Ryan S June 26, 2012 Author June 26, 2012 Maybe add a fish that won't get ich easy like a lawnmower blenny. It will also help with your algae issue. I wouldn't start out adding tangs... You made it 8 weeks. I would wait another 4, but who knows for sure if it will prevent ich completely. No harm though. Do you have any fish in QT right now? Yea, I mean I made it 8, might as well wait 4 more is my thought; but if ich will come back regardless, it just makes me feel like the whole 12 week period was sort of pointless. I have 3 fish in my QT. 1 firefish, 1 pj cardinal, and 1 melanarus wrasse. They've been in there 3 weeks. They are all healthy, eat like pigs, and are anxiously waiting to go to their new home.
hlem June 26, 2012 June 26, 2012 I loss fish like you when i first started out. waited 8 weeks before adding anything new. add 1-2 at a time too, not more. and I can confirm that ich is still there cause I had several breakouts when that one or two weak fish were added. good thing i add super slow cause the older fish were already strong and recovered while the weak one disappeared... :(
Ryan S July 9, 2012 Author July 9, 2012 (edited) I was out of town from June 29 - July 8. The power went out for 24-36 hours June 29 - 30 (I still haven't reset the router, which is why my signature is still out). The sump didn't overflow thanks to a proper setup. However, the apex froze during the outage, thus, when the davy jones skimmate locker got full and tripped the apex to shut off the skimmer, it didn't, so there was some minor flooding in the stand and on the floor. Luckily it wasn't a lot. Lesson learned - when going on vacation, turn the skimmer down so this won't happen again. I still don't have fish in the DT. The 12 week fallow period ends on August 3rd. I have 2 fish in my 10g QT waiting to go, a PJ cardinal and a firefish. Both are healthy and happy. I'd like to add a pair of clownfish after these guys. As for losses, I have a couple SPS frags that appear to have RTNed. The majority look fine. The rics, zoas, torch, goni's, all look good. The 4 shrimp in the DT (2 cleaner and 2 fire) are all alive and well. I plan on doing a 10% water change this afternoon and running parameter tests to make sure everything is okay. I expect it will be, except for the 82 degree temperature in the tank, even with the central air blasting 24/7. I tossed my bag of Jan's frozen fish food because the freezer was out for so long, so I'll need to grab another from her at some point. I noticed a couple new aiptasia sprouts that have popped up on the rock. I will try and inject them with lime juice today as well. I hate those little buggers. I want to research reef safe creatures that eat them and get something for the tank. I'd get 5 peppermint shrimp, but I am fearful about them eating my zoanthids. Not sure which fish might be a good option yet. But it would be nice to have something to keep them in check before they take over the tank. The Tech M Mag worked flawlessly to rid the tank of bryopsis. Not a single piece of it in the tank anymore, so that's good. I am talking with Graham and Evan right now about getting some nice SPS frags from them, but before I drop $$$ on SPS pieces, I want to make sure everything is stable and looking good. Then the goal is too mount everything in the tank and basically leave it alone (adding a fish every now and then) and see how everything grows in. I'll likely overload the tank with SPS frags at first, and remove them as they grow in as I choose which are my favorites and which aren't. Moving forward, I plan on changing out my Radion lenses to the new ones meant for 30" tanks as soon as they come on the market. This will allow me to grow SPS on the sand bed, not just higher up in the tank, which I think would be totally worth it. I also plan on adding the "chaeto box" at some point. I need to ping Adam and see how that is coming along. I look forward to having macro algae in the system, both for nutrient export and for copepod production. Edited July 9, 2012 by Ryan S
Chad July 9, 2012 July 9, 2012 Ryan, glad to hear that things went OK for you. After not hearing from you and knowing that much of Arlington was out for almost a week, I was a bit worried about it. BTW, 82 is fine, that's what mine is most of the time (80 and 84 are my heater and chiller setpoints).
surf&turf July 9, 2012 July 9, 2012 Ryan, glad to hear that things went OK for you. After not hearing from you and knowing that much of Arlington was out for almost a week, I was a bit worried about it. BTW, 82 is fine, that's what mine is most of the time (80 and 84 are my heater and chiller setpoints). +1 I finally got my CBB in the 90 and she is making short work of the Aiptasia. I just hope she doesn't start nipping at the SPS.
Ryan S July 9, 2012 Author July 9, 2012 Good to know that 82 is ok. I won't stress too much about that then. I'd love to have a CBB. One of my favorite fish out there. I've tried keeping them over the years, probably 5 of them, and have never been able to keep one alive. If I could find someone selling one here, or a LFS that can demonstrate it's eating frozen foods, I'd definitely be willing to try one again.
surf&turf July 9, 2012 July 9, 2012 (edited) Good to know that 82 is ok. I won't stress too much about that then. I'd love to have a CBB. One of my favorite fish out there. I've tried keeping them over the years, probably 5 of them, and have never been able to keep one alive. If I could find someone selling one here, or a LFS that can demonstrate it's eating frozen foods, I'd definitely be willing to try one again. I got mine from Sean. Sean had her eating Mysis when I picked her up. She didn't want to eat for a couple days after I put her in the tank, but I tried some blackworms and now she eats just about anything. Really likes Jan's food. Edited July 9, 2012 by surf&turf
Der ABT July 9, 2012 July 9, 2012 Glad you came back to everything ok and no flooding (well no major flooding) ...i thought the davy jones shut off the skimmer automatically via air pressure ...but i guess there are different options. i had my CBB from sean as well and it was a great fish, definately went after aiptasia in the frag tank (and my acans just a warning, zoa's and sps were fine though) lost it due to travel and it not liking pellets...thought i had the feeding covered by a friend but i guess it wasnt enough...sean and gloria had it eating frozen foods prior to my purchase.
Ryan S July 10, 2012 Author July 10, 2012 I found about 6 aiptasia babies in the tank tonight and 5 small green bubble algae bubbles in 2 different spots. What should I add to the tank before they get out of hand? Peppermint shrimp, cbb, filefish, emerald crabs, other?
hlem July 10, 2012 July 10, 2012 always peppermint shrimps for me, but you'll need 5-10 for a good chance for them to go at it.
surf&turf July 10, 2012 July 10, 2012 If you get the peppermints now, while the Aiptasia are small, they should take care of them. I never had much luck once the aiptasia got big. If you like the CBB, I'd get one of those, course if might not eat them either, just depends on the fish. Make sure it is eating before you buy it. A few BA no big deal as long as you remove them before they take hold. Just keep an eye out for any new ones and get them out. My foxface eats BA if you wanted to go that route.
Der ABT July 10, 2012 July 10, 2012 i say remove the bubble algea with a water change (aka syphon them out) then if yuo can reach put some kalk on where they were (kinda like killing aiptasia) for the aiptasia, if you can remove manually great just try to get the base off the rock (like the foot of an anem) if you cant, ive had no luck with peppermints, i know others have but ive tried several times.... the CBB i got from sean worked great, my frag tank was very clean but, he ate acans, not sure what he woulda done to a clam if i put him in the main....i really liked the fish and do want another one but also liked my acans (since i only have 3 or 4) i would say to juice them and then put a big glob of a kalk slurry around them with the powerheads and return pump off for 20-30 min so it can really bake them.
trockafella July 10, 2012 July 10, 2012 Ive had peppermints eat it, the reason some dont are bc they come from different regions ( i read this on a vendors site).. I have 3 in my refuge and they eat them, unfortunately mt tusk eats them first.
Ryan S July 10, 2012 Author July 10, 2012 Ive had peppermints eat it, the reason some dont are bc they come from different regions ( i read this on a vendors site).. I have 3 in my refuge and they eat them, unfortunately mt tusk eats them first. Was it LA? According to their site, theirs are the "right kind" for eating it. The next time Jan or someone else local does a LA purchase, I'll buy 5 for $25 and try them out.
Ryan S July 10, 2012 Author July 10, 2012 Btw nice to see your back. ive missed your posts.! yay. and i love getting picked on by you...
trockafella July 10, 2012 July 10, 2012 yay. and i love getting picked on by you... Tough love Ryan.!
wogga July 11, 2012 July 11, 2012 (edited) GARF's stance? Train 'em : The basic idea: 1.) set up a small tank (10g is fine) for peppermint training, with 1 shrimp/5g of DT volume 2.) target feed flake food in aqueous to peppermints for several weeks 3.) introduce aiptasia into peppermint tank 4.) begin target feeding aiptasia with flake food aqueous 2-3 times weekly 5.) STOP target feeding peppermints - here's where i'll add a speculation - i think that there should likely be a week or so overlap inbetween steps 4 and 5, so that the aiptasia can become a big flagrant flake food olfactory signature, between eating it and shedding waste from it. 6.) the peppermints will associate the aiptasia (olfactorily?) with the flake food to which they have become accustomed over the course of their grazing through the small tank, beginning to recognize aiptasia as a food source. 7.) once the peppermints are trained to recognize aiptasia as a food source, let a bunch of them into the DT 8.) leave several trained peppermints in the peppermint tank in case you need to train more 9.) repeat steps 2-8 as necessary edit: BFF's Edited July 11, 2012 by wogga
Ryan S July 11, 2012 Author July 11, 2012 always peppermint shrimps for me, but you'll need 5-10 for a good chance for them to go at it. I just realized that LA has aiptasia-eating peppermint shrimp for $3.75 each; and bubble algae-eating emerald crabs for $4.25 each. They are in the build your own cleanup crew section. All you need to spend is $60 for free shipping. So the question is. Should I get them now, or wait? If now, how many should I get? 5 of each? 10 of each? (I could supplement them to get to the $60 amount w/ snails or hermit crabs if needed).
Der ABT July 11, 2012 July 11, 2012 man buy local...how many times can i tell ya. emrald crabs have been known to eat zoa's. syphon the algea that there out and then put kalk over it like killing aiptasia. if yuo want pepermints, try to train them as others have said...kinda a cool idea and i wonder if it works....but i would be more inclined to have sean get me a copper banded that eats first...more likely to find the aiptasia vs a shrimp that tends to hide. im going to make a website that states i have a special snail/crab/fish that east ALL pest algea and that only...5999999.99 refunds given within 3 days of purchase...please account for 73 days shipping.
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