Paneubert's 40G Breeder - Round 2

[paneubert]

Little clown still laying on the surface looking unhappy. Won't really eat 😞

 

50% water change and a good amount of carbon added to the HOB filter to hopefully remove the meds and any ammonia. Will come home from work early today to see if he is any better. If he recovers.....I am going to have a hard time doing them with cupramine. Haha. Going to worry it will kill him. 

 

Anyone have tips for swim bladder issues?

[paneubert]

Well I made a seperate thread about the little clown, and ended up over at Reef2Reef.  The folks there thought less swim bladder and more breathing issues from flukes or velvet.

 

The doc says copper treats velvet, which was the other theory if a freshwater dip did not show any flukes coming off the gills.  I was planning to dose them with copper either way for ich, so I have it on hand.

 

Well, dip went about like this. 

1. Lay on bottom of bowl for 5 minutes breathing rapidly. 
2. Nothing comes out of the gills. 
3. Back in the QT tank just listlessly floating.

I took the opportunity to do a 50% water change in the QT while he was out. Dosed the tank with 1 mL of Cupramine. I have a copper test, so I will check it in a little bit to make sure the copper is where I want it. Then see how things go.....  I am not optimistic he will make it.  

[paneubert]

On a more fun topic, I harvested my phyto for the first time.  I had started with a really weak concentration of phyto to saltwater, so it did not get a dense as I would have liked.  But I wanted to harvest anyway just to get the experience and to increase the starting density in my second batch.  Some photos.....  First is before I harvested, last is the new/second round.

[paneubert]

Well....little clown is dead.  Major bummer.  I wonder what the problem was.  I think even though I wanted a bonded pair, I might just stick with the other clown I still have in QT.  Dosed the Cupramine, so might as well continue that.

 

So yeah, I think the plan now is to do Cupramine for 2 weeks and then I will maybe do a round of Metronidazole and Praziquantel just to be safe.  Then into the display tank the bigger clown will go.  Probably just in time to QT some other new fish.  Haha.

[paneubert]

Decided to do the Metronidazole and Praziquantel at the same time as the copper.  So dosed both yesterday after little clown died.  Big clown is taking it like a champ.  In an effort to raise the copper slow, I dosed the normal 1 mL yesterday and then instead of waiting 48 hours for the second 1 mL, I dosed .5 mL this morning and will do the same tomorrow morning.  Tomorrow is also when I add the second dose of Metronidazole and Praziquantel.  If all goes well, 2 weeks from now I will put the clown in the display tank and most likely time the transfer for an order of a few more fish to arrive and start QT.  

 

In other news, my order of "Purple Helix" came in from Atlantic Reef Conservation.  They culture live coralline algae spores.  Put a bottling date on the bottle and say it is only good for 2 weeks.  Not that crap that is just calcium in a bottle that claims to be or promote coralline growth and sits on a shelf for who knows how long.  So that went into the tank an hour ago.  Leaving the circulation pumps on, but the return pump from the sump is off for the next few hours while the spores settle in the display.

 

In another pleasant surprise, I took a panel of readings on the tank last night and found zeros across the board.  Even nitrate....which surprises me since I was reading between 30-40 a while back.  I expected to see zero ammonia, maybe a tiny bit of nitrite, and then a lot of nitrate since I have done zero water changes.  But zero nitrate was seen.  The only things I have added to the tank since seeing high nitrates was skimming, a little chaeto, and the bio-pellets.  I am wondering if the bio-pellets have already started working strong.

 

I decided to see what happened if I dosed the tank up to a concentration of 1 ppm ammonia.  Want to give it a good 24 hours.  So I will see what the tank tells me tonight.  Hoping to see zero ammonia, hopefully zero nitrite, and....who knows nitrates.

 

[skyscraper2290]

Looking great! Sorry to hear about the little clown, seems like you did everything you could. I really love the look of 40B tanks and excited to see yours progress!

