SirRoot's WB 60.2+ Build

SirRoot · Jan 24, 2020

My coral and BTA arrived today and everyone seems to be doing well. Dipped the coral in CoralRX and just did a slow drip acclimation for the BTA. I didn't worry too much about coral placement today as I figured they already had enough stress due to shipping so we'll figure that out later. I also received my algae barn order with some pods/ocean magic and a small ball of chaeto. I setup a Zetlight E100 along with the chaeto in the sump just to experiment a bit but again I have low expectations. Lastly I started feeding Reef Nutrition TDO to the Clowns and they are loving it - thinking about a sand sifting goby next.

Here a quick video a few hours after introducing the bunch to the tank. Also attaching photos of the day including the some of the coral closed when they were first introduced.

SirRoot · Feb 1, 2020

Quick Update -

I picked a Lubbock’s Fairy Wrasse and a Sailfin Algae Blenny from my LFS (Manhattan Aquariums NYC) on Wednesday. I was hesitant on getting a Wrasse due to the tank size but after some research here on R2R the Lubbock’s seemed like an OK fit. After the commute home to Long Island and putting them both through a bath of “Safety Stop Quarantine” they went into the tank. The Blenny took just fine but the Wrasse was another story. As soon as he entered the tank he went into a rock cave and was laying upside down for the entire night. I went to bed thinking the Wrasse wasn’t going to make it and seeing him in the exact same stop the next morning I was pretty upset. I wanted to “poke” him a bit because I didn't want to leave for work with a dead fish in my tank so I turned off the lights and shined my flashlight right onto him and what-a-know a flinch! I l squirted some mysis in his cave and left for the day. Today, the Lubbock's Wrasse seems happy, loves to swim in and out of rock caves, and hunts for leftover mysis. It's still early but if all goes well I’m thinking he’s going to be a real joy to watch. The Blenny is doing good too - I’m trying to get him to eat some Hikari seaweed extreme but he seems to be content picking on some of my new tank algae. My clowns are annoying...they are hosting the bottom back corner of my tank with the BTA inches from their spot. I’m hoping once they get some size they will explore the tank a bit more.

I also ordered a frag of a Blue Green Candy Cane as well as some SPS frags (Montipora Cap, Rainbow Granulosa, and a Poison Ivy something). just to see what happens.

Other news - I found a single aptasia in my clean chaeto. I thought it was just dead algea at first but then I saw it move and eventually anchor itself onto some sump rock. Thanks to the Critter ID forum sticky here on R2R I knew what I was dealing with so I took the rock out...scraped it off, and put some epoxy over the anchor point.

Attaching some photos...I need to learn how to take better pictures =).

Blknovass · Feb 1, 2020

Sorry to say it’s been my experience if you have cheato then your going to deal with aptasia. I use aptasia rx to get rid of it and have a yellow coris wrasse.

Blknovass · Feb 1, 2020

By the way nice looking wrasse!

SirRoot · Feb 2, 2020

Off topic:

Took my son to the Long Island Aquarium today. He loves bouncing around from display to display and the reef tanks are amazing so we're frequent visitors. Here are some photos:

Blknovass · Feb 2, 2020

I got my son interested in our tank at around 4 years of age and now he is 10 and he goes everywhere with me when it comes to tank or reef shows. I can’t tell you how much I cherish the time I get with him doing this. Keep it up very cool!

SirRoot · Feb 3, 2020

Google Assistant Auto Generated Gif:

SirRoot · Mar 2, 2020

Quick Update -

About 3 weeks ago now I noticed white spots on my Fairy Wrasse and was pretty bummed that it was likely ich and that it was there to stay. I didn’t notice a behavior change and sure enough the Wrasse seemed OK at least to my untrained eye. A week or so later my smaller clown (who was always a bit timid and skid-dish) began showing signs of ich but this time there was also a behavior change. After a day or so of sluggish behavior he ended up dying. I then lied to myself saying the fish was skid-dish since the day I got him and he was probably over stressed which was the reason for the mortality. I quickly replaced him two days later with a clown that was a bit bigger and looked great and got along perfectly with the existing clown. After a few days of this I thought I was in the clear but eventually the new clown began showing signs of ich (maybe even brook) and ultimately died. After this I came to the conclusion it would be very irresponsible and very unfulfilling constantly replacing fish and crossing my fingers nothing in my tank would infect and ultimately kill the ~~livestock~~ pets I house in my tank. I decided dive deep into some QT practices and am now prepping for a fallow period along with a treatment period for my current live stock. I am a bit worried for a few reasons:

Can a 10g QT realistically house / maintain a happy Lubbock’s fairy wrasse, algae blenny, and two small clowns for ~80 days (30 being medicated). Getting the AB to eat will be a challenge.
Planning to replace the fallen clown now vs later seems like a good idea to get the QT over and done but concerned of aggression / additional bio load may make me regret this also.
Have Fritz Turbo start and other seeding bacteria from Algae Barn to aid in quick cycle but I know this is something that I’ll have to monitor closely.
Cross contamination scares me and believe it will make for a very stressful 80ish days

Anyway - I’ve decided this is the route I’m taking and not looking back. Already have the QT up and running with just a few supplies in transit (mainly the Copper Hanna Checker). The plan is to move the fish to QT let them settle a week or two (thus starting the fallow timer) then start the medicated period (or first signs of illness). Fingers are crossed.

SirRoot · Mar 9, 2020

Mistakes were made.

Getting the single clown fish out of my Display tank was a breeze but the Algae Blenny and Wrasse was a complete disaster. After several days with no luck I decided I had to move some rock to get them out. One rock after another I broke down my rock scape and was ultimately able to get the Wrasse with a fish net and the Blenny by cornering him on a rock and removing the entire rock. As I stood over my broken down rock scape the frustration hit hard and in a knee jerk / emotion filled reaction I decided I was going to restart my display tank. At the time I convinced myself it was the right time as I had a 78 day fallow period in front of me and I had a laundry list of mistakes I wish to have corrected so why not now. I scrambled to get all the coral, anemones, snails, and shrimp into my quarantine tank (not medicated yet), rock in water filled buckets, and with the help of my Dad I completely emptied and cleaned my display, sump and equipment. The next morning I had my display back up and running and with my new scape in place (same rock) I dosed some left over Fritz Turbo Start for good measure and let the water circulate for 2 days. Today I moved all but the fish back into the display tank and things appear to be okay but only time will tell. It was a pretty disastrous weekend but my fingers are crossed that the stress and effort will be worth it in the end. I wanted to address some key issues I believe were mistakes in my initial tank setup and it was now or never. The biggest ones were:

Fiji Pink Fine Grain Sand - I found this grain size just too small to achieve any sort of flow without blowing sand everywhere. I feel this led to a few hard to reach detritus areas that contributed to dirty display.
Long rock arch “overpass” - While I definitely loved how my scape looked previously the under area had almost no flow and was just a pit of detritus. Getting my siphon in there was doable but was difficult to manage.
Rock in sump / makeshift refugium in the skimmer chamber - Yet another detritus trap. With the flow leaving the skimmer chamber of the bottom end and left over rock blocking the path the detritus was just essentially being mechanically filtered here and ignored for weeks.

I’m electing to go bare bottom with a single “pile” of rock centered in my tank for the scape with a sump completely void of any rock. I’m hoping this decision will pan out in the long run but again only time will tell if this just ends up on the list of another mistake. Now that the two clowns (replaced the lost one), wrasse, and AB are in my QT I'll let them sit there for about a week before kick starting the medicated process.

SirRoot · Mar 27, 2020

Fallow Day 18 of 76. Fish seem to be doing well so I started the initial dose of Copper Power. Also I began treating the water with Metroplex last week with no noticable behavior changes. Slow and steady.

SirRoot · Apr 17, 2020

Day 39 of 76 Day Fallow. Fish doing great and are currently on day 18 of 30 with Copper Power @ 2ppm. Dealing with some hair algea in DT but only resorting to manual removal as I figure it's probably due to dry rock still leaching some some phosphate.

SirRoot · Apr 20, 2020

Noticed my two clowns in QT are vibrating / shaking. Pretty sure this is them just doing their thing forming a potential bonded pair...or at least I hope so.

Blknovass · Apr 20, 2020

SirRoot said:
Noticed my two clowns in QT are vibrating / shaking. Pretty sure this is them just doing their thing forming a potential bonded pair...or at least I hope so.

I’m sure there fine just dancing for each other.

roosterreefer · Sep 3, 2021

All that build-up and suspense - but no updates for more than a year. It's like waiting for the next season of a show that gets canceled. Anyone know if he ever got a tank going he was happy with?