Long Time, No Update, But Still Here
It has been 17 months since I last updated this journal and quite a bit has happened, some good, some bad. Warning - its a bit of a long story.
Let me get THE BAD out of the way first. A few months after my last update things were going really well with the tank - params low/stable and all fish fat and happy. Decided to ramp back up to a mixed reef, so added a small number of softies and LPS. Was really enjoying the tank. Then the drama or should I say dramas.
1. Out of nowhere lost my favourite tank denizen, my CBS (later came to believe that he was assassinated one night by my mystery crab).
2. A few nights later my second favourite disappeared, my citron goby, never to be seen again.
3. Over the course of just over a fortnight I lost one of my wavemakers, my ATO controller, my heater, and my skimmer stopped working properly.
4. My friend, who lived close by and the only one I trusted to look after the tank if I had to go away, moved 40 min away.
Was quite a depressing time, tank-wise
All gear was bought second hand as that was what I could afford at the time. Tried for a few weeks to source replacements via various classifieds, but no joy. Bought a heater new from the LFS as that was the only short term essential coming into winter.
I had a 3 week family holiday planned for the end of 2017 (a few months away) and given all of the above ---> decision time. Do I shutdown the tank and leave the hobby for an indefinite amount of time? Do I try to find and train another friend willing to look after my tank while I am gone? Something else?
In the end I decided I didn't want to leave the hobby and I could think of no other friends close by that I was comfortable burndening with looking after the tank in my absence. My decision? Take the sump offline and turn the tank into essentially a 3 foot cube FOWLR AIO and prepare it to be as low maintenance as possible for my 3 weeks away.
So, moved on the few corals that I had added (kept the couple of morphs as I didn't want to part with the rock they were attached to), moved the heater into the DT, moved my macro algae into a tray and zip tied it in the DT under the light, weaned my remaining 4 fish back to feeding once a day to dial back the bioload, checked params regularly.
It worked. We went away. Had a friend stop by every second day to feed fish and top up tank with RODI manually. Returned to find that the fish seemed no worse for wear from the reduced feeding and greater salinity swings than usual.
So onto THE GOOD.
* Sorting through all my fish related gear realised that I still had a working wavemaker controller (from the dead wavemaker referenced earlier) and a working head (from a previous wm whose controller had died. So we were back in business on the wavemaker side. Nice to have redundancy back in the tank and better flow.
* pulled the skimmer out of my sump, gave it a thorough vinegar soak and clean, then disassembled the pump again. Ended up finding a partial tiny snail shell that I had missed previously lodged in the back of the pinwheel that was causing the pump to do a weird pulsing behaviour that had it rocking on my Marine Pure block and refusing to create bubbles correctly. Got rid of the shell, another vinegar back and my skimmer was back in business.
* gave my sump a clean, siphoned out all the water that had been there unmoving for months, brought it back on line, with no noticeable ill effects. Moved heater and macro back into the sump. DT starting to look decent again. Found a second hand Tunze ATO and the system was fully back online for the first time in months.
* Fast forward a couple of weeks and time to introduce some corals. :) But going to take it slowish this time. Got a nice selection of zoas to start - 1-4 polyps per frag, but a cool starter collection of about 8 varieties. Favourite is one that I think is called Utter Chaos - started as a single polyp and now have 3 after a few weeks. Also got 2 small SPS frags to dip my toe in the SPS waters and a small green/purple hammer to add a bit of movement.
* On the fish-front the girls requested 3 fish - a pair of clowns and a Blue Tang. Plan was to start with the clowns and see if they would host in my hammer, BUT....after visiting a couple of LFS I came across a gorgeous percula pair and a special on a medium sized bubble tip anemone. Watching the amazing interaction in a different tank between another pair of clowns and their host anemone in that store (already sold to someone else) made me decide to take a chance on the anemone. Well, after acclimating and getting them in my tank, you win some, you lose some. I tried a suggested method of clearing a section of substrate and placing the anemone directly on the glass. He stayed put for the first 12 hours, moving slightly into the corner, opened up and looked pretty happy. Two clowns on the other hand were in the opposite corner surfing the current near the surface. Checking on them a couple of hours after lights out in the early hours of the morning - I was doing a happy dance as one of the clowns was hanging out with the nem. WIN!! Went to sleep hoping the second clown would find its way to the nem and that the nem would stay put. Woke to find the nem "gone". He went walkies and took up residence on the wall of my overflow up the back of the tank partially hidden by the rockwork, LOL. LOSS! Then the second clown did a hilarious thing over the course of the morning where it basically inched its way backwards really slowly towards the nem from the opposite corner. Covered the 2.5 feet in about 4 hours and now I have 2 clowns playing in the nem. WIN! Fingers cross the nem eventually decides to move somehwere easier to witness the cool clown/nem interaction, but it will do what it will do. :) Pics or a video to come of the clowns/nem.
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Sorry for the giant post, but had 17 months to catch up on. Plan to keep more regular updates coming now that the tank is full steam ahead again. Have been cruising the forum, catching up the last few months of people's updates. Cool to see how many of your tanks are coming along and to see both old and new members are still sharing stories and advice about this amazing hobby we share.
