My 72 gallon BF tank journey

[leftyfish]

Goby died in QT.

[carey]

Sorry to hear that lefty. :-(

My anthias passed this morning too. Fishie heaven is getting full

[leftyfish]

My last patient of the day was talking about losing her insurance and I asked if her husband had lost his job, she started to cry and said, no, he died. That really put this fish thing into the proper prospective for me. While very sad and frustrating, they are just fish.

So I caught my baby girl mandarin, she was not eating at all today and stayed in one corner and didn't put up much of a fight to catch her. I pulled 30 lbs of live rock from a 10 gallon tank I have that has housed two baby clowns, that I finally sold and will be delivering to their new home tomorrow. So the live rock is in the cube, the cube is set up and had some ammonia in it (i'm assuming from the goby), so I put the proper does of amquel in there, the live rock and have had it running in there. Going to catch the clowns, acclimate everyone and then put them in the QT. I can't believe they are all dying on me, so sad. Let it be a lesson in why you should QT your fish.

The two bangaii's I got were already in rough shape and both died, yes, died, of fin rot I believe, their fins kept disappearing for no good reason. Never get fish that are already looking like they have been in a fight or not healthy, they will die in a matter of days.

So the mandarin and clowns will be treated with hyposalinity, thanks to some links and advice from Meluso. The tank either way will be fishless for at least two months, longer if the QT doesn't go well. I know the live rock will lose the algae and creatures as the salinity drops, but the bacteria they have will help keep the tank stable, and at this point, I need as much help as I can get. Did I mention QT, QT, QT.

[leftyfish]

Everyone is alive this morning, dropped the salinity from 30% to 20%, will do another drop in 6 hours. Had to temp and ph match it.

[leftyfish]

For anyone following 28% not 20, yikes. Dropping to 26% later then each change will be 4% until I reach 14% each of the 4% will be 12 hours apart.

[leftyfish]

Clowns are doing well in the hypo tank. It is by the window so some natural uv light comes in, maybe that will help too.

Tank is looking good, I added the Nac6 bubble magus skimmer, it is pulling all kinds of junk out of the water. I also added a used mp40 and have it set for long pulsating wave. Let's just say the rose bubble tip anenome and the corals love it!

The pods are covering the glass without my mandarin that died. I was very lucky to have one so fat and happy, I don't know if I will try another one. I

am going to order a Kole tang from a different LFS, get one small this time, about 2", and have it in the QT, still deciding if I will treat it for ich or not. It will be a while before I get it as the clowns are at 1 full day with 1.009-1.010 salinity. Going to keep them there for six weeks then bring it back up and keep them another 2-4 weeks in QT. Once they are back in DT, order tang and start over with QT.

[carey]

Bless you. I can't imagine what you're going through with this. I'm glad what you have is still good. The mandarin is like a puppy, it can't really be replaced, but maybe you'll see one some day and you'll be like, "that's the one".

[leftyfish]

Originally Posted by carey

Bless you. I can't imagine what you're going through with this. I'm glad what you have is still good. The mandarin is like a puppy, it can't really be replaced, but maybe you'll see one some day and you'll be like, "that's the one".

I think you nailed it with the puppy analogy. She was so cute, so precious, she would swim all around the tank, happy to hang out with the clowns, let the cleaner jump all over her. What a good fish she was, definitely would have to be one that does something spectacular like that for me to get it.

[leftyfish]

Clowns are doing well despite their sterile environment. I couldn't leave the rock and sand in there after reading about hospital/QT from people who know more than me. They scared me at first when I changed it out, the female had her mouth open and was swimming near the bottom. After a few hours and some water changes later she is fine. Both are eating like pigs, yeah!

[leftyfish]

My RBTA, eye candy from my fishless tank

[leftyfish]

Someone moved up to a much bigger house...

[Mr. Crabs]

That RBTA is INSANE!! Wow, what a great center piece. How big is it?

[leftyfish]

Originally Posted by Mr. Crabs

That RBTA is INSANE!! Wow, what a great center piece. How big is it?

Thanks, it is about 9" when it's all spread out like the picture. It was tank raised and it had split many times over the years for the previous owner, so I don't know the exact age or if this one will split. It hosts my cleaner shrimp right now.

[ChizerBunoi]

Eye candy is right. Very nice.

[leftyfish]

Originally Posted by ChizerBunoi

Eye candy is right. Very nice.

Thanks, it has been a nice addition to the tank.

[leftyfish]

Today's plan is to build a cover for my MP40 as my RBTA likes to hang out right under/in front of it.

The clowns are doing great, this being almost 3 week marker at hypo, I plan for 3 more weeks and then to slowly raise it. They are eating great, showing some personality, but still definitely calmer than in the DT.

I need to figure out how to make the tank quieter. It is a reef ready tank, and the water constantly running like a faucet sound is annoying. So I'll be searching for ways on doing that. I added a filter sock, didn't do anything for the sound. Every once and a while it gurgles also.

[carey]

I'm so glad the clowns are still doing great.

I have the sound of niagara falls it seems in my living room. LOL

I don't have the overflow gurgling but I got skimmers and the water rushing through the filter sock makes quite the ruckus over here.

I've heard that the overflow gurgling is due to air in the lines, do you have enough pump to match your overflow?

[leftyfish]

I added tubing to the drain pipe and put it in the sock below the water line in the sump, that helped with a majority of the noise. Now there is a trickling sound in that tube, so that tube is 1 1/2", and water coming down does not fill the diameter of the tube so it trickles down creating that sound. If I put a smaller diameter tube would that take care of the trickle?

I also spent 54 cents, got veil material in black and used two black zip ties to attach it over the mp40 so my pretty RBTA will be safe.

[leftyfish]

I forgot the pictures....modification and FTS.

[carey]

I'm not sure about changing the size of the tube, it will cut the water flow back I would think and that would throw your pump/sump/overflow outta whack. Can you turn your pump up or is it not throttled back?
Do you know what the flow rate is for the overflow and what size pump you have? I had the same issues with my u tubes until I changed the overflow to another type that doesnt have tubes.

I have to add, your tank is looking spectacular! I didn't realize how deep the sand bed was, it looks great.