Amalee’s 75g Build

[Gernader]

Haha yes it is. Thank you @Gernader @fishguy242! I know fallow is the best way to go, I’ve just been avoiding it if I’m being honest. I’m hoping this works. If not I’ll have to get a qt going to go fallow.

I have seen many people that are doing ich management. They feed high quality foods by soaking them in selcon/garlic, and feed them to build up their immune system. That seems to work for others who does not have the time to quarantine! It worked well for me when I had a 29g!

 

[AmaleeC]

Yeah! It works really well for me. ;Happy I would say the only reason I lost fish during the original outbreak is because those were the most stressed. One got caught in the overflow, the fish that was originally sick had flukes too, and the last two were either picking on other fish or being picked on. Other than that, everyone else made it out fine. Including my male lyretail who was one of the worst cases. Once the fish start to recover, recovery is very quick.

 

[AmaleeC]

Alrighty friends! Just updating this:

• For starters, I have a terrible case of dinos. Absolutely terrible. Today I’m going to order the things I need to get some chaeto growing because the dinos are in massive amounts. If the chaeto doesn’t work, I’ll go the hydrogen peroxide + microbacter7 route. I haven’t gotten them under a microscope to diagnose which kind it is specifically, but it is definitely dinos. I’ve reduced my lighting dramatically from over 12 hrs to 8 hrs w/ NO whites and started dosing DinoX, which has done nothing.
• On the bright side, I’ve gotten rid of all green turf algae + cyano. So there’s still reason to celebrate. I will admit that I still desperately yearn for a nice clean sand bed.
• During the Ich outbreak I lost 2 royal gramma, a neon dottyback, a lawnmower blenny, a damsel, my female lyretail anthia, and a clown goby. I’ve gone about replacing stock little by little & it’s going really well! Idk what happened to my local PetCo, but they’re coming back from this pandemic with a BANG! Nothing but healthy frags of coral, healthy tanks & healthy fish! I originally refused to shop there, but I can get used to this
• With that being said, new additions from PetCo are:
  • Fiji Devil Damsel (2 weeks & ICH FREE!)
  • Tomini Tang (added yesterday)
• Future additions are going to all be special ordered by PetCo. They’ll be a Smiths Blenny & a Red Scooter Dragonette, they’ll be added on Friday. Along with some Copepods on Tuesday. I’m excited!

 

[AmaleeC]

Ladies and gentleman, I now present to you a clean sand bed!

After a long time coming, I have finally gotten rid of the dinos! No hydrogen peroxide, no chaeto, nothing special - I simply reduced my light intensity & lighting period. They vanished within two days, thank God! I was scared I’d some how end up with an “upbeatable” case. Oddly enough, I’ve noticed asternia stars randomly in my tank. Only two so far, but I’m keeping a close eye on my zoa garden to make sure they’re safe. I haven’t seen any since.

New additions: Rainbow BTA (hoping it does well, even though my tank is only 4 months), Ultra Indo Torch from TSA, and my smiths blenny.

I’m kinda nervous, my older torches aren’t extending like usual. So I’m watching them. They seem to be okay, just a little less extended than usual. I did recently change the flow so they get a little less, but I changed it back to see how they do... nothing different so far. Also, my yellow coris wrasse is not taking the the new blenny too well! I’m hoping it’s just his way of establishing himself as more dominant, since it was just added today...

My Tomini tang, however, does not have a care in the world. He pushes the other fish out of the way even, & I love that about him!

 

[paul.brandon83]

Looking good, if you ever decide to redo the plumbing I agree with above. Go gate valve, not because you have to but because it makes your life easier. Sump looks awesome. Looking foward to following along.

I second the gate valve. After building my own sump and using ball valves, i‘ll always go to the gates now. Definitely excited to see the progress.

 

[AmaleeC]

I second the gate valve. After building my own sump and using ball valves, i‘ll always go to the gates now. Definitely excited to see the progress.

Great suggestion! Everything has been setup for about 4 months now & we do get a little bit of noise, but it’s not noticeable. If I were to ever redo the plumbing, I’d go ball valve for sure! Thank you @paul.brandon83

 

[AmaleeC]

Well friends, I got the tank started on March 27th and we’re going on month 5. So far things have only gone downhill.

- Brown hair algae and dinos have gotten cozy in my tank *eye roll*. So has aptasia, but that doesn’t bother me too much

• I tried Vibrant and Reef Flux, but the algae doesn’t subside. I have noticed that snails really make a dent in the algae, so I’m really considering adding a whole ton (15? Or 3 big turbo snails?) and then giving them away.
• As for the dinos, I put my UV inside of the tank and that seems to be helping. I may add my backup UV as well for some extra power.
• I loss some peppermint shrimp, and didn’t bother with replacing them so aptasia is slowing growing where GHA isn’t. I’m not bothered about that, honestly. They’re kinda cool to watch for the time being. But I’ll add some replacement peppermint shrimp in the future since it’s so cheap here in FL and those suckers will be gone before I know it.

- I’ve lost so many corals!

• My hammer corals, my torches, and I’m trying to save my RFA’s but they’ve all been agitated lately. It may be from the larger doses of Vibrant that everything has been upset and that’s understandable.
• I’ve decided to wait some time before adding corals again. I’ve put in too much money only to suffer so much loss. I’m not giving up, but I am definitely taking a break. I have some other things I can focus on financially in the meantime All this and even with GHA growing all over - my zoas still look good and are growing heads lol The tank was so young for coral anyways, patience is our best friend in this hobby.

- The fish are doing great! If it weren’t for them doing so well, I’d probably have given up to be honest. I love watching them, but I would’ve sold everything, added some new rock and put an eel in there with a lion fish. (That’ll be my next tank in the future ) Here’s the final stock list: melanarus wrasse, yellow coris wrasse, lyretail anthia, tomini tang, Fiji blue devil damsel, smith’s blenny, firefish, orchid dottyback, maroon clownfish.

Here’s some pics of my biggest head (& heart ache) lol

I won’t add any coral until the algae and dinos clears. I’m 100% sure it’s got something to do with my nutrient levels, (this hobby is all about two things: patience and chemistry!) so I had my water tested at TSA not too long ago (maybe 3 weeks?). They let me know everything way okay, but I’ll have to test things today and see for myself because this has gone on a little too long for comfort.

 

[fishguy242]

hi,agree w testing yourself,let us know,looks like phosphate may be too high,also the sunlight on the tank is not a good thing

 

[AmaleeC]

hi,agree w testing yourself,let us know,looks like phosphate may be too high,also the sunlight on the tank is not a good thing

You were right on the dot! Phosphate was very high and nitrate was kinda low. I also noticed some ammonia, nothing major but a pretty decent amount. I figured it’s because I added some rocks to the sump (maybe a month or a month and a half ago?) and it has caused a mini cycle. Definitely going to be beneficial later on down the line, but I’ll never do that again.

As a result I put some Seachem Phosguard into my filtration system and also bought Seachem Flourish Nitrogen for the phosphate. Someone recommended IO Reef Accelerator and I had some Fritz Nitrifying Bacteria. I’ve added both for the ammonia. If it gets really high, I’ll do a small dose of Seachem Prime but adding bacteria consistently should really help the ammonia levels.

I’ve also upgraded my filtration system with a skimmer! A friend recommended I buy one after hearing I had problems (before I knew it was phosphate), and I figured I’d end up buying one sooner or later so I got one off of Amazon for $60 that I’m really loving. Other reviews said it’ll take about a week to two weeks to break in, so the micro bubbles won’t last forever!

I ended up having to redo my plumbing as well, there was a leak that kept coming back in the old plumbing and I hated the ball valve so I took advantage of the opportunity. I REALLY like the gate valve! I won’t miss be missing my ball valve at all lol

 

[AmaleeC]

Tested everything today. Good news is phosphate has shot down (love me some Phosguard!) but my Nitrate remains the same. bad news is my ammonia has absolutely SKYROCKETED. I don’t know why or how, but I do know that it is wayyyy too high (1.0 - 2.0). I added some more Seachem Prime & Fritz bacteria. I’ll test again in about two hours just to make sure. But that’s scary high. I still have some Microbacter7 & Microbacter Start XLM. I may have to use some of that good stuff to bring my ammonia down to a safer level. We will see how things test later.

