SereneAquatic
New member
Greetings, wonderful people of Reef Central! I have been considering keeping a small journal of things about my tank as we go forward, just for the fun of looking back on the missteps, fortunate strokes of luck and decisions (both good and bad). This seems like an unobtrusive place to keep my little journal, and maybe occasionally someone might stop me from making a big mistake!
I've been eyeing saltwater creatures for almost a year at our local fish store, envious of the amazing things they could keep in a saltwater tank that I could never hope to have in a freshwater tank. One day, while we were there getting things for my daughters freshwater tank, I said "I think I'm going to buy a crab."
My daughter of 17 years proceeded to tell me no.
"You can't just bring home saltwater fish Mom. You have to set up the tank and then wait." I thought she was crazy, so I asked the store clerk and they said I could buy a tank, set it up and wait "a couple days" before buying fish.
They didn't tell me anything else about the process, and probably knew very little themselves. I thought maybe I could have a tank with those cool fish in it by the weekend! The only thing that stopped me from buying a crappy 40 dollar glass tank that day was the fact that I couldn't think of where I would put it in the house. Thank goodness!
I went home and, at my daughters suggestion, I started watching youtube videos. The rabbit hole was deep... and I was horrified at what I had almost done. Everything would have died immediately, I'm sure of it. I eventually gave up. It seemed way too complex and I was finding out new things and considerations with every mouse click. How could I ever learn enough to get started?
Every time I went to the LFS though, those dang fish were there, taunting me. "Look, high school students take care of me. How hard can this be?"
I kept digging off and on for almost 8 months, wavering back and forth between 'Surely I could do this' to "ARRRGH IS THERE NO END TO THE INFORMATION?"
Eventually, I found BRS TV and the BRS160 series. I had started seriously considering a tank by that time and my husband was increasingly concerned. :lmao: I told him about these videos I had started watching, and asked him if he wanted to watch them with me.
We binge watched that entire series for a couple of weeks, taking notes and branching out on topics we wanted to know more about... and at the end of it, I felt MUCH more confident that I at least understood how all these things would work together, at least in theory. Even my husband was starting to become curious. (The trap was set! :strooper: )
Around Thanksgiving, we decided to go to a different LFS further away because they were a Red Sea dealer, and we wanted to see those tanks in person. I thought maybe a small 30 gallon would be good to start. When we arrived at the store, my husband started eyeballing a huge 90 gallon tank with a sump lol My plan was to find a tank with the sump on the back wall so I didn't have to do any plumbing, which I was sure I could not do.
They gave me a giant book... catalog... of all the red sea tanks that I took home and pored over until I understood what it all meant, and all the while my husband is going "I think we should get the big one" :lmao: He was totally hooked.
At the end of the day, that actually was the tank we ordered. It was the Red Sea Reefer 425 XL Deluxe. I heard people saying they would buy those sizes and immediately regret it... wishing they had gone bigger, but I was already WAY beyond my intended starting size. My husband was confident we could "figure out" the sump, and he is an old pro with plumbing, electrical, etc... which we were determined to do "right". With his help and support, the sky was the limit.
I'm a great planner, and he's terrific with implementation, so together we'd be unstoppable. :thumbsup: Plus, now I had the green light to spend money lol.
We have done a few things that I wish we hadn't done immediately. Some items were purchased and then taken back to the store as more research and consideration was had.
1. We initially purchased bio balls for the sump because the rock we chose was not particularly porous. We knew we wanted a certain look to the tank, and were willing to put other media in the sump for the surface area needs... but bio balls were not the way to go.
2. We purchased fiberglass rods and jbwaterweld to build our rock structure, but ultimately decided to use gravity and friction to our advantage instead.
3. We purchased a skimmer and intended for it to go in the sump... but then decided we wanted to dedicate the majority of the sump to a large refugium instead. The skimmer still sits all nice and new, awaiting the day where it might be used. At this point, it would probably have to be in another little 10 gallon tank with pumps moving water to it and back, because most of the sump area is used now. (This is where that regret for not getting the bigger tank with the full size sump kicks in, isn't it? Or maybe it was finding out that a lot of the neatest fish do best in a 120+ tank?)
One thing I do NOT regret was the addition of our clown fish, probably way before people would have recommended they be added.
