150g Treasure Tank

[Eienna]

Well, here I am again. Getting a lot better at this stuff, but I always have more to learn. This is the second best treasure in my little world.

No fish in it right now, as following a stubborn case of ich I am opting to keep the tank fallow for four months. The tricky part is keeping up with keeping the quarantine clean with 2 tangs and 3 other fish in a 40! I'm hoping to sell the mata tang...there's a sale thread for that.

I also need berghia...badly...the aiptasia is taking over....

I do have a nutrient problem currently, and am working to change that. I started to set up my refugium, then broke the bulb on the light. XP I've also begun vinegar dosing. We'll see what happens.

 

[Mo-sachi]

I hope it all works out for you. Seems you have a solid plan in quarantining the live stock. I can appreciate a minimalist scape, but how do you clean the back of the tank? There seems not much room, if any?

 

[Eienna]

I hope it all works out for you. Seems you have a solid plan in quarantining the live stock. I can appreciate a minimalist scape, but how do you clean the back of the tank? There seems not much room, if any?

Actually, I intentionally don't clean the back wall. I want it to grow stuffs as kind of a background. As for the sand in the back, I can reach that with a tool or bend down reeeeally far XD

The increased flow from replacing the undersized return pump it had has mostly eliminated dead spots, though, so I don't have to get back there often.

As for a minimalist scape, I would like some more rock in the back right corner, but it's currently looking pretty good to me n_n

 

[Eienna]

I haven't posted parameters yet because (embarassingly enough) the nitrate and phosphate are beyond my test kits' range. Once I get it down to where it can be read, I'll post it.

 

[Davesgt]

Looks like a solid plan, cant wait to see it in 5-6 months from now.

 

[Eienna]

Looks like a solid plan, cant wait to see it in 5-6 months from now.

Glad to hear that! n_n I've got a lot of work to do, but at least it's now in my own home, where I can attend to it more than once per week.

 

[Eienna]

(double post)

 

[Eienna]

Apparently Duncans are very susceptible to brown jelly disease. Mine has had it 3 times, always just after moving the rocks around. It's easily injured, it seems. Peroxide baths with very gentle manual removal seems to work well. It's pretty bad this time, though. I hope it pulls through. :/

 

[Eienna]

Sooo two things.
My Duncan is alive and fairly open, but the tentacles on the polyps are not extending as nicely as before, and I am concerned I may yet lose the colony.

I am currently running LEDs and, as acans are one of my favorite corals and I am having the same issues described in the video (such as apparently healthy torch polyps detaching from their skeleton), I'm going to attempt to go half-T5s on this tank and see what happens. My T5 fixture is currently on my QT tank, so I will have to wait a while before attempting it. If that does not solve the problems, I will save up for a 4-bulb T5 fixture. I'm also planning to buy the new E5 bulbs for it as soon as I am financially able (after the berghias...which could be a while...bleh).

 

[Eienna]

Maybe that's not the best plan. If the corals do not respond well to using the T5s for as much light as I can get from a 2-bulb fixture and just using LED to fill in the gaps, I'll probably stick with the LEDs, suspecting a different cause.

 

[Salty1962]

Keep digging at it, you'll get it under control. Nothing ever happens fast in this hobby. Love the aquascaping. Keep us posted.

 

[Eienna]

Keep digging at it, you'll get it under control. Nothing ever happens fast in this hobby. Love the aquascaping. Keep us posted.

Thank you n_n I do intend to add a little more rock to the back-right-corner. I might be able to get my local fish store guy to trade me rocks I like for the ones I don't XDD

This really is a great time to fool with things like the lighting or scaping. I have no fish in it right now, so there's no chance of trapping or injuring or upsetting any of them.

I do have a very sad thing to announce, though. Our snowflake eel, Nailo, somehow got himself out of his _covered_ QT tank and ended up...well...it's a bad image in my mind so I don't think I'll describe it. RIP Nailo...we loved you. Honestly I'm grateful I found him rather than my significant other. I believe it would have upset her even worse, because it was her eel. After discovering he didn't fit down the toilet, I walked out and put him straight in the dumpster. No place to bury him out here. Anyway...it's a sad thing...I did my best to keep that tank covered and safe but...poop happens, I suppose.

To clear up any confusion caused by that last post...yes, I am female. My darling, however, is male-to-female transgender. She's got a ways to go but she's already my beautiful girl, so...yeah. Kinda weird, considering I've been straight my entire life. She's just so awesome that I fell in love with her inside self. She treats me better than I had dared to dream. What her body becomes...I don't care anymore, as long as she's happy. My reef, as I said, is my second-greatest treasure. My darling is my first.

 

[Eienna]

Soooo I lost my Duncan yesterday. It was STN'ing so I tried to frag off the one head I thought was healthy and accidentally crushed it. RIP Duncan coral. I'm definitely feeling down right about now.

 

[Eienna]

I'm sure by now many of you who have read my threads think I don't care about my animals.
I do - to the extent of sometimes being TOO proactive and breaking something trying to fix it.

My love for the animals under my care has certainly shown its face the last few days. I've really never had hives before, but ever since those three losses (getting worse every loss) inside of this last month or so, I'm getting hives on the backs of my hands. It took me a while to realize why...it's the stress of fearing I'm going to wake up to something else dead or dying. Or more, it's the fact that I can do nothing about it other than what I'm already doing. God, help me please....it's going to be a very long four months' wait to let the fish back into the main tank and change up the lighting so that it's no longer LED-only.

On the upside, my dearest took me to (dare I say this on an aquarium forum?) all-you-can-eat sushi and the LFS today, which cheered me up immensely. I thank God every day for my beloved.

 

[Eienna]

I'm considering trying a little experiment. I want to do away with my filter socks and use filter-feeding inverts instaid, such as sponges and feather duster worms. I'd still be using my skimmer.

 

[Eienna]

OK, new theory on why those corals died. My phosphate is now a respectable 1.36 thanks to a trick I learned using iron to precipitate it (the iron is affected as well, so it doesn't get to toxic levels if I'm careful.) My nitrate, however, is still off the Red Sea test charts, so it must have been sky-high when I started dosing vinegar. Gotta keep working on it. Maybe it's not my lights after all.

 

[Eienna]

Okayyy
480 calcium
12.5 alk (oops, a bit too high)
1500 magnesium

 

[Eienna]

I know I almost definitely need to replace my RODI prefilters...hopefully not the membrane itself...but not enough money right now x.x

 

[Eienna]

All right!! I sold Barrett, the mata tang, so I got to order the replacement RODI filters I need tonight. That's one worry checked off the list! Now I can make really nice clean water for everyone, the way it's supposed to be. n____________n

 

[trickedout900]

Glad you were able to sell it, hopefully things start to turn around for you.