q's about various topics

[sharkboy1410]

i've been trying to find the answers to some of these questions, but some i can't seem to find an answer for, here they are:

-my filter sends little air bubble's out when the water is returned to the tank, can little air bubble's harm my corals? i know they can kill sponge, but i'm not to sure about coral.

-one of my fish has alittle bit of ich, you can't dose a tank for ich treatment that has corals in it, right? i don't want to treat my tank, and kill the corals.

to all of you who were trying to help me in my thread "my tank", i'm very sorry about how i was acting, sometimes i get very irritable, but you guys were giving me advice that i needed. i thank you for your concern, i will slow down on adding the corals, and i'm not adding the other 2 fish now. I only have 11 fish now though, last night my 6 line wrasse was sucked-up by a power head with no gaurd (gaurded now). but any how, thank you all who gave me advice and info to help me out, again, i'm sorry for how i acted in the other thread, Ross.

[sharkboy1410]

also, who's seen huge button polyps before? i went to the fish store and more, and they had button polyps that were 3" in diameter! (about 2 inches wide from side side!) the strange thing was, that same day, another lfs i went to had them, and i've never seen them before. just thought it was interesting.

[kj_yoda]

Originally Posted by sharkboy1410

-one of my fish has alittle bit of ich, you can't dose a tank for ich treatment that has corals in it, right? i don't want to treat my tank, and kill the corals.

Ross,

I'll answer your second question... To get rid of ich, you can use cleaner shrimp, the natural way. There may be other options, which I am sure people will give soon.

Good Luck

[sharkboy1410]

cleaner shrimp..... that's sounds like a good idea, i'll look into them, thanks for the info.

[milhouse74]

You may also want to consider a Quarentine tank with that second tank you were talking about a while back. For new corals and fish as you get them.

[RobinsonFam1]

good luck getting the fish out of your reef to put in q-tank. i speak from personal experience....no fun.....i agree on the shrimp...also a cleaner wrasse...errr..cleaner goby..uhhh...one of them will eat ich right off the fish.

airbubbles: what they can do is get into the polyps of the corals and irritate them or injure them. this is rather rare from what i have experienced and heard of though. how to stop them: make baffles in your sump before the water makes it to the return pump. if you already have that in place then it may be that your flow rate is too high. this has been my personal history. i am the tim the tool man taylor when it comes to return pumps. i like a HIGH cycle rate. (90 gal @ 3800 GPH=42X per hour).

HTH
BR

[kwl1763]

Ya cleaner shrimp are spotty at best. The only real way to totally cure ich is to put the fish in quarentine and do hypo treatment and run your tank with no fish for 30 days. I'm assuming your not willing to do that so best thing is to provide a stable environment, feed garlic soaked foods, and hope!

The bubbles shouldn't cause major isses but will sometimes irritate corals. Also they have t rise and pop somewhere which usually creates salt spray like crazy either on your canopy or bulbs or both!

[Flipturn88]

edit- wrong username.

Josh

[majesticangelfish]

Please try to research before asking, It doesnt take long.
1-

Myth 14: Microbubbles are to be avoided.
Many aquarists go to some considerable lengths to baffle sumps and pump flows to prevent small bubbles from being returned into the display tank. It has been suggested that such bubbles represent an irritation to fish, corals and other invertebrates and that they should be avoided. To be honest, I am unsure from where the origin of this perception came. However, it is untrue. Even the name is inaccurate… the prefix "micro" would refer to bubbles too small to see.

The onslaught of bubbles from this oncoming wave should make it apparent that
corals and coral reefs exist just fine with the presence of air bubbles in the water.

Small bubbles are very common in tumultuous reef environments, and areas where waves break are often dense with both reef life and small bubbles. In addition, in tanks and on reefs, many bubbles of various sizes, including true "microbubbles" are produced by photosynthesis, and this is especially the case in highly illuminated environments. In my own aquaria, a constant rise of bubbles, especially in the afternoon, are produced by various corals and algae in even some of my less-illuminated systems. Larger bubbles frequently get sucked into pump intakes, and are chopped up to even smaller sizes and distributed throughout the tank. I won't even begin to discuss the massive numbers of bubbles produced by various surge devices. These water motion devices have great benefits in aquaria, and even as anecdotal aquarium observations, I have never seen anything disturbed, irritated, or harmed by the rush of bubbles.
Potential: Relatively harmless. Neither bubbles nor the lack of them in a tank is likely to endanger the health or survival of organisms.
Distribution: A patchy, but common belief.

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2004-01/eb/index.php

2- Also, ARC meetings help

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2005-12/sp/index.php

Josh

[ljuhl]

Try UV Sterilizer to cure the ich. Jon has a 36W UV Sterilizer for sale for $75 (I don't know if it's still available)

[rsg4]

how about some pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[goodfortune]

Microbubbles are largely a nuisance; apart from dividing your sump with baffles to cut down on bubbles, you can place a bucket in your sump, drilled with holes, to run your return pump out of.

If you have ick in your main display tank, you'll have to take all the fish out, and leave it fallow (e.g. with no fish whatsoever), for at least 30 days.

For ick, the best cure is prevention. Make sure you quarantine all fish you buy. I've found in my own experience that a long quarantine (~ 30 days) greatly enhances the longevity of fish that I have bought, even if they showed no signs of disease or stress during the quarantine period.

It's hard (even for me) to be as patient with my tank as I should be sometimes; but remember that patience is what this hobby is all about. Nothing good happens quickly in a reef tank !

[Schwaggs]

What fish has Ich? Is it still eating? I have had great success with soaking pellet food (that my fish normally eat) with garlic. The dry pellets soak the garlic up and the fish can consume a good amount of it that way. If the fish isn't eating, you are probably too late unless you can get it in a Q-tank quickly and medicate it.

I assume your micro bubbles are from your HOB skimmer since you do not have a sump. As the article majesticangelfish links to points out, most of the corals we keep experience microbubbles in their natural habitat so they shouldn't bother them as much as they do us.... Unfortunately, the only way I know of to prevent them from escaping a HOB skimmer is to either reduce the flow through the skimmer (which typically isn't practical since that usually stops them from skimming effectively) or putting a piece of sponge over the return. The sponge will have to be cleaned a couple times per week.

[RobinsonFam1]

i dont think there really is a "cure" for ich without dosing the whole tank. it is a parasite that lives everywhere in a tank. the only time you notice it is when it is another stage of its life - on the fish. as long as the fish eats well and stays healthy it will outlive the ich. i agree on the UV sterilizer in the fact that it will kill whatever goes through it providing it is set up with the proper flow rates. but not everything in the tank goes through the UV so it will only minimize the problem at best. not neccessarily "cure" the problem.

HTH
BR

[Mobius]

A properly sized UV sterilizer will rid your tank of ich over time.
I had a very bad outbreak of ich when i first set up my tank. I put a 40 W UV and the ich was gone in a few weeks.
You have to ensure your fish are strong enough to survive the "extermination" .
Soaking food in garlic and other suppliments like Zoe and Zoecon will help with this. I use New Life Spectrum pellets and find then the best food I have used.

I now quarantine everything that goes in either one of my tanks.

HTH
Mike