Upgrading to a new tank - the adventure begins ;)

Ok so after these few hot days where temperatures reached 28+ in the tank I finally got the chiller.

So far so good, it is big, and noisy but I dont care since I am only going to use it during those hot days in summer!

I need to find a proper spot for it but for the moment I will leave it there!

On a side note fish are doing ok, at least the big ones, no signs of sickness etc. Some of the SPS have taken a bit of a hit with all those temperature issues, I think it was not so much the high temperatures but the fluctuations going from 25 to 28+ every day.... Hopefully the chiller will fix this (or at least it should)...

How much was it ? I see them on all pond solutions website from 399 to 599 stering

Hi Robert

This one was around 360 pounds so apprx 410 euro.

Its powerful enough to lower the temperaute 5 degrees for ~600/700 liters which is more or less my tank size.

My tank should not get hotter than 32 degrees without a chiller so - 5 this means 27 degrees, worst case scenario (hopefully).

If I see it is not enough I would need to buy a bigger one but this thing is big and noisy enough (like a fridge).

This warm weather is giving a lot of people problems , i upgrated the air stones in my tank in the last couple of days and am leaving the lights off , have also added a second fountain to the pond , .

How big is your pond Robert?

Small just 600 gallons

For 600 gallos or around 2200 liters you can get a similar chiller than mine just the bigger (2200 w).

It can lower the temperature 10 degrees on a 1100 liters aquarium and around 5 in a 2200 liters so you will probably be able to cool it down up to 5 degrees which is more than enough IMO.

They are not cheap though! probably around 800 euro.

Is the chiller not blowing out hot air????making the room hotter???is there any way to install it on the balcony where it could get cooler air ???

Don't know much about chillers.only what I've seen on YouTube...those are just ideas.

Hey Chris

You can install it anywhere you like as long as is not exposed to the elements, such as sun, rain etc.

The back of the chiller expels hot air, but not enough to heat up the room (at least not anymore than it already is). It is not extremely hot but hot enough. Like a cars exhaust on idle maybe?

The noise would be more of an issue, it is like a compressor when running. Good thing is that once the desired temperature is reached it barely runs, maybe once every 1 hour or 2.

It took 2 hours to bring the entire tank temperature down 2 degrees. Now it has stopped and it is stable at 25.2 which is more or less what I want at the minute (might lower it to 24 after summer although it will probably be removed during non summer periods).

As I said, I put it there mostly so when I go away I dont have to worry much about the temperature getting out of control. My apartment can get up to high 30s during summer if all the windows are closed. I found a lock that allows me to leave the windows and balcony door open (just a crack) which helps a lot with the temperature it barely went over 32 during these hot days. The tank reached 28.9 while I was in the house during the day, I was able to bring it down to 27.7 during the evening and down to 25 during the night, but this is not good for the fish and mostly corals.

So the chiller should be able to handle this fluctuations.

Normally fans do the trick but in this case, fans are pretty much only capable of slowing the process.. not stopping it.

If its anything like the air con unit in our spanish appartment its extremly noisey and pushes out a lot of hot air as well as being costly to run , hense we dont use it very much

I will record a video so you can all see it.

My parents are in Ireland this week so myself and the wife are sleeping with the fishes now in the living room.

Last night was fine, the compressor kicked in a few times for like 30 seconds - 1 minute and then it switched off (maybe kicks in every 20-30 minutes or so).

Still didint bother us and we slept well, even the wife seems happy and she is very picky.

Heat wise well as it only runs for like 1 minute its not a problem, you can't really notice it. So if this is the price I have to pay to stop temperatures going over 28 degrees I am ok with it.

I would have liked to see it in action during those really hot days though, that would have been a good test

Those AA units (specially if it is old) are much more powerful than this one, they range from 3000-5000 watts, mine is only 750w and as it doesnt run constantly costs should be low (hopefully).

Ok guys sorry for not updating you recently but I have been very busy with work.

So bad news, I have a white spot outbreak. All my tangs have been infected. I think they got stressed since I stopped feeding them so regularly but I can't tell for certain. I just noticed this today when I got home.

So far is not too bad but I think this is only teh beginning. Not sure whats the best way to proceed, I dont think I can isolate the fish since they are very hard to catch. I will have to wait for tomorrow and get a fish trap to at least try to get a few out and prepare the 100 l tank as a quarantine tank.

