Rate My Fish Tank

Tue Jul 14, 2009 10:26 am GMT   Reply      

The LFS was supposedly holding a 125 gal pre-drilled for $250 but i guess the guy that was selling it backed out so now im back to square one. This is really frustrating because I had gone out and made a list of everything I needed for a 72" tank. At the same time, its ok though because I would rather have a 48" tank (its alot cheaper!) But I have to spend more money now on getting a new or used tank. Im going to go down and tank to the LFS and see if they have anything for a good deal. But I am one of thise people that wants exactly what I want but I always see something else and get caught up in the moment and buy something else because its instant gratification, kind of like the 125gal. But this time I will wait until I find exactly what I want. I would like nothing less than a 110 gal because I would like to house a couple different kinds of tangs. Who knows, I am just really pissed off right now because I have been waiting for this tank for like a week and half or 2 weeks now.

Tue Jul 14, 2009 4:45 pm GMT   Reply      

Ah instant gratification. It's my achilles heel too. I remember when I was younger, I wanted an air gun. I was $20 short of the one I wanted (super nice), so instead of waiting a couple weeks, I bought the one that was $20 cheaper. And let me tell you, had I waited, I would still be using that gun. As it turns out, I ditched the cheaper one after only 1 summer of use...

Patience is a virtue I keep being told, especially with aquariums. Wait to get what you want, and you won't be dissapointed.=)

Tue Jul 14, 2009 9:54 pm GMT   Reply      

dude just chill out check crags list or post on it there are people gitting rid of big tanks all the time and a lot of the time it is for real cheep because people buy them then try to git rid of this huge tank and lern no one wants it. that is were we come in place and 9 out of 10 times we git them realy cheep.

Tue Jul 14, 2009 11:48 pm GMT   Reply      

Agree with lionlord on that one. I bought my first 100 gallon on Craigslist for $600. It came with T-5's, 125lbs of LR, and some really nice healthy fish and corals. I upgraded the tank to a 95 gallon wave with MH's and sold the tank and lights for $200. I just bought a 24 gallon with 150 watt MH's and over $1000 in corals for $400, plus the liverock and everything else. I would go on Craigslist and just watch it every day.

Wed Jul 15, 2009 3:45 am GMT   Reply      

You need to learn patience in this hobby
IF YOU DON'T YOU WILL HAVE A CATASTROPHIC DISASTER IN THE TANK ON DAY
like itch from a fish you have chucked in without quarantine

Wed Jul 15, 2009 9:49 pm GMT   Reply      

Hey Puff, question for you. How do you quarantine a new fish? The last tang and trigger I added each brought in ich. I have heard about quarantining a new fish before adding him to the main tank, but for how long and do I medicate it? Do I add copper to it just to make sure?

Wed Jul 15, 2009 10:20 pm GMT   Reply      

yeah thank you tien, that was the same question i had too.

Wed Jul 15, 2009 11:38 pm GMT   Reply      

Well I'm not puff but, you start with setting up a quarantine tank and running it for a few weeks or month. I would put maybe 1 or 2 pieces of live rock at most and little or no sand. Having 3 sides of the tank painted black or covered with black background is best (it helps the fish stay calm and reduces stress, thus reducing its ability to contract diseases). Salinity should be very low compared to your display (1.015-1.020). My LFS uses 1.015ish. Ich and other parasites can't survive under low salinity and die off pretty rapidly. Furthermore, under low salinity your fish can breath more and won't have to fight for oxygen as much as it will in say 1.026 salinity. Also lighting should be low. You might not even need to add copper if you do all of the above. Some of the harder fish to keep like mandarins cannot even tolerate any amount of copper. However, if you do decide to quarantine a mandarin make sure you have live copepods to feed it.

I don't have a quarantine tank. What I normally do is drip acclimate everything I put into my tank. As long as it is introduced slowly over the period of an hour or two fish almost always successfully adapt without disease. There are some people that just believe in a QT beyond a doubt, and think that everyone should have and use them. I agree it wouldn't be bad having one setup in the case of emergencies, but regular addition of fish at least in my opinion should be introduced into your tank after drip acclimating.

My theory on ich and QT's:

Ich is a parasite that is always there, but most of the time remains hidden. You are trying to prevent outbreaks of it among your fish. So, you buy a fish from your LFS who has just received it from their distributor (meaning the distributor acclimated it, and then it was acclimated again once received at the LFS). You get the fish home and acclimate it to the QT. Leave it for a few days or a week. Then acclimate it to your display tank. The fish is having to adapt to 4 different environments in a relatively short period of time. If anyone has any sense, it seems hard to think that if the fish you just bought has no visual ailments or diseases then why QT it? You are just putting more stress on the fish. Plus even if you quarantine the fish and then get rid of whatever it has, what's to say when you acclimate it to your display it doesn't have an ich breakout again?

My bottom line, know your LFS and how they receive fish and acclimate them. Also how they deal with ich or other parasites in their store tanks. Don't buy any fish with any white spots or blotches.

Thu Jul 16, 2009 1:34 am GMT   Reply      

Thanks for all of the info. This is really helpful. So low-salinity is the way to go. I heard with ich it is best to raise the salinity. Will lowering it have the same effect? It sounds like lowering it is better if the fish are less stressed and can get oxygen.

Thu Jul 16, 2009 3:23 am GMT   Reply      

Raising the salinity makes parasites worse. They sort of "bloom" in high salinity. Parasites cannot live in low salinity. My LFS owner who has been in the business of selling saltwater fish and corals and tank cleaning services for 20 or so years said "the parasites just pop". I'm sure there's an exact scientific explanation, but if it's working for him and his 50 or so fish he had at the store that all had ich I would say low salinity (hypo-salinity) is the way to go.

Thu Jul 16, 2009 3:28 am GMT   Reply      

The bad thing is that corals need higher salinity, or rather thrive in higher salinity. Finding the perfect salinity for your corals to thrive and fish to live is the key. Most serious reefers use 1.026. This gives your water higher minerals provided by the salt mix you use, while still being liveable for fish. The person I bought my live rock from had it in a live rock only tank and the salinity was 1.031. There was more coralline algae in that tank than I've ever seen in my life! For fish only tanks 1.022-23 is probably the best (I am assuming, I haven't read up on perfect parameters for fish only setups).

Thu Jul 16, 2009 6:25 am GMT   Reply      

I have a small tank with some pvc pipe in it for hiding thats it. The more you have the harder it is to clean.
I have it in a room that gets little use. That keeps the stress down. I medicate with aquasonic tri sulfur tablets, as the dosage says on the bottle. I also dose raw crushed garlic daily, and feed a nutrious diet of mix seafoods and nori sheets from the shopping centre.

This is done for at least two weeks from when the last spot is gone.
I also suck the debris out with a hose daily. and change nearly all the water daily to keep Ammonia Nitrite and nitrate at 0 the better the water the less stress

I also get the new water up to temp as the tank water and also make sure the ph is the same., You can do this by adding small amounts of bi carb soda to raise the ph.

Also keep the salinity lower than usual. Approx 1.018 to 1.020 hyper salinity. People say you can go lower but not me.
Tri sulfate tablets can be used in reef systems without no coral or invert deaths, I HAVE DONE IT
But I would only medicate the whole tank if several fish get it or you cant catch the problem fish from the main tank.

Hope you fix it. one of my goals is to terminate ich from the world...LOL

Thu Jul 16, 2009 6:27 am GMT   Reply      

Jweb I have my SG at 1.028 29 30 depending on evaporation, and my corals and fish seem to love it

Thu Jul 16, 2009 9:15 am GMT   Reply      

yeah i pretty much killed my nem that way

Thu Jul 16, 2009 3:54 pm GMT   Reply      

that's pretty high sG. I believe you meant hypo-salinity rather than hyper-salinity, when you were referring to low salinity levels.