Coral now?

[fyrfytr]

I can just picture the customs agent....putting on the blue latex gloves........"and just what are you smuggling in those snails sir"

I grew up with a fish tank, have always had one except when I was away at college. My son (3yrs old) has been a lil fish since he was probably 3 months old. The highlight of his day was bath time. Heck, his first word was "fish". Not mom, dad, dog (we have 2)...FISH. To him, going to the fish store is better then a toy store. Heck, we went to a saltwater specialty store here locally to me (Gerbers Saltwater Warehouse) back in probably October and he is STILL talking about the trip with dad to the neet fish store. My saltwater experience was for me as much as it was for him, I couldn't take seeing the disappointment when we would go to the LFS and not be able to get nemo and take him home with us...so I broke and started looking into how to make a saltwater tank. I know it is different, yours is 1 mine is 3...but I have done the best I could to make him a part of everything we can with the tank so he has ownership in it. He helps stur the salt when we do water changes, when we cleaned the detris off the rocks he had to have his own tooth brush to help me scrub the rocks...and he cried real tears when we had the amonia spike and crashed the tank. Lost the fish, but the snails and peperment shrimp survived...so now every morning he goes out to see if he can find the shrimp in the rocks, it is his morning ritual that he feels he has to do before he wants breakfast

 

[Justin_92_92]

The damsel is still on the loose but I noticed my ammonia going up. So I did a water change this morning. Only around 5 gallons. I will be probably doing another one this evening of the same ammount. BTW i hate water changes hahahah.

If I had this to do again, I would have not got the nano cube. The part in the back is up against the wall and is very hard for me to do anything back there.

Coral looks like he has seen better days...hope to be able to keep it alive through this. My own stupid mistake too. Oh well I guess I just work with it now and make it better.

 

[mayday610]

Very true Justin. I personally think nano cubes are over-rated, but many people love them so its all personal opinion really. Its tough to start out with a smaller until. Its a bit more of a choir to keep up with when new to the hobby. Larger tanks with larger amounts of water means more room for error. Think about how even water evaporation in your smaller tank can effect your salinity and how much water evaporation is needed in a larger volume of water to make the same change. There is truth in the saying " The answer to polution is dilution" lol But on the upside, smaller tank = less costs, not needing to purchase more pricey equimpment that comes with larger volumes of water and tank size! I hear you as well when it comes to doing water changes and maintenace. I got so sick of carrying buckets of water to and from my tanks that i decided to build a room inside my living room to make a set up in which i can have everything handy yet out of sight. I run my RO/DI water into this room that runs a float on my sump to automatically take care of my evaporation and also to a 35 gallon rubbermaid where i always have salt water mixed and circulating ready for a water change or anything else i may need it for. The only thing i haven't done yet is run a drain line into my septic system for the waste water. i'm in no hurry because right now i just pump it out a window and is easy enough. Maintenance can become less of a choir if you find little ways here and there to make it easier on yourself.

 

[mayday610]

Just checking in to see how the tanks doing... catch that damsel yet?

 

[Justin_92_92]

I posted last night, Or I thought I did. I must be too used to my phone with the enter button being the send button. Its not the first time Ive done it either

So my ammonia went up a little yesterday. I was unable to catch the damsel either. The frogspawn started to get smaller and close up some too. I did the water change to give it a helping hand and see what happened.

Today I tested and ammonia is down slightly but ph IS UP TO 8.4 FROM 8.2 It had normally been. The coral looks a little better today than yesterday so i have some hope there. I have gained a pretty good amount of algea over this little accident too But I have plenty of crabs and snails to do the trick I think.

Ive been reading up more and more and finding small things I have done wrong and am in the process of trying to learn BEFORE I just go ahead and do. ( Mixed saltwater minutes before I used it :/ Im going to get the RO/DI soon and get that all plumbed in the laundry room. I cant wait for that.

Its 2am and I just got home from working on my vehicle. Darn wheel bearing went bad, But the main project was the muffler. You know how that goes. Didnt get all the parts I needed so i have to wait for daylight.

Oh I dont think my bottle is big enough for the damsel so i will try a large mouth bottle like a gateraid bottle.

 

[mayday610]

Glad you are doing your research! There is so much info out there and different opinions that i don't think anyone will ever hear it all! RO/DI good idea! I would also, if you have room for it, get a rubbermaid garbage can and set up a float on the top of it off from your RO/DI. Throw a power head or an air stone in that bad boy and you always have a circulated, ready to go source of water. You can even set up another one that you can use to mix your salt in so you always have your water change water ready to go. I Always have 30 gallons of SW circulating in case i need it.
I know how time flies when playing with the vehicle. I always use to keep two trucks so that if one needed work i had a way to go get parts. I know how it can be, you think you have everything, you start your little project, and the next thing you know you need something else but the only way to get there is the half apart hunk a steal you are working on lol!