Snow's 20G Lazarus Pit - One Last Tribute.

[vlangel]

7 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

That is some very good advice and I appreciate it. I'm definitely taking it slow. Are you by any chance participating in the upcoming Pico contest? I'm thinking of joining in, just for the fun of it. 🙂 

I am participating in the pico contest and am very excited about it.  My tank just came in today as my lfs had to get it from another.  You will enjoy the comraderie even if you can not win a prize.  I love just being a part of it with everyone else.  I keep mine simple so as not to spend a lot of money.  It's just fun!

[Snow_Phoenix]

My female clownfish, Nova, came down with *suspected Brooklynella after sustaining a nasty scrape from my sea urchin sometime back. Even though she recovered from the scrape, it left a rather large indention on one side of her body, and she hasn't been the same ever since (thinning out, not eating properly, stringy white poop etc.). I isolated her in QT and did what I could to save her with the limited meds and resources I have on hand, but she just passed away a few minutes ago. 

 

That's two fish lost for two different reasons in the space of 1+ week. It sucks. And it stings.

 

I'm keeping an eye on my remaining fish for any signs or symptoms of any disease or infection. My remaining male clown, Nero, is still eating and behaving normally, so I'm trying to keep everyone's immune system boosted with adding a touch of garlic to their food. I cannot dose any meds directly in the DT since I have a wide collection of inverts and other livestock that might suffer from it. 

 

Also, I overdosed my kH buffer by accident a few days ago and melted a few corals, including half of my Christmas Favia and 1/3rd of my red acan. I did a 80% WC yesterday, scrubbed out the filter chambers, replaced all media (including carbon and Phosban), scrubbed out the fuge and cleaned the skimmer thoroughly + scraped the sides of my tank, stirred the sandbed, basted the rocks etc. etc. The process was tedious and consumed 2+ hours, gave me a killer backache, but things in the 20G seemed to be slowly bouncing back until today morning.

 

You'll be missed, Nova. 

 

Really, really wish we had better quality and healthier selection of fish available here for a change. Really blows to lose an animal you raised from a baby, and I raised both Nero and Nova when they were slightly larger than a fingernail each. 

[banasophia]

7 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

My female clownfish, Nova, came down with *suspected Brooklynella after sustaining a nasty scrape from my sea urchin sometime back. Even though she recovered from the scrape, it left a rather large indention on one side of her body, and she hasn't been the same ever since (thinning out, not eating properly, stringy white poop etc.). I isolated her in QT and did what I could to save her with the limited meds and resources I have on hand, but she just passed away a few minutes ago. 

 

That's two fish lost for two different reasons in the space of 1+ week. It sucks. And it stings.

 

I'm keeping an eye on my remaining fish for any signs or symptoms of any disease or infection. My remaining male clown, Nero, is still eating and behaving normally, so I'm trying to keep everyone's immune system boosted with adding a touch of garlic to their food. I cannot dose any meds directly in the DT since I have a wide collection of inverts and other livestock that might suffer from it. 

 

Also, I overdosed my kH buffer by accident a few days ago and melted a few corals, including half of my Christmas Favia and 1/3rd of my red acan. I did a 80% WC yesterday, scrubbed out the filter chambers, replaced all media (including carbon and Phosban), scrubbed out the fuge and cleaned the skimmer thoroughly + scraped the sides of my tank, stirred the sandbed, basted the rocks etc. etc. The process was tedious and consumed 2+ hours, gave me a killer backache, but things in the 20G seemed to be slowly bouncing back until today morning.

 

You'll be missed, Nova. 

 

Really, really wish we had better quality and healthier selection of fish available here for a change. Really blows to lose an animal you raised from a baby, and I raised both Nero and Nova when they were slightly larger than a fingernail each. 

Oh no... I’m so sorry you lost your fish, Snow. 😢

[Snow_Phoenix]

19 minutes ago, banasophia said:

Oh no... I’m so sorry you lost your fish, Snow. 😢

Fish can be quite difficult to keep, I've noticed (well, at least for me). Seems like a string of bad luck on my end. 😞 

 

[kimberbee]

I'm so sorry to hear you lost Nova! 😞

 

Do you think prazipro would have helped? I dosed that directly to my tank once,  though I don't remember what inverts I had at the time. I had a very specific dosing and schedule to follow. But it allowed me to get rid of flukes without having to quarantine. I'll try to search for my old posts about it.