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Tested everything today. Good news is phosphate has shot down (love me some Phosguard!) but my Nitrate remains the same. bad news is my ammonia has absolutely SKYROCKETED. I don’t know why or how, but I do know that it is wayyyy too high (1.0 - 2.0). I added some more Seachem Prime & Fritz bacteria. I’ll test again in about two hours just to make sure. But that’s scary high. I still have some Microbacter7 & Microbacter Start XLM. I may have to use some of that good stuff to bring my ammonia down to a safer level. We will see how things test later.

good luck!

 

[AmaleeC]

good luck!

Haha thanks! With the way the tank has been going lately, I’ll need it

 

[RobB'z Reef]

Haha thanks! With the way the tank has been going lately, I’ll need it

I think we've all taken our turns on the struggle bus, you'll work it out. I'll be going thru mine soon enough haha. Take your time

 

[fishguy242]

hi,want to be blunt here,do a 15 gallon water change tomorrow,STOP using quick fix in bottle,run your phosguard,do not strip to zero not a worry rt now w the hair algae,run a sack of carbon,and your skimmer,ammo will come down naturaly,unless some kind of big die off which skimmer and carbon will take care of..in my opinion there is no fix in a bottle ,just a bandaid,let the reef do it's job

 

[AmaleeC]

hi,want to be blunt here,do a 15 gallon water change tomorrow,STOP using quick fix in bottle,run your phosguard,do not strip to zero not a worry rt now w the hair algae,run a sack of carbon,and your skimmer,ammo will come down naturaly,unless some kind of big die off which skimmer and carbon will take care of..in my opinion there is no fix in a bottle ,just a bandaid,let the reef do it's job

Thanks @fishguy242! You’ve been following along on my thread all along, so if there’s anyones opinion I’ll take on this it’s yours! I can take a little bit of tough love, thank you for being blunt.

Today before the water change was done the phosphate was at a decent level but nitrate is still low & ammonia is down to 0 again, thank God. I did the waterchange anyways because it’s like you said, remedies can’t be found in a bottle. Any recommendations on what I should dose to raise nitrate?

 

[fishguy242]

hi ,feed fish 2x a day,dump 2 oz of skimmate into sump,just once for now

 

[AmaleeC]

hi ,feed fish 2x a day,dump 2 oz of skimmate into sump,just once for now

Okay, will do. Thank you @fishguy242! I went to take a look at the tank today and it really has me in a poor mood. I’ve spent a lot of time/money on it for it to look like that. My fish are doing well and enjoying lots of TLC now that I’m working from home. But I really love corals and still can hardly keep any!

I tried adding a $5 LPS frag last weekend and the frag turned away to white sludge within a day. I don’t know why or how, I know my water chemistry hasn’t been the best but I really don’t think that’s normal either. So idk, I’m looking forward to spending some money on some nice pieces when I get back in the games. I’m almost tempted to start all over

 

[fishguy242]

hold tight going back to start

 

[fishguy242]

lps,it happens please post current pic of tank,then test let us know later ,what lighting #s, still running 2 uv? we can get this right no need to start overi like to see pic ,if poss,going to bed soon

 

[AmaleeC]

Haha sorry, it was 5am over here! I clocked out for the day. But here are some photos I took today:

I’ve noticed cyano has developed as well. Another great indicator on what else is wrong with the water chemistry.

Here’s a photo of the sump:

I’ve dropped it down to one UV, since I’d like to fix the water chemistry instead of using the magical powers of a UV light. filter media is Chemipure blue, Chemipure Elite, and phosguard. I’ll be adding carbon today too, for additional filtration. Someone mentioned that I may be feeding too much, and I guess 2 - 3 would be too much.

here’s some photos of my test today: