New marine tank using organics

I don't know why I am still sceptical about this because I can see it working in front of my eyes.

Set up the tank and stand - Rio 180 - on Monday 26th,put in the salt,filled with water and then the washed coral sand and left the internal (complete with media) and powerhead running.

Friday 30th went over to Aquarium solutions and got the live-rock from Dave along with 3 Damsels and a Red scooter blennie.
Got home, put the live-rock in then added the OrganicAQUA and about 3/4 of an hour later the fish went in.

Saturday 1st got an urchin, 2 cleaner shrimp and 2 peppermint shrimp.

Today all is well. Stock are very happy.Feeding with great enthusiasm and swimming around going about their business without a care in the world.

It is difficult to sit there looking at a new tank and not going over to it to test the water except to check salinity,temp and pH.

Water is clear though the crappy photos don't show it. I'll get better pics later and keep ye posted on it's progress.

Processor.

Will you continue to use Organic Aqua or will you phase it out over time.

I don't know Anthony.
If it's this easy then I am wondering why I would bother to change unless I will have to with a specific species or something like that but as far as I am aware it's good for the tank no matter what you have in it.

To me it is a good test as it's not only my time with organics but also my first time with a marine tank.

Processor.

I wonder would this OA product help to stabilise the water in smaller tanks, like my 100l?
Could help to cut down on water quickly fouling if you miss a water change etc?

Thanks for the update guppy i thought you fogot to keep the log
The tank looks well.keep us posted.What did the lfs say when you asked for fish and liverock together

Didihno good point. I didn't think of that and I remember the nightmare of my hospital/fry tank maturing. It is only about 15 litres but jaysus what a pain that was.
When the present fry are fit for the big tank I might clean it out and try with the organics. I'll post results here.

Pierce there was no problem getting rock and fish at the same time but Dave did advise for the more hardy for the first day but whatever you like the day after......This stuff is mad.

Processor.

Well 2 weeks in and no problems. All happy and eating well. One of the Damsel fish had some tissue damage just ahead of the dorsal fin on both sides of the body but after adding some of the organics health treatment it seems to be healing up quite well.

Still deciding on the rest of the stock with the exception of the mandatory Nemo,Marlin and Dory.

Processor.

I did not think you would get a Marlin into a Rio 180.



myfwc.com/marine/FishID/billblue.html

But the nice man in the shop said................. !

Well it's still working.


I have had problems though namely a Regal Tang with firstly a whitespot problem that then developed into a velvet problem. Nothing unusual for the Regal apparently to have ich but the treatment was Oodinex, temp increase to 30c(slowly) and salinity down to 1.020(slowly).
I presume the salinity decrease resulted in the death of 1x Cleaner shrimp and 1x Peppermint shrimp.
The first clown to die was Nemo (4 year old knew it wasn't Marlin as I had told him - he knew the difference between them for flip sake ??? ) as a result of an agressive Damsel and then Marlin - the real one this time - became a size zero and covered in velvet all within a day and a half and died the following day.

The tube worm is still alive but looks aenemic and anorexic (spelling) and the urchin looks like he is just back from a great stag weekend - or how I used to look most Monday mornings after a clatter of pints.

Royal Gramma semms to have the ich as he is flashing every so often but otherwise OK.

I know a lot of you don't agree with it but I gave the Tang a fresh water bath for 3 minutes and in fairness it took care of the visible velvet and didn't appear too stressed which I thought was strange in itself. The Gramma on the other hand was not impressed with the bath so I removed it after 30 seconds.Despite all this the tang is still behaving great and feeding with enthusiasm.

I know this only removes the parasite from the host and not the tank but if it gives the fish some relief it may help to build it's strenght up for the next onslaught.

Oh almost forgot....params are not an issue with the Organics as you can get false readings or as I understand it you will have high readings but the organics render the toxic gases/chemicals non-toxic. However Ammonia, Nitrite zero. Can't remember Nitrate (will check and get back to you) and phosphate 0.5 .

So currently 2 Damsels,2 shrimp,1 Gramma,1 Tang,1 urchin and one tube worm still alive and much as I would like to I don't think I can pin any of this trouble on the Oraganics.
Most likely just bad luck and part of my marine learning curve.

I want to restore salinity back to 1.025 and temp to 26c in the hope that the urchin and tube worm recover to full health as it has been this way for 8 - 10 days now and I'm worried they might be suffering as a result of what I am doing to help the others not to mention my wallet.....opinions very welcome.

Thanks for listening.

PS. Just see my little crab walking around the front as I type having not seen him in 3 or 4 days....ha ha he's not dead !

Also the agression in the Damsels seems to be ok know as the other fish are standing their ground and don't seem too bothered.

Sorry about the typing our 2 year old decided that Daddy does not need the letter 'o' on his keyboard...God only knows where it is.

Processor.

Keeping marine fish with inverts is hard unless you have a second tank/Quatine one, It would be almost better to sell the inverts back to the shop and always keep the salinity in the fish only system 1.020-1.020 the ansteaters live thousnads years ago in lowerer slainmity seea so by lowerer the salinity you lower the omosmotic stree on fish. keeeping 26C threat for white spot 8 days and if you buy any more fish, regarless if you can see any spots threat with meds for 4 days when first introduced.

P.S hermit crabs can take meds. most iverts prefer 1.025 and 24C
most fish 1.020 and 26C

Clown fish are reputedly quite hardy, but I have found them to be weaker than Tangs.
Re: fresh water baths, stick with them, 10 mins is what I aim for.
Oodinex should take care of the tank infestation while the fresh water instantly kills the fish borne ich.
Sorry to hear of your woes, its a real pain in the ar$e innit?!

Thanks for that Jack. I have lots of learning to do but am looking forward to it despite the set backs. Certainly a very different kettle of fish (ah jaysus sorry about that)to freshwater. Would I be acting the eejit by going for fish and inverts at 1.023 and 25c ?


Didihno I thought likewise but the Tang seems much hardier than the clowns in this case.
I could manage longer baths with the Tang but the Gramma....I dunno you should have seen the poor thing - literally like a fish out of water.

We'll keep at it and as they say don't let the ******** grind ya down.
Thanks lads.

Processor.

Thanks for the update processor ansd thanks for the helping in setting up my holding tank sorry to hear about your losses but as you said another lesson learned if i have to learn many more lessons the spca will be knocking on my door

Processor wrote:

Thanks for that Jack. I have lots of learning to do but am looking forward to it despite the set backs. Certainly a very different kettle of fish (ah jaysus sorry about that)to freshwater. Would I be acting the eejit by going for fish and inverts at 1.023 and 25c ?


.

No!, inverts are not as aptaptable as fish, if you have inverts firstly and most importantly you must have 40% of the fish stocking level which is a big downer,and the s.g and temp to must suit the inverts, I once worked in a commercial clown fish hactury, www.dynastymarine.net and they kept the fish without inverts at 27C and 1.020s.g and 14 hours of light and 10 hours of faint moon light., in fact the fish is more likely to spawn without a amnumone rather than at 24C and 1.025s.g and 12 hours of light!!

So is it one or the other ie. fish no inverts or inverts no fish.

I appreciate to do it right it would be this way but you know yourself we want everything these days. So what would be the best thing to do for a mix of both ?

Personally I could spend all day watching the rock and inverts xenia etc. but my wife wants fish so we must compromise as it's in the sitting room.

Processor.

Processor wrote:

So is it one or the other ie. fish no inverts or inverts no fish.

Processor.

No its.

1. Fish only
2. Invert only
3. Fish and invert if you have a spare tank to quarantine the fish before the go into the fish and invert tank.