Mahoney
Well-known member
So... I've had my tank a couple years now--kinda took it over from my husband after he got fed up with it. I love it! I love the process of things and seeing the cool ecosystem develop. So anyway.... since September 2012 it's been solely under my care. We've added things here and there and lost some things recently--chalk bass, yellow tang (as of today).
I'm just putting my feelers out there to see that I'm caring correctly, or should be doing things differently to improve the livelihood of the tank.
In February, our chalk bass got pop-eye. I medicated with abx that my LFS suggested, as well as people's responses on here, but, he went the way of the swirling drain eventually. And then a week, almost 2 weeks ago, my yellow tang stopped eating, started breathing really rapidly and held his mouth open constantly. I shoulda got on here right away to ask about it, but stalled and waited around to see what he would do and then in doing my research after about a week... it seemed like maybe he had a parasite. All other fish were fine, water parameters were within normal limits. Well, I tried fresh water dipping him. I didn't want to jump straight to using abx because it seems like when doing something drastic, it turns into a failure. But, he just kept getting worse and worse and he too today, went the way of the swirling drain as well. (tear!
) And then there was the loss of my anemone a couple weeks ago.... eaten by hermit crabs and fish. :/
So, since I've had some recent bad stints here, I'm just wanting to bounce ideas off others (even though I know everyone has different ways of managing their tanks) to make sure I'm not missing anything huge.
SETUP:
55 gal glass tank.
T5H0 lights (change every 6 months?)
Protein skimmer
4 big power heads (3 do 500, one does 750 gal/hr I think is how it's measured?)
Current fish--6-line wrasse, 2 mated clowns (black with the permanent orange faces), and a green goby
Others--several big snails, lotsa mini star fish (regular and a few brittle), 10ish hermit crabs, 1 peppermint shrimp
3 large hammer corals
green-eyed zoas (a couple small patches... they've dwindled quite a bit over the years)
Spreading yellow polyps
Patch of xenia's
Patch of green-star polyps
1 feather duster
A dinky little piece of red kelp that's been gnawed on by hermit crabs
A few random sponges that came with live rock.
Regular care:
-Water change of 10 gal every month (including scraping the edges of the tank, sucking up/lightly skimming the top of the sand to get random debris and sucking off those damn red flat round worms off rocks that my wrasse doesn't seem to like---a previous one ate them up... this one however, does not have a taste for them)
-1-2x/week I empty the protein skimmer collection cup
-Daily or every other day--run the magnet scraper over the surfaces of the tank to clean
-Check salinity every couple weeks or so, and when I do water changes.
-Check water parameters really only if i notice something awry.
-Feeding--frozen omnivore food--a few 1/2-1 inch slivers twice a day (just enough so all fish get a few bites and none freely floating around), and a couple inches squared of seaweed every other day (it's usually gobbled up before a 24 hr period)
-Marine snow every couple of weeks (as directed on bottle)
When I've gotten any new fish, I've always fresh water dipped them for a few minutes. I never put any of the transport water in the tank.
Any new live rock, I've carefully inspected, but never boiled or dipped before tank placement.
I just want to limit losses like anyone else. I know that's part of the hobby. But I just want to see if theres anything I'm hugely missing.
I do not have a sump tank. I know that's probably a HUGE thing for some people, but there is honestly no room for it with my tank setup. If I had the placement for it, sure, maybe one day, but for now... it's not really an option.
So anyway... sorry, wrote a book there. But any ideas/thoughts would be helpful! Thanks all!
Amanda
Latest pic of the tank--sorry, not the best it's kinda dark and grainy since it's at night.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
I'm just putting my feelers out there to see that I'm caring correctly, or should be doing things differently to improve the livelihood of the tank.
In February, our chalk bass got pop-eye. I medicated with abx that my LFS suggested, as well as people's responses on here, but, he went the way of the swirling drain eventually. And then a week, almost 2 weeks ago, my yellow tang stopped eating, started breathing really rapidly and held his mouth open constantly. I shoulda got on here right away to ask about it, but stalled and waited around to see what he would do and then in doing my research after about a week... it seemed like maybe he had a parasite. All other fish were fine, water parameters were within normal limits. Well, I tried fresh water dipping him. I didn't want to jump straight to using abx because it seems like when doing something drastic, it turns into a failure. But, he just kept getting worse and worse and he too today, went the way of the swirling drain as well. (tear!
) And then there was the loss of my anemone a couple weeks ago.... eaten by hermit crabs and fish. :/So, since I've had some recent bad stints here, I'm just wanting to bounce ideas off others (even though I know everyone has different ways of managing their tanks) to make sure I'm not missing anything huge.
SETUP:
55 gal glass tank.
T5H0 lights (change every 6 months?)
Protein skimmer
4 big power heads (3 do 500, one does 750 gal/hr I think is how it's measured?)
Current fish--6-line wrasse, 2 mated clowns (black with the permanent orange faces), and a green goby
Others--several big snails, lotsa mini star fish (regular and a few brittle), 10ish hermit crabs, 1 peppermint shrimp
3 large hammer corals
green-eyed zoas (a couple small patches... they've dwindled quite a bit over the years)
Spreading yellow polyps
Patch of xenia's
Patch of green-star polyps
1 feather duster
A dinky little piece of red kelp that's been gnawed on by hermit crabs
A few random sponges that came with live rock.
Regular care:
-Water change of 10 gal every month (including scraping the edges of the tank, sucking up/lightly skimming the top of the sand to get random debris and sucking off those damn red flat round worms off rocks that my wrasse doesn't seem to like---a previous one ate them up... this one however, does not have a taste for them)
-1-2x/week I empty the protein skimmer collection cup
-Daily or every other day--run the magnet scraper over the surfaces of the tank to clean
-Check salinity every couple weeks or so, and when I do water changes.
-Check water parameters really only if i notice something awry.
-Feeding--frozen omnivore food--a few 1/2-1 inch slivers twice a day (just enough so all fish get a few bites and none freely floating around), and a couple inches squared of seaweed every other day (it's usually gobbled up before a 24 hr period)
-Marine snow every couple of weeks (as directed on bottle)
When I've gotten any new fish, I've always fresh water dipped them for a few minutes. I never put any of the transport water in the tank.
Any new live rock, I've carefully inspected, but never boiled or dipped before tank placement.
I just want to limit losses like anyone else. I know that's part of the hobby. But I just want to see if theres anything I'm hugely missing.
I do not have a sump tank. I know that's probably a HUGE thing for some people, but there is honestly no room for it with my tank setup. If I had the placement for it, sure, maybe one day, but for now... it's not really an option.
So anyway... sorry, wrote a book there. But any ideas/thoughts would be helpful! Thanks all!
Amanda
Latest pic of the tank--sorry, not the best it's kinda dark and grainy since it's at night.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
