Here is the short version of the long story.
Almost a year ago I made a big move of over 700km to a rural environment. No more weekly trips to various LFS ect. No more bleach down the drain and unlimited amounts of salt water for that matter..
I had a 180 mixed reef, a 90 gallon garden eel tank and a 112 gallon that was my old display tank that was basically a display fuge with a carpet anemone that I was paranoid would eat my fish. Some other cool stuff like a pair of masked swallow tail angels, achilles tang ect.
Tearing everything down was hell I gave the garden eels away because it was much easier to just rinse out of the sand then try and and set that up again.. The reason was I did not move right into my house. I spent about 6 weeks at my parents house with all my livestock in the 90g tank and some other holding tanks. Achilles wasted away but killed a bunch of other fish first. A tank I had a bunch of LPS in mostly euphillias melted away. Masked Swallowtails died too.
It wasn't just the livestock. Tanks took a beating. The first thing I did once I did move in was get outlets installed where the tank was going. By chance there are concrete pillars under a spot that perfectly fit my 180. Got it's own breaker / gfci's then the 180 itself broke. It had just been moved around too many times, too many times I moved it around by myself. Thankfully old 112 was still around. This was my first big display tank a miracles tank purchased in 2006. Even getting the 112 back up was a hassle and a half. First my sump wouldn't fit under this tank. I actually knew this but forgot about it until I was setting it up. Fine I have another sump that will fit but guess what skimmer won't fit in that sump.. On and on stuff like this went but again I had another skimmer so everything worked out more or less.
It's now been going for about 8 months without any real issues. I run it barebottom, all the detritus goes into one corner and change approximately 10 gallons of water a week. 10ml of diy nopox per day and since it's not packed with corals I usually just dose alkalinity 1-2x a week. Now that I have a couple sps I may have to start daily dosing again. Hopefully because if something is consuming it means it's growing.
I have 2 issues, one of which I can cure but haven't gotten around to, the other I just live with :
Aiptasia. Joe's juice bought a couple months of relatively clarity but now I have probably 100+ I really need some nudibrachs or a copperband butterfly. No peppermints as I have a rock anemone.
Purple clove polyps. They aren't as bad as they once were and I seem to have luck with LPS encrusting over them where as zoas and sps get encrusted with them. I can't treat chemically due to the large number of softies. I also rely on 100s if not 1000s of astrena starfish as a big part of the cleanup crew.
I believe the closest reef shop is about 4hrs away. The good ones 7+ I have met a few reefers here which is nice because I was expecting 0 but the scene is not very big at all. The one benefit I have is my well water is very good. TDS is typically 55 out of the tap and you can even drink it. I've only had to change RO filters once and even then I really didn't have to. 1tds before di 0 after every time.
I'll take another FTS another time, as you can see the tank gets a lot of natural sunlight and so far it has not been an issue.
The purple clove polyps. I do from time to time get a tiny bit of cyano see bottom left but it's not a big deal. Byproduct of the nopox imo.
I call these guys chromis, but I guess technically they are lyretail damsels. I bought 5 maybe 4 years ago and 4 are still doing great. The only fish I have that is older is my naked clownfish which I've had since 2006.
These red mushrooms are from the first coral I ever bought circa 2005.
Chalice is growing over purple cloves...
Canada has far less online selection then the US, but shopping online for corals just isn't the same. I loved going to the shops finding random things, seeing creatures I had never seen ect. Also it's a lot more economical to pick up a frag here or there or even a colony then it is to place an online order. For fish I wouldn't feel comfortable with anything less then having them shipped airport to airport.
Still I thought now that I am away from impulse purchases I'd settle on a theme that isn't mixed reef. Sometimes I feel like I want to do more SPS, sometimes I feel like softies. LPS have probably been my biggest love dating back to when Australia started exporting corals and even before but I still can't pick a theme. I would like to get some more fish and corals to fill things in eventually but out here I have no choice but to take it slow which for the health of the animals inside is probably for the best.
