stratozyck
New member
I started this tank almost six years ago. At one point, I had some acros and two birds nests doing well.
This is what it used to look like, in his hey day (Jan 2017):
When I set it up, I liked things that lived in the sand so I got a deep sand bed. I actually did not intend to put coral in... but of course I did.
The only creatures still in the tank from this picture is the Trumpet coral (bottom right next to peach palys) and a watchman goby.
The tank began to crash in 2018 likely due to the DSB thinning out and releasing stuff. I had difficulty maintaining it.
It came back a few times but the trend was down. I have almost no Zoas/Palys left! Theres just like 5-6 peach palys.
About a year and a half ago I decided to either take it down or turn it around. I stopped putting anything new a long time ago already, but I pretty much went into "I don't care about the corals right now" mode.
I siphoned out most of the sand over several water changes. I also took out a lot of rock. Also, the tank is now skimmerless and I am relying on water changes and chemical filtration. Also, when I do water changes I clean the sand as best I can.
The transformation killed almost all the remaining coral. When I began the transformation, there was still actually three acros still doing ok. It killed them along with the remaining SPS. Several fish were removed to a different tank I set up in my home office (Covid tank!) that is easier to take care of (FOWLR).
Today the Trumpet coral is the hero of this tank's story. I bought it 6 years ago as a two headed frag. It has survived years of mistreatment and death of other corals. I now have two clumps of it with a third branch having broken off last week.
Im considering putting some other coral now in there, as the tank seems to be doing ok. Its been a story! I had 4 kids since this tank was put up and they started messing with it pretty early on. At one point, we had a german roach infestation and there were literally roaches in the sump! They had formed a nest underneath the tank.
