250 Gallon room-divider project log

[gregt]

This thread was automatically split due to performance issues. You can find the rest of the thread here: http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...80#post6086180

[45commando]

Jeff,got power a few days ago,just now checking the computer.Lost a few more corals & can grow algae "like it's going out of style".Still got a few frags for you,I'll try your number tomorrow(Sunday)& you can pick up anytime.Thanks for the offer & speak to you soon,Darcy.

[NexDog]

Jeff, there's hope. My hippo tang is doing a little better now. I ended up raising the salinity to save the little guy. I also added some vitamin C tablets to teh tank and did lots of water changes. Add an airstone for sure. I'm sure my airstone is what has been keeping my tang going while it struggled in hypo.

I did add nori and brocoli etc but as it wasn't eating - not much point really. Concentrate on water quality and bringing out of hypo at 0.003 per day. I've actually raised it from 1.009 to 1.020 in 3 days and teh tangs has regained his colour and is eating a bit. He still can't swim very well but he is swimming - rather than just being blown around.

I think this is a good lesson for the both of us. When you do hypo you have to check the water almost daily. Make sure quality is good and salinity is spot on. This is my 3rd hypo/QT attempt and the worst. My other two hypo phases were erratic but turned out well.

I think your tang is almost in the safe phase of the hypo so look after the quality and raise the salinity a bit quicker and I hope it will pull through as I'm hoping on mine.

[Lunchbucket]

Jeff - congrats on the thread split!!!

Lunchbucket

[jeffbrig]

Wow, my first thread split! Wish it came at a better time. The achilles is still hanging in there. He ate a few flakes today (formula 1, his favorite), but had no interest in frozen food. I have been raising his salinity, right now he's just over 1.016. I am scared to bring him up too fast, so I'm doing ~.001 twice a day, to give him plenty of time to adjust. He's still able to swim when he wants. Other than that, he is doing a decent job holding himself upright using his pectoral fins, and swimming around slowly. When he doesn't do this, he rolls over towards one side. His color still looks pretty good, so I'm hoping he's not critically ill just yet.

The abdominal swelling is still present, but it may have gone down a little bit. We'll continue on our present course and see how he does over the next few days. In addition to epsom salts, Maracyn, and raising the salinity, we've also been adding washing soda in RO/DI in small regular amounts to maintain his pH above 8.0. Also added an air pump running 2 bubblers, and put a venturi hose on the MJ900 in his tank, both in an effort to increase the oxygen content of the water.

I never had a chance to post this yesterday, but here is a picture of the tang from yesterday morning. If you look carefully, you can see a region of light shading in the center of his body (behind the pectoral fin), that's the swollen area.

[jeffbrig]

Here's something interesting I pulled off the web....



Compare this anatomical drawing to the swollen spot on the tang. In the area of the swelling I see

1) Kidneys
2) Swim bladder
3) Spleen

I think the stomach is more forward (especially in a tang), and the intestine is much lower.

The spleen is probably too small to swell significant enough to cause what we're seeing. That leaves us with the kidneys (which we know don't operate right in hyposalinity), or the swim bladder. My guess would be the kidneys....and the pressure is affecting the operation of the swim bladder.

[jay24k]

I've seen that light shading before on achilles and it is quite common. It doesn't necessarily mean a bad sign. Occasionally mine will have slight shading more near the front. Raising the salinity a little faster imo wouldn't hurt. I'd possibly try doing it 3 times a day till you get in the 1.022 range since that is generally thet low end for keeping fish although I've seen several pet stores go at 1.019.

[ufchristyb]

Originally posted by jay24k
I've seen that light shading before on achilles and it is quite common. It doesn't necessarily mean a bad sign.

Sorry about the confusion with the above pic. You're right, the visible light spot is perfectly normal. Below is an edited pic, with the "light patch" Jeff was talking about circled - its really not a color change so much, as a distended portion that reflected the light differently. Either way, its a bad photo.



But, on a positive note, I venture to say the tang might be looking a wee bit better. At least, he's not looking any worse. I know this because I'm not wandering around the house today blubbering like a moron that the fish is dying. I figure this is a pretty good litmus test

--Christy (Jeff's wife)

[jeffbrig]

The achilles continues to hang in there, salinity is a little over 1.018 currently, and we're still raising it. He was more active yesterday than I've seen him in a week, so I think things may be looking up for him. Still a little pale, but otherwise doing better.

Back in the main tank, we saw something new last night - amazing after 6 months of no additions.

This colorful pistol shrimp was standing up in the corner of the tank by the overflow. This pretty well comfirms that we've been hearing a lot more clicks than a mantis shrimp would make.

This gives an idea of his size (note, that is NOT my hand in the picture)


And more of a close up:

[WAGERJA]

very nice pistol your packing there...

ya aw ta start looking for a goby to host with him for the next round thru the QT.

-J

[captbunzo]

Lovely fingernail, Jeff... oh wait....

[Lunchbucket]

nice MANecure

Lunchbucket

[Shawnts106]

How big's the Achilles? Good luck, Ive got one too, they are one of my favorite tangs.... mine is hanging in their too, better than yours though.. I suppose you did a HYPOSALINITY treatment on him? I did too.... slowly, same as you, raising the SG.... Mine eat everything, Nori, Flakes, Frozen, my fingers.... the ocational fish fart.... LOL!



good luck !

[jeffbrig]

Well, I'm happy to say the achilles tang has appears to have made a FULL recovery in the last 24 hours. He's dark black again with vivid orange highlights, much better than the dull colors of the past week. The abdominal swelling is no longer detectable, and the swim bladder is functioning normally. He's back to swimming laps all day, getting excited when you walk up to the tank, and eating everything in sight. He's even picking at algae growing on the back wall of the tank, which is a new behavior for him. Even his breathing seems to have slowed down a bit.

Shawn, he's almost 3" and still has juvenile markings. We did a 6 week hypo after he showed ich spots within days of purchase. Since then we had a short bout of popeye, nothing too serious, and then this recent drama. A great looking fish, but he truly is the canary in the coal mine when it comes to detecting water quality problems.

[Psyire]

Cool pistol shrimp! Glad to hear your Achilles is doing well. With any luck, you'll be able to purchase some more fish soon.

[jeffbrig]

I visited 45commando yesterday evening, and he was generous enough to set me up with a bucket full of frags to try in our tank. The colors on some of the corals are somewhat muted from reduced lighting while he was on generator power after the hurricane, so hopefully they will color back up in my system.

Here are the corals after an overnight drip acclimation.




The corals::
Large red monti cap
Small red monti cap
Green w/purple rim monti cap
green zoo covered rock
green polyps
pink xenia
purple tip montipora digitata
unknown acropora
red mushrooms

Here are a few close up shots:

small red monti


purple rim monti


xenia (freshly mounted and pulsing away in the bucket)


green polyps


zoos (with purple tip monti digitata frag at the bottom of the picture)

[tigerarmy40]

are the green pollyps actually yellow? if so you should think twice about sticking them in your system!!! there are lots of people that are fighting to get rid if them and cant, I uess they have a pretty vicious sting and grow like a weed once established.....just a heads up!

[jeffbrig]

tigerarmy, they're a yellow/green color. 45commando had a decent colony on one rock in his tank, it didn't look like he's had any problem with them trying to take over. I'll keep my eye on them though just in case.

After a few days in "coral QT", the frags went in the main tank over the weekend. The zoos, polyps, and xenia have adjusted pretty quickly. I toothpicked the xenia to a small rock, and they attached in just a few days. They're haven't resumed their pulsing yet, but are starting to open up more.

One thing I've noticed is that there is a LOT of flow in the tank. Despite being mounted on small pieces of rock, the water movement kept blowing the corals around or knocking them over. The big monti cap frag blew over a few times, then one time when I was repositioning it, the coral broke free of its rock base....grr. I eventually found stable locations for everything.

The purple rim monti cap has bleached out pretty bad, not sure if it's going to recover or not. It was a small frag mounted on a shell, which due to its light weight seems predisposed to flipping over. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens. The other sps are somewhat pale, hopefully they'll color back up given time and good lighting.

We're heading out of town tomorrow for the rest of the week, and a friend will be feeding the fish (and cats) while we're away.

[captbunzo]

I look forward to seeing these things color up in your tank! You have worked so hard and definately deserve it!

Btw, concerning this overnight drip acclimation - sounds like a neat idea. What exactly is your procedure for that? How do you maintain temperature in the target container? Oxygen? Flow? Et cetera?

[jeffbrig]

captbunzo, I had the corals in one bucket with a small amount of water from 45commando. I filled another bucket 3/4s with water from my system, and set it above on the counter. Then I set a 1/4" hose to syphon into the coral bucket, and used a pinch valve to slow it to just a steady drip. Over the next several hours, it slowly mixed the water. Because I don't have a small powerhead (on my list), I used an air bubbler to provide minimal movement and O2, and a 50w heater to control temp.

Each day thereafter, I removed some of the water and repeated the process, but at a faster drip rate, more of a water change than acclimation.

I really need to think about a better method for QT of corals though. I made the decision to put these straight into the tank, even though there's a small risk of ICH cysts on the rocks. I'm really hoping that decision doesn't come back to bite me.

That's all for now, we're leaving at 5-6am in the morning for our thanksgiving trip.

[captbunzo]

I read in the Zoanthids forum about a "dip" method recommended for clearing off some parasites. You might check that out...

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=451720

[mbunaman]

IMO drip method is a bad Idea especially for SPS. During the process your are bouncing the PH levels up and down. That can kill your corals. If you want to quarantine corals I would do SPS with interceptor for redbugs. If your really worried for ICH keep corals isolated in a tank with no fish for a month. This way during the life cycle the parasite has no host to feed and multiply off of. But you need the Ideal conditions like the lighting and a proper way of dosing Alk/Calcium. In my experience with corals I used Iodine so the corals can adapt to the lighting. These are just my opinions and experiences. Thats the beauty of the forums to share information. So people may not agree with me but this what works for me.

[Miata]

Thank you for sharing your tank with us.
What a great set up you have.
I have a question.
Where did you get the T5 fixture?
Was it a DIY? if not, What brand name is it?
Thank you.

[Bebo77]

To Reef Central
MIATA


jeff got them from reefgeek....

[captbunzo]

Jeff - you might check out this article on coral transport by borneman as well. Very interesting!

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-11/eb/index.php

(of course, maybe you've already read it...)