gradth Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 Bad crap stops happening and this hobby gets a little less fustrating? I realize theres ups and downs in any thing. I also realize the more mature your tank gets the easier it gets. As I approach my first year of my salt water obcession once again it all goes to hell. My new 180 has been going well, my fish were all healthy and fat. The few polyp type corals I have are thriving and growing like mad. Last month I beat the cyno finally. Then the hair algae came and that has been a battle. Thanks to some advice and hand me down urchin(thanks Dennis) Im fighting that battle. Well after properly QTing all my fish and learning that one the hard way I had my half black tang come down with Ich for no apparent reason and just die. Not much warning. Then I saw some spots on my eibli mimic tang and only after a day of trying to get him out and into qt he bought the farm. Again, both fish were qt'd and nothing has been added in quite a while. Now my Kole has spots but he is impossible to catch. Im also worried about my hippo tang just because she is my oldest and the kids favorite fish. But I cannot get the buggers out of the tank. Aside from removing 180lbs of rock I cant seem to entice them out of there holes. Im frustrated, pissy and really hoping that at some point things get easier. I have done as much as finacially possible to do things the best I can. Thanks for listening, sorry had to vent a bit. Came home from work to spend about 4 hours trying in vain to get the fish out and scrubbing about 100lbs of rock(that I can actually get out fairly easily) of hair algae. :eek: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
madmike Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 1 word....no J/K. I think a tank eventually reaches an equillibrium if we ever stop messing with it...but i find that hard to do and haven't been able to reach that point yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smann Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 Been there, after 2 years ready to give up. Almost exactly the same, hang in there. (180g- 8 years now) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lancecobb1 Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 I Dont have very much expierence at this stuff but, when your in the tank trying to catch the fish and clean the algae it could be causing added stress. I think stress can cause ick. I had alot of spots on my purple tang when I first got it in my tank and i mixed kent garlic with the food and they were gone in a few days, and havnt seen and spots since. Maybe we can get some more Imput? Lance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COReefer Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 make sure you are feeding your tangs adequately! They are big eaters and need much more food than most fish to survive. Lack of food will make their immune systems do bad things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 Things will go bad occationally. I went around and around with ick for a year. Finally licked it. Keep your fish happy and healthy. Feed vitamins on your food. Boyds vitachem is great stuff. Keeps the imune system up. There is fish traps that the lfs will loan you. I know seahorse has one. It has a fishing line that you hold till the fish enters the trap to eat the nori on a clipp then its trapped when you let the door down. Worked for me within 15 min. You will stress out your fish way to much chassing them for 4 hours...they are bound to get a outbreak just from that stress. Plus you get pissed and frustrated trying to catch a fish with hundreds of nooks to hide in. Trust me...call woody at seahorse and ask him for his trap to borrow. Things will get better. My tank has been ick free for over 4 years. I dont add fish much as mine all are healthy and havent died...knock on wood. The last bad bad thing I had was when I painted and forgot to unplug the skimmer. Everything was sick. All the corals expelled their algae. But I learned and that wont happen again. If I can help you with anything ley me know. I am in Vancouver also. Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cannedmulder Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 I fully understand. I have had my favorite fish kick the bucket, and I have cried over them as COReefer can tell you, but can never figure out why..... You just try to do what you can to keep them healthy and happy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jay Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 make sure you are feeding your tangs adequately! They are big eaters and need much more food than most fish to survive. Lack of food will make their immune systems do bad things. We were responding at the same time again...great minds think alike huh... What are there 6 people in this thread right now.....Go to bed everyone its 10:00 ...hehehe Jay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
COReefer Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 Ha they must. (don't let my wife see this as she will debunk the "great minds theory" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fly guy Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 no it is a endless series of unfortunate events and will never change until everything is perfect and then you kill everything....repeat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reef165 Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 Hang in there! There is never a point that you know everything abought the hobby but as you go there is less you dont know and it dose help, wont be long when you can look at your tank and know somethings not right and run all the tests you have insted of just the ones you usualy do, and you will know what to do from there! What I have found is allot of conflicting answers, the truth is there are no right ones, every fish is an indavidual and every tank has its own answers, and the longer you have your tank the better you will be at diagnosing it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadowlu Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 I know how you feel about battling ich all too well. I lost 3 of my favorite fish to it, and now taking the plunge of setting up additional tanks to run copper and leave mine empty for 6 weeks. Even now with the bumps in the road I have with my tank I still sit there for hours watching my fish and be amazed by them (except for the time my 2 snowflake eels decided to fight and one grabbed the other by the body and flung it to the other side). Rabbitfish do a good job of cleaning algae as well. My One Spot Foxface cleaned the forest of bryopsis my friend had in his tank, and his tangs started to eat it after they saw my Foxface eating it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rick Posted June 25, 2009 Share Posted June 25, 2009 I'm just crossing my fingers. Going on close to 4 months with nothing too big. I do suspect I may have Monti Eating Nudis right now so no Montis are going into the display tank. I think they may have come from a small purple monti frag from one of the LFS but I'm not sure. I'm not having good luck in general with SPS either but the other corals seem like they are doing well. Not too bad at this point I don't think though. I'm going to avoid the Montis and any other SPS for awhile and look into upgrading to either 250 or 400 watt lights before I try them again. I.E. I'll stick to what seems to be working for now and then slowly try the harder stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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