[Snow_Phoenix]

1 minute ago, kimberbee said:

I'm so sorry to hear you lost Nova! 😞

 

Do you think prazipro would have helped? I dosed that directly to my tank once,  though I don't remember what inverts I had at the time. I had a very specific dosing and schedule to follow. But it allowed me to get rid of flukes without having to quarantine. I'll try to search for my old posts about it.

I was dosing Prazipro in the QT actually. I was discussing Nova's treatment with a few others including Humblefish but she deteriorated very quickly today. Prazi can't be dosed in a tank with duster worms and I have 4 of them in my DT. That was why I chose to isolate her. It would have killed my cluster duster otherwise. Not sure how Prazi affects other inverts though but I have too many different animals in the tank. I didn't want to put anything else at risk, especially since the inverts (crabs, shrimps, urchins) are the only ones doing very well right now. 

 

And I also have two nems in the DT - one RBTA and 1 mini carpet. 

[kimberbee]

2 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

I was dosing Prazipro in the QT actually.

 

I didn't want to put anything else at risk, especially since the inverts (crabs, shrimps, urchins) are the only ones doing very well right now. 

Ah ok, if you were dosing prazipro in QT then it wouldn't have helped in the DT. 

 

Like I said, I had dosed prazi in my DT and I know I had an urchin, hermits, and snails that all made it. I don't remember if I had my cleaner shrimp yet. And I possibly/probably had small hitchhiker feathers that made it. Corals at the time were all softies - zoas, mushrooms, leathers. It involved 1/2 or 1/4 dosing, early/often water changes, and it was a multi-treatment, month or so long process because I never gave a full dose plus had to do water changes. Everything survived except the flukes! 

 

That was probably about 4 years ago so the thread is probably buried. But I took good notes. If you're able to quarantine though that's great. My firefish had flukes, and there was no way I was gonna catch him to be able to treat him in a QT without literally taking my whole tank apart! 

[Snow_Phoenix]

4 minutes ago, kimberbee said:

Ah ok, if you were dosing prazipro in QT then it wouldn't have helped in the DT. 

 

Like I said, I had dosed prazi in my DT and I know I had an urchin, hermits, and snails that all made it. I don't remember if I had my cleaner shrimp yet. And I possibly/probably had small hitchhiker feathers that made it. Corals at the time were all softies - zoas, mushrooms, leathers. It involved 1/2 or 1/4 dosing, early/often water changes, and it was a multi-treatment, month or so long process because I never gave a full dose plus had to do water changes. Everything survived except the flukes! 

 

That was probably about 4 years ago so the thread is probably buried. But I took good notes. If you're able to quarantine though that's great. My firefish had flukes, and there was no way I was gonna catch him to be able to treat him in a QT without literally taking my whole tank apart! 

I get you on that last line - I had an extremely tough time trying to catch 7 fish in my DT last year to QT all of them for Ich and Flukes. The hardest was catching my GCG, which was <1" at that time, and very, very fast. 

 

Now I make it a habit to QT any fish that comes in, and dip any corals/frags that come in too. Only the inverts aren't QTed, but I did keep the Pom pom I purchased for my Pico isolated in a breeder box, only because he's a fish-killer with a rep. and is so ultra-tiny that it'd be impossible to find him again if I ever released him into the DT. 

[kimberbee]

2 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Now I make it a habit to QT any fish that comes in, and dip any corals/frags that come in too. 

That's probably the best/easiest solution!!

[ECLS Reefer]

I’m so sorry for your clownfish and for you!  What a hard week! Hang in there and don’t give up! 

