Tank Journal Archive

[Buddy]

It has been a bloody long time since I have had a decent update on my journal! This one probably being the most drastic yet. I am pretty much starting the tank from scratch with the exception of keeping my fish and some of my favourite corals.

The reason behind this is that I have been getting pretty poor coral growth and even deaths in the last 18 months and also there are a few little things on the tank that I want to change which requires it to be empty. Plus starting again is fun!
One good thing is that all of my fish are very healthy, have strong colours and all get along very well with each other.

My current list is:
Blue tang
Moorish Idol
Foxface
Cleaner Wrasse
Leopard Wrasse
Coral Goby
2x Percula Clownfish
Yellow Watchman Goby.

Some of the fish have been with me for up to four years now, so I have grown pretty attached!

So the plans for the reboot is to mainly have new rock and substrate. I decided to go with a box of the CaribSea South Seas Base Rock as it looks great and looks really easy to mount frags to. Ill also incorporate some shelf rock in to it. I am not sure what I will use for substrate yet and the tank may even be bare bottom for a while. Ill just leave a take away container of sand for the Leopard Wrasse in that case.

Other plans are.

• More light. I was considering adding some T5 lighting but I have decided to just add some more LED's as I have some left over parts. Should be around 120w extra lighting.
• Modify the sump and plumbing a bit to simplify things.
• Add some cabinet ventilation because I get mould and condensation issues sometimes.
• Automatic Zeovit reactor if I can find one at a reasonable price.
• Upgrade dosing pump.
• Organise the electric cables as it has become a bit of the mess over the last couple of years.

• Remove some weight from the hood because it is unnecessarily heavy.
• Completely clean out the tank, cabinet and sump along with all the equipment.

The fish, coral and rock will be transferred to my spare 4x2x2 until the Zeovit cycle completes. I am hoping to have the cycle starting this weekend and everything back up and running by the end of the year. I will keep posting updates as I progress :)

I will leave you with probably the first and definitely the last picture of the current scape with dirty glass and all!

 

[Andrew B]

sounds like a plan

 

[Buddy]

sounds like a plan

I hope so!!! :p

 

[Lesley]

Well thats exciting. Tweaking & changing to such a large degree is almost as exciting as a new tank. Will follow along with interest. Good luck :)

 

[holly]

We're in the same boat! What do you think is behind all the coral deaths?

 

[Buddy]

Well thats exciting. Tweaking & changing to such a large degree is almost as exciting as a new tank. Will follow along with interest. Good luck :)

Thanks :) Can't wait to get it all going!!

 

[Buddy]

We're in the same boat! What do you think is behind all the coral deaths?

I am really not to sure. My alk, calc and mag have been stable for a very long time. I haven't had to dose calcium or mag in over a year though which is really strange, but I guess it is from the lack of growth. I have verified my test kit and it is still working. I am doing 100L water changes with NSW. The only parameter that has been a bit erratic is phosphate, which will bounce around from 0.08 up to 0.20 at times.
I am going to go through all of my pumps to make sure nothing has started rusting. I am sure my live rock is fine because I haven't had a speck of algae on it for a very long time now.

I see new tanks pop up on various forums that are instantly getting great growth and colour, so I am hoping I will be in the same boat!

 

[Rob]

Good luck.... May the fish gods be with you :)

Although with your water changes you have been doing I would of thought it would of been sustainable.

 

[Wrangy]

Can't wait to see the glorious rise like a phoenix from the ashes :D

 

[MagicJ]

I've been meaning to do a similar thing for a while now - maybe in a few weeks :rolleyes

 

[Buddy]

Good luck.... May the fish gods be with you :)

Although with your water changes you have been doing I would of thought it would of been sustainable.

Any excuse to play with the tank right???

 

[Buddy]

Can't wait to see the glorious rise like a phoenix from the ashes :D

I hope to meet your expectations :p

Edit- Congrats, you are the lucky recipient of my 3000th post lol.

 

[Buddy]

I've been meaning to do a similar thing for a while now - maybe in a few weeks :rolleyes

It had been on my mind for a while now too. I have a little bit of free time with work winding down a bit now.

 

[Buddy]

Everyone is in their temporary home now. I threw in a couple of seeded sponges just to help prevent a cycle. The rocks were only out for a minute or two each so I don't think there will be any problems.

Now it's time to start cleaning!!

 

[Wrangy]

This is going to be epic! :D

 

[Buddy]

Everyone is still happy in the temporary tank :)

Day 5 of the cycle in the DT.
Nitrate is at 0.25ppm
Fish dude says there is some Ammonia.

 

[Buddy]

Everything is still going smoothly. Nearly all the cable management is complete and the plumbing is done.
Hopefully by the end of the week there is no Ammonia or nitrite so then I can throw in some snails and zoas and see how they all go.

I managed to get a nice pic of one of my Crocea clams in the temp tank. I can't really get pictures from this angle on the display tank!