Kirblit's 125

[Kirblit]

Here are some other pictures of the tank that I took today:

Left Side




Right Side





Here are also some coral shots of Acro's that are now Red Bug free thanks to Interceptor!!












And here are just some random shots of tank inhabitants

[Dentoid]

Looking great Kirby!

[caitrina]

Very nice...love the clown pics!

[Kirblit]

Well I took all of my fish out of my tank yesterday to put in the 55 QT that I had to set up so that I could treat the ich that they contracted from some coral I purchased. It took a while to get all of the fish out, and I had to remove all of the rock so that I could get them out with minimal stress. The tank was completely uncycled prior to adding the fish so I have been using Cycle, and have done one 50% WC already today and the ammonia is .25, no trites or trates yet. I'm going to start lowing SG for the hypo tomarrow. I will also be picking up some Amquel tonight just in case I need it. The fish all seem very happy as of now, the only ones that seem a little "lost" are my two Clowns. They are without their host Rhodactis for the first time and I can tell that they don't feel as if they have a "home" right now.

[MR PALM BEACH]

Your clown looks really comfortable, nice job!

[Kirblit]

My battle with the Ich demon is going very well. I have been putting in many hours on my QT hypo tank however. My wife is going to kill me eventually. Trying to juggle low salinity, low PH due to salinity, ammonia because of uncycled tank, and water change after water change is taking it's tole. My fish look VERY happy now that they are in the low salinity and not working as hard to keep salt correct in their bodies, and after three days of full hypo their are only a couple of white flecks left on them, so at this point those little SOB's are dying while trying to reproduce !
The only bad part of the QT tank is that I feel like I'm starving my fish. I have been feeding them VERY minimally because of the fresh cycle of the tank, I don't really want to make it worse on them by adding more nutrients to the water, or make the tangs possibly poop any more than they need to, .
I have also been trying to keep my PH at about 8.0 because the ammonia has been staying at about .25 even with 50% water change every day so that it won't be as toxic. I still have yet to see any trites in the water however. I think that I will start making smaller water changes daily to make the tank cycle, but not too hard. I'm going to Hawaii in Oct. for two weeks and I don't have a problem with the daily H20 changes, but the person that will be watching my house won't have time to do them every day so I would like to hopefully get it under control by then.

All around I think that my fish are much happier than they were about a week ago, and I feel better that I'm able to help them. I have def. learned a valuable lesson about preventative treatment, instead of reactive treatment, I will QT everything else that goes into my tank for at least a month from now on . Nobody thinks it will happen to them until it does and then they realize how important it is!

[Kirblit]

Well all fish are still doing well in the QT but I'm still doing 10-15g water changes every day to keep the ammonia at .25 or below. On a good note yesturday I tested for Nitrites again and they are finally starting to appear, wooooohoooo! I hope that soon the bacteria will be able to catch up. I have gone through almost an entire bottle of Cycle that is supposed to treat 925g so there should be a good amount of bacteria available. I'm still not trying to feed them too much to keep the waste down a bit. I have been feeding very minimal about 3 times a day. Enough food that they all get some but it's gone in about 20 seconds, the Tangs are pigs.

[lcstorc]

Do you have some media in there for the bacteria to populate? Like bio-balls or a sponge or bio-wheel?
Glad the fish are responding so well to their qt and hypo treatment.

[Kirblit]

The filter is a HOB Aquaclear 110 and I have two sponges in it that were in my DT for about 2 weeks prior to treatment to acumulate some bacteria. I also have carbon from my DT that was in it for about 3 weeks as well. I have been rinsing the sponges daily with the water changes to keep any detritus buildup to a minimum, and the tank is BB and I try to siphon it out well daily with the WC.
The fish seem happy as ever and I think they like being "lazy" with the salt regulation of their bodies because of the hypo. I have not seen any spots for about 4 days now so this is part of the reason for their renewed health as well . I will leave them in hypo for another 6 weeks to make sure the ich is dead, and will leave the tank fallow for 8 more weeks as well. I will have to add them back into the DT slowly as well I would imagine because it doesn't really have any bioload right now, although I have been feeding it a little every third day for the Nass and other inhabitants so I'm sure that helps a little.

[lcstorc]

Sounds like you have a very well thought out plan. Awesome!!

[Kirblit]

Thanks for your support Lynn , I was hoping I went about it the best I could.

Well finally today the ammonia is starting to drop and trites are on the rise. I will continue to do large daily WC and hope that in about another week I can start cutting back on them little bits at a time. The fish are doing amazing and look like new again, I know that deep down they appreciate my hard work, even with what I have put them through.

[ScubaDrew]

Karma to you for all the work keeping these guy healthy and happy.

Drew

[Kirblit]

Thanks Drew I need all of the support that I can get . Speaking of which I'm about to initiate my daily WC of the tank.

[Kirblit]

Updated photos of Duncan coral eating (this thing is a pig).






New full tank shot of fishless tank .

[Kirblit]

I have some bad news to report about my hypo treatment for the Ich that I was battling. I lost Wilber (my bicolor blenny) two days ago. All the fish where great through the hypo but now that I'm raising the SG back up they are pretty stressed out. I have been raising it about a point every other day for the last week and I have gone from 1.009 to 1.015 and I guess that he just couldn't take the change and he expired on Monday. I have since suspended any salinity changes until everyone is fully acclimated to the current salinity and then I will slowly raise it again. My tangs seem to be stressed the most as they are breathing heavily and have not eaten well in two days. I hope that everyone else will pull though.