I got into this hobby, why???

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Rgbpixels

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This is the most expensive, rewarding, frustrating, I want to pull my hair out hobby I have ever got involved in.
I set up my dream tank. Wired it and plumbed it so everything is neat and tidy. Took great pride in doing so. Started with dead, dry rock and sand. Set up a QT system. Did everything “right.” All fish were qt’d for 30 days and treated prophylactically. DT has been running perfectly for 8 months. I added my new 3 fish after QT and it is all going very badly. Bad outbreak of ich. Kole tang died sat/sun, royal gramma is almost gone now. And many others are not looking good. Can’t catch any of them to put them in QT. Trying to save my tank by dosing rally and kick ick as the only reef safe treatment I can find. Ordered a UV sterilizer (to help prevent- not a cure all, issues in the future).
I am a grown man that just wants to cry as my dream tank is crashing hard. My happy place is now turning into a nightmare. Ok, so I may be a little over dramatic right now.
Phew. Ok. I feel a little better. Thanks for letting me vent.
 
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Top Shelf Aquatics
I understand your frustration. If I had any hair left I'd sometimes like to pull mine out as well lol. Just a friendly reminder that this is a family friendly forum, so let's keep the language at a G rating please :)
 
Deltec
Sorry for your troubles. I feel your pain and wish you the best. I have a new tank and the little issues have been frustrating at times.

Actually for me, I bought a Wheeler's Goby pair and pistol shrimp last week. They came on Saturday and I was so excited. I acclimated just as DD recommended. By Sunday the shrimp died. Then just this morning my wife called me and said one of the fish died. I'm sitting here at work gutted. It's harder than I expected to loose a fish. I'm so bummed.
 
timrocks311 said:
Sorry for your troubles. I feel your pain and wish you the best. I have a new tank and the little issues have been frustrating at times.

Actually for me, I bought a Wheeler's Goby pair and pistol shrimp last week. They came on Saturday and I was so excited. I acclimated just as DD recommended. By Sunday the shrimp died. Then just this morning my wife called me and said one of the fish died. I'm sitting here at work gutted. It's harder than I expected to loose a fish. I'm so bummed.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear. Hang in there.
 
Rgbpixels said:
This is the most expensive, rewarding, frustrating, I want to pull my hair out hobby I have ever got involved in.
Click to expand...

I totally agree with you here. So sorry for your loss. Unfortunately you are going to have to get all the fish out and let your tank go fallow for 76 days. Or employ ich management in your system going forward. This is by far the most frustrating thing for me right now is wanting to add more fish but not wanting to deal with the whole parasite, quarantine and losing fish cycle.
 
BRS
And then there were six...
Clowns, flame angel, anthias, and azure damsel. All died between yesterday and today.
Down to yellow tang, hippo tang, 3 azure damsels and a neon dottyback.
 
I'm sorry for your troubles. I know it's frustrating. I've been there a few times even with strict QT on all things going into the display. I feel your pain, but don't give up. You'll get back to that happy place again and be proud that you were able to endure to get there.
 
dont stress the fish out any more... keep them fed, keep them happy - dont mess with dosing things you dont absolutely know about and try to take out any unfortunate fallen ones as soon as you can.
Keep your arm out of water as much as you can, keep your self away from the tank and let the fish be.

This is an inevitability (in MOST cases) and it is bound to happen.
Its in your system, it will stay there. Key is to keep your fish happy and healthy and fed and their immune system up.

Its a loss of life and loss of money -
after putting so much into the tank - i can imagine and relate to how you feel. Many do.
But you will get the hang of it - and staying on top of things - will again have a wonderful tank soon.

Dont worry - you got it!
 
AS
I feel your pain, lost all of our fish, several times (like throwing another log on the fire) before we discovered the ugly word called "velvet". We are almost at the end of our 76 days of being fallow just in case a touch of ich was in play. My wife and I were also devistated and gutted. For the last couple of months I just sit and watch the inverts and corals for hours, my wife thinks I'm crazy! She keeps asking what im looking at, and pointed out that all the fish are dead. I love the hobby so much just seeing the living stuff in the tank keeps the fire burning inside. I have met some awesome people on here thats willing to teach/help people like you and me through the growing pains. Just keep that fire burning brother and you will get it going. We all go through a learning phase or get hit with something beyond our control no matter what precautions we have taken. If it were easy we wouldn't appreciate the final outcome of a successful reef.
 
Thanks everyone one. I appreciate the kind words and encouragement. I’m in the process of setting up a 50 gallon qt tank that will hold the 6 survivors if I get them in time.
Does letting the tank sit without fish for 76 days kill everything or just ich?
 
