First Time 20 gallon with mistakes already

[Wamland]

Hello
Starting my first build. Coming from the freshwater world and converted this 20 gallon.

Still figuring everything out and the tank has cycled and cycled again and continues to fluctuate a bit.

corals:
Got a tiny pulsing zinia from a big box store. I know rookie mistake.
then
Got a much larger and cooler zinia from my LFS and it started off great and then took a dive. I’ve been working on trying to figure it out and finally figured it was the lights. I kept on hearing how the Zinia like low lights and so I wasn’t all that concerned that my lights were a carry over from a planted tank and pretty good but not up to snuff. Ended up getting the FluvalSmart reef lights because I have the fluval Nano in the bedroom on a 10 gallon angelfish tank and love it as well as the app.
Zinia started to perk up and pulse and then my salinity tester came in the mail today.
rookie mistake number 2, I’ve been topping my tank off with saltwater.
Yeah.

salinity was up to 2.8. Decided to add some fresh declorinated fresh water and keep on checking my levels.

Rookie mistake number three. Moving way too fast with the fresh water.
Zinias perked up and then knuckled up and closed. Fish are good but a bit ticked and my cleaner shrimp looked like he was doing the fox trot after not moving very far from some rocks for days.

Stopped adding fresh water and decided I should put some tank handcuffs on myself for a day or so before I crash the whole kingdom.

So that’s my story and I’m still learning through failure. This is the reason I don’t start with 200 gallon tanks after all and all fish are still talking to me for a little while at least.
Back later after I read a bunch more and promise to measure twice and cut once.
-Will

 

[His Coral Highness]

You're eventually going to have a problem with those 3 clowns in a 20 gallon... Once two form a pair they will go after the third. Otherwise don't beat yourself up, the whole hobby is built on learning from beginner mistakes... then you learn from intermediate level mistakes and finally expert mistakes, so there is that to look forward to

 

[Wamland]

You're eventually going to have a problem with those 3 clowns in a 20 gallon... Once two form a pair they will go after the third. Otherwise don't beat yourself up, the whole hobby is built on learning from beginner mistakes... then you learn from intermediate level mistakes and finally expert mistakes, so there is that to look forward to

Thanks for the info. Guess I’ll need to get some more tanks .

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Tank looks good!!

 

[Wamland]

While I’m waiting to pace my salinity down I moved one of my cameras next to the tank.
anyone else have cameras on their tank? I use Wyze. Good cheap pan cameras with a pretty good interface

 

[Wamland]

My cleaner shrimp molted last night and spooked me pretty good. Thought for sure I had a new shrimp for a minute. My pistol molted as well and man his new claw has turned the volume up a couple notches.
Got a Milwaukee salinity tester and so much better now. Will look to start making my own water after I get an ROI set up.
Really enjoying this saltwater stuff and reading up on here. Learning a lot and trying to take it slow. Only loss so far was the tiny Petco pulsing zinia that had a 50/50 shot from the get go but I’ve been spending some time and plenty of money at my local fish store and they have been a great resource.

 

[Wamland]

Well big mistake number ? Got a couple coral and read up on dipping them. I decided to dip the new coral and missed the "rinsing off in saltwater before placing in the aquarium" Step. Straight from the solution bucket to the tank.
Next morning
End result:
3 bleached corals
4 dead snails
No dead fish but a lethargic 6 line.

In the process of water changes to see what survives.
Considering nuking the tank and starting over.
I have an old 10 gallon that I used for a QT freshwater tank. Looks like I'm converting it to a saltwater QT tank. (Should have done from the beginning)
Pretty rough lesson to learn but this gives me the chance to scape the tank how I envision it. Before I was using rock I had on hand from my old freshwater builds and I added one large piece of live rock to the live sand in order to seed.
I have some better rock coming Wednesday and I'll work on molding something better while I work everything else out.

I knew this was going to be tough for me as I'm patient in most things but impatient on tanks and variety of testing is so much different from fresh. Can see how people get frustrated and throw in the towel.

 

[Aqua Man]

Considering nuking the tank and starting over.

I’ve made plenty of mistakes, learn and move on! It looks like your tank could use more flow. I also have a 20 Tall that was once a freshwater tank.

Keep it simple. Get a hang on the back filter from petco. The Aqueon HOB for 30 gallons. My last one ran for 7 years. Provides flow and you can add activated carbon to clean up any residue from the coral dip. What dip was it?

 

[ShepherdReefer]

Looking good

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Well big mistake number ? Got a couple coral and read up on dipping them. I decided to dip the new coral and missed the "rinsing off in saltwater before placing in the aquarium" Step. Straight from the solution bucket to the tank.
Next morning
End result:
3 bleached corals
4 dead snails
No dead fish but a lethargic 6 line.

In the process of water changes to see what survives.
Considering nuking the tank and starting over.
I have an old 10 gallon that I used for a QT freshwater tank. Looks like I'm converting it to a saltwater QT tank. (Should have done from the beginning)
Pretty rough lesson to learn but this gives me the chance to scape the tank how I envision it. Before I was using rock I had on hand from my old freshwater builds and I added one large piece of live rock to the live sand in order to seed.
I have some better rock coming Wednesday and I'll work on molding something better while I work everything else out.

I knew this was going to be tough for me as I'm patient in most things but impatient on tanks and variety of testing is so much different from fresh. Can see how people get frustrated and throw in the towel.

I think most of us make mistakes when setting up tanks, just have to learn from them and persevere. In the end, it is all worth it when the tank is set up and looks amazing!!

 

[Wamland]

The tank fights back these past few weeks.

velvet or what I think was velvet hit my clowns and I worked to address. I have had great success using Ick Attack on my freshwater tanks for ick and it’s labeled as reef safe and won’t hurt inverts. I dosed for a full week and my zinias turned black and shriveled. Still alive and I’m hopeful they recover. My bta which was in sad shape to begin with started giving up the ghost.
I knew that I screwed up with no QT/Hospital tank to begin with even though I had a dusty 10 gallon set up in my laundry room that has been dormant for a year.

Long story short, I cleaned and rebuilt my QT tank last weekend. Pretty easy actually when all I needed was a glass bottom some heat, light aeration and filtration.

moved my anemone in there first because I knew I couldn’t use copper on him. He perked up and I needed to move my two most ailing clowns into the tank and dosed with copper power. Should have done long ago. Clowns look so much better and I now have a QT tank as well. My GF was never crazy about a tank in the laundry room but when the clowns started looking sad that turned pretty quick.

looking forward to the next puzzles coming. The brown algae has started already and I have some macro algae’s coming in the mail next week.

 

[Wamland]