GOFOR'S 52" x 36" x 26" CDA Peninsula & SoCal Tank Room Build
- Thread starter gofor100
- Start date
Happy New Year!
Yup, the fallow period clock started ticking on New Year's Day (I spent all day New Year's Eve taking the rock out of the tank and catching the remaining fish to quarantine them, then placing the rock back in the tank). Needless to say, I had a couple of drinks NYE night to end a very stressful day.
This means that my tank will be fishless for 76 days (until March 18th) to ensure that ANY fish parasites meet their demise and I can start this thing with a disease-free tank again.
It seems like a long time, but this will at least give me an opportunity to clean some things up in the stand, the shed, maybe re-arrange some rock, etc. It'll also allow me to fight the green turf algae battle that has popped up in recent months. I figure with very small feedings during the fallow period (only feeding the cleaner shrimp and CUC a small feeding per day or so) will in itself eliminate much of the nutrients the the turf algae must be consuming, but I'll also be dosing some Microbacter Clean I have on hand (which helped earlier in the process when I had some hair algae), and remove as much of the turf algae by hand during my weekly cleanings.
I took some before pictures and will show the progress as time allows.
Thanks for checking in!
Yup, the fallow period clock started ticking on New Year's Day (I spent all day New Year's Eve taking the rock out of the tank and catching the remaining fish to quarantine them, then placing the rock back in the tank). Needless to say, I had a couple of drinks NYE night to end a very stressful day.
This means that my tank will be fishless for 76 days (until March 18th) to ensure that ANY fish parasites meet their demise and I can start this thing with a disease-free tank again.
It seems like a long time, but this will at least give me an opportunity to clean some things up in the stand, the shed, maybe re-arrange some rock, etc. It'll also allow me to fight the green turf algae battle that has popped up in recent months. I figure with very small feedings during the fallow period (only feeding the cleaner shrimp and CUC a small feeding per day or so) will in itself eliminate much of the nutrients the the turf algae must be consuming, but I'll also be dosing some Microbacter Clean I have on hand (which helped earlier in the process when I had some hair algae), and remove as much of the turf algae by hand during my weekly cleanings.
I took some before pictures and will show the progress as time allows.
Thanks for checking in!
I've also decided that my fish list will be limited to only those fish that are not coral nippers. I LOVED my Moorish Idol and Regal Angel, and both of them seemed to be fine with most corals/inverts like clams (except my MI did take interest in some fleshy corals like acans and my space invader Pectina). What I found out though is that my kids LOVE the different types of corals, and clams you can have in this tank, and while the MI and Regal were beautiful fish, there are other beautiful fish that I can have without the concern of what corals I can have. And honestly, it just added stress to know that if a coral wasn't looking great, I didn't know if it was the flow, the light, or something in the water, OR if it was the MI or Regal nipping it when I wasn't around.
So this go around, I'll stick with the tangs, wrasses, clownfish, gobies, etc., and MIGHT go with a unique fish like the Blue Jaw Trigger (since they are more of a danger to your CUC than any corals in my experience). I was also considering a Rabbit Fish like the One Spot Rabbitfish, but have read that while they are generally reef safe, that they can nip at the fleshy corals if they are "hungry". Does anyone have any experience with this? I'd rather not take the chance if I don't have to since I'm limiting my fish list already to known reef-safe fish.
So this go around, I'll stick with the tangs, wrasses, clownfish, gobies, etc., and MIGHT go with a unique fish like the Blue Jaw Trigger (since they are more of a danger to your CUC than any corals in my experience). I was also considering a Rabbit Fish like the One Spot Rabbitfish, but have read that while they are generally reef safe, that they can nip at the fleshy corals if they are "hungry". Does anyone have any experience with this? I'd rather not take the chance if I don't have to since I'm limiting my fish list already to known reef-safe fish.
Progressing pretty nicely! Been soooo busy, so I haven't been able to take/post pics (although I did take some "before" pics that I'll post when I can take some "after" pics).
