Scotty Amen
Community Member
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2019
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I've been keeping a journal on this tank but I entered the Red Sea giveaway, and one of the challenges for 7/20/2020 was to do a tank build thread, so here's a retroactive list of what's gone on so far!
As of today the tank is a year and a half old + 3 days.
I started this tank January 17, 2019.
It's my first saltwater tank, and my 4th aquarium.
I started with some saltwater mixed up using Instant Ocean + store-bought RODI.
Caribsea Aragalive Fiji Pink and some Caribsea Liferock spent two days settling down, and I had the start to my little box of ocean.
I fed it a small amount of fish food ever other day or so, and on the 24th switched to Dr. Tim's ammonia.
On the 2nd of February, diatoms appeared.
I started seeing nitrites and eventually started seeing nitrates around 2/7.
2/16 my first water change.
2/17 the first outbreak of green alagae on the very tippy tops of rocks, closest to the light.
2/21, any ammonia dosed is gone to 0 ppm within 24 hours.
2/25 Ordered a Hydor Koralia Evolution Nano 425 Powerhead & some Seachem Matrix BioMedia. The 425 was too strong so I replaced that with a 240.
Also got a Intank chamber 2 media basket.
2/28 2 trochus and 2 nassarius snails. Spoiler alert: these first four inhabitants are still alive on 7/20/2020, 18 months later.
3/14 I added some blue-legged hermit crabs from reefcleaners. They are cute but in hindsight I think I would go crabless in the future.
4/26, the first fishies arrive. A bonded pair of juvenile snoflake clowns from liveaquaria. Sadly one was DOA and LiveAquaria was prompt (and kind) about it and replaced him very quickly. The replacement bonded quickly.
5/6, first zoas, two small frags. I like zoas.
7/12, I added a yellow clown goby. The poor guy was super cute and seemed happy but he just refused to eat. He lasted a month but would not take a bite. RIP.
7/12 also some astrea snails and many many mini cerinth snails. I love those. They are hard workers.
7/13, Intank chamber 1 media basket
8/12, Australian Duncan coral.
August, tank is 7 months old, there is a little big of green algae and occasional outbreaks of cyano, which I fix with a redirection of flow.
9/17, a bonded male/female pair of watchman gobies. They have become the mob bosses of the tank. They live under the rocks and keep the underworld running smoothly.
They had a pet pistol shrimp, but he didn't make it past three months. Or, I should say, I never saw him again after three months. RIP.
10/1 Maintenance consists of a 2-gallon water change every Saturday without fail, & change filter floss every 3 days, clean the glass daily.
Lots of seachem media and carbon in the 2 intank media baskets in the back. Intank filter floss at the top of chamber 1 where the water flows in.
Test parameters a few hours after water changes, they have stayed the same for the past several months, ammonia 0 nitrite 0 and nitrate 0, pH 7.
11/15 one of the clownies got weak, or sick, or not sure, but started swimming on his side for a day down at the sand bed, then passed away. RIP, the other clown seems sad.
After a little while I got him a little juvenile panda clownfish as a friend, from the LFS.
12/1 tank is almost a year old, started thinking about a Biocube 32 to go with this one. Everything here is stable and steady.
12/31, aptasia came in on a pair of zoa frags I added. A peppermint shrimp did his job. I kept him in the 13.5 until the Biocube was ready, then moved him over there.
2/7/2020, tank is 13 months old. Due to a pretty nasty outbreak of fast-growing hair algae, I decided to try to grow some Chaeto in a net bag in the main display tank.
It did okay but didnt' out compete the algae, really. Tackling the phosphates with carbon was the real solution, which I took a few months to get around to, but eventually is the right answer.
3/18, went on vacation for a week. Son fed fishies and kept the water level topped off. Also we kept the lights out the whole week. Hair algae almost totally wiped out.
4/3 considered moving the tank from the bedroom, where I set it up, to the office, where I am spending so much time at home because of Covid.
6/15 successfully moved into the home office next to my desk.
I prepared for the move for about a month, including researching the right way to move a tank, watching videos, getting a new stand, and getting the new location ready etc.
Now I can see the little fishies all day working in here instead of just occasionally or hardly at all.
7/18 GSP! I got a patch of gsp from the LFS and put it on the back wall,
about 90% of the way down to the bottom. It's about 2 inches wide and 3 inches wide (5cm x 7.6cm).
I can't reach any of the rock, and hopefully it will grow upwards.
As of today the tank is a year and a half old + 3 days.
I started this tank January 17, 2019.
It's my first saltwater tank, and my 4th aquarium.
I started with some saltwater mixed up using Instant Ocean + store-bought RODI.
Caribsea Aragalive Fiji Pink and some Caribsea Liferock spent two days settling down, and I had the start to my little box of ocean.
I fed it a small amount of fish food ever other day or so, and on the 24th switched to Dr. Tim's ammonia.
On the 2nd of February, diatoms appeared.
I started seeing nitrites and eventually started seeing nitrates around 2/7.
2/16 my first water change.
2/17 the first outbreak of green alagae on the very tippy tops of rocks, closest to the light.
2/21, any ammonia dosed is gone to 0 ppm within 24 hours.
2/25 Ordered a Hydor Koralia Evolution Nano 425 Powerhead & some Seachem Matrix BioMedia. The 425 was too strong so I replaced that with a 240.
Also got a Intank chamber 2 media basket.
2/28 2 trochus and 2 nassarius snails. Spoiler alert: these first four inhabitants are still alive on 7/20/2020, 18 months later.
3/14 I added some blue-legged hermit crabs from reefcleaners. They are cute but in hindsight I think I would go crabless in the future.
4/26, the first fishies arrive. A bonded pair of juvenile snoflake clowns from liveaquaria. Sadly one was DOA and LiveAquaria was prompt (and kind) about it and replaced him very quickly. The replacement bonded quickly.
5/6, first zoas, two small frags. I like zoas.
7/12, I added a yellow clown goby. The poor guy was super cute and seemed happy but he just refused to eat. He lasted a month but would not take a bite. RIP.
7/12 also some astrea snails and many many mini cerinth snails. I love those. They are hard workers.
7/13, Intank chamber 1 media basket
8/12, Australian Duncan coral.
August, tank is 7 months old, there is a little big of green algae and occasional outbreaks of cyano, which I fix with a redirection of flow.
9/17, a bonded male/female pair of watchman gobies. They have become the mob bosses of the tank. They live under the rocks and keep the underworld running smoothly.
They had a pet pistol shrimp, but he didn't make it past three months. Or, I should say, I never saw him again after three months. RIP.
10/1 Maintenance consists of a 2-gallon water change every Saturday without fail, & change filter floss every 3 days, clean the glass daily.
Lots of seachem media and carbon in the 2 intank media baskets in the back. Intank filter floss at the top of chamber 1 where the water flows in.
Test parameters a few hours after water changes, they have stayed the same for the past several months, ammonia 0 nitrite 0 and nitrate 0, pH 7.
11/15 one of the clownies got weak, or sick, or not sure, but started swimming on his side for a day down at the sand bed, then passed away. RIP, the other clown seems sad.
After a little while I got him a little juvenile panda clownfish as a friend, from the LFS.
12/1 tank is almost a year old, started thinking about a Biocube 32 to go with this one. Everything here is stable and steady.
12/31, aptasia came in on a pair of zoa frags I added. A peppermint shrimp did his job. I kept him in the 13.5 until the Biocube was ready, then moved him over there.
2/7/2020, tank is 13 months old. Due to a pretty nasty outbreak of fast-growing hair algae, I decided to try to grow some Chaeto in a net bag in the main display tank.
It did okay but didnt' out compete the algae, really. Tackling the phosphates with carbon was the real solution, which I took a few months to get around to, but eventually is the right answer.
3/18, went on vacation for a week. Son fed fishies and kept the water level topped off. Also we kept the lights out the whole week. Hair algae almost totally wiped out.
4/3 considered moving the tank from the bedroom, where I set it up, to the office, where I am spending so much time at home because of Covid.
6/15 successfully moved into the home office next to my desk.
I prepared for the move for about a month, including researching the right way to move a tank, watching videos, getting a new stand, and getting the new location ready etc.
Now I can see the little fishies all day working in here instead of just occasionally or hardly at all.
7/18 GSP! I got a patch of gsp from the LFS and put it on the back wall,
about 90% of the way down to the bottom. It's about 2 inches wide and 3 inches wide (5cm x 7.6cm).
I can't reach any of the rock, and hopefully it will grow upwards.
I'm on phone calls a lot and I like to watch them when someone is rambling on. 