I'd read a lot on the cycling of rock, and why to NOT use fish to do the cycle and took it to heart... however I'd watched a small "cycle" occur (meaning I saw the ammonia spike, then the Nitrite, then the Nitrate) twice already... and I swear there was a small diatom bloom once when the dry base rock was 'curing' (it had some organic matter in the holes) and the second cycle occurred after it went into the display tank with some fish pellets. I knew there was already some amount of bacteria breaking down these things and felt like it was ready for the next small step. I added the clownfish with BioSpira to help give the bacteria another jump, and saw a very brief spike in ammonia, followed quickly by Nitrite and Nitrate. It leveled out almost immediately, in about 2 days, leaving a low level of Nitrate in the tank.
At that time, we also added a chaeto ball to the DISPLAY (not the sump) because our refugium light had not yet arrived in the mail. The Nitrate started dwindling slowly... I did not do any water changes since it was pretty low.
A few days later, the Kessil H380 arrived and we installed it and the chaeto into the sump, and it was getting noticeably bigger after about 5 days. (Now, it seems to be growing exponentially) The Nitrate levels dropped to zero, and a small diatom bloom appeared, and then started receding a bit after about 5-6 days. We still have not done any water changes since the rocks and water went into the tank. Today, about a month in, we have finally started to see a tiny bit of what could be hair algae developing on the rock, but the chaeto seems to be outperforming it by a mile. I adjusted the display lights to be off for a few more hours tomorrow and will back them off a bit more still if the algae in the display begins to take a stronger hold.
The clown fish are super happy in the DT, eating well, and braver by the day. I found that they love the garlic soaked frozen foods.
The only part of this that I have regrets about so far... is the quarantine tank.
1. I wish I had purchased the CUC immediately, as soon as we started putting water in the display tank, and put them into quarantine. We knew we wanted to quarantine everything (after the clown fish, which had been held by the LFS for about 3 weeks in copper treated tank before we brought them home) but I didn't think the tank would be ready for them so soon. We didn't purchase them until the diatom bloom was about a week or 10 days old, so now we have a long time to go before they will get into the DT. I'm really relying on the chaeto and upcoming water changes to help keep things under control until they can be introduced.
2. I wish I had known how hard the QT process can be, and how much salt water I should have pre-mixed and ready to go. Everyone makes the QT process sound easy... "All you need is a small tank, heater, water movement and PVC pipe... some live rock or sponge filter from the DT will help too... and vioala! Just do water changes to keep the parameters in check." Yeah right. That little 10 gallon tank has been more stressful than all the rest combined. It doesn't have the Apex, or any of the other nice things that the DT has to help the critters out. I worry about salinity fluctuations, temperature fluctuations, and GODS how do I keep it clean??? The ammonia is constantly high, and I can barely keep up with mixing the salt water or the top off.
3. I wish I had not purchased a fish for quarantine at the same time as the CUC. My logic at the time was that if indeed any of the inverts were carrying any problems, like Ich, a fish in the tank with them would act as a kind of 'canary in the coal mine'. If signs of problems occurred, I would move the fish to a separate QT and begin treatment, and then know for sure that the inverts must stay in quarantine for many weeks to make sure they dont carry it into the DT. I realized that the fish could bring in the problems as well (much more likely, in fact), but this LFS has a good reputation and good practices so I rather trust them (so far). People come from a long distance to this store. The problem is... I really like the new fish... already. Not that any fish or sea life is disposable, that was not my thought, but rather it was that if there was a problem, I wouldn't be as attached to the new fish like I am to the clown fish, who I visited regularly in the fish store for 3 weeks, and have cared for since I brought them home. They are a mature, bonded pair and never leave each others side in this giant tank. However, one look at that shy little flame angel face peeping out at me from inside a PVC pipe and I was smitten. That freaking fish is adorable. For almost a week, he would hide whenever I came into the room, and would peep at me repeatedly from his hiding spot, just enough to see me and make sure I was still there and then hide again. Argh, so darn cute. I dont want anything to happen to any of the CUC or the angel, and I feel like the QT is a disaster most of the time so far... it has to be super stressful for them, which I wish I could avoid.
Tomorrow we are making some changes to our QT process... namely adding at least 1 additional tank that we can move the fish and CUC into every couple of days, and then clean out and dry the first tank. We'll rotate them like this every few days going forward so the tank can be properly cleaned and the critters all get essentially 100% water change every few days without the tank getting completely nasty. I do my best to clean up the stuff that collects on the bottom, but it is still not great. We'll take water from the DT for each iteration of the QT refresh and add new saltwater to the DT, which needs water changes anyway. The DT is more capable of handling the adjustments in temp and salinity than the small tanks are, and so the QT will get consistent temps and consistent salinity, only needing top off of fresh water. We're also mixing up a LOT of saltwater in a brute trash can to use for the new salt water so I'm not struggling to keep up with 5 gallon buckets.
