Glitchfish
New Member
Hello Everyone 
! I really wanted to showcase my aquarium and show my story through setup and progression and the trials I have been through in order to be where I am today!
It all began on August 9th, 2015, I had been out of the aquarium hobby for at least 5 years after my fatal aquarium crash of my Trigon 190 *R.I.P* 5 years later and me and my mother were looking around our local garden centre as she wanted to show me the new maidenhead aquatic store that had opened up. The moment I was in there my heart melted. The vast variety of livestock and aquariums quenched my thirst for another round of marine fishkeeping. My mother looked at me like I was insane but she was excited too. We weren't intending on buying anything and wanted to research but we saw a display model of a white Aquaone Aquareef 195 that was reduced from £1300 to £700.
My mother looked at me excited like a child in a candy shop and said "Are you up for the challenge? We can think about it in the cafeteria" We went to have cake and sat down talking about every aspect. I.e Upkeep (This was a big one as I'm going to university very soon now, September 19th to be specific), Electric Costs, Setup Costs, Additives and all that jazz. Our hearts took over our heads and we took the plunge!
I awaited arrival of the aquarium for the coming week, researching as much as possible and seeing what had changed in the hobby and i was just taken aback at the technology available. The last time i had done reef keeping, Dosing pumps were the most elusive tech and r.o machines, only the rich had them.
The Tank had arrived, I woke up extremely early waiting for it. I got it into the alcove and it was surprisingly taller than I had imagined. It just about fit.
I filled her up and added my live sand. Just made sure everything was ok and just enjoyed watching my one Ecotech Vortech pump blow the water around for like hours. However, I decided to get another one as I was aiming to have as much flow as possible.
The next day me and my mother went to pick out our liverock as we had also purchased deadrock to spread out the cost. (This was actually taken a month in, sadly don't have any nice pictures of just the rocks)
A month or so later me and my mother went to another maidenhead aquatics in Telford at Mere Park Garden Centre. It was our old go to and we wanted to see how things were going and to maybe get a fish. I was being extra careful to not go crazy with fish as I'm really bad at just buying fish.
Well, we were looking and saw a beautiful female Snow Onyx (Now known as Coral by my Sister In law) and we melted! We also saw another but this one was just the perfect fish in our eyes so we bagged her up and took her home.
I then slowly acclimatised her to my new aquarium and little did I know that this would be the most stressful day/night of my night.
It turned out the poor fish was afraid of the dark and we had to place plants and wiggle our fingers in front of the glass for her to feel relax. Whenever we would work away she would go nuts and swim at the surface trying to jump. We were holding out for a fancy male clownfish but there was no way we could wait much longer so we set off and found a beautiful common male clownfish for only £8 so we took him home and they instantly paired. I thought there would be fighting but no, she immediately took to him and they were swimming around in no time.
We made sure she was relaxed before we went to bed and low and behold they were sleeping on my algae magnet.
A few months in and my aquarium was looking great! (it looks rubbish now I look back) But little did I know that a plague so evil was on the horizon. I went off to Scotland for a few days leaving my mother in charge.. little did we know that a dinoflagellate bloom had occurred. She thought it was pretty but me being a reef nerd I went into complete panic. I busted out my water change kit and sucked it all away, From the sand the rocks to the back of the aquarium. This plague kept returning quicker than I could eradicate it. I sadly settled for a chemical cure from Fauna Marin known as Dino X. I had lost many corals due to blackouts and the such, but this stuff worked wonders and my aquarium was on the up and up. However due to how the system was medicated, I couldn't run my bio pellet reactor, which killed all bacteria inside it, nor could I run carbon so my water quality dropped dramatically. As you can tell I was nowhere out of the woods just yet.
I hot my water quality back on track however and my aquarium had never looked better, I bought new corals and livestock and started to have so much fun again!
To make it less maintenance for myself, I decided to replace my sump with a bigger one to add more water volume and so I could install all kinds of new equipment like a bubble magus curve 5 skimmer. Sadly the sump runs backwards as the manufacturers messed it up, but it still works well! I was also advised to run rowaphos with my bio pellets.... This was a mistake.
Anyways this big change caused a major cyanobacteria outbreak. I have only just gotten rid of my cyanobacteria, It has been my biggest threat in my aquarium and the entire experience made me lose all hope, I just began going through the motions and I just didn't care. I had come to the conclusion that my aquarium was dying and it was time to sell up.