Almost a year ago I made a big move of over 700km to a rural environment. No more weekly trips to various LFS ect. No more bleach down the drain and unlimited amounts of salt water for that matter..
I had a 180 mixed reef, a 90 gallon garden eel tank and a 112 gallon that was my old display tank that was basically a display fuge with a carpet anemone that I was paranoid would eat my fish. Some other cool stuff like a pair of masked swallow tail angels, achilles tang ect.
Tearing everything down was hell I gave the garden eels away because it was much easier to just rinse out of the sand then try and and set that up again.. The reason was I did not move right into my house. I spent about 6 weeks at my parents house with all my livestock in the 90g tank and some other holding tanks. Achilles wasted away but killed a bunch of other fish first. A tank I had a bunch of LPS in mostly euphillias melted away. Masked Swallowtails died too.
It wasn't just the livestock. Tanks took a beating. The first thing I did once I did move in was get outlets installed where the tank was going. By chance there are concrete pillars under a spot that perfectly fit my 180. Got it's own breaker / gfci's then the 180 itself broke. It had just been moved around too many times, too many times I moved it around by myself. Thankfully old 112 was still around. This was my first big display tank a miracles tank purchased in 2006. Even getting the 112 back up was a hassle and a half. First my sump wouldn't fit under this tank. I actually knew this but forgot about it until I was setting it up. Fine I have another sump that will fit but guess what skimmer won't fit in that sump.. On and on stuff like this went but again I had another skimmer so everything worked out more or less.
It's now been going for about 8 months without any real issues. I run it barebottom, all the detritus goes into one corner and change approximately 10 gallons of water a week. 10ml of diy nopox per day and since it's not packed with corals I usually just dose alkalinity 1-2x a week. Now that I have a couple sps I may have to start daily dosing again. Hopefully because if something is consuming it means it's growing.
I have 2 issues, one of which I can cure but haven't gotten around to, the other I just live with :
Aiptasia. Joe's juice bought a couple months of relatively clarity but now I have probably 100+ I really need some nudibrachs or a copperband butterfly. No peppermints as I have a rock anemone.
Purple clove polyps. They aren't as bad as they once were and I seem to have luck with LPS encrusting over them where as zoas and sps get encrusted with them. I can't treat chemically due to the large number of softies. I also rely on 100s if not 1000s of astrena starfish as a big part of the cleanup crew.
I believe the closest reef shop is about 4hrs away. The good ones 7+ I have met a few reefers here which is nice because I was expecting 0 but the scene is not very big at all. The one benefit I have is my well water is very good. TDS is typically 55 out of the tap and you can even drink it. I've only had to change RO filters once and even then I really didn't have to. 1tds before di 0 after every time.
I'll take another FTS another time, as you can see the tank gets a lot of natural sunlight and so far it has not been an issue.
The purple clove polyps. I do from time to time get a tiny bit of cyano see bottom left but it's not a big deal. Byproduct of the nopox imo.
I call these guys chromis, but I guess technically they are lyretail damsels. I bought 5 maybe 4 years ago and 4 are still doing great. The only fish I have that is older is my naked clownfish which I've had since 2006.
These red mushrooms are from the first coral I ever bought circa 2005.
Chalice is growing over purple cloves...
Canada has far less online selection then the US, but shopping online for corals just isn't the same. I loved going to the shops finding random things, seeing creatures I had never seen ect. Also it's a lot more economical to pick up a frag here or there or even a colony then it is to place an online order. For fish I wouldn't feel comfortable with anything less then having them shipped airport to airport.
Still I thought now that I am away from impulse purchases I'd settle on a theme that isn't mixed reef. Sometimes I feel like I want to do more SPS, sometimes I feel like softies. LPS have probably been my biggest love dating back to when Australia started exporting corals and even before but I still can't pick a theme. I would like to get some more fish and corals to fill things in eventually but out here I have no choice but to take it slow which for the health of the animals inside is probably for the best.