Any suggestions?

I would immediately start feeding them New Life Spectrum Thera A (with garlic) I swear by it for helping to eliminate parasites like white spot....Its probably the best food that can be fed to sick fish and healthy ones as well for that matter....I have no idea how to treat whitespot in a Marine Aquarium but I know for a fact that this food will help....Parasites (both internal and external) hate the stuff...

Thanks gun

You are right, I am almost certain that ich took over as soon as I stop feeding garlic/pellets. I have updose this again, I believe like you said, that food is really important now.

I have lowered the temperature as well to reduce the life cycle until I can start treating the infection, I dont want to speed it up at the minute. This is a good idea in marine tanks, not so much in freshwater!

I will lower the salinity as well slowly. I am gonna prepare a quarantine tank but I fear I wont be able to catch all fish, if this is the case I might pull out the corals and inverts I can catch and treat the DT.

There is a treatment is for sale in Seahorse called Polyplab White Spot Treatment, it seems to be reef safe which will allow me to treat the fish and everything directly in the DT. I will investigate tomorrow.

For the time being there is not much more I can do, increase feeding/quality and lower the temperature until I start the treatment.

I have fed new lifespectrum in my tropical tanks for nearly two years and never had an outbreak of white spot , it is quite expensive but protien levels are high so dont need to feed too much

Yes I understand.

I normally feed frozen mysis covered in garlic and vitamins. Also marine grazers and occasionally NLS.

I think I am gonna start adding more variation even. I am also thinking of getting rid of one of the tangs, I think I have too many of them. The problem is that none of them seem to be aggressive towards each other but I dont want to have to worry about ich 1 year from now (that's if I can get rid off this one first!)

If it is ich you should be seeing it on the other fish too....not just the tangs....shouldn't you????no point dosing the tank if its not ich....

Do you feed seaweed at all???I feed my tangs loads of it and apart from the odd scuffle they generally all get along....a nice full belly really cuts down the tangs aggression.. I'd prefer seaweed over pellets just cause its closer to the tangs natural food source..

Any shrimps and wrasses in the tank???there generally Good for keeping parasites at bay.

Yeah, I know what you mean but it def looks like ich.It will normally attack the more susceptible fish then move to the rest.

The hippo is the one that is worse, has maybe 10-15 spots, achilles is second. Its not completely covered yet so I must have caught it at an early stage. I am sure it will affect the others at some stage although this doesnt need to happen necessarily (or so I have heard).

Anyway hopefully I will be able to treat the fish in the DT, catching them all will be a problem I am sure of it.

Might be easier to remove all the corals and inverts and quarantine them instead!

Might be wrong, but I thought ozone was a good treatment and preventative for it?

Hi Hammie

Ozone is a good preventative measure as well as UV, I didnt want to use Ozone yet since there are risks involved with it, also the tank is fairly new so I though that, if needed, I could introduce it at a later stage.

Might be worth having a look anyway.

I was just wondering, how has your ich clearance going?
Hope everything has survived the treatment.

Hey

Well is all going, not sure if well or not. So far none of the fish have died. Some of them look worse than others,, specially the achilles and the hippo. When I say worse I mean they have a few random spots here and there, tiny ones specially the achilles, the hippo had a few big ones before the treatment, now they are all gone.

The hippo is a very strong fish so I think he might be ok but the achilles well, they are known to be quite weak in that aspect.

The treatment will go on for a minimum of 10 days to a max of 20 (I Am planning of doing the 20 days treatment) .Polyplab only treats the parasite once it has left the fish, while it is in its free swimming stage, so technically I should not be seeing new big spots in the fish. Most if not all of them are gone. As you probably know the second stage of the parasite is when it leaves the fish for the first time, people tend to stop the treatment at this stage thinking its all done but this is when polyplab comes to place and it is also the most important moment since you need to make sure you keep treating the fish for at least another week and a half.

Some fish look perfect such as the blenny, clowns, wrase and the purple and sailfin tang, even the black looks okish.

I fear some might not make it but it is too early to tell for now, so far, none of them are swimming weird or scratching against the rocks etc... and they are all quite hungry

As a matter of interst are you feed garlic to all tankmates to help boost up their immune system to better fight it off?

Hiya

I feed them frozen mysis shrimp and brines (mix) among other frozen food dipped in garlic and vitamins for a few hours 3 times a day, midday I include marine grazer and algae sheets, both with garlic as well.

I def think what you feed makes a huge difference

I feed the mysis brine and sometimes I add prawn in as well, tangs will get to love the prawn and it is very nutritious for all fish. I do a mix of 5 mysis cubes 6 brine coral food and once a week add prawn. Lasts 2 days in fridge.

I also give the tank flake and grazers but none of mine ever like nori. They are always grazing on rocks tho so I'm not too pushed, think I'll get and start growing algae in the sump and feed them that too.

I soak mine in garlic as well and haven't had an outbreak of anything.

Mines love nori, they love anything tbh. I do feed them flakes every now and then. But mostly what I said.

There is very little algae in my rocks at the moment since I lowered the lighting hence why I feed so much.

There is absolutely no aggression (that I can see) in the tank, the stress/ich must have come from a week were feeding wasnt as constant as I was away.

Ich is all about your fish, unfortunately the achilles is very sensitive to ich, he could have been the carrier, I know my hippo and sailfin never had ich since they have been with me for many years. So it was either the achilles (most likely) or the purple, black tang. Hard to say. I blame the achilles. Hopefully I will be able to erradicate ich from that tank but I still think I should get rid of one of them, not sure which one, probably the achilles, they are very small now but when they grow he might not be so comfortable in the tank.

Another thing that could have caused the stress was a change in the water conditions (KH) but I really dont know. We will see what happens within the next 2-3 weeks.

Ok so I thought I might as well give you guys a little update. All the fish are doing fine, still alive and happy. Very little aggression between them, the only thing I noticed is that everyone hates my purple tang, not sure why since he is a very nice little chap but he gets a nibble every now and then, but nothing to worry about.

The achilles is the only tang who does not show aggression or is shown aggression against, he is just always happy swimming around the tank. However, he still has a couple of spots that come and go every now and then. All the other fish are fine, I had to stop using polylab after 6 weeks of dosing since I was way over my dosing time but so far the outbreak hasn't ocurred again, yet. I am keeping a close look just in case.

In regards additions to the tank since I was thinking of moving the fish to a quarantine tank (in case I couldnt treat the ich attack) I asked Bart to build me a quarantine tank and stand. The idea was to put the ATU inside the stand and under the quarantine tank, however, since I dont really need a big ATU and I can fit a decent size ATU inside the aquarium cabinet (I only refill it every 4-7 days) I decided to put the chiller inside the cabinet (the chiller is off atm). It fits very well.

The stand has a little shelf that pop out (similar to those computer desk) that allows me to put stuff on top when I am feeding or doing water testing, also has a place for storage on the right side.

The tank is doing well, I have done very little maintenance to the tank, only a 10% water change every 2 or 3 weeks. Feeding a lot at the moment to keep the fish immune system in check. No algae outbreaks either, tank looks fine as such and fish are always very active and hungry. Here is them eating some nori.

There is once thing that is worth noting, a couple of months ago the tank started to get covered by some sort of thick black algae, by thick I mean hard to remove, I couldnt remove it with a brush, so I left it hoping it would be some sort of black coraline algae.

So now, a few months later, I notice that the black algae is slowly turning purple which is excellent news, the tank has been up for about 6 months, and although is not yet mature (still another 6 months to go probably) I was hoping to see some major coraline algae growth apprx at this stage. The black algae is covering 70% of the tank rock, see below a picture of the back of the aquarium

And here is a picture of one of the rocks, notice how it is slowly starting to develop purple patches around the black areas

And that's about it! hopefully the tank will be covered in purple coraline within a few months, patience now, no more fish or corals at least until after xmas, well, maybe a couple of softies

Oh, the algae scrubber should be here soon (hopefully) can't wait to install it and see it working!

Great thread really enjoyed reading it and seeing your progress. Love the hi-etc nature of this tank, gives the owner more time to enjoy the fruits of you labour but I am guessing there is still always something to be done.
Hope you get your itch problem sorted as you fish selection is out standing.

Looking forward to the next instalment

Hey Gerry

Tank is doing great at the moment, I literally only feed the fish, clean the skimmer every 2-3 weeks and to water changes every month or so (and wipe the glass of algae), thats pretty much it, everything else is automated.

Problem is that there is really nothing more to do, so I am kind of considering well... better not say it.

New project:whistle: