Strange

I've been pretty worried about Greeny since I bought him. Granted, he was five bucks, so if anything were to happen to him, I'd be over it quickly. On the other hand, he was 5 bucks, and it's not every day that you get a GBTA for a tenth of what they cost (Living Sea was selling them as a special this week for $60.) Moreover, he makes a great friend for Red, and I'd love for it to be around in three weeks when Red is reintroduced to the tank.

In any case, I'm always a bit worried about Greeny. For starters, my lighting stinks. I'd get about 3 watts per gallon if my bulbs were new (as opposed to waaaay old) and if I didn't have a glass top on. I have no idea what the proper water flow would be for an anemone, and just figure that it'll move to where's its comfortable. And I'm never sure if it's eating enough.

So today, when Greeny began to shrivel up randomly in the middle of the day, I got a bit worried. Was that it? A week and the thing has decided to die on me??? Well, rest assured, he's okay. Apparently he just needed some shrivel time. Right now he's back to normal, as if nothing ever happened. Jerk.

Hyposalinity Treatment, Part 4

Well, the plan has worked to perfection thus far. Yesterday I completed the madness around 10 pm, when I released Jaws and Red into the 29 gallon tank. I drip acclimated them in the same bucket for about 10 hours. In other words, the drop in salinity was about 4 times faster for them than it was for Fins. Nevertheless, they appear to be fine. They are both swimming around and eating, and Jaws is doing his thing with the sand in that tank.

It definitely helped that I was able to find two pieces of plaster coral in the basement of my house and a little freshwater fish house for the fish to hide in. Jaws appeared to be a bit more stressed when I eventually threw the two of them in the tank. His time in the bucket was nothing short of stressful. Two times--once at the beginning of acclimation and once at the end--he tried jumping out of the bucket and was almost successful. Luckily in both cases he plopped right back into the water, but I was definitely surprised to see how high these fish can jump (there was about 2 inches of water in the bucket, which is itself more than 12 inches tall, and Jaws managed to jump about six inches above the bucket.)

But I'm happy to say that the two of them appear to be doing fine today, and that the hypo appears to be working. So far there is no sign of ich on any of the fish and they are still eating and swimming normally. Fins doesn't seem to mind his former tankmates sharing the cramped space, which is nice as well.

In sum, it appears okay to lower the salinity on a clown and goby faster than it might be for a tang. Meanwhile, the three fish appear to be fine together in the 29 gallon tank. Fins even looks less stressed out now, especially with the rocks in place.

Hyposalinity Treatment, Part 3

Ah, the excitement never ceases in our tank.

The wife, who is an expert at spotting ich, called me over to take a look at Red last night after shabbos. It's a good thing she looks, because I'm pretty much in denial that any of my fish could ever have a disease. In any case, it was pretty inevitable. If Fins had ich, then removing Fins from the tank wasn't going to solve the problem. Once the ich is in the water it will find a host. It will only die if it has no fish to host it. With Red and Jaws still in the display tank, the ich wasn't going anywhere.

So Red has ich, and Jaws--while still not showing any signs of it--will get it eventually. Now the question is what to do about it. The big issue is that I've already started hypo on Fins, which means that the salinity in the QT is very low, and throwing Red and Jaws inside will just kill them through shock. I contemplated setting up another QT, but without a viable source of biological filtration on hand, I decided that they've got a better shot in the QT. So what I'm drip acclimating them to the lower salinity over the course of the day. It's a long time for a couple of fish to sit in a bucket, but I figure that they send fish in bags overnight across the country. Hopefully they'll pull through--the jury is still out.

In the meantime, catching the two was pretty difficult. Red was particularly hard to catch, and it forced me to move all the rocks around, destroying the aquascape that was and forcing me to create a new one. The resulting aquascapes has its pros and cons. On the one hand, we can now see Greeny, who is basically front and center. All of the rockwork is pushed to the back corner of the tank, so everything--the rock, the tank--all look bigger. The con is the effect all the moving will have on the coral. It's all in very different locations now, often further from the light. We'll have to see if it pulls through.

Last night I had a bit of a scare with Fins. I was out all day and didn't have a chance to check on him. When I finally got home at night he was obviously spooked, breathing fast and not eating. The not-eating scared me the most because even in hypo he's been a pretty voracious eater. I quickly realized that I forgot to buffer the water that day and that the PH probaby spiked. I through in a little calcium carbonate and Fins quickly began to calm down.

So to conclude and sum up, I'm worried about the Red and Jaws, and more the Jaws than Red. The display tank is empty of fish, but Pincher and "Emeraldo" the Emerald Crab that came along with Greeny are having a blast playing king of the castle. The hypo treatment in the QT is going to go for about four weeks, at which time I'm going to start raising the salinity. Meanwhile, over the course of that time the display tank will remain free of fish, so that the ich can cycle, find that there is no viable host, and die a much deserved death. In the meantime, here's some shots of Pincher and Greeny.

Greeny

Our newest acquisiting is a Green Bubble Tip anemone (Entacmaea quadricolor) named "Greeny." The name has as much to do with it being green as it does with Mike Greenberg from ESPN's Mike and Mike in the Morning. Hopefully I can find something fat to call Golic.

I wanted to get a bubble tip anemone as soon as I bought Red because they host Tomato Clowns. There was only one problem: they are usually pretty expensive. The wholesaler who sold me Red was selling them for $50 which is way out of my league. Luckily I stumbled upon a guy on craigslist who was selling off his fish. I stopped over at his place (which was actually in the neighborhood!), saw Greeny, and $5 later--yes, $5 later--Red has a really cool new friend.

Unfortunately, Greeny has planted himself behind the rock wall. The problem with anemones is that they can just get up and walk to whereever to whereever they feel comfortable. In the end, I'll probably have to rearrange the aquascaping entirely so that we can all see and appreciate this thing. For now, though, here's the best I can do:

Unfortunately you're only seeing about a quarter of the whole anemone. Hopefully it'll go for another walk tonight to somewhere a little more visible, otherwise I'll be stuck trying to rearrange, which, to put it lightly, is a real pain.

Hyposalinity Treatment, Part 2

A bit of an update on the hyposalinity treatment with Fins. We're now day three of treatment. The salinity in the tank is down to 1.014 and everything appears normal. There are no signs of any ich on the tang, but I'm aiming for at least three weeks of treatment. I believe hyposalinity is supposed to be like a really long freshwater bath, with more permanent results.

Fins continues to eat plenty. Yesterday I fed him a sheet of Nuri (little of which still remains), spectrum pellets and mysis shrimp. Today he'll finish off the rest of the Nuri and in addition to the pellets, I'll probably give him some Formula 2. He's looking fat, which is always important with Tangs because they expend a lot of energy swimming (and I'm guessing even more so in hypo.)

The light in the tank is now on. I actually think Fins kinda likes it--makes him feel a bit more secure, especially without a rock in the tank to hide behind. Speaking of which, I'm going to my mom's today to check on our latest addition, and I hope to pick up a rock I saw in the basement. Hopefully that will make things a bit less boring for Fins.

The big question is now whether I push Fins a little further and drop the salinity down to 1.012 as originally planned. I probably should. It'll probably only take one more gallon of distilled water. Guess I will.

Hyposalinity Treatment, Part 1

Well, I've finally tried to do something about it.

Fins, our sailfin tang, didn't show any signs of ich (the dreaded fish parasite Ichthyophthirius multifilis) when we bought him, and the quarantine tank was filled with my mom's porcupine puffer (Diodon holacanthus) whom she wanted out of her tank and sold, so I opted not to quarantine him and threw him into the display tank immediately. I was well aware that tangs often hide ich inside their gills, but I was hoping for the best.

In any case, the first sign manifested on his tailfin about three days later. With the puffer still taking up my QT and not wanting to have to deal with a sick fish, I told myself that it was the nutritionally related fish virus Lymphocystis, and changed up his diet. With time, the sign on the tail was gone. But then it made a strong reappearance and I was convinced that we had ich.

Finally, yesterday and not a moment too soon, someone came and picked up the puffer. I quickly prepped the QT for hyposalinity. Hyposalinity is a method of curing Ich by lowering the specific gravity (the salt content) of the seawater to level that the fish can live but the parasite cannot. Using a hydrometer, tank water generally has a salinity around 1.023. With hypo, the idea is to drop the salinity to 1.012 (if using a hydrometer, which is not recommended, but I don't have a refractometer. If I did, I'd be shooting for 1.008.) Hyposalinity is considered less painful for the fish than other "cures" (i.e., copper or malachite green) which I have used without any success. This is my first time with hypo, so again I'm hoping for the best. For the most part, I'm following instructions found here: http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/23131-hyposalinity-treatment-process.html. But be warned, there are a lot of conflicting reports on how to do this. So far, this is what I've done:

1. The quarantine tank is a 29 gallon tank with 3 inches of sand and a biowheel. That's it. I really should have a rock in there for the fish to hide, but I don't yet.
2. After the puffer was sold and out of the QT, I siphoned out five gallons of water from the QT, getting rid of any left over food or puffer poop that fell into the DSB. I made sure to leave enough water so that the biowheel could continue running.
3. I then checked to make sure the specific gravity in my QT was the same as it was in the display tank.
4. Later, after the lights went out in my display tank and my fish were preparing for sleep time, I turned off most of the lights in the house including the lights in the room that housed the quarantine tank to keep it as dark as possible so as not to stress out the fish during the netting and reacclimation process.
5. I then took a plastic bag filled it with water from the display tank, netted and bagged the tang, and brought the bag over to the QT, where it sat in the QT water and began acclimating.
6. Once I acclimated the tang, I let him into the QT and threw a towel over the tank to ensure it would stay dark and less freaky for the fish.
7. The next morning, about 12 hours later, I started the hyposalinity process by going to the store and buying 10 gallons of distilled water.
8. At home, I mixed a gallon of the water with Kent Marine PH Buffer (calcium carbonate) because I read lowering salinity in the tank using RO or Distilled water can cause devastating PH spikes.
9. I poured the water into a gallon jug with an airline valve stuck in the bottom and placed the jug on top of the tank. I opened the valve and started dripping the distilled water into the tank. I'm dripping in the distilled water as I might if I were using Kalkwasser or acclimating a fish.

