Update: Looks like they’re all dead except the radioactive dragon eyes chalice is actually coming back! It’s got green eyes again and is starting to kick the algae off thats growing on it! I found some interesting worms in my sump yesterday, look like a good sign of biodiversity in the tank. My googling has identified them as a polychaete, so that’s cool! I’ve got my quarantine set up and the tank is sitting fallow to get rid of whatever problem I had, started a few days ago.
Damn … sorry to hear that. You’ve got a good attitude about it though. Hard lesson learned but at least you won’t do it again 
Yeah. It could’ve been better, but at least I only ended up losing the tort, valida, green acro, and Xenia. Basically the sps took the brunt of it. Live and learn… otherwise all the corals that made it are looking good!
Anyone have suggestions on how to catch a pajama cardinal in my reef tank? I need to get him out so it can sit fallow… I’ve tried netting him at various times of the day and tried the bottle fish trap with food in it. He’s too darn fast for me and he won’t go into the fish trap. verdict_in
If you really want him out don’t feed for a day. Feeding day just place the net in the tank 30 minutes before trying to use it to catch it. Or use the fish trap with food in it
Place a towel around the front and sides and top of the aquarium to block light and turn your lights to the lowest setting (I do 1% on my blues). Let it sit for a few minutes to calm the fish and promote “sleep”. I’ve found this to be the easiest way to net fish in my aquarium. I’ve gotten many fish out this way
So far I’ve tried netting him at all times of the day lights on/off/3am even (apparently he never sleeps) and for a few days now I’ve been trying food inside the bottle trap. He gets close to it, but never goes inside. I’m thinking my next option is going to be to drain the tank until I can catch that little sucker and fill it back up so that the corals aren’t out of the water very long at all.
Caught the bugger this morning by draining half the tank. I’ve got him in a quarantine tank now and I’ll be treating him with Cupramine to ensure that he doesn’t take whatever the problem I had was back into the tank. Does anyone have suggestions on a good quarantine procedure for new fish from here on out after the fallow period ends. I’ve read mixed things about people treating prophylactically vs. just observing
Have something small like a biocube setup so when you get new fish they go in there first. Then before stressing it out with copper or whatever method you go with make sure it is eating. I like how TSM says they quarantine the fish for 3 weeks before selling and they use 2 different types of stuff while in qt.
If you are trying to get this tank going look into having a qt for coral and another for fish. Just takes one slip up and you can lose everything.
TheEngineer aka Adam gave a great presentation on quarantine setup and procedures about a year ago at one of our club meetings. I don’t know exactly where the info is within the club site but I’m sure he can chime in and let you know!
The slides are on here somewhere… let me find them.
Nice presentation, why do you recommend 30 days of copper instead of the 14 that the cupramine bottle states? How to Quarantine Marine Fish here’s the link I found and what I’ve been basing my approach on… Of course I’m still just starting the fallow period so I have plenty of time lol. I’m going to treat the fish I pulled out with copper to be sure they’re disease free even though they look ok. I don’t want to put anything back into the tank, especially since he could be harboring it at a subclinical level.
It all depends on what you are treating for.
First, make sure the fish you are treating can tolerate copper. Not all can. For things like ich, the lifecycle is such that 30 days guarantees you got all of them. If I remember there is a chart in there that shows the lifecycle of some typical pests.
Adam, for fish that can’t tolerate copper like a mandarin or angels, do you use TTM or CP? Do you know anyone who has used CP or anywhere that supplies it since it seems you need a script to gain access to it.
I’m a big fan of TTM. CP is a one step cure for a lot of things which is nice. You can buy it online but you need a prescription. I spent time going over everything with my dog’s vet and she agreed to write me one.
Have you ever used metroplex? It too seems like it’s gentle on fish, but I’ve read mixed reviews online about its effectiveness with Ich. I think after my Ich outbreak I want to prophylactically treat all new arrivals. Just trying to figure out whats the best approach for QT and treatment of so called med sensitive fish.
Metroplex is for intestinal parasites. I’ve not heard about it being effective for ich. I haven’t had issues using it for treating parasites. Use it in conjunction with focus.
I was actually thinking of paragurd. But the seachem website does say metro is effective against crypto. I’ve got plenty of time to figure out a QT method for sensitive fish since I have like 68 days of fallow period left :BB)
Anyone use Vortech pumps? I currently have a Jebao PP-4 and PP-8 running in else mode, but the whine of them constantly ramping up and down is rather annoying in the living room when everything else is so quiet. I was thinking of putting 2 MP-40s on the back glass, one toward the top and the other about halfway down on the opposite side. The back seems like a good idea to hide the wires, but would this mess with flow too much? Everything in the tank seems pretty happy currently, but the noise is a bit annoying. I even set my skimmer to just run overnight since that noise was annoying. >IDEA< With no fish in there currently, it’s not like I have a high bioload so no issues with that yet.