Ocean_dreamer89's Red Sea Reefer 250

[Ocean_dreamer89]

Hello!

About a year and a half ago, I started my first reef aquarium which was a BioCube 16. Even though I had been told nano tanks can be hard to maintain due to the small water volume, I had a great time with that tank and learned a TON. For me, it worked very well to "get my feet wet" in the reefing world. The small size and (relatively) cheaper cost, allowed me to get started and find out if I really enjoyed it and would stick with it. I always knew that if I did really enjoy reefing, that I would eventually upgrade to a larger aquarium. I had originally wanted to go with a RedSea Reefer 425XL, but a friend of a friend decided to sell his RSR 250 and it was a deal that I could not pass up! The tank had been up and running for about six months before he took it down and it is in near perfect condition. I bought the tank back in August 2020 and today (2/5/21), I am finally adding water to it. I'll add more details in subsequent posts, but just wanted to get this thread started and say Hello! As this thread continues, I'll try to keep this first post updated with the latest equipment and livestock.


Tank: RedSea Reefer 250
Salt: Fritz RPM
Aquascape: About 50 lbs CaribSea Life Rock (40 lbs regular rock/10 lbs arches)
Sand: 20 lbs CaribSea Arag-Alive Special Grade Live Sand (about 1 inch deep)
Lighting: RedSea ReefLED 90W x2
Return Pump: Octopus Varios-6
Powerhead: Ecotech Vortech MP40wQD
Skimmer: Nyos Quantum 160
Algae Turf Scrubber: IceCap 20W
Heater: Finnex 150W Heater with Inkbird WiFi controller
Chemical Filtration: TBD
Mechanical Filtration: RedSea Filter Cups filled with matrix and topped with filter floss

ATO: TBD, Innovative Marine HydroFill Reservoir 15 Gal
Tank Modifiations: Removed stock plumbing and replaced with custom plumbing

P.S. I love hearing other people’s opinions and suggestions! Please comment all you want!!!

Edited: 3/2/21

Livestock:

TBD

Will be transferring over 2x Ocellaris Clownfish and 1x Blood Fire Shrimp 

1x Melanurus Wrasse in QT

Corals:

TBD - will be transferring:
Duncan
1x Green/Purple Hammer

1x Toxic Green Hammer
2x Ricordea Florida (orange and green)

Ultra Orange Rhodactis Mushroom
Blastomussa merletti (I believe, could be wellsi)
Green star polyp
Frogspawn
Candy Cane
Plating red Montipora
Solid pink Scoly
Meteor Shower Cyphastrea
JF Burning Banana Stylocoeniella
Encrusting white/green Montipora

Neon Green Cabbage Leather

Rainbow Trachyphyllia

 

[banasophia]

Congrats! I’d love to have one of these tanks someday!! Can’t wait to see pics and follow along on your experience. 

[Ocean_dreamer89]

Thank you!! I'm super excited!  I got this tank for a steal but was still in a bit of sticker shock with the extra needed equipment.  I've been spacing out the purchases since last August and was able to find a lot of very good quality equipment on Ebay and Facebook Marketplace.  Definitely saved hundreds going that route.

[Ocean_dreamer89]

When I got the opportunity to buy this RSR 250, I immediately hoped on here and a few other sites to begin researching different builds. I saw a ton of ideas that I loved, but my experience in plumbing is zippo and I'm not very crafty, so I knew I'd be limited by time and ability.

 

I thought a good place to start was to plan the sump area and equipment I wanted, that way I could begin to think about how I wanted it plumbed. I contemplated sticking with the stock plumbing, but I knew I wanted an algae scrubber and at least one reactor, so I decided to go with a manifold. I knew space would be limited in the small sump area so extra pumps all over the place to power water through those would be ineffective. The challenge for me would be to try to plan this plumbing with my limited experience, and thennnnn convincing my husband to actually do the plumbing! Luckily once I showed him pictures and explained what I wanted and what would need to be different, he was game. I ran into @Eight (on R2R) build thread and borrowed heavily from his his manifold plan.  I modified his plan a little but his part list and detailed plan with all of it written out was amazing. If you get the chance, hop over to his thread and check it out! https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/jasons-reefer-250-fish-added-sump-mod-clarisea-custom-plumbing-aquascape-w-e-marco-ikea-cabinet-mod-pic-heavy.680042/page-12#post-7594272

