Neptune Aquatics

"The Lab" - Josh and Tiffany's IM Nuvo EXT 200

Are those the reusable stacked disc filters that you're using? Was curious about those since they waste so much less plastic than roller mats and seem to clean faster compared to filter socks.
 
Darkxerox said:
Are those the reusable stacked disc filters that you're using? Was curious about those since they waste so much less plastic than roller mats and seem to clean faster compared to filter socks.
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I'm not sure what part of the sock you're referring to, but I'm using Reef Diapers. Effectively disposable filter socks with reusable flanges that hold the sock in place.
 
Second round of fish and inverts added to the tank:
  • Hybrid achilles/white cheek tang
  • Powder blue tang (unfortunately the hybrid didn't make it through quarantine)
  • Desjardini sailfin tang
  • Yellow eye kole tang (QT'd myself)
  • Algae blenny (QT'd myself; added Friday)
  • Copperband butterfly
  • Royal gramma
  • Tuxedo urchin and halloween urchin
  • Nassarius snails
  • Conchs
Out of all the issues I could have foreseen when adding this group of fish to the tank, "Algae blenny entering a rage state, grabbing nassarius snails, and just chucking them across the tank" was not one of them.

Pictured: the face of a stone-cold killer.
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The other fish are getting along pretty well: the powder blue and the desjardini are roughly the same size, and seem to be engaging in multiple dominance displays to sort out pecking order. So I'll keep an eye on that. Surprisingly, the hybrid achilles (by far the biggest fish in the tank) is acting as a peacemaker and seems to break the two of them up whenever they start squaring up.

I'll see how the rest of this goes. But, so far, it's beautiful. My wife, myself, and my stepmother spent over two hours just watching the tank tonight after adding all the new fish.
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Danhsj said:
Wow looking good cycled, any test coral in yet?
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I have a small cristata torch on the bottom right of the tank. It's doing well so far (although it's in a higher-flow area). I'm going to try and get some purple tip frogspawn as our next 'tester' piece, and hopefully we'll be confident in this tank by the time the frag swap rolls around. :)
 
IOnceWasLegend said:
I have a small cristata torch on the bottom right of the tank. It's doing well so far (although it's in a higher-flow area). I'm going to try and get some purple tip frogspawn as our next 'tester' piece, and hopefully we'll be confident in this tank by the time the frag swap rolls around. :)
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When’s the next frag swap I’ll hook u up with some torches, what u got right now
 
Danhsj said:
When’s the next frag swap I’ll hook u up with some torches, what u got right now
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Appreciate the offer!

And unfortunately, with the combination of the move and the light falling in the tank, the only torches I have left are dragon soul, hellfire, and dragon tamer.
 
Found a replacement H380 for my broken one. I got it installed, set up the calcium reactor...and discovered that my Kamoer FX-STP is borked. Sigh. At least I have all the equipment laid out now. Also, despite how it looks in this picture, that all appears to be phyto (or another powdery green algae) on the rocks and sand, and has been slowly clearing up over the past couple days.

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Bright side, all the fish seem to be getting along reasonably well. There's some pecking amongst the tangs, with—surprise surprise—the powder blue being the biggest $4!+ stirrer, but nothing of any real concern. The big surprise for me has been that the hybrid achilles is by far the most laid-back tang in the tank and is the only one that hasn't pecked at another fish.

I knew why already, but I'm finally getting to experience why tangs are such a popular fish. It's hypnotic watching them and there's so much activity and movement now. Can't wait to start adding coral before too long, and—with the eventual addition of a mandarin pair, some manner of wrasse, and potentially a porcupine puffer*—the fish list will be complete!

A picture of the active corner this morning with a nori buffet:

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*: I'm aware it is not recommended to have a porcupine puffer in a reef tank and it will be a gamble. However, both my wife and I fell in love with the one at Kenny's and, after thorough research online, we're leaning towards taking that gamble since porcupines seem to trend towards the 'safer' side of the spectrum.
 