[Snow_Phoenix]

My LR has hit the ugly diatom phase in the storage bin. The cycle is almost over, but I'll be adding more LRs to this pre-existing pile either tomorrow or next week. The 60G has not been acquired yet, but the equipment for it has been, bit by bit. My latest toss up was between a Nero 5 and Jebao OW-25. I went with the Jebao because my glass is going to be 8mm (tentatively) and the Nero's magnetic holder isn't strong enough (or so I read/heard from multiple people in the last few days, including my online vendor today via phone). 

 

So yes, the tank is coming, slowly, but it's coming. Soon. 

 

Thanos also acquired a new superpower. Every time he smooches my thermometer, he turns white. Not sure if he's trying to mate with mercury or is merely staking his claims on the territory, but he's been posturing at the silly floating glass cylinder add odd times, including at 1 am (you can literally hear him peck it, it's so loud and obnoxious). 

 

 

Goblin the GCG is doing very well and I think has maxed out in length. He seems to be growing chunkier now.

 

The killer Pom Pom I acquired for the Pico contest ripped his leg off, ate it, got some sort of unholy food poisoning from trying to eat himself and promptly bellied up today afternoon. R.I.P. Nutjob. Your killer streak will be forever acknowledged.

 

 

So, that's it. Not much else going on. I killed an aiptasia successfully (finally!) yesterday night. Found Thanos has thrown my Utter Chaos palys towards my yumas. Discovered my purple rock urchin had sneakily crawled into the fuge and eaten all my fern caulerpa. Usual tank stuff. Bleh. 

 

 

 

 

 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

On ‎3‎/‎17‎/‎2019 at 2:24 AM, Snow_Phoenix said:

Fish can be quite difficult to keep, I've noticed (well, at least for me). Seems like a string of bad luck on my end. 😞 

 

Aww, sorry about the loss Snow. Pom poms are crazy

[Snow_Phoenix]

7 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

Aww, sorry about the loss Snow. Pom poms are crazy

It's ok, DSFIRSTSLTWATER. I'm still not sure if eating himself was the thing that did him in, or if it was the stress from having a leg ripped off. Usually inverts regrow any lost limbs/antennae within a couple of molts, but this crab was extremely small (even by Pom Pom means) so I don't think he handled it quite well. Either that, or this was delayed karma from him killing all those fish at the store with his Pom Poms last month. 😕

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

3 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

It's ok, DSFIRSTSLTWATER. I'm still not sure if eating himself was the thing that did him in, or if it was the stress from having a leg ripped off. Usually inverts regrow any lost limbs/antennae within a couple of molts, but this crab was extremely small (even by Pom Pom means) so I don't think he handled it quite well. Either that, or this was delayed karma from him killing all those fish at the store with his Pom Poms last month. 😕

I have heard that they can kill a fish..I have one that I see once every couple months lol. I had a tail spot blenny back in the summer that vanished one day and I wondered if the pom pom got him since he used to sleep in the rocks. I asked my lfs and they hadn't heard of murdering pom poms. I guess anythings possible with our tanks huh?

[Snow_Phoenix]

4 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

I have heard that they can kill a fish..I have one that I see once every couple months lol. I had a tail spot blenny back in the summer that vanished one day and I wondered if the pom pom got him since he used to sleep in the rocks. I asked my lfs and they hadn't heard of murdering pom poms. I guess anythings possible with our tanks huh?

Yeah. Sigh, I've even heard of pistol shrimp killing fish - so yes, anything goes apparently. Plus, I've always wondered what type of nems does a pom pom crab usually hold. I heard some types are small, but they pack a very severe string - on par with a carpet nem. It's very easy for a slow-moving fish to get punched once or twice and die from it, especially if the fish is small or has a weak immune system. 😞

 

 

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

1 minute ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Yeah. Sigh, I've even heard of pistol shrimp killing fish - so yes, anything goes apparently. Plus, I've always wondered what type of nems does a pom pom crab usually hold. I heard some types are small, but they pack a very severe string - on par with a carpet nem. It's very easy for a slow-moving fish to get punched once or twice and die from it, especially if the fish is small or has a weak immune system. 😞

 

 

Mine still has his pom poms, they are most definitely nems and I always wondered how powerful they actually are. When I bought him my fish store actually wore gloves to get him...I was like damn they never put gloves on lol. 