After I moved the fish out, I reorganized the rock work a little (not a huge change but some slight changes I figured I would do while the tank was empty). I also was able to treat some of the rock with hydrogen peroxide to kill off some of the turf algae, and now, to begin outcompeting the remaining turf algae, I'm dosing Microbacter Clean, slowly increasing the light intensity in my fuge, and added the remaining corals that was in my coral QT tank to see if they can soak up any more nitrates/phosphates in the tank. Everything seems to be doing really well so far, so I'll just keep this up and see how the tank looks by mid-February. If the turf algae is still holding on, I might dose Vibrant, but if it is showing signs of dying off, I'll just stick with this approach.
After I moved the fish out, I reorganized the rock work a little (not a huge change but some slight changes I figured I would do while the tank was empty). I also was able to treat some of the rock with hydrogen peroxide to kill off some of the turf algae, and now, to begin outcompeting the remaining turf algae, I'm dosing Microbacter Clean, slowly increasing the light intensity in my fuge, and added the remaining corals that was in my coral QT tank to see if they can soak up any more nitrates/phosphates in the tank. Everything seems to be doing really well so far, so I'll just keep this up and see how the tank looks by mid-February. If the turf algae is still holding on, I might dose Vibrant, but if it is showing signs of dying off, I'll just stick with this approach.
Almost there! March 18th is Day 76 in my fallow period, and I have been taking some progression pics of the battle against turf algae. The first 90% was won by simply not having a bioload and adding corals to compete with the algae for the nitrates and phosphates (along with turning up the light on my refugium and skimming pretty wet).
To hit this last 10% or so, I'm going to try spot treating the remaining algae with hydrogen peroxide. I've read that if you turn all of your flow off, and blast the algae with a syringe, then it should start dying away after a few sessions. I'd rather try this first than an algaecide like Vibrant or other additives.
I'll keep taking progress pics along the way and post once I feel it's closer to a finished product.
To hit this last 10% or so, I'm going to try spot treating the remaining algae with hydrogen peroxide. I've read that if you turn all of your flow off, and blast the algae with a syringe, then it should start dying away after a few sessions. I'd rather try this first than an algaecide like Vibrant or other additives.
I'll keep taking progress pics along the way and post once I feel it's closer to a finished product.
LONG OVERDUE UPDATE
Hey Guys,
It has been WAY too long since my last substantive update, and thanks deaclauderdale for engaging me for more updates
.
1. 76 Day Fallow Period
First, the 76 day fallow period ended on March 18th, and I am happy to report that there is finally fish back in my tank for the first time in 2022!!! I ended up just putting my Blue Star Leopard Wrasse in the DT, and then temporarily housing my Flame Hawkfish in an acclimation box until I can get some of the more passive fish in my tank first so that the Flame Hawkfish doesn't pester them at all after their initial introduction. The other survivors we sold as I officially decided to go in a different direction with my fish selection- that is, only getting fish that are reef-safe rather than having to worry, for example, "Why is my clam not opening up... is it a fish, or is there something off in my tank?". I just don't want to have to worry about yet another variable when keeping corals/inverts in this tank.
2. Turf Algae Defeated
Second, while there were no fish in the tank, I was finally able to defeat the dreaded green turf algae... and it took pretty much the entire 76 day fallow period to do it. I first treated some rocks out of the water with H202, then followed that up with trying to starve it out by doing minimal feedings (I have some cleaner shrimp that still needed SOME food), skimming heavily, and cranking up my refugium light to the max. This approach solved probably 80% of the problem, but after about 1 1/2 months, it seemed to hit a plateau in improvement. And just when I was about to try what would probably be the most aggressive approach (using a product like Vibrant), the Vibrant thread was circulating (which I'm sure we've all seen or heard about), so I decided to go with an alternative "aggressive" approach. This involved dosing Microbacter Razor and Microbacter Clean in conjunction with each other (following the instructions on the bottles), then also going in almost every other day or so and spot treating the remaining spots of algae, followed up with a good brushing of the rocks to rid the rock of any dead or dying algae and siphoning up as much algae/debris stirred up by the rock cleaning. Now that the algae is gone, I'm just doing a maintenance dose of both Microbacter Clean and Microbacter7 as I start adding fish back into the tank (and, so far so good). As you will see in my progress pictures, this has worked WONDERS.
