You know in the trade, the "f word" is actually "fine".

As in

"have you tested your water?"

"yes its fine"

Which translates to ammonia 4ppm and nitrite 6ppm, pH 4.2, nitrates 890000900ppm

Still though, if the flowerhorn keeping savages can organise a BBQ, surely distinguished connoisseur's such as PCS can

Thing is, this hobby is as much about people as it is about fish.

You meet good people in fish world online, in lfs, on gumtree, on ebay, at the jeti, in the dentist waiting room and even through magazines or books.

If you luck on a great fish dude/chick at a lfs then happy days!

If you meet a breeder who you can chat with and tour a fishroom over a few beers, THEN AWESOME.

If you have a mate or family who are "experts" to guide you then thats amazing.

Maybe you managed to join and active club.

Otherwise its forums and facebook.

people want the social side of the hobby, not just the fish side of it all.

On Saturday I went to a flowerhorn facebook group BBQ and it was great.

Awesome smoked meat, fresh chilli from his aquaponics and I got to meet a whole heap of fish people.

Was just....  just like the old days in fish world, before everyone thought buyers were going to rob them....

Any org that can capture the social aspect, will capture the hearts of hobbyists.

Also BBQ's are awesome!

One or 2 a year could be difference between a dead forum and a thriving group of online friends who also keep fish

Need to get the ol' gang back together!

Wheres Merjo?

Could visit the fam while we are there, Busselton expat here XD

Don.

Primes main duty is to remove the chlorine. I never do more than a 50% change as a sorta insurance to insulate me from throwing out chemistry too much.

Dont let this ruin the hobby for you.

Sometimes the cookie crumbles in a really sucky way

As above a nitrite spike can do damage in the time it takes the biofiltration to convert it away. Its the perfect crime. Theres not much you can do, other than wait for the fishes body to excrete it. The problem is now not the nitrite in the aquariums water, but the nitrite in the fishes blood.

Testing the tapwater before you start on water changes can save the day here, likely this was the source of the nitrite spike. 

Adding salt slows nitrite getting into the fish, but does not get it out of the fish.

Nitrite poisoning symptoms ~ lethargy, gasping, bright colours.

While its just attacking the blood, once clots start forming propper you get random death spirals as they stroke out.

Its a terrible thing to watch

Get the filter outlets rippling the water surface as much as possible. Sounds like you have refilled high and dont have the same water agitation you had before the water change.

You added dechlorinator chemical yea?

If so, get some water agitation going! Even if you have to drop some water out.

Thats a nitrite spike. I dont know where you got the 0ppm nitrite reading you posted, but its wrong.

99% sure

Plenty of coral gobies in the hobby

Any xenia is enough xenia XD

It looks like a spilo

How big were the ones you line caught?

Up to 30cm

Earthworms for bait is how we were getting them at Clarrie hall dam on the east side

I'd expect it to be bacterial, flexabacta infections are super common with wild caught fish like this. Its generally related to the increase in temperature from the wild to the aquarium. Very easy for slight handling damage to get infected. Temperature below 24 degrees C is the most important part of treatment IMHO.

Arripis truttaceus? Arius thalassinus? Neoarius midgleyi?

Many species are moving south due to climate change currents

Honestly if you could spare $200 or so, an aquael reef circulator 10000 would be my suggestion. 20 watts of silent oxygenation and particle suspension. Combined with good placement of canister intake/outlets, you could get complete water movement that never lets debris rest and instead delivers it to canister intakes + total surface area agitation. Yea its a bit of an investment, but its quality and minimal aesthetic impact.

On the other hand the petworx 2300 internal is shaping up to be a good work horse. Cheap, not too bad on sound and black so tends to blend into background. Can also capture/hold a lot of debris between cleans.

No kidding on the high end wave maker! Vortech is in the house

Also have to approve of your placement, both outlets going same direction as the wavemaker AND intakes beneath outlets to take advantage of uplift effect.

Maybe try lifting it up just a little bit? I realise will mean you have to turn it off during water changes if you do....  but might help increase uplift even more.

Overall tho kudos

Adding a powerhead style filter that specializes in mechanical filtration beside the canister intake would also improve ability to capture particles.

How do you have your inlet/outlets + wavemaker setup? This may be more a case of changing water flow to improve particle capture.

Well copper sulphate at 1g per 1000L works dam well. We sell it under the blue planet brand "snail rid". But yea, no good for shrimp, so water change after treatment before adding them back in. SOme plants dont like it, found elodea to be very sensitive.

Its the same chemical, brand means little in cases of chemistry. While some snails may be able to survive by sealing up and hiding in the gravel, most will not.

Why bother with ammonia when its more effective to just use fish food?

*You dont need exact amounts of ammonia to cycle, just feed the tank the amount of fish food you would like to be able to feed your first batch of fish.

*At the end of cycling you then have a container of fish food to use, rather than a useless bottle of ammonia.

*Ammonia comes from protein, so the higher the protein content of fish food the more ammonia it produces.

*Just as important as the ammonia eaters, are the rotters, that break down protein into ammonia. Adding ammonia skips out the rotters, resulting in a less robust biofiltration colony.

*You will be growing microbes that specialise in handling the exact food you are feeding.

*Theres other stuff in there that feeds other microbes, things we dont test for but are also important that we build up microbes for.

Pretty much every lfs over here on the east side sells fish that are either coming in from wholesaler loaded with astax, or the lfs is feeding them astax foods in store. Cant remember the last time I saw a sign pointing it out but it was likely 10 years ago or so.

Looks like columnaris, so bacterial. Something like wardley fungus-ade should do the trick nicely. Keeping temperature at or below 24degreesC is key to curing it before it kills the fish.

Possible melanophore migration due to ammonia burn about 2 weeks ago. Its a sign of healing but yea, the cause was prob weeks ago.