Suzanne May 180 Gallon Reef Build

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Get yourself a Melanarus wrasse and stop worrying yourself with all the dosing and water changes. I added mine into my tank and within a week I couldn't even find one on the glass. I use to have a ton of them but the lone female wrasse took them out and I have yet to see them again. I know Red C currently has a pair of melanarus wrasse which I'm sure you have plenty of room for.

I panicked when I saw them all over my glass and wanted to get out the chemical warfare but decided on getting a sweet fish instead.
 
I had flatworms in my tank and bought some Flatworm Exit but I didn't have the heart to use it, or the nerve. I heard that a Melanurus Wrasse would take care of the problem, but I heard that this and that would take care of whatever problem I was having at that time to no avail. I did purchase the Melanurus Wrasse as I figured I would try that first and I am glad I did. It has wiped out every last flatworm in my 90 gallon tank and I am glad I didn't use the Flatworn Exit in the tank, but I do use it to dip, along with the regular Coral Rx dip. That seems to work great.
 
Post use and water change... This morning the tank is clear and so far there has been no ill effect on the tank. The fish are fine and eating, The coral seems fine no discoloring or goop or necrosis. The issue to watch for now that I pulled the trigger is to manage water chemistry for any build up due to death..

I also need a better approach to getting to the back of the tank for cleaning. Algae is building up there and I can't get at it short of climbing in for a swim.. :)

Things to pick up today... carbon and a wrasse sent to quarantine to finish the job as there are still a few live ones in the tank. Hopefully they won't bloom while the wrasse is chilling in QT. Now isn't the Melanurus bad for reefs?
 
The only problem I had with my Melanurus regarding safe for reef was when I put in some hermit crabs with the lights on, he went after the crabs. Once they made it to the rocks, they were safe, he didn't pick on them anymore. When I added more hermits, I put them in with the lights out and they were all okay. He doesn't pick on any corals or my Banded Coral Shrimp. Very active swimmer, he gets along with all of my other fish, including a McCoskers Flasher Wrasse. When I first put him in, the McCoskers started to pick on the Melanurus, but I taped a mirror on the end of the tank to distract the McCoskers for a few hours. Ever since, they get along fine. He constantly swims in and out of the rocks and picks at the rocks but doesn't bother anything else.
 
once mine had finished off the cuc in his tank, i could catch him staring longingly and plotting as to how he was going to get the snails from the tank across the room. other than that, awesome fish. :)
 
spieszak said:
once mine had finished off the cuc in his tank, i could catch him staring longingly and plotting as to how he was going to get the snails from the tank across the room. other than that, awesome fish. :)
Click to expand...

They're always staring, they don't blink. They all stare at me when it is mealtime.
 
used to pull nass snails up out of the sand by the feeler thing ans swing them against the rocks till they gave up their shell. have to admit, it was kinda of.cool
 
What about a different creature.. I kinda like my snails... Six Line Wrasses, Leopard Wrasses(Blue star is pretty cool), Mandarins and even Blue Damsels
 
I hear some sixlines can get nasty, almost like a damsel. Leopard Wrasse can be a little difficult to keep, some are picky eaters. My Melanurus doesn't bother any of my snails except my conch, but then just picks stuff off of his shell. It depends the reason you want to get one for. If it is for flatworms, the Melanurus is your best bet. Damsels probably won't touch them and blue damsels are 50/50 shot as far as aggressiveness. Mandarins, unless you have a very big tank, 100 gallon+ recommended, need a good supply of pods to eat, their main diet.
 
some have had luck with the saphire damsels. scooter blennies have been noted as eating them, but i can't say rrom experience. they are alos picky eaters...
i do have to say after hearing from other folks, my melanarus was probably a rogue rather than the norm.
 
I don't mind mine eating the snails although I'v seen my lone ranger hermit kill a lot more snails then my wrasse has. I didn't bother to qt my wrasse simply because red c had him for so long, something like 6 months. Really peaceful and healthy fish so no complaints from me.

Snails are relatively cheap so I don't worry about replacing them 6 months down the road. The other fish you mentioned are very hit or miss, more likely to miss. Other then the mandarin you listed, the rest can become aggressive or die shortly after purchasing.
 
So far it seems the treatment has killed over half the flatworm population with no ill effect to my tank. I am going to syphon the sand again tonight and do all sorts of water chemistry tests.. I need to learn how to do the titration tests..since I now have 3 corals to care for..I guess I should get a baseline for the Alkalinty, calcium and phosphates too. Then I need to figure out about dosing and what that all means as my population grows.
 
So on towards a different topic... let's talk water flow.. I have two MP40's in the tank and I have 2 swirls on top along with another input flow on top.. however, I am getting a pretty large algea dead zone in the back by the overflow. Which makes it really hard to clean due to location being in the back and me being short.

What should I do.. should I crank up the 40's will that even help? Should I move them? Change the settings more?
Thoughts..how do you have your water flow set up?
 
flow is hard for me.. and i usually just end up playing with it until i happen on something that works..
they make some pretty decent handled tools fro grabing and raking sand and that kinf od stuff.. might be worth taking a look if you really have problems reaching, because with a newer tank, its likely things are going to continue cropping up for a while...
 
Suzanne,

unfortunately, this is trial and error...I do think you should reposition them until you find what works for you.
 
NC2WA said:
Suzanne,

unfortunately, this is trial and error...I do think you should reposition them until you find what works for you.
Click to expand...

its kind of like that for a lot of things.. no right, no wrong, just what works. i used to have some links on how to create the different 'kinds' of flow, like gyres and raceways and such.. i think i deleted them once i gave up and just started moving things around, but i will check for you the next time i fire the laptop up.
 
So I adjusted the back one down a little and changed the mode on the vortech's to see if that helps more. The flat worms are still happy and wild in the tank... so flatworm exit didn't get em....Melanarus wrasse here I come.. as soon as one comes in stock at the fishy store near me :)
 
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