MockTheMock
New Member
This will be a long introduction with pictures coming at a later date. Until recently everything I did was because my original LFS was not a very good one and I wasn't invested.
In Nov of 2022 my 4 year old son decided for his birthday he wanted a fish tank. I come from a fishing family and the thought of keeping fish and not eating them was foreign to me. Knowing next to nothing about this hobby my son and I went to a LFS and began our journey. I chose the evo 13.5 for my son because of size, cost, and selection at said store. We bought the tank, store recommended sand (can't remember brand), dry rock, bottled bacteria, and salt water (tropic marin) went home and set up the tank completely stock, adding half the bottle of bacteria.
I waited 3 1/2 weeks and added 2 clownfish and 2 blue legged hermit crabs. The following day I added the 2nd half of the bottled bacteria. This is where things start to go wrong. I did not shake the bottled bacteria bottle and I emptied the bottle into the display portion of the tank. I assume the clowns thought it was feeding time and were promptly covered in what I belive was a layer of pink congealed bacteria. Less than a week later both clowns are dead. My son has completely lost interest by this point, but, I had fallen in love.
I started doing more research shortly after that and ordered the in basket media filter for chamber 1. Added filter floss to the top layer of the basket and bio media to chamber 2. Upgraded the return pump, added a little live rock, added a heater, a thermometer and an ammonia checker. 2 weeks after both clowns had died I added a royal gramma, a nassarius and a trochus snail. The royal seemed to be doing OK until it developed what looked to be ich. 2 Weeks after adding the gramma it died, presumably from the ich. Less than a week later, the trochus died as well.
After the clown died I started visiting other LFS in my area and have since found my new go to and several others for 2nd opinions. I have kept up on checking parameters via LFS and everything is stable and looking good as of today. I'm currently continuing research and allowing the ich in my tank to run its course before adding any other fish. I started this hobby less than 3 months ago completely clueless. I have spent more time of reddit, youtube, and most recently these forums than I care to admit. I will not give up on this tank and I will figure it out! I will continue with updates on this if I upgrade anything or when I decide to add more fish. If you've read this far please feel free to add your input. Thank you and happy reefing
In Nov of 2022 my 4 year old son decided for his birthday he wanted a fish tank. I come from a fishing family and the thought of keeping fish and not eating them was foreign to me. Knowing next to nothing about this hobby my son and I went to a LFS and began our journey. I chose the evo 13.5 for my son because of size, cost, and selection at said store. We bought the tank, store recommended sand (can't remember brand), dry rock, bottled bacteria, and salt water (tropic marin) went home and set up the tank completely stock, adding half the bottle of bacteria.
I waited 3 1/2 weeks and added 2 clownfish and 2 blue legged hermit crabs. The following day I added the 2nd half of the bottled bacteria. This is where things start to go wrong. I did not shake the bottled bacteria bottle and I emptied the bottle into the display portion of the tank. I assume the clowns thought it was feeding time and were promptly covered in what I belive was a layer of pink congealed bacteria. Less than a week later both clowns are dead. My son has completely lost interest by this point, but, I had fallen in love.
I started doing more research shortly after that and ordered the in basket media filter for chamber 1. Added filter floss to the top layer of the basket and bio media to chamber 2. Upgraded the return pump, added a little live rock, added a heater, a thermometer and an ammonia checker. 2 weeks after both clowns had died I added a royal gramma, a nassarius and a trochus snail. The royal seemed to be doing OK until it developed what looked to be ich. 2 Weeks after adding the gramma it died, presumably from the ich. Less than a week later, the trochus died as well.
After the clown died I started visiting other LFS in my area and have since found my new go to and several others for 2nd opinions. I have kept up on checking parameters via LFS and everything is stable and looking good as of today. I'm currently continuing research and allowing the ich in my tank to run its course before adding any other fish. I started this hobby less than 3 months ago completely clueless. I have spent more time of reddit, youtube, and most recently these forums than I care to admit. I will not give up on this tank and I will figure it out! I will continue with updates on this if I upgrade anything or when I decide to add more fish. If you've read this far please feel free to add your input. Thank you and happy reefing
