knappe
Community Member
Hi all!
I'm Tyler from Colorado. I've always been fascinated with building little ecosystems and so I've always had some form of aquarium or terrarium for most of my life. I've been out of the hobby for the last 8 years after my 30 gallon hex FOWLR cracked and I lost everything (that was fun for my then fiancee to come home to). But I bought an established 120 gallon from someone who had lost a lot of their livestock and corals after some inconsistent care while they were on vacation. In that same week, I found out one of my friends was also giving away her 12 gallon nano and I happily took it on as well. So my poor wife now gets to listen to me talk about tanks.
Moving the 120 was a mammoth task, and I'm so grateful that I had the 12 gallon nano to move all the livestock into because we had to remove the sand bed to get it into my house. It was hard to do, since part of the appeal of the 120 gallon was that it was such a well established tank -- no water changes (just top offs) and a very stable copepod population, but the thing that sealed the deal was the green mandarin. This is the fish that got me into saltwater tanks in the first place, because they're just amazing, beautiful animals, and is what I had hoped to put into the 30 gallon hex. But due to their advanced care, I ended up getting a few "starter fish", including a 6-line wrasse that would have never been able to be in the same tank as a mandarin and so I never had a chance to keep a mandarin.
The 120 gallon tank has really started to stabilize in the last two weeks and is currently cycling because the entire sand bed was removed. That and it was 25 degrees when the tank got moved so it really hit a lot of the ecosystem pretty hard. I currently have in the 120 gallon:
- 1 Blue hippo tang
- 2 clown fish
- 1 green mandarin
- 1 lime green chromis
- a few coral of unknown origin.
In the 12 gallon
- 1 clown fish (who is grateful to have their tank back after the move)
- 1 camel shrimp
- a few green mushroom coral
- a few orange mushroom coral
- a lot of hair algae
I'm really trying to wait before adding more livestock into the 120 gallon. I want to see the tank get really stable again before making too many changes, but I do want the chromis to have a school. I also really appreciate this community because I've never had a reef tank before and I've been devouring the content that comes out of these message boards from every random newbie internet search I make. :)
Before the wipe
After the wipe
After the move
As you can see It is going to be a lot of work to get it back to what it once was. So I guess expect to see more of me asking questions as the tank starts to come back (I already have some corals making an appearance)
The 12 gallon before the major wipe, but before I got it.
What it looks like now
This is probably a bit more than the usual intro post but what can I say, I'm excited! :D
I'm Tyler from Colorado. I've always been fascinated with building little ecosystems and so I've always had some form of aquarium or terrarium for most of my life. I've been out of the hobby for the last 8 years after my 30 gallon hex FOWLR cracked and I lost everything (that was fun for my then fiancee to come home to). But I bought an established 120 gallon from someone who had lost a lot of their livestock and corals after some inconsistent care while they were on vacation. In that same week, I found out one of my friends was also giving away her 12 gallon nano and I happily took it on as well. So my poor wife now gets to listen to me talk about tanks.
Moving the 120 was a mammoth task, and I'm so grateful that I had the 12 gallon nano to move all the livestock into because we had to remove the sand bed to get it into my house. It was hard to do, since part of the appeal of the 120 gallon was that it was such a well established tank -- no water changes (just top offs) and a very stable copepod population, but the thing that sealed the deal was the green mandarin. This is the fish that got me into saltwater tanks in the first place, because they're just amazing, beautiful animals, and is what I had hoped to put into the 30 gallon hex. But due to their advanced care, I ended up getting a few "starter fish", including a 6-line wrasse that would have never been able to be in the same tank as a mandarin and so I never had a chance to keep a mandarin.
The 120 gallon tank has really started to stabilize in the last two weeks and is currently cycling because the entire sand bed was removed. That and it was 25 degrees when the tank got moved so it really hit a lot of the ecosystem pretty hard. I currently have in the 120 gallon:
- 1 Blue hippo tang
- 2 clown fish
- 1 green mandarin
- 1 lime green chromis
- a few coral of unknown origin.
In the 12 gallon
- 1 clown fish (who is grateful to have their tank back after the move)
- 1 camel shrimp
- a few green mushroom coral
- a few orange mushroom coral
- a lot of hair algae
I'm really trying to wait before adding more livestock into the 120 gallon. I want to see the tank get really stable again before making too many changes, but I do want the chromis to have a school. I also really appreciate this community because I've never had a reef tank before and I've been devouring the content that comes out of these message boards from every random newbie internet search I make. :)
Before the wipe
After the wipe
After the move
As you can see It is going to be a lot of work to get it back to what it once was. So I guess expect to see more of me asking questions as the tank starts to come back (I already have some corals making an appearance)
The 12 gallon before the major wipe, but before I got it.
What it looks like now
This is probably a bit more than the usual intro post but what can I say, I'm excited! :D
