Progression Thread

[Darknes]

I just moved here to Pueblo from Lincoln, Nebraska this week. The trip was only about 10 hours, but we were coming down on Sunday so we could move in first thing Monday morning. Anyway, I decided to sell off all my livestock and some corals and rock before I left Nebraska so I didn't have to worry about them. I kept the sand in the tank (everything died in the sand....can't believe how many worms were in there!). I did keep two large tupperwares with my rock and some water.

I thought it might be interesting to start a thread on my progression since I have to start all over. I will update the thread with information and pictures as I go, and feel free to add any suggestions!

 

[Darknes]

My tank before the move:

Unfortunately, in the hurry of moving, I forgot to take some final pictures of my tank, but here is a fairly recent one:

Livestock I had (about a 55g tank):
2 percs
Diamond Goby
Coral Beauty Angelfish
Longnosed Blue-Spotted Puffer
Cleaner shrimp
Brittle Starfish
Condy Anemone
Anemone Crab (Porcelaine crab)
Several hermits and snails
Lots of xenia and encrusting gorgonians
GSP
Some shrooms
Green zoos

 

[Darknes]

My plan is to get rid of most of the encrusting gorgonians (it would take over everything!), and make the tank a zoo/ric tank, with a few clams.

I haven't decided on fish yet, but I do want another Diamond Goby, as they keep the sand pearly white.

 

[Joe69]

Cool Darknes, welcome to Pueblo...lol It's not much but I like it here.

Love to see the progression of tanks, your old setup looked nice, so I'm sure the new one will look just as good or even better. If you need any frags to help get you started, let me know.

 

[Darknes]

Thanks Joe. I think I'm really going to enjoy Pueblo.

Well, I got the tank put in place on Wednesday, and finally got it filled with RO saltwater yesterday. I took a trip to Paradise Pets to grab some salt and a new heater. They had Reef Crystals on sale so I bought it, but I've always used Oceanic; we'll see how I like the Reef Crystals. The store seemed decent to me; it has much more selection than any store I've seen in Nebraska. I also enjoyed the nice koi pond you walk over to get to the store. I also thought the water running off the roof into the small pond below was rather unique as well.

Below are a few shots of the tank. I got it filled with a powerhead, heater, and my Coralife Super Skimmer hooked up to it. The only thing I found living in the sand was a single snail. Everything else died from the cold weather.

I then went to go clean out my canister filter to get it hooked up to the tank (I plan to upgrade the canister in the future). Since I don't have an outdoor faucet, I was going to clean it in the kitchen sink.....man was that a mistake! First, I forgot the thing was pressurized. Second, since it's been sitting for almost a week, everything died inside. I go to open the canister, and the nastiest smelling water goes flying everywhere! That had to be the worst thing I've ever smelled (and I thought skimmate was bad). :lol:

 

[Reet15]

Welcome to Pueblo Darknes.

 

[Freshbrew]

Welcome to Pueblo and its nice to have another Nebraska Fan in P-town. We could start Pueblans for Nebraska here, lol. If you need help getting around PM me and I'll try to help.

 

[prplfirefish]

wooooooooooohooooooooooo another pueblo reefer---we be growin now. lol.
Welcome Darknes
Holler at Todd if you need help--HEHEHE
Trac

 

[Darknes]

Well, it's been about 3 weeks since my last update, so another is due.

It turned out that my tank was going to have to go through a cycle. During the move, the tank was left outside in the truck overnight, and dropped below 40 degrees. Everything in the sand was dead. So, after filling with all up and adding a few pieces of rock, I let it cycle. I started dosing vodka (1/2 mL per day), and the cycle finished in about a week.

Once the cycle was over, I added all the rest of the rock I had. This rock was sitting in a tub of water since I broke my tank down 2 weeks prior to that. Amazingly, all the encrusting gorgonian, zoos, and mushrooms survived. All the xenia melted away, which didn't bother me since I planned to get rid of it anyway. There were 2 crabs and a snail that also made it.

When I was putting the rock into the tank, I found my starfish. I though he was on a rock that I sold to the LFS before I left, and he looked terrible! I felt really bad. As you can see in the picture, most of his central disk was rotted away. He was almost all skeleton except for the arms. It must have been the cold temperature (tub was down to 65F) and the ammonia (0.25 when I took the rock out). Amazingly, he was still alive and I've been hand feeding him krill everyday. He seems to be recovering quite well....marine life regeneration never ceases to amaze me!