Gilroy 425g Build Thread (All Apex, all the time)

[Terence]

Where did you get your skimmer from? I'm asking because I have a Reef Octopus Elite 200INT that has the white dc pump and the red controller. I would like to get the new white octo controller for it so I can have some control from my Apex.

Thanks

I bought the skimmer from CoralVue. I would ask them if there is a retailer where you might be able to pick one up.

 

[Terence]

Sad news

I had some sort of disease outbreak in the tank right before I left for vacation last week. Pretty sure it was ich. Lost a couple of fish before I left and a lot more while I was gone. No time to try and catch and hospitalize. Pretty bummed. But that is the way things go.

Nothing showed any signs of sickness when they went in, but that means nothing.

Gotta get a good quarantine and hospital system up and running.

At this point I have three yellow tangs, the purple tang, a convict tang, melanarus, couple of chromis, and a starry blenny still doing well and showing no signs of disease - maybe they had some immunity. The Purple was pretty much covered when I left on my trip and now he shows nothing at all. Guess we will have to see on the next cycle.

 

[DLuce510]

Sad news

I had some sort of disease outbreak in the tank right before I left for vacation last week. Pretty sure it was ich. Lost a couple of fish before I left and a lot more while I was gone. No time to try and catch and hospitalize. Pretty bummed. But that is the way things go.

Nothing showed any signs of sickness when they went in, but that means nothing.

Gotta get a good quarantine and hospital system up and running.

At this point I have three yellow tangs, the purple tang, a convict tang, melanarus, couple of chromis, and a starry blenny still doing well and showing no signs of disease - maybe they had some immunity. The Purple was pretty much covered when I left on my trip and now he shows nothing at all. Guess we will have to see on the next cycle.

You lost the Borb!?!?!

 

[Terence]

Ugh...you caught that...yes...I even wrote that above in such a way as I could avoid writing that I lost him. It. Hurts. Bad.

Honestly in all my years so far I have never, ever seen an outbreak like this in my tanks. I think it was exasperated by the immaturity of the tank and that there were probably hardly any other microscopic natural predators of the parasites so the outbreak was that much more severe.

I have to move on. Still waiting on my lights. Going shopping soon for the granite.

Just got two barstools for the integrated bar table.

 

[SPotter]

First....im really sorry for the losses! It sucks when fish die! I'm sure I'll get flamed by someone for what I'm about to write but I'm going to share my experience with ich. It's just my experience and I don't claim it to be the absolute answer to the problem. It's worked for me so far so here it goes....

My tank has been running for 18 months now and while I do get an ich outbreak from time to time, I have not lost a fish to ich yet. I run an 80w UV and have a cleaner wrasse in the tank. I isolate all new fish in a separate tank to make sure they're eating before they're put into the display. I don't use any medication since the isolation tank is plumbed into my main system. Once they're eating and don't go into hiding as soon as they see me they get put into the display. Every so often I'll see a couple of spots on my hippo tang and they usually disappear in a couple of days. Now I know many people feel UV's are useless and the same for cleaner wrasses but it's worked for me and thought I'd share my experience with you.

 

[Terence]

Your experience is similar to mine in the past as well. I had a 100w UV on my 210g and would see ich show itself mildly on a couple of tangs from time to time but I never lost a fish. However, that tank was very mature tank as I purchased it from someone else and kept all the rock, water, sand, etc. when I moved it. I also added in rock and sand from my 110g I was upgrading from. I think that there are things going on at the micro-fauna level that may help to inhibit these things from getting too far out of control. All speculation on my part, but it seems logical.

 

[SPotter]

I did purchase rock from a 5 yr old tank when set mine up so it was seeded with mature rock which I'm sure created a less stressful situation. My friends thought I was crazy when I added 3 purple, 3 desjardini and 3 yellow tangs all at the same time. They swore I'd get ich and lose them because I didn't qt them. I'm not huge fan of qt because I feel like sometimes the treatment is harder on the fish than the disease itself. All of the tangs survived and no signs of ich were seen.

 

[DLuce510]

Sorry to bring it out in the open man. I'm sure I can speak for most of us to say we feel your pain. Unfortunately sometimes it's part of the hobby. I'm sure your system will bounce back even greater than before, nothing happens by accident, just a part of the path my friend.

 

[Terence]

Oh, I know. This is not my first rodeo. This will be my fifth reef display tank at home. I have two in my personal office and we have many others around our offices. It comes with the territory. Sometimes you take gambles and when they have always paid off in the past you feel you are ahead of the curve. Sadly some great fish paid the price and for that I feel horrible. But, it was fish disease. It happens. Hopefully the next cycle for these microscopic nightmares will not be as bad. Eventually (soon) going to have to set up the quarantine tank and have a hospital tank ready to go at all times.

 

[psirex]

RIP Borb.....

 

[Turbonut]

Any more info on using the dos pumps on your calcium reactor?

 

[Terence]

Any more info on using the dos pumps on your calcium reactor?

I just have been too busy. I am hoping to get to this project by the end of the week. The reactor is keeping the tank at 7dKh right now so I need to get to it.

 

[jl283467]

Any news on the lights I'm starting a new reef tank and would love to know what your going with

 

[revhtree Verified Admin]

Sorry about the fish loss!

 

[Terence]

Hoping to spend some serious time in the Fish Cave this weekend. Have a number of projects to do from cleaning up some wiring to setting up my DŌS on my Calcium Reactor to just all around straightening things out and cleaning things up in the area. Wish me luck on finding the time!

 

[Damion]

You don't find time Terence, you make time! Lol
But all in due time, of course.

 

[Tru REEF]

You probably have ten times the experience I do, but i agree with your statement it was just a young tank, had my first crash a 4 months i almost expect it now on new builds. Awesome thread and beautiful tank. Cant wait to see this tank a year from now stuffed and thriving GOOD LUCK on the time and the tank..[HASHTAG]#Following[/HASHTAG]

 

[Dxpert]

Great updates! I also really like the idea of having your camera's swicthed by the apex. I've got a raspberry Pi with 4 web Cam's attached and every so often it needs a restart. I'm also very excited to see the skimmer neck extension, I had no idea.

 

[mmw64]

Loved reading about this build. Live not too far away in Modesto. Could you share where you purchase your fish and corals?

 

[Terence]

You really can't go wrong with Neptune Aquatics for a LFS. They are in San Jose and are closest to me. Be sure to tell them Terence sent you. I also buy online from a variety of the usual places. When in SoCal I always like to drop into the candy store of my hometown stomping grounds of the San Fernando Valley - namely Unique Corals.