Asylumdown's 275 Tank build

[asylumdown]

I'm perhaps getting a little neurotic about how far I'm trying to take this quarantine thing, but I guess my problem is that I seem to really love the super sensitive, ich prone fish. Before I started this, I simply couldn't add new fish, every fish that would go in would be fine for the first day, flashing the second, look like it had been dropped in a bowl of sugar the third, and dead by the fourth. I had a few guys who didn't seem bothered, but it got the point where even the most robust were exhibiting distress, then even my "resistant" established fish started to die. I lost half my fish, then quarantine killed the rest. I feel like I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't at this point.

[gregzz4]

I wouldn't say you're being neurotic at all
I think you have been through enough issues, with enough negative things happening, that you are losing your mind like some of the rest of us

[asylumdown]

Well, for the first time since August 15th (or maybe it was the 18th?) My tank has fish in it. My display tank is now the happy home to a juvenile Australian Harlequin tusk (it still has it's false eye spots), and a very young doliatus rabbitfish. To be honest, if I wasn't going out of town for 5 days tomorrow, I would have probably done a full tank transfer protocol on them, but since I didn't want them to spend 1 second in a copper free tank that could have encysted tomonts waiting to hatch, it was either leave them in full strength copper for a 4th week, or get them out of copper and in to a sterile tank that had no filtration. The tuskfish was starting to lose his appetite, and it looks like he's developing fin rot, so I didn't think the extra week in copper was a good idea.

These two have now been through a three week cupramine treatment at between 0.5 and 0.6ppm, then a tank transfer to a sterile, guaranteed ich free tank for 3 days. The fin rot worries me a little, so I put them both in a paraguard bath for an hour before transferring them to the main tank. Hopefully with perfect water quality and good nutrition the tusk's fins will recover. Everything I know about the biology of crypt tells me that there's no way these fish should be carrying unseen parasites, and my system has been fallow since... late September I think (mid August if you count the days there was no fish in the display, but in the sump, though ich was clearly present in the sump in that time). I've even been neurotic about new invertebrates going in to the display, not a single drop of water from another system has entered mine, and anything with a dead skeleton or shell has been carefully rinsed with fresh water, then brushed with a toothbrush dipped in full strength bleach before being quarantined for at least a week, in which time the water in the 5 gallon QT tank was 100% replaced at least 3 times. All sps colonies and frags have been broken off the rocks or plugs they came on, and re-glued to new, sterile bases before being QT'd for at least a week. If I have any say in the matter, I'm going to have an ich free tank.

[asylumdown]

Picture time!

First, some FTS:
Front:

Back:


South Front:

South Back:


North front:

North Back:


And some growth shots:
Sept. 10, 2012

Dec. 28, 2012


June 21, 2012

Sept. 10, 2012

Dec. 28, 2012

[asylumdown]

July 11:

Sept. 10

Dec. 28


Oct. 18

Dec. 28


Oct. 18

Dec. 28


Oct. 18

Dec. 28

[asylumdown]

And the birds nest I have isn't doing so hot, so I'm going to replace it with one of these guys when they come out of quarantine:


And these are the guys I have downstairs going through the tank transfer protocol:

I have a swiss basslet in there too, but he's too shy to get a picture of him.

I also appear to have conquered ich, the rabbitfish and tuskfish in the display are in perfect health, not a speck on them since they went in!

[asylumdown]

Time for an update!

tank has had a mild case of the dinos for the past month or so. It's not severe enough that anyone but me would notice it, though it did 'bloom' a little the first week of february. I had a mild heart attack at that, since I left on February 8th for 17 days for my wedding in California, but sometimes the best action is no action. My roommates took incredible care of my tank while I was gone, and while there are still dines there if you look hard enough, a change in Phos media and a thorough cleaning of the skimmer cup when I got home seems to be knocking them out altogether now. I looked at the dinos under my new microscope; I posted this in the main room, but for posterities sake, here's the pics:

1


4


While I was away, this guy (the tusk fish):


Attacked this guy (the flame wrasse):
and killed him. My roommate fed a frozen clam as a treat and the tusk and the wrasse got in a fight over it. The tusk won. I'm going to go to a bait shop this weekend to pick up some barbless hooks and see if I can't fish the tusk out of the tank. He's spent every day since I got home chasing all the other fish. I'm going to need to think hard on what I want to replace them with.

I went back and found all my FTS since I put the tank together, and I thought it would be cool to see them in one spot together. I think I've probably posted some before, but it's a cool progression

March 30, 2012 - before water:


APril 15, 2012 - Cycling


June 21, 2012 - first fish (may they RIP) and first corals. Also first signs of algae problems


August 25th -All fish removed from tank due to ich outbreak. The capture required a total break down of rock and re-scaping. Never-will-I-ever not QT fish again. One of my radions also died (hence the dark spot)


September 10 - With the fish getting hypo in the sump and the plumbing diverted away from the display, no nutrient export of any kind happened in the display tank for 5 full weeks. This was the start of something awful.


October 30, 2012 - Right around the time hypo failed (the ich came back) and I moved the fish out of the sump to a separate QT tank, something I should have done in the first place. This is what 5 weeks of no nutrient export, no algae grazing, and continued feeding will do to a tank. Coral growth utterly shut down at this point.