So got back into saltwater aquariums after about a 8 year hiatus. Had a disaster tank crash that pushed me away for a very long time and became excited about it again after my kids started showing some interest.
this first picture is from July 28th after adding my fully cured live rock (26 pounds) and 20lbs of live sand. Lighting is stock compacts and actinics. Return pump is also stock. I removed the bioballs. There is no protein skimmer and no mechanical filters at this point:
This next picture is from August 14th after I returned from a week long vacation in the Galapagos. I came back to a tank full of hair algae. At this point I added a 250gph circulation pump and place an InTank media basket with filter floss, purigen and chemipure elite.
And this is August 28th. I did a little scrubbing of the rocks to remove the algae, added a CUC consisting of turbos, ceriths, margaritas and hermit crabs. Also added two false percs which never really seem to have mated to this day:
This picture is from September 10th, not much change, the coraline has slowly been developing, fish were happy....all parameters looked good and I added my first coral....
This last picture is from October 7th. I added a purple firefish and a couple more coral. Ricordia and some other mushroom. Everything seems to be doing fine. I have lost a couple of snails, but everything else seems to be hunky dory:
I was a little worried about how the ocellaris clowns would act towards the firefish, but they seem to get along great. My only concern is the bigger clown constantly picking on the smaller one...I thought they would've gotten along by now. Still don't have a protein skimmer, I do about a 10% water change every 2 weeks with catalina water I buy from the LFS and my top offs are with reverse osmosis water I buy from the grocery store (about a cup a day). Outside of my initial hair algae bloom I've been nuisance algae free. Have the occasional aiptasia that pops up which I treat with aiptasia-x. I may add one or two more corals maybe a montipora but otherwise I'm pretty much done. I'm in my twelfth week and I couldn't be happier. Simplicity and taking things slooooooowww (and of course the info on reef central) made this a much better experience. And my kids love it :bounce3:
this first picture is from July 28th after adding my fully cured live rock (26 pounds) and 20lbs of live sand. Lighting is stock compacts and actinics. Return pump is also stock. I removed the bioballs. There is no protein skimmer and no mechanical filters at this point:
This next picture is from August 14th after I returned from a week long vacation in the Galapagos. I came back to a tank full of hair algae. At this point I added a 250gph circulation pump and place an InTank media basket with filter floss, purigen and chemipure elite.
And this is August 28th. I did a little scrubbing of the rocks to remove the algae, added a CUC consisting of turbos, ceriths, margaritas and hermit crabs. Also added two false percs which never really seem to have mated to this day:
This picture is from September 10th, not much change, the coraline has slowly been developing, fish were happy....all parameters looked good and I added my first coral....
This last picture is from October 7th. I added a purple firefish and a couple more coral. Ricordia and some other mushroom. Everything seems to be doing fine. I have lost a couple of snails, but everything else seems to be hunky dory:
I was a little worried about how the ocellaris clowns would act towards the firefish, but they seem to get along great. My only concern is the bigger clown constantly picking on the smaller one...I thought they would've gotten along by now. Still don't have a protein skimmer, I do about a 10% water change every 2 weeks with catalina water I buy from the LFS and my top offs are with reverse osmosis water I buy from the grocery store (about a cup a day). Outside of my initial hair algae bloom I've been nuisance algae free. Have the occasional aiptasia that pops up which I treat with aiptasia-x. I may add one or two more corals maybe a montipora but otherwise I'm pretty much done. I'm in my twelfth week and I couldn't be happier. Simplicity and taking things slooooooowww (and of course the info on reef central) made this a much better experience. And my kids love it :bounce3:
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