 

One major change that I did was hard plumbing the algae scrubber. In Jason's build thread, he had two reactors, but I only plan on using one, so in the place of the second, I added in some soft tubing to run to the scrubber and then hard plumbed the drain back into the sump. For the shelf, we added a piece of glass setting on four brackets screwed into the wall and/or glued to the sump. All in all the plumbing by far had been the most time consuming part of the build. I got the tank in August 2020 and the plumbing got finished about a month ago. Granted my husband was only able to work on it here and there with our weird work schedules. Once it was complete, I ran a leak test and had to fix several leaks. Overall, I think it was a pretty good success considering this was the first time for either of us working with this much plumbing. Silicone on o-rings and a lot of glue solved all the leaks. Hopefully, it'll hold up long term, but I'll get y'all posted.

 

 

Leak Test Video  (PS if anyone could help me with how to add a video, please advise!)

 

Once all the plumbing was done, I began the work of getting all the electronics installed and wire management. For my equipment, I was able to get pretty much all of it from Ebay or Facebook marketplace. All of them arrived in great condition and had only been used for a few months by all of the previous owners. Also, since the plumbing took so long, I was able to space out all these expenses. Big plus! I ordered some tracks for the wires from Amazon and got an LED light strip for the inside of the cabinet. Without the LEDs, it's way too dark in the cabinet to be able to do any work. Below is what it looks like with all the electronics, wire management, and plumbing done.

Right side underneath cabinet
 

Left side underneath cabinet
 

The next step for me was the rockscape. I ordered about 40 lbs of regular life rock and 10 lbs of life rock arches. This whole process didn't take as long as I thought it would, but the main frustration for me is once I got a design I liked, I could never replicate it a second time! This occurred several times while I was putting the epoxy in. I used just a regular two part epoxy for this. For the structure on the left, I made them into two larger sections that I could stack and the one on the right is three sections. I also connected the two arches in the middle. The idea behind this was to be able to pull the rocks out fairly easily if I needed to, but still wanted a stable structure. This worked perfectly for adding the rocks into the tank because I didn't have to carry a huge, very heavy rock structure up the stairs. To plan the rocks, I measured the tank dimensions and then drew a template onto a cardboard box and went from there. I also used a piece of cardboard on the back to measure the height of the tank and make sure that I had enough height and dimension in the overall scape. This is what I ended up with.

 

 

Any all feedback is welcome!

 

[banasophia]

That looks amazing! Now I really want one!! Love the scape!

[Ladytank]

Your tank looks amazing. 

[Ocean_dreamer89]

3 hours ago, banasophia said:

That looks amazing! Now I really want one!! Love the scape!

Thank you so much! About 6 months of planning and procrastinating! 😂  How many tanks are you up to now?

2 hours ago, Ladytank said:

Your tank looks amazing. 

Thank you!!!

[banasophia]

6 hours ago, Ocean_dreamer89 said:

Thank you so much! About 6 months of planning and procrastinating! 😂  How many tanks are you up to now?

Seems you took time to plan well. 
 

I have 3 tanks and I don’t recommend running so many tanks, tbh... feels like a big chore doing three water changes each week. I’ve actually been considering consolidating. 

[JustReading]

Loving the start! 

[Ocean_dreamer89]

9 hours ago, banasophia said:

Seems you took time to plan well. 
 

I have 3 tanks and I don’t recommend running so many tanks, tbh... feels like a big chore doing three water changes each week. I’ve actually been considering consolidating. 

I can only imagine!  Some weeks I don't feel like doing my solo water change.  😂

 

2 hours ago, JustReading said:

Loving the start! 

Thank you!

[Ocean_dreamer89]

After spending two days making enough water to fill the tank, I am still unable to start the cycle . Got the tank finally filled up last night about 11 pm and started up the return. I was letting it run for a minute and messing with the main drain valve trying to get it to quiet down, when I noticed a very small leak where the manifold connects to the tank. It was one a little drop coming out every second or so, so I slapped some more silicone on it and called it a night.

