The Integration Room

[Integral9]

Got some better pics of the white stuff and spot on the hippo

 

 

 

 

[surf&turf]

Could just be a secondary infection from the ich. He looks fat and healthy, he should pull through ok.

[Integral9]

yeah, other than the parasite and lesion on it's side, the hippo would be in great shape.

 

the powder brown seems to be responding very well to the treatment. won't stop swimming around though, so it's hard to get a good look at him.

[Integral9]

Updates:

I lost the powder brown. My fault for following the directions on the Quick Cure bottle. I apparently overdosed him and he didnt' make it. btw. If the bottle says you can dip them for up to an hour, twice in one day. Don't believe it.

 

My Hippo has cleared the parasite and fungal infections, but is refusing to eat now. The fish is really starting to concern me and I am about to just put it back in my DT with the hope that the more natural environment will encourage it to eat. It's belly is looking pinched and it has lost a considerable amount of weight. I am open to other ideas though. I have tried: algea sheets w/ and w/out garlic and vitamins and Jan's food. I don't want to put it in the DT and have the stress of a new tank kill it either.

 

In other news:

I finally got my kalk reactor dialed in. The tank is doing much better now, but not without some losses (see my birds nests).

 

Some good news is that my urchin spawned the other day.

 

Here is the video:

 

I recommend watching it in HD as the spawning is very tiny. At the end of the video I pan around my tank. You'll have to excuse the mess. I have a 2mo old and a 2yr old that I am constantly chasing around the house. Which doesn't leave me much time to dig into the tank.

 

It also appears that I have an uninvited guest in my tank as evidenced by the coral destruction in the sandbed. I'm guessing it's a mantis as I can't think of anything else that can split open the coral skelaton of a hammer or break off entire sections of pocilipora (see the piece on my sand bed). I also suspect it ate my CBB, which I just about can't believe. The fish was doing so well in my tank and should have been able to free itself or avoid the suspect. I am really bummed about loosing it. Not only was it a fish I really want to keep, but it was keeping any aiptasia at bay. I was already leaning towards not purchasing LR again (see the calciferous macro in the video), but now I am firmly against any LR, ever again. Unless you got some Tongan Branch. Then I will take it dead or alive.

 

The tank has been up a year now and here is an interesting stat:

Fish losses in the first year total over $450. If I loose the hippo, that will jump to $600.

Coral losses in the first year total over $225.

[Integral9]

As a last ditch effort, I put the hippo in my DT hoping that watching other fish eat would encourage it. Well a week later, it's still isn't eating with the other fish (that may take some time), but it is at least eating somewhat; nibbling at whatever it's around. It's also swimming from time to time which is huge as the fish largely just sat on the bottom listing from side to side in my QT. It is also looking better and still disease free. My powder brown v2.0 (thanks F&F) is doing great. Eating and dominating the tank. I think that will change when the hippo regains it's strength. But it looks like the hippo will pull through, but not without a scar it seems.

 

Still haven't seen or caught the critter that is breaking my coral. Still not sure what it could be.

 

My randall's gobi has put on an addition to his home and now claims the sand from the middle of my tank all the way to the far right side. Not sure if he will make a summer home under the island on the left side. But I guess that is up to his house keeper.

 

My blue Indian coral banded shrimp lives! Marmaduke is about 4 years old now. Still blue and still about 2" in total size. I don't see him much, except during feeding time.

 

Yellow Assessor > Firefish. I guess the lack of a swim bladder enables the assessor to attack from any direction. His Kung-Fu is strong...

 

What was once 1 RBTA from divers den is now 2 RBTAs. Unfortunately, both are facing the back of my tank.... ugh. More work to do in the tank.

 

Time to replace the T5s, all 14 bulbs. (sigh)

[steveoutlaw]

Time to replace the T5s, all 14 bulbs. (sigh)

 

 

Ouch......I'll be there soon.

[Integral9]

Unfotunately, the hippo didn't make it. After several more weeks of watching and hoping it would pull through, it became apparent that it was slowly starving to death. After watching it in the DT, I think the dip blinded the fish. Regretably I had to euthanise it.

 

If you followed my "What's up w/ my wrasse" thread, you'll know that I had an issue with that guy recently as well. Fortunately he pulled through and is swimming well. None of my other tankmates were effected with whatever effected him.

 

My urchin continues to spawn about every other week and coraline algae has really started to take off. At least I am doing something right....

 

New additions to the tank include a CBB (last one died of unknown reasons) and a jouvenile yellow belly hippo. Both were QT'd for a month and are doing great in my DT. A couple of new arrivals in my QT are a naked clown and a black clown, both from ORA (courtesy of the ORA group buy). They are doing well in my QT and I am hoping to pair them and fatten them up before I add them to the QT. They are still jouvenile and very tiny and I am concerned one of the larger fish might eat them. I also added from the ORA group buy a gold maxima clam and a squamosa clam as well as a german blue digitata and a green hydnophra. All are beautiful.

