jlanger
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Fishfoo's IM170 EXT (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Fishfoo
- Start date
Things are looking great, awesome to see some updates!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
OP
OP
Quick phone FTS video. Tried to upload directly but maybe the file size was too big.
Very nice
The new leopard wrasse looks like she has settled in super nicely for you! 
I'm happy she has a good home to grow out in, she's looking super good with the longer tank!
I'm happy she has a good home to grow out in, she's looking super good with the longer tank!
OP
OP
She's my favoriteThe new leopard wrasse looks like she has settled in super nicely for you!
I'm happy she has a good home to grow out in, she's looking super good with the longer tank!
I always find myself watching her scoot around whenever I'm looking at the tank.
OP
OP
The frag tank has still been struggling, so I decided to do something about it. Here are the additions to combat the hair algae/overall ugliest:
1. two tailspot blennies
2. a bunch of pods directly to frag tank (forget which kinds)
3. four Mexican turbo snails
I’m already seeing results, mainly from the turbos, and am hopeful they’ll clean it up in no time. Still think it’s so weird that even with it plumbed into my sump/main display, I’m still going through an ugly phase. Sps still seem to do well in there so that’s a plus.
In the frag tank, I also have a small nem box with one tiny nem in it, and thought it’d be cool to add a porcelain crab for it. Once I get a couple more nems I think it will be a cool space for the crab.
quick phone pic before lights out
1. two tailspot blennies
2. a bunch of pods directly to frag tank (forget which kinds)
3. four Mexican turbo snails
I’m already seeing results, mainly from the turbos, and am hopeful they’ll clean it up in no time. Still think it’s so weird that even with it plumbed into my sump/main display, I’m still going through an ugly phase. Sps still seem to do well in there so that’s a plus.
In the frag tank, I also have a small nem box with one tiny nem in it, and thought it’d be cool to add a porcelain crab for it. Once I get a couple more nems I think it will be a cool space for the crab.
quick phone pic before lights out
OP
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BigR Walt Disney
OP
OP
Small update:
For the first time since moving, I finally feel confident with where the tank is at. Still some minor adjustments to be made, but when isn't there in this hobby. One of the adjustments was to remove the accumulation of a "film" on the waters surface. I know there is a ton of flow, so it didn't make sense to me that the film was still there. Well, some quick googling told me my siphon was probably too closed off/not at the right level which was causing the water level to be higher than the overflow baffles. Dumb mistake but an easy one to fix
I also finally decided to stop ignoring my alk levels and actually let them drop as I was up to about 10.8 at one point. I took the Tropic Marin AFR completely offline and drastically lowered the kalk dosing, and it's been slowly dropping. I saw no ill effects from 10.8, but it sketched me out being that high. I like to be around 8-9 if possible.
I've added a few fish over the past few months, and feel content with what I have, so the qt tank has been decommissioned for now. below is the current list:
Main Display
Black Longnose Tang
Tomini Tang
x2 Small Tail Pencil Wrasse (Both Female)
Royal Pencil Wrasse (Male)
Chaoti Leopard Wrasse (Male)
Pintail Fairy Wrasse (Male)
x2 Watannabei Angels (1 Female and 1 Transitioning Male)
Golden Assessor
Caprenters Flasher Wrasse (Female)
Red Margin Fairy Wrasse (Male)
Red Head Solon Fairy Wrasse (Male I think?)
Frag Tank:
Mystery Wrasse
x2 Tailspot Blenny
I'll try to take some pics soon, but fish are much harder to photograph for me personally.
For the first time since moving, I finally feel confident with where the tank is at. Still some minor adjustments to be made, but when isn't there in this hobby. One of the adjustments was to remove the accumulation of a "film" on the waters surface. I know there is a ton of flow, so it didn't make sense to me that the film was still there. Well, some quick googling told me my siphon was probably too closed off/not at the right level which was causing the water level to be higher than the overflow baffles. Dumb mistake but an easy one to fix
I also finally decided to stop ignoring my alk levels and actually let them drop as I was up to about 10.8 at one point. I took the Tropic Marin AFR completely offline and drastically lowered the kalk dosing, and it's been slowly dropping. I saw no ill effects from 10.8, but it sketched me out being that high. I like to be around 8-9 if possible.
I've added a few fish over the past few months, and feel content with what I have, so the qt tank has been decommissioned for now. below is the current list:
Main Display
Black Longnose Tang
Tomini Tang
x2 Small Tail Pencil Wrasse (Both Female)
Royal Pencil Wrasse (Male)
Chaoti Leopard Wrasse (Male)
Pintail Fairy Wrasse (Male)
x2 Watannabei Angels (1 Female and 1 Transitioning Male)
Golden Assessor
Caprenters Flasher Wrasse (Female)
Red Margin Fairy Wrasse (Male)
Red Head Solon Fairy Wrasse (Male I think?)