So, I'm reasonably certain my encounter with velvet in my RSR250 gave me extreme paranoia. My hybrid achilles started scratching its head and side; a little at first, then more frequently over the next 36 hours. Running through the various scenarios, my most likely guess was flukes: the only potential vector was the algae blenny and kole tang that I QT'd, and I realized 1) I'd fed them general cure (metro/prazi)-soaked food, not broadcast dosed prazi; and 2) the tank the algae blenny originally came from had had flukes at one point (with the kole's status unknown).

Probably overkill, but I went ahead and dosed the tank with PraziPro on Sunday afternoon following the recommended instructions. I kept the skimmer running with the collection cup removed and the neck covered, and also put a large airstone/sponge filter in the refugium to ensure proper oxygenation. Still not out of the woods yet, but I haven't seen the achilles scratch since Sunday, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed extremely hard.

I'd waffled with the idea of how seriously I wanted to take biosecurity, but having a potential issue crop up so quickly on my prize fish nudged me over the line - particularly since I'm pretty sure my velvet outbreak started from a piece of coral. So I'll be starting up a coral/invert QT tank following these guidelines.

I'm trying to tell myself that learning patience when buying coral will be a good thing.
 
First treatment of prazi was administered 7/22. Second treatment was administered 7/29. on Tuesday I performed a 50 gallon water change (~20-25% of total water volume), started running carbon again, kicked on the skimmer - and, success! Very little skimmer overflow, and the tank's back to looking beautiful (with no scratching from the achilles hybrid).

Some notes/thoughts about the tank:

  • pH has been pretty low: I'm assuming this is due to a mix of prazipro treatment (skimmer running at diminished capacity, oxygen being stripped from the water) and the windows being closed constantly because of the heat. The pH bottomed out at about 7.7, which is concerning given I haven't even started the calcium reactor yet. It's been cool enough to open the windows the past couple nights and get more airflow, which has raised the pH to ~7.9-8.0, but I'm going to hook up a CO2 scrubber as a failsafe.
  • Oops, no phosphates: Still calibrating to the bioload in the tank. Phosphates creeped up a bit high (~0.2 ppm), so I added some GFO according to the calculator, started running the fuge light a little longer, and started changing the socks right as they backed up (instead of waiting 24-48 hours). Phosphates have since bottomed out, so I'm using this as an excuse to feed heavier (especially since the four tangs + foxface demolish an entire 8x8 sheet of nori in 3-4 hours)
  • I love Reef Diapers: The disposable Reef Diapers are lasting about as long (maybe a bit longer) than a normal filter sock, admirably performing nutrient control, and the convenience has meant I won't be abandoning filter socks as I have on my previous tanks.
  • Hooray pods: The benefit of prazi treatment was I didn't scrape the tank for a week or so, because it already looked ugly so I let it go. After seeding the five jars of pods from Algae Barn a few weeks ago, I'm now seeing noticeable numbers of pods in both the fuge and the display, which means it'll be mandarin time soon! (As soon as I can get a bonded pair from @under_water_ninja )
Some notes and thoughts about the fish:
  • Copperband butterflies are awesome: For whatever reason, I'd thought they were shy. Ours is by far the 'friendliest' fish in the tank and will come up, say 'hi', and hang around us to beg for food.
  • My desjardini sailfin is a pig: It has been angrily charging and devouring almost everything I put in the tank, will rip and tear huge chunks of nori off the feeding device, and has eaten so much it is visibly, and noticeably, fatter than it was three weeks ago when we got it.
  • Acanthurus tangs: Contrary to popular anecdote, the achilles hybrid is one of the shyest fish in the tank (although it's been hiding less when we come by the tank). Confirming popular anecdote, the powder blue is an a-hole but at least distributes that aggression across all the other fish, so no real issues so far. Kudos, again, to Kenny for keeping a bunch of our fish together during QT and monitoring for aggression, and assessing the temperament of this particular powder blue tang over the weeks it was in a DT before being sold to us.
 
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