djberg
New member
so for the last 6 months or so, i have been reading alot on here while getting into my first and now second salt tank....
first off thanks to every one here for the help with out even knowing you were helping.
this all started while i was doing some serious work on my truck with my best friend, we were standing on his porch and his old nano 14 gal was sitting on the there, i asked him what he was doing with it? and he said nothing, you should put use to it and give your kids something neat to watch...
so that night i did some googling, learned about larger water volume vs small with spiking. went back asked him about that and he said well take my old 55 that's up in the barn, plus i've got all kinds of salt crap that i've never used but it came with the 55 when he bought it. and this is where it all went crazy.
started the tank off with 2 blue/green chromis and a blue damsel. get the tank cycled and was at my lfs and saw a green mandarin, asked them about him, they said he ate instant ocean copapease(i think that's spelled right). and he would eat that and be fine in my tank even though it's a new tank....
well one of my tenants who *had a 55 loaded with softies and lfs gave me one of his rocks as a coralline starter, well that rock also came with tons of hitch hikers, mini brittles, a few aptista, and pods. well that mandarin found those pods and was not settling for anything other than pods to eat. so he was good for a few days but that one little rock surely did not have enough to sustain him. he was having no part in anything else i tried to get him to eat. so i searched craigslist for some one getting rid of rock and oping to find bugs with said rock... well yeah i got some rocks and then some lol.
so after finding a bunch of rock at decent prices but 2-4 hrs away, i finally find a guy only 1/2hr away and wants $3/lb! wohoo!! after talking to him for a week or so and working up all the money i could find i ended up offering him $350 for everything he had and he took it, so the next night my buddy and i went down and picked up a 75, 100# of sand, 250# of rock, a clown, a damzel, a huge green brittle,a small collection of softies, a frog spawn, tons of brown/orange paly's, a hamilton tech 2x175watt halide with 2x t12 vho actinics, a 30 sump and a skimmer. it took the entire bed of my truck(8' bed), we left at 7pm, and by 1 am it was up and one huge sand storm...
so the next morning i started checking parameters, salinity was low 1.018, everything else was at 0, so i'm guessing the guy was just over the tank and pretty much abandoned it, because of all the algae and apista everywhere.
so yeah in a matter of 6 months i have ended up with 2 tanks and a heck of an addiction.... so now its a battle to get the tank back and clean(no aptista and far less algae), and keep it going. though it was neglected, i have a very established system, and tones of bugs as well so the little mandarin is all fat and happy at least!
first off thanks to every one here for the help with out even knowing you were helping.
this all started while i was doing some serious work on my truck with my best friend, we were standing on his porch and his old nano 14 gal was sitting on the there, i asked him what he was doing with it? and he said nothing, you should put use to it and give your kids something neat to watch...
so that night i did some googling, learned about larger water volume vs small with spiking. went back asked him about that and he said well take my old 55 that's up in the barn, plus i've got all kinds of salt crap that i've never used but it came with the 55 when he bought it. and this is where it all went crazy.
started the tank off with 2 blue/green chromis and a blue damsel. get the tank cycled and was at my lfs and saw a green mandarin, asked them about him, they said he ate instant ocean copapease(i think that's spelled right). and he would eat that and be fine in my tank even though it's a new tank....
well one of my tenants who *had a 55 loaded with softies and lfs gave me one of his rocks as a coralline starter, well that rock also came with tons of hitch hikers, mini brittles, a few aptista, and pods. well that mandarin found those pods and was not settling for anything other than pods to eat. so he was good for a few days but that one little rock surely did not have enough to sustain him. he was having no part in anything else i tried to get him to eat. so i searched craigslist for some one getting rid of rock and oping to find bugs with said rock... well yeah i got some rocks and then some lol.
so after finding a bunch of rock at decent prices but 2-4 hrs away, i finally find a guy only 1/2hr away and wants $3/lb! wohoo!! after talking to him for a week or so and working up all the money i could find i ended up offering him $350 for everything he had and he took it, so the next night my buddy and i went down and picked up a 75, 100# of sand, 250# of rock, a clown, a damzel, a huge green brittle,a small collection of softies, a frog spawn, tons of brown/orange paly's, a hamilton tech 2x175watt halide with 2x t12 vho actinics, a 30 sump and a skimmer. it took the entire bed of my truck(8' bed), we left at 7pm, and by 1 am it was up and one huge sand storm...
so the next morning i started checking parameters, salinity was low 1.018, everything else was at 0, so i'm guessing the guy was just over the tank and pretty much abandoned it, because of all the algae and apista everywhere.
so yeah in a matter of 6 months i have ended up with 2 tanks and a heck of an addiction.... so now its a battle to get the tank back and clean(no aptista and far less algae), and keep it going. though it was neglected, i have a very established system, and tones of bugs as well so the little mandarin is all fat and happy at least!