Yesterday, little peeping angel finally started eating a tiny bit of frozen food soaked in garlic, and today she ate more heartily, which makes me happy. The fire shrimp molted yesterday, probably from stress, but hopefully his days will look a lot brighter soon. Who knows, maybe it was just molting time....
The emerald crab mostly hides, but I do see him come out from under the very small live rock I placed in the QT. It looks like a little 3 inch millennium falcon (the rock, not the crab). I suppose technically the live rock is also in quarantine, so there's also that to consider in all of this. I probably shouldn't have purchased the rock, but I had hoped it might have some bacteria on it that would help with the ammonia.
All in all I'd say the number one problem right now is too many variables, especially in the QT. I didn't think that part through enough and regret most of those decisions. I'll know better going forward I guess, but it has been a hard lesson. For all the researching I did, there was a lot taken for granted in that QT process. It makes me not want to buy anything else for the DT after this... ever! At least, not until I can find a way to do it better. It has invaded my bathroom, my kitchen, a bedroom, the garage, etc. Nothing is set up where it is convenient or accessible. Next week, the plumbing company is coming to install a water line for the RODI unit in the garage so we dont have to keep it on the kitchen counter any more (thank goodness), and when we start this 'tank rotation' business, it will not be on the bathroom counter. It will be on its own table in an area where I can keep everything I need at hand. It has been so much work just to try to get the salt water made and mixed in time to change the QT water before ammonia levels are awful that I have barely had time to fill the ATO on the DT. How can one 10 gallon tank be so consuming? I'm glad the DT is doing well and holding its own, and the Apex has already paid for itself in the monitoring it does. It was one of the best purchases we made, and I'm sure as I figure out more of its programming it will be better still.
That is a lot of stuff for a single post, but now we're up to speed and small entries can begin!
If anyone does stop by to read this, dont be too harsh. I know I make some mistakes here, but I do promise not to make the SAME mistakes twice. I'm a fast learner, and I really do want the best for my little inhabitants.
I've been eyeing saltwater creatures for almost a year at our local fish store, envious of the amazing things they could keep in a saltwater tank that I could never hope to have in a freshwater tank. One day, while we were there getting things for my daughters freshwater tank, I said "I think I'm going to buy a crab."
My daughter of 17 years proceeded to tell me no.
"You can't just bring home saltwater fish Mom. You have to set up the tank and then wait." I thought she was crazy, so I asked the store clerk and they said I could buy a tank, set it up and wait "a couple days" before buying fish.
They didn't tell me anything else about the process, and probably knew very little themselves. I thought maybe I could have a tank with those cool fish in it by the weekend! The only thing that stopped me from buying a crappy 40 dollar glass tank that day was the fact that I couldn't think of where I would put it in the house. Thank goodness!
I went home and, at my daughters suggestion, I started watching youtube videos. The rabbit hole was deep... and I was horrified at what I had almost done. Everything would have died immediately, I'm sure of it. I eventually gave up. It seemed way too complex and I was finding out new things and considerations with every mouse click. How could I ever learn enough to get started?
Every time I went to the LFS though, those dang fish were there, taunting me. "Look, high school students take care of me. How hard can this be?"
I kept digging off and on for almost 8 months, wavering back and forth between 'Surely I could do this' to "ARRRGH IS THERE NO END TO THE INFORMATION?"
Eventually, I found BRS TV and the BRS160 series. I had started seriously considering a tank by that time and my husband was increasingly concerned. :lmao: I told him about these videos I had started watching, and asked him if he wanted to watch them with me.
We binge watched that entire series for a couple of weeks, taking notes and branching out on topics we wanted to know more about... and at the end of it, I felt MUCH more confident that I at least understood how all these things would work together, at least in theory. Even my husband was starting to become curious. (The trap was set! :strooper: )
Around Thanksgiving, we decided to go to a different LFS further away because they were a Red Sea dealer, and we wanted to see those tanks in person. I thought maybe a small 30 gallon would be good to start. When we arrived at the store, my husband started eyeballing a huge 90 gallon tank with a sump lol My plan was to find a tank with the sump on the back wall so I didn't have to do any plumbing, which I was sure I could not do.
