Back in the Hobby after 15-20 yrs

[Reefing102]

Very nice!

 

[travdixon]

Current view of tank. Got two tester corals, a small scan frag and rainbow month frag….let’s see how it goes

 

[travdixon]

Acan and monti

 

[JohnL]

Acan and monti

Good luck with them.

 

[vlangel]

Seems like your tank is progressing well.

 

[travdixon]

Well I have officially hit the ugly phase. Debated cutting back lights, but I decided I’m just gonna ride it out. Not nice to look at but it isn’t bothering anything other than me! My jaw fish died again, so I’m done with them. Hate losing fish. I have a nice blue jaw at the moment that is currently the pig of the tank. Thinking of just chillin out through this nasty phase. Maybe get going on an ATO…did a 20 gallon water change last week and plan on another this weekend. Currently have 4 small coral tester frags, the 3 cardinals, clown pair, hawk fish and trigger…..oh and a snowflake nem…..that’s what I’m riding with for awhile. If algae gets crazy I might throw a tang in. I also have 10 astrea snails

 

[Reefing102]

Ugly phases are one of those frustrating parts

 

[travdixon]

Yeah if I didn’t have the coral frags and nem I’d just turn the lights off, but I’m sure no matter when I turned em back on it’d rear its head again…..just gonna clean the glass and lightly sift sand and use a toothbrush on bad spots on the rock for now. Trying to find a lfs with some nassarius snails, but they’re hard to find for some reason right now

 

[travdixon]

Rescaled my rocks a bit too, they weren’t as steady as I thought. Once this ugly phase is done I may try gluing them again

 

[Reefing102]

Check out ReefCleaners for clean up crew. I’ve had great success ordering from them with minimal (just 1) death during shipping.

Since he usually ships USPS priority, I encourage ordering during fair weather and not extreme heat. He does use heat and or cold packs but I’m just overly cautious

 

[travdixon]

Yeah I try to stay away from online ordering as I live close to LAX. No need to have stuff shipped that comes through there! My local store said they’d have some more snails in next week

 

[JohnL]

Check out ReefCleaners for clean up crew. I’ve had great success ordering from them with minimal (just 1) death during shipping.

Since he usually ships USPS priority, I encourage ordering during fair weather and not extreme heat. He does use heat and or cold packs but I’m just overly cautious

I've had good experience with them too.

 

[travdixon]

Got 10 nassarius snails yesterday and a blue eye kole tang. Also switched up my flow. Today tank looks much better! Ugly phase may only last a few days…..let’s hope

 

[travdixon]

So my diatom bloom is gone….5 days, and the combo of the tang, astrea and nassarius snails, my rollermat and skimmer conquered it…now let’s see what’s next

 

[Reefing102]

Awesome to hear. I vote nothing next just to bring good wishes to fellow reefers but in my experience it’s either Cyano or hair algae

 

[travdixon]

Couple shots of my frags and my snowflake nem. Sorry if they aren’t professional shots, still trying to figure out this iPhone 10

 

[travdixon]

Well, what happened next…..that kole tang? Ended up with velvet and now all my fish have it. I am pretty gutted. Don’t know what to do now as it’s already infected every fish. No QT tank, obviously as this prob could’ve been avoided with one. It pains me to write this

 

[vlangel]

I am sorry, that is rough. Hang in there, it won't always feel this bad.

 

[Reefing102]

Definitely hang in there. It’s terrible but we can get through it

 

[travdixon]

Thanks, every morning I wake up and count my fish. Same when I get home from work. Nothing has died, and some look better and others look worse. It’s a stress that I never wanted, and it’s my own fault. I shouldn’t have spent so much money trying to get this tank up and running without spending some on a QT. Any algae pales in comparison at this point. Thought of just breaking the whole thing down