Hi all,
So after the very warm welcome a few weeks ago, I have decided to share a bit more on my progress. But first things first!
Old tank: This is my old little 100l (25gallon) tank after 4 months. As a beginner, I felt like, I was doing pretty fine, the tank even survived 2 weeks christmas break with only feeding by my kind neighbour. And then the drama began: returned home, started to clean up and bring things back in shape. Was just talking to my Mom when I accidentally overdosed coral snow. Tried to resolve the situation with easy life and water change, which led to a major algae outbreak. Since I have originally started with tab water, I was still suffering from silicate depots all over.
A few days in, my water cleared up and everything started to look ugly but better.
And that's when my anemone started moving. I will spear you the details, but she comitted suicide and took one week full of hope and fight to finally die. Good news: I got her out in one piece. Except a knopia, everything survived.
Luckily, my LFS was contacting me about my new 50 gallon, it was ready for pick-up. So I didn't touch the tank anymore and just let it get dirty and again full of algae for the remaining 2 weeks. Not pretty, but I thought more chemistry will just stress all of my lifestock even more.
New tank: Old tank consisted of 50/50 life rock and dead rocks. During all the months I realized, how much better the life rocks work for me. Almost no algae, animals loved them more and no ugly phases in the expectation of coraline algae.... you know what I mean. So I went to pick up 14kg of life rock, my new tank, new sand... all from different places, was a fun day in the car.
The move: you know that feeling when you get back home, open a beer and relax? Well, not that day. Certainly there was beer but also a tank move to be done. With reshaping the stand, scaping the new hard scape and filling it up, it just took until midnight. Realized, that despite cleaning the new sand, it was still dusty like hell, couldn't see the other side of my tank. And there you are, all your life stock in buckets, cloudy water and midnight. What to do?
Decided, that in the end, it was just dust, water had perfect parameters and the right temp. So I took the brave move and moved my life stock into the dust, had one more beer and went to sleep. There was a 50/50 chance after all
The next morning came, lights still off, but I could see through the tank for the first time and I was surprised! All corals standing in good shape, clowns stunned by all the new space and all snails and crabs distributed all over the tank! We made it!!!!
Here it goes after week 1. I'm very happy with the scape and considering to stay low tech, meaning no sunp and no skimmer... let's see. However I will make a little DIY scrubber in a HOB filter, so I can also work with filters if I feel the need. Anemone 2 will move in soon, just want to wait a few until all is stable.
Lessons learned:
- leave that tank alone
- do not overdose bacterias
- anemones hate new lights
- end an anemones life before she messes up your tank for days
- never give up!
To be continued.....
So after the very warm welcome a few weeks ago, I have decided to share a bit more on my progress. But first things first!
Old tank: This is my old little 100l (25gallon) tank after 4 months. As a beginner, I felt like, I was doing pretty fine, the tank even survived 2 weeks christmas break with only feeding by my kind neighbour. And then the drama began: returned home, started to clean up and bring things back in shape. Was just talking to my Mom when I accidentally overdosed coral snow. Tried to resolve the situation with easy life and water change, which led to a major algae outbreak. Since I have originally started with tab water, I was still suffering from silicate depots all over.
A few days in, my water cleared up and everything started to look ugly but better.
And that's when my anemone started moving. I will spear you the details, but she comitted suicide and took one week full of hope and fight to finally die. Good news: I got her out in one piece. Except a knopia, everything survived.
Luckily, my LFS was contacting me about my new 50 gallon, it was ready for pick-up. So I didn't touch the tank anymore and just let it get dirty and again full of algae for the remaining 2 weeks. Not pretty, but I thought more chemistry will just stress all of my lifestock even more.
New tank: Old tank consisted of 50/50 life rock and dead rocks. During all the months I realized, how much better the life rocks work for me. Almost no algae, animals loved them more and no ugly phases in the expectation of coraline algae.... you know what I mean. So I went to pick up 14kg of life rock, my new tank, new sand... all from different places, was a fun day in the car.
The move: you know that feeling when you get back home, open a beer and relax? Well, not that day. Certainly there was beer but also a tank move to be done. With reshaping the stand, scaping the new hard scape and filling it up, it just took until midnight. Realized, that despite cleaning the new sand, it was still dusty like hell, couldn't see the other side of my tank. And there you are, all your life stock in buckets, cloudy water and midnight. What to do?
Decided, that in the end, it was just dust, water had perfect parameters and the right temp. So I took the brave move and moved my life stock into the dust, had one more beer and went to sleep. There was a 50/50 chance after all
The next morning came, lights still off, but I could see through the tank for the first time and I was surprised! All corals standing in good shape, clowns stunned by all the new space and all snails and crabs distributed all over the tank! We made it!!!!
Here it goes after week 1. I'm very happy with the scape and considering to stay low tech, meaning no sunp and no skimmer... let's see. However I will make a little DIY scrubber in a HOB filter, so I can also work with filters if I feel the need. Anemone 2 will move in soon, just want to wait a few until all is stable.
Lessons learned:
- leave that tank alone
- do not overdose bacterias
- anemones hate new lights
- end an anemones life before she messes up your tank for days
- never give up!
To be continued.....
