Qckslvr and Mrs 90 gallon Oceanic tank build

[MichaelB]

Dumb question: who is VA? I hope not the place I think it is.

Violet Aquarium. Them and aquatic collection are the only ones in our area with larger varieties in terms of fish.

@Qckslvr
You seem like you already know this but fish like mandarin and cbb are fish I wouldn't consider getting anywhere but from high tide or @Kensington Reefer he has sold a few cbbs if I recall correctly.

Unless you practice some type if qt violet aquarium is a huge risk with fish disease. They import tons of wild fish and mostly deal with higher volume online sales. So the fish tend to be in and out quicker than most other stores.

Not a attempt to bash Violet as I can't deny they have a insane selection of fish species hard to match locally. Just understand just putting a fish from there without qt at the least observation into a tank with your existing fish is almost asking for disaster.

The prices of cbbs/ mandarins maybe way cheaper at some places but a higher percentage of them will likey starve. @under_water_ninja has a proccess that gets these finicky fish eating not to mention his qt process so definitely worth the price over watching fish starve and risking your other fish.

For this fish I would again recommend patience until he gets more in stock.

 

[Alexander1312]

Violet Aquarium. Them and aquatic collection are the only ones in our area with larger varieties in terms of fish.

@Qckslvr
You seem like you already know this but fish like mandarin and cbb are fish I wouldn't consider getting anywhere but from high tide or @Kensington Reefer he has sold a few cbbs if I recall correctly.

Unless you practice some type if qt violet aquarium is a huge risk with fish disease. They import tons of wild fish and mostly deal with higher volume online sales. So the fish tend to be in and out quicker than most other stores.

Not a attempt to bash Violet as I can't deny they have a insane selection of fish species hard to match locally. Just understand just putting a fish from there without qt at the least observation into a tank with your existing fish is almost asking for disaster.

The prices of cbbs/ mandarins maybe way cheaper at some places but a higher percentage of them will likey starve. @under_water_ninja has a proccess that gets these finicky fish eating not to mention his qt process so definitely worth the price over watching fish starve and risking your other fish.

For this fish I would again recommend patience until he gets more in stock.

Or in other words. Stay away from this place. Not a store we should be supporting. Regardless of the type of fish.

 

[spuri87]

+1 to Michael.. 1st step is to confirm if the CBB is eating at the shop before getting your credit card out.. but even if a CBB is eating at the shop, it doesnt mean it will continue to eat at home.. They are one of the hardest fish to keep along with Moorish Idols coz of the same reason.. If you do really want one, you need to prepare yourself to treat it like a baby - use acclimation box, and feed all different types of food in the box that you typically feed your tank.. they are shy eaters, so you may need to hand/spot feed them, they may not fight the other active fish in your tank and starve to death in few days .. they may do well in established tanks, but for now, I would suggest you to get a Filefish to fight the Aiptasia problem as suggested by few others too.. I love CBBs (coz I am biased to color yellow?), in fact its a dream fish for me.. One day I will definitely try one, but for now, happy with 2 filefish in my tank keeping Aiptasia at bay.. Do some research on what it needs to care for one if you really really want it.. I came across this video, that actually did change my mind and stopped me from buying a CBB for my tank, coz I thought I wasnt ready, please check it out:

 

[RandyC]

Or in other words. Stay away from this place. Not a store we should be supporting. Regardless of the type of fish.

Why should we not be supporting them? Because they don't QT? Or because they have high volume? There is no risk difference from Neptune or Aquatic Collection or Violet. They all don't QT, they all have high volume and they all import. What's your issue with Violet?

I'm not defending them by any means because I don't shop there or know the owners, but I'm curious why you're blasting them saying we shouldn't support them.

 

[PjFish]

If you got finicky cbb always easier to get them eating with smaller fish or solo then graduate them to the main DT with full bellies. Ive had good luck with freeze dried mysis and cyclops or small mysis pellets soaked in reef roids or thawed frozen cubes. In larger tanks with more aggressive fish they do sell all kinds of magnetized specialized feeders made for cbb specifically ( the clear see through ones are better) until they get more aggressive and join the feeding frenzy! Definitely recommend a file fish first

 

[Qckslvr]

update..... a s****y one at that.

