Tank Neglect

[keithw283]

Kind of an embarrassing post but am curious. Has anybody here started to neglect their tank when setting up a new build? I ordered a tank back in October and have done little to no maintenance on my 55 since than. I was given a 5 week lead time and was totally gonna be on top of everything and the tank was gonna be set up within a week of arrival. Well, 5 weeks turned into 6 or 7 (can't remember exactly), I decided I wanted the new tank on it's own circuit and figured while I was at it would upgrade to 200 amps so had to wait for the electrician and I didn't DIY my sump beforehand (glass is being cut today). For what it's worth all fish and most corals are doing great. Even still getting pretty good growth. The only thing I've lost is my birds nest that got engulfed by GHA and bleached. My tangs are loving life with all the extra food lol. Yes I have multiple tangs in a 55 but before anybody jumps on me they are juveniles. Orange shoulder is about 3" and purple is about 2. The new tank is 240G and will 100% be set up by February at the latest. Realistically could be filled this week depending on the glass shop. Pretty disappointed in myself because the tank was thriving up to October.

The bucket is how much algae I pulled out this morning. I pulled at least that much out two days ago and there is still double or triple that in the tank. Going back for rounds 3 and 4 tomorrow and Wednesday.

 

[tbrown]

I did the same with my last tank when setting up my new tank but mainly because my last tank became more of a disappointment. It was becoming overrun with Aiptasia and my corals were dying. I transferred the fish and saved what corals I could and then kept it from drying out until I was ready to tear it down. It's still sitting in the spot empty waiting to go to the garage because I just became completely unmotivated towards that tank.

 

[Sdoutreefer]

I neglected a small nano, for literal months. Probably close to 4 months. I would feed the fish, and my only corals would get light from the sun.

I decided to turn it around and did a heavy clean. Once all algae was scrubbed and my CUC was tuned, I never had any algae issues with that tank. There's something to neglection in saltwater that seems to be beneficial.

 

[keithw283]

I neglected a small nano, for literal months. Probably close to 4 months. I would feed the fish, and my only corals would get light from the sun.

I decided to turn it around and did a heavy clean. Once all algae was scrubbed and my CUC was tuned, I never had any algae issues with that tank. There's something to neglection in saltwater that seems to be beneficial.

Yeah I picked up 25 snails the other day too. Hoping once I get it down to a manageable amount, the CUC and tangs keep up. The birds nest that got engulfed was the size of my fist. That's how bad the GHA was getting. The plan for this tank is to tear it down once my new tank is ready but I'm thinking I might leave it up for the first 4-6 months for the 240 to become a bit more established.

 

[sushiboss]

I did this with my 40g back in August 2023.

Haven’t done a water change or any maintenance other than topping off since December of that year.

Just a simple glass box with a hob tidal seachem filter and wave maker.

I was supposed to tear this tank down but I couldn’t remove some nems and such from the tank.

Fast forward to last week the tank is still running and it developed a very small leak.

What was ultimately supposed to be broken down and removed is turning into another tank for my room. I didn’t want to abandon the live rock and corals as it’s totally cured and beamin with life.

The only reason I didn’t tear it down were the remaining tank mates (sixline and lawnmower blenny) and they didn’t make the cut to the new tank. Most of the corals and life went to the new 150g minus these guys as my tangs hate lawnmower blennies diamond gobies with a passion and the sixline would bully my dream fish (possum wrasse).

Now that I noticed a hairline leak I ordered a new tank and plan to completely redo my room tank and consolidate a 15g reef into a new 83g system and combine the 40g residents into cohabitation.

Oddly enough the tank is totally stable with small dosing of alk and calcium. Bubble algae is consuming the nutrients and ran wild some small cyano since I removed Nero 3s a long time ago but the corals are all still growing.

I can’t even see into the tank anymore as the front panel is covered in gunk. But I can’t even see new heads on zoas and the Kenya trees are overrunning the tank.

I’ll have to figure out a way to remove these things before getting them into the new system. Haha.

However once was a gha museum has turned into a much more manageable bubble algae museum with way less troublesome nuisance algae.

Sometimes neglect can turn into something greater.

Fish will definitely be happier overall.