Reefing Questions & Answers

[Zach B]

Here we can ask questions pertaining to Reefing, Tanks, Equipment, etc & hopefully work as a team to answer those questions! Please keep this thread clean, friendly & related to Reefing! Have Fun & Good Luck

 

[Viperdragon]

I was wondering what everyone does for QT if anything. I'm kinda nervous going to be getting a pair of clowns soon for the first fish in the tank after fish less cycle.

 

[Joe31415]

I have a, still empty, DT but two clowns in a fish QT and 6 frags in a fishless QT.
I was on the fence about the QT thing, but I'm glad I did it, even if I now have FIVE tanks set up around my house (DT, fish QT, fishless QT and two for TTM). The two clowns seemed just fine but after a preventative round of copper and other meds one of them still got ich or velvet (hence the TTM set up). So I'm glad that wasn't in the DT. Also, I put a picture up here of one of my frags to ask a question and someone noticed a vermietid snail, that I always thought was just a polyp. So one less hitchhiker to make it into the tank.
Granted, getting ick or invasive snails in my DT from almost day 1 wouldn't have been a big enough problem to cause me to get out of the hobby. I have enough money invested here that, at most, I would have just drained the tanks, cleaned everything and started over. But, if I were, say, several years into it and maybe my interest was waning, I could see ich or snails being enough to make me decide to be done with it.

 

[WIReefer]

I was wondering what everyone does for QT if anything. I'm kinda nervous going to be getting a pair of clowns soon for the first fish in the tank after fish less cycle.

I treat all fish with copper power at 2.25ppm with Hanna copper checker. After that I do a dose of general cure and observe then they are allowed to enter tank.

 

[anthonygf]

Here we can ask questions pertaining to Reefing, Tanks, Equipment, etc & hopefully work as a team to answer those questions! Please keep this thread clean, friendly & related to Reefing! Have Fun & Good Luck

Are you saying I need to wash my hands before entering the forum?

 

[JayRozzer]

H2O2 bath, then into 1.0ppm copper which I gradually raise to 2.5ppm. Once at 2.5ppm I dose metro every 48 hrs for 14 days. After that the fish is taken out and moved to a sterile tank for two rounds of general cure. If I have a fish that withstands copper well I’ll do 30 days and not move the fish.

 

[JayRozzer]

Does anyone know where you can find acrylic rods/tubes? Looking to make a mandarin feeder and need a tube.

 

[WIReefer]

Looking at adding a good size cuc to the new system. Where does everyone get there’s at? Suggestions would be awesome. I have dealt with best fish and reef cleaners before would like to try a different place.

 

[Viperdragon]

My tanks is now in the ugly stage and I was wondering if I change filter socks every day will it help the diotom outbreak

 

[adittam]

My tanks is now in the ugly stage and I was wondering if I change filter socks every day will it help the diotom outbreak

I’m not an expert, but I believe that making sure your RODI water is at 0 TDS before mixing salt will help to minimize diatom outbreaks. They should just go away on their own after a couple weeks once the silicates are used up from your sand or rocks, as long as you aren’t adding more with your water changes.

 

[JayRozzer]

My tanks is now in the ugly stage and I was wondering if I change filter socks every day will it help the diotom outbreak

My only $.02 is to make sure your nitrates and phosphates don’t bottom out. Seems counterintuitive but you do not want dinos. Let the ugly stage run it’s course for however long it needs. GHA/diatoms are much preferred over dinos.

 

[cwerner]

My only $.02 is to make sure your nitrates and phosphates don’t bottom out. Seems counterintuitive but you do not want dinos. Let the ugly stage run it’s course for however long it needs. GHA/diatoms are much preferred over dinos.

I can vouch for this advice personally. At first I had insufficient nutrient control and was getting diatoms and GHA in the display. I hooked up an algae scrubber and 3 weeks later my nitrates and phosphates were completely stripped out and I'm fighting dinos now. Not a fun time.

To throw in my own two cents it seems the thing that wears out most quickly on an RODI is the DI resin. It might be worth it to get that BRS dual canister system or upgrade to a larger unit if yours is one of the smaller tubes.

 

[Viperdragon]

So I got another question. I lost a royal gramma and a blenny to ich. My clown fish are doing just fine. I tired to just ride it out and now have a uv. I know I should have quarantine all fish but if my clown fish never get it will the number go down of ich in the tank for future fish. I do t have the room where I am currently stayi g to qt everything that goes Into the tank.

 

[adittam]

So I got another question. I lost a royal gramma and a blenny to ich. My clown fish are doing just fine. I tired to just ride it out and now have a uv. I know I should have quarantine all fish but if my clown fish never get it will the number go down of ich in the tank for future fish. I do t have the room where I am currently stayi g to qt everything that goes Into the tank.

The clowns might not die from ich, but they can certainly carry it and give it to future fish that go in the tank.

 

[cwerner]

I personally run an ich-free tank, but there are others that practice Ich management with plenty of success.

It's quite a time commitment to quarantine everything in copper for that full 76 days. There are some threads on here about the QT process. I've got a 20 gallon tank setup in my basement that I use for QT.

 

[Jon's Reef]

Lots of good info on the net about ich. My understanding is that it lives on the fish, lays eggs and die. The babies hatch and live in the water column then when it hits a certain stage they reinfect the fish.

The UV can kill it in the water column if you have high enough dose and enough tank turnover (this is the “Protozoa” value in the UV tables). With the UV running at that level, the ich will likely stay at a low level (“managed”) but it will be there.

To outright kill it you have to treat with Cu or use the tank transfer method. Cu kills the babies in the water column instantly while tank transfer uses specific timing to interrupt the cycle.

 

[littlebeard]

I bought a goni about 3 almost 4 months ago. Apparently they can release stinging cells into the water... and yes, this one does... owww... Now I have to glove up or risk getting stung whenever I put my hand in the tank. At first it was ok, but now it's an extra step to right any frag that gets knocked over. I'm debating on getting rid of it... Is this something that is tradable or know some LFS I can take it to get store credit?

 

[Viperdragon]

So I yesterday I got a flame angle that is smaller then my purple tang. The purple tang wouldn't let him out of the rocks so I put a mirror on the side of the tank to help with aggressiveness of the purple tang. He has been fighting himself for over 8 hours should I leave the mirror till he is done or should I remove it

 

[Zach B]

So I yesterday I got a flame angle that is smaller then my purple tang. The purple tang wouldn't let him out of the rocks so I put a mirror on the side of the tank to help with aggressiveness of the purple tang. He has been fighting himself for over 8 hours should I leave the mirror till he is done or should I remove it

I think @vetteguy53081 would know best

 

[Zach B]

I bought a goni about 3 almost 4 months ago. Apparently they can release stinging cells into the water... and yes, this one does... owww... Now I have to glove up or risk getting stung whenever I put my hand in the tank. At first it was ok, but now it's an extra step to right any frag that gets knocked over. I'm debating on getting rid of it... Is this something that is tradable or know some LFS I can take it to get store credit?

I missed this somehow.. that is crazy! What did you end up doing?