Cyanobacteria Control

Since I started the new 180 gallon reef I ended up like anyone else having issues with Cyano "Red Slime Algae" starting to accumulate in the tank.

Things you must remember is that even with pristine water conditions the Cyano bacteria can still bloom at times.  Definately it is a good idea to keep the Phosphate and Nitrates down to help but it also utilizes Carbon in the system.  There is nothing you can do to pull that back as all living things have Carbon.

What you can do is make the reef think a storm or overcast have moved in.  You can turn your lights off for 3 days as the Cyano loves light.  This will not harm the corals or fish.  The fish usually are a bit dormant but you should still feed them during this time.  Having your skimmer on skimming off the bacteria during the period is also preferable.  You can use a turkey baster to pull out the cyano also during this time and make sure you do not just blow it around the tank.  On the 4th day turn on the violet or blue lighting if you have separate bulbs.  Then the 5th day turn up the lights to normal.

You can do this once a month and after a few months of this you should see a decrease in the amount of Cyano that is in the tank.  Yeah it will probably return but if it does just follow the same procedure.  Good water flow in the tank is also a plus as the bacteria do not like water flow.

Hope this helps.

Tank Transfer Done

Today concludes the tank transfer of the fish every 72 hours.  They are now in my 90 gallon hospital tank where they will reside for 8 more weeks until they finally get placed into the main display tank.  This will give me time to get the water parameters perfect and the tank more established.  I will post the results if the cryptocaryon comes back or if I do not see evidence of it's presence.

Tank Tranfer Setup

Here is the list of materials for tank transfer photos at bottom.


x2 45 Gallon Wheeled Rugged Tote. Made by Centrax Plastics. (Rubbermade bowed too much when filled with water they were unusable. Purchased at Lowes Hardware.

x1 Plastic coated Metal Wire shelf

x2 Bottles of Seachem Stability

x1 Bottle of Seachem Prime

x1 Small Pump

x1 Airstone

x1 Backflow adapter (Prevents Siphoning back - (Bought at Petsmart)

x1 Small Airpump for Airstone (Bought at Petsmart)

x2 Pumps for circulation

x1 Small plastic container (Drilled holes in the bottom to use for transfer of fish instead of net.)

x1 Heater

x1 t5 light only using the blue full time due to heat.

Transferring Fish Now

Later today I am going to post full photos of all my cheap DIY setup for this.  I already have a post on some of it at Reefcentral.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2192025

Tank Transfer Tips and Chemicals

So Saturday technically today.  In the morning I will switch all the fish again to the cleaned out first container.  So I have found a few things to be successful with this.

1) Keep the heater in a high flow area and dial it down lower if it is in the summer.  Around 77 to 78 degrees.

2) Watch the PH.  This is critical especially when transferring the fish.  So the PH drops in my container to about 8.0.  I am adding some PH solution to bring it up to match the target water.  I used 2 capfuls and waited 30 mins.  I tested and added 2 more which brought it to 8.2.  The water in my transfer target tank is at 8.4.  I am waiting until morning because I do not want to shock the fish and I will probably need to add 4 more capfuls of the PH solution to where they are at to get the water to match.

3) Keep the salinity as close as you can. Water they are in is a little above 1.024 specific gravity.  The target tank is exactly 1.024 so going to a slightly lower is preferable than higher.

4) I have around 40 gallons they are in.  I am dosing around 4 to 6 capfuls of Seachem Stability daily.  I am also dosing half a capful daily of Seachem Prime.   All of these keep the dangerous toxins from harming the fish while they stay in the container.  Below is the list of products.

