Fishy's 37g Tank Build

FishyReef

FishyReef

Broke Reefer!
It's time to start a thread for my new semi-slow 37g build! I am far more nervous about this tank than either of my others because I intend for this to be a tank with breeding pairs and will be putting everyone through preventative quarantine, which scares the crap out of me LOL.

So far I have the stand and canopy - yup, that's it LOL. Oh, and I bought a pair of pink skunk clowns for it today too. I know, a little backwards since I don't even have the tank yet (well, I have *a* tank but plan to replace it). But I've had my eye on this pair for a month now and didn't want the LFS to sell them, so I bought them. The LFS will hold them for me for a week, and then I'll be putting them into a quarantine tank, where they will stay while the main tank is set up. I'm still trying to decide whether to do hyposalinity or copper - for those who have done quarantine tanks before, which do you prefer? Is one or the other easier on the fish with temperature swings in the tank? Do you use a sponge with nitrifying bacteria as some recommend, or not? All things I have to decide... I hope I'm knowledgeable enough at this point to not kill these fish in QT! Any advice for me as I begin this new journey?
 
Everything I have personally read on QTs is that hyposalinity is not an effective way. Copper-based medications are the only sure-fire way to kill any and all pathogens or diseases a fish may have.

I also saw a topic a few days ago where someone said they wouldn't even bothering doing QT if they weren't using copper to treat the fish.

That being said, I don't see why doing both would be a problem. I've never read about anyone doing this or seen it, but I don't see why it would be a bad thing.
 
cvcdrk said:
Everything I have personally read on QTs is that hyposalinity is not an effective way. Copper-based medications are the only sure-fire way to kill any and all pathogens or diseases a fish may have.

I also saw a topic a few days ago where someone said they wouldn't even bothering doing QT if they weren't using copper to treat the fish.

That being said, I don't see why doing both would be a problem. I've never read about anyone doing this or seen it, but I don't see why it would be a bad thing.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I am leaning towards doing copper, because it will kill ich as well as other organisms, but I think hypo will only kill ich. The only reason I was thinking hypo is because the pink skunk can live in brackish water, so I think the hypo would be less stressful for the pink skunk than it is for other fish. But I think copper is probably the way I will go....
 
Hypo will kill anything that needs to live in at a specific SG, which could be a wide variety of parasite and other organisms. But some things could escape through, which is why I would use copper.
 
Im not sure fishy, ive been looking around though and it seems you can. I just didnt know if they were like tomatoes or not.
 
So it sounds like copper is the way to go, which is how I was leaning anyway! Thank you!

I think I'll seed a sponge with bacteria in my sump this week - any idea how big of a sponge should I get for a 10g? And will a 250g powerhead be okay, or is that too much flow w/o any rocks or anything other than a piece of pvc?
 
Kelz88 said:
Im not sure fishy, ive been looking around though and it seems you can. I just didnt know if they were like tomatoes or not.
Click to expand...

Tomatoes are sensitive to copper? I didn't know that. Interesting. I haven't seen anything to suggest pink clowns are, but if tomatoes are I should probably do more digging...
 
Picked up my pink skunks today and they are now in their QT home for the next several weeks. They're already hosting the bright red rubber goniopora that I picked up from petco - so silly but they feel safe in it so that's what matters!

I'll post some pics of them in the next few days. Not actually starting treatment on them for a few more days - waiting for meds, ammonia alert, a heater (not that we need it right now), Dr. Tims, and a decent powerhead to arrive from DFS monday. In the mean time I'm listening to the maxi-jet gurgle and hum away.

Wish us luck through this process!
 
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I demand pics now! I want to see them in the silly plastic coral :)


And i personally wouldnt ever start doing a treatment until I got fish eating in the QT, the treatments are hard on their bodies too so you want to make sure they have all the tools they need to get through it!
 
Shitty weekend (for many reasons). To top it off, came home after being away all weekend to find my female pink skunk clown dead. I hadn't even started treatment in the QT yet. I think she got too cold - it's been so hot that I hadn't put a heater in the QT yet, and this weekend must have been cold while I was away because the temp in the tank dropped to 74 (from 78). I've temporarily moved the male to my 10g. Not sure what I'm going to do now. Options are to return him to the store, move him to my 90 permanently, or move him back to the QT and acquire another either known female or smaller fish and let him become female. I'm leaning towards the first option for financial reasons. It might be much better if I just hold off and pay off some debt before starting up this 37g. I've also had enough problems with the domino clowns in my 90g trying to host coral, and this guy was hosting plastic corals in a matter of days that I don't think I'll be able to keep him away from the corals in my 90. Such a sucky outcome to my first attempt at setting up a breeding tank :(
 
Looks like the purple firefish in my 10g is on its way out too :( Just fed the fish and it didn't come out to eat. Located it with a flashlight under a rock and it looks like its breathing heavily. Such a crappy weekend :(
 

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