[kimberbee]

42 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

I have heard that they can kill a fish.

 

35 minutes ago, DSFIRSTSLTWATER said:

I was like damn they never put gloves on lol. 

Woah!! I'd never heard that! My pom pom better behave!

[DSFIRSTSLTWATER]

Just now, kimberbee said:

 

Woah!! I'd never heard that! My pom pom better behave!

Mine has been good so far, his killing of the blenny is only speculation, but it would make sense if the species of nem is really that potent. I don't want to find out though. I always wear gloves when my hands are in the tank anyways lol. I'm a baby and don't wanna get stung by anything

[Snow_Phoenix]

Well, just to keep everyone informed - I ran into several problems since my last post. I noticed some of my corals were melting, while my SPS was browning out. Problem is, I checked my water and everything was steady enough: Ammonia & Nitrite = 0ppm, Nitrate = 5ppm, Phosphate = Undetectable.

 

I was toying with my AI Prime settings, so my guess is that I did upset my tank. I didn't realize the problem ran deeper than that - I mean, I did accidently end up bleaching both my mini carpet nem and RBTA pretty badly. I isolated my RBTA and the crab in a breeder box to let it heal, but I couldn't get my mini carpet nem off the base rock (not unless I use force, which could stress or kill them nem, so I left it). 

 

Thankfully, they are both still sticky and accepting food, so I think with proper care and some WCs, they'll bounce back.

 

Back to the 'deeper problem' - both my skimmer and my wavemaker were failing. In the case of my wavemaker, the blades were still spinning but there was almost zero flow output. I didn't realize the back grates were clogged with dirt, and this has reduced its efficiency tremendously. My skimmer flow rate was also decreased, but not to the extent of my wavemaker. I gave both items a vinegar soak, dismantled them and scrubbed out the individual pieces and put them back together again, rinsed them off and repositioned them in the tank. Voila!

 

Both of them are now functioning much, much better than I could imagine. I also did a bit of maintenance, a small WC. Some of my corals appear to be irreversibly damaged from my lack of attention, but the ones that are slowly bouncing back are the ones I hope will continue to grow. My bright green monti was completely browned out. It was darker than my red monti and even bleaching at the edges. Today morning, a bit of the green coloration has returned to the center (that was quick!) so I'm hoping it'll bounce back too. I accidently knocked my red monti off the LR piece so I reglued at a lower level of my LR arch. The edges were dying, but funnily enough, there were still some visible polyps on it.

 

My Acans are the crankiest of the lot. 

 

Also, I've already started up my Pico for the Pico contest, and have moved some coral (two hairy shrooms) in there. I'll be transferring all my shrooms slowly over the week(s) since the Pico can serve as a 'healing' and 'growout' tank for my frags (including my zoas, clove polyps etc.). 

 

This is my Pico tank thread, if you're keen on following my progress on there:

 

 

In the meantime, the 20G still stands for now and thankfully, its other inhabitants are doing alright. Here are some recent pics/vids:

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the meantime, there is a bit more bad news - the 'crack' on this tank is still angling downwards and growing a bit day by day. I know I'm playing with fire, but I'm just waiting to get enough money to get a new tank set. (Which, if everything goes well, will be finalized some time this month).

 

It'll be a big leap, jumping from 20G to a 60G DT + 25G sump, but I've already purchased the equipment for a tank of that size, bit by bit over the past few months, except for the tank set itself and a good skimmer. So, my current goal is to make sure everything in this nano pulls through long enough for me to do a massive TT into a larger system, and slowly rebuild from scratch. I will be retaining all my surviving frags/colonies - no one and nothing gets left behind. 

 

 

[Snow_Phoenix]

One last tribute to some of the best things this tank had to offer me, despite the painful lessons wedged in between:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tank was finally torn down today since an upgrade is imminent. New tank journal now available under 'Large Reefs' entitled 'Snow's 60G Megano'. 

 

I'll no longer be documenting my progress here, but instead will update the new thread. Thanks for tagging along this incredibly bumpy ride, NR, and most of all - thank you for your support during Meatball's death. I appreciate it. 

 

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