to tell if that is getting any better. *midas blenny* White dusting appears worse now and he doesn't look like he'll pull through *mandarin gobies* The one that looks worse probably won't make it. The other one is starting to get the white dusting on it and looks pretty weak too. They probably both won't make it. *all other fish* Besides some light dusting here and there, the rest look like they'll pull through. They just need to keep eating as I hope the chloroquine phosphate doesn't suppress their appetites too much. I want to try to treat the powder blue with an antibacterial too to see if I can stop the tail fin rot. I'll aim to do that today and also move both mandarins to a tiny 5g nuvo I have that is loaded with pods. That way I can treat them by themselves and also have pods for them to bulk up since the tub is probably empty of pods, minus any that may have came from the live rock I stole from the sump.

Pretty cool bud!

Just got back from Houston. All fish alive and accounted for. Hard to tell with the fish in the tub if the marine velvet has subsided since I only get a top down view but the powder blue looks a little less velvety when I saw him. Caught one mandarin tonight... the one that looked the worst. It barely put up a fight so I think it's probably too late for that one but it might surprise me and pull through. Now I have 5 fish to catch...

If it came from your live Florida rock, kill it with fire! [emoji12]

I think your future wife may kill you if she sees an Apex on the list.

I doubt it's the valida above it. Any changes in lighting?

pH Meters can be had cheap. A pH controller is the more expensive item. Just mentioning in case you guys are talking about two different things.

One pump out of 3? At $60-65 purchase price? And the one that stopped working was running for more than a year. Those 3 together are cheaper than one Vortech still.

Pull the trigger dude on that Apex! And don't listen to that crazy guy Brian. If you end up finding out what happened to your Jaebo pump, please update... especially if you're ordering spare parts. I might order some too. Mine old one died the exact same way. I tried two different controllers on it and also ran it through the Apex... so I at least determined for my pump that it is not the controller that is the issue. You are more than welcome to borrow a controller if you want to try to test yours too. Same problem though, any resistance and it stops entirely. Even the resistance of the water is enough to stop it most times.

Sorry to hear that!

Well snap a 2nd pH probe on that sucker and cut into the flower centerpiece budget! Oh, and don't tell the Miss's I said that!

Get that Apex already Gig em! You travel way too much sir to not have everything automated! At least it comes with one pH probe already so just throw the money you were going to purchase a new probe and put it into a full Apex system. :-)

Temperature of the water and the amount of food are the two biggest factors I can think of that will influence growth rates. If I had to guess, you'd have about 1-2 years before they started feeling cramped. It also depends on your length of your tank... 75 gallons long has a better chance to keep them happy longer-term than a 75 gallon show tank that is deeper and taller. There are no particular guidelines as far as inch of tang equating to stress factor but I'd imagine once they are both around 6" or greater, that tank is going to be a little tighter than they would like. It depends on your rock work as well... they just need some horizontal space to swim back and forth and the less obstructions, the better. Check my signature if you need to get that fish room one day and for the mental health, I've been told having a reef tank helps that... or does it cause it?

Been running the same probe for the last 3 years. It drifts at a roughly the same average rate as my newer probe so I still use it. 6 month calibrations usually keep both in line. I used to run water parameter monitoring equipment at a job site in North Hollywood. The pH probe was in-line and had pretty caustic 5.0 pH water running through it at all times. The probe membranes would still last about 1 year before I had to replace the membranes on the pH probes. Yours sounds like a dud and hopefully it didn't nuke your tank. Did you not have another pH probe in the main display tank to tell you the pH is lower than it should be? I would imagine your DT pH got really low during this episode.

Makes the corals really pop, doesn't it?

There's no early bird in this house... only late night owls reside here! Haven't gone to catch anything yet but I'll probably plan the attack actually tonight when the lights go out. I realized my LED headlamp has red LED lights on it so it's hunting time. I would have done it last night but I was too tired from all the activity yesterday. I'm pretty sure I saw the cleaner wrasse flip me off from in the tub but he's all good for now. If I can't catch the rest, I may try the division like you mentioned ol aggie.

The naso is typically pretty mellow and will get along with most tangs. I don't think it matters yellow or hippo for the addition. I will say that once they get a little bigger and you don't plan to upgrade tank size, be expecting an all out battle as they start feeling cramped in there, especially that naso. They can get a foot and a half long! That's like keeping a great Dane in a dorm room and never letting it out!

3 chromis... check! 2 mandarins, leopard wrasse, flame angel, dartfish, and big momma clownfish left. Going to be doing a middle of the night sneak attack to grab a couple more overnight.

Thanks bud! Everything seems to be going well and I only have a few fish left in the tank to catch... thanks to the fish whisperer known as Brian. Mitch mentioned Mark had done something on marine velvet as well. I'll have to take a look. The reefkeeping article was of great help. http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-07/sp/feature/index.php

JCAB, That leopard wrasse was dancing in the fish trap all day long the past two days so I think I'll get him pretty easy. If not, I'll aim for the trap over his sleep spot but I have no idea where that is. ckyuv - yeah, it was a lot of work but pulling about 70% of the fish I think was a good haul. The wife has been very patient during this ordeal... but she has a soft spot for the "girls" as she calls them. There are some accidental frags but Brian made sure to avoid my premium stuff. [emoji106]

Thanks nvrEnuf! That's just the temporary holding tank, pre-freshwaterdip. They were only in there for 1-2 hrs as I took each fish from there... 1 by 1, and freshwater dipped them. The QT tub has live rock and such in there for them to hide with reckless abandon. Thanks for looking out!

Well, for those that didn't tune in to FarmerTy TV and watch around lunchtime, here's the summary. Brian and I drained the tank, removed almost all of the fishes (3 chromis, a flame angel, momma clownfish, two mandarin gobies, and the leopard wrasse eluded us), put them all in a temporary holding tank, and refilled the tank. Some accidental coral frags were made in the process and some viewers may have seen more of Brian's backside then they bargained for. [emoji41] Here's the catch: Next up, to normalize all temperatures from the temporary holding tank, freshwater dip, and QT tub. Once they are all the same, I'll dip each fish individually in the freshwater for 5 minutes and then place them in the QT tub which has chloroquine phosphate dosed at 10mg/l. They will stay in there for the duration of the 4-6 weeks for full QT. The one problem I have now is for the tank to run fallow and truly remove marine velvet, I'll need to remove the rest of the fish. Here's my plan: -leopard wrasse (fish trap) -flame angel (fish trap) -momma clownfish (night swoop - I know where her bed is [emoji6] ) -mandarin gobies (scoop with net when I can... they are super slow) -3 chromis left (shoot them with a mini spear gun... okay not really but they are going to be tough to get). I'm hoping starving them out and the fish trap will do it. I'll start the clock when all the rest of the fish have been removed. For now, I can find some peace that the worst looking specimens are going to receiving treatment soon and hopefully it's not too late for them. Before we even got started, one chromis was on his way out so there's one confirmed dead now. Hopefully, I can save the rest!