From what I understand velvet is a shorter fallow period than ich. 76 days from what I understand will take care of both. They need the fish to host on.
 
www.dinkinsaquaticgardens.com
Rgbpixels said:
Thanks everyone one. I appreciate the kind words and encouragement. I’m in the process of setting up a 50 gallon qt tank that will hold the 6 survivors if I get them in time.
Does letting the tank sit without fish for 76 days kill everything or just ich?
Click to expand...

76 days should get rid of all parasites in the tank except for uronema which can live without a fish host.
 
I noticed the clown fish had a white haze to them a day or so before they died as well.
 
Sounds like your loosing them fast are you sure it's not velvet? You might want to put some pics out there so these guys can take a look. Just a suggestion.
 
hdsoftail1065 said:
Sounds like your loosing them fast are you sure it's not velvet? You might want to put some pics out there so these guys can take a look. Just a suggestion.
Click to expand...

It was definitely ich to start but I agree I think velvet took hold at some point as well.
 
This is what I would suggest as it would cover the possibility of ich, velvet and brook (I'm adding brook because of the "white film" on the clownfish).

The short version:
  • 5 minute freshwater dip
  • Immediately afterwards, perform a chemical bath (in saltwater matching SG/temp the fish came from). You have two options:
  1. Acriflavine (preferred) - Do the bath for 75-90 minutes, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain acriflavine: Acriflavine-MS and Ruby Reef Rally. DO NOT mix acriflavine with any other chemicals.
  2. Formalin - Do the bath for 30-60 minutes max, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain formalin: Formalin-MS, Quick Cure, Aquarium Solutions Ich-X, Kordon Rid-Ich Plus. Use protection (rubber gloves, face mask, eye protection, etc.) whenever handling formalin as it is a known carcinogen! However, you can add Methylene Blue to the formalin bath (1 capful per 2-3 gallons of bath water.)
  • After the bath, place the fish in a QT pre-dosed at 80mg/gal using Chloroquine phosphate. In theory, copper (exs. Cupramine, Coppersafe, Copper Power) should work just as well as CP. However, due to how fast velvet can reproduce you don’t have the luxury of slowly ramping up the copper level as is normally advised. Therefore, the fish needs to be placed in a QT with copper already at minimum therapeutic levels. This is the advantage CP has over copper in this particular situation.
  • While in QT, use a wide spectrum antibiotic (exs. Seachem Kanaplex, Furan-2) for the first week to ward off any possible bacterial infections. Secondary bacterial infections are very common in fish with preexisting parasitic infestations such as velvet.
  • Keep the fish in CP or copper (at therapeutic levels) for one month. However, you can transfer the fish into a non-medicated holding tank for observation after just two weeks (explained below). DO NOT lower the CP or copper level before transferring.

Check this link for more information and detail https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/
 
Deltec
melypr1985 said:
This is what I would suggest as it would cover the possibility of ich, velvet and brook (I'm adding brook because of the "white film" on the clownfish).

The short version:
  • 5 minute freshwater dip
  • Immediately afterwards, perform a chemical bath (in saltwater matching SG/temp the fish came from). You have two options:
  1. Acriflavine (preferred) - Do the bath for 75-90 minutes, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain acriflavine: Acriflavine-MS and Ruby Reef Rally. DO NOT mix acriflavine with any other chemicals.
  2. Formalin - Do the bath for 30-60 minutes max, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain formalin: Formalin-MS, Quick Cure, Aquarium Solutions Ich-X, Kordon Rid-Ich Plus. Use protection (rubber gloves, face mask, eye protection, etc.) whenever handling formalin as it is a known carcinogen! However, you can add Methylene Blue to the formalin bath (1 capful per 2-3 gallons of bath water.)
  • After the bath, place the fish in a QT pre-dosed at 80mg/gal using Chloroquine phosphate. In theory, copper (exs. Cupramine, Coppersafe, Copper Power) should work just as well as CP. However, due to how fast velvet can reproduce you don’t have the luxury of slowly ramping up the copper level as is normally advised. Therefore, the fish needs to be placed in a QT with copper already at minimum therapeutic levels. This is the advantage CP has over copper in this particular situation.
  • While in QT, use a wide spectrum antibiotic (exs. Seachem Kanaplex, Furan-2) for the first week to ward off any possible bacterial infections. Secondary bacterial infections are very common in fish with preexisting parasitic infestations such as velvet.
  • Keep the fish in CP or copper (at therapeutic levels) for one month. However, you can transfer the fish into a non-medicated holding tank for observation after just two weeks (explained below). DO NOT lower the CP or copper level before transferring.

Check this link for more information and detail https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/
Click to expand...

THANK YOU!
 

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