90 Gallon Rehab Project

[Monad]

As far as reflection, you can see it from the outside of the tank, but as far as the fish in the inside it looks like a window.

Thank you. I was a little paranoid.

Now I can focus all my paranoia on that probably dead snail. I’ll give him the night. If he did die, I’m sure the others will eat him when the lights turn off.

 

[Monad]

Quick update. That cerith snail that was not moving had trouble righting itself. I righted and moved him and he buried in the sand. I went to check on the tank tonight. Both ceriths are on one of the rocks now. I found a siphon of one nassarius snail. I have some uneaten mysis shrimp on the sandbed the nassarius snails did not clean up. I’ll try to figure out how to remove that uneaten food tomorrow when I check the water parameters.

See ceriths on the rock.

 

[Monad]

I got the second light up only to realize I may need a third. That can come down the line.

Placements are okay. I wish it were easier to relocate the AI Prime 16HD reef lights. I have a two of holes in the upper part of the cabinet now that I have no use for. I may run some wires through them.

Still dealing with mini cycles. I added some chaeto to serve as a home for the copepods that are coming next week. Overall I think the tank is okay. I hope the water scatters enough light for some of the shadowed areas.

Anyone know any corals that do well in places like that?

 

[Monad]

Mini cycles have stopped. Ammonia had been good for past few days.

Yesterday I added two skunk shrimp and two more nassarius snails to the CUC. This morning I found the molt of one of the shrimp which kind of freaked me out. It was a little mangled. I’ve seen molts from my freshwater amano shrimp. Luckily I found the two skunk shrimp together in the rock work a few minutes later.

They’ll make a great addition to the CUC.

When I started the tank, I jumped the gun and added some copepods. Today I found little white dots moving on the acrylic. I think some of the pods survived the cycle and are reproducing. I’m happy seeing them out in the open. This also means there is food for the denizens of the tank.

Clowns appear to be doing well. They’re eating. They’re swimming. They’ve claimed the right side of the tank.

One of the snails fell off the acrylic and could not right itself. I tried moving him but all I could do was push him into the sand. I hope he can right himself now. I’ll check on him in a few hours. The end of his shell is exposed.

I have some galaxy pods coming in tomorrow. I’m going to add them to the refugium. Hopefully their population builds up there and the excess pods then flow into the tank.

 

[Monad]

So yesterday, the 12th of October, the big thing happened. My saltwater tank became a reef tank!

I added my first coral, a Duncan. I acquired it from my LFS that quarantines their corals before they go on display. They have a pretty rigorous system to prevent disease.

Little dude is closed up right now because I just fed him. Flow is moderate and random, sometimes slow and sometimes fast. I think he likes this spot but I may move him somewhere less high in the tank. I have a few ideas. He’s not glued down at the moment.

He’s a nice purple and green. No color really pops at the moment, but it was a nice purple and green under the fish store lights.

I’m tempted to go to the store’s Maine location today to see if they have and other beginner corals. The tank has some phytoplankton so that will feed the coral on a daily basis. Unfortunately, I think the tank is still too young for anything else except some fish.

As I type it’s opening up more.

I hope when it poops and by just existing, it will add some nice microbiome diversity.

 

[Monad]

Tank almost died.

Last Tuesday, as my dad put it, "The pump exploded." During the night the pump failed. My dad unplugged it and plugged it back in. A loud bang followed and burning plastic rose to the top of the sump.

Of course it was on one of the weeks where I wasn't home. I stopped what I was doing to go to a different LFS an hour away from the house. I picked up a pump and drove back. I am glad the tank had a Nero 5 to keep some water circulation going. No ammonia spike. I used a shop vac to suck up the plastic which mainly floated. With the advice of some of the people on this forum, I went to a local petco and picked up some filter charcoal. I'm using that to hopefully filter out any toxins from the melted plastic.

When there I noticed that the ugly stage has started. Diatoms are starting to take off. There are spots and yesterday my mother send a video. Diatoms are appearing on rocks. Spots are appearing on the sand. I am trying to reduce dead zones.

Next time I visit I need to pick up a bunch of cerith snails to help with the diatoms and the eventual algae that comes later. I intend on picking up some chaetogrow fertilizer. I do have some chaeto. Most of it died when the pump failed but a small amount still exists. Hopefully dosing well also prevent dinos.