I've read conflicting reports on how to administer hyposalinity treatment, one saying that rapid salinity change is the best way of killing the ich (which I believe) and one saying that you have to change the salinity slowly so as not to hurt the fish (which I also believe). I followed the latter approach, which called for lowering the salinity over a period of 48 hours with tangs. I figure that the drip method will probably help prevent a PH spike, make it easier for the fish (but not the parasite) to acclimate to the new salinity, and will ensure that the new water will be well mixed with the tank water.

I don't have a powerhead going in the tank. That's also something I've heard mixed opinions about. The plan I'm following from the instructions at Reef Sanctuary, however, say not to have a powerhead.

The tang is breathing a little faster, but I checked the water and everything, including PH is on point so far. He's also eating and swimming around, so it's possible my presence is just freaking him out. Since I started this morning, I've got the water down to about 1.019. I'm guessing that after five gallons I'll probably have to take out and drip in another three gallons to take it down to around 1.012. I'll keep posting progress reports as times goes on. The full treatment takes about four weeks, so we've got a long way to go.

The 92 Gallon Corner Bow-Front Set Up

The tank has basically three areas of filtration. The first area is the Rena XP-2 Filstar that I got used from the guy I bought the tank from. It's a canister filter for tanks up to 75 gallons, but I don't really use it as such. All I have in there are a few micron pads which I clean out every month or so. It does a nice job of keeping particles and other crud from floating around in the tank.

The bulk of the filtration is provided by the in-sump ASM-G2 filter that I bought from a guy off reef central. The G2 uses a needle-wheel Sedra pump (usually a 3500, but the guy I got it from had already upgraded the pump to a 7000.) It sits in a 29 gallon tank made into a sump. The problem with the corner tanks that is that they don't leave a lot of room at the bottom for a sump. This fits nicely, but it's not that easy to get to, so I'm happy that once set, the ASM requires no priming. Water is returned through a Mag-Drive 9 pump on the other side of the sump.

Biological filtration is provided solely by the live rock and live sand in the tank. In my experience, live rock, live sand and a good protein skimmer are the best way to maintain strong water quality. Biowheels and other media used to grow bacteria tend to increase nitrate production, which can get out of hand quite quickly in a saltwater tank. Unfortunately I only have about 60 lb of live rock, and I really should have about double that. That is something I'll have to get to at some point. Notice the nice piece of tonga rock in this photo.

Most of the rock is Bali live rock. It's nice because it's not too dense (unlike the tonga) and it has a lot of holes for the fish to swim through. There isn't a ton of coralline growth yet, but I'm beginning to get some. I'm hoping that the rocks will be covered in it within the year. My only concern with the rock is how I set it up. Although I think I did an admirable job aquascaping, I feel like it's only a matter of time before my diamond goby disrupts the sand bed to a breaking point and all of it falls.

At the bottom of the tank I have about 80 lb of Live Aragonite sand. The 80 lb gives me a 2-3 inch sand bed across the tank, which I'm quite happy with. I wouldn't necessarily call it a DSB (deep sand bed) but it's doing a nice job. The sand is white but needs constant movement to keep it clean and free from dead spots. To do this I have the help of 6 hermit crabs, a coral banded shrimp, and most importantly, a diamond goby. Although the diamond goby does eat a lot of what's in the sand, there's plenty of critters to go around.

This is the tank fully set up. You'll notice that I bought two Odysea EX250s and mounted them on the inside walls of the tank to get some water movement. The EX250s are rated at 250 GPH, but I sincerely doubt that's what they are doing. In any case, they were cheap and you get what you pay for. The lighting came with the set up: it's an Odyssea Power Compact fixture with four 65 watt bulbs. That gives me about 3 watts per gallon, which has been enough to support some green star polyps, xenia, and other softies. If I really get into coral, I'm going to get a metal halide fixture.

That's it for now. I'm working on a new Kalkwasser drip method, where I've plugged the bottom of a gallon jug with a plastic air flow valve. It's working fine, the only problem is that I haven't figured out where to put the thing to let it drip the Kalkwasser. I've been leaving on top of the glass top for now, but I want it to drip into the sump because it doesn't look very good having a gallon jug sitting on top of the tank. I have noticed some coralline algae growth though, so I'm pretty excited about that.

I'd also like to start a refugium somewhere along the lines. I'm thinking I can do it in the sump where I have the return pump. The problem though is that the MagDrive 9 is simply too big and powerful. Putting a light in there might also be kinda complicated.