Time for another helpful little aquarium tip from Reef Playground.

Todays tip is more about taking a preventative approach to your maintenance. We want to address a problem we encounter with a lot of our  new maintenance service saltwater clients; problematic live rock structure. Many aquarists simply think that more live rock is better. But that’s not always the case. If you plan on having a system with a heavy bio-load and large carrnivirous fish, simply stacking up live rock will actually hurt your system in the long run.

With a simple “pile” style live rock design, a lot of waste will end up accumulating behind and underneath he rock. Leading to buildup in organic material that will slowly build up the waste levels in the system as well as provide ample room for anwanted bacteria to flourish in the aquarium which could lead to “unexpected” infections of livestock down the line.

And that kind of problem leads to today’s maintenance tip. Structure your live rock as to allow good flow in between, behind, and underneath it. You can either design your water returns  to achieve this goal, or install multiple powerheads behind the rock to achieve the same results. This will cut back on physical maintenance of the aquarium system as well as increase the bio filtration potential of your live rock.

Dose will be increased on day six

No significant difference from day three. Althought he flame angel has stop swimming in circles as aggresivly as it was at the begining of treatment

To make mixing new water less “painful”. Invest in an extra powerhead/recirculating pump and a separate container to mix your saltwater in, such as a 55g barrel. Over the years, it’ll save you an enourmouse amount of time and energy than having to mix everything ni small containers.

Behavior staying the same.

White blotches almost completely gone from the gill area.

Day two update. Behavior remains the same,  circular swimming.

White growth around gill remain the same size, and have stopped increasing in sie and in number.

Infected flame angel still not eating.

Reddish wounds, secondary infections, have receaded

1) use a 5g bucket, and release the fish with its water into that bucket.

2) Get a regular airline and create a syphon from your aquarium to the holding bucket.

3) Creae a small kink in the tubing to allow for a slow drip.

This method will take about an hour or so to acclimate your new aquasition to your systems water. The reason for this method is that temperature is not the only difference between your aquarium and your LFS system water. Things like Salinity, pH, dKH, waste levels, medication residues (ie copper), and your general chemestry all play an important role in how well your fish acclimates to your aquarium. And by bringing these levels as close as possible to each other during the acclimation process is key, especially if you are introducing very sensitive species to your aquarium.