Krux

After getting a chance to talk to @LavenderTi and a few others about quarantine practices, I was inspired to look at my own process.  My plan was to stop "rolling the dice" and actually get serious about mid-term housing for fish and corals, and I thought this might be a good topic for discussion.

Currently I dip corals in Polyp Labs Reef Primer, I like this as it is in little pre-measured bottles so mixing it up is easy.  For smoothies I use a light lugol's solution (30 drops instead of 40).  For fish I have been using Safety-stop which is a two step formalyn and methylene product.

Really though, I have no excuse not to set up a couple of 10-20 gallon tanks with basic filtration and lighting to allow for a longer quarantine period.  After doing some reading and video watching, I have a concept of how to simply implement separate coral and fish quarantine systems in my home, but I was hoping to learn from all of you what your processes and setups look like if you have a more robust system.  I really liked the write up and parts list that @obrien.david.j put together, and thought producing a similar super basic setup that most people could follow for a basic quarantine process could be of value to a lot of folks.

I saw first hand the insane damage an infection can wreak in just a week in another member's tank, and I don't want to experience that myself, nor see any other reefers go through it.

If people choose not to quarantine that is on them, but I think we can carefully remove the informational barriers if we group think this!  The news of a new acro eating nudi make me more than a little nervous in trading corals...

What are your systems, your process, your reasons, your excuses, and your experience with supermax housing for your reef?

23 minutes ago, obrien.david.j said:

Would you mind publishing the direct link to the builder, so people can get their directly/easier.  (to support the builder)

 

Certainly!

https://www.aqualifestudio.com/product-page/extension-for-ecotech-marine-vortech-mp10-40-quietdrive-pumps

Here is the extension cable for MP10/MP40 if it helps consolidate all of the drivers into one place for easier emergency power.  The company making them is Aqua Life Studio and they have a good video on how to make the connection.  This is also helpful for wire routing through control boards as the drivers are attached on the smaller models.  You can also find them on Amazon, but I prefer to shop with the builder whenever possible

Thanks again for the demo, I have been wanting to build a larger battery bank for emergencies and a visual walkthrough of the project is helpful.

We need to breathe less at meetings it seems.

My record in the basement when entertaining was 3400, everyone had headaches and we were starting to fall asleep during board game day.  Not bad for 5 people over about 6 hours!

This is an exceptional price, someone should take note of this!

calculating travel time so as not to miss the football game...

First shipments arrive tomorrow!

Looking forward to the first stock coming in from Fiji after a multi-year ban.  What is everyone hoping to see again, anyone have any old favorites?  I used to love my Fiji yellow leather, but don't really do softies any more - and Fiji is the land of softies.  Some of the old caroliniana and loripes have my name on them... 

I don't have any experience with LPS, but did you follow the multi day cipro dosing schedule, or did you just hit it once?

This is pretty much to the standard regimen at this point, as advised by Aquabiomics:

I used Ciprofloxacin at 0.125 mg / L. To achieve this I dissolved a 500 mg pill in 50 ml of RODI water, producing a 10 mg / ml solution (which I subsequently stored in the fridge). The aquarium system has 70 gal volume altogether (~265 L), so I added 3.3 ml of this solution to achieve 0.125 mg / L. I repeated this dose every 2 days for 3 doses altogether.

If I was a Lions fan I would not admit it publicly 😛

Bodianus sepiacaudus Pacific Redstripe Hogfish.

Dr. Seuss is a soapfish, I believe they diverge at the order level, though indeed similarly formed.

Ok, progress!

After spending the morning replacing the plumbing under the kitchen sink to fix a slow leak that has been plaguing us for a decade, it was off to the hardware store.

My initial plan was to replace all of the WB plumbing right from the connectors and I ordered a complete set of metric to imperial unions.  On closer inspection, the return line did not leave any room to cut off the piping below the union so I left a small section of soft tubing creating an excuse for anti-vibration for myself, and plumbed it from there.  Ran 1/2” short on 1” pvc so bridged the gap with a spare union… thug life.  Also added the OEM dual manifold for any future connections for UV or my Paxbellum algae reactor if I ever decide to bring it online again.

The next challenge was that I needed the main drain to go all the way left, and needed the emergency overflow to run forward into the main sump.  There is a weir that the stock design runs both into that overflows into the filter sock chamber.  With a filter roller this path can not be used, so the plumbing gets rerouted.  
 

The only real issue is that the drains are backwards - the main drain is in the middle and the overflow is on the left.  The solution was creative use of 45 degree elbows and ugly pipe runs.  At some point I will redo these in sch 80 pvc but I was tired of waiting.  These both required the metric to imperial unions.

The last piece was connecting the drain to the roller mat.  I found it helpful on the last tank to have this run be flexible as you need to take it out for thorough cleaning.  A short run of silicone tubing and it was as good to go.  Chose to use this section for the drip from 1.25” to 1” which is what the Clarisea prefers.

The rest of the night was reserved for moving over the rest of the coral and fish, but I am seeing a couple more pieces starting to slowly lose tissue, I want to give everything another week before stressing everyone out with a move.  Barring an emergency next weekend, I think I am one good workday away from consolidating back down to one tank.

Please enjoy Pepper.

TTFN

WHY ME!?!??!

Aforementioned tow truck

It is the same bus.  

A tow truck spent 6 hours trying to get it free overnight, at one point snapping a very thick tow cable trying to use the power pole as a pulley.  They were able to get it back on the road, but then the rear of the bus slid back off into the culvert.

loud cable snap, glad the driver was operating it from inside the cab… it thwacked the back of the truck with full force.

my wife reports they finally freed the bus around 330 this afternoon 

8 hours ago, obrien.david.j said:

Great photo.

 

 

Thank you.  As it turn out, one of my neighbors must have taken a photo this morning in the light - my front yard made it on the Portland subreddit!

whelp, it is icy in my front yard…

23 minutes ago, talkalot82 said:

Bucket living. 

This will be the hot new Tiktok trend

Roads are looking to be unsafe starting around 1pm

Jeff has been soloing it for a few days without closure, if he is there and you swoop in remember to bring him treats or coffee!

Power was restored this morning right on the nose for a 70 hour blackout.  I rewired the furnace and brought up the rest of the equipment on the tanks so I now have monitoring and full water movement again.  Things looked ok today, but I left for work after about an hour of power running.  Hopefully when I get home I don't find myself with a sweet hydrogen sulfide bomb and floating fish!

It turns out there is zero alk consumption when there is no light, makes sense but I was afraid I had dipped dangerously low - when the trident came online it showed no change from the last sample three days ago.  Temp dropped to 68 when the sump emptied into the tank, but it is back up to 74 now.

Ice storm hitting in about 4 hours, I fully expect the power to go down again.  Anyone who can would be wise to go get fuel and firewood if they need it 😛

Closing in on 60 hours.  The PGE truck told our neighbor they hope to have power to us by 10pm tomorrow unless the ice storm changes their priorities.  Until then my scavenging of gas cans from around the metro area has yielded great success!  Hopefully we will be able to keep running through when I get off work tomorrow night and need to venture out into the ice to find an open gas station

So sorry to hear about the losses...

We are still powerless, and at this point since they have not given any update on their site about our outage since 7:30am on Saturday I do not expect it will be restored today either.  We are fortunate enough that we were able to keep heat going and the tanks circulating, but I have not been home and have no idea what is going on with water chemistry in the tank.  If the power comes back on I didn't unplug my return pumps, so all of that water from both tanks is going to get pumped into the displays - not sure what impact that will have.

As of this morning I had only lost two coral and all fish are accounted for thanks to some DIY and help from friends, but I am not sure how much longer things will be able to hang on without light, alk and cal dosing, salinity stabilization, and proper flow.  I am going to try to get a powerhead going in each sump when I get home to at least move water around a bit.

I feel for you, once everything is running again please post how we can try to help you.  If you need to buy new cultures I would support a "GoReefMe" campaign and kick in towards them.

Generators sold out at Beaverton and Tigard Home Depot, as well as Tigard Lowe’s if anyone is looking for one.  Was at those three yesterday looking for gas cans.