Patrick's 81G - the last dance

[finalphaze987]

First fish to make it through QT!

The blue tang originally came with a convict from biota..both came in tiny and pretty skinny. Both came in around a month ago.

When starting QT I thought, if I'm going to go through all this trouble with dips and a full on copper protocol, I might as well get more fish.

3 days later I'm coming home with a purple firefish and a baby scopas. Day 1 started from there

Largest of the bunch was the blue, a little bigger than a quarter..the convict and scopas were tiny and pretty scraggly looking...needed some fattening up before hitting the DT.

I kept things pretty simple.

Day 1: formalin dip -> methylene blue dip -> QT tank no copper
Day 2: observation and ensure eating. FW dip to check for flukes.
Day 3: started copper at 1ppm and slowly ramped up
Day 7: first day in therapeutic range 2.3ppm
Day 9: added API GC
Day 11: another dose of GC
Day 12: started lacing food with GC

I intended to do a 14 day treatment, but after seeing post on recent ich/velvet outbreaks, decided to try to go for a 30 day course.

By day 21, noticeable decline in appetite was observed.
Day 23: woke up to find the convict didn't make it.
Day 25: the firefish seemed lethargic and did nothing but hide. By this time, I was pretty comfortable with adding them and didn't want to lose another fish..

I wrapped it up with a ruby reef rally dip. Then bucket acclimate.

I feared of I went the full 30 day course there would have been more casualties..as days passed so did their food intake..
Plopped them in and the seem to be doing fine. The firefish in no where to be found, found some crevice to swim in. The blue tang was out and about..he ate the most in QT..the scopas seem to like to tag along wherever the blue went.

I think next time I'll run the 14 day protocol. Next batch I'm looking to do are Anthias and a pair of clowns, just not sure which ones tho.

 

[finalphaze987]

Got my first shipment of corals in from battle corals. I gotta say, Adam was really great to work with in tailoring a battlebox to what I was looking for. As soon as the box came in I was quite impressed.

The box was pack well, with no dead space and heatpacks. No matter what way the box would have been, they would have stayed submerged. Everything was well labeled and a list of what everything was also included.

After going through a round of coral rx and KCl, in they went. I opted not to pry these off the plugs sine alot of them had already encrusted.

Even the baby approved!

I spent the better part of the day spreading them out through the rockwork. Things are starting to fill in nicely but I'm realizing how little space I have for coral. Overall, I would say it was a good experience with BC and would go through Adam again in the future. The coral he sent was worth way more than what I paid for the battlebox and the quality of the frags were excellent...no fresh cuts or brown out specials. His follow up and customer service even spanned through today, with follow up text to ensure they were all alive and well.

 

[Ayman]

I love your scape structure. Did you think about adding frag plug seats. I use them and hostly they make placing and moving corals so much easier. This is the guy instagram page that I got them from check him out, if you are interested. Over time you can barely see the seat plugs once the corals start growing.

 

[Patio]

The brush Adam sends in the boxes is my favorite scrubbing tool!

 

[finalphaze987]

I love your scape structure. Did you think about adding frag plug seats. I use them and hostly they make placing and moving corals so much easier. This is the guy instagram page that I got them from check him out, if you are interested. Over time you can barely see the seat plugs once the corals start growing.

Those are pretty dope...do frags move in the flow or do you find them pretty secure?

The brush Adam sends in the boxes is my favorite scrubbing tool!

That brush is coming in really handy..small side can get into tough spots on the gyre and the large side is stiff enough to remove coraline.