 

After some hmm'n and ha'n over it, I finally setup my MD5 tall and 24W Aquanetics UV. Both I bought used off WAMAS folks so they needed some cleaning and refurbing. The MD5 just needed a good scrubbing and I had to change some of the fittings once I plumbed it in. The UV was well used and I replaced all the rubber gaskets and o-rings and lubed them up w/ some silicone grease. Unfortunately, the dern thing leaked. After cleaning up that mess and spending a lot of time doing leak detection, (the leak was between the PVC housing and the brown thing inside that the bulb slides into. I got out my acryllic glue (the thick stuff) and put a bead all the way around between the brown thing and the PVC housing. That fixed the leak and now it's running great. I am unconvinced anyone needs a quartz sleeve for their UV. Also, I should have purchased some flow meters as I'm not sure how much flow is going through the UV or the media reactor. I have a mag 7 hooked up to power both. If I can find my Mag 5 impeller, I can downgrade the mag 7 to a 5 and slow things down. But for now, things are running pretty good. After installing the UV and new media reactor my skimmer went from a foul smelling bog like stench to just a dirty smelling mud like stench. I have also noticed a huge reduction in algae growth. I have about 4/5 ROX carbon from BRS and 1/5 phosban in my reactor.

 

For a couple of weeks, I have been battling a continually high pH. For some reason the pH in my tank was continually rising. So I started backing out changes I had made recently (shut down the UV and media reactor, and even disconnected entirely the kalk stirrer. But stlll the pH continued to rise, so I checked my RO water. pH = 9.38 (HOLY COWFISH). I set up a pump w/ a venturi on my top off bucket and will look into getting an airpump & stone for my resevoir. Hopefully the air injection will be enough to knock the pH down in my top off water. If so I will turn the filtration back on and once the pH reaches a nominal level, I'll start dosing kalk again. Last night at the end of my full daylight shift, my pH was 8.67

 

I will see if I can get some new pics up tonight or tomorrow.

[flooddc]

Sorry for your loss!

Awesome capture of the urchin video!

[Integral9]

I re-calibrated my pH probe with some solution I picked up at BRK and pH probe now reads 7.95. So I corrected it up to 8.1 with some super strong alkaline 8.3 solution I made up from the granular stuff. I basically just mix it until it won't dissolve anymore and then pour a little bit in at a time and wait for the pH to settle. While at BRK I picked up a Hanna Checker for Calcium as I hate titration tests and I'm always throwing most of the kits out because I don't use it enough. I tested my calcium (before correcting the pH) and I got a reading of 449. I'm a little surprised it being so high, so I will retest tonight. I didn't test alkalinity last night as I had to deal with the family by then. I will pull out my old test kit tonight after I empty the skimmer and change my filter socks. Hopefully it's still good. I am starting to loose a few SPS due to what I imagine is low alkalinity. <sigh> Also, I learned that you cannot test the pH of RODI water without some specialized equipment. The short of it is, there isn't enough stuff in the water to settle the pH and anything added to it will change the pH. Finally, I'm still waiting on a response from Hydor about the rusted out magnet I have on my 1400. I've contacted them 3 times now in the last 7 days and not once did they respond back to me. I could have ordered and received a replacement by now.

 

Also, I noticed recently that my Aquanetics UV kind of glows through the PVC. It's an eery green phospherous glow too. Makes me feel like stuff is dying in there. :-) Does anyone elses UV glow through the PVC? It looks like there's an imperfection in the PVC or it's just really old. If you have ever looked at a cigarette under a black light, the glow pattern on those is kind of what it resembles.

[Integral9]

With 2 little boys, I have little time for this hobby anymore.  But I am trying to keep with it.  My kids love the tank.  With my pH issue resolved, the halameda and gonzo noses (I can never remember the right name for that algae) took off again.  I am really getting frustrated with them.  Starting to seriously consider basing all of my rock and starting over with it.  Also doing very well are aiptasia.  Lucky me right?  I'm starting to feel like Cruella DeVille with aiptasia....     Tried a few peppermint shrimp but my wrasse ate one as it hit the water, so I put the other 2 in my sump while I try and catch the wrasse.  That's one hard fish to catch....  

 

I got my reactor switched over from carbon to biopellets which is working well.  I tied the output to the airline feeding my skimmer so it outputs directly in front of the skimmer's intake.  I empty the skimmer now almost every single day.  The water is crystal clear, but I still have nutrient issues.  I'm not sure why, but snails always seem to die in one corner.  Pulling them as fast as I can. 

 

My UV started to leak, which I havn't turned on in a while anyway, so if I can ever find a used Mag 3 I will pull it entirely, but for now it's the bypass for the biopellet reactor (mag7 is a little too strong), so it has to stay in place.  The leak isn't much more than a little extra salt creap.  I should be able to fix it with a little silicon, should I put it back into service.  However, i am considering adding a fluidized carbon reactor with a 100um sock filter.  Still not sure about it though as I have 3 tangs and I don't want to upset them.