3. Time to Reflect- Lessons Learned
As it relates to the algae outbreak, I think I went about adding corals and fish all wrong. I added most of the fish I had wanted before adding a decent amount of corals. In hindsight, I feel this was one of the contributing factors to the algae outbreak as I didn't have many corals that could uptake the nutrients produced by all of these fish. I had thought that my skimming and refugium would be sufficient, but I don't believe my chaeto ball was large enough to compete, and while my skimmer is a beast, I may have needed to skim a little bit wetter along with water changes if I wanted to add all of those fish without also having a heavier coral bio-load. I obviously would've been able to get ahead of this had I been better about testing my nitrates/phosphates weekly, since by the time I started seeing algae pop up, those nutrients were reading really low, so I didn't react as aggressively as I probably should have (which, at this point, would have probably been simply spot treating with H202 and dosing Microbacter7, along with heavier skimming/water changes).
As it relates to fish/fish disease, while I can't nail down the origin, I think I can make an educated guess that whatever took out my tank came from one of two sources. First, I can't help but think about back when I added "quarantined fish" from the "vendor to remain unnamed" and immediately saw some flashing and what could have either been lympho, flukes, or some other parasite that ultimately took my fish out once I started dealing with the algae overgrowth (placing stress on the entire system and decreasing the fishes' immune systems, letting the parasite/disease to overtake them). The second potential source is reefcleaners, as, since I they state their inverts come from fish-free systems (which would imply they are free from any fish-borne parasites/diseases), I did not quarantine any inverts I received from them. What I did not think about, and failed to ever confirm, is whether they keep their "new arrivals" (who presumably can possess fish-born parasites/diseases since they are coming from the ocean) separate from their existing stock of inverts. If they do not keep them separate, then, in my eyes, obtaining inverts from them is the same as obtaining them from any other vendor that do keep fish in their system, and should be quarantined if you want to avoid introducing any fish-borne parasites/diseases in your tank.
In a related conversation, I have found who I believe to be absolutely one of the best quarantined fish/coral vendors out there in "Marine Pleasures." In addition to quarantining/medicating my own fish, I will be obtaining my quarantined fish from Marine Pleasures ALONE. I won't go into details on this post, but they go above and beyond when it comes to the care of their fish, testing for parasites, and providing great customer service. There certainly are other reputable vendors out there, but based on my conversations with Marine Pleasures about their protocols and the knowledge they have shared with me about improving my own protocols for quarantining my fish, I can't recommend Marine Pleasures enough if you want pre-quarantined fish.
With that, here are some progress pics (pardon the different filters- I'm still trying to figure out how to get the most accurate pictures on my phone, but will try to break out my DSLR to get some better pics soon):
December 31, 2021:
March 18, 2022:
Thanks for reading!
Chad
Hey Guys,
It has been WAY too long since my last substantive update, and thanks deaclauderdale for engaging me for more updates
.1. 76 Day Fallow Period
First, the 76 day fallow period ended on March 18th, and I am happy to report that there is finally fish back in my tank for the first time in 2022!!! I ended up just putting my Blue Star Leopard Wrasse in the DT, and then temporarily housing my Flame Hawkfish in an acclimation box until I can get some of the more passive fish in my tank first so that the Flame Hawkfish doesn't pester them at all after their initial introduction. The other survivors we sold as I officially decided to go in a different direction with my fish selection- that is, only getting fish that are reef-safe rather than having to worry, for example, "Why is my clam not opening up... is it a fish, or is there something off in my tank?". I just don't want to have to worry about yet another variable when keeping corals/inverts in this tank.
