Intro

Faijo178 · Oct 25, 2023

Hey all! I’ve been active on the thread for quite some time now but never posted. Used this site for the last year to get my first saltwater tank up and going. It’s a 20 gallon nano and let’s just say it’s been a rollercoaster and I rely on this communities info all of the time. I look forward to sharing my horrors and success stories and updating you on my little piece of paradise.

1112-425XL · Oct 25, 2023

Pistondog · Oct 25, 2023

Faijo178 said:
Hey all! I’ve been active on the thread for quite some time now but never posted. Used this site for the last year to get my first saltwater tank up and going. It’s a 20 gallon nano and let’s just say it’s been a rollercoaster and I rely on this communities info all of the time. I look forward to sharing my horrors and success stories and updating you on my little piece of paradise.

Welcome faijo178,
Share your rollercoaster ride with us.
Hope you are enjoying your tank.

00W · Oct 25, 2023

Welcome Welcome to R2R!

Peace River · Oct 25, 2023

Welcome to Reef2Reef!!!

CoralB · Oct 25, 2023

Welcome !!

Kristopher Conlin · Oct 25, 2023

Welcome to Reef2Reef!!!

Jedi1199 · Oct 25, 2023

Welcome to the Dark Side...

jsker · Oct 25, 2023

Faijo178 · Oct 25, 2023

Faijo178 said:
Hey all! I’ve been active on the thread for quite some time now but never posted. Used this site for the last year to get my first saltwater tank up and going. It’s a 20 gallon nano and let’s just say it’s been a rollercoaster and I rely on this communities info all of the time. I look forward to sharing my horrors and success stories and updating you on my little piece of paradise.

Where to begin… this rollecoaster of a hobby started with two black ice clowns that I planned on being the end game after upgrading from a small freshwater tank.

After enjoying them for a few months I decided to buy my first coral after my local fish store had a “crazy” sale on torches…. Obviously I killed the small torch in a few weeks but snagged a little war coral that is a trooper and still alive today. Not knowing what on earth I was doing, I dove into reading, heavy on this forum, and got dialed into my testing. I have come a long way since then, I’m up to 25+ corals now with automated everything.

Only deaths since the original torch was a beautiful maxima clam that I miss. His name was big earl. I’m not sure why he died because everything else is still doing great. It lived for a few months and looked healthy then he just started gaping and closed. I think he was not a fan of the small tank with low nitrates and 0 phosphates. I tried supplementing his feedings with no luck. He was Semi smothered by bubble algae which was a big issue that I have since cured with Vibrant, by underwater creations. If you don’t use it, I highly recommend, it does great at getting rid of algae and it doesn’t irritate the corals.

I battled apstasia. A small peppermint shrimp did the trick, until he started eating my corals, which abruptly ended in a toilet ride.
Next rollercoaster was the battle of my clowns, or should I say my David vs Goliath. I introduced my first anemone at around the 6 month mark, and at first they were scared of it. After a few weeks they were profusely fighting over it, even though there was plenty of room in it for the two of them. My smaller clown I guess got fed up with the bigger bully and somehow killed him. The clown that won, is now an anemone fein and has resulted in the nem never fully inflating anymore. If anyone has tips for getting bubbles to fully inflate, lmk. Very healthy, just doesn’t ever bubble up like it did for the first few months I have it.

I now have a royal gramma, tailspot blenny, a mandarin goby, and my black ice clown. All living in harmony, and the mandarin loves all kinds of frozen foods, he’s a little pig. I was shocked, because when I bought him I planned on returning him if he wouldn’t eat, which he didn’t for a week or so.

My cleanup crew consists of a small red star fish, a conch, and four Mexican turbo snails.

I run my tank at:
1.024-25
78degrees
8.7-9 alk
440 calc
1350 mag
0-3 nitrate
0 phosphate
0 ammonia

I run a 100watt light, Amazon $200 light (does well, I think), only at 50% blues, and only 1 percent whites during the day (9-5) and 5 percent blues from 6pm to midnight (viewing hours). I had it up to 75% at one point but think they are much happier at the lower light.

For first time I feel like I’m on auto pilot, however my pump did clog up due to calcium deposits this week, so I better not speak to soon.
Let me know if you have any feedback or tips/trick in anything I mentioned! Thanks for the warm welcome all!