They gave me a giant book... catalog... of all the red sea tanks that I took home and pored over until I understood what it all meant, and all the while my husband is going "I think we should get the big one" :lmao: He was totally hooked.
At the end of the day, that actually was the tank we ordered. It was the Red Sea Reefer 425 XL Deluxe. I heard people saying they would buy those sizes and immediately regret it... wishing they had gone bigger, but I was already WAY beyond my intended starting size. My husband was confident we could "figure out" the sump, and he is an old pro with plumbing, electrical, etc... which we were determined to do "right". With his help and support, the sky was the limit.
I'm a great planner, and he's terrific with implementation, so together we'd be unstoppable. :thumbsup: Plus, now I had the green light to spend money lol.
We have done a few things that I wish we hadn't done immediately. Some items were purchased and then taken back to the store as more research and consideration was had.
1. We initially purchased bio balls for the sump because the rock we chose was not particularly porous. We knew we wanted a certain look to the tank, and were willing to put other media in the sump for the surface area needs... but bio balls were not the way to go.
2. We purchased fiberglass rods and jbwaterweld to build our rock structure, but ultimately decided to use gravity and friction to our advantage instead.
3. We purchased a skimmer and intended for it to go in the sump... but then decided we wanted to dedicate the majority of the sump to a large refugium instead. The skimmer still sits all nice and new, awaiting the day where it might be used. At this point, it would probably have to be in another little 10 gallon tank with pumps moving water to it and back, because most of the sump area is used now. (This is where that regret for not getting the bigger tank with the full size sump kicks in, isn't it? Or maybe it was finding out that a lot of the neatest fish do best in a 120+ tank?)
One thing I do NOT regret was the addition of our clown fish, probably way before people would have recommended they be added.
I'd read a lot on the cycling of rock, and why to NOT use fish to do the cycle and took it to heart... however I'd watched a small "cycle" occur (meaning I saw the ammonia spike, then the Nitrite, then the Nitrate) twice already... and I swear there was a small diatom bloom once when the dry base rock was 'curing' (it had some organic matter in the holes) and the second cycle occurred after it went into the display tank with some fish pellets. I knew there was already some amount of bacteria breaking down these things and felt like it was ready for the next small step. I added the clownfish with BioSpira to help give the bacteria another jump, and saw a very brief spike in ammonia, followed quickly by Nitrite and Nitrate. It leveled out almost immediately, in about 2 days, leaving a low level of Nitrate in the tank.
At that time, we also added a chaeto ball to the DISPLAY (not the sump) because our refugium light had not yet arrived in the mail. The Nitrate started dwindling slowly... I did not do any water changes since it was pretty low.
A few days later, the Kessil H380 arrived and we installed it and the chaeto into the sump, and it was getting noticeably bigger after about 5 days. (Now, it seems to be growing exponentially) The Nitrate levels dropped to zero, and a small diatom bloom appeared, and then started receding a bit after about 5-6 days. We still have not done any water changes since the rocks and water went into the tank. Today, about a month in, we have finally started to see a tiny bit of what could be hair algae developing on the rock, but the chaeto seems to be outperforming it by a mile. I adjusted the display lights to be off for a few more hours tomorrow and will back them off a bit more still if the algae in the display begins to take a stronger hold.
The clown fish are super happy in the DT, eating well, and braver by the day. I found that they love the garlic soaked frozen foods.
The only part of this that I have regrets about so far... is the quarantine tank.
1. I wish I had purchased the CUC immediately, as soon as we started putting water in the display tank, and put them into quarantine. We knew we wanted to quarantine everything (after the clown fish, which had been held by the LFS for about 3 weeks in copper treated tank before we brought them home) but I didn't think the tank would be ready for them so soon. We didn't purchase them until the diatom bloom was about a week or 10 days old, so now we have a long time to go before they will get into the DT. I'm really relying on the chaeto and upcoming water changes to help keep things under control until they can be introduced.
2. I wish I had known how hard the QT process can be, and how much salt water I should have pre-mixed and ready to go. Everyone makes the QT process sound easy... "All you need is a small tank, heater, water movement and PVC pipe... some live rock or sponge filter from the DT will help too... and vioala! Just do water changes to keep the parameters in check." Yeah right. That little 10 gallon tank has been more stressful than all the rest combined. It doesn't have the Apex, or any of the other nice things that the DT has to help the critters out. I worry about salinity fluctuations, temperature fluctuations, and GODS how do I keep it clean??? The ammonia is constantly high, and I can barely keep up with mixing the salt water or the top off.
