FishWife

SO! A whole fresh forum with (almost) no posts in it! Last night, we set up our new 34g Red Sea Max. SO cool. We used sand from our 6-month young system that we're breaking down, and some rubble from our 8-month-old QT system, seen below: I would REALLY like to put our seasoned LR from our 175 display ... into this new nano this coming Saturday morning at the crack of dawn, since we're breaking down the live animals and selling them all that day. Do you think my tank will have cycled sufficiently by then (three full days and nights), since only the 'fuge sand has been disturbed, but everything else is seasoned and compatible? I tested ammonia today... at 3 PM. It had been put together for 14 hours by then... a reading of 0. How long before ammonia spikes, typically, in a small system like this with seasoned parts, I wonder?

LOL. Well, at least there's "therapy" here for people like us!

OK; we did it. We need to cycle by Saturday, so we bought a Red Sea Max 24g on sale at Congressional Aquarium last night. (Sorry, Brian!) We loaded it up until 1 AM. I just want to say thanks. Your support has been overwhelming. I'll post pics soon. These all-in-ones are CUTE! I'm so glad that I get to stay in the hobby. We have adjusted a few things on our sale list that we are taking off the market: mostly our Blenny (thanks Larry!) and our refractometer, which I don't believe was spoken for, and there will be a few less pieces of live rock to go around.

THIS is why I'm having withdrawl, Larry. It's all about Honey. Thanks for the offer... I may really take you up on it... :::tearing up here::: Really, thanks. Scott is taking me out on our weekly date to look at nanos TONIGHT. I'm thinking I'll take some favorite frags and Honey and move them to a new, smaller home, just as we are. Red Sea Max is looking good... nice size. Thanks... I think I want a bigger one, tho.

As I sell off my animals one by one I am SERIOUSLY thinking of getting a nano or cube or biocube... a self-contained system that I can move easily as we go through the next two years. (Can I move these puppies, or are there issues?) 1. What brands are best? 2. What are the pros and cons? 3. I had planned to go cold turkey out of the hobby, but this is killing me! Can I mount one now and still move it? 4. Could a blenny live in a 24g biocube? 5. How well do these all-in-ones keep the parameters? 6. What corals could I have? Advice, pls, friends? 7. My goals would include keeping a couple of LPSs, a fish or two (I'd adore a Midas and ... something to keep it company... ideas?) and really that's about it.

Hey, y'all Before finding WAMAS, I was an active member of Reef Central, but it's been months since I posted so they won't let me list my 175 tank and stand for sale. It would help me out if someone could post for me using my email address. Can anyone PM me and help me out with this, please? TIA!

My "sheets" bought at LFS measure 3" X 8". I feed one half sheet a day for two tangs (purple and Kohl). They look fine... I hope I'm not starving them... :(

THANKS! That's really helpful!

Nice! Drooling. Waiting patiently for our tank to season. Four months down; eight to go. "All I want for Christmas is a nice blue clam..." Hmm hmm hmmm.... Do you have them sitting on GSP? If so, any good reason?

So, use a dosing pump, right? Any suggested makes that are more reliable? We've read enough horror stories about kalk overdoses to make us cautious. THX for the reply, btw!

We have a DIY calcium reactor, and we bought a Grey Seas Kalk Stirrer (used) and will have an ACIII to plug these into. We have our fish room with a 'fuge tank up high: The plan is to purchase two solenoid valves and use gravity to flow through the kalk stirrer and calc reactor. Question #1: Is there any potential problem with gravity-fed, solenoid controlled, ACIII operated system versus dosing meters/pumps? Question #2: With the ACIII, we will have two pH probes. We understand that the kalk stirrer will raise pH and the calc reactor will lower it. How do we use the combination of the kalk stirrer/calc. reactor/AC III together to maintain proper balances? Anyone have settings to share? Question $3: We've been running the CA reactor for months and doing 2-part dosing. Our CA today is at about 350 ppm. How do we bring this new system online slowly so as not to shock the system? Question #4: Are there any safeguards to consider in physical terms when setting up kalk stirrers? I've read about overdoses... how do these generally happen, and how do we best guard against them? THANKS as always!

Sorry to hear that. BTW, where did you get your mantis? We have a rubble sump on our oversized QT system and are thinking about getting one.

Again; updating for others who may face similar situations. By April 21, here's what I posted elsewhere: I've been battling what I feel is a gram negative infection with our wrasse. We treated him first by means of soaking his food in gram negative antibiotic, then we treated the hospital tank for five days. Yesterday, we moved him into quarentine, thinking he was better. We stressed him in the process. Last week, it was his fin was affected, but yesterday he was sluggish and today he has ONE cloudy eye... Sort of looks like a cateract. I would not say that his eye is popped; more a cloudy film over it. He's swimming and eating.... anyone know what it is and how do we treat it? May 5 It was popeye. We treated him with Myacin 2 for five days; then we treated him for another 5 days. He's been w/o meds now for about 4 days. At first his eye was large, black and blind. Day by day, it's returning to normal size. He mostly swims to the side of his good eye in spirals. For weeks he spent 22 hrs. per day buried in the sand but ate each time he emerged. About two days ago, he stayed out for HOURS. Yesterday, he was out for a few hours, then dove in to the sand around 3 PM (which I've read is normal). Today, it almost seems like his eye is returning to ALMOST normal... his good eye has an orange rim around it, and his bad eye's rim is returning to view. Otherwise, he's perfectly healthy. So, we are grateful.

Sorry for your loss, Forrest.

Melanurus does all for your tank that a sixline does, without the aggression. I have one now and he seems really sweet and peaceful, but that's in QT, since he's had to fight off some gram neg. bacteria. Others have enjoyed these tho, and they are BEAUTIFUL. This was the advice I got when I asked a similar question to yours months ago. Here's ours (male; females are much less colorful):

It is REALLY coming together. Love the curtain.

Lookin' great. I love sand in a tank... makes it look finished! That picture reminds me of blizzards in New England during my childhood!

Link doesn't work for me...

We have a quandary and need some advice pronto. Two weeks ago in the Blue Zoo GB we bought a Melanurus wrasse. Great fish; large and beautiful. But, he had a couple of tiny light patches on his upper body, near dorsal fin. Two days later, he had a white patch on one fin. (I posted about this: http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?show...&hl=wrasse) We treated him with antibiotic for gram negative comunar disease with Maracyn 2; five days later, he's got one cloudy/popped eye we put him back into our hospital and have had him on Maracyn 2 for a second round. :( Meanwhile, we had drawn some water from the wrasse tank into our QT sump and passed it thru the UV sterilizer at a VERY low rate (ie should have killed almost anything) and into our QT tank with our midas blenny before we knew there was anything wrong with the wrasse. (In other words, they were in different holding tank joined by a sump. Wrasse water flowed into the sump, thru a UV, into the blenny QT tank, and back into the wrasse tank. The reason for this was that we were bringing the wrasse up to the blenny's salinity before putting them into QT togather. The blenny had then been three weeks in QT at that point and doing great. Immediately upon the fin problem showing up, we disconnected the two water systems and watched the blenny. After a week, she looked fine, and understanding that gram negative is ubiquitous and that it mostly occurs in stressed fish (which the wrasse was in the roughly handled Bluezoo order), we decided to put her into the display. That was last Saturday. Tonight, I've noticed a small white patch on the side of the blenny. Looks like a little peeling white skin, or a raised abrasion. The blenny's acting perfectly normal, and no patches on her fins; no other abnormalities whatsoever. The question is this: yank her out of the display tonight, or wait and see how she looks tomorrow? We think we can catch her in her rock hole by pulling out the rock quickly with her inside. She's perfectly happy now, and if she's going to get over it herself, I hate to stress her now by moving her. On the other hand, we don't want to infect the whole display tank full of fish. What is your opinion? Part of what's guiding my thinking is this article: http://www.aquamaniacs.net/forum/cms_view_...cle.php?aid=28

Two is good for me; but whatever... it's YOUR giveaway! No one should argue with you no matter what; but we need it to be clear. Maybe :::ducking::: start over with moderators' help in deleting previous thread? Call it the "Fresh Start" cashless auction?

GO! GO! GO! SO exciting! It's going to be BEAUTIFUL!!!!

Tell her it's insurance forall the money you've already sunk into the system?!

THANKS for all the thoughts. I've read all the links. What about this idea? We have a tank room. It's a converted mudroom: small with a door that leads to our garage. Most of the water in our system is in our tank room; all but the display. In order of descent: Our fuge w/cheato (30g) Our frag tank (45g) And our sump (about 50-60g) It gets humid in there and right now we cool via fans blowing the air around in the room and (on winter days) importing cooler air from the garage at nights. Query: could we install a room/window AC unit up high over the door to the garage, and cool just the room, removing evaporated air and cooling MOST of the water in our system simultaneously? (Added bonus: we'd also plug the AC unit into our new AC III for automatic control.) Whatcha think?

I like the idea more for getting y'all's opinions rather than posting information, though information is good, too. I'd love to separate out into a dedicated forum the illness posts! Just mho.

Sean, I put up a video of the sick fin on a different thread... Here's the thread http://www.wamas.org/forums/index.php?show...8&hl=wrasse TIA for any advice.