Please go easy on me :)

4FordFamily · Sep 13, 2021

Welcome home, you will love it here!

Nice setup, thanks for sharing!

txgunsmith14 · Sep 13, 2021

By the way the reason for not knowing what coral I got was because they were in the “entire section is $12” at the lfs. He thought it was all dying or dead. Nothing was labeled and most of it was unrecognizable. Still trying to ID everything but know I have palys and zoas just not sure which breed. ID help would be appreciated.

txgunsmith14 · Sep 13, 2021

Oh and aren’t Superman mushrooms supposed to be red with blue dots? Why does everyone call these Superman if they are bright orange?

Fishinabarrel · Sep 13, 2021

Welcome aboard and thank you for controlling the evil damsel population!

txgunsmith14 · Sep 13, 2021

lol!! if I hadn’t grown fond of the last one I would have taken him back for credit. Won’t even let a peppermint do his thing so I put a tomato clown in. Put him in his place.

Fishinabarrel said:
Welcome aboard and thank you for controlling the evil damsel population!

Manny’s Reef · Sep 13, 2021

Welcome to R2R. You'll find loads of great information here.

Brit’s Fish · Sep 13, 2021

Welcome to R2R! Thank you for sharing your story and progress. Getting started can be tough and there can be a steep learning curve, but it sounds & looks like your tanks are doing great! You're on the right track... looking forward to seeing more of the progress on your little oceans.

G Santana · Sep 13, 2021

Welcome to R2R, as stated, most of is have been there, the person who learns from their mistakes is a true hobbyist!!!

jtp7004ft · Sep 13, 2021

Welcome

Jeffcb · Sep 13, 2021

Welcome to Reef2Reef!!!

Fish Think Pink · Sep 13, 2021

txgunsmith14 said:
Hey all,
Can’t sleep tonight so I thought I’d post my adventure. New to the hobby and building up quickly.
I know I rushed and this timeline is to show others that patience is required not just recommended. I would have done it differently for sure

Went to South padre in June and picked up a few shells on the beach including a couple live hermits.
-came back and purchased a 10g tank and thought salt water would be fun.
-put both hermits in and some sand from the beach mixed with hermit crab substrate (yeah the dry land crab stuff)
Cleaned out all the floating wood and dumped the tank. Purchased Fiji sand thinking it was like the beach then not knowing about cycling got a starfish and two damsels.

-poor starfish wasn’t doing well so move him to a glass bowl with new saltwater for two days. Stirring and splashing it every 30 minutes to add oxygen
-Struggled with heater and filter then decided after the two damsels died I was rushing.
-read about fluctuating parameters in little tanks so went to a 40g.
-only ever tested ammonia and nitrites so after a water change both of those looked great and purchased a clown. Even put fake coral in from petco lol. This was all by July.
Took the fake stuff out and threw in a few shells and a couple live rocks.
Got a power head cause “I read it should be like the ocean”.

-Mid July got more rocks cause it said live bacteria and thought my ammonia was solved.
-purchase a black and white clown and two more damsels.

By this point two damsels had died, two hermits, orange clown, and star made it. I thought it was going ok.
-purchased a lta for $70 and was getting worried about my drive vs patience now.

Hey my tank looked like the ocean now that I bought a cheap $40 wave maker on Amazon.

I purchased some coral frags of something with coral in the first name and thought wow how hard is this.

After burying the lta in the sand 15 million times and still popping out he finally discover the cheap wave maker early July. The tank was cover in milky color bad.

I had been doing water changes weekly of about 25% by this point so I went ahead and did a 50%. Kept him separated but he stood no chance.

At the same time the second pair of damsels began acting strange and laying on the sand etc. I thought it was because one picked on the other too much.
I finally decided to start the 10g back up and run a quarantine/reef tank and a 40g fish tank.

I moved the damsel over and my small zoa frags (yeah I finally learned what they were) and hoped I didn’t have the same issues.