Brightwell Aquatics PH - http://www.marinedepot.com/Brightwell_Aquatics_pH%2B_Liquid_pH_Increaser_for_all_Marine_Aquaria_500ml_17oz_Liquid_pH_KH_Buffer_Additives_Supplements-Brightwell_Aquatics-BW01042-FIADPKLA-vi.html

Seachem Prime
http://www.marinedepot.com/Seachem_Laboratories_Prime_Tap_Water_Chlorine_Chloramine_Removers-Seachem-SC4435-FIADWTTCDC-vi.html

Seachem Stability
http://www.marinedepot.com/Seachem_Laboratories_Freshwater_and_Marine_Stability_Bacteria_Water_Treatments_Conditioners-Seachem-SC4485-FIADWTBS-vi.html

Change of Plans - Tank Transfer Method for Cryptocaryon

Well the copper caused two fish to stop eating.  Thus I made the decision to stop treatment.  There is no sign of the parasite visably.  However I suspect it not to be truly gone so today marks the 4th day of the tank transfer method I have now chosen to go with.  I transferred my fish into a large Centrex plastics container with a plastic coated wire shelf for the top.  Using 2 pumps, an airstone, heater, and PVC pipes for hiding spots they have been in this environment for 4 days and now get transferred to the new identical location for 3 more days.  The rubbermaid was just too flimsy and unusable once water was pumped in.  Here is the container you want to use.

http://www.lowes.com/pd_314131-61896-314131_4294936623__?productId=3098753&Ns=p_product_qty_sales_dollar%7C1&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNs%3Dp_product_qty_sales_dollar%7C1&facetInfo=

The tank transfer method was chosen because no medications are used and you transfer them from tank to tank every three days allowing the parasite cyst to drop off and the lifecycle is disrupted and cannot reinfect the fish because you move them.  Tomont cyst have a maximum of 7 days that they are attached so this will effectively rid your fish of parasites.  Here is the break down.

1. Day 1 - relocate fish within Tank 1.
2. Day 4 - after 3 days (72 hours) remove the fish from Tank 1 and place in Tank 2.  You hose out Tank 1 and allow it to completely dry for at least 24 hours.
3. Day 7 - after 3 days (72 hours) remove the fish from Tank 2 and place in Tank 1.  You hose out Tank 2 and allow it to completely dry for at least 24 hours.
4. Day 10 - after 3 days (72 hours) remove the fish from Tank 1 and place in Tank 2.  You hose out Tank 1 and allow it to completely dry for at least 24 hours
5. Day 13 - after 3 days (72 hours) remove the fish from Tank 2 and place in Tank 1 or relocate to their final destination.  NOTE:  If they came from a display tank originally you will need to let that tank be free of fish for 10 weeks to allow the parasite to die out.  Without fish hosts in the tank the parasite will die.

Copper/Cupramine Treatment for Cryptocaryon - Starts Today

Well today I started the cupramine copper product by Seachem - 7/9/2012.  The level tested after dosing was .25 following the instructions on the bottle.  I tested the copper with Seachem's copper test kit.  The kit unfortunately was damaged during shipping but there was enough left to test a few times thankfully.  I am going to wait 48 hours and dose another 1ml per 10.5 gallons of water. This should bring it up to the theroputeic level of .50.  Once there I will hold at that level for 21 to 28 days.  I will use carbon and cuprisorb which will pull the copper out of the water.  I will update on my progress so others in the hobby who are about to perform the same procedure have some reference.

Neptune Apex Graphing

Here is a graph pulled from the Apex controller via the built in web server.  The graph is showing the temp and pH readings.  You can see where I dosed the tank with pH buffer.  Well that was probably not the best thing to do I gave it a little to much but everything looks fine.  Ultamitely I would like to get it at 8.3 but I am going to let this sit for a few days.

Auto Top Off & Reef Computer

Here are photos of the ATO unit and the computer.  The computer is nice in the aspect that I can turn on and off various equipment like pumps, chiller, lights etc.  It also will display metrics and historical graphs of temp and pH.

Evolution LEDs & ATO

I just got my Evolution 200w LED fixtures.  I purchased two of them from Chris at ReefKoi.com and they are BRIGHT!  Two of those lights are plenty for SPS and clams I can tell and they are independently dimmable.  I will post some pictures soon.

I also have my auto top off unit installed that will top off fresh RODI water to the tank when it evaporates.  I need to finish up the hosing on it tomorrow.  More to come.

Beginner Tips for Marine Aquariums

I just wanted to take a few moments on some tips that I personally have learned with my experience in keeping marine life in a closed ecosystem.  These are not in the order of importance but things I have found to be helpful.

1) Heating and Cooling - I have made the mistake of trusting a $50 dollar heater to keep the reef at a equatorial temperature.  I would highly recommend the up front cost of a high end titanium heater and on the safe side a chiller.  The chiller and heater are more of a balancing act in case one of them goes bad.  Both should have a temperature setting and should shutoff at the desired target temp.

2) Quarantine Tank - It is my belief that if you are into this hobby it is a MUST to have a quarantine tank.  This will preferably be a bare tank with PVC pipes for cover.  This can serve as a location to treat sick inhabitants as well as keep specimens in a holding location after purchase.  You can then treat all new community members with Copper or Paraguard as well as keep corals in a location in case those too have parasite eggs or other enemies of your tank.  Anyone that does not recommend this to new hobbyists are doing the hobby and the new enthusiast a big disservice.  Mine does not have an established biofilter because of the medications used would depress or destroy the live rock and sand.

3) Tank Occupancy - Before you purchase your finned friends you need to research their possible maximum size for the tank.  You see too many marine beginners purchase a Pacific Blue "Dory" tang for their 30 or 50 gallon tank.  These animals can get up to a foot in length and it would be inhumane and irresponsible to place creatures in a location that you cannot take care of them.  In my opinion responsible choices for animals is a duty of humans as their benefactors.

4) Proper Nutrition - Many species of fish have certain requirements and feeding them a diet that they consume in the wild will help them to fight disease and strengthen their immune systems.  There are very good foods out their like Rod's Food and Selcon additives that can prevent diseases such as HLLE.

5) Tank Parameters - The following are recommended for the reef aquarium and should be monitored weekly to maintain a thriving tank.  Once you have consistent readings you can back off to every other week or whenever you perform your water change.

Nitrite - <0.2 ppm
Nitrates - <0.2 ppm
Ammonia - <0.1 : TOXIC
Phosphate - <0.03 ppm
Salinity - 35ppt or 1.026 (should be fine anywhere from 1.021 to 1.027 - Keep it consistent.
Alkalinity - 2.5 - 4 meq/L or 7-11 DKH
Temp - 76-83 F
pH - 8.1 to 8.3
Magnesium - 1250 to 1350 ppm
Calcium - 380 to 450 ppm

Medic - The Doctor is in the house.

We have the hospital tank setup with PVC shelter for the fish.  The cryptocaryon parasite does not like smooth surfaces when it drops off  to hatch.  We zip tied some PVC shapes to allow the fish to rest during the copper treatment.  I really just hope we do not lose fish during this as the copper is a poison to the fish.  A bit like chemotherapy where a toxin harms the patient some and the problem.  The copper test I purchased was garbage so I have a 2 day expedited delivery of a test by Seachem that will be much more reliable.

New JBJ Chiller

Since the heater wrecked my 90 gallon we invested in a JBJ titanium chiller the water can be set for a target temperature and will remain within one degree.  Here it is after my wife Kym installed it from behind the tank under our stairs.  She is very handy to say the least!

Clownfish Hosted by Bubbletip Anemone

Too bad these guys have to come out of the tank for treatment too.  They sure love their anemone.

Cryptocaryon Parasite

So after the setup I noticed my blue hippo tang showing signs of white dots and color bleaching of the black marking distinctive of the species.  After much research I have come to the conclusion that I need to contain the parasite crytocaryon irritans.  The parasite attacks the gills starving oxygen and also burrows deep into the fishes skin.  Scaleless fish such as tangs are extremely susceptible.  In the closed ecosystem of the reef aquarium this can become deadly quickly.  Three proven methods of eradicating the parasite are hyposalinity, copper, multiple tank transfers.

Here is my hippo tank with photos of Cryptocaryon or Marine Ich.  Photo is a bit hard to see but up close it looks like tiny grains of salt.  She is still eating and swimming but the only recourse I am resulting to is tearing all the rock out of the 180 gallon tank.  Netting them all and placing them into the 90 gallon bare tank and dose copper for 21 days with copper.  Then run the main tank without fish for 2 months so the parasite cannot reproduce and die.

New Tank Setup

Last week we setup our 180 gallon reef tank.  We moved from a 90 gallon that we had an unfortunate heater issue which decimated my tank and killed almost everything inside.  Here are a few photos of the new tank in place.