I battled this vile bacteria for months and I couldn't for the life of me explain where on earth it was coming from, I mean my lighting was good, my flow was strong and my water was as pure as pure can be... or was it. I decided to conduct a test on the water that I was buying from my LFS and low and behold my aquariums nitrates were at 20ppm and I usually run my aquarium at 0-2ppm and no more. I also decided to test a fresh batch of salt and it turns out my levels were completely out of whack in this new barrel of salt i.e a bad batch. The magnesium was at 950, Alkalinity 5.9 and my calcium 375! This salt was terrible and I have now moved to Red Sea coral pro salt and I will never purchase another barrel of D&D!
However that didn't solve my problem, Something else that was causing an issue in my aquarium was the combination of Rowaphos and Biopellets. There was an Imbalance in the nitrogen and phosphate levels, causing it to be so low that it also caused the cyanobacteria to bloom as the bacteria in my aquarium had nothing to eat, killing it off. I took my phosphate reactor off and low and behold the cyano slowly disappeared.
This battle was horrid and I have now become an expert in water chemistry and how to destroy this menace. Honestly, it's scarred me for life! As stupid as it sounds the thought of it coming back legitimately sends shivers down my spine. I have decided to buy my own RO/DI unit and to get it plumbed just to prevent another catastrophe from my local store, I've given them a right bollocking and they've got right back on the ball. I even test the water before I take it out of the store. if it's no good I refuse the transaction and go elsewhere.
Also this was a sad passing. My Baby Emperor Angelfish was sucked into my vortech... I thought it was in feed mode but no I sadly lost the poor baby It still breaks my heart to this day. He was like a puppy.
As of 07/09/2016, my aquarium has been an absolute joy! Hopefully, I'll be getting a dosing pump, ATO, and RO/DI Unit from Santa but we'll see X)! I highly doubt it but it would be nice! I'm so proud of my journey and I hope my aquarium will be a good example as of no matter what happens, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel!
Here Is a lovely video of my aquarium right now! I recorded it from my Samsung Galaxy S6 so the true colours aren't shown. I need a proper camera!
I will admit I am facing a problem with a naughty flame angel hence why my acans and some of my SPS look so shrivelled! He's gotta go!
Overall my journey into this hobby has been amazing and I can't wait to upgrade in the future. My plan is to own a 500-gallon reef with Tangs galore! My mum wants it to! She adores Naso and Sohal Tangs. I'm a lover of the Clown, Regal, Yellow, Sailfin... you get the idea.
! I really wanted to showcase my aquarium and show my story through setup and progression and the trials I have been through in order to be where I am today!It all began on August 9th, 2015, I had been out of the aquarium hobby for at least 5 years after my fatal aquarium crash of my Trigon 190 *R.I.P* 5 years later and me and my mother were looking around our local garden centre as she wanted to show me the new maidenhead aquatic store that had opened up. The moment I was in there my heart melted. The vast variety of livestock and aquariums quenched my thirst for another round of marine fishkeeping. My mother looked at me like I was insane but she was excited too. We weren't intending on buying anything and wanted to research but we saw a display model of a white Aquaone Aquareef 195 that was reduced from £1300 to £700.
My mother looked at me excited like a child in a candy shop and said "Are you up for the challenge? We can think about it in the cafeteria" We went to have cake and sat down talking about every aspect. I.e Upkeep (This was a big one as I'm going to university very soon now, September 19th to be specific), Electric Costs, Setup Costs, Additives and all that jazz. Our hearts took over our heads and we took the plunge!
I awaited arrival of the aquarium for the coming week, researching as much as possible and seeing what had changed in the hobby and i was just taken aback at the technology available. The last time i had done reef keeping, Dosing pumps were the most elusive tech and r.o machines, only the rich had them.
The Tank had arrived, I woke up extremely early waiting for it. I got it into the alcove and it was surprisingly taller than I had imagined. It just about fit.
I filled her up and added my live sand. Just made sure everything was ok and just enjoyed watching my one Ecotech Vortech pump blow the water around for like hours. However, I decided to get another one as I was aiming to have as much flow as possible.
The next day me and my mother went to pick out our liverock as we had also purchased deadrock to spread out the cost. (This was actually taken a month in, sadly don't have any nice pictures of just the rocks)
A month or so later me and my mother went to another maidenhead aquatics in Telford at Mere Park Garden Centre. It was our old go to and we wanted to see how things were going and to maybe get a fish. I was being extra careful to not go crazy with fish as I'm really bad at just buying fish.
Well, we were looking and saw a beautiful female Snow Onyx (Now known as Coral by my Sister In law) and we melted! We also saw another but this one was just the perfect fish in our eyes so we bagged her up and took her home.
I then slowly acclimatised her to my new aquarium and little did I know that this would be the most stressful day/night of my night.
It turned out the poor fish was afraid of the dark and we had to place plants and wiggle our fingers in front of the glass for her to feel relax. Whenever we would work away she would go nuts and swim at the surface trying to jump. We were holding out for a fancy male clownfish but there was no way we could wait much longer so we set off and found a beautiful common male clownfish for only £8 so we took him home and they instantly paired. I thought there would be fighting but no, she immediately took to him and they were swimming around in no time.
We made sure she was relaxed before we went to bed and low and behold they were sleeping on my algae magnet.
A few months in and my aquarium was looking great! (it looks rubbish now I look back) But little did I know that a plague so evil was on the horizon. I went off to Scotland for a few days leaving my mother in charge.. little did we know that a dinoflagellate bloom had occurred. She thought it was pretty but me being a reef nerd I went into complete panic. I busted out my water change kit and sucked it all away, From the sand the rocks to the back of the aquarium. This plague kept returning quicker than I could eradicate it. I sadly settled for a chemical cure from Fauna Marin known as Dino X. I had lost many corals due to blackouts and the such, but this stuff worked wonders and my aquarium was on the up and up. However due to how the system was medicated, I couldn't run my bio pellet reactor, which killed all bacteria inside it, nor could I run carbon so my water quality dropped dramatically. As you can tell I was nowhere out of the woods just yet.
I hot my water quality back on track however and my aquarium had never looked better, I bought new corals and livestock and started to have so much fun again!
To make it less maintenance for myself, I decided to replace my sump with a bigger one to add more water volume and so I could install all kinds of new equipment like a bubble magus curve 5 skimmer. Sadly the sump runs backwards as the manufacturers messed it up, but it still works well! I was also advised to run rowaphos with my bio pellets.... This was a mistake.
Anyways this big change caused a major cyanobacteria outbreak. I have only just gotten rid of my cyanobacteria, It has been my biggest threat in my aquarium and the entire experience made me lose all hope, I just began going through the motions and I just didn't care. I had come to the conclusion that my aquarium was dying and it was time to sell up.
I battled this vile bacteria for months and I couldn't for the life of me explain where on earth it was coming from, I mean my lighting was good, my flow was strong and my water was as pure as pure can be... or was it. I decided to conduct a test on the water that I was buying from my LFS and low and behold my aquariums nitrates were at 20ppm and I usually run my aquarium at 0-2ppm and no more. I also decided to test a fresh batch of salt and it turns out my levels were completely out of whack in this new barrel of salt i.e a bad batch. The magnesium was at 950, Alkalinity 5.9 and my calcium 375! This salt was terrible and I have now moved to Red Sea coral pro salt and I will never purchase another barrel of D&D!
However that didn't solve my problem, Something else that was causing an issue in my aquarium was the combination of Rowaphos and Biopellets. There was an Imbalance in the nitrogen and phosphate levels, causing it to be so low that it also caused the cyanobacteria to bloom as the bacteria in my aquarium had nothing to eat, killing it off. I took my phosphate reactor off and low and behold the cyano slowly disappeared.
This battle was horrid and I have now become an expert in water chemistry and how to destroy this menace. Honestly, it's scarred me for life! As stupid as it sounds the thought of it coming back legitimately sends shivers down my spine. I have decided to buy my own RO/DI unit and to get it plumbed just to prevent another catastrophe from my local store, I've given them a right bollocking and they've got right back on the ball. I even test the water before I take it out of the store. if it's no good I refuse the transaction and go elsewhere.
Also this was a sad passing. My Baby Emperor Angelfish was sucked into my vortech... I thought it was in feed mode but no I sadly lost the poor baby
It still breaks my heart to this day. He was like a puppy.As of 07/09/2016, my aquarium has been an absolute joy! Hopefully, I'll be getting a dosing pump, ATO, and RO/DI Unit from Santa but we'll see X)! I highly doubt it but it would be nice
! I'm so proud of my journey and I hope my aquarium will be a good example as of no matter what happens, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel!Here Is a lovely video of my aquarium right now! I recorded it from my Samsung Galaxy S6 so the true colours aren't shown. I need a proper camera!
I will admit I am facing a problem with a naughty flame angel hence why my acans and some of my SPS look so shrivelled! He's gotta go!
Overall my journey into this hobby has been amazing and I can't wait to upgrade in the future. My plan is to own a 500-gallon reef with Tangs galore! My mum wants it to! She adores Naso and Sohal Tangs. I'm a lover of the Clown, Regal, Yellow, Sailfin... you get the idea.
Last edited:
