Nobby's S-650

[Nobbygas]

I have got the tank settled now, so I am now monitoring the Calc levels from last night, for a week, to get an idea as to how much Foundation stuff to start with.
I shall go with the Red Sea Care Program, and I already have my stocks of Foundation and Colours A,B,C & D, so with NOPOX I will be a fully paid up member of the Red Sea Club !
Yesterday I added some frags, a GSP, a Hammer and a Frogspawn. Surprisingly, with all the upheaval in the tank, with Meds added etc, the RTBA and a small SPS (red) frag I have are still living ! Other things that have thrived are the Florida Ricordia (loads of the stuff) and a Leather Mushroom. I once had a really nice Zoa colony, but I found the rock that it lived on and found about four Polyps hanging on for dear life.

I shall add the UV-C in the next week once I've decided on a pump for it, and where I will place it. I never did get an answer back from JBL as to whether it is important to have the Input on the top, or bottom. I also need to order some plastic hose clamps for the UV-C. I do get nervous about having water being pumped outside of the sump.

Onwards and upwards!

 

[Nobbygas]

To recap, four fish left......until yesterday, when I noticed (not hard) that the three Blue Chromis had become two. I couldn't see any sign of the third, and at first I just thought she had succumbed to the 'disease'. Later on in the evening though, I found her......on top of the rear chamber cover ! Why did she jump? Who knows. The only good thing about it is that she didn't die from the 'disease', if you get my drift! Now, one of the other Blue Chromis does appear to have a small white patch on one flank, so I will watch that with interest.
The thing is, you never know if any course of medication has actually worked unless fish stop dying ! What is needed is a water/fish test to determine exactly what disease is in the water. I know you do freshwater dip a fish, and sometimes it's possible to see the flukes drop off into the water, but this is not 100%. There are loads and loads of different medications available, a ton of online information, and hundreds of different ways to treat any specific illness, but there isn't anything that can accurately diagnose exactly what the disease is ! White Spot is pretty easy to diagnose.

 

[Nobbygas]

Gggrrrrr, I was in one of the fish shops yesterday, and looking at the fish, as you do.
I've decided that when I start to stock again I will make some changes to what I had.
Instead of Blue Chromis I'm going for Green Chromis. No particular reason except that my six year old insists we have a Green fish. It's difficult to explain unless you have young kids who like Lego Ninjago. We must have a blue, red, white, black and a green fish, after the characters on the tv programme! It may be my hobby, but I've got to try and keep the family happy at the same time!
No Blue/Yellow Damsels. They were the terrorists of the tank and attacked ANY new addition relentlessly.
No Arabian Blue Faced Wrasse. Never saw the fish. Constantly hiding in the rocks. A bit aggressive too.

 

[Pat24601]

Gggrrrrr, I was in one of the fish shops yesterday, and looking at the fish, as you do.
I've decided that when I start to stock again I will make some changes to what I had.
Instead of Blue Chromis I'm going for Green Chromis. No particular reason except that my six year old insists we have a Green fish. It's difficult to explain unless you have young kids who like Lego Ninjago. We must have a blue, red, white, black and a green fish, after the characters on the tv programme! It may be my hobby, but I've got to try and keep the family happy at the same time!
No Blue/Yellow Damsels. They were the terrorists of the tank and attacked ANY new addition relentlessly.
No Arabian Blue Faced Wrasse. Never saw the fish. Constantly hiding in the rocks. A bit aggressive too.

This all makes sense to me. My kids play a large role in picking my fish and their reasons are often similar to yours.

And, for sure no damsels. They are hyper agressive.

There is a good thing about a tank crash and that's that you get to do things different and hopefully smarter than last time. I'm having fun doing my restart with what I know now vs what I knew then.

 

[Nobbygas]

I really like these....

However, I know that She Who Casts No Shadow and Mini Me MKII will want the traditional Clown fish. I don't know if you can have both in the tank, two at one end, and the other two the other end!

 

[Nobbygas]

I've been trying to analyse just what happened with the tank. When the death's first started, there didn't seem to be much physical evidence. There was none of the 'dusting' that seems to appear with Velvet, and with a couple of the fish displaying long stringy poo, I assumed that the problem was an internal parasite, with Flukes being the obvious candidate. So I treated the tanks for Flukes. The recommended course lasts seven days. Fish continued to die during the medication course, which is to be expected, as some of the fish were probably past saving and had damaged Gills. However, at the end of the course I still had fish dying, so I switched to a Velvet medication. This lasted for four days. Since that course has finished I have not lost a single fish (except for a jumper!).
I can only conclude that my original diagnosis was wrong, and while treating for Flukes, the Velvet ran haywire! Or, the stress caused by the Flukes/deaths caused the secondary outbreak of Velvet!

The main problem for me (in Germany) is that a lot of the products you read about on the Net just aren't available in Germany. The only stuff the shops stock is the JBL stuff, so the Fluke treatment was 'reef safe', but the JBL Velvet treatment contained Copper, so therefore you would need to remove the fish into a hospital tank to treat them. I eventually got the Ruby Reef Rally from the Czech Republic!
Another example for you. ATM Colony is not available in Germany and if I need it I order it from the UK!

The main lesson I've got from this is to have a medication that treats both Flukes AND Velvet. I used the Ruby Reef Rally, but there are many more out there that claim to do the same thing. It can be difficult deciding if the problem is Fluke/Velvet, so get a medication that treats both, and have it on hand already.
White Spot is different, easily identifiable, and separate medications exist for this.

As we have already spoken about, forget the Hospital Tank.

Arrange for some Medication to be on hand. If it costs 40 quid, so what. Look on it as an insurance policy. Yes, it may date and need replacing every year (depends on the product), but it's only the price of one Tang, yet it could save your whole tank. One of my mistakes was in not being prepared.

 

[Pat24601]

My experience has been that unless you are someone like DaveK, many saltwater problems often really go undiagnosed. Bad stuff happens and you may never really know why.

When I had problems with a coral or whatever, I found myself making up reasons why things happened the way the did and I see other people doing the same thing on these forums sometimes, but the reality is I often had no idea why some things flourished and some did not. Maybe flow! Maybe placement! Maybe this! Maybe that!

So, don't feel too bad if you can't figure it out. It happens.

 

[Nobbygas]

So, the plan was to leave the tank fallow for six weeks, but since I treated the tank with the Ruby Reef Rally, no fish have died. The three I have left all appear healthy. I stopped the RRR eleven days ago.
I'm not sure I can wait the six weeks !

Moving on though, I'm almost at the point where I think I can now lose my title of "Coral Killer" !
I have a Green Staghorn that I thought I had lost, but the colour is coming back into it. Another small red SPS frag, that is showing sign of growth. The RTBA is looking good as well. Ricordia looks very 'bubbly' and is spreading. Even the few Zoas that are left are looking bigger than ever before.
I haven't started using the Red Sea Foundation stuff. The usage of Calc & Mag over the course of a week is corrected by the water change. For example, Calc only drops by 20ppm over the week. With only three fish there is no need yet for NOPOX, as my Nitrates are 1.5ppm and Phos is 0.02
I'm only adding 5ml of Reef Energy A+B per day at the moment. No other additives, except for the 75l water change every week. I haven't cracked it by a long chalk, but at least I think I am seeing progress.

 

[Nobbygas]

Shaun, Here is my 'Mega Huge Rocket of Death' installation.......Agh, why is the picture displayed sideways?

 

[SPR]

Shaun, Here is my 'Mega Huge Rocket of Death' installation....

Can't view picture ?

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

that's because sorry photobucket... has started charging to host pics

How to Post Pics - RS Hosted

 

[Nobbygas]

that's because sorry photobucket... has started charging to host pics

How to Post Pics - RS Hosted

I didn't know that !

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

You now get a free "limited amount" when you go over that small amount, they spam all your post pics with the above and won't display your pics anymore without a fee...

but Reef Sanctuary will host them for free !

 

[Nobbygas]

You now get a free "limited amount" when you go over that small amount, they spam all your post pics with the above and won't display your pics anymore without a fee...

but Reef Sanctuary will host them for free !

Thanks for the advice.......but why does the picture turn 90 degrees ?

 

[nanoreefing4fun]

hmmmm... not sure about that @Travis maybe Travis knows...

 

[SPR]

Shaun, Here is my 'Mega Huge Rocket of Death' installation.......Agh, why is the picture displayed sideways?

You've got it upside down! Lol

Went with a cable tie instead of the bracket then ? What's it tied to ?

 

[Nobbygas]

You've got it upside down! Lol

Went with a cable tie instead of the bracket then ? What's it tied to ?

Just one cable tie at the moment. I'll add another couple for more stability when I'm happy with it. I have some sticky backed pads with a loop in it, and it is stuck to the glass of the sump. The cable tie just loops into that. I can't test moving the Sump until I do a water change. It'll be a tad easier when it's empty ! Only then can I see if the backplate fits.

Got another three frags today. Slowly but surely it's progressing on the coral front.

 

[SPR]

Just one cable tie at the moment. I'll add another couple for more stability when I'm happy with it. I have some sticky backed pads with a loop in it, and it is stuck to the glass of the sump. The cable tie just loops into that. I can't test moving the Sump until I do a water change. It'll be a tad easier when it's empty ! Only then can I see if the backplate fits.

Got another three frags today. Slowly but surely it's progressing on the coral front.

Just stay away from the fish lol!

You should only need to move the sump a small amount and the bracket fits snug against the side. Or just stick with the cable tie if it works I suppose.

 

[Nobbygas]

I'm off for a week starting next Monday (visiting the family of She Who Casts No Shadow in Greece), so I'm not making any changes etc at the moment until I get back.
However, when I get back I think add a couple of Clown Fish to start with.

 

[Nobbygas]

What happened to the tank while I was away?
The Mother-In-Law looked after it, but she is 75 and hasn't got a clue. Her job is basically just to lob some food in every day, and phone me if she thinks something is wrong.
I had a 40 liter container set-up next to the tank with a Tunze ATO unit. This was to supplement the ATO and should easily last the week. However, at some point (and God knows why) the Tunze ATO unit 'got displaced'. I suspect the MIL snagged the cable somehow, and this resulted it moving the sensor which then dumped the 40 liters into the Sump. This caused the Skimmer to over react. Bless Her, she then decided (without ringing me) to switch something off. She thought she was switching off the Skimmer, but in fact she switched off the main Return Pump. Apparently she only did this for five minutes, and then re-started it! Luckily, there was no overflow from the Sump, but it was probably a bit too close for comfort.
The bottom line is that there was no damage, and in fact, the corals look fantastic. There is growth everywhere! The only drawback I can see is the first showing of Apstasia. I've tried everything I can think of to avoid this stuff, apart from quarantining the corals. All new Frags get a 'dip' before going into the tank. Now, do I attempt using something like Apstasia-X from Red Sea, or should I just gently remove the rock it is growing on and replace it with a new piece of rock?