Tank Journal Archive

Agent M

Member
Oct 21, 2011
3,536
1,586
Melbourne
Small Beginnings
So this is my first tank and how it all started for me. 28 Litre AquaOne which came with compact lighting and an undergravel filter.

Cycling Jan 2007:

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4 weeks later I went a little invert crazy and added starfish, a Sea Apple, hermit crabs, tuxedo urchins, a Saron shrimp and sea slugs. At this point in time I relied solely on the advice I got from the LFS - I was told they'd just keep the glass clean and I wouldn't need to feed them. Listening to advice like that is a mistake you should only ever make once in this hobby. A few of these animals died within the first 2 weeks. Here is a pic of my new additions just after I had finished acclimating them.

Feb 2007:

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The Sea Apple (lived for 5 months):
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One of the sea slugs (only lasted a few weeks):
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My tuxedo urchin. Can't remember how long I had this one for - a couple of months maybe? I still have the skeleton as a decoration on my shelf :(
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2 of the 3 starfish died in the first 2 weeks, the 3rd which was the orange fromia I had for 5 months:
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Agent M

Member
Oct 21, 2011
3,536
1,586
Melbourne
In July 07 I had my only (fingers crossed) 'tank crash'. My tank was unplugged by a tradie while it was in the shed during house renovations. We were staying elsewhere for 3 days and the weather was freezing. The only survivors were my 3 hermit crabs :cry It was a kick in the guts as I had been handfeeding the sea apple and fromia for about 4 months and I was very attached to everything!

I cycled the tank again with fresh live rock, keeping my old substrate (8 July) - I thought I might try keeping some corals this time. I chose a Torch coral, Elegance coral, Blastomussa wellsi and Star Polyps - added 26th July.

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Discovered I had a 1 inch brown mantis shrimp living in the tank. Fearing for my hermits lives, I overreacted and made this totally ineffective bottle trap. Finally I fresh water dipped the rock he was in to get him out. He was rehomed to a nice fellow who was very excited to have him.

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Something that seems to be the natural way of things in this hobby is wanting to 'upgrade'. I was quickly getting bored with my little tank and it wasn't the same now my inverts were gone. I had also by this time joined a forum :reading
 

Agent M

Member
Oct 21, 2011
3,536
1,586
Melbourne
Yeah I liked this tank, very simple - I was able to do 50% weekly water changes without much fuss and good habits were easy to keep. Didn't think twice about cycling it the 2nd time with my hermit crabs in it though :rolleyes On the plus side, I highly recommend laminated scrap booking paper for tank backgrounds...he he
 

RobbieMVFC

Member
Feb 25, 2013
1,232
610
I think 90% of us starteed the same way . It's unfortunate that LFS sell things like nudi branch / golden head sleeper gobies thing that they know that they wont live long in the home aquarium.
at my LFS i remember seeing a clown in a 10 L bowl advertised as a package :(