2. Turf Algae Defeated
Second, while there were no fish in the tank, I was finally able to defeat the dreaded green turf algae... and it took pretty much the entire 76 day fallow period to do it. I first treated some rocks out of the water with H202, then followed that up with trying to starve it out by doing minimal feedings (I have some cleaner shrimp that still needed SOME food), skimming heavily, and cranking up my refugium light to the max. This approach solved probably 80% of the problem, but after about 1 1/2 months, it seemed to hit a plateau in improvement. And just when I was about to try what would probably be the most aggressive approach (using a product like Vibrant), the Vibrant thread was circulating (which I'm sure we've all seen or heard about), so I decided to go with an alternative "aggressive" approach. This involved dosing Microbacter Razor and Microbacter Clean in conjunction with each other (following the instructions on the bottles), then also going in almost every other day or so and spot treating the remaining spots of algae, followed up with a good brushing of the rocks to rid the rock of any dead or dying algae and siphoning up as much algae/debris stirred up by the rock cleaning. Now that the algae is gone, I'm just doing a maintenance dose of both Microbacter Clean and Microbacter7 as I start adding fish back into the tank (and, so far so good). As you will see in my progress pictures, this has worked WONDERS.
3. Time to Reflect- Lessons Learned
As it relates to the algae outbreak, I think I went about adding corals and fish all wrong. I added most of the fish I had wanted before adding a decent amount of corals. In hindsight, I feel this was one of the contributing factors to the algae outbreak as I didn't have many corals that could uptake the nutrients produced by all of these fish. I had thought that my skimming and refugium would be sufficient, but I don't believe my chaeto ball was large enough to compete, and while my skimmer is a beast, I may have needed to skim a little bit wetter along with water changes if I wanted to add all of those fish without also having a heavier coral bio-load. I obviously would've been able to get ahead of this had I been better about testing my nitrates/phosphates weekly, since by the time I started seeing algae pop up, those nutrients were reading really low, so I didn't react as aggressively as I probably should have (which, at this point, would have probably been simply spot treating with H202 and dosing Microbacter7, along with heavier skimming/water changes).
As it relates to fish/fish disease, while I can't nail down the origin, I think I can make an educated guess that whatever took out my tank came from one of two sources. First, I can't help but think about back when I added "quarantined fish" from the "vendor to remain unnamed" and immediately saw some flashing and what could have either been lympho, flukes, or some other parasite that ultimately took my fish out once I started dealing with the algae overgrowth (placing stress on the entire system and decreasing the fishes' immune systems, letting the parasite/disease to overtake them). The second potential source is reefcleaners, as, since I they state their inverts come from fish-free systems (which would imply they are free from any fish-borne parasites/diseases), I did not quarantine any inverts I received from them. What I did not think about, and failed to ever confirm, is whether they keep their "new arrivals" (who presumably can possess fish-born parasites/diseases since they are coming from the ocean) separate from their existing stock of inverts. If they do not keep them separate, then, in my eyes, obtaining inverts from them is the same as obtaining them from any other vendor that do keep fish in their system, and should be quarantined if you want to avoid introducing any fish-borne parasites/diseases in your tank.
In a related conversation, I have found who I believe to be absolutely one of the best quarantined fish/coral vendors out there in "Marine Pleasures." In addition to quarantining/medicating my own fish, I will be obtaining my quarantined fish from Marine Pleasures ALONE. I won't go into details on this post, but they go above and beyond when it comes to the care of their fish, testing for parasites, and providing great customer service. There certainly are other reputable vendors out there, but based on my conversations with Marine Pleasures about their protocols and the knowledge they have shared with me about improving my own protocols for quarantining my fish, I can't recommend Marine Pleasures enough if you want pre-quarantined fish.
With that, here are some progress pics (pardon the different filters- I'm still trying to figure out how to get the most accurate pictures on my phone, but will try to break out my DSLR to get some better pics soon):
December 31, 2021:
March 18, 2022:
Thanks for reading!
Chad
Yeah, took some elbow grease, but well worth it. I just have to stay on top of it and be a bit more aggressive at the first sign of any of that turf algae coming back.
I'll be keeping a close eye on this as I start adding fish back in, especially since I won't be adding the herbivores until a little later.
My plan is to add some wrasses and other more passive fish first, then move on to the "tang gang" to keep the tank nice and clean. I already have a strong CUC, but nothing eats algae like some tangs.
I'll be keeping a close eye on this as I start adding fish back in, especially since I won't be adding the herbivores until a little later.
My plan is to add some wrasses and other more passive fish first, then move on to the "tang gang" to keep the tank nice and clean. I already have a strong CUC, but nothing eats algae like some tangs.