3. I wish I had not purchased a fish for quarantine at the same time as the CUC. My logic at the time was that if indeed any of the inverts were carrying any problems, like Ich, a fish in the tank with them would act as a kind of 'canary in the coal mine'. If signs of problems occurred, I would move the fish to a separate QT and begin treatment, and then know for sure that the inverts must stay in quarantine for many weeks to make sure they dont carry it into the DT. I realized that the fish could bring in the problems as well (much more likely, in fact), but this LFS has a good reputation and good practices so I rather trust them (so far). People come from a long distance to this store. The problem is... I really like the new fish... already. Not that any fish or sea life is disposable, that was not my thought, but rather it was that if there was a problem, I wouldn't be as attached to the new fish like I am to the clown fish, who I visited regularly in the fish store for 3 weeks, and have cared for since I brought them home. They are a mature, bonded pair and never leave each others side in this giant tank. However, one look at that shy little flame angel face peeping out at me from inside a PVC pipe and I was smitten. That freaking fish is adorable. For almost a week, he would hide whenever I came into the room, and would peep at me repeatedly from his hiding spot, just enough to see me and make sure I was still there and then hide again. Argh, so darn cute. I dont want anything to happen to any of the CUC or the angel, and I feel like the QT is a disaster most of the time so far... it has to be super stressful for them, which I wish I could avoid.
Tomorrow we are making some changes to our QT process... namely adding at least 1 additional tank that we can move the fish and CUC into every couple of days, and then clean out and dry the first tank. We'll rotate them like this every few days going forward so the tank can be properly cleaned and the critters all get essentially 100% water change every few days without the tank getting completely nasty. I do my best to clean up the stuff that collects on the bottom, but it is still not great. We'll take water from the DT for each iteration of the QT refresh and add new saltwater to the DT, which needs water changes anyway. The DT is more capable of handling the adjustments in temp and salinity than the small tanks are, and so the QT will get consistent temps and consistent salinity, only needing top off of fresh water. We're also mixing up a LOT of saltwater in a brute trash can to use for the new salt water so I'm not struggling to keep up with 5 gallon buckets.
Yesterday, little peeping angel finally started eating a tiny bit of frozen food soaked in garlic, and today she ate more heartily, which makes me happy. The fire shrimp molted yesterday, probably from stress, but hopefully his days will look a lot brighter soon. Who knows, maybe it was just molting time....
The emerald crab mostly hides, but I do see him come out from under the very small live rock I placed in the QT. It looks like a little 3 inch millennium falcon (the rock, not the crab). I suppose technically the live rock is also in quarantine, so there's also that to consider in all of this. I probably shouldn't have purchased the rock, but I had hoped it might have some bacteria on it that would help with the ammonia.
All in all I'd say the number one problem right now is too many variables, especially in the QT. I didn't think that part through enough and regret most of those decisions. I'll know better going forward I guess, but it has been a hard lesson. For all the researching I did, there was a lot taken for granted in that QT process. It makes me not want to buy anything else for the DT after this... ever! At least, not until I can find a way to do it better. It has invaded my bathroom, my kitchen, a bedroom, the garage, etc. Nothing is set up where it is convenient or accessible. Next week, the plumbing company is coming to install a water line for the RODI unit in the garage so we dont have to keep it on the kitchen counter any more (thank goodness), and when we start this 'tank rotation' business, it will not be on the bathroom counter. It will be on its own table in an area where I can keep everything I need at hand. It has been so much work just to try to get the salt water made and mixed in time to change the QT water before ammonia levels are awful that I have barely had time to fill the ATO on the DT. How can one 10 gallon tank be so consuming? I'm glad the DT is doing well and holding its own, and the Apex has already paid for itself in the monitoring it does. It was one of the best purchases we made, and I'm sure as I figure out more of its programming it will be better still.
That is a lot of stuff for a single post, but now we're up to speed and small entries can begin!
If anyone does stop by to read this, dont be too harsh. I know I make some mistakes here, but I do promise not to make the SAME mistakes twice. I'm a fast learner, and I really do want the best for my little inhabitants.
. Just remember everyone make mistakes, we’re humans
