txaggies07

Well, it has been 5 or so weeks since my tank made it down to a sg of 1.009. The tank has been ich free for almost 4 weeks. I am going to raise the salinity starting this week. I did encounter one problem in that my refactometer broke and I am not sure exactly when. My tank is slightly out of hypo right now at 1.014. I am pretty sure the jump happened within the past week. I have lost a decent number of fish from ich. I lost my two clowns, although they seemed to have some secondary infections going on that I just wasn't able to heal. They improved for a few days in a hospital tank before going quickly downhill a week later. I lost my emperor angel. He was hit the worst by the ich. I also lost my powder brown tang, who got ich pretty badly. My sailfin tang and green bird wrasse both had ich badly, but have since been ich free for about a month. In other news, I re-did my plumbing a week ago. I added a 14g refugium next to the sump. It sits a bit higher than the sump and uses gravity to drain water into the sump to avoid overflowing (no pump). The drain line from the tank to the sump now has a tee to run over to the fuge. I do have one problem though, my fuge is leaking water and so I have closed the ball valve allowing water to drain to it and disconnected it from the system. I am planning to replace it with a 10g if I can drill it for a 3/4" bulkhead. Also, I am a proud new owner of the SWC 250 Protein Skimmer. I got it from my parents for christmas. It was working great, even in hypo. I did have to send one pump back due to a noise issue that I know shouldn't be there. I should have the pump back within a week. I should be posting pictures in the next week or so of the changes. The tank looks like crap right now because I haven't had time to mess with the powerheads, so they have been blowing the sand around. I currently only have two MJ-1200 with mods running. I am going to go back to the 1600 gph propeller and then run all four.

At least up in DC you have vendors who seem to actually care about the hobby. In houston, I can not find one LFS that I like. I have not found any that quarantine at all. They do not support the hobby like MrCoral, F&F, and BRK do. They are just there to sell fish. Be thankful for the LFS you have up there.

Good thing to bring up. I had no idea. Now I am just paranoid.

Good luck everyone. I hope everyone up there stays safe.

Forecast here for tomorrow is a high of 64 and a low of 42...nice an sunny too. Stay safe up there. Make sure to have something to keep your water oxygenated.

Testing....I don't understand...

I lost a butterfly fish from the display tank and my Maroon Clown that was in my hospital tank. The butterfly had ich, along with the rest of the tank. I have the display in hypo. I took out the inverts and the coral. The Maroon had something weird wrong with her. I think it could have been Brooklynella, but I would have expected her to die faster. The small maroon clown is still alive in the hospital tank, although he looks pretty bad. The rest of the tank is looking a little better. The fish seem to be taking hypo pretty well. My powder brown tang and my emporer angel currently look the worst, although they don't look too bad.

What happened?

Definitely look into the noise issue. Eshopps stock are pretty noisy. However, once adding a hofer gurgle buster it is virtually silent.

I moved my Puffer from a tank with no asterina to a tank with a bunch. 2 Days later...no asterina to be found.

I got a 215g and much prefer the non RR. I had a 120 RR and just thought the overflows took up too much room. I got an Eshopps overflow and that has been working very well for me.

Sweet.

Looks awesome

Looks great. I am glad everything worked out. Now lets see a tank build thread.

I am getting the MSX/SWC 250.

Looking into a MSX 250 or 300 Protein Skimmer for the tank.

RODI all the way.

New pictures These are all a little blue since I was only running the 2x175W 20K + actinics and had my 2x175W 14k off. 2x175W 20K + actinic Canopy Under the tank Side of Tank 2x175W 20k + 1x175W 14k + actinics (my other 14k spot was unplugged to run a filter on my hospital tank.

Gig 'em

Already done....should be posting pictures tonight or tomorrow.

+1...or 2...whichever. I agree completely. If you can see it from the side, then consider painting it. If not, I would leave it alone.

I honestly dont know which reflectors they are. They came with the tank I bought. I can take pictures of the canopy setup later today. I built an oak canopy around that black canopy that was provided with the tank. The tank is not drilled. In the corner you see the eshopps PF-1200. I have it connected now and it works great. I put a piece of black coroplast behind the tank, which hides the overflow, plumbing, and cords. Also, the Mountain Lions name is Pinecone. He is 17lbs...and according to the vet, not overweight....just really big.

Yes...although I will say that I feed less now because I have my puffer in a different tank.

Now up-to-date Sadly, signs of ich reappeared last night. Nothing major yet. Also, I now have my new 20k bulbs in. I am now going to running 2x175W 20K and 2x175W 14k + 4x39W actinics. I am very pleased with the color. I also got the MJ1200s w/mods in yesterday. I discovered that the magnet I had was the weaker version of the sureflow magenets. My new magnet is awesome, the old one, not so much. However, I took one magnet from each set and it seems to do the trick. I might have to buy another strong one in the future. I am holding 2 MJ1200 with each magnet. I promise...up to date pictures tonight or tomorrow.

Monday November 30, 2009 I had an outbreak of Ich. I have moved corals out and am in the process of dropping to hypo. I got the UV hooked up to help with the free floating ich. I havent seen spots in a few days, but I am sure they will pop up again any day now. I should be down to 1.010 by mid to end of the week. I have pictures of the tank, but have not uploaded them yet. Should come soon.