Started about 2 weeks ago. The CBB which was eating, and looking happy was found dead at the bottom of the tank.... Heartbreak, it was doing so well, and we had no idea why it seemed to suddenly die. My wife scans the tank and watches is it for hours, and nothing looked out of sorts. She got looking closer at the fish..... and fark.... our newest inhabitant a Pajama had Ich..... Not going to post the LFA we got it from(not Petco). Just that we will no longer be purchasing from them in the future.

So to note I do not have a spare tank, or container set up at this time. (working on it)

We went through ich on my wife's fresh water tank, and at first did not think anything to serious. We fought the ich and got it out of the freshwater tank in about 60 days of treatment with only 2 fish out of 30 lost. We were not prepared for what was going to happen in this last two week time frame.

So first sign, started feeding the fish fresh garlic, and raised the tank temp to 82 degrees.

We will call Day1 the day we lost the CBB. Day 2 the plague bringer dies along with a coral beauty, Day 3 recently added clownfish died, day 4 a wrasse dies, day 5 no losses, day 6 one of the bengai dies, day 7 we lost our tomini. Day 8 we lost our last pajama and bengai.

We did lose our other clown.... but not due to ich.... it was very young, and loved to stay in it's nem. And one day it ventured out from them nem more than to just eat..... and ..... it got to close to one of the AI Orbits

At Day 6 we added Selcon to the fish's diet. And as of yesterday (Day 10) we are now dosing the tank with Polyplab Medic. I am also picking up a UV sterilizer Friday night.

The UV sterilizer frightens us a little as we have good copepod population. I did read that copepods eat ich as well.... but apparently not fast enough.

As for our skimmer..... it has calmed down. It is no longer pumping out 10 gallons a night. As a matter of fact for the first time I was able to set up for dry skimming. I have made it a little bit wetter, so about 1/2" to 1" of waste per night. And the waste has defiantely changed. it used to be light brown, like tea almost. Now the waste water is black, gunky, and stinks to high hell.

Fish that are still in the tank, and have not shown any signs of ich, not even once... We have 13 other inhabitants in the tank.... 12 of them have never showed anysigns of ich on them, not in the least. Our Fox Face I wish I could say the same. Seems like it gets it about every 2 days. It's apetite is strong though, and it is constantly grazing, eating algae waffers, and the medicated food we feed them.

So that is my latest update....

I have also been reading Michael's thread.....

it has left the wife and I questiong if we should keep going or not. The finatial hit is just plain brutal.

 

[spuri87]

If you do plan to treat for ich, before going Copper route, please do read about Hyposalinity to treat Ich.. it’s so much easier on the fish, so much easier to execute than copper treatment (and can be executed in DT) and I had 100% success with it treating my 15 fish struggling with moderately severe Ich.. i added 30 odd fish immediately after treating them for 3 months, and even LLMs and the internet was suggesting ich will be reintroduced with the change in bioload.. nope, nada! I practice ich management- UV and I keep them well fed.. All fish doing great so far (knock on the wood).. I have a thread on BAR, check before and after pics of the fish to see how much improvement was there! I will personally recommend hypo over anything else you see on the internet! Of course, if you can’t take out inverts and corals, or you feel its easier to take fish out instead of taking corals and inverts out, you shall look at other possible options

 

[PjFish]

Every LFS gets fish with ich and other diseases unless they’re ordering all qt fish which is rare. If they tell you they don’t move on lol..
.. Interesting never had a fish blended in a cross flow or similar wave pumps. I do cut elastic plastic mesh screens for those or any pump if nems are in the tank then hit with toothbrush every couple weeks..But they do sell all sorts of nem covers online just don’t get the foam ones since they get ugly and clog fast..
Good luck !!

 

[Qckslvr]

Every LFS gets fish with ich and other diseases unless they’re ordering all qt fish which is rare. If they tell you they don’t move on lol..
.. Interesting never had a fish blended in a cross flow or similar wave pumps. I do cut elastic plastic mesh screens for those or any pump if nems are in the tank then hit with toothbrush every couple weeks..But they do sell all sorts of nem covers online just don’t get the foam ones since they get ugly and clog fast..
Good luck !!

it was a complete surprise to us as well! I don't like any of the nem guards for the orbit right now. I still have some 3D software from when I had a 3D printer, I am playing on that to see if I can make something.

