Fish out of Quarantine!!

After 6 weeks of quarantine, the fish have moved back to the main display tank.  I had ich in the main tank, and was advised to let it go fishless for this time period to ensure that the ich dies out.  During this time, I lost my flame angel, and my beloved little Dory :(  The 2 clowns (Nemo & Marvin), and the Diamond Goby (Spot) are back and happy as can be.

To pass the time during these weeks, I bought coral.  A lot of coral!  The amazing thing is that all this coral cost as much as the entire tank and equipment. That's a scary thought.  Here  is the tank now.

Little Bugs

It has been a week since I moved all the fish to the quarantine, and they look great.  Dory the blue tang has recovered and swims (upright :)

The main display tank is now fish free, and I noticed a bloom of  little white spots on the glass and the overflow box.  Since I couldn't tell what they were, I asked my husband to photograph them with his macro lens setup.  It was a crazy setup with tripods, electronic motors, switches, lights, and of course, a very nice camera and lens. Here is what we found in the tank:

A copepod

A Staurocladia (Tiny Hydroid Jellyfish)

Same Hydroid, photographed with a penny for scale

Ich!!

Sadly, my fish have come down with the parasite Ich!  The telltale signs are the tiny spots stuck to the fish.   I tried adding a cleaner shrimp to the display tank.  Cleaner shrimps are very pricey!

Cleaner Shrimp

It immediately started to clean my flame angel.

Flame Angel at cleaning station

However, cleaning the fish does not help rid the display tank of ich. Since I have corals and invertebrates, I cannot use any medications in the display tank. The LFS advised me that the so-called "Reef-safe" treatments are too weak to be effective. The only option is to move all the fish to a quarantine tank, treat the infected fish there, and let the parasite die out in the main tank. This should take 4-6 weeks for the ich's life cycle to complete.  Leaving the main tank fish-free is the only way to ensure all traces of the parasite die off.  [sigh]

I set up a 10 gallon tank with a hood, heater, filter (without media), and pieces of PVC for the fish to hide in.  No sand or rock since they absorb the treatment product...copper.  The clownfish and Blue tang were fairly easy to catch.  It took hours of ripping apart the rocks in the display tank to catch the Flame Angel and  Orange Spotted sandsifting Goby.  I moved all the fish to the display tank, and now begins this 6 week wait.

Quarantine tank. I did replace the live rock with more pieces of PVC

Dory infected

Orange Spotted Goby before moving it to the Quarantine tank

I am kicking myself for not placing all new fish in a quarantine tank for 4 weeks before introducing them to the main tank.  Eagerness to see them swimming among all the rocks and coral I guess.  Big lesson learned!! Sadly, my gorgeous Flame Angel did not not make it through its first night in quarantine :(

I Managed to Killl One of the Most Indestructable Corals!!

I had 3 branches of a pink & white Xenia.  I had it nestled nicely in between the rocks and it grew for several weeks. Then one day, two of the branches withered up and died.  The third branch died the next day.  I'm not sure what happened.  The only thing I can think of is that the salinity level of the water dropped from 1.025 to 1.021.  My fault, I forgot to add the salt when I did a water change.  It is rather ironic that I managed to kill a coral that others have complained grows like a weed. Has anyone had a similar experience?

Frogspawn Coral

Here is a picture of a Frogspawn coral.  It has 3 branches, and has been growing nicely.  I believe it has a slight sting, so I keep it away from other corals.

Flower Pot Coral

My very first coral purchase was a large, expensive piece of flower pot coral. Its Latin name is Goniopora, which is a stony coral with large polyps.  It is not surprising that I would be drawn to a coral that looks like flowers. Unfortunately, I did not do my research prior to my impulsive purchase, and did not realize it is a difficult one to keep alive.

This coral does contain the symbiotic algae zooxanthellae, which means it uses photosynthesis to create its nutrients. However, I have read that this particular coral should be fed with a product such as micro-plankton.

My second mistake was dropping it on its "face" when I tried to position it in the tank.  That it did not like.  The polyps retracted and released a coating of slime.  I was sure it was a gonner.

I immediately ran out to buy some zooplankton and fed it using a turkey baster.  After a few days of nursing it, a third of the polyps came back.  Then another third, and finally all of it.  It now looks like this.

It is a shocking transformation! It is by far my favourite coral in the tank, and I hope I can continue to keep it alive. By the way, I found that placing it on the sand bed, and away from strong currents works best.

One fascinating thing I witnessed was it releasing some sort of stringy substance from the centre of each polyp. Here is a video.

Got Some Clean Up Crew

There is even an acronym for these...CUC.  Fish can be a little messy when it comes to food, and it's the cleanup crew's job to eat.

First came two peppermint shrimp.  What a pain these are!  They are nocturnal, and spend most of the day hiding behind rocks.  I only saw both shrimps during the first few days, and then there was only one. It has been a month now, and I am convinced one ate the other.  The shrimp is amazing for sniffing out food and hauling it off. Unfortunately, it has a voracious appetite. I actually need to feed it, otherwise it terrorizes other things. I have seen this shrimp pounce on some of my soft corals (torch, button, frogspawn).  I don't think I would have bought these had I known their behaviour.

