IntoTheMystic

Simply a brilliant idea for a forum thread. Life circumstances have rendered me dogless for almost ten years but I have been thinking about making room for one in my life again more often recently. Word of the day: Wistful. Keep the images coming, folks, and thanks for the vicarious dog fixes! Usually, I have to go to the beach to get those.

This sounds like it could be an occlusion in the return line, like the operculum from a snail, for example. Under pressure, the object is sometimes forced flat, resulting in very little flow. Occasionally, it gets lodged sideways, allowing near-normal flow past it. This could be tricky to diagnose and clear. A piece of something rigid but flexible like rigid airline could help you probe the return near 45s, 90s, bulkhead fittings and places where the return plumbing narrows. Had a similar problem years ago with a limpet shell lodged near an inflow bulkhead fitting. Another hypothesis: Is there any possibility that this pump was plugged into a 30-amp circuit instead of a 20? Good luck with working this problem.

Update: The tank and stand are on their way to their new home. Thanks to all for your interest and understanding and thanks one more time for supporting Tanks for Teachers!

This is all really good advice. I don't have much to add except: Know your pathogen life cycle. As you probably know, Cryptocaryon has explosive reproductive potential. I'd go minimum of 30 days and would recommend even longer quarantine if at all possible. The tomonts (2nd life stage that settle on the substrate) are tough and will most likely survive the copper, which is nuking the theronts (3rd stage,) the free-swimming larvae. If the bottom of your QT tank is bare, try to rig some type of brush attachment to your siphon ( I built one by adding the furniture brush attachment from a vacuum cleaner.) That way, when you siphon, you can brush and hoover up the tomonts, thereby interrupting the life cycle in another way. As Monkey said, practice strict biosecurity with everything that comes into contact with that system and system water. Work on that system last every day. You're already doing a lot of things right, but look for ways to eliminate any additional stressors. Make sure everyone has a decent place to hide, consider reducing the amount of light entering the tank, make sure the Tang and Rabbit get lots of nori and other greens in their diet, consider marinating wet protein in a marine vitamin supplement before feeding and continue staying on top of your WQ. Breaking this life cycle is labor-intensive and takes a bit of time but it is enormously satisfying. Good luck with this!

Update: Have had two credible contacts from folks interested in this tank and stand. Am in discussion with the first person in line. If that falls through, I'll contact the next person in line. Will update this post when the tank and stand are no longer available. Thanks for your interest and support for TFT, folks!

I have a former quarantine tank and stand in my lab that I am trying to give to a worthy home. It's a glass tank 48" wide x 36" deep x 24" tall. Approx. 180 gallons. With the stand, it is 54" tall. It has 1" in and out in each corner. A bit of history on this: it was set up one weekend at a trade show in Las Vegas before being donated to Hatfield Marine Science Center for the Project Piaba exhibit. While being shipped to HMSC, it got dinged by a forklift, causing superficial damage to the exterior of the left front corner. I patched it up with 795 and plumbed it as my Discus Quarantine tank. Had no problems at all for the 20 months that the system was operational. No leaks anywhere. See photos: The corner that got dinged is the front left corner, which is the most difficult to get a decent shot of in its current location. As you can see, the second image is taken from inside that corner. Not a great image but considering the lighting and angle, best I could get with my phone. This tank will probably never be a living room showpiece. That die was cast before it ever arrived at HMSC. But it could make a great quarantine tank, hospital tank, system for curing live rock or similar application. Because it is glass, this sucker is pretty heavy but a guy on each corner would have no problem lifting it off the stand and putting on a pallet or dolly for an easy move outside for loading. As for asking price, the tank and stand are free to a good home. I'm simply asking that whoever wants it make a donation to this organization's Tanks for Teachers program. Pickup is not particularly time sensitive but if you want it, I'd love for it to be gone by April 13. That's Marine Science Day at HMSC. The annual open house where anyone can wander around most of campus and talk directly with researchers, grad students and faculty and other staff and ask about their work. Please PM me if you're interested and I'll answer in the order they were received. Thanks much!

