Newbie’s Reefing Journey

[Globalbutterfly]

Ok, first confessions. I should have started this thread MONTHS ago (Feb 2018 to be exact) when I first jumped off the deep end and ordered my first real, saltwater tank - a Red Sea 625XXL.

No wait, . . I should have started this five months before that, last week of September 2017. Fall break trip to Panama City Beach with my 7th grader. He was totally fascinated with the wild ocean hermit crabs you could dig up with your toes. Wanted to take them home.

“Of course we can’t do that!” “We’d never be able to keep them alive! They are saltwater and that is SUPER complicated and hard maintain.” Quiet Google search and a call (and then a visit) to a LFS told me I was wrong.

Before I go even a little bit further, let me just say that unless you know what you are doing and have all proper licenses and permits, taking any wildlife from the ocean is WRONG and potentially illegal.

That said, IMAGINE IF a silly mom knew nothing about this and MIGHT have drove back to Atlanta with a Homer bucket half full of ocean sand, the rest full of ocean water (running with a battery operated air stone) and a sand pail full of hermit crabs they dug up with their toes. Crabs, sand and water all might have gone into an old 10 gal tank with a heater and HOB filter.

Then the mom fell in love with the hermit crabs. Bought them new shells and spent hours and hours watching them try on and discard shells with a delight and frenzy not unlike the scene at the clearance table on designer handbags on Black Friday.

Gave them names, Philippe - totally fabulous, tiny pink Pom Pom on his antenna
Mr. Potty Mouth - aggressive, chose a big knarly shell; Napoleon - most aggressive of all, shell very reminiscent of Napoleon’s hat.

 

[Globalbutterfly]

Mr. Potty Mouth

 

[Globalbutterfly]

Long story short, details left out . . . I was hooked and soon knew I wanted a REAL saltwater tank. But then, like Pinocchio, that was just the beginning with adventures and pitfalls along the way.

 

[SPR1968]

Great pictures and write up and welcome to R2R!

I like the crab picture

 

[Globalbutterfly]

Thanks! I’ve been a long time lurker but finally decided to put together a build thread. Since I literally knew nothing when I started out last fall, I haven’t posted much. Decided not to be “that” person who posts all the same questions that have been answered over and over. I read the “stickies” at the beginning of forums and ALWAYS search before I post questions. This is such an amazing community with so much great experience that they generously share, that it’s pretty rare I don’t find what I need in the forums and threads.

 

[Globalbutterfly]

So to continue the rambling story . . . The old 10 gal was quickly replaced by a Fluval Evo 13.5 gal AIO. Moved all the sand, seawater and 20+ crabs into the shiny new tank along with a bit of dry rock from the LFS.

Then I learned about cycling, testing, testing, waiting, waiting.

 

[Globalbutterfly]

So after a five week wait and a massive lesson in patience, finally got the ok to add my first fish - two little clowns of course.

Tank doing well, lots of learning (and testing.) Really cool hitchhiker hatched out of all the beach sand - sea hare.
Discovered coral right after Christmas. Ok, now I was really hooked!!

 

[Globalbutterfly]

Then I got my first and worst really big lessons in chemistry, bioload and scale.
Loved my new little softies. Wanted to make them thrive. All along, I’d been trying to research and learn. Listened to a reef keeping podcast. They mentioned feeding my fish & the corals “shrimp”. Some of you may have an idea where this is going and are cringing . . . Yep, that’s what I did.

I got a whole jumbo shrimp from the freezer, blended it up with some tank water then fed it to my fish and corals. All of it!!! No surprise to any of you, but big shock to me to discover the next morning I’d killed all my fish in 7 hours while I slept. Mind you, those little beach crabs were still alive and picking.

So, off I went to the LFS (in tears) to get fresh saltwater to do a massive water change hoping to at least keep the crabs and coral alive.

Lessons learned:
1. Don’t do something to your tank just because you “heard or read about it” somewhere.
2. There is a world of difference in scale between a 90 gal tank with a sump and skimmer and a 13.5 gallon all-in-one.
3. When reef people talk about feeding shrimp, they generally mean mysis or brine shrimp, not something from Red Lobster.

 

[PanchoG]

I am sorry for your losses, we were all starting on this hobby at some point and know how you feel.

I recommend you to read and read and read, R2R have a lot of information and you can also use your LFS to guide you.

Welcome to R2R, it is good to have you here.