Let me get THE BAD out of the way first. A few months after my last update things were going really well with the tank - params low/stable and all fish fat and happy. Decided to ramp back up to a mixed reef, so added a small number of softies and LPS. Was really enjoying the tank. Then the drama or should I say dramas.
1. Out of nowhere lost my favourite tank denizen, my CBS (later came to believe that he was assassinated one night by my mystery crab).
2. A few nights later my second favourite disappeared, my citron goby, never to be seen again.
3. Over the course of just over a fortnight I lost one of my wavemakers, my ATO controller, my heater, and my skimmer stopped working properly.
4. My friend, who lived close by and the only one I trusted to look after the tank if I had to go away, moved 40 min away.
Was quite a depressing time, tank-wise
All gear was bought second hand as that was what I could afford at the time. Tried for a few weeks to source replacements via various classifieds, but no joy. Bought a heater new from the LFS as that was the only short term essential coming into winter.
I had a 3 week family holiday planned for the end of 2017 (a few months away) and given all of the above ---> decision time. Do I shutdown the tank and leave the hobby for an indefinite amount of time? Do I try to find and train another friend willing to look after my tank while I am gone? Something else?
In the end I decided I didn't want to leave the hobby and I could think of no other friends close by that I was comfortable burndening with looking after the tank in my absence. My decision? Take the sump offline and turn the tank into essentially a 3 foot cube FOWLR AIO and prepare it to be as low maintenance as possible for my 3 weeks away.
So, moved on the few corals that I had added (kept the couple of morphs as I didn't want to part with the rock they were attached to), moved the heater into the DT, moved my macro algae into a tray and zip tied it in the DT under the light, weaned my remaining 4 fish back to feeding once a day to dial back the bioload, checked params regularly.
It worked. We went away. Had a friend stop by every second day to feed fish and top up tank with RODI manually. Returned to find that the fish seemed no worse for wear from the reduced feeding and greater salinity swings than usual.
So onto THE GOOD.
* Sorting through all my fish related gear realised that I still had a working wavemaker controller (from the dead wavemaker referenced earlier) and a working head (from a previous wm whose controller had died. So we were back in business on the wavemaker side. Nice to have redundancy back in the tank and better flow.
* pulled the skimmer out of my sump, gave it a thorough vinegar soak and clean, then disassembled the pump again. Ended up finding a partial tiny snail shell that I had missed previously lodged in the back of the pinwheel that was causing the pump to do a weird pulsing behaviour that had it rocking on my Marine Pure block and refusing to create bubbles correctly. Got rid of the shell, another vinegar back and my skimmer was back in business.
* gave my sump a clean, siphoned out all the water that had been there unmoving for months, brought it back on line, with no noticeable ill effects. Moved heater and macro back into the sump. DT starting to look decent again. Found a second hand Tunze ATO and the system was fully back online for the first time in months.
* Fast forward a couple of weeks and time to introduce some corals. :) But going to take it slowish this time. Got a nice selection of zoas to start - 1-4 polyps per frag, but a cool starter collection of about 8 varieties. Favourite is one that I think is called Utter Chaos - started as a single polyp and now have 3 after a few weeks. Also got 2 small SPS frags to dip my toe in the SPS waters and a small green/purple hammer to add a bit of movement.
* On the fish-front the girls requested 3 fish - a pair of clowns and a Blue Tang. Plan was to start with the clowns and see if they would host in my hammer, BUT....after visiting a couple of LFS I came across a gorgeous percula pair and a special on a medium sized bubble tip anemone. Watching the amazing interaction in a different tank between another pair of clowns and their host anemone in that store (already sold to someone else) made me decide to take a chance on the anemone. Well, after acclimating and getting them in my tank, you win some, you lose some. I tried a suggested method of clearing a section of substrate and placing the anemone directly on the glass. He stayed put for the first 12 hours, moving slightly into the corner, opened up and looked pretty happy. Two clowns on the other hand were in the opposite corner surfing the current near the surface. Checking on them a couple of hours after lights out in the early hours of the morning - I was doing a happy dance as one of the clowns was hanging out with the nem. WIN!! Went to sleep hoping the second clown would find its way to the nem and that the nem would stay put. Woke to find the nem "gone". He went walkies and took up residence on the wall of my overflow up the back of the tank partially hidden by the rockwork, LOL. LOSS! Then the second clown did a hilarious thing over the course of the morning where it basically inched its way backwards really slowly towards the nem from the opposite corner. Covered the 2.5 feet in about 4 hours and now I have 2 clowns playing in the nem. WIN! Fingers cross the nem eventually decides to move somehwere easier to witness the cool clown/nem interaction, but it will do what it will do. :) Pics or a video to come of the clowns/nem.
Sorry for the giant post, but had 17 months to catch up on. Plan to keep more regular updates coming now that the tank is full steam ahead again. Have been cruising the forum, catching up the last few months of people's updates. Cool to see how many of your tanks are coming along and to see both old and new members are still sharing stories and advice about this amazing hobby we share.
