Kessil

Patrick's 81G - the last dance

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Even the baby approved!
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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.
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I love your scape structure. Did you think about adding frag plug seats. I use them and honestly 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.
 

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

Patio said:
The brush Adam sends in the boxes is my favorite scrubbing tool!
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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.
 
Ayman said:
I love your scape structure. Did you think about adding frag plug seats. I use them and honestly 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.
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If anyone wants to go in on these lmk. I may order some. If we split, looks like it will be ~$32 for a 10 pack of the frag seats and 5 expansion disk plates, shipped. ($13.50 for 10 extra seats)
 
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Invictus said:
If anyone wants to go in on these lmk. I may order some. If we split, looks like it will be ~$32 for a 10 pack of the frag seats and 5 expansion disk plates, shipped. ($13.50 for 10 extra seats)
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I’m down for 5 expansion plates. Interested to see a comparison of the frag seats vs larger bio media like 25mm sera siporax.
 
The Royal Gramma didn't make it. I think it was a poor choice on my part to QT him with the anthias. As soon as the copper went in they started picking him apart. Odd man out I guess. The male was pretty relentless in his pursuit. I doubt a 10 gallon is big enough to do them all at the same time.

Lesson learned, batch wisely.
 
finalphaze987 said:
I'm hoping it works for you. This was my reading today...not sure if I should feel better about it, but 0 is closer to 3.6 than 14.1

At least the PO4 stayed steady.View attachment 68159
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I preformed the calibration today. my hanna is spot on, I am hoping this will be the fix moving forward. calibrate using tank water.
 

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Ayman said:
I preformed the calibration today. my hanna is spot on, I am hoping this will be the fix moving forward. calibrate using tank water.
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That's good to hear!

Mine has been close. Not identical to the hanna but enough to give me a good idea of the trends. I've been trying to raise my nutrients and have been able to see it slowly rise. I figure once I get the next batch of fish in, it'll up the feed and in turn the nutrients with it, so I'll be leaning on this NP to help me monitor so my WQ doesn't get too off.

Let's hope the NPs can maintain their consistency.
 
Biome building (cont.)

A week ago I received an email alert that the Indo rubble was finally in stock at Aquabiomics. I quickly added a couple to my cart and checked out while. Glad I did, cuz when I checked it 10 minutes later to see if I should add another, they were sold out.
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The water they sat in was more murky than the gulf sand I previously added.
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Quantity wise, you don't get much and it's not much to look at, but did have some nice coraline.
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Below is how much was contained in just one jar.
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I doubt I'd stop adding any new sources of biome..although retail options seem to be getting slimmer. I know eventually it'll come from coral , but I think I'll start looking to trade bio blocks to diversify.
 
Give it a couple years and you'll have the new Garf Grunge! You might remember Garf from back in the day. Grunge was literally a scoop of rubble, sand, and silt from the bottom of their system (looked like shit tbh) that had been seeded with bacteria from all different wild sources over many decades. Years ago when I was battling dinos I ordered a bag and it helped out tremendously.
 
CaseyP said:
Give it a couple years and you'll have the new Garf Grunge! You might remember Garf from back in the day. Grunge was literally a scoop of rubble, sand, and silt from the bottom of their system (looked like shit tbh) that had been seeded with bacteria from all different wild sources over many decades. Years ago when I was battling dinos I ordered a bag and it helped out tremendously.
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Mann, you took it back..haha

I wish Garf was still around! Starting a refugium with that and Miracle mud gave me the confidence to stock any fish...then I said screw it and got a denitrator..lol
 
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