A Newbs One Year Report Card

Socals14

Member
As the title states, this is my one year report card. My original build thread can be found here:

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2028146

After a year, a most of the "setup" has worked well. The continuous water change stuff has been a bit challenging. For one thing, maintenance on the pumps is critical. They seem to gum up and need to be be cleaned regularly. Still a worthwhile endeavor, however. My ATO has worked well, and my parameters are OK. I still find that Nitrates can accumulate and I think that has to do with a lot of detritus settling in my sump.

Corals:

It has been a learning adventure with corals. I started with a healthy "mix" with both LPS, SPS and softies. In retrospect, I think this was a mistake.

My Monti's are doing great. They grow well, and continue branch and shelve.

My Frogspawn (I have 2) are mixed bag. I have one that is doing great and another that is constant warfare with another coral.

Believe or not, my xenia at first took off...I thought they were going to overwhelm the rock they were on...now they are fading.

My ricordia is doing well having split twice.

I also have some polyps that seem to be OK...

I have some mushrooms that slowly growing.

Finally, my sun corals has been OK, but hasn't really grown...,just maintained.

Fish: All doing fine.

1 Naso Tang
1 Kole Tang
1 Yellow Tang
1 Six line
1 Foxface
2 Chromis
1 Damsel


Beyond that, I have one HUGE hermit crab and many small ones. They seem to be fine. My trochus are still doing OK, although I have lost a few here and there. I have one turbo that is huge and is still going strong. My cleaner and peppermint have both shed once...although the pepper has been oddly absent for some time.

Anyhow...some stuff is thriving and growing, others maintaining, and still others not so well.

Is that pretty typical?

If I had to reset my tank, I would make the following changes:

1. Different rock setup. I like my "pillar" look, but it seem to have contrained placement. If I did it again, I might go with a more "walled" look.

2. Coral placement. Some real newb mistakes here. I think chemical warfare has been going on and some corals have suffered.

I have been considering a slight "re-org" with a different rock setup. Do you think this would be premature?
 
Do you run GAC for the soft corals in that mixed tank to combat the chemical warfare that may be hurting some of your corals that are only maintaining?
 
Yeah. Pics or none of this ever happened. :) I don't hear much about "XYZ died on me" so I'd say its pretty good so far.
 
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