Ken's 215G Build

[MooreTankMoreProblems]

Ordered one while they were on sale. Why would you want a DC pump for recirculation? Just curious.

The DC pumps are just more energy efficient. (A lot of people take his reactors and use their own Ecotech S1/S2 pumps) Those might be overkill, but I guess knowing the exact amount of watts being used consistently/percentage you have set them at, you can justify better when its time to clean the pump?

I know Deven from reef dudes uses this setup currently, he would be able to tell us the differences.

 

[Steph72]

I’m so sorry about your orange shoulder tang! It’s so frustrating when you’re being super careful, doing everything by the book, and still lose a little one. They are such sensitive creatures.

 

[kenchilada]

I’m so sorry about your orange shoulder tang! It’s so frustrating when you’re being super careful, doing everything by the book, and still lose a little one. They are such sensitive creatures.

Yes I’m surprised what a punch in the gut losing a fish in quarantine is. I’ve lost my share of fish in display tanks but this was different.

 

[kenchilada]

All those people who say ”quarantine can be cheap” are absolutely full of it. Quarantine is expensive as hell. I have a ton of equipment invested just to run two 20L tanks. The cost of the recommended medications to have on hand is very high. A small vial of metro is $8 and doesn’t last long. It seems like there’s always some other thing I need to order. It takes a huge chunk of space in my garage. Quarantine is not simple and there’s tons of bad advice out there.

I think the cost of properly pre-quarantined fish is probably very reasonable vs the time/dollar/space/emotional investment to do it at home yourself.

 

[Steph72]

All those people who say ”quarantine can be cheap” are absolutely full of it. Quarantine is expensive as hell. I have a ton of equipment invested just to run two 20L tanks. The cost of the recommended medications to have on hand is very high. A small vial of metro is $8 and doesn’t last long. It seems like there’s always some other thing I need to order. It takes a huge chunk of space in my garage. Quarantine is not simple and there’s tons of bad advice out there.

I think the cost of properly pre-quarantined fish is probably very reasonable vs the time/dollar/space/emotional investment to do it at home yourself.

Tell me about it!!! It gets out of control soooo fast. It absolutely crushes me when we lose fish despite making responsible decisions about their care. It’s a terrible feeling. I hope your other babies are doing ok

 

[kenchilada]

Tell me about it!!! It gets out of control soooo fast. It absolutely crushes me when we lose fish despite making responsible decisions about their care. It’s a terrible feeling. I hope your other babies are doing ok

The other fish are hanging in there. The blue tang has ich but he is acting like he doesn’t care - very active, total pig.

The copperband that was in with my orange shoulder started breathing heavy today. My best guess is gill flukes but not sure. With the orange shoulder I tried prazi and it didn’t work out, so reluctant to attempt that again.

Both tanks are at 2ppm copper power with metro. Here the setup...

 

[kenchilada]

Lost the copperband. Exactly like the orange shoulder. I have a thread here. FW dip turned up nothing, and he has zero spots or dust. No clue! I really want to save the remaining sailfin tang!

CBB breathing heavy in QT

I had an orange shoulder tang die earlier this week after I noticed him breathing heavy. Now the CBB in the same tank is breathing heavy as well. The tank is on day 3 of 2.0ppm copper power and I’m dosing metro also. Could it be gill flukes? Should I FW dip him? I haven’t been able to get...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[MrPike]

Perhaps you mentioned it earlier and I missed it, but what are you using to test copper? Also I run copper power at 2.5, and copper safe at 2.0 without obvious problems.

 

[kenchilada]

Perhaps you mentioned it earlier and I missed it, but what are you using to test copper? Also I run copper power at 2.5, and copper safe at 2.0 without obvious problems.

I’m using the Hanna checker. Does 2.5ppm have any advantage over 2.0? I thought 1.5 was therapeutic and 2.0 was high enough for resistant strains but who can keep up?

 

[MrPike]

I think 2.5 is therapeutic for copper power and 2.0 for some of the others. Hanna checker is what I use as well.

I got that from this link https://humble.fish/copper/

 

[kenchilada]

I think 2.5 is therapeutic for copper power and 2.0 for some of the others. Hanna checker is what I use as well.

