fretfreak13
Active Member
Well, better late than never. I'm a fifteen year old girl who has been in freshwater all her life. Had things wranging from guppies to piranah, discus to arowannah. All kinds of stuff. Anyways, when I friend's family got evicted and needed a home for their tanks, I happily obliged. I recived their 29 with about two inches of CC substrate from the established tank. I also added some acropora skeletons that my mom got from her trip to aruba (which are now starting to cover in pretty purple coraline!). Added about 20 lbs of LR, had fun identifying all my hitch hikers: stomatella, nasty appys, tpons of amphipods, brown button polyps, tons of feather dusters, and some type of small anenome. Meowzer had some her in seahorse tank, I forgot what they were called but I know they're ok. They're doing really well under my flourecent lighting too, which is wierd. A have about seven, and one of them decided it didn't like where it was and moved.
Anyways, I put my tank together around two months ago and have already gone through a few freakouts. Yay. Filled it, let it cycle, and then added the start of my CUC, which was ten scarlet hermits, two turbos, and all those neat little stomatella snails that came on my live rock.
My first scare was that the entertainment center (which it said on the caution sticker that it could hold 400 lbs) that it was sitting on started to break underneath the tank. An emergency trip to Home Depot and a pissed off mother for spending about $150 to avoid a basement flood later, i had built a nice stand. Can hold well over 1000 lbs, for sure. Metal frame, nice coubards to hide my future sump. I'm proud of my first DIY project.
My first fish were a pair of false perc. clowns, and with them came a pretty little Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, who my best friend named Hernando. Cute little buggers, and even though I knew the fish were sick at the store I bought them, tempted to have life in my desolate tank. I thought they had ich, which I didn't know was such a huge threat to SW fish. My FW fish get it a lot from stuff and I can easily fix them. I think in my whole life I've only lost on FW fish from ich. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I underestimated the effect in SW. The second day I had them, I found one lodged deep in my large acropora sleleton. He didn't die and just float in there, he got stuck and suffocated. I tried to blow him out with a power head, but eventually had to pull him out with my hands. My first loss, and so graphic. I felt his flesh ripping from the sharp coral while I pulled him out, and even