[paneubert]

8 minutes ago, skyscraper2290 said:

Looking great! Sorry to hear about the little clown, seems like you did everything you could. I really love the look of 40B tanks and excited to see yours progress!

Thanks.  The clown was a risk from the beginning.  I don't like to hate on Petco, but they don't devote much time or resources to their saltwater.  It is just as simple as that.  While I don't want to see any fish die, I would be much more upset if he cost me what he would have cost from Liveaquaria or from my "real "LFS. I still keep going back and forth in my head about if I want to replace him......not sure if the larger one I have has already changed to a female or not.  He/she is still pretty small, but was bigger than the one that died.  I don't want to get a replacement and find them fighting to the death.

[skyscraper2290]

Ya it’s a tough choice, personally with a 40B I would definitely want a pair of clownfish. I have been out of the salt water world for about 2 years when I moved states but have been looking at setting up the tank since I just bought a condo and don’t have to move a bunch anymore. I just went to a bunch of LFS today and have a pretty good selection so am gonna avoid Petco because just like you said they typically don’t care for their saltwater quite as good. Granted sometimes you can find a Petco who has a good saltwater person that does a good job. 

 

What are your other stocking plans for fish?

[paneubert]

17 minutes ago, skyscraper2290 said:

What are your other stocking plans for fish?

My wife really wants a coral beauty.....  We had one before and did not have any coral get nipped.  So....maybe.  

 

No concrete plans beyond that.  I would not mind a wrasse, most likely a six-line.  Possibly a small school of damsels or chromis.  All the classic "entry level" fish.  Hahaha.  I don't care about "name brand" corals, and I don't care about if a fish is considered a "beginner" fish or not.  My LFS doesn't have a huge variety of fish that I like, so I will most likely be ordering online.  

[skyscraper2290]

Well if you go the coral beauty route I wish you luck on getting one that doesn't nip at any coral! Sounds very similar to what I am going to plan on doing, no crazy or expensive fish or coral. Keep things on the simpler side. 

 

I'm looking forward to seeing yours progress though!

[paneubert]

1 minute ago, skyscraper2290 said:

 

I'm looking forward to seeing yours progress though!

Stay tuned for a big update on Friday then.  Haha.  Mystery....

[paneubert]

Nothing super exciting today.  My copper test seems to be telling me the copper level in the QT tank is a tad low compared to the reference sample, so I added a tiny bit more just to ensure I am at or above the magic .5 level.  Dosed the second/last dose of Metronidazole and Praziquantel.

 

Only other item of note is that one of my two gallon jugs of phyto appears to have crashed on me.  Did not take a photo, but one jug is nice and green while the other is yellow.  Literally looks "sick" if sick were a color.  Guess I am glad that I have two going.  Will most likely just stop and clean out the gross one and then split the good one when it is harvest time again.  Not sure what went wrong with it.  

[paneubert]

Forgot to post my amazing news from yesterday!  I did a 50% water change on the QT tank.  That is it.  Haha. 

 

News from today.  Big clown is eating well, even with the Cupramine in the water.

 

Display tank was looking a little cloudy from a small bacterial bloom, but it seems to have resolved itself and the tank is looking super clear.

 

Skimmer is being a little weird in that it seems to skim about a quarter inch of liquid into the cup, then the bubbles decide that instead of popping and adding to the liquid in the cup, they ooze out of the little air holes in the lid as if the cup is overflowing or something.  So I get gross little doughnuts of dense skimmate/dirt around each air hole.  It seems to skim really dry as part of squeezing out, so no gross waterfalls of skimmate running down and back into the sump or anything like that, but it is annoying to clean up since I can't just take the entire cup off and clean it in the sink.  I have to paper towel the lid while it is still attached behind the stand before I can remove the cup to empty it. 

 

 

 

 

[paneubert]

Ohh, and I am seeing a bit of diatoms or brown algae start to show in the center section of the sump, where I have my rubble basket and daylight spectrum CFL bulb on about 12 hours per day.  Not surprised that is where it is showing up, and fine if it stays in there and doesn't move to my display tank.

[paneubert]

This is my view each morning.....some strong bubbles that don't want to pop.....

 

[paneubert]

Tick tock, tick tock.  Constantly refreshing the USPS and UPS tracking sites to see where my cleanup crew and corals are.  Should both be here today.  Stopped by Petco to grab some algae sheets in case the cleanup crew did not find enough in my tank to eat (it is still looking pretty darn clean), and left with another maroon clown......going to try to pair it with the one I have in QT.  Wish me luck!  Went for the smallest one they had, but now that it is acclimating in the bag in the QT tank, it looks only slightly smaller than my "big" one.  Yikes......  They are not fighting thru the bag.....so there is that.  Also notice a BIG difference in colortation.  The one  from my first Petco trip is SUPER dark maroon when compared to this new guy.  The new guy is like halfway between a normal clown orange and what I would expect of a maroon clown.  So that could be a good sign since I THINK I read that when they turn female is when they darken a lot?  Photos to come soon......

 

Oh, and noticed my first "chicken pox" of diatoms on my sand and rock in the display tank.  Just little circles/dots of it sprinkled around.  Guess that is another sign I am a few weeks out from finishing the cycle.  Also think I might have seen a strand of green hair algae.  Which would suck since I used dry rock!  I know the algae spores are floating all around, but come on man!

[paneubert]

Coooooooooooooooooorals and Cleeeeeeeeeean Up Crew are in.  Had to take a break to go to my daughter's kindergarten teacher meeting.  So it has been a hectic morning.  Clown is still acclimating in the bag.  Corals and inverts are still acclimating after being dumped in the tank.

 

 

Crappy photos of corals since they are still acclimating and my phone takes really blue photos.

 

 

Tiiiiiiiiiiny rock flower nem.  That is a 1 and 5/8 inch frag disk.  My photo followed by the auction listing photo......look just SLIGHTLY different.  Haha.

 

No photo of the second nem yet, but here is the auction listing photo.

 

 

This is a certified "Pile-O-Inverts".

 

[A Little Blue]

I have the same RFA (yellow one). It’s basically lime green unless you want to blast it with just blues. That’s how they sell/take pics (under heavy blue light that makes everything POP). 

Sorry about the clown. Homegrown  Phyto is a good idea and will save you some $. 

[paneubert]

1 hour ago, A Little Blue said:

I have the same RFA (yellow one). It’s basically lime green unless you want to blast it with just blues. That’s how they sell/take pics (under heavy blue light that makes everything POP). 

Sorry about the clown. Homegrown  Phyto is a good idea and will save you some $. 

Yeah, I am ok with the RFA.  No regrets.  They seem like fun little guys so I wanted to get a few and see where it goes from there.  I harvested the phyto again today, and swore I took photos of how different it was this time around.  But I can't find the photos on my phone!  When I filtered the gallon thru the sieve, there was virtually no crap this time.  Like.....virtually none.  Really odd since last time there was so much dark green.  Since one of my two gallons crashed on me, I did not keep any of this harvest.  Just split it into two new jugs as a 50/50 mix of fresh saltwater and phyto.  Crossing my fingers that both grow and I can harvest this time next week.  

 

"New" clown is doing well so far.  I have him in a little "critter keeper" sunk into the QT tank so that they can see each other but not fight.  So far so good....

[A Little Blue]

I need to harvest my own phyto soon, as I am running low since the last batch. I feed about 5ml daily. It’s a good idea (from my experience) to start harvesting phyto from healthy batch with minimal contamination. 

Clown females can be real PITA. I have similar issues with my little terror, bullying most tank mates for no apparent reason. I noticed that those moods come and go but damage and stress she cause is clear. Almost makes me concider trading her in for small bag of ChemiPure.  

[paneubert]

Rock flower puffed up and inflated some guts or something when I target fed it.  Not super worried.