I finally stopped buying living things and started getting things that mattered like test kits. 25% water change on both every weekend for the next 5 weeks. Zoas were looking good and fish were happy with the exception of one of the damsels. He didn’t make it like due to stress.

Hated the pile of rocks and built them up. 40g was doing amazing on parameters now. It had 2 clowns, 3 hermits, star, and 2 peppermint shrimp.

After 2 months of patience if that’s what it was lol I was ready to begin again.
Late August and in to this month I got a couple more fish. One butterfly and a puffer (been in the tank for two weeks no issues). Got a couple more corals (Superman shrooms 20 of them for $50 and a plate for $15)

Yesterday I decided my 10 reef tank was too small and moved it up to a 20.

Took a couple crabs and starfish and put them into the 10 so the puffer doesn’t eat them.

I know it seems I’m rushing and I’m trying not to but everything is going extremely smooth…..now.

I know I will have to have a bigger tank in the near future for the butterfly and puffer and a 150-180g is being looked in to.

All three tanks are 0 ammonia
0 nitrites
20 nitrates
Phosphates 1-2
Reef tank is a bit high on calcium at 500

Hopefully my story helps those in a hurry to understand you can’t rush this hobby. Also hope I don’t get too much grief here.

sorry so many photos are blue. Working on learning that too.

Welcome! Sorry for your losses, but sounds like you are on better path now

Have you considered starting your build thread, esp since you already have everything you need right in your original post here (just need to copy it to other thread forum location)? I found its a great place to document my tank's evolution for myself. Like you, I started tank first then joined, so I'm still finding myself going back collecting pictures & updating historically as well as current state. Once you create your first post in your thread and link it to your account, they will give you build badge (look left, under my ID).

Jeffcb · Sep 13, 2021

Welcome to Reef2Reef!!!

Sebastiancrab · Sep 13, 2021

Welcome to the best reef over the sea!

txgunsmith14 · Sep 13, 2021

Fish Think Pink said:
Welcome! Sorry for your losses, but sounds like you are on better path now

Have you considered starting your build thread, esp since you already have everything you need right in your original post here (just need to copy it to other thread forum location)? I found its a great place to document my tank's evolution for myself. Like you, I started tank first then joined, so I'm still finding myself going back collecting pictures & updating historically as well as current state. Once you create your first post in your thread and link it to your account, they will give you build badge (look left, under my ID).

I have not but guess I should rather than continually updating the tanks here.

Fish Think Pink · Sep 13, 2021

txgunsmith14 said:
I have not but guess I should rather than continually updating the tanks here.

I keep a spiral notebook that I write down things like water parameters before water changes, but it has been interesting to me how much detail I'm missing. Having pictures of things helps me, as I can be visual learner (also like hands on learning). Between the notebook and now my post, I'm doing better at capturing details.

For reference, below is my build thread and everyone does different things with their threads - its yours - its unique to you - just go for it.

Large Build - my 180g tank build when returning to saltwater hobby

Like many of you, I started with a dream. Previously I had 5 saltwater tanks but when life happened sold tanks and fish. Memories of those tanks as well as any scuba or snorkeling would fan dream of returning to saltwater tank hobby. Those original fish only tanks were decorated with dead/dry...

www.reef2reef.com

EDIT - I'm also more likely to put excess energy into documenting and therefore I leave my tank alone when I'm having problems with patience... but I still want to rip apart and redo the right side aquascape of my tank.... lol

txgunsmith14 · Sep 13, 2021

Fish Think Pink said:
Welcome! Sorry for your losses, but sounds like you are on better path now

Have you considered starting your build thread, esp since you already have everything you need right in your original post here (just need to copy it to other thread forum location)? I found its a great place to document my tank's evolution for myself. Like you, I started tank first then joined, so I'm still finding myself going back collecting pictures & updating historically as well as current state. Once you create your first post in your thread and link it to your account, they will give you build badge (look left, under my ID).

How do I move it over there?

GHOSTLY · Sep 13, 2021

txgunsmith14 said:
Hey all,
Can’t sleep tonight so I thought I’d post my adventure. New to the hobby and building up quickly.
I know I rushed and this timeline is to show others that patience is required not just recommended. I would have done it differently for sure

Went to South padre in June and picked up a few shells on the beach including a couple live hermits.
-came back and purchased a 10g tank and thought salt water would be fun.
-put both hermits in and some sand from the beach mixed with hermit crab substrate (yeah the dry land crab stuff)
Cleaned out all the floating wood and dumped the tank. Purchased Fiji sand thinking it was like the beach then not knowing about cycling got a starfish and two damsels.

-poor starfish wasn’t doing well so move him to a glass bowl with new saltwater for two days. Stirring and splashing it every 30 minutes to add oxygen
-Struggled with heater and filter then decided after the two damsels died I was rushing.
-read about fluctuating parameters in little tanks so went to a 40g.
-only ever tested ammonia and nitrites so after a water change both of those looked great and purchased a clown. Even put fake coral in from petco lol. This was all by July.
Took the fake stuff out and threw in a few shells and a couple live rocks.
Got a power head cause “I read it should be like the ocean”.

-Mid July got more rocks cause it said live bacteria and thought my ammonia was solved.
-purchase a black and white clown and two more damsels.

By this point two damsels had died, two hermits, orange clown, and star made it. I thought it was going ok.
-purchased a lta for $70 and was getting worried about my drive vs patience now.

Hey my tank looked like the ocean now that I bought a cheap $40 wave maker on Amazon.

I purchased some coral frags of something with coral in the first name and thought wow how hard is this.

After burying the lta in the sand 15 million times and still popping out he finally discover the cheap wave maker early July. The tank was cover in milky color bad.

I had been doing water changes weekly of about 25% by this point so I went ahead and did a 50%. Kept him separated but he stood no chance.

At the same time the second pair of damsels began acting strange and laying on the sand etc. I thought it was because one picked on the other too much.
I finally decided to start the 10g back up and run a quarantine/reef tank and a 40g fish tank.

I moved the damsel over and my small zoa frags (yeah I finally learned what they were) and hoped I didn’t have the same issues.

I finally stopped buying living things and started getting things that mattered like test kits. 25% water change on both every weekend for the next 5 weeks. Zoas were looking good and fish were happy with the exception of one of the damsels. He didn’t make it like due to stress.

Hated the pile of rocks and built them up. 40g was doing amazing on parameters now. It had 2 clowns, 3 hermits, star, and 2 peppermint shrimp.

After 2 months of patience if that’s what it was lol I was ready to begin again.
Late August and in to this month I got a couple more fish. One butterfly and a puffer (been in the tank for two weeks no issues). Got a couple more corals (Superman shrooms 20 of them for $50 and a plate for $15)

Yesterday I decided my 10 reef tank was too small and moved it up to a 20.

Took a couple crabs and starfish and put them into the 10 so the puffer doesn’t eat them.

I know it seems I’m rushing and I’m trying not to but everything is going extremely smooth…..now.

I know I will have to have a bigger tank in the near future for the butterfly and puffer and a 150-180g is being looked in to.

All three tanks are 0 ammonia
0 nitrites
20 nitrates
Phosphates 1-2
Reef tank is a bit high on calcium at 500

Hopefully my story helps those in a hurry to understand you can’t rush this hobby. Also hope I don’t get too much grief here.

sorry so many photos are blue. Working on learning that too.

Thats a HUGE fungia. is it bleaching?

Fish Think Pink · Sep 13, 2021

txgunsmith14 said:
How do I move it over there?

Congrats - I saw it pop up over there even before I saw your question above - YOU ARE MAKING IT HAPPEN!! WaaHoo!! Once you link your account to that new thread you just made over there (BUILD THREAD BADGE), it can be a couple hours until your badge shows up. I may not be online still tonight, so let me just congratulated you early on this! WAHOO!