My little 10g rescue

[TroutbumNV]

Hey all,
I posted in the intro thread, but figured I'd post here too for a long term picture/update thread.
A little over two weeks ago, I took over a tank from someone who had fallen ill and could no longer care for it. The tank was really, really neglected. It haven't had a water change in around 8 months. It's lights had failed, and wasn't lit for six months. It was so encrusted with algae and coralline you couldn't see in to it from any side, including the front.
It came with a maroon clown, a yellow goby, a mushroom coral, and a galaxea. Both the galaxea and mushroom were pretty much transparent. I don't know how anything was alive at all, but the fish and those two corals were.
I've been working for two weeks to get this thing cleaned up and healthy. I scraped what I could off the glass, blasted the rocks, then did a pretty big water change. I took the non working oddysea fixture, gutted it, and mounted a 10W 14k LED spotlight. I put a little cheap HOB filter on it to run carbon and increase flow.
I let it sit like that for about a week, and repeated the process of scraping, and a water change.
Today, I was able to rehome the fish to a nice, established 120g reef, and got some frags for trade. I've since added a small clean up crew as well.
This is how it sits today. Doesn't look like much, but if you could have seen it before (should have taken a before pic).

The color is returning to the mushroom. The galaxea got color back quickly, I think in part with spot feeding.

 

[dbl]

Nice work in getting it cleaned up. Signing up to follow the rescue progress.

 

[TroutbumNV]

Nice work in getting it cleaned up. Signing up to follow the rescue progress.

Thanks for the kind words! It's looking a bit better every day. Unfortunately everything is so caked and built up in there I have to siphon when I scrape, so I'm having to do a bit at a time so I'm not changing water TOO much. It's tough to resist the urge to just get in there and do it all, but I started to try that and ended up with a clogged filter and powerhead.
The acan and xenia I got as a trade for the two fish. The xenia is a weed I know, and opened up and starting pumping immediately. The acan has continued to open and expand, seems happy where I put it.

 

[TroutbumNV]

 

[Ridem32]

Looking good. Great job so far

 

[TroutbumNV]

Added a pair of juvi false percs. Also used a real camera. Need a faster lens though.

 

[Ridem32]

Great pic. Must have a nice camera [emoji327]

 

[TroutbumNV]

Great pic. Must have a nice camera [emoji327]

Thanks for the kind words. Its just an older D3200.

A few more:

 

[40B Knasty]

Looks good. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I like xenias! Actually have some myself. I am not tank racist haha People call them a weed. They are a coral. They are life. Exactly what you are bringing back to the tank.

 

[TroutbumNV]

Looks good. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I like xenias! Actually have some myself. I am not tank racist haha People call them a weed. They are a coral. They are life. Exactly what you are bringing back to the tank.

Oh they are an absolute weed lol. But im mesmerized by the pulsation, always have been. And they're easy to frag and trade with.

 

[40B Knasty]

Oh they are an absolute weed lol. But im mesmerized by the pulsation, always have been. And they're easy to frag and trade with.

So I hear. Those are 11 months old and were surrounded by LR. Never grew out. Maybe I can frag them as "rare" non invasive Xenia! $500 hahaha

 

[TroutbumNV]

Updated FTS. Looking much better every day. Can actually see the back glass and heater now. A little bit of diatoms starting, water checks out fine, I'm sure going from no light to a bright LED has a lot to do with it.
Plus an excuse to enter another contest! [emoji12]
#reef2reef #worldwidecorals #mywwccontest

 

[TroutbumNV]

Contrasting environments..
https://www.instagram.com/p/BQynxyMgvB7/

 

[TroutbumNV]

Weekly water change day today. Worked some more on all the algae and detritus everywhere. Rinsed rocks, and redid the aquascape/rockwork a bit.
Still a little cloudy:

 

[TroutbumNV]

Added a small cleaner shrimp.

 

[40B Knasty]

Just finished my tank today. Month and 3 weeks.

 

[TroutbumNV]

Just another update. I've been worried about the cheap ebay spot light but so far everything seems to be doing well. Have added a BTA and a little cleaner goby.

The mushroom has really come around, both in size and color:

Acan seems to be coloring up as well:

About 6 to 7 new heads popping up on the galaxea:

I need to frag the xenia already:

The cleaner goby:

BTA rescued from Petco. Has some color loss but think I can save it, doesn't look too far gone:

FTS:

Getting a sprint of GHA now. Seems like after going without a light for so long, the tank is kind of going through the algae cycles all over again like a new tank. Started with the diatoms, those are now fading and GHA is cropping up. Could probably use a CUC as well, as it stands there's only one snail in there now.