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blusafe

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Everything posted by blusafe

  1. NO. COMMON SENSE - your fish have a fish-only disease. How does adding a susceptible fish help? You're assuming this fish is a 100% EFFECTIVE predator of marine ich - IT IS NOT. Their main diet is isopods and flukes from dozens, possibly hundreds of clients. Do you have this many fish in your tank?
  2. Better to buy Aiptasia X and kill them yourself!
  3. You're right to be scared and want to protect the stony corals. The toadstool looks like sarcophyton, known to be very toxic against other corals even without stress. I would do the water change and beef up carbon. No problems with in-tank frag.
  4. For reef tank, clean water is a MUST. Do not be fooled... Recommend for FOWLR. With RO(DI), more stages and added DI, assuming all produce good water, means less wear and tear on your media and elements. More up-front money spent, less long-term maintenance.
  5. Knowledge is your best tool against ich. Quarantine is the only way.
  6. Knowledge is your best tool against ich. Freshwater will not kill the ich buried inside your fish's skin. Thinking quarantine is on the right track, but you need more. Copper and formalin are the only proven medications but they both have major drawbacks. Bucket transfer is the only proven 100%, non-chemical solution. Read my post here: 100% dryness will kill ich at all life stages. However, you still have the parasites on your fish, and the cysts attached to any other surfaces in the DT (any sand grains, tank surface, powerheads, etc.) In my opinion, desiccating rock and sand is not a viable treatment. I'm not sure about drying rock to "treat" bristleworms or their eggs. Those are tough creatures. If your tank has LR, your tank has bristleworms. No way going about this unless you boil/cook your rock and sand. You are better off with other methods such as the pantyhose trap.
  7. I don't let my wife or kids swim in SG water. I scolded her for wading in waist deep Sentosa water while pregnant. That tells you my opinion of the "natural" seawater on our coasts.
  8. If the cup is overflowing with dry foam (not water), then the skimmer is doing its job of cleaning the tank. Need a bigger skimmer cup, automatic dump, or other methods of nutrient export.
  9. You can't expose corals to extreme conditions (high light and high flow) so fast. Place in a quieter part of your tank. Acclimation is underrated. It can take up to a month for the GSP to open. Be patient.
  10. blusafe

    Xenia

    Should be fine, keep away from heat and if you can leave the bag open so it gets aerated.
  11. I see you trolling around the forums posting what seems to be newbie advice. You should considering referencing your sources, unless of course you figured out all this information on your own. You forgot to discuss saltwater surface tension is much higher than freshwater (which is why skimmers don't work for fw).
  12. Most new tanks have a diatom bloom before the nitrogen-fixing bacteria are cycled. All the things you mention are good, but a big bloom during cycling is normal until your bacteria compete with the algae for nutrients.
  13. Garlic has been proven to conclusively HARM marine organisms. @vidextreme there are many anecdotal cases of garlic keeping ihc at bay. As you said, it's not a 100% solution. Your fish probably have better immunity just because you are feeding them properly. Just because garlic breaks down into useful components doesn't mean a marine animal can readily absorb this terrestrial compound. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2213228 Read the ich thread to learn why ONLY copper, hypo, and tank transfer are the only 100% methods. Copper is not recommended because of its VERY SMALL MARGIN OF ERROR, assuming you have an accurate test kit. I left my tank fallow for six weeks, the advice here for two months is good. Three months is excessive. The longest known cyst erupted at 72 days, with the average being only 2-3 weeks. Removing LR will NOT protect your glass tank. You should consider ALL SURFACES to have ich cysts. If you are going to do a fallow period, do it properly by leaving the display tank ALONE. No touching. No adding anything. All "wet" things go in quarantine - fish, rocks, corals, worms, etc. Bone drying the rocks or tank will kill ich at all stages of the life cycle (along with everything else making your rock "live")
  14. No, it will *manage* your ich but is far from being 100%. Will 100% of your water flow through the UV at a time? No? That's even assuming the UV is properly calibrated to kill 100% of the organisms passing through. There are cheaper, 100% effective methods like tank transfer, quarantine, and fallow period. Read my post in the sticky ich thread.
  15. The ich is still in your tank, and will probably never leave. If your fish are happy, then OK. I would be careful about fish density. Garlic has been proven conclusively to harm marine organisms, with no counter-arguments. http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2213228
  16. Check out the detailed post on ich treatment. If your angel is new (less than a few weeks) then it is probably hopeless. If it is older, than there is good chance of survival. Either way, I would quarantine to protect the other fish. I'm not optimistic because you say the fish is not eating. You have a choice between risking health of the other fish and putting the angel in another tank, or leaving it in the display and hoping for the best. Do not medicate the main tank.
  17. OK haven't looked at this thread for a while. As I said earlier, removing the fish and doing bucket/tank transfer with main tank fallow period (some say for as long as six weeks) is the only 100% guarantee. Long? Hard work? Yes yes. Again, only 100% proven method unless you are getting 100% accurate copper testing kit. Hypo needs to be no greater than 1.009 sg (Sengreef is the only correct one here). Go lower to 1.007 sg if the fish can tolerate. There are some reports that the fish will suffer long term metabolic damage but then again, any treatment plan will be stressful. There are a wide variance among sources on how long the hypo should last. Again, your greatest tool against ich is knowledge of the life cycle. Some cysts (that have fallen off the fish) do not erupt into daughter swimmers for up to a month and a half, with the longest reported to be 72 days. Due to the variance and long length, this is why I recommend tank transfer rather than *hope* all of the cysts have erupted before you go back to normal salinity. Also was mentioned the pH drop @Arodan sg too low! As stated above, tank transfer with extended fallow period is best method. If you're not going to do a proper procedure, might as well do NOTHING and hope your fish naturally resist the ich. It's probably too late, but no you should not wc. The fish are already stressed due to a prolonged period of low salt exposure.
  18. Meaty marine protein, algae pellets, nori seaweed, etc. How long have you been feeding the tang? Took me about 3 weeks before it got plump feeding 2-3 times a day. Feed until they it no longer eats. Watch your water quality, as pollution will stunt growth.
  19. That's a heavily fed, very healthy tank! Look at those thick tangs and anthias.
  20. If you are doing large water changes every two weeks, you need to start looking at your magnesium levels. The corals cannot properly calcify if Mg is insufficient. The calcium at 420 ppm seems fine, don't touch it! My tank was at 14-15 KH for about two months and slowly starting to go down when I dosed Ca and Mg properly. There was some hard white crusting on the tank (it was sold to me second-hand) and I suspect that was keeping the KH high. The most important thing is if your corals are not suffering, don't change anything too drastically.
  21. Tank is too small for a tang, they need to roam and move or they will not be happy. Mandarins are difficult to feed because they only like to eat live, small prey. If you find one that eats pellets then you need to feed that one in a special manner to ensure it's eating. High maintenance. I think your tank looks fine the way it is. You can go with soft corals. If you get stronger lighting and micro-manage water quality, can start thinking about more demanding corals.
  22. You've probably already tried this...but do you thaw and wash the food with RO water before feeding?
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