When I woke up this morning, I turned on the return pump and didn't see any leaks! Buttttttt after about 30 sec, I noticed a big bubble of silicone popping out where that previous leak had been. I wish I would've grabbed a picture of that but I was too ticked. 

The pipe on the left is connected to the manifold. The leak is on the right side of the far left pipe.
 

I grabbed my husband before he left for work and we decided that the manifold not being supported from the top was putting too much pressure on that connection for it to seal properly. Luckily he had bought lots of extra stuff on our many Home Depot runs and TBH he's a bit of a hoarder when it comes to tools and supplies. Drives me nuts most of the time but definitely thankful this instance! He was able to find some rubber washers that he had to compensate for the gap left by the 1 in pipe support. Immediately, the difference of pressure on that connection that was leaking was apparent. Once everything was secured, I place some new silicone around the pipe and am currently letting it dry. I'll update probably later today.

 

 

[Ocean_dreamer89]

Well 7 hours of chasing small leaks, I finally got it to the point where I can keep it running. Have a small leak that I missed on the backside of the emergency and one at the soft tubing connection to the algae scrubber. Right now the tank is running with the water level below the emergency and the scrubber is shut off from water while the silicone dries in those spots. Going to keep it running for another hour while I observe it. If nothing new pops up, I'll let it go through the night and check again in the morning with the same game plan. If all goes well when I get home from work tomorrow, I'll finally start the cycle!

Pictures for fun. Who doesn't like some pics??
 

 

Lights on just for the picture😏

[JustReading]

This is what stresses me out about these big tanks. 

[Ocean_dreamer89]

5 hours ago, JustReading said:

This is what stresses me out about these big tanks. 

It was a process, that's for sure.  But definitely a good learning experience.  This was my first time dealing with plumbing at all and my husband did most of the work with his limited experience.  I've could've gone the easy route and use the plumbing that came with the tank, but where's the fun in that! 😂

[Ocean_dreamer89]

Got the cycle going tonight. I'm going with the same process I did for my Biocube, just scaled up. I used Fritz Ammonium Chloride. The directions say to add 1 Tsp per 100 gallons. My tank is 66 total system volume minus rocks and sand, so I added half that. I waited for about 10 min and tested for Ammonia using my API test kit. It showed between 2-4 ppm, so I dumped in Dr. Tims's nitrifying bacteria. I can't remember the exact bottle size, but the whole bottle treats up to 60 gallons.

The wait begins.

 

[banasophia]

On 2/7/2021 at 7:11 PM, Ocean_dreamer89 said:

Well 7 hours of chasing small leaks, I finally got it to the point where I can keep it running. Have a small leak that I missed on the backside of the emergency and one at the soft tubing connection to the algae scrubber. Right now the tank is running with the water level below the emergency and the scrubber is shut off from water while the silicone dries in those spots. Going to keep it running for another hour while I observe it. If nothing new pops up, I'll let it go through the night and check again in the morning with the same game plan. If all goes well when I get home from work tomorrow, I'll finally start the cycle!

Pictures for fun. Who doesn't like some pics??
 

 

Lights on just for the picture😏

Wow!!! That looks very impressive, and intimidating... nice job figuring all that out. 

[Ocean_dreamer89]

So now that the tank is cycling, I figured I should really start thinking about the stocking list.  I plan on transferring everything in my Biocube over, which isn't very much as far as livestock for a 50+ gallon tank.

 

Current livestock that will transfer:

2x Ocellaris Clownfish

1x Blood Fire Shrimp

1x Rainbow Bubble Tip Anemone

  

I'll list some ideas below, but I'm at the very beginnings of this and very open to suggestions.  My husband is only really into looking at the fish, so active fish that are visible are a big plus.  My possibilities below are not going to really be a list of must haves, but just ideas.  In other words, I may list more than what would be an acceptable bio-load for the tank.  It should be noted that I intentionally got an oversized skimmer for the tank in the case that I did want to push the limit a little bit.  Like I said, my husband really likes looking at the fish, so anything that I can do to keep him on board with this hobby I will! Haha  I would love to hear ideas!!

 

Possibilities:

Royal Gramma

 

 

Flasher Wrasse

 McCosker's   Carpenter

 

Exquisite Fairy Wrasse

 

Tailspot Blenny

 

Firefish 

 Regular  Helfrichi   Purple

 

Coral Beauty Angelfish

 

Flame Angelfish

 

I know there's some issues with corals for the last two, which I would have to keep an eye on.  The blenny would I guess be the "utilitarian" fish of the group since I believe this tank in too small for tangs.  The RG would be my closest must have due to sentimental value for me.  Anyone have experience or tips with any of these fish? Any ideas of additional possibilities?  Not really interested in Cardinals.  I know they're cool, active fish, but I'm looking for more color.

[Ocean_dreamer89]

So both of my MP40's I have, I bought them used.  One of them has been sitting for in my basement since before I bought this tank.  When I first received it, I had to buy the black RF chip to make it Mobius compatible.  I got that set up and then let it since until last week, probably close to 8 months.  Anyway, I went to set it up with this tank and discovered that the driver had gone bad.  I ordered a new one and finally got it today, after going through some hassle with FedEx who delivered it to the wrong house.  Luckily, I have an awesome neighbor that put it in my mailbox today.  Anyway, I got the new driver set up and got to work with more wire management..😩 Am I the only one that has really started to despise wire management??? 

 

But I digress.  While I was in wire hell, I went ahead and got one of the other small projects that I've been putting off a bit.  I've been catching up on the BRS 360 videos and have been thinking a lot about what they talk about with pH and saying that in order to provide the best life we can for the animals in our tank, the way we (as a hobby) think about the acceptable range for pH may be the wrong approach.  They basically are saying that the best practice for pH is not the larger range of acceptable, but to keep it as close as we can to 8.3.  My Biocube has always maintained a lower pH (around 7.9) and I have never successfully been able to get it higher.  I basically accepted that this was the natural value for the tank and since everything looked fine, I just went for consistency.  I'd like to try a different approach with this new tank and maintain that 8.3 number.  My issue is that I have four animals and two humans in my house and we all exhale a bunch of CO2!  So I'm going to do some more research about how to increase pH (right now I'm thinking Kalkwasser is going to be my best bet), but in the meantime I wanted something to make my life a bit easier for keeping an eye on the value.  I found a pretty cheap pH probe on Amazon.  It has decent reviews, so I decided to go with it.  I know a lot of times you get what you pay for, but at least this can give me a rough idea of where the pH is without having to test daily.  Of course this added more wires!! I'm not completely happy with how I have the additional wires managed right now, but I will probably play around with it later.

 

Now for some pictures!

 

This is the pH monitor.  It's supposed to have an error range of 0.1 either way, but it's probably closer to 0.3 after spending about 30 min trying to calibrate it.  I'll take it for $32.

 

I also added the Red Sea media cups.  I put the drain for the algae scrubber in a place where it can make it a little more difficult to change the socks.  With the cups, I added in some Seachem Matrix and plan on putting filter floss on top.  I figured this will save some time and make maintenance easier, which means I more likely to do it more often!

 

 

 

 

As always, I appreciate anyone's thoughts or suggestions!

[Ocean_dreamer89]

For Valentine's Day yesterday, my husband took me around to a couple LFS to look at some fish and corals (and he got me some store credit for a present!).  I went in the attitude that unless I saw something I really wanted that I would just enjoy the stores a browse.  We went to three total and I stuck with the gameplay throughout.  I saw some pretty cool coral but my Biocube just doesn't have much more room and I don't really want to add something to it just to wait until the new tank is ready.  So at the end of the day, I didn't see any coral that I couldn't live without.  At the last store, however, they had one of the fish that was on my list of potentials.  I kept my QT ready at all times in the case that I need to set it up fast and I had recently mixed some fresh saltwater before we left, so I decided to jump on it and picked up a Coral Beauty.  I'll go through my QT plan in a bit, but it'll take enough time for the new tank to be ready and worst case scenario, it can stay in the QT longer if it needs to.  I talked about my QT setup in my Biocube build thread, but I've made a couple changes so I'll go over it again.

 

This is the shelving that I keep almost all of my fish related equipment.  The QT used to be on that middle shelf where the filter socks are.  Don't mind the mess there, recently moved the QT so I'm still working on the organization for that part.  

 

 

I noticed that the tank was probably too heavy for that shelf and it was warping pretty bad.  It was still stable enough, but I just didn't feel comfortable filling it up again.  Another issue with the tank right there, was the clearance above the tank.  It was tight!  This made doing any kind of work with the filter or topping off the tank a big pain.  So I decided to reuse my old Biocube stand, which was a stand that I had picked up fairly cheap on Amazon, and place it right next to the shelving.  This works great because it's nice and sturdy, gives me some extra storage, and no more clearance issue!  Plus it gets the stand out of my way and puts it to good use again haha.

 

 

For the actual QT, I went cheap but practical.  I have a 50W heater, Fluval HOB filter, a small powerhead, a simple LED light strip, and some PVC.  I've found that even this small powerhead really blasts the fish and I can't turn it down, so I leave it off most of the time and just use it to help collect uneaten food.  The HOB provides the aeration and a gentle flow to the tank.  If I start to notice a problem with pH or anything, I can always position the powerhead closer to the top and get some more surface agitation that way.

 

 

The tank is just a 10 gallon glass tank from Petco and I painted three sides of it black to help prevent the fish from getting spooked.  The light stays off unless I am down there observing or feeding.  During the day time, I'll leave the room light on just to give the fish a little light.  This whole setup is in a windowless extra room in my basement that we really just use for storage.  I keep some bio media in the return chamber of my Biocube for the QT.  When I set it up, I just fill it with fresh saltwater, heat it up and throw the bio media into the HOB filter.  I've haven't used medications in my QT yet, so this current bio media is about 18 months old.  When I get the RSR 250 up and running I plan on keeping several small bags of extra bio media in the sump for the QT.  This way when I use medications, I can completely sterilize it and reuse or toss it and still have some in reserve.

 

Now for the fish!  Like I said, I picked up a Coral Beauty.  If you remember my post about potential fish, I had posted that either a Coral Beauty or a Flame Angel were possibilities that I was considering.  I knew I couldn't get both, so I asked Tyler which one he preferred.  He liked the Coral Beauty since we already have two clownfish that are orange.  Made sense to me and I like them both!  I haven't been able to get very good pictures of it yet, but here's a couple.

 

 

 

It's been in the QT for about a full day now and got it's first meal this morning.  I gave it some frozen food with a tad of garlic and it ate it right up.  The plan I have for quarantine is about a five week plan that I found on reef2reef that @hawaiifavo uses.  First, I'll just observe it and let it adjust to its new environment completing the week with a 25%-50% water change depending on parameters.  Then week 2, I'll start treatment with Paraguard.  Paraguard is basically a safer to use Formalin.  It's used to treat external fungal/bacterial/viral lesions.  It stays active in the water column for 24 hours, so it needs to be redosed daily.  This will kinda be the catch all treatment before I  move into the copper treatment.  I'll then do another 25%-50% WC and add carbon to get the last of the Paraguard out.  For weeks 3 and 4, I will be treating with Prazipro and Copper Power.  Right now, I plan on slowly increasing the Copper to therapeutic levels over two or three days and starting the 14 day count when it reaches therapeutic.  Halfway through the 14 days, I will do a 50% WC and treat the new saltwater with the Copper Power and Prazipro before adding it in.  This way the water will maintain the proper levels.   Once the 14 days is complete, I'll add in Cuprisorb and do another 50% WC.  I will do 50% WC and test for copper daily after this until the copper is gone.  Hopefully it should just be the two WCs.  I'll use the last of week 5 to observe the fish and then afterwards, the new tank should have already cycled and the clownfish transferred into it.  Here's a break down.

 

 

Any thoughts or concerns?  This will be my first time prophylactically treating fish.  I know there are a thousand ways to do this.  But I was looking for a option that is not super time consuming or takes a really long time.  I work 2nd shift, so I only have a few hours in the morning to workout, eat, and get ready for work, and I go to bed as soon as I get home.  Time can definitely be an issue for me and morning time is really the only time I have to mess with the tank.   

 

[Ocean_dreamer89]

So I decided to change up the QT plan up a little bit.  After watching the new fish for a few days, I believe it has Ich.  The white spots that I'm seeing are on its forehead.  I noticed them there a day or so after I brought it home and throughout the week, they have disappeared.

 

 

I already had Copper Power on order but with all the winter weather, the package got lost.  I have Cupramine on hand, but had read that Angel fish can be sensitive to copper treatments and Copper Power seems to be the most gentle (plus Humblefish uses it, so that's a huge plus!).  The fish has been eating like a pig and does not exhibit any odd behavior, at least to my untrained eyes, so I decided to wait for the Copper Power.  Unfortunately, the package never made so I picked some up at a LFS today.

 

So this is where the game plan changes.  I'm at the week mark and finished with the observation/acclimation period.  The next step would have been to start with the Paraguard, but since I have some possible evidence of a disease, I'll treat that first.  For Copper Power, 1.5 ppm is therapeutic and can go up to 2.5 ppm, which is where Humblefish uses it at.  I really don't feel comfortable getting that close to the boundaries, especially for my first time, so I'm going to shoot for 2.0/2.25 ppm.  I will bring it up to that level over the course of 5 days and dosing twice a day. I'll also be using a Hanna Checker to test the Copper levels.  Humblefish starts his QT at 1.0 ppm and brings it up from there, so I decided to do a larger dose today and just the one.  The other change is that since, I definitely suspect Ich, I will be using Copper for 30 days instead of the planned 14 days.  The last two weeks of the Copper treatment is when I will start the Prazipro.  At the end of 30 days, I will use Cuprisorb to remove the copper and treat with the Paraguard in the observation period.

 

On another note, I was feeding my corals in the Biocube the other day and my Scoly had a hell of a feeding response! Thought I'd share this just for fun.

 

[banasophia]

On 2/9/2021 at 5:50 PM, Ocean_dreamer89 said:

So now that the tank is cycling, I figured I should really start thinking about the stocking list.  I plan on transferring everything in my Biocube over, which isn't very much as far as livestock for a 50+ gallon tank.

 

Current livestock that will transfer:

2x Ocellaris Clownfish

1x Blood Fire Shrimp

1x Rainbow Bubble Tip Anemone

  

I'll list some ideas below, but I'm at the very beginnings of this and very open to suggestions.  My husband is only really into looking at the fish, so active fish that are visible are a big plus.  My possibilities below are not going to really be a list of must haves, but just ideas.  In other words, I may list more than what would be an acceptable bio-load for the tank.  It should be noted that I intentionally got an oversized skimmer for the tank in the case that I did want to push the limit a little bit.  Like I said, my husband really likes looking at the fish, so anything that I can do to keep him on board with this hobby I will! Haha  I would love to hear ideas!!

 

Possibilities:

Royal Gramma

 

 

Flasher Wrasse

 McCosker's   Carpenter

 

Exquisite Fairy Wrasse

 

Tailspot Blenny

 

Firefish 

 Regular  Helfrichi   Purple

 

Coral Beauty Angelfish

 

Flame Angelfish

 

I know there's some issues with corals for the last two, which I would have to keep an eye on.  The blenny would I guess be the "utilitarian" fish of the group since I believe this tank in too small for tangs.  The RG would be my closest must have due to sentimental value for me.  Anyone have experience or tips with any of these fish? Any ideas of additional possibilities?  Not really interested in Cardinals.  I know they're cool, active fish, but I'm looking for more color.

My husband isn’t really into my tanks, but he loves our diamond goby... by far his favorite. Maybe you could do a nice sand sifting fish. 

[Ocean_dreamer89]

22 hours ago, banasophia said:

My husband isn’t really into my tanks, but he loves our diamond goby... by far his favorite. Maybe you could do a nice sand sifting fish. 

That's a good idea! He does like the goby/shrimp combos.

[Ocean_dreamer89]

Updated my QT schedule with the changes I talked about in a previous post.  Below is what I came up with.  I decided to skip additional medications unless I see a particular reason to treat.  Two reasons for this. First is from what I gleaned from Humblefish's website, most of the other ones I was considering (Prazi, Metroplex, etc) can be administered through a food soak using Seachem Focus, which makes it reef safe.  Second reason is that I'm anticipating this Copper treatment to be stressful on the fish and once the 30 days is up I would rather try to get it out of the QT as quick as reasonable in case there is still trace Copper in it.  And let's be real, after this big extension to my original plan, I want to get the fish in my new tank! 😂

 

[Ocean_dreamer89]

Alright guys.  Time for change #3.  I'm going to stick with this change for the long haul so that I don't stress the fish too much.

 

I started the copper treatment as planned.  I got to day 3 of the copper buildup and the fish did not appear to be handling it well.  I increased the copper level to 0.75 ppm over two and a half days and had planned on getting to the 2.0-2.25 ppm range.  However, when I woke up in the morning on day 3, the fish had a decreased appetite and developed an extremely cloudy right eye.  

 

Before                                                                                                 After

 

 

Up until this point, it had been eating like a pig.  So I stopped increasing the copper and left it alone while I seemed out some more advice.  I spoke with the guy I bought the fish from at my LFS and he suggested that I stop with the copper treatment and start the tank transfer method.  I had also noticed some white stringy poop so he said that I could dose Prazipro during the TTM.  I have read about this before but I was unsure how I could execute it, knowing that its equipment and labor intensive.  He told me that I could use a five gallon buckets, two heaters, thermometers, and a source of air.  When I ask about biological filtration, I was told that it was not really a concern since the fish in only in one tank for a maximum of 72.  I just need to keep an eye on ammonia and use prime if need be.  I went home and read a little more about it and thought about how I could make it work.  For me, freshly made saltwater was going to be my challenge.  I only have a few hours in the morning to eat, change, workout, and take care of my three dogs, cat, and tanks before I need to go to work for second shift.  For my RODI system, it takes a little over 1 hour and 20 min to make about 4 gallons.  Add the time to heat up that water and mix salt and it starts to really add up.  So here's the gameplan I have come up with so far.

 

1 Five gallon bucket, extra screen that I have for up top, heater, thermometer, and air pump with air stone

 

For the other tank, I usually have a 10 gallon QT tank, but for the sake of saving water used, I picked up a 5.5 gallon tank.  This will have it's own heater and thermometer.  I bought several air stones and plan on just replacing one each time I move tanks.  This is so that I can be sure it'll be completely dry since they are so porous.

 

Alright, so here's the plan of action.  I'll fill up the five gallon bucket and put the heater and thermometer in to bring it up to the same temperature of the water as the tank that the fish is currently in.  I'll also ensure that the SG matches.  I'll put in some airline tubing with an airstone and a piece of PVC.  Once everything is good, the fish gets put into the bucket.  Once the fish is in, the timer starts for 72 hours.  Twenty four hours before the transfer time, I'll set up the second tank, fill it with water, and start bringing it up to temp.  As close to the 72 hour mark, without going over, I'll transfer the fish to the new tank.  Once it's transferred over, I'll empty the bucket, rinse it and all other equipment and dry it out.  Once it has been completely dry for 24 hours, it is considered sterilized.  I'll use new airline tubing and airstone when it comes time to set up the bucket again.  This process will continue every 72 hours for 12 days.  On the 13th day, the fish gets transferred one last time and should be free of any ich.

 

It was suggested to me by Humblefish to try a hybrid TTM.  This involves dosing H2O2 30 min before the 1st and 3rd transfer.  I'll need to read more about this before I make a decision.  He is advising me that this could help with the possible eye infection.  However, I currently have the fish in the bucket and am 24 hours in and it's eye has already cleared up.  So I'm undecided right now but I'll keep y'all posted.  Here's the link for the hybrid

 

 

 

Sorry for the terrible picture but here's a look at the bucket setup.

[Ocean_dreamer89]

Finished the first tank transfer this morning.  The little guy appears much better, but still not eating.  I've tried frozen soaked in a couple drops of garlic and flakes, but nothing.  Before it stopped eating, it would gobble up this same frozen food.  I'm thinking that stress is the issue as all of this started with the copper treatment.  Now that it been out of the copper for over 72 hours, I'm hoping that it'll start to eat again.

 

Everything else is on track.  Dosed some Prazipro 24 hours before the transfer.  It seemed to handle it OK.  For the next transfer, I'm still debating on the H2O2.  I think I'll play it by ear a bit and decide closer to the next 72 hour mark.  If I go ahead with it, I'll use a small bucket or bowl and give it a H2O2 bath separate from tank.  I figure doing it this will at least get it out of the dirtier water faster.

 

                                                                                                                            This is the same eye that was cloudy.  Much better!!!