Jon Lazar

The tank transfer method (TTM) will clear ich, and is good for sensitive fish. TTM won't work for other common parasites like velvet and brook though.

The ideal place to get this is from a vet so you're certain it's a pure, potent drug. The vet route isn't always easy though, so many folks buy it on Ebay.

I would try lower light and see how it responds. Either move the coral into partial shade, or reduce your LEDs for a while. Recently I was gradually increasing my LEDs by 5-10% a week. At one point my toadstool stopped opening. I turned the lights back down 20% and I noticed better polyp extension within 48hrs. After a week or so it was back to normal. Good luck!

I used a small workbench vise and a pair of large channel locks to separate a pair. One magnet goes in the jaws of the vise. Use the channel locks to twist off the second magnet. Mine came off very easy. Have an appropriate spacer on hand to put between the magnet halves.

This isn't my picture, but this looks like the kind of spiders I've found on zoanthids in my QT. They're very persistent. I've done revive, Dr. G's, FW rinses under a blasting faucet, and manual removal. This campaign reduced their population to nearly zero, but every now and then I find one. Dr. Shimek wrote an article about sea spiders back in a 2003 issue of Reefkeeping. He notes that some species deposit their eggs inside the host, and the young munch their way out after they hatch. I don't know if my sea spiders behave that way. I've viewed my sea spiders under magnification and this species carry eggs masses.

Some zoanthid-eating spiders lay eggs inside the zoa polyps.

Good to hear! Keep in mind that dips won't kill the flatworms' eggs. You'll need to follow up with additional dips to kill any hatchlings before they mature enough to lay eggs of their own. I haven't seen information on how long it takes the eggs to hatch. If you find eggs, you could watch them carefully and see how long they take to hatch!

Every Apex module has two female USB A outlets for the Aquabus cable. You can use the Apex brand Aquabus cable, or a regular usb-a male to male extension cable. (I used a 30' cable from Amazon to connect my DT equipment to my basement equipment for my tank.) You daisy chain the Apex components together in any order to reach your sump, water station, second tank, or whatever. You'll need a second Apex if you can't physically run an Aquabus cable from any module on the first tank to any module on the second tank.

Yes.

WAMAS is a great community, with people who are better-informed and have good intentions. Diver's Den and LiveAquaria are reputable online livestock dealers. However, buying something from a WAMAS member or LA/DD does not mean you're getting critters that are pest free. I've inherited almost every pest, parasite, and pathogen known to the reef hobby through WAMAS members or LA/DD. It's fine if you've decided that quarantining and dipping isn't for you. But don't deceive yourself into thinking that it's safe because you're buying from WAMAS members.

The thing is your picture is way too big to be an AEFW. They don't get much larger than 0.25 in, and are usually smaller. There is such a thing as euphyllia-eating flatworms. There was a WAMAS thread a couple years ago with some good pictures of what they look like. I think that's what you've got on your euphyllia.

In my case, fish showed the behavioral symptoms above, especially the swimming into flow at night. They were dying about every other day. I caught two clownfish from that tank and inspected them close up in a specimen container under really good light. I could see the velvet dusting against the clowns' dark markings. I pulled the remaining fish out and treated with CP. A couple of those fish were too far gone and died, but a few of them survived. You can confirm by taking a skin or gill scraping and identifying with a microscope. The very fine gold dust appearance is a unique physical symptom of velvet. Also, avoiding light is a behavioral symptom unique to velvet. It's clear to me that fish can do just fine with a very low level of these pathogens in a tank. But if their resistance gets low, the parasites can multiply quickly and overwhelm the fish.

Based on your observations, I think the first thing to investigate is whether your tank is your tank is infected with a parasite like velvet or brook. Both will attack the gills of your fish first, and can kill a fish without any detectable spots on the body. I've personally lost an entire tank of fish to confirmed velvet with no spots visible on any of the fish. Since you're not seeing spots on your fish before they die, pay really close attention to their behavior and look for other symptoms. Behavioral symptoms that could indicate a gill parasite include: - Flashing - Clamped fins - Rapid breathing - Swimming into the flow of a powerhead - Lethargy - Abnormal hiding - Loss of appetite - Avoiding exposure to direct light. I wouldn't add more fish until I figured this out. If your tank is infected, any new fish will be infected no matter where you source them from. Besides killing the new fish, you'll add stress to the existing fish. Low oxygen levels from poor circulation produces similar symptoms, but it looks like you have plenty of circulation for your tank. I don't like it when my tank electrocutes me, but I'm very skeptical of stray current being a significant problem for fish or corals.

