jm23's 265 gallon mixed reef build

jm23 said:
Here is an updated FTS (daylights):

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It might look a little different then when I last posted, well that is because I made Brett (bennyblanco) an offer for all his livestock due to his upcoming move. I must say that Brett had a beautiful tank and I am getting to enjoy all his hard work over the years, so thanks Brett I love looking at my tank so much more now. I have had to more then triple my Alk and Cal dosing since putting all Brett's huge colonies in the tank. A few other updates too, I just got 3 Hawaiian flame wrasses and 2 Potters wrasses from PIA. Sadly one of the Potters had perished or so I believe, due to him laying on his side yesterday and not being found today, but the other one is eating frozen and doing great. Smitty's Orange back wrasse has made a great addition to the tank as well. All seems to be doing well and adjusting to the all the new additions, now I just need some people to come over and help clear my frag tank up so I can pay for all this stuff I just bought...
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Hi Jon! The tank looks great! I'm so glad my livestock went into caring hands! How is everyone doing? Trooper(royal gramma) doing okay? If anyone is looking for frags get together with Jon...he's a great guy!

Thanks again!
Brett

Now back to packing...
 
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well it finally happened, ICH! I had quarantined all my fish using the tank transfer method, but I think it came in on a frag (as I have bought quite a few lately). I know some people say that you can't have an ich free tank, but from my readings it seems possible. I know some people say if you have healthy fish that they can beat ich. It seems that my recent addition of rock, coral, and fish have put my fish over the edge. I added garlic to their food and fed them heavily thinking that they could all beat it, but one by one I started losing fish :censored:. The only way to make sure no more fish would die was to quarantine all the fish and let the tank fallow. The problem was I have a 265 gallon tank, full or rocks and corals, and I had no desire to destroy my rockwork and the PIA it would be to find somewhere to put it all and then restructure everything again. Well yesterday was the last straw for me when I came home and found 4 more fish dead :frusty:

I was able to borrow a fish trap, which worked wonders for most of the fish. I won't say it was fun per se, but it did get the heart racing when a fish went in the trap and I had to sneak up to the tank and close it. I also made a barrier of eggcrate with mesh over it to split the tank in two. I would lure the fish to the side without most of the rock and then slip the barrier in between. Worked like a charm for the most part. Now I am left with 1 hippo, 1 potters, 2 chromis, 3 anthias left in the tank who are all scared to death from all the recent activity. Any other ideas to lure them out or just give it time?

I must say this has been draining and I am really sad about the losses I have had, but after this quarantine I should be good to go with the fish. I guess from now on if I want to buy/trade any more corals I will have to wait till I have a QT up and running. The wife agrees that I don't need anymore corals, but you all know how that goes. Sorry for being long-winded.Here are 2 top down pics (forgot to take a shot of the right side for some reason):
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Sorry to hear about the crypto! I often wondered about it catching a ride on corals. The aqua medic fish trap is a life saver, right? I left mine in the tank for a few days, and it became my Tang's favorite hang out, baited or not. I know your situation was time sensitive though. Almost have to quarantine your coral in a fallow system, before adding it to the DT with fish!

P.S. Wow, your tank is amazing!
 
Thanks Joe. Yeah without that fish trap I think I would have to tear apart the rockwork (I still might). Yeah that is what I am going to have to do with any future purchases is put them in a QT and let if go fallow, so it will be awhile before I make any purchases. The nice thing is that when this is all over I can confidently tell people that my tank is ich free (which some don't care about, but others definitely do).
 
jm23 said:
Thanks Joe. Yeah without that fish trap I think I would have to tear apart the rockwork (I still might). Yeah that is what I am going to have to do with any future purchases is put them in a QT and let if go fallow, so it will be awhile before I make any purchases. The nice thing is that when this is all over I can confidently tell people that my tank is ich free (which some don't care about, but others definitely do).
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Your tank is amazingly beautiful .. please work around with out tearing it apart .. its more work that we think (tearing up a tank and getting the same awe out of it again)
 
nice tank man . sorry about the fish being sick . good luck. u can go fallow but will get back in u tank eventually . good luck hope it works out for u
 
Well my tank is officially fish-less. The hippo tang was the last one to hold out, I honestly thought I was going to have to break the rock apart to get her. Thankfully I was able to get her to the far side of the tank and stick the barrier in between and net her. So start the clock, 10 weeks of no fish in the tanks. Wish me luck with the QT as that many fish will be quite the bioload to keep up with for the next 10 weeks.
 
jm23 said:
Well my tank is officially fish-less. The hippo tang was the last one to hold out, I honestly thought I was going to have to break the rock apart to get her. Thankfully I was able to get her to the far side of the tank and stick the barrier in between and net her. So start the clock, 10 weeks of no fish in the tanks. Wish me luck with the QT as that many fish will be quite the bioload to keep up with for the next 10 weeks.
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Ugh... that doesn't sound fun at all. Good luck!
 
Well I lost 3 more fish today, this sucks. Two of the losses were not a shock as they were covered in ich, the third (lyretail anthias) was a surprise though. I know copper can be tough on certain fish, I wonder if hypo is hard for some fish as well. I just hope I have no more losses, I really can't take much more. Any suggestions on hypo would be appreciated, I think I am doing it right, but who knows.
 
Well the final count (knock on wood) for fish I lost is 10. I lost the last 4 during the first couple days in QT. The rest seem to be adjusting well to the QT though so hopefully no more losses. I ordered a 100 gallon rubbermaid stock tank that should be here by the end of next week (zorotools for $70 with coupon code) which I will transfer all the fish to in order to give them some more room and so they can't see the foot traffic through the room.

Today I picked up a PBT, a neon goby, a lubbocks wrasse, and a starry blenny. The starry will be going in the frag tank to help with the algae. I only need to replace my 2 anthias that I lost (probably with 4 more anthias) and get a nice pest eating wrasse for the frag tank (I think a Dusky Wrasse would be nice) and I think I am fully stocked.
 
Almost 6 weeks in to fallow for my DT, I am excited to get these fish back in the tank (getting close). I got a new toy in the mail today, one of those look-down acrylic boxes from Melev's Reef for my camera. Here are some quick photos I took, what a difference this has made. Now I just need a better camera, mine is 8 years old now.

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