please help me give my 50g a fresh start (can't believe I'm posting this photo)

[Candi]

Let me start off by saying this tank was never intended to be a reef, it was going to be a FOWLR for a single green spotted puffer... possibly with a more agressive clownfish tankmate. It's a seaclear 50g acrylic tank, originally started as freshwater for my green spotted puffer with some fake plants, 2 of those rocks you can get at petco/petsmart, and a fake rock structure, with a crushed coral substrate. His salinity was increased each week until he was eventually after a year in full marine conditions... added a skimmer and some LR.... fast forward and I got a maroon clown. Before we moved from MI to NJ I saw a great deal on some LR, didn't consider why it was such a great deal and bought it... introducing rustbrown planaria & a few aiptasia and all. We got settled in our new home and before I knew it I had a RBTA, some corals, and new lighting over the tank.

It's a mess. I have a 24g aquapod which is my joy and I love staring at for hours but my 50g makes me cringe.

Here is the photo I can't believe I'm posting. Although it doesn't look like it I do take care of the tank, using RO/DI for 10g water changes a week, all specs are in order, inhabitants are happy & healthy... that said.

Yes that awful crushed coral is still in there, yes so are those two original rocks I had when it was freshwater, yes that is a algea covered plastic plant poorly attempting to disguise a powerhead, yes it looks like I just lumped a pile or LR together (I actually didn't, but since all my pieces are more suited for a nano tank it looks that way), and yes... that is the fake rock structure on the left hand side (but hey, it does have coraline LOL)

The anemone & clown are going, it's gotten about 10x it's original size in the 2 months I've had it and is stinging the few other corals in there. I plan to pull all the rocks out and treat with FWE and remove the crushed coral and replace it with sand. The original freshwater rocks will also come out.

Which will leave me with (hopefully) a flatworm free tank, with a fresh sandbed, but still the same pile of to small LR. So I'm thinking of replacing at least some of the LR. Problem is my husband isn't "into" my hobby and he's the one who works so the most I can get away with spending is about $100.

I can't decide if I should order about 20lbs of LR from preminum aquatics (I'm in their 2 day ground area, I used them for my aquapod rock and was really happy with it) or if I should order the 25lb box of base rock from http://www.marcorocks.com/default.asp knowing that it'll likelly be closer to 50lbs since it's lighter when dry.

Either would be cured in a seperate tub before being put in the tank, if I went with the baserock I'd add some LR to the curing tub.

What would you do? (and yes I have thought of selling everything off but my green spotted puffer and some LR LOL)

 

[vikubz]

Well, first, it looks like the livestock is healthy, so you must be doing something right. You can get remedies for flatworms, and a peppermint shrimp can help with aptaisia. I don't see anything that you should be embarassed about.

If it were me, and I'm far from an expert, I'd get some more cured live rock and remove the crushed coral in favor of either a shallow sand bed or even bare bottom.

Good luck!

 

[Candi]

Thank you, sorry for the poor quality photo, old digital camera. A peppermint shrimp sadly wouldn't last to long, the tank also houses a rarely seen, but very fiesty green spotted puffer LOL and even if Wasabi didn't eat one I have some flower anemones I've heard when the aiptasia is gone they will sometimes eat those. Going to treat with FWE when changing over from cc to sand, that way I can pull the fish out and not worry about them if I have more flatworms then I realized. I think I'll go with adding more rock like you said, maybe some bigger pieces, lose the old rocks from when it was fw and the fake rock and sell off any smaller extra pieces I have left over once it's all done.