Sigh, so frustrated :( cryy - Page 2

rustybucket145 · #26 07/21/2006, 04:01 PM

Cooking Rock? Isn't that what they do in the hood?

TOURKID · #27 07/21/2006, 04:11 PM

"QTing a first fish is a waste of time. You QT fish to protect the fish already in the reef. There are no fish in the reef."

thats a horrible statement to tell somebody!!! if the first fish has ick.... then you have to leave your tank with no fish for at LEAST 6 weeks for the cycles of it to die... there are some diseases that you can bring in your tank and NEVER get rid of! sure a bacteria infection or brook is gone when you remove the fish. but you MUST QT ALL FISH!!!

this whole cooking rock thing i just dont understand. I bought cured fuji rock, it was covered with life and coraline and if id have killed it all off.. what would have been the point?
the rock in the pictures DOES look void of life. I couldent even begin to count all the life that came on my rocks. I never researched this whole way of doing it. but it doesent make any sense to me. I went rooting thru a few tubs of tonga rock at my lfs just the other day and it was covered in squishy spounges, coraline, barnicles all sorts of good stuff. why would i want that dead?

I really agree with the baking your rock, putting it back, and seeding it with a few new pieces. (course.... theres the sand to deal with) but virtually any unwanted critter can be taken care of later if one pops up. i bought my tank in dec, bought sand that day, filled er up, bought rock a few days later.. and it wasent EVEN 6 weeks before my tank was cycled and i had me a clown and polyps in my tank

course.. clown had ick, and i had another 6 weeks of waiting around.. but all the stuff popping out of rocks and a few inverts kept me totally occupied.

RichConley · #28 07/21/2006, 04:31 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by TOURKID
"QTing a first fish is a waste of time. You QT fish to protect the fish already in the reef. There are no fish in the reef."

thats a horrible statement to tell somebody!!! if the first fish has ick.... then you have to leave your tank with no fish for at LEAST 6 weeks for the cycles of it to die... there are some diseases that you can bring in your tank and NEVER get rid of! sure a bacteria infection or brook is gone when you remove the fish. but you MUST QT ALL FISH!!!

You QT fish to protect the fish in the tank. You do it so that a new fish doesnt infect healthy fish. He has no healthy fish. Hes not protecting anything by setting up a QT. If anything, hes unneccesarily stressing the new fish. I agree you should quarantine further purchases, but quarantining the first fish is a waste of time. So what if he coems down wiht ich and you need to leave the tank fallow for 6 weeks. You were going to have an infected fish in QT anyways, which means you couldnt buy any new fish.

That being said, ich is always in your tank, whether you QT or not, unless you QT (for 6 weeks) every single piece of coral, sand, water, fish, invert, rock, equipment,etc. Its just not feasible to get, or keep a tank ich free. Keep your fish healthy, well fed, and unstressed, and you wont have any problems with ick.

TOURKID · #29 07/21/2006, 06:26 PM

yep... qt it all except water and equipment. (new equipment that is) unless you want to unknowingly add critters to your tank. hermits, everything. the only things not qt'ed were my shrimp and anemone....

JmLee · #30 07/21/2006, 06:32 PM

im not trying to flame anybody but i see alot of bad ideas, IE dosing copper. Copper is something that will not be easy to remove once it enters ur tank. Also Cooking uncured or cured live rock is ok, it really depends on ur goal and reason for cooking. Some people cook fully cured LR to get rid of Nuisance algae or hitchikers. Some people cook uncured fresh LR to have the curing process take place outside of the tank and to insure that no nuisance algae or bad hitchikers make into to the main tank. In the end i would say do not put food in your tank for some time. Keep your tank uninhabited for some time. Things will be ok.

highquality · #31 07/21/2006, 06:54 PM

He has already kept the tank without food for sometime. I have read this from the beginning and alot of post are similar. I completely understand your frustration. It sounds like cooking rock isnt worth it to me (JMO) if you still get aptasia and some Ciranolid. I too suggest adding a fish and if they become a problem remove the fish and add to a fish only setup or return to store after treating. One more idea and could use some input here as not sure of overall complications. Cou7ld maybe try dunking the rocks in freshwater and these Cirolanids should evacuate there homes . probably would take more than just a dunk. Like holding under a good ten seconds or more. A few dunks and I would think you could evict them. You dont have anyother hitchikers to worry about anyway. Dunk all before adding to tank again. Bivalve may survive. Just a thought. Good luck.

roper512 · #32 07/21/2006, 06:57 PM

It's possible but that would only rid of cirolanids in the rocks, some also burrow under the sand. I think it's fairly futile to try and remove them all, I'm going to take the advice of everyone here and just go with it, and deal with what comes as it comes. It will be better for my health at least

Thanks for your support and suggestions

Quote:

Originally posted by highquality
He has already kept the tank without food for sometime. I have read this from the beginning and alot of post are similar. I completely understand your frustration. It sounds like cooking rock isnt worth it to me (JMO) if you still get aptasia and some Ciranolid. I too suggest adding a fish and if they become a problem remove the fish and add to a fish only setup or return to store after treating. One more idea and could use some input here as not sure of overall complications. Cou7ld maybe try dunking the rocks in freshwater and these Cirolanids should evacuate there homes . probably would take more than just a dunk. Like holding under a good ten seconds or more. A few dunks and I would think you could evict them. You dont have anyother hitchikers to worry about anyway. Dunk all before adding to tank again. Bivalve may survive. Just a thought. Good luck.

roper512 · #33 07/21/2006, 06:59 PM

lol

Thanks for that I needed a laugh

Quote:

Originally posted by rustybucket145
Cooking Rock? Isn't that what they do in the hood?

roper512 · #34 07/21/2006, 07:02 PM

I want to apologize to anyone here who I lashed out at or offended with my words. I was just very upset at the time. I really appreciate everyones advice and it has helped me make the decision to just move on and start buying stuff for my tank.. It feels good to not have to worry anymore

I will just deal with things as they come... Thanks again everyone!

Salty Brother · #35 07/21/2006, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by roper512
I think it's uncalled for saying I should get out of this hobby.. Okay sure, telling me to chill out is cool, I'm fine with that and you know what I should chill out a bit. I think your comment is best left for the high school kids who have tangs in 30 gallons while their tank is still cycling.

I may be a newbie to reefkeeping but I've done my research and I've been very patient. More patient than most people who start up in this hobby. I bought this equipment over a year ago due to heavy fluxuations in supply for tunze and deltec. I had equipment sitting around for months before I bought my live rock and cooked my live rock for half a year. I have had my rock in my tank for over a month and a half now with no additions. And it's not because I don't have any money.

I was ranting, letting off some steam and was looking for some moral support, not people saying I need to find a new hobby because I am not prepared for what lies ahead. I find it insulting to say the least considering how much time/money and patience i've put in this far with not much of a lick to show for it other than live rock and sand in my tank.

You people are my only outlet for this kind of frustration as my friends/family are not involved in this hobby. I feel it's better to express what's going on in your head rather then let it build up. I appreciate constructive criticism. People tell me to chill out and ease up and I take it in stride and realize you know what I bet they're right.

I guess what I'm saying is go easy on me. If you have nothing good to say or don't have a positive spin on some criticism don't post in this thread. I'd rather let it trail off into the vast pages of reefcentral than hear about how I should be looking for some other hobby because I am 'not ready'.

Accutally I was kinda offended by what you wrote above. I am a sophmore in Highschool and have done plenty research. This includes the site, and reading many books to figure out what I want. About 2 weeks ago I upgraded my 29 to my new tank. Just becuase we are in highschool doesnt mean we dont know what we are talking about, and that we dont do any research. And it seems that you have problems with you tank and not me, so if I were you I would think of what you were saying so you dont have to try to appologize for a really mean remarks towards the young reefers.
And here is a pic of the new tank..

reiple · #36 07/21/2006, 09:13 PM

I think everyone should cool off now.

Honesty roper512 found himself in such trouble he seeked out peoples help here. It would be great to give all points of view to help him (or her!) out.

Whatever was said lets drop it and try to help this reefer.

Just an alternate point of view;

1. Assume the parasites and unwanted critters were carried (imported) into your system not via the live rock. You could have imported them through live sand, old sea water tank and even your hands moving from tank to tank. All these are conjecture (please don't flame me...LOL!)

2. To fully cook live rock is to fully kill all it's inhabitants. Immerse in chlorinated water (aha! tap water!) replacing the tap water daily for about a week. Then sun baking it. You might be surprised but some coral reefs are out of the water for weeks and are under the sun still after going underwater still support life in the rocks.

Dont want to take out the rocks? Do the hypersaline solution for a period of time.

Still not convinced the LR was cooked? Ok COOK it now. Place a heater and COOK it. This is the surefire way of killing all those little eggs and hitchikers. Sure it's extreme but then you wanted a fully quarantined setup. I don't know if you can do it inside a tank (tank might burst from heat). But you'd keep your aquascape by then!

These are extremes and just alternate ideas. Other reefers might give better ones.

Good luck roper512

tsquad · #37 07/21/2006, 09:42 PM

I don't think those are hydroids, they look like little feather dusters to me..

JmLee · #38 07/21/2006, 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by tsquad
I don't think those are hydroids, they look like little feather dusters to me..

Unfortunetly, those are hydriods. As matter of fact i have one in my tank right now.

Tim the Stick · #39 07/22/2006, 03:59 AM

Option 1: Creat Utopia.
Option 2: Deal with life.

I think we have a case of #1 here. Life on a reef is NOT perfect by any means. Bugs, pods, hydroids, anti's, etc... all live there. Heck, that's where yours came from! Look at this in another light. If it lives there, there has to be a reason for it.

Bristle worms and pods are my 2 best friends. Pods and worms eat poop. Hydroids eat poop too. So do anti's. And shrimp eat poop. And crabs, and corals, slugs, and stars, and bacteria, and.... Protein Skimmers?

Woooah. Step back and ask yourself. What doesn't belong in a reef?

If you say pumps, filters, skimmers and lights... You're right. I havn't seen a single protien skimmer on the bottom off the Atlantic cost in my life. Or a metal halide either.

After identifying about 70 different pods/bugs/worms in my tank, I stopped and thought for a minute. If it came from there, it must have a job. Even if it's job is stick to the side of a fish and make him sick. (Is this guy nuts? He's telling me to drop in a fish and let him get bugs!) Why, yes I am. It gives the cleaner shrimp something to do. And do it NATURALY, the way it happens on the bottom when a fish DOES get a bug on him in the wild.

We're all trying to create the ocean floor in our living rooms. I tried what you're trying to do right now and found out something interesting. "Life exists". That's the meaning of life, to exist. No matter what you do, life will still find a way to exist. Make friends with your pests, because your pests are only trying to survive too, and at any cost.

Not eveyone here will share my theorum, but I say "Let life live." When you get too many pods, suck the gravel with a suction hose and flush them. Too many anti's? Hit them with a light kalk injection. Fish got a bug? Give a cleaner shrimp a try. If he dies, get another fish. Even marine itch bacteria has a God given "right" to live. And no matter how hard you try, life will fight for it's right to party.

I say grab a beer and watch life as it realy happens. Isn't that what we're all trying to do??

The neccessary evils we have to artificialy generate because we can't make shoreline waves and hurricanes comes in the form of air stones and protein skimmers and power heads. We use lights because most of us don't put our aquarium in the way of the window or don't live on the equator and have a house length skylight. A lot of us "Won't put angels in a coral tank because they eat all your corals and clams". Yup, it's what happens.

Think of it like this. Imagine if one day you and 5 random people from random countries got nettet up and locked in a Walmart... Forever. Think about it. What's the first thing you'd do? What if every day the door opened and a whopper combo got slid in. Ohh wait, TREAT DAY, it's McDonalds! But the produce dept. is right over there. Look, an apple. Would you run through the sporting goods section? Sit and watch every movie in the entertainment dept? Try and escape? Kill yourself? Wish you were home with your wife/husband?

Think about our fish folks. How would we feel if our Walmart keepers kept pulling the scrubby looking hillbilly with 3 teeth who walks behind the floor scrubber out with tweezers every week because he was a "pest"? The guy who cleans the floor is a pest? To who? He doesn't bother me, he just cleans the floor and sleeps under the register. What if you thought to yourself what it would be like to eat the floor scrubber guy instead of the whopper you've gotten every day for 5 years? Damn, it's the tweezers again.

It's deep, isn't it??

So's the ocean.

wilsonh · #40 07/22/2006, 06:28 AM

Welcome to the world of reefing!

You will find that it is really just constant problem solving! That is why it is so fascinating.

However you do need to get rid of those isopods. What I would do is remove all the rock and dry it in the sun for 3 weeks. Also empty and dry the tank. Save the bivalve though, just break the rock he is on and put him somewhere in some water with a powerhead & heater for a few weeks.

Hard medicine I know after 6 months cooking, but it is a peace of mind factor to know the isopods are gone, you can then put your rock back in with some new water, have it cycled in 6 weeks, and start slowly adding a few things.

Also, no more aptaisia & hydroids.

t-bone2 · #41 07/22/2006, 06:39 AM

wow wait till flatworms inter the picture

wilsonh · #42 07/22/2006, 06:48 AM

Can live with flatworms. But the isopods have to go.