New 180 Build - Mini Coop's Dream Tank

[Mini Coop]

Squirt is getting his own tank! Nice excuse to set up a mini tank. Lol

Ummm. Yes. Pretty much!!

Welcome to my 10 gallon unexpected build - QT turned mini-reef

 

[biecacka]

Great to see the tank(s) coming along so well.

Corey

 

[Fudsey]

Hey Coop ! ! ! We need a FTS

 

[Victoria M]

pretty cute little tank. funny how that happens. story of our lives for sure. lol.

 

[Jaxon]

Coop... love all 24 pages of the tank build, a lot of great information through all the issues. Thanks for sharing. And BTW Roll Tide

 

[Mini Coop]

Coop... love all 24 pages of the tank build, a lot of great information through all the issues. Thanks for sharing. And BTW Roll Tide

Thanks! I always try to post about everything in hopes it will help someone else!

 

[Mini Coop]

Here you go @Fudsey - I have about 4 more baby corals in now too.

Need to get out the REAL camera and do some shots!

 

[Fudsey]

Looking GREAT ! ! !

 

[Mini Coop]

Looking GREAT ! ! !

Thanks - I think I still have a bit of the new tank uglies . . . my sand gets dirty REALLY fast! Almost like a Diatom algae bloom after every time I clean it. I have TONS of coraline algae over everything. My parameters are awesome EXCEPT for my po4. It is high!!! So I am working on changing foods from Rods to Larrys. The Rods has little particles which I like for my smaller fish, but I does seem a little "dirty". Lots of extras floating around. So, we will see if that helps. Right now I am using 50/50. LRS, Rods plus some mysis and fish eggs. Also working on getting more corals, but fish come first in my tank!

Everyone is officially at 2.0 copper levels too! So - all of the QT tanks will be at therapeutic for 30 days. I will then do water changes to get to 0 followed by 2 weeks of observations for the tangs. (oh my - so many water changes. I don't have enough tanks to transition them all to new tanks, so playing with the idea of taking them out into a bucket, cleaning their tanks and filling with all new water. I think this might actually be less stressful than being in the tank and dealing with so many water changes. Opinions welcome).

So, that is where we are at! Squirt (the miniature green mandarin) is happy in his own little reef in our living room. I may have to keep him separate and in his own little tank! LOVE IT!!

 

[Diesel]

It’s good to address early your elevated Po4
But what are your test results on Po4 in the last 3 weeks?
It might be a simple fix but sometimes with a to0 high bioload you require a larger skimmer, more flow in your DT, less feedings or more larger water changes
Looking at your fish in Quarantine you better brace yourself for a lot more nutrients once they go into the DT.

 

[Mini Coop]

It’s good to address early your elevated Po4
But what are your test results on Po4 in the last 3 weeks?
It might be a simple fix but sometimes with a to0 high bioload you require a larger skimmer, more flow in your DT, less feedings or more larger water changes
Looking at your fish in Quarantine you better brace yourself for a lot more nutrients once they go into the DT.

I have about 6 weeks to try to get it in control. I am switching foods and cutting back feeding, which I think was a big culprit. I will do another check today, but running about .06 after water change (25 gallons), .16 last week, .21 this week. Doing a water change today. I will measure before and after. Bio Load right now isn't bad . . . only 7 smaller fish. I was probably over feeding. But like you said, a little worried about the increase in bio load that is coming. The skimmer seems to be keeping up pretty well. I am only having to empty it about once a week right now. Eventually I will probably have to go to a larger skimmer.

 

[Mini Coop]

Update: everyone is doing well in the copper so far.

Except maybe my Niger.
He is the one I thought might have shown signs of ich to begin with. He is at 2.0 therapeutic level. But showing some spots here recently. They look almost like scuffs out of his skin.
Anyone know what this might be? Could it be HLLE already - been in copper just a little over a week. @4FordFamily #reefsquad
@HotRocks @Humblefish

I didn’t notice until today (but she hides a lot still - so I don’t always look at her really close.). Pintail fairy and both tangs look amazing!! Planning 30 days of copper then removing copper.

 

[4FordFamily]

Could be flukes or brook, doesn’t look like ich to me. Could also be an injury. Can you post clearer pics?

 

[jsker]

Update: everyone is doing well in the copper so far.

Except maybe my Niger.
He is the one I thought might have shown signs of ich to begin with. He is at 2.0 therapeutic level. But showing some spots here recently. They look almost like scuffs out of his skin.
Anyone know what this might be? Could it be HLLE already - been in copper just a little over a week. @4FordFamily #reefsquad
@HotRocks @Humblefish

I didn’t notice until today (but she hides a lot still - so I don’t always look at her really close.). Pintail fairy and both tangs look amazing!! Planning 30 days of copper then removing copper.

My niger trigger hid a lot in the beginning and now he is all over the place

 

[Mini Coop]

Could be flukes or brook, doesn’t look like ich to me. Could also be an injury. Can you post clearer pics?

I will see what I can do! I was just surprised to see this show up AFTER she has been in copper for a week and a half. I never saw much on her during the 2.5 week observation either.

She is hiding now, and her lights are off. I will get some more later this afternoon when I feed.

 

[Mini Coop]

My niger trigger hid a lot in the beginning and now he is all over the place

Beautiful! Is he tiny? He looks really little! Do you have him in a reef tank or fowlr?

The one I have is GORGEOUS!! Most of the time looks like a really rich royal blue with hues of purple and green. She is so pretty I would be so sad if something happened to her.

 

[4FordFamily]

I will see what I can do! I was just surprised to see this show up AFTER she has been in copper for a week and a half. I never saw much on her during the 2.5 week observation either.

She is hiding now, and her lights are off. I will get some more later this afternoon when I feed.

This is why quarantine is so important. Copper is an immune suppressant, who knows if it would have ever showed symptoms otherwise!

I hope it’s no big deal though

 

[Mini Coop]

This is why quarantine is so important. Copper is an immune suppressant, who knows if it would have ever showed symptoms otherwise!

I hope it’s no big deal though

Amen! I keep getting Timehop notifications of my tank I set up 2 years ago...my 10 fish that I lost from ich before I knew anything at all! So thankful I know better now!

And the debate I had whether to pre-treat or not! Why I even wondered I have no idea!
Also - the bug black spots in the tang that looked like pieces of skin coming off all appear to be healed!! So they are doing awesome! Just need to figure out what’s up with the trigger and get her taken care of!

 

[Big G]

Does your trigger wedge itself into the rocks to sleep and hide out? Might be "scuffs" you mention are skin damage and a resulting bacterial infection. Sulfaplex + Neoplex work really well on these types of injuries that are so glaring on very dark colored fish.

 

[Mini Coop]

Could be - but this looks like more than that. She has been mostly hiding in the PVC pipe lately.

At 1:47 she gives some pretty good looks!
@4FordFamily here is the video.