Eric's 400g Marineland Reef Tank Build

I guess the ich could be stressing him out, but he is still swimming around and eating like normal. Hopefully he will get over it. I watch them on the webcam throughout the day and everything looks fine. The spots are on the body under the fins.
 
Just when I thought the bad luck was over... My peppermint hog decided to hang out in the vortech during feeding time and when it came back on, decapitation! Time to build a cage for it so I can get rid of the foam guard. Also noticed last night that the cleaner wrasse is missing!

Before the leak I couldn't keep frags alive and now I can't keep fish alive!

Foxface is the only fish with visible ich bit is still eating and doing well.

I have 2 small clown in QT and hopefully things will calm down in the next month or so.

I added a bunch more frags yesterday and all are doing well.

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Eric, I have a Crown Royal zoa frag and a Sunset Supernova zoa frag I'll donate to the cause. Let's hope your run of bad luck is finished.
 
Sorry to hear about the string of bad lucks! I never turn off pumps when I feed. My fish seem to like it when they have to "chase" the food!
 
I changed mine to not turn off and am working on a cage to put around them to avoid using the sponges that come with them. I hate having to clean them all the time.

I think I had my final fish death as the Magnificent Foxface was dead when I got home on Monday. He had ich for a while but was still eating well. I guess he could only take so much. The Yellow and Naso tangs have cleared up and look super healthy and fat. I'm down to just those 2 plus 5 purple firefish and a fat solar wrasse. I hate not having a lot of fish swimming around, but hate it more then they die! I will give some months to settle in before trying to add some super hardy fish.

I have the rest of the parts on on order to finish the net top to keep the jumpers in the tank. I have only seen 1 fish that had jumped out, but have had 3 known jumpers wind up missing. Now that I have these pumps sorted out and a net top on the way, I can rest easy knowing that I am doing all that I can to prevent needless death.
 
Your luck seems to be headed my way. 5 of the last 7 fish I have bought have died within the first 3 days. I lost a Powder Blue this morning, he was purchased yesterday and seemed blind when I got him home. They were obviously wild caught, and I'm wondering if the ones I have lost were due to the capture method. All seemed to be suffering from the effects of cyanide.
 
Time for more bad news followed by some good for once...

Since my last post, I have lost a sunset monti rock to a montipora eating nudibranch infestation. Luckily I noticed it in time to pull the rock (it was just sitting in the sand) and place it in my QT tank. They continued to devour what was left and then spread out all over the tank. Luckily I have more sunset monti, so it wasn't too bad. I was surprised to see that the copper and antibiotic meds that I treated fish in the QT with, didn't kill the critters on this rock. There are still feather duster worms and now tons of pods in the QT tank. To be fair, I had done 2 x 50% water changes after the copper, but nothing after the antibiotics. I am planning on leaving this rock in here for a very long time to ensure they all die. I might just dry it out before putting it back in, but it has nice coralline growth on it.

I then started to notice that my other monti and sps were not doing so well. The colors were fading and the tips started to turn white. All of my parameters seemed in check until I started doing more research online. Turns out that higher alkalinity does not mix well with low nutrients! That was news to me! I had been running the calcium reactor heavy to keep the calcium levels up and when I finally turned it down, Ca was 400 with Alk at 10.8. Problem was that Phosphates were 0 (never found any in my tank) and Nitrates have always been less than 8. Things are already looking better with the Alk at 9.5 but Ca is down to 364. I am going to add more calcium to my top off tonight to try and get it up where it needs to be. The other sunset monti (which was almost gone) has come back to life, so I know I am on the right track.

My previous tank was on 2 part with plenty on nutrients, so this low nutrient stuff plus a calcium reactor is still new to me! Things have really come a long way! Crazy how there are people that never do water changes these days.

The fish are all doing well. I have added 2 clowns 2 months ago and a mandarin goby a month ago without issue. I put the clowns through the QT and they seem to recognize me when I come up to the 400 now, when all the others swim away. Not really sure why, my previous fish (before the leak) would eat out of my hand. I am a little upset that the clowns didn't take to the anemone yet, but still have hope that they will need each other someday.

That is about all... Added some Marinepure blocks a couple weeks ago and had my UV sterilizer bracket break (almost dropping the sterilizer into the sump). I took it offline for a while until the water got all cloudy again (reason why I added it in the first place). Not sure what bacteria grows when it is offline, but it is not one that I test for. I ended up with the same cloudy water in the QT tank until I dosed it with antibacterial meds to try and heal a newly QTed fish that got a bacterial infection. It has stayed clear ever since and seems to be doing really well.

About ready to try some more fish!
 
If you need more Sunset monti, I have some. Congrats on the turn around. With such low nutrients, you are able to feed a little more heavily too.
 
Your tank looks amazing, so sorry to hear about all this bad luck!. Regarding ich, afaik unless you leave the tank fallow for at least 6 weeks you will always have it, and it can return whenever there is heavy stress, However I have also read that if no new strains of ich are introduced, the ich continues to go thru cycles and gets weaker and weaker every time, eventualy it becomes non-infectious, I have only found one research claiming this, this period takes about 12 months. Maybe someone here can confirm this?.

This would explain why many people report having ich at the beginning and then go years without issues ever again. I have never had to deal with ich fortunately, although I have suspected ich on ocassion based on unidentified white spots, but no other symtoms, I know it is a big pain to deal with, specially with big tanks such as yours, it seems like things are going better now!, hopefully it continues that way.
 
Thanks Marc! I just need more fish in there to feed!

Oscarmk, thanks for the info. I have so much about ich over the past year that I could write a book about all the conflicting info there is out there! If I go from my past experience with my own tank, I will wait a while and start adding fish in slowly. Could it come back? Probably, but I do my best to feed healthy with Selcon and hope that my plump fish will be able to fight it off. By QTing new arrivals, I hope to minimize the entrance of new disease and minimize added stress to the new fish.
 
Glad things are starting to turn around! My clowns aren't taking to the anemone either but are looking at it with great curiosity. I feel your frustration.
 
Clowns are funny, at least the captive bred ones. Mine have opted to hang out and sleep with the following over the last two years, generally in couple month spurts:
Brain coral
Overflow
Return nozzle
Frogspawn
Hairy mushroom
NOT my RBTA
 
So I have been slowly lower my Alk by adjusting my calcium reactor, but now I can't seem to keep my calcium levels up. I am using Reef Advantage Calcium in my top off water, but I guess not enough. My readings last night were Alk 9.5 and Ca 316. This was the reason why I had it turned up so much to begin with. I am open to ideas on how to get my levels up. I am guessing that my sand and my (used to be) dry rock are just sucking it all up still. I mixed an extra cup of calcium in a cup and dripped it last night, but didn't have time to check the level this morning. Thanks for any suggestions!

Another thought... I am doing a 2 gallon per day auto water change using the DOS and was thinking about adding calcium to the 55 gal Brute that supplies the water for AWC. Thoughts?
 
What is your Magnesium level? I'm told over and over that you can't keep Ca level unless Mg is in good shape. I think we want Mg at around 1300, but someone more knowledgeable can chime in here.

@integra3g wrote:
 
Mag is always in line with my Ca. I check it weekly. My tank has always been a calcium sink. Just when I started to get coraline growth, the tank leaked!

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Just a thought, have you had another member or LFS check your Calcium level to ensure you're not dealing with a test kit issue? It's very odd that your calcium uptake is so much more than your alk, especially with your mag(buffer) on par.
 
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