NEWBIE 200 gal build diary

[rlablan]

something is wrong with my TWINSPOT!!!!!
he was fine yesterday!!! and now there are big pieces missing from his fin!!!
I can't tell if he got bitten (It is really bad!! there are alot of pieces missing on multiple fins)
or
He has fin rot...
who would have eaten him like that? why would he let someone eat him like that and not just run away?!?
Does fin rot show up that badly, that quickly?!?

 

[meowzer]

they hang out at the bottom...don't they? A crab may have gotten ahold of it
If I remember, you do have crabs ????

 

[rlablan]

well I lost my large scary male crab a few days ago...
I think I have two small females around somewhere.... do you think he'll be okay?? I don't think it was the body.... It's just fins...
I only had 3 emeralds though... other than hermit. Do you think the hermits did it?

 

[meowzer]

IDK....just keep up the vitamins and watch it...
What else do you have that would attack it....???

 

[melypr1985]

Originally Posted by rlablan
http:///forum/post/3143136
Its most likely chemipure or chemiclean or red slime remover.
yup! it was the chemipure. That has been used by alot of the locals around here and had great success!
OMG! sorry to hear about the twin spot! This is why I tend to stick to corals. I'm always scared that my fish will start getting sick then I wont be able to get them better. You healed your foxface when you thought all hope was lost. So I'm sure you can fix this guy too!

 

[rlablan]

Yeah, I mean... there is no way of getting this little guy out of the tank... he is so small and he looks the same as the sand too and he also like scurries away in the blink of an eye....
I don't think I have any fish that are that mean. I am pretty sure that my flounder died... I was spot feeding him and then he stopped showing up and also... I had another goby... the harbous goby I ordered from SWF.com and I put him in and I have not seen him since... literally. He has never come out for food or anything.
I thought that maybe they could have gotten into it? I don't know.... can harbour gobies be that aggressive? My twin spot is REALLY beat up... I am just going to keep an eye on him for now and hope he's okay.
How can I give him vitamins since he doesn't eat food I feed? He is strickly a sand sifter that eats micro faunas...
Should I get some melafix? I read that it could fix wounds and tattered fins... ???

 

[melypr1985]

i dont know much about gobies. you might pm spanko, he seems to know or have info on just about anything you could ask. I would think that if your goby is eating things out of the sand then that would include the uneaten food that you feed. So, maybe he's getting vitamins that way. I would be very carful about adding the chemicals to your tank. I like to ask what people think about it. get reviews of sorts from people.
I wouldn't worry too much about not seeing your tiny gobies in your huge tank. They may just have found a great "home" and only come out at night? IDK. I wish I could help more.

 

[rlablan]

Yeah that's very true. I always ask spanko... I feel like I am bugging him.
That harbour goby was actually like almost inches long and about the thickness of a pinky... He was definitely not a small fish. I DK...

 

[rlablan]

well the twinspot is alive still and he doesn't appear to be sick or anything... I guess a crab just got him or something. He is eating though and seems normal.
I am so frustrated with this cyano though. I left the lights off for the past few days and I came out today and turned them on and there is more than there has been!!! I put in something called "phosbuster" that I picked up on the cheap. It's a liquid and as soon as I put it in, the cyano started peeling up and like letting go and floating!! I thought it was great...
and now there is more than ever!!
I am going to pick up some chemi clean TODAY!!!! It is going to happen!

 

[meowzer]

How much do these chemicals cost???? Could you get more salt instead?

 

[rlablan]

I am ordering online. I am gonna get more salt too. I am reading up about chemiclean right now and everyone, including mely, says that it works wonders for getting rid of cyano/ red slime algae.
I am just sick of it!!! ARRRGGHHH!!!!
credit card FTW...

 

[lareefkeeper]

Sorry, I was in San Diego all weekend. ++++1 on the Chemiclean it is incredible and once you have the salt you can do a water change and get your system back on track. Your goby may be looking bad due to the fact that the cyano may be interferring with its feeding. Stress can cause fins to look thin or tattered. Also I have heard that they can be coaxed with live black worms. Remember the more constant our system the happier things will be. Once you choose to change something let it take affect over a couple of weeks and let the system stabalize (this will also allow you to save $$$ in between). You are on the right track just be patient and keep at it. Good Luck!

 

[rlablan]

I ordered the chemiclean from here and I ordered the salt from the doctors...
I also swtiched salts which I am pretty happy about....
I was using instant ocean, which I actually really liked but... Remember a few posts back when I said I had no calcium and someone said I wasn't changing enough water... well I don't think thats it. I tested my RO water and then a new batch of salt water, and water from my system...
no phosphates in any of them... but
also.... little to no calcium in my water here in PHX.... when it's mixed with the I/O salt, it has about 300 calcium... That's really really low... so I decided instead of dosing things like calcium and all and spending money on supplements, I just bought some reef salt instead.
I got.. um.. reef crystals salt? or something. It was about the same money, and it said that it was high in trace elements and especially high in calcium so that is perfect. I will continue to test for that when the new salt comes and then we will see if I can tell improvement in corals/fish or whatever.
I am super excited about the chemiclean though. I am not a fan of chemicals but this is really getting out of hand. I haven't fed in like 4 days and the cyano really isn't showing any sign of stopping. I had to blow TONS of it off of my corals today and that really made me mad!

 

[rlablan]

LA- I know that stress from algae and the cyano and all can effect things but...
his fins are totally gone. like gone gone... so I really think that something just got hungry. The only suspects are really the emerald crabs just because they are the only things capable of doing that kind of damage whilst holding onto a fish as well. If it were another fish, he would have just run away... I dk, but he is looking better.

 

[rlablan]

and another post-
lion fish- - - -- - - - --
how long can he go without food?
I just saw him the other day, so he is alive...
but he has not eaten in... over a month?
I was feeding him ghost shrimp and now I can't get those anymore so I am not sure what to do with him. I feel aweful... I don't want him to starve to death... but he won't take the frozen food that I offer.
I read that all they have to do is bite it and then they realize it's food, but he won't bite it. He sees it coming and he just swims the other way. I even got one of those clear feeding sticks.
what should I do?? ideas?? experiences??
Thanks

 

[lareefkeeper]

Lionfish should be fed daily or every other day. Where did you get the lion from, and what were they feeding it? You could try frozen silver sides (should have at you LFS), and use your feeding stick to dangle in front of it. The feeding stick should be used to entice the fish by wiggleing it like it was still alive. Eventually the lionfish will become conditioned to know that the stick means food and it will become easier to feed. Glad to hear the goby is doing better whatever the cause. Lastly I hear that Reef Crystals is a great salt brand and actually produced by the same company as IO. Good luck with the lion!

 

[rlablan]

they were feeding ghost shrimp. I saw him eat when I bought him, and he was very quick...
When I first got him, he was in my nano, eating shrimp.
Now he is so hard to get to. Also, he is not big enough to eat a silver side. I have whole popcorn krill that I have tried...
when he sees the food, even from feet away, he just swims into the rock and doesn't come back out.
He doesn't look skin and bone yet, and no fish are missing. Could he be eating pods?

 

[rlablan]

I tired feeding the lion last night, to no avail.
He didn't run away as quickly but he did not even try to bite the food or even face it. He turns away from it, and then just hopes away. I even cut the krill down this time!!
What is he living off of? He obviously isn't hungry....
also... did a 30 gallon water change last night.
Cyano is starting to look better.... it's still there though. Did I mention I also cut down my lights by 3 hours daily?

 

[spanko]

Hi Rae. Wow! Are you having fun yet? This is not supposed to be stressful. It is supposed to be calming.
The foxface is not related to the tang. A foxface is related to rabbitfish. If the tang was in the tank first it set up its territory and the foxface was a threat.
Can't help on the lionfish eating as I have never had one. If you PM Cranberry (Renee) I bet she could help you with that.
On the cyano.
Here is my take on getting rid of Cyano.
Red Slime (Cyano Bacteria)
Cyano grows on top of nutrient rich areas of low flow. There are a number of things that need to be correct or possibly corrected to combat this without the use of chemical additives. The biggest thing is to get rid of the extra nutrients.
1. Evaluate your feeding. If you are feeding more than can be eaten in about 1-2 minutes it is too much and the remainder of it is falling to the rock and sand and becoming nutrient.
2. Evaluate your flow. If you have areas in the tank where there is little to no flow this can be corrected by adding power heads or repositioning the ones you already have. You don’t need to create sand storms just have water moving over the area to keep detritus suspended in the water column for removal by your filter – skimmer.
3. Evaluate your water changes. The solution to pollution is dilution! You want to continually remove unneeded nutrients as well as replace those things that are used by the system. 10% weekly is a good change schedule. Some do 20% every other week and some vary the schedule from there, but a good start is 10% per week.
4. Evaluate your lighting schedule. About 10 hours of daylight is all that is needed.
5. If you have a cyano outbreak do the above 4 items andh:
a. At water change time siphon off the cyano first. It will come up easily almost like a blanker.
b. After siphoning stir the affected areas a little to suspend any detritus for the water change and filtering - skimming removal.
c. Use a turkey baster now and at every water change in the future to again suspend the detritus for removal by the water change and your filtering – skimming.
Keeping nutrient levels low to non-existent will help to avoid cyano outbreaks and any algae outbreaks as well as keep your tank and you happy happy.
Hope that helps.

[hr]
You really need to clean up the system. What kind of mechanical filtration do you have? I see no skimmer yet. Do you have any filter that takes pads or anything like that to filter out large particles? If so they need to be cleaned at the very least every three days until you get back to normal. Forget the pads. Go to the craft or fabric store and buy some polyester fiber fill. It is white, cottony stuff they fill pillows with. Make sure there are no additives. Use this. You can get a big bag fairly inexpensively. Change it every day. Do the above stuff for the cyano. Keep siphoning it out. Don't blow it around with the turkey baster, suck it out.
No new critters!!!! No new coral!!!! Work on getting the tank clean first.

 

[meowzer]

Originally Posted by spanko
http:///forum/post/3146131
No new critters!!!! No new coral!!!! Work on getting the tank clean first.
+1.....and +1 more...LOL
that's what I was saying when I suggested you buy salt instead of the other stuff..