Frag Tank:
Mystery Wrasse
x2 Tailspot Blenny
I'll try to take some pics soon, but fish are much harder to photograph for me personally.
Awesome to hear and what torch is that, love the colors on it!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
OP
OP
Thanks
It's some sort of HG torch. Sold as a "Pure Gold" HG
OP
OP
Parameters seem to be back in line.
Po4: p.12
No3: 17
Alk: 8.0
Will likely increase kalk stirrer dosage just a bit and eventually turn AFR doser back on. Great to see that the corals are all still doing well even with the much lower alk levels.
BC Super Rainbow
https://flic.kr/p/2oKpW7d
Po4: p.12
No3: 17
Alk: 8.0
Will likely increase kalk stirrer dosage just a bit and eventually turn AFR doser back on. Great to see that the corals are all still doing well even with the much lower alk levels.
BC Super Rainbow
https://flic.kr/p/2oKpW7d
Last edited:
reef junkie
Senior Member
Man you have some great looking stuff.
OP
OP
Not great, not terrible. I will try to give an actual update in the next couple weeks!
OP
OP
6 months later, and they were some tough months for the tank
I purchased a bunch of fish from different vendors in July/August, and a month or so after going through qt and introducing to the display, I noticed that my black tang was showing signs that I confirmed were (prazi resistant) flukes. So in the middle of my busy summer I decided it would be smart to buy another 20gallon tank and qt every single fish, leaving my tank falllow until the flukes lifecycle runs its course.
So I had two 20gal qt tanks running simultaneously. One with the bigger fish: Black tang, tomini tang, pair of watannabei's and my two tailspot blennies. In the other went all of my 11 or so wrasse. I've never had luck with quickly cycling tanks, and so I instead do a 100% water change every other day.... that's right. 40 gallon water changes every other day for a month
it was brutal.
For the first two+ weeks everything was going fine, until one of the wrasse died. then a couple days later another. And the next day two more... At first I thought they were one offs but now am realizing this is a pattern, and come to find out that the sand I put in the wrasse qt was holding onto a bunch of detritus and which was causing ammonia to remain in the tank even with the two day 100% wc's. I wasn't gravel vaccuming it because the tank was on the floor of the room due to limited counter space and I figured it would be alright. By the time I figured it all out (remember this was in the middle of a very busy summer where most days I was hardly home + dealing with 2 kids under 2) I was only left with the chaoti wrasse from that tank An ammonia alert badge probably would have helped in this scenario however since I have switched to doing 100% water changes every other day I no longer had a need for them (so I thought) Nothing from the tang tank died as that had no sand in it. So for the last few months I've just had the chaoti, black tang, watannabei pair and tomini tang in the display. Couldn't stomach buying more fish after that until lately (black friday got the best of me) 
Fish have always been the hardest part of this hobby for me.
I purchased a bunch of fish from different vendors in July/August, and a month or so after going through qt and introducing to the display, I noticed that my black tang was showing signs that I confirmed were (prazi resistant) flukes. So in the middle of my busy summer I decided it would be smart to buy another 20gallon tank and qt every single fish, leaving my tank falllow until the flukes lifecycle runs its course.
So I had two 20gal qt tanks running simultaneously. One with the bigger fish: Black tang, tomini tang, pair of watannabei's and my two tailspot blennies. In the other went all of my 11 or so wrasse. I've never had luck with quickly cycling tanks, and so I instead do a 100% water change every other day.... that's right. 40 gallon water changes every other day for a month
it was brutal.For the first two+ weeks everything was going fine, until one of the wrasse died. then a couple days later another. And the next day two more... At first I thought they were one offs but now am realizing this is a pattern, and come to find out that the sand I put in the wrasse qt was holding onto a bunch of detritus and which was causing ammonia to remain in the tank even with the two day 100% wc's. I wasn't gravel vaccuming it because the tank was on the floor of the room due to limited counter space and I figured it would be alright. By the time I figured it all out (remember this was in the middle of a very busy summer where most days I was hardly home + dealing with 2 kids under 2) I was only left with the chaoti wrasse from that tank
An ammonia alert badge probably would have helped in this scenario however since I have switched to doing 100% water changes every other day I no longer had a need for them (so I thought) Nothing from the tang tank died as that had no sand in it. So for the last few months I've just had the chaoti, black tang, watannabei pair and tomini tang in the display. Couldn't stomach buying more fish after that until lately (black friday got the best of me) Fish have always been the hardest part of this hobby for me.Attachments
OP
OP
Now onto the corals, which if you can believe it has been equally as bad.
Around May/June I finally felt like I was back to the success I was having with the old tank, as far a color and health goes. Was great to finally see things hitting their stride after the house move and all the setbacks that came with it. I finally felt confident enough to buy some new sticks. I bought from my usual vendors I like to go through, but also tried a new vendor. Turns out after a couple months of watching random frags slowly wither away, I found that I had a case of the dreaded aefw's...
I religiously dip everything that comes in, and almost always refrag the sticks onto new plugs, just to be safe. But here's where the "middle of summer with two kids under two" bit me in the butt again... I didn't reglue the sps from the new vendor onto new plugs, and believe there were likely eggs on one of them (not 100% positive however and that is why I'm not listing the name of the vendor). This was devastating for sure. to the point where I seriously considered having an lps-only tank moving forward. But after thinking it over I thought: thankfully I hadn't been selling during this time, and also most of my sps aren't much bigger than frag size to begin with, so it's not like I had a ton of big colonies like the old tank.
After talking to another local reefer about what to do, I devised a plan to clip a frag or two from the healthiest parts of each sps I had, and throw away the rest of it. I then dipped the new clippings and reglued them onto new plugs, placing them in a separate tank), I have since been doing a multi dip program every three days where I dip the entire rack 7 min in revive, and 10 minutes in potassium chloride immediately after. I'm three weeks in and haven't seen a single flatworm since the very first dip on the clippings. Still going to keep this up for another three weeks to ensure the aefw cycle has finished within the display, as I do not want to rush this and risk having to deal with them all over again. But yeah here's what's left
Short story long: no sps and basically no fish in the 170 gallon tank at the moment.
There is somewhat of a silver lining though. For years in the old tank I could never keep a torch coral alive. They would always wither away within a couple months. Dips never showed anything and I was able to keep frogspawn and hammers totally fine. It was super weird and sucked as torches are my favorite non-sps coral. Well I decided to try again and now have 5 different types of torch coral in the display. They've been doing great and growing like crazy these past 6+ months they give me something to look at in this (mostly) empty display
Around May/June I finally felt like I was back to the success I was having with the old tank, as far a color and health goes. Was great to finally see things hitting their stride after the house move and all the setbacks that came with it. I finally felt confident enough to buy some new sticks. I bought from my usual vendors I like to go through, but also tried a new vendor. Turns out after a couple months of watching random frags slowly wither away, I found that I had a case of the dreaded aefw's...
I religiously dip everything that comes in, and almost always refrag the sticks onto new plugs, just to be safe. But here's where the "middle of summer with two kids under two" bit me in the butt again... I didn't reglue the sps from the new vendor onto new plugs, and believe there were likely eggs on one of them (not 100% positive however and that is why I'm not listing the name of the vendor). This was devastating for sure. to the point where I seriously considered having an lps-only tank moving forward. But after thinking it over I thought: thankfully I hadn't been selling during this time, and also most of my sps aren't much bigger than frag size to begin with, so it's not like I had a ton of big colonies like the old tank.
After talking to another local reefer about what to do, I devised a plan to clip a frag or two from the healthiest parts of each sps I had, and throw away the rest of it. I then dipped the new clippings and reglued them onto new plugs, placing them in a separate tank), I have since been doing a multi dip program every three days where I dip the entire rack 7 min in revive, and 10 minutes in potassium chloride immediately after. I'm three weeks in and haven't seen a single flatworm since the very first dip on the clippings. Still going to keep this up for another three weeks to ensure the aefw cycle has finished within the display, as I do not want to rush this and risk having to deal with them all over again. But yeah here's what's left
Short story long: no sps and basically no fish in the 170 gallon tank at the moment.
There is somewhat of a silver lining though. For years in the old tank I could never keep a torch coral alive. They would always wither away within a couple months. Dips never showed anything and I was able to keep frogspawn and hammers totally fine. It was super weird and sucked as torches are my favorite non-sps coral. Well I decided to try again and now have 5 different types of torch coral in the display. They've been doing great and growing like crazy these past 6+ months
they give me something to look at in this (mostly) empty display
Thank you for sharing!
I wouldn’t have thought ammonia could leach enough to be toxic/fatal with your 2 day 100% water changes… it’s sad you learned that lesson the hard way but I thank you for sharing so others don’t have to.
I wouldn’t have thought ammonia could leach enough to be toxic/fatal with your 2 day 100% water changes… it’s sad you learned that lesson the hard way but I thank you for sharing so others don’t have to.
OP
OP
Yes, some very expensive lessons were learned unfortunately. And yes neither did I. To be fair I'm not 100% certain this was the cause. It could be that I had too many fish in such a small tank but again, I figured the 100% water changes would solve for that.Thank you for sharing!
I wouldn’t have thought ammonia could leach enough to be toxic/fatal with your 2 day 100% water changes… it’s sad you learned that lesson the hard way but I thank you for sharing so others don’t have to.
I did actually just remember that there was some stray voltage from a qt heater in that tank and so I initially thought that was the issue and bought a new one. However the deaths continued after that.
As tough as it is to talk about the tank when things are bad, I think it's helpful to show when it's truggling and what was done to try and fix it so that others might learn a thing or two from these mistakes.
Been there before, at least positive on torch corals. I wonder what the difference is with those now. I