So no water is coming out of your product or waste tubing (or any other tubing), and there's no pressure on the RO gauge? It sounds like your water flow is blocked somewhere and isn't making it to the RO unit. Does your unit have the see-through filter housings for the sediment and carbon filters? That would tell you how far the tapwater is able to go through the system. To troubleshoot, you can also remove filter elements one at a time to see if one of them is blocking the input water. If you remove all filters and the RO membrane and water still doesn't come out, then you either have something plumbed wrong or there's an internal blockage somewhere. Investigate how far the tapwater is making it through the unit and report back.

Based on your description and the picture, it sounds like you've got both a parasite like ich or velvet, and there's a secondary bacterial infection. I would treat for parasites first. A 5 minute freshwater dip to help clear the gills and reduce the number of surface parasites. Then copper. I would also treat with a mix of antibiotics. MetroPlex, KanaPlex, and Furan-2. You can simultaneously treat with copper and antibiotics. Make sure you aerate though.

Sorry to hear about your fish. In future, and for others' knowledge, another option would have been to remove the fish to a 5gal bucket of freshly made water. Even saltwater made from tap and dechlorinator is better than being in 0.5 ppm ammonia. Sure, there would be some stress from this. But ammonia is a no-kidding killer.

We don't have soft water. FairFaxWater.org calls our water "moderately hard" to "hard", at 84-170 mg/l. I tested my tapwater last year and it was 120 mg/l.

Here's how I set up my beananimal. I used a Ghost overflow at first before building my own overflow box. The method is the same, though. - I set my siphon elbow as low as possible in the overflow box. I left maybe an inch of space between the elbow's opening and the bottom of the overflow box so water can enter the elbow freely. - The height of the secondary pipe defines the normal water level in the external overflow box. I set mine high enough to eliminate the waterfall effect as water flows from the internal box to the external box. - The emergency has to be higher than the secondary. But leave a little space between the top of the emergency pipe and the top lip of the external overflow box so that water doesn't spill onto the floor if there's ever a blockage to the primary siphon. I split the difference between the top of the double elbow and the lip of the overflow box. - Start the return pump. Slowly close the siphon gate valve until the water level in the external box is above the siphon, and slowly entering the secondary plumbing. You'll have to make very minor changes to the gate valve over the next couple of weeks as pipe friction changes.

You should replace everything. You definitely need new DI and a new RO membrane. The sediment filter and carbon block exist to protect the expensive membrane. It doesn't make sense to spend all that money on a new membrane and not replace the relatively cheap filters. If the carbon filter is clogged or exhausted, your new membrane will be ruined by the chlorine in tapwater.

It sounds like it could be one of two things: - The pipes for the full siphon and the secondary channel are too close together in height. As the water level rises, some of the water starts flowing down the secondary channel before a full siphon can start. Effectively you have two secondary channels, with lots of slurping. Try removing the upside-down U from the siphon channel for troubleshooting and see if that improves things. Based on the picture, I think this is your problem. -or- - The siphon plumbing is undersized for the return pump's flow. In this case you have a full siphon, but it can't keep up and lots of water is going down the secondary channel. Either turn down your return pump, or replumb the siphon channel to increase flow. Use larger pipe, and reduce any backpressure on the siphon channel where water enters the sump. The pipe should be below the sump's waterline, but not so deep that it creates lots of backpressure.

First of all, welcome back! Don't do a Durso. A "beananimal" is far superior. You should also consider doing a low-profile inside/outside overflow box like the Shadow instead of a corner overflow box.

You might move the purple tang to another tank for a few weeks. I've done this before to make an aggressive fish less aggressive because it feels like the new kid on the block when you reintroduce it. This will give the YT some time to recover. I've seen lots of stories like your where fish have gotten along fine for a long time, then suddenly go to all-out war. My theory is that the drive for grazing territory builds with maturity until it becomes too much.

I'm not trying to be a wise guy, but there are a lot of different kinds of clownfish and gobies. Can you narrow down what sorts you might (or might not) be interested in?

That's good to know. Mine have paired up with everything _but_ BTAs. They've picked frogspawn, leathers, and large mushrooms, but never a BTA.

I don't think ocellaris or perculas will normally host in a BTA.