Hello all, further update and follow up question!
After 2 rounds of prazi and 21 days feeding metroplex my clownfish and flame angel have been placed back in the DT, both with a fw dip first to double check for flukes (none present).
I was having ammonia issues in the larger QT (as discussed in another thread) so decided to move the coral beauty and banggai into my other qt (with rock and gravel, previous home of flame angel) as the filter bacteria & pH readings are much more stable. I have started to feed them with kanaplex (have not dosed the water due to the presence of biofilm, as pointed out by
@Humblefish in the other thread) and will see how things progress, if feeding the med doesn't help I will place back in the bare QT once I know its stable again and treat the whole tank. The coral beauty currently has no fin damage but still looks a little washed out to me, I was going to release the banggai in to the DT but when I saw him up-close in a fish bag I could see his fin edged are slightly eroded so have decided to keep him out and treat with kana too. I should probably point out that I have been using DT water for my QT water changes for the most part, particulary when trying to reduce ammonia as it meant I didnt have to wait for the new water to heat up first.
The flame angel has been in the DT for a couple of days and I can now see that its tail fin is slightly eroded, looks like a little chunk is missing, catching him again is not an option at this stage, my mandarin and clowns seem unaffected although as with the banggai any slight fin fraying may not be visible until the fish is viewed up close in a fish bag.
I was hoping to get your thoughts on possible root causes of the problem, I guess it must be a husbandry related issue but as far as I can tell everything is in order. I feed formula 2 flake daily and enriched frozen brine (occasionally mysis). I use gamma brine shrimp quartet (a random mix of 2 out of the following - plain, spirulina, garlic, aloe vera, omega 3) and add brightwell AminOmega and Calanus spray (
http://food4fish.co.uk/product/calanus-enrichment-uptake-system/67/) to the frozen before feeding. The banggai only eats frozen, won't touch the flake.
Water params in the DT are - Sal 1.026 / pH 8.05 avg / NO3 1ppm / PO4 0.08 / Alk 9.3 / NO2 0 / NH4 0 / Temp swings from 25-26c several times/day (its on a controller with 1C tolerance). I stopped running GAC (suspected cause of HLLE in coral beauty), dose 9ml vibrant weekly and 4.5ml NoPox daily.
Aside from fish I have various soft corals, 2 tiny hermits, 4 peppermint shrimp, 1 cleaner shrimp, 2 conch and 2 urchins. I did wonder if the peppermints were getting a bit too 'grabby' with the little angel but this wouldnt explain the banggai's fins in QT.
I have ordered some brightwell Vitmarin-M and am attempting to get the angels to eat nori by tearing it up and feeding it like flake, so far they are ignoring it. I was considering getting a UV also, I know it would never eliminate any bacterial problems completely but might help??
Thanks in advance, I apologise for the long post and I'm grateful for the assitance. I'm also thankful that it appears to only be a relatively minor bacterial problem rather than anything more sinister but its very frustrating nontheless knowing the fish are not quite right.
Nick
