watson_barrett

say it aint so rik, d@mn that is terrible news and you had some of the most amazing sps in the area. u should of tried to unload some of it, i'm sure someone would have tired to nurse them back to health. did you manage to at least salvage some frags for the colonies? that enchata was one of the sweetest corals i've ever seen in person, at least i think that is what it was.

BTW if you need some cheato i have a sump full of it, you can grab as much as you need. This would help to deplete excess nutriets that potentially led to cyno bloom. LMK.

I have never had any problems keeping corals out of water for up to about 5 min. in past. i would just GENTLY squirt tank water on them every minute or so to keep them wet. I would be more worried about making sure the water you are adding has same perameters as when you started, especially with the large water changes. Also, just make sure you do adequete research before you make / take any major steps. all of my major problems in the past came from over-reating, just something to keep in mind. If you have had the problem in the past and it went away i doubt the sick fish caused the cyno problem.

AS far as the fish goes, are you running UV? If not, that could help. Not sure if UV works on fugus issues though???

how long has this been set-up? the new lights can def spark an outbreak if there is high nutrients or if the bulbs are old. I would try to cut back on feeding until the problem starts to get better. Put as much marco in your fuge that you can fit. Increase flow in problem areas if you can or remove any rocks that are restricting flow, possibly putting them in sump/fuge. Do a water changes every 4-5 days. When you vacume out water, pull out as much of they cyno as you can. Cyno can be very fikle, arriving in force and leaving for not real appearent reason. I had issues in all my tanks until they were 1 yr + in age. I wouldn't think the outbreak is related to the sick fish but i havn't read much on this.

nah it is actually an emperor, he has been good so far. I think with the large angels you have worry when they start getting really large.

thanks dan and sykrid, need to get a few snaps with just the antics on. the 3 400W MH's are BRIGHT, wish i would have gone with 14ks. also still working out where my sps colonies like to be as far as brightness. Burntout quit a few in the process...

i have kept majestics and emerors up to 6" with no problems. they will pick at dying coral...

Rik how did you plum this in? can't really tell with just the pics. sweet idea, me likie...

Thanks dave! I need to stop by sometime soon and see what you have cooking up there... I know, it has been a looooooong several months. def really to relax and just enjoy things. couple more that show the cabnetry a little better...

went dark : )

Added a 5" PBT yesterday. hippo has no interest in him what so ever. so far so good....

If you run a ca reator an easy way to increase alk is to increase CO2 entering reactor. Just make sure you increase eufilent output equaly or your media will melt...

water change and increase ALK to balance. If you don't increase ALK, cal will stay too high.

Also, anyone keeping 2 PBT in the same tank???

Thanks great info, My hippo is proabably about 6" I think i'm going to shoot for a PBT at about 4"

These fish are growing on me but i'm a bit suprised on thier price.

I've had the hippo for about 3 years now and he is about 6" What size should i shoot for? Should I go small like 2-3" or get one just a bit smaller than the hippo like 4-5" I don't want to go too big because I think that could stir a fight for alpha tang. Thoughts?

Anyone with past experience trying to keep blue hippo and powder blue with success??? Interested in hearing your experience.

You will need to culture photo and rotifers to keep them alive for any longer than a few days. and it take some time to stalk up on the roties so if may be a project to think about trying in a few months once you have an adequate supply. once they start laying eggs they will do it regularly. if you get some small pieces of tile and put them by thier site semi-vertical with the bottom side facing up they will soon lay them on there. they seeem to love them some reason. then you can just remove the tile the night they are due to hatch and put a new in the place. the old switch er roo. fun project but time and space consuming. i had a batch last about 8 days. that was my max without ever doing the roties, i was just using phot and cycloplease to feed them. appearently not enough nutrition.