 

My biggest maxi-mini nem decided to be a butt and squeeze into a crack where I can't really see him anymore.  Here was the progression of his locations yesterday...

Side by side with my smaller one on the sand.

 

Then they both moved up on a rock, which I expected....this is under my UV flashlight after light out last night.

 

 

This morning just after lights on.....wedged behind the rock and sort of on top of the smaller one.  I hope he comes back out when he realizes there is not a lot of light for him back there....

 

 

[paneubert]

Update for today.  The big maxi-mini nem squeezed all the way behind the rock where I could just barely see him.  So I took the chance in assuming that he was attached to only that one rock and rotated the entire thing about 90 degrees.  It worked.  So now I have one nem on one side of the rock and one on the other, but both are easily seen.  Hopefully they both settle in and dont run again.

 

Busted out my old test kit for Calcium and Alk (have a Red Sea combo kit that I think was never even opened, but expired probably 5 years ago) to see how they compared to brand new Salifert kits that I just bought (they both expire in 2023).

 

Alk was reading 8.9 on the old Red Sea, and 9.1 on the new Salifert.  So I think the Alk test in the old Red Sea kit might still be good.  I am going to keep testing it side by side for a bit to see if the values still match closely.  Why waste a good (expired) test kit if it is still working.....  If the values keep matching then I might use up the Red Sea before I start on the "new" Salifert.

 

Calcium was 320 on on old Red Sea and 420 on new Salifert.....  Haha.  So.....I either tested incorrectly, or the Red Sea Calcium test might be bad.  Not only since I was reading 100 points of difference, but also because I would be really surprised to see a value of only 320 since I did not have any large consumers of calcium in the tank until I added the corals a few days ago.  

 

I am going to test again tonight when the kids aren't harassing me to see what values I get from old versus new kits.  Want to get in the habit of tracking consumption now that I added a bunch of corals and I expect to see the coralline algae start to build.  

[paneubert]

Did another round and found that old Red Sea reads 9.35 Alk while new Salifert reads 9.1.  So I am going to stick with the claim that the Red Sea Alk test is still working well after expiration.  

 

The old Red Sea reads 330 for calcium while the new Salifert reads a more believable 400.  Not exactly what I was reading earlier, but still off from each other by a wide margin.  I will keep testing side by side for a few days, because why not?  But I am going to trust the Salifert over the Red Sea most likely.  

 

Maybe I will dose a known value of calcium and see if both kits react in the way I would expect.  The Alk is high enough for me already, so if I am going to chase an element, it is going to be calcium.  

[paneubert]

So.....today is the first day of kindergarten. Very hectic.

 

I take a glance at my tank and see that all the nems have moved to inconvenient spots. Even the rock flower nems.

 

 

HMMMMMMMMM.....

 

 

Then notice my freakin' return pump isn't working!!!!! I can't get it to start. My heaters are in my sump.....  No time to screw around with fixing it, so tossed in a pre-set tetra heater that I use for water change water mixing. It tends to run high.....hope I dont come home to a cooked tank. Sigh.......

 

I do have a replacement return pump I think.....just have to find it. 

[paneubert]

Well, to make myself feel better, I ordered a new impeller and "cover" (the part that has the input and output nozzles) just in case the problem is a broken impeller or torn up housing.  Should deliver tomorrow. 

 

A broken impeller has happened to me in the past where the impeller was just slightly off center and gouged a nice divot into the interior of the cover until it finally completely broke.  I did cycle the power a few times during my 30 seconds of troubleshooting I was able to do, and I did seem to see a very minor bump in the water in the return tube.  Like energizing the pump caused it to "try" to turn on, but without success.  Just like a little surge of water rising an inch into the return before falling back.  I did not hear any grinding or anything, but I am imagining a broken impeller in the pump trying to spin when power is applied, but not accomplishing anything other than moving a tiny bit of water around within the pump.  The lack of sound makes me wonder though....