Crowbar
Community Member
Hopefully I'm doing this right - please excuse the mess while I get this all set up. I'm a little more wordy than a lot of the threads I've seen have tended to be, so this will probably read more like a diary than anything else, haha.
In general, I'm not a super huge fan of sharing things like this and laying all my mistakes and missteps bare. I've historically found online fishkeeping communities to be ultra judgy, but I guess at this point I have also realized that I'm still just gonna do me, even if I sidestep some advice. I'll eventually learn from my own mistakes and experiences. Not to say, of course, that I don't research and read! I most definitely do, but I've always been more of a hands-on learner than a theoretical one.
Did my taxes early like a good adult, only to find that I owed for the first time ever. In a self-righteous rage, I paid, and then decided Now Is The Time To Start Something New. That'll Show 'Em. Had an extra 20g long laying around from moving one of the axolotls to a new tank, so decided to go with a cheapo budget build after watching some youtube videos. This was/is my first foray into saltwater.
March 7, 2020 - ???
Moved my axolotls again, which freed up the 36g bowfront I literally just bought for them. Painstakingly moved everything from the 20g long into that, only to realize that YIKES, there's a lot of vertical space compared to the amount of rocks I currently had. Rimless tank came with an opaque plastic cover, so had to run it topless in order to have halfway decent lighting. Threw in a conch shell I was given as a souvenir from some cruise my family went on, because why not?
At some point during this period, I began adding livestock. Two plain-Jane ocellaris clownfish, the start of a cleanup crew (note: I had a super hard time sourcing snails locally around this time. Thanks, pandemic.), an exquisite firefish (who went missing very quickly - I assume he must have jumped and got gotten by one of the cats), two pajama cardinalfish, a pygmy hawkfish, tuxedo urchin, and a bubbletip anemone. This was over several weeks to a couple months' time, too - it's not like I threw all these things in there at once.
While I know that folks suggest adding BTAs later on, I jumped on it early because... I dunno, I was really excited to see if the clowns would host. They did not. Around this time, I began to take a pretty heightened interest in the inverts available to the saltwater side of the hobby - there's nothing quite like the variety on the freshwater side of things, and all of these animals are super interesting.
I also, at some point during this period, got my first few coral frags. All softies - a mushroom, some kind of finger leather I think? Maybe a kenya tree? And some assorted beginner stuff - GSP, pulsing xenia, pom pom xenia. Also a handful of zoas because I think they're really cool.
May 16, 2020
Had been growing generally unhappy with the bowfront setup. Part of it was definitely from being well into the ugly phase, and from all the wasted vertical space since most of my fish preferred staying lower, and from a breakout of green hair algae that was driving me up the wall. Began looking into AIO systems, but thanks to covid, money was a bit tighter - I definitely couldn't justify getting anything super nice. Then, a 29g biocube went up for sale near me, so I jumped! Brought it home, fell in love with the general shape and setup of it...
... And immediately broke it while trying to mod it to make it rimless. Big ol' sigh.
But, it sold me on getting a biocube. So, what was supposed to be my cheap sidestep into a slightly smaller but more efficient system turned into a much bigger cost than anticipated.
May 17, 2020
I went out the next day and bought a new 32g LED biocube. Did not even attempt to modify this one aside from the filter stuff in the back. Got myself an inTank media basket and refugium, and treated the whole tank like a new start. Scrubbed what green hair algae I could off my rocks before moving them over, and used new live sand - this time, the Caribsea Black Hawaiian stuff. Which I've read mixed reviews on, and it is indeed magnetic, but it looks nice so I'm cool with it for the time being.
Took a bit longer than anticipated, and I definitely lost a good number of my cleanup crew because I just wasn't willing to dig them out of the sand in the old tank. I moved the ones I could find, and figured I'd just replace the rest. Also important to note at this point that I did a small switcheroo with my clownfish - I'd bought a black ocellaris with the intention of having a small desktop tank... but quickly decided to move her into the biocube instead, and move Thoughts and Prayers into the 14g cube, which did not actually fit on my desk and instead became a dresser-top tank.
After May 7th, but before this thread
Did a couple minor rescapes, rearranged corals, etc. Added another chunk of live rock from my 14g cube for a bit more coral real estate. Got a mandarin at some point - have been supplementing pods every couple of weeks, since I haven't been able to get him to eat frozen food yet. I am aware that the general advice is to wait until the tank is more mature to get one of these. Hoping I get a decent population of pods going eventually, but he seems okay so far. Also got a lawnmower blenny to help with the remaining GHA. Finally, got a snowflake ocellaris (I think?) to hang out with Aquarioon - who immediately began hosting in the anemone, by the way.
Pretty sure I'm somewhat overstocked at this point, but I'm keeping an eye on things and nothing seems out of whack. Doing 5-8g water changes every week to every other week, depending on time and house projects, etc. Accidentally flooded the basement last week when I left the faucet on while I ran out to an appointment, but at least I have plenty of extra RO water...
Got a birdsnest toward the beginning of my biocube adventure, just to try it out. Definitely don't think the stock LEDs were strong enough for it. Since I'm on a bit more of a budget these days due to my partner being furloughed, I took the old biocube 29 lid from the garage and gutted it, left the rim so it'd sit nicely on top of the tank and siliconed some eggcrate into the middle of it so that I could upgrade my light - to an AI Prime 16HD. Still acclimating things to it, but it's been a huuuge improvement!
Unfortunately, I don't think the birdsnest made it. I tried to cut the outer branches off and re-glue them to the plug in hopes that they might grow better - like when you prune a plant - but I'm pretty sure it was already dead before I did that. I'll probably remove it this weekend and toss it. I also picked up a hammer last weekend, which seems to be doing well! And a devil's hand at some point, because I love the name and leather corals are my favorite.
Anemone got mad at the new light and has been on a road trip across the rockwork over the past couple of days. Or maybe it was because I accidentally dropped a rock on it when I was moving things around? Who knows. I hope that it settles soon, though, so I can rearrange whatever I need to to make room for its new home.
In general, I'm not a super huge fan of sharing things like this and laying all my mistakes and missteps bare. I've historically found online fishkeeping communities to be ultra judgy, but I guess at this point I have also realized that I'm still just gonna do me, even if I sidestep some advice. I'll eventually learn from my own mistakes and experiences. Not to say, of course, that I don't research and read! I most definitely do, but I've always been more of a hands-on learner than a theoretical one.
---
February 22, 2020 - March 7, 2020Did my taxes early like a good adult, only to find that I owed for the first time ever. In a self-righteous rage, I paid, and then decided Now Is The Time To Start Something New. That'll Show 'Em. Had an extra 20g long laying around from moving one of the axolotls to a new tank, so decided to go with a cheapo budget build after watching some youtube videos. This was/is my first foray into saltwater.
| Equipment | Livestock |
|---|---|
| none |
March 7, 2020 - ???
Moved my axolotls again, which freed up the 36g bowfront I literally just bought for them. Painstakingly moved everything from the 20g long into that, only to realize that YIKES, there's a lot of vertical space compared to the amount of rocks I currently had. Rimless tank came with an opaque plastic cover, so had to run it topless in order to have halfway decent lighting. Threw in a conch shell I was given as a souvenir from some cruise my family went on, because why not?
While I know that folks suggest adding BTAs later on, I jumped on it early because... I dunno, I was really excited to see if the clowns would host. They did not. Around this time, I began to take a pretty heightened interest in the inverts available to the saltwater side of the hobby - there's nothing quite like the variety on the freshwater side of things, and all of these animals are super interesting.
I also, at some point during this period, got my first few coral frags. All softies - a mushroom, some kind of finger leather I think? Maybe a kenya tree? And some assorted beginner stuff - GSP, pulsing xenia, pom pom xenia. Also a handful of zoas because I think they're really cool.
| New Equipment | Livestock |
|---|---|
|
|
May 16, 2020
Had been growing generally unhappy with the bowfront setup. Part of it was definitely from being well into the ugly phase, and from all the wasted vertical space since most of my fish preferred staying lower, and from a breakout of green hair algae that was driving me up the wall. Began looking into AIO systems, but thanks to covid, money was a bit tighter - I definitely couldn't justify getting anything super nice. Then, a 29g biocube went up for sale near me, so I jumped! Brought it home, fell in love with the general shape and setup of it...
... And immediately broke it while trying to mod it to make it rimless. Big ol' sigh.
But, it sold me on getting a biocube. So, what was supposed to be my cheap sidestep into a slightly smaller but more efficient system turned into a much bigger cost than anticipated.
May 17, 2020
I went out the next day and bought a new 32g LED biocube. Did not even attempt to modify this one aside from the filter stuff in the back. Got myself an inTank media basket and refugium, and treated the whole tank like a new start. Scrubbed what green hair algae I could off my rocks before moving them over, and used new live sand - this time, the Caribsea Black Hawaiian stuff. Which I've read mixed reviews on, and it is indeed magnetic, but it looks nice so I'm cool with it for the time being.
Took a bit longer than anticipated, and I definitely lost a good number of my cleanup crew because I just wasn't willing to dig them out of the sand in the old tank. I moved the ones I could find, and figured I'd just replace the rest. Also important to note at this point that I did a small switcheroo with my clownfish - I'd bought a black ocellaris with the intention of having a small desktop tank... but quickly decided to move her into the biocube instead, and move Thoughts and Prayers into the 14g cube, which did not actually fit on my desk and instead became a dresser-top tank.
| New Equipment | Livestock |
|---|---|
|
|
After May 7th, but before this thread
Did a couple minor rescapes, rearranged corals, etc. Added another chunk of live rock from my 14g cube for a bit more coral real estate. Got a mandarin at some point - have been supplementing pods every couple of weeks, since I haven't been able to get him to eat frozen food yet. I am aware that the general advice is to wait until the tank is more mature to get one of these. Hoping I get a decent population of pods going eventually, but he seems okay so far. Also got a lawnmower blenny to help with the remaining GHA. Finally, got a snowflake ocellaris (I think?) to hang out with Aquarioon - who immediately began hosting in the anemone, by the way.
Pretty sure I'm somewhat overstocked at this point, but I'm keeping an eye on things and nothing seems out of whack. Doing 5-8g water changes every week to every other week, depending on time and house projects, etc. Accidentally flooded the basement last week when I left the faucet on while I ran out to an appointment, but at least I have plenty of extra RO water...
Got a birdsnest toward the beginning of my biocube adventure, just to try it out. Definitely don't think the stock LEDs were strong enough for it. Since I'm on a bit more of a budget these days due to my partner being furloughed, I took the old biocube 29 lid from the garage and gutted it, left the rim so it'd sit nicely on top of the tank and siliconed some eggcrate into the middle of it so that I could upgrade my light - to an AI Prime 16HD. Still acclimating things to it, but it's been a huuuge improvement!
Unfortunately, I don't think the birdsnest made it. I tried to cut the outer branches off and re-glue them to the plug in hopes that they might grow better - like when you prune a plant - but I'm pretty sure it was already dead before I did that. I'll probably remove it this weekend and toss it. I also picked up a hammer last weekend, which seems to be doing well! And a devil's hand at some point, because I love the name and leather corals are my favorite.
Anemone got mad at the new light and has been on a road trip across the rockwork over the past couple of days. Or maybe it was because I accidentally dropped a rock on it when I was moving things around? Who knows. I hope that it settles soon, though, so I can rearrange whatever I need to to make room for its new home.
| New Equipment | Livestock |
|---|---|
|
|