Peppermint shrimp with some Red Button Polyp coral

Next came the hermit crabs.  These guys are a lot of fun. From the moment I bought them, they have been working to clean up the rocks and sand. They also eat fallen food.  I bought 4 blue, 1 white, and 1 red legged.  I am not sure how the white one ended up in the batch.  They also have a voracious appetite, and I feed these as well as the shrimp.

Hermit crabs

I soon discovered I had an algae bloom. The brownish stuff was all over the rocks, glass and sand.   So next came the snails.  I bought 2 Trochus, 7 Nassarius.  They have been doing such a great job, that I'm running out of algae.  I will need to fed them as well.  The Nassarius also keep the sand stirred, which is nice.

Trochus snail, with a torch coral and a toadstool coral

Small Nassarius snail scooting away from the crabs

Larger Nassarius snail

Got Some Fish

It has now been a month since I setup the tank.  It has fully cycled, and water quality is great!  PH 8.2, no Ammonia, Nitrites or Nitrates.  Now for the fun part.

Here is the tank with the rock in place.

I purchased two Percula clownfish.  They are of course named Nemo, and Nemo's dad.  They're more likely to become a mating pair, but for now, it makes my daughter happy.  Strange thing, I purchased some soft corals for them to live in (rather than anenomes which can sting), but they would rather just swim around.

This one is Nemo. He even has a gimpy fin. Notice the hole in the dorsal fin.

Then came a small Blue Hippo Tang, named Dory.  What a peculiar fish. At first she was freaked out and hid in the rocks for days. I thought she was a gonner.  But she now comes out and swims with the two clownfish. Peaceful, except when it is dinner time.  She won't grab the food off the surface, but waits for the clownfish to eat, and then yanks the food out of their mouths. She is feisty!

Dory and Nemo's dad (looking for Nemo)

Follow Me!

Added Live Rock and Sand

I purchased 60lbs of live rock (Fiji and Branchy), and 60lbs of live Aragonite sand.  These products contain beneficial bacteria which are important for bio-filtration.  It took me hours to position the rocks so they look nice, and so that they are well supported. I added the sand, and this is the result.

Yikes!  I guess it is normal for the water to go cloudy with that fine sand. It will take a few days to settle down.  Since you can't see anything, here are some pics of the materials.

Fiji rock

Aragonite sand

Added Water...and it Leaks!

After installing the overflow and the sump, I added some water in the black overflow box to test for leaks. It leaked around the bulkhead, which required a little tightening. I highly recommend doing this leak test before filling the tank!  As extra insurance, I used cable ties to secure the slip-on hose fittings.

Dialysis for the Tank

I am hoping the caption will grab my sister's attention :) 

Anyway, that is basically how the Sump filtration works.  Inside the cabinet is a sump (an overpriced plastic box) and a pump (another overpriced piece of equipment).  Water flows down the drainage pipe, into the sump where it is filtered and heated, and then pumped back into the tank.

I really like this system for a number of reasons:

1) All the equipment, pump, hose, heater, thermometer are hidden away.
2) It uses bio-filtration. For my EShopps brand sump, water flows into a micron mesh bag where accumulated beneficial bacteria turn toxic ammonia into nitrites, then nitrates, and finally nitrogen and oxygen gas.  This bacteria is introduced when Live Rock and Live Sand are added to the tank. I will have a posting on this subject at a later date.
3)  There is room to add some additional items such as small pieces of Live Rock, or a Protein Skimmer.  Protein Skimmers remove waste from the water using air bubbles.  The proteins attach to air bubbles which are carried into a collection cup for removal.  The benefit is that wastes are removed before they even have a chance to break down into ammonia.
4)  Some people add other items such as sand, mini Mangrove trees (I'm not kidding), etc. to enhance filtration.  These are called Refugiums, but my sump model isn't big enough to house a refugium.

This is is the sump when I removed it from the box.

Notice extra white PVC piece inside the gray hose

I was dismayed to find that the 1 1/4" gray hose did not fit over the bulkhead for my drainage pipe.  It turns out that Eshopps inserted an extra white PVC piece inside the hose rendering the inside diameter too small!  The PVC piece is not removable.  I visited my local fish store (Dolphin Pet Village), where the nice people there showed me a replacement hose.  The new hose fit over the bulkhead.

New hose

Then to my dismay, I found that the other end of the hose did not fit properly into the sump end without the PVC piece.  That required the purchase of a 3/4" PVC coupling at the local Home Depot.  EShopps really should include the loose PVC pieces, which gives the customer the option to use them or not.  To top it all off, there were no instructions!  I needed to look at the picture on the box to figure out how to connect everything.

Here is the final setup (with a a 9.5 GPH Mag drive pump).  I placed the sump in a plastic bin in case of leaks.

I added a shutoff valve and a quick release joint to the pump.  That sprinkler plumbing experience came in handy after all :)

I mounted a power bar inside the cabinet.  It is placed high enough so that the cords loop down and then back up to the sockets. This allows any water to drip down.  I also replaced the wall socket with a GFI outlet.

Overflow Installation

The first thing I needed to do was install the drainage and return pipes. These go inside the black overflow box.  The pipes comprise of various pieces of PVC fitted together.  When I saw the price for the "Megaflow Overflow Kit", I was shocked!  $70!!  For PVC?!  I thought about going to Home Depot and buying the PVC pieces myself.  Having done sprinkler plumbing work before, I thought... how hard could it be?  But then I remembered...it's okay to have leaks and accidents out on the lawn, but it's not okay inside the house...not on hardwood flooring. So I shelled out for the kit.

This is what $70 buys:

There is a piece of paper with assembly "instructions", and I use that term loosely. 

The pieces fit together easily, but getting both the drainage and return pipe to fit in that small overflow box took some work and small hands.  I noticed some strategically drilled holes in some of the pieces, which I think helps to reduce gurgling.  I wouldn't have known that. So, I think it was $70 well spent.  No leaks yet...but I haven't put any water in.  Stay tuned.

Overflow pipes inserted into tank

Bulkhead popping through top of cabinet

Perhaps One Day

I was looking for some ideas on aquascaping, and I came across this picture.  Wow!  What an inspiration! Perhaps one day...mine will look this.

Got My Lights!

My first shock was how tricky lighting is.  In order to successfully grow corals, I will need 10-12 hours of lighting each day.  I think the rule of thumb is 4-6 watts per gallon, but it depends on what is in the tank.  Harder corals will require more light than softer corals.  I looked at lighting systems and considered: Metal Halide, T5 HO compact fluorescent, and LED.

I ruled out Metal Halide pretty quickly.  Although they produce nice, bright light, and create the shimmering reef effect, they consume too much energy!  Easily 250-400 watts for my tank size.  They also produce a lot of heat, and I would probably need to buy a chiller/fan to cool down the tank.

I like the idea of T5 HO fluorescent bulbs.  They are energy efficient (20-60 watts), and come in a range of light spectrum (more on that later).  However, they do not create the shimmering reef effect.

Finally, there are LEDs.  I like LEDs the best because of the low energy consumptions, and shimmering effect.  They are long lasting and run cool.   However, I would require many high output LEDs to create enough light, and they are still very expensive.  I'm sure this will change in the future.

Okay, so this is my basic understanding of the Light Spectrum.  When light penetrates water, red light is first to be filtered out.  As light penetrates deeper, orange and yellow are lost.  It is blue light that penetrates the deepest.  In addition, corals require blue light for photosynthesis.  They call these Actinic bulbs which have a wavelength of 420-460nm.

I figured that I will need a combination of actinic and daylight bulbs.

My second shock was the cost of lighting fixtures.  At the local pet store, T5 fluroscent fixtures will run $200+.  They had LED's for more than $1000!  Geez.

I decided to look at Craigslist ads, and try to find a used fixture to try out.  I ended up buying a 36" quad light fixture. It has two T5 bulbs (39 watts each)  and two Actinic LED bulbs (for each bulb there are 55 LEDs at ~11 total watts).  The T5 and LEDs are on two separate switches.  It is manufactured by a company called "SHKERRY AQUA".  I believe it is a Chinese brand, but I've never heard of them.  I got a great deal, and I'm excited to try it out.  We'll see if it meets my need.

Just LEDs ON

LEDs and T5 ON

LEDs and T5 ON and fixture placed inside canopy

Got My Tank!

I'm not sure what happened :{  I knew I needed a tank that's at least 40 gallons to house what I plan to keep, and to provide enough buffer in case something goes wrong.  Basically, the more water there is, the more buffer there is for temperature fluctuations, water quality issues, etc.  One thing led to another, and somehow I ended up with this purchase. It's nice...very nice.  But a huge splurge!

Anyway, it is a 65 gallon glass tank. I also purchased the nice cherry wood stand and matching canopy.  What I really liked about the tank is the built in overflow (the black plastic piece inside the tank). All the tubing will be hidden behind the plastic. The tank and stand have also been pre-drilled to allow water to flow down into the filtration system housed in the cabinet, and then back up into the tank.  The canopy has a hinged top which will house the lights. The clean look is nice. At least that's what I keep telling myself.

Just Starting Out

I finally decided to set up a saltwater aquarium in my home.  I have always had an interest in fish, and have kept freshwater aquariums in the past.  But I have always had a fascination for the ocean.  My other reason is to give my daughter an opportunity to see fish up close and personal.  I decided on a reef aquarium which will house corals, colorful fish, snails, and hermit crabs.

My first step was to get books on saltwater aquariums.  My problem with the books is that they provide an overview, but do not provide enough detail on equipment choices, or how to install the equipment.  I have already found myself making frequent trips to the local fish store to get advice.  So I decided to blog about this journey. I am sure I will make mistakes along the way, but I hope that my blogs will help others who have similar aspirations.  Or at the very least, be entertaining.