I got that from this link https://humble.fish/copper/

1.5ppm is minimum therapeutic, so can’t drop below that. Supposedly 2.0ppm is “good enough” and gentler than higher doses. I hope that is correct.

 

[kenchilada]

Sailfin in the death tank still looks good.

In the other tank the blue tang is still covered in ich. I think it’s ich anyway. He’s had it for too long to be velvet and no other fish in the tank has it. He’s still acting normal and eating. Impossible to get a picture of him though.

I wonder how long he has to be in copper before the ich on his body goes away. It’s been 5 days at therapeutic now.

 

[Steph72]

1.5ppm is minimum therapeutic, so can’t drop below that. Supposedly 2.0ppm is “good enough” and gentler than higher doses. I hope that is correct.

I’m pretty sure that’s correct.

 

[kenchilada]

What do you do when QT is going badly?

DOUBLE DOWN AND SETUP MORE QT TANKS!!

Ordered these guys from Divers Den and they arrive tomorrow. I have a Aquaclear 70 on a 5G tub running TurboStart with 2ppm ammonia chloride to seed the filter.

Picked up more QT supplies from Petco because they have 25% off pickup orders right now on top of sale prices... actually a pretty good deal. I pay with gift cards I bought at another 7% discount on top of that.

 

[Steph72]

What do you do when QT is going badly?

DOUBLE DOWN AND SETUP MORE QT TANKS!!

Ordered these guys from Divers Den and they arrive tomorrow. I have a Aquaclear 70 on a 5G tub running TurboStart with 2ppm ammonia chloride to seed the filter.

Picked up more QT supplies from Petco because they have 25% off pickup orders right now on top of sale prices... actually a pretty good deal. I pay with gift cards I bought at another 7% discount on top of that.

I can totally relate.....as I’m currently running 3 quarantine tanks myself! Wishing you all the best with your new babies!!! Divers Den always does such a great job

 

[kenchilada]

The new fish arrived. They look great! The trigger was in six bags. He seems to have a good personality already, not shy.

My blue tang looks much better today as well. I now believe he does not have ich, but bacterial infections and viral lesions. I found a thread on humble.fish of a blue tang that looks exactly like mine and that’s what they suggested it was. So I’m optimistic he will be ok. He is scratching today but still eating and behaving normally other than being a bit skittish.

 

[flyingmoray]

Really sounds like velvet to me but I am no expert. Kind of disappointed if it was velvet and it came in on DD fish. I had velvet go through my system this year and placed blame on clean up crew not DD fish. Velvet won't die while it's on the fish only when it's off. So if the copper was too low when you first introduced the fish and they came with it, that could explain it. Awesome build so far and sorry for the struggles.

 

[kenchilada]

Really sounds like velvet to me but I am no expert. Kind of disappointed if it was velvet and it came in on DD fish. I had velvet go through my system this year and placed blame on clean up crew not DD fish. Velvet won't die while it's on the fish only when it's off. So if the copper was too low when you first introduced the fish and they came with it, that could explain it. Awesome build so far and sorry for the struggles.

I have had no trouble with any of the Diver's Den fish yet. The first orange shoulder was from a local store. I don't know what killed him but it didn't quite align with velvet (no spots or other symptoms just heavy breathing).

The new orange shoulder from Diver's Den (that I got yesterday) is scratching on the floor a bit though!

 

[kenchilada]

Quarantining seems to be going well at the moment.

Tanks 1/2 will be done with copper 12/25 so I’m trying to figure out where to transfer them to. More filters, heaters, etc to buy!! The blue tang seems almost over his bacterial issues and he is very active now and very fat.

Tank 3, the triggerfish is eating a ton of pellets and mysis now. The orange shoulder is eating pellets but doesn’t touch nori yet.

I’m taking off work a few days next week and will be bracing under the house to support the tank. I should have water in this thing by end of year I hope. Then again, I’m probably missing some plumbing parts or something.

 

[kenchilada]

Quarantine going badly again. I think my blue tang has ammonia burn and he’s now in methylene blue. I’m not sure why since I’m doing water changes and everything else one is supposed to do. I’ve never had this much trouble with any aspect of the hobby. I might have to throw in the towel on it.