Auora
New Member
My story:
I've always wanted a marine tank. I had a freshwater previously when I lived abroad but had to give it away when I moved. Since then, I've kept my eye open but hadn't bothered because of how expensive this hobby can be. Over the holidays, my well-meaning FIL found a cheap, fully stocked 400l tank for sale on facebook marketplace and decided to get it for me (surprise!). Unfortunately, he didn't know anything about tanks and when I got there.........everything was already being disassembled and put into buckets.
The tank was in......abysmal condition. Green water. Algae encrusted onto everything. Power-heads non-functioning due to not being cleaned in who knows how long. I'm not entirely sure how anything was living in there, but they were surviving, to say the least. 2 clown fish, 1 flame angel, 3 damsels, and 2 BTA. I would need to give this tank a complete scrub down before I could even begin to think about setting it back up.
We live in a very rural area, and the nearest city is about 3 hours away. By the time everything got delivered to my house it was already 6pm. I wouldn't be able to get to the city to buy supplies or equipment to keep everything alive. The heater that was originally fit for the tank wouldn't fit completely into any of the buckets we had or the sump, and without separate heaters, I had to make a decision. All of the fish and anemones went into the sump with a few small pieces of live rock. I wrapped the sump in blankets and poured hot water into empty coke bottles and put that into the tank to help keep the water warm. I changed them out every couple of hours but things weren't looking great.
Unfortunately, the flame angel and a clown didn't make it...... but everything else was alive, for now. I made the trip into the city that next morning to get what I needed, and came back, set up some heaters and temporary filter, and got to work cleaning.
Because all of the live rock from the original tank went a couple days without heat, I didn't want to risk trying to put it back into the tank. I reached out to a Facebook group for my area and was lucky enough to find someone selling live rock just a short distance away. (She was downsizing her tank and so everything was already cycled and ready to go)
So far, everyone seems to be pretty happy. I didn't think the two anemone's were going to make it at first. They looked so shriveled up and one of them had put up a real fight - refusing to come off of the old rock. However, it looks like they've acclimated pretty well, and the clown has already laid claim to one of them.
I also ended up getting a few more fish and some coral a couple weeks ago. Since the clowns partner hadn't made it, I wanted to get her another one as soon as possible. I also got a canary wrasse, a firetail goby, a green coral goby, 2 sand snails, and 2 corals. (Green singularia and.....a flat orange one. Not sure what it is)
I know that I've got some issues to fix. There is green hair algae on some of the rocks that I'm going to try to deal with by getting a few more snails. There are also a few unknowns that I'm hoping you lovely people could help me identify.
1. (right) Not entirely sure what these are. They were in the original tank and I thought they might be some kind of zoa, but....now I'm not so sure. I'm a little worried they might be some kind of pest? They've grown a lot since I set up the new tank.
2. (above) These things have cropped up and seem to be multiplying....not very fast but I've found about 4-5 of them now in various spots around the tank. Should I remove them?
3. (above) What about this velvety green algae? There is a purpleish algae similar to this in consistency on some of the other rocks in the tank. It's hard and doesn't come off easily. Should this be something I'm concerned about?
So, this is where I'm at after a crazy couple of weeks and several hundred dollars later.
Comments and suggestions welcome! I know that there are things I could be doing better and there's a lot for me to learn. I'm still trying to digest all the information there is out there. The next things I'm planning to do when I get some spare cash is to get another light (the one I have is a gen 2 echotech radion xr30) and possibly a gyre to create some more flow. I've been looking at the maxspect xf330.
Thanks!
I've always wanted a marine tank. I had a freshwater previously when I lived abroad but had to give it away when I moved. Since then, I've kept my eye open but hadn't bothered because of how expensive this hobby can be. Over the holidays, my well-meaning FIL found a cheap, fully stocked 400l tank for sale on facebook marketplace and decided to get it for me (surprise!). Unfortunately, he didn't know anything about tanks and when I got there.........everything was already being disassembled and put into buckets.
The tank was in......abysmal condition. Green water. Algae encrusted onto everything. Power-heads non-functioning due to not being cleaned in who knows how long. I'm not entirely sure how anything was living in there, but they were surviving, to say the least. 2 clown fish, 1 flame angel, 3 damsels, and 2 BTA. I would need to give this tank a complete scrub down before I could even begin to think about setting it back up.
We live in a very rural area, and the nearest city is about 3 hours away. By the time everything got delivered to my house it was already 6pm. I wouldn't be able to get to the city to buy supplies or equipment to keep everything alive. The heater that was originally fit for the tank wouldn't fit completely into any of the buckets we had or the sump, and without separate heaters, I had to make a decision. All of the fish and anemones went into the sump with a few small pieces of live rock. I wrapped the sump in blankets and poured hot water into empty coke bottles and put that into the tank to help keep the water warm. I changed them out every couple of hours but things weren't looking great.
Unfortunately, the flame angel and a clown didn't make it...... but everything else was alive, for now. I made the trip into the city that next morning to get what I needed, and came back, set up some heaters and temporary filter, and got to work cleaning.
Because all of the live rock from the original tank went a couple days without heat, I didn't want to risk trying to put it back into the tank. I reached out to a Facebook group for my area and was lucky enough to find someone selling live rock just a short distance away. (She was downsizing her tank and so everything was already cycled and ready to go)
So far, everyone seems to be pretty happy. I didn't think the two anemone's were going to make it at first. They looked so shriveled up and one of them had put up a real fight - refusing to come off of the old rock. However, it looks like they've acclimated pretty well, and the clown has already laid claim to one of them.
I also ended up getting a few more fish and some coral a couple weeks ago. Since the clowns partner hadn't made it, I wanted to get her another one as soon as possible. I also got a canary wrasse, a firetail goby, a green coral goby, 2 sand snails, and 2 corals. (Green singularia and.....a flat orange one. Not sure what it is)
I know that I've got some issues to fix. There is green hair algae on some of the rocks that I'm going to try to deal with by getting a few more snails. There are also a few unknowns that I'm hoping you lovely people could help me identify.
1. (right) Not entirely sure what these are. They were in the original tank and I thought they might be some kind of zoa, but....now I'm not so sure. I'm a little worried they might be some kind of pest? They've grown a lot since I set up the new tank.
2. (above) These things have cropped up and seem to be multiplying....not very fast but I've found about 4-5 of them now in various spots around the tank. Should I remove them?
3. (above) What about this velvety green algae? There is a purpleish algae similar to this in consistency on some of the other rocks in the tank. It's hard and doesn't come off easily. Should this be something I'm concerned about?
So, this is where I'm at after a crazy couple of weeks and several hundred dollars later.
Comments and suggestions welcome! I know that there are things I could be doing better and there's a lot for me to learn. I'm still trying to digest all the information there is out there. The next things I'm planning to do when I get some spare cash is to get another light (the one I have is a gen 2 echotech radion xr30) and possibly a gyre to create some more flow. I've been looking at the maxspect xf330.
Thanks!
