Reburn Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Are you going back with greens or are you switching to reds or targets? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madsalt Posted February 9, 2015 Share Posted February 9, 2015 Oh man that sucks. Well I hope everything goes well. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 9, 2015 Author Share Posted February 9, 2015 Are you going back with greens or are you switching to reds or targets?I like the greens but if some reds came in, I wouldn't be opposed to them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 Fighting conch shenanigans: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 10, 2015 Author Share Posted February 10, 2015 Cyphanstrea face working hard to hold on to that flake food. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 Woohoo! Guess who's joining the once/week alk testing club! If after 3 more weeks and it's still looking steady, I'm joining the bi-monthly club... and 3 more steady readings after that and I'll go ahead and apply for the once/month club. [emoji41] This step-by-step program to break alk testing addiction syndrome is doing wonders for me. [emoji4] 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted February 12, 2015 Share Posted February 12, 2015 You're giving me confidence that someday I can go down to testing alk every 2-3 days. Problem is I have to adjust the dosers every couple of days to keep it as steady as even this. I am only changing +/- 1 second every 120 minutes !!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 Wow, that's some precision there Jim! The beauty of alk flatline is when all corals that uptake alk/Ca are in a steady growth mode so that the occasional monthly tweak is all that is needed to compensate for the increased coral mass. When some things are happy and some are not, you're constantly fighting this back and forth usage and it'll drive you nuts trying to keep levels stable. Once everything is in full growth mode, you only have to worry about the increasing coral mass... which the monthly tweak should be able to handle. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Sascha D. Posted February 12, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted February 12, 2015 Wait...we're supposed to test Alk? I knew I was doing something wrong! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 12, 2015 Author Share Posted February 12, 2015 Regal eating a freshly shucked clam. If he's this high maintenance, I may have to tap out! My wife has that covered already! [emoji24] He shows just a little interest in mysis but that clam was the best feeding response I've gotten from him since I've had him. I'll start mixing in mysis on top of the clam or even just put it in an empty shell and see if it tricks him to eat it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ckyuv Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Where do you get all this music? When are you Gona put some pink Floyd or tool in the back ground lol also I may have missed it but is that the same flame angel or did you get a new one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 Its the same patient zero flame angel that brought the marine velvet plague into my tank. I've since picked up a replacement pair of mandarins for the tank as well as a replacement midas blenny. My music is brought to you by the musical stylings of youtube and I enjoy the variety of odd music to add to the videos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 Well, I had introduced the mandarin pair to the tank directly a couple days ago and have been monitoring them for any signs of velvet. I don't know if I'm being paranoid but they seem very lethargic to me the last day after being so active the first day I had them. I'll keep monitoring but if they continue to not swim around feeding, then I will remove them and QT them and start all over with running the display fallow. I don't want to risk my fish population and I'm feeling just a bit more comfortable having the fish in the tub longer term as all fish appear to be healthy and happy, despite the 50 ppm of nitrates and the occasional fluctuating temperature. I forget that fish are not SPS... they won't die if I look at them wrong or sneeze in the general direction of the tank. [emoji4] If I end up having all the fishes back in the tub again, I'll proceed with the 10 days of chloroquine phosphate treatment again for the new additions and then remove all medication in the tub and see how every fish is responding. If well, then I'll follow up with some prazipro for intestinal parasites and at that put some chaeto in the tub to help with the nitrates as well as oxygen content of the water. I am not able to do that now as chloroquine phosphate is a great algaecide and will kill it quickly. At least that way the chaeto can be an indicator for me as well to make sure I removed all the chloroquine phosphate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 An interesting observation in the display tank are the signs of increasing nutrients in the tank. I'm not sure if this has to do with the draining of the tank to remove the fish or possibly the removal of some live rock from the sump for the QT tub but I've noticed cyano growth, an odd growth similar to cyano, even some dinos popping up and going away, and of course excessive macro algae growth. I'm sure some of the macro growth is due to my fish farmers, aka the tangs, not being in the tank because they devour any algae that grows but I have to think it's also due to a nitrate increase in my tank. Odd that this happens after removing 18 fish... my nitrates going up? Very odd. Either way, all corals look happy and are growing just fine and my alk levels have stabilized for the most part. I may add my biopellet reactor back on line and let it strip the water of nitrates and see what happens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Have you done anything that may inadvertently reduce the bacteria population? How is the macro doing in your sump? A decrease in bioload would also decrease the bacteria level to the amount sustainable by the food source. If your macro is looking dull or losing color then your nitrates may be too low to sustain the amount of macro you currently have. In that case some of the macro would die, decay, and feed the remaining macro. It would register as an increase in nitrates because the macro dying would exceed the amount the bacteria and living macro could take up. That is, unless it's the death of the bacteria that's causing the increase in nitrates. Adding a bottle of bacteria to raise the population and dosing vodka or vinegar to maintain the levels may help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 That's an interesting theory. I'll have to keep an eye out on my ball of chaeto but the mass has not visible shrunk in size or I haven't been finding pieces of chaeto on the prefilter on my return pump that I usually see when my chaeto is dying. I'm getting more macro algae growth in my display tank which is why I was assuming my nutrient levels have increased. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sascha D. Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 You have macro in your display? That's very un-Ty-like. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 Well, my tangs typically mow it down but they're on strike for the immediate future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+olaggie01 Posted February 13, 2015 Share Posted February 13, 2015 Can you treat the mandarins in a separate 10g tank instead of treating the entire tub again? Not that it probably matters much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 13, 2015 Author Share Posted February 13, 2015 Actually, the tub has been medicated this whole time. I've seen no ill effect of just leaving the chloroquine phosphate in solution so any new additions just reset my 10 day clock in my head to consider them fully safe. I'll probably aim to treat them for 10 days and then move them into a smaller tank for observation and feeding. It's difficult to keep any eye on them in the tub but a small 5 gallon or 20 gallon would be easier. I'm still waiting for the light to come on to gauge their activity level but something tells me they need to be treated and the display tank fallow timeline reset again for 4-6 weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 14, 2015 Author Share Posted February 14, 2015 Tank is fallow... see you in 4-6 weeks tank! I'm going with the hands off approach and just going to let it run itself for the month and see how things come out. I'll get back to getting my canopy and stand buttoned down during this time and finally trimming out both pieces. I'll keep all my fish in the tub and focus on weekly water changes to keep the nutrient levels down. About 2 weeks in, I'll go a full water change of the tub to remove all medications and see if any of the fish respond with signs of disease. If not, then I'll open up the partitioning wall that separates the regal angelfish from the other fish and allow them to make friends while in the tub... where they are easily separated if someone gets a little too aggressive. Hopefully by then, my regal angelfish will be used to all the foods I normally feed my fish and can learn to eat with the community of fishes. Good signs with the regal angelfish the other day. He has been snacking away on the clam and I'm hoping to get him to eat the other offerings of mysis and pellets. He's also been a bit more territorial and has nudged some of the smaller wrasses and the flame angel out of his space... a great sign in my eyes as he's feeling healthy enough to assert his own territory. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reburn Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 Do you worry about training your regal to clams? Considering you have 2 clams in your tank. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madsalt Posted February 14, 2015 Share Posted February 14, 2015 I was wondering the same thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 14, 2015 Author Share Posted February 14, 2015 He only eats them on the half-shell for now so the presentation is different than a live one. Will the behavior continue? Possibly... I couldn't predict it right now but the goal is to get him to eat for the first week or so. That's where you usually end up losing regals... they are starving during the whole capture and transport process, and once they get in your hands, you need to feed the heck out of them to help regain their strength. Once they make it through the first initial introduction and survive that, then your goal is to train them to eat the foods you want it to eat... mysis, pellets, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FarmerTy Posted February 17, 2015 Author Share Posted February 17, 2015 ORA echinata getting better colors now Pretty cool mariculture that's coloring up really nice Blue mille mari piece that lost some coloration Blue polyp acro, terrible picture... it was hard to photograph and capture true color Same with pearlberry... impossible to capture subtle colors but growth has been amazing on this piece. Blue bottlebrush that's taken off Good ol' Oregon tort... growing surprisingly fast for a slow grower Some zoas and montis HDR FTS 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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