Synderju's 29 Gallon Reef Tank

Good job on the aptasia elimination! The tank looks awesome. How are the sick fish doing now?

Thanks chichimom! This fish are responding very well to our anti bacterial medication and we hope to be able to introduce them back into the display tank within a week!

We just got done testing our water and I don't think I've ever had such great results!

Ammonia-0
Nitrite-0
Nitrate-0
pH- 8.0 (a little low but tampering with it will probably do more harm than good)
Phosphate-0
Calcium-380 (a little low and we plan on dosing today)
Hardness- 13 dkH (has been dropping since the tank was set up)

After much research and talking with my go to guy at my LFS we finally figured out what we wanted to do with our HOB filter. We are running Phosphate reducer on the top layer which is apparently working since what little phosphates we had last time we checked the water are now gone. We are continuing to use activated carbon because it keeps the water clear and smelling nice. And despite popular opinion we have a mesh sponge in the bottom for mechanical filtration that we religiously clean. Going to continue keeping an eye on Nitrates but if we can keep them down I don't see why we wouldn't keep using it. But if worse comes to worse we can always remove the sponge. Not going to fix what's not broken like I always seem to do and then have more problems lol.

That is a fine pH for a tank, i wouldnt worry about it at all.

Also the problem with freshwater dips is that the osmotic pressure change you are trying to kill the parasites with is also going to inflict the same damage on the fish's gills, so you end up doing quite a bit of harm to them. Also it does nothing for the ich that is buried in the tissues, which is where the vast majority of the ich is.

Although we do not like having to fw dip fish by any means the improvement to the respiration in the fish in undeniable. I'm happy to be able to say the Ick is gone and the condition of the fish are improving. As with most things you have to take the bad with the good. You can find a lot of conflicting advice online when it comes to fish diseases and that is why my girlfriend and I picked up a book called "the Marine Aquarium Handbook". It has a pretty extensive section on marine disease and parasites. We base the majority of our treatments off this book and we have had a lot of success.

But the ich isnt gone though, you have only dealt with the visible stuff. Unless you have been treating with copper or hypo you still have ich.

https://www.livingreefs.com/oh-no-have-ich-do-do-t30950.html

We have been treating with copper for about three weeks now with a 100% water change every 3 days and fw dipping the fish before putting them back in the tank. The Ick is gone. What is left is a secondary bacterial infection that is being treated with Erythromycin. Now the infection is getting better and they will be going back into the main tank once it clears up completely. They have been in quarantine for 4 weeks now. We will be keeping them in the quarantine tank for another week once it clears up to observe their behavior and condition. Also the main display tank has had the temperature raised the entire time to speed up the parasite cycle time. The first two weeks we were treating with hypo salinity but the Ick was pretty bad at that point and we decided to switch to copper with much better results.

That is good, but i would leave the display empty for at least another month with the temperature up.

Sounds like you have it all under control.

Yep :) and our sources say we should be able to add the fish to the display in about another 2 weeks.

Well, we got our fuge light and pump yesterday. The pump arrived with a broken impeller. I had to super glue the magnet back onto the impeller shaft. It seems to be holding well and working great. I didn't want to bother with having a new impeller shipped and sending in the broken one. Just need to get some Chaetomorpha.

How is the fuge?

Pretty good, I'll post some pics soon. I also redid the mod on my skimmer. I'll post a video of that this evening.

This is a link of my protein skimmer mod. Don't mind the polka dotted towel.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIML_hd0ykk&list=HL1330740498&feature=mh_lolz"]Skimmer Mod.AVI - YouTube[/ame]

Here are some pictures of the modified skimmer.

Here is the HOB refugium I made.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScLtWb74A_Y]HOB Refugium - YouTube[/ame]

Got our first corals today! Here is the Mushroom. I will post pics of the green star poly after it opens up a little more.

Purchased a 24 Watt green killing machine today. Been going for a couple hours and I don't know if it is just my imagination but my water seems much more sparkly :) Not that it was bad before it just looks nicer somehow. I think the RO/DI water has something to do with it too because I did almost a 50% change today with it. I'll post some pictures tomorrow maybe a video as well.

What is a 24 watt green killing machine? Lol maybe I'm just over tired and not getting it.

It's a UV sterilizer.

beeguiles said:

What is a 24 watt green killing machine? Lol maybe I'm just over tired and not getting it.

Click to expand...

ya it is a UV sterilizer. A pretty affordable one too. Honestly I was getting a bit upset because my tank was looking kinda cloudy almost like yours was but not green just kinda whitish and not nearly as bad. Water parameters were fine but I was getting hair algae. I switched to RO/DI water and added this about 8 hours ago and the water is crystal clear again. Like I said it wasn't terrible though but needed a little polishing I think. Pretty sure it was the TDS in the tap water causing it even though it tested 0 for nitrates and phosphates. Who knows what is lurking in tap water. A few water changes with RO/Di water and that UV and it is looking pristine again. Plus, since it is over 20 watts it will help kill parasites and bacteria as well.