The really odd part to this..... My wife's glofish tank has a Sicce wave maker in it.... and the next day one of her danios met it's fate to the Sicce. It was a pure WTF moment.

On a side note is 5.5 gallon tank to small for a qt tank? They are so cheap at Petco, and I really don't have a lot of room to spare.

 

[spuri87]

Every LFS gets fish with ich and other diseases unless they’re ordering all qt fish which is rare. If they tell you they don’t move on lol.

I second that.. that’s the reason I trust supporting members selling their livestock.. they are honest and trustworthy (generally speaking).. not saying LFS aren’t, but it’s just what my preference is

 

[PjFish]

Although if somethings already wrong with the fish alot higher odds of them getting shredded or stuck

 

[MichaelB]

it was a complete surprise to us as well! I don't like any of the nem guards for the orbit right now. I still have some 3D software from when I had a 3D printer, I am playing on that to see if I can make something.

The really odd part to this..... My wife's glofish tank has a Sicce wave maker in it.... and the next day one of her danios met it's fate to the Sicce. It was a pure WTF moment.

On a side note is 5.5 gallon tank to small for a qt tank? They are so cheap at Petco, and I really don't have a lot of room to spare.

I have extra 10 gallon tanks I'd give you one for free as would others? They honestly are really much bigger than a 5 gallon.

Yet would give you a little wiggle room with ammonia spikes. I would be pretty nervous with a 5.5 gallon tank unless it was for a single tiny fish.


This hobby has its moments. Just stay the course and things will eventually work out.

If I were to quit I've lost 3 entire tanks of fish. 2 due to fish disease one from a unnoticed ammonia spike. Every LFS is a gamble in terms of fish. It's up to the person buying to look for healthy looking fish. And determine the risk factors if they aren't willing to qt.

If you been following along with qt process you will notice I lost 60% of the fish I started with. Granted to make it fair I lost 40% not counting the ones that were sadly eaten.

After actually doing qt. I no longer think it's as difficult as I thought at first. Overall the process is fairly simple as long as you stick to the routine. The 30 days fly by in a breeze though not without risks.

I'd advise you guys to hang in there. Learn from the misfortunes and be determined not to repeat anything you consider a failure on your part.

Asking those here with more experience has been. A saving grace to me. I purposely kept my questions and observations public so others could follow along. I must say though there are lots of experience reefers I could reach out to behind the scenes for advice. Further proof that this is a great club.


How long did you have the fish that you think introduced the ich?

Seeing you lost so many in rapid succession it brings other questions to mind. Like if it was actually ich or velvet.

Ich takes a while days to weeks like you see fish going down hill.

Velvet happens so rapidly you can loose everything in less than 2 days.

Than if a fish dies from ich isn't removed quickly it can cause a ammonia spike leading to other fish dying.

Feel free to reach out if you need advice in any case I could point you to someone with proven experience. If you don't wanna post openly about it (loosing fish sucks and I get it's hard to talk about for some) there are some who would definitely give you advice in dm.

 

[Qckslvr]

Thank you Michael and others for the words of wisdom.

I am thinking 3 - 4 days after we put the pajam in the tank. The CBB stopped eating about 2 - 3 days after introducing the pajama... and from there it goes on.

Some of the fish it is hard to spot the ich... but on the fox face it is sadly very easy to spot the white spots on it's face.

I thought it was possibly velvet, or other disease. But correct me if I am wrong, but from what I read Velvet will clear a tank with in a couple of days. We still have 30% of our fish, and they are eating, and looking quite healthy. Trust me I was bracing to lose the entire tank, which may happen.... but keeping my fingers crossed.

And yes dead fish are removed immediately, and buried, our roses are looking very good right now.... Most expensive fertilizer ever.

Ammonia hasn't spiked. On our Hanna Master Tester I get 0.07 to 0.11, and when when I do the math using the online Hanna calculator it is around 0.007 NH3 (this is where I get my calculations https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/FreeAmmonia.php )

On the bright side.... or SPS is doing very well, and some zoa's from our 30 are actually doing better.

Also today has been 2 weeks of Microbacter 7 in the 90,

And trust me, I will reach out.

On a side note, I get it that LFS are not perfect. But when you are browsing live stock and every other tank has dead fish lying in the bottom.... We will just give our business elsewhere from now on.

We have been to HT before, we like his coral selection, like the vibe of the shop, and we watch their website regularly for fish. My wife wants to get some dragonettes from them when he gets them.

 

[MichaelB]

Thank you Michael and others for the words of wisdom.

I am thinking 3 - 4 days after we put the pajam in the tank. The CBB stopped eating about 2 - 3 days after introducing the pajama... and from there it goes on.

Some of the fish it is hard to spot the ich... but on the fox face it is sadly very easy to spot the white spots on it's face.

I thought it was possibly velvet, or other disease. But correct me if I am wrong, but from what I read Velvet will clear a tank with in a couple of days. We still have 30% of our fish, and they are eating, and looking quite healthy. Trust me I was bracing to lose the entire tank, which may happen.... but keeping my fingers crossed.

And yes dead fish are removed immediately, and buried, our roses are looking very good right now.... Most expensive fertilizer ever.

Ammonia hasn't spiked. On our Hanna Master Tester I get 0.07 to 0.11, and when when I do the math using the online Hanna calculator it is around 0.007 NH3 (this is where I get my calculations https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/FreeAmmonia.php )

On the bright side.... or SPS is doing very well, and some zoa's from our 30 are actually doing better.

Also today has been 2 weeks of Microbacter 7 in the 90,

And trust me, I will reach out.

On a side note, I get it that LFS are not perfect. But when you are browsing live stock and every other tank has dead fish lying in the bottom.... We will just give our business elsewhere from now on.

We have been to HT before, we like his coral selection, like the vibe of the shop, and we watch their website regularly for fish. My wife wants to get some dragonettes from them when he gets them.

Ugh if i see a dead fish granted only one i won't buy from that system or tanks connected to it. If I see more than one. I'm not buying anything from the entire store.

 

[spuri87]

I thought it was possibly velvet, or other disease. But correct me if I am wrong, but from what I read Velvet will clear a tank with in a couple of days.

Yes that's 100% correct.. general rule of thumb distinguishing ich and velvel:

• if you can count the number of white spots on the fish, it's usually ich
• if you cannot count the number of white spots, it's velvet and in most cases you are already late

Though treatment (Copper) is same for both, ich will give you more time to react.. with velvet though, things can go south real quick (can wipe out the entire tank within 24-48 hrs).. I am quite certain you didnt have velvet since you mentioned there are a lot of fish still doing ok, but you can confirm if any of the dead fish looked anything like this, then they had velvet:

White spots will come and go on your fish with ich.. I would recommend taking out the foxface and treat it with copper (if not going hypo route) ASAP.. they may seem to be eating and swimming fine until one day when they start facing the wavemaker (very strong indicator that something is wrong with the fish), stop eating, start hiding more and/or lie on their side.

One more thing, unless you do hypo, you will have to treat all the inhabitants in a hospital tank with Copper at 2.25 and DT should go fallow for around 2.5 months.. I made this mistake, I treated by blue tang in copper and it looked all active and fine but as soon as I added it back to the DT, it caught ich again.. as a newbie, treating all 15+ fish in a hospital tank looked like a uphill task for me and that's when I started researching about Hypo.. that blue tang rules the tank today.. Even with Hypo, 1 wrong move can be detrimental, but that's true for almost every single thing in this hobby.. I was at a point 3 months into the hobby where I started to feel like it was so tiring instead of joyful, but trust me, once you get around these issues, you will learn so much more with your experience and will start enjoying the hobby more.. feel free to DM me with any questions.. good luck!

 

[Qckslvr]

I will admit none of my fish looked like that with exception of the plague bringer. That's what was so puzzling, in our fresh water tank, the glofish looked like your tang. Other that the Pajama, none of the others looked half as bad as the above tang.

Right before our tomini died, we only saw the ich on its fins. It had no ich on it's body, it wasn't rubbing up against the rocks, or swimming in front of the Orbits. It was acting pretty normal, then about halfway through the day it went into hiding, and the next morning it was gone

 

[Kensington Reefer]

That’s such a depressing picture...