The anemone in the first image is probably a hydroid. I would adopt a zero tolerance policy on those or they will quickly reproduce and sting up your corals, like Aiptasia do. The squishy white stuff looks like eggs. When I zoom on the image, pretty sure I'm seeing developing eyes and perhaps a mouth or two here and there. If you can, try to get a sample of it and look at it under your microscope. In recent weeks and months, SuncrestReef has done a fine job documenting what a useful tool 'scopes are for reefkeeping and his (and others') macro photography is an asset to the community. As for what the eggs might be, this is pure speculation but I fear they might be some type of worm. Take that with a grain of salt, as I'm probably more prone to parasite paranoia than many of you but I reckon it's more likely to be something undesirable than snails or other potentially beneficial critters. Thanks for sharing these images with the group. You never know what's going to emerge from live rock. While it is endlessly fascinating, it is also ofttimes horrifying to a coralhead.

Dang. This is pretty cool. The chunk of (formerly and soon-to-be) live rock in that picture was the centerpiece in my Coral Reef exhibit. See the angular notch cut out of the front of it? That had a softball-sized green Favia, which now lives in a reef in downtown Portland very capably managed by another member in this collective.. A Favia colony, by the way, that was donated to HMSC, along with a whole bunch of other corals, live rock and a fishie or two, by @Emerald525. Funny how generosity works. What comes around, indeed. It makes me very happy to see that chunk of rock again and know that it might captivate the eyes and imaginations of future coralheads. A Monti cap plating out and angling up the face of that cutout would be mighty sweet. God, I miss keeping corals. Budgetary tyranny was the cause of my four coral exhibits coming down and not getting set back up after last year's VC remodel. The remodel was absolutely worth it but my coral keeping learning curve was on exhibit in those tanks and I was proud of what they looked like the last couple of years. Further on down the road, I'm planning on setting up another coral system back in my lab but there are priorities in queue to slay before that happy day. Thanks for the mention, @Flashy Fins. I'm delighted to see that canister filter contributing to a classroom system. Good onya and to all of you who donate your time and expertise to enhancing learning in these classrooms. 🍻 /Cheers!

Then I deserve the rank of Most Rank and Rancorous Ranker. But perhaps not. It might rankle. This could get messy...... (Apologies for the threadjack, Miles.)

I can't weigh in on this one. Without getting eyes on this animal and examining a skin scrape under a microscope, there's no way to know what's going on. It would be speculation and supposition and that ain't science. Or helpful to Crabby and this community. I appreciate the mention but in most cases, I won't be able to provide an accurate diagnosis. Hope this resolves, Crabby.

I reckon it takes a while for the zooxanthellae to populate all that new tissue and start cranking out the glucose for the coral.

I've looked at several of these rolling mechanical units at trade shows over the last few years. Was thinking about putting one on one of my teaching systems to illustrate another means of particulate removal. Would've pulled the trigger, too, but the build quality on any of them did not impress. Wasn't wild about committing to spending budget money on the media for the foreseeable future, either, but would've bought one that looked like it was anywhere close to built to last for my students to examine and work on. Also thought the price points were on the silly side. Shaywood brings up a good point that I also considered. Hmmmm.......... poop, decomposing food, and whatever else..... not a big deal in my lab but I figured pretty much guaranteed to result in cohabitational terrorism in a house. Just one guy's opinion and if you want the convenience, go for it. That's what they're for . But also agree with monkeyboy's sentiment about biofunk spilling over the edges of the media and impairing the efficiency of the chemical and biological filtration. I believe you can adjust the turn speed on most of 'em but then you're blowing through $20 rolls even more quickly. If you think this tool will simplify your life and help maintain the joy of aquatic animal keeping, by all means, give it a shot. Then please let us know how much you like it and take a shotgun to all this skepticism in my post! Good luck with this!

Really tried to make it over to the valley to make this one but duty called. Typically, looks like a good time was had by all. Also typically, the event was documented with verve by Bert. Well done as usual, man. 🍻 I'm not able to make many meetings but when I do, I am always impressed by how many cool people make this organization what is it. Cheers to you folks. 🍺 Have a safe, fun, prosperous and very Happy New year, everyone!

How's your fish? Any changes in the size or appearance of that insult on your Clown?

Can't vouch for Prime over Stresscoat. Really don't know. I'd say, at least for now, monitor this insult (whatever it is) and see if it begins to resolve on its own or whether it's going to need more attention. Your eyes will tell you when you need to go proactive on it. If you do, whatever the bottle dosage is should work well. Good luck with this. Hope it resolves without intervention. 🍻

That's a much better image. Thank you. Pretty fish. When I zoom in on what looks like a lesion, I def see scale loss and what is probably exposed muscle tissue. Curiously, I don't see much inflammation at the site. I would expect to see some on the margins. Is the tissue raggedy in appearance or smooth? It looks smooth at a distance. The fuzziness I'm seeing could just be loss of definition at max zoom. To me, it looks like this animal may have bolted into something unforgiving and given itself a nasty abrasion. With no swelling, no sign of inflammation and the fact that is started out this size and has stayed this size makes me think that this is trauma, rather than some type of pathogen. It could also be a bite. If there's a way to safely extract this critter without too much collateral damage , I'd recommend at least 1 Stresscoat bath to get it some osmoregulatory relief. If that's impractical, just keep a real close eye on it and holler if you see any reddening around the margins, swelling, excessive mucous production or other signs of an infection. On the plus side, the color and posture of this fish looks good. I've seen these types of abrasions before. If the fish is in good shape before it happens, and this appears to be, they often heal well on their own. 'The microbe is nothing. The terrain is everything." Louis Pasteur

Can't really get a good look at it from the image but a few questions: 1. How long has this lesion/discoloration/ulceration/whateverthehellitis been on this animal? How long is a few weeks? 2. Looks like there might be scales missing on the spot. Is this true? 3. Have you noticed this animal flashing (i.e. rubbing against hard objects as if to dislodge an ectoparasite) at that spot? 4. Doesn't appear to be any swelling at the site. Is this true? 5. Are either the pectoral or pelvic fins on that side acting odd, seemingly impaired, or otherwise affected by this? 6. Does this spot appear to be getting larger over time? 7. How long has this animal been in your collection? A bit of context and perhaps another image or two will help me work this problem a bit more effectively. Please let me know what you think when you have a moment or two.

This morning, I'm giving thanks for some SPS polyp porn. That colony is blowing up. Well done!

Best concise yet comprehensive description of HLLE that I've seen yet. Get this animal plenty of nori , algae wafers and fresh greens, such as bok choy, mustard greens, romaine, etc. This will result in a lot more waste and you'll have to step up cleaning but you may start to see an improvement in a couple weeks. If you do, keep up with the "green" feeding. Good luck and keep us posted!

Nice shots! Look like hydroids to me. In the temperate marine world, several nudibranchs mow down hydroids like grass. I wonder if Berghia would take a shine to these things? Crustaceans might enjoy munching 'em down, too. Dunno for sure but the Peppermint is probably worth a try as long as there isn't anyone in the system that might fancy eating a fancy shrimp.

I see a whitish, rectangular herniation on the ventrum there. Could also be a monogenean fluke. Big sucker. I recommend manual removal followed by medicated baths to retard secondary infection at the site. Closely monitor food response after Tx regimen. Prognosis: fair. Good luck!

Look at all the scutes under magnification and around the byssus. Also look for gelatinous egg masses near the mantle and byssus. Zero tolerance on these snails. They'll kill the clam and start working on your janitorial snails.

I'm at the Westgate. Arriving Wednesday, leaving early Monday.

Definitely try vinegar. Best salt creep remover I know.

I wonder if these little shards of carbon or GFO are being picked up by the powerheads and acting like flechettes, lacerating the tissue of these colonies. Maybe the tissue is retracting from the insults? Keep a close eye out for bacterial infections.