charlypooh
Well-known member
The tank has been up since late 2005, and has been through two owners and two moves. Sometimes, looking at older photos, I'm completely amazed. Here's its story...
I inherited the tank, compliments of a friend's divorce, in 2006. When her husband left Portland for Seattle and left the tank behind, my thoughts were that it couldn't be all that difficult to move and keep up...if her ex could manage to keep things alive, I definitely shouldn't have any problems at all. :biggrin1: So, I told her I'd deal with moving it up from Portland when we moved her, and I'd take it on. All survived the move, and did great for quite some time.
When I inherited the tank, it was only about 6 months old, and a lot less elaborate than the current setup...just tank, stand, hob skimmer, cheap hob filter, and T5 lighting. ...and it was complete with the ex's bright idea that red freshwater gravel belonged in a "reef" tank:
In the beginning, I wasn't so smart... I did fine with keeping parameters up, but got suckered into a couple of fish that ended up destroying the setup. I took home a lunar wrasse because I told someone at a local lfs that I wanted to control bristle worms (and they were happy to get rid of the 2.5" little bugger at a "great" price), and a velvet damsel because it was little and pretty. After that, the friend's ex made a reappearance and tried to "make the setup better" by changing the cheap hob filter out for a Rapids Pro wet-dry and removing the CPR skimmer. I still didn't know any better, so didn't complain...it was free to me after all! After two months, he was gone again, and not trying to make "improvements". In Feb. 2009 came the second tank move and a major downturn with the setup.
By the beginning of 2010, the wrasse was nearly 8 inches and the damsel was over 6 inches. In mid-2010, the tank couldn't handle the heavy pollutants anymore and ended up looking like this (hair algae anyone?):
The wrasse and damsel ate anything related to coral, the water paramaters were off the charts for nitrates and phosphate, and the two clowns I had decided suicide was better than dealing with the wrasse and jumped ship leaving my coral beauty as the only non pain in the behind critter in the tank.
In March of this year, the wrasse became what I can't only describe as paralyzed and ended up dying, I relocated the damsel, and I set my sights on getting everything cleaned up and transformed into the little piece of aquatic heaven I'd dreamed about from day one.
By the end of April, I'd managed to get the water parameters under control by stripping all bio media from the tank, water changes, adding back a cleaning crew, and chaeto, and was able to begin acquiring corals. I also picked up a pair of oscellaris clowns to keep the coral beauty (who was the lone long-time survivor) company. In early may things were looking better:
Since then, I've gone crazy and the tank is full of life!
For those who are curious, my setup is a little out of the ordinary compared to what I see in other setups. My stand has basically zero space (like 10x12) in-cabinet, so I've found myself some work-arounds to not being able to have a sump... Currently, filtration consists of a Fluval G6 unit with mechanical and chemical cartridges in place, but all bio media removed, a CPR BakPak skimmer with bio media removed, and a small CPR refugium. Heating is taken care of with a Fluval in-line heater installed on the output line of my Oceanic chiller (which also acts as the heater control). Lighting is a MH/PC combo fixture.
Currently, the tank is home to a coral beauty angel, an oscellaris clown pair, a yasha hase goby, two sexy shrimp, a bullseye pistol shrimp, a couple of urchins (banished to the refugium), and various types of snail. On top of that, is the garden of coral...love it!
I inherited the tank, compliments of a friend's divorce, in 2006. When her husband left Portland for Seattle and left the tank behind, my thoughts were that it couldn't be all that difficult to move and keep up...if her ex could manage to keep things alive, I definitely shouldn't have any problems at all. :biggrin1: So, I told her I'd deal with moving it up from Portland when we moved her, and I'd take it on. All survived the move, and did great for quite some time.
When I inherited the tank, it was only about 6 months old, and a lot less elaborate than the current setup...just tank, stand, hob skimmer, cheap hob filter, and T5 lighting. ...and it was complete with the ex's bright idea that red freshwater gravel belonged in a "reef" tank:
In the beginning, I wasn't so smart... I did fine with keeping parameters up, but got suckered into a couple of fish that ended up destroying the setup. I took home a lunar wrasse because I told someone at a local lfs that I wanted to control bristle worms (and they were happy to get rid of the 2.5" little bugger at a "great" price), and a velvet damsel because it was little and pretty. After that, the friend's ex made a reappearance and tried to "make the setup better" by changing the cheap hob filter out for a Rapids Pro wet-dry and removing the CPR skimmer. I still didn't know any better, so didn't complain...it was free to me after all! After two months, he was gone again, and not trying to make "improvements". In Feb. 2009 came the second tank move and a major downturn with the setup.
By the beginning of 2010, the wrasse was nearly 8 inches and the damsel was over 6 inches. In mid-2010, the tank couldn't handle the heavy pollutants anymore and ended up looking like this (hair algae anyone?):
The wrasse and damsel ate anything related to coral, the water paramaters were off the charts for nitrates and phosphate, and the two clowns I had decided suicide was better than dealing with the wrasse and jumped ship leaving my coral beauty as the only non pain in the behind critter in the tank.
In March of this year, the wrasse became what I can't only describe as paralyzed and ended up dying, I relocated the damsel, and I set my sights on getting everything cleaned up and transformed into the little piece of aquatic heaven I'd dreamed about from day one.
By the end of April, I'd managed to get the water parameters under control by stripping all bio media from the tank, water changes, adding back a cleaning crew, and chaeto, and was able to begin acquiring corals. I also picked up a pair of oscellaris clowns to keep the coral beauty (who was the lone long-time survivor) company. In early may things were looking better:
Since then, I've gone crazy and the tank is full of life!
Currently, the tank is home to a coral beauty angel, an oscellaris clown pair, a yasha hase goby, two sexy shrimp, a bullseye pistol shrimp, a couple of urchins (banished to the refugium), and various types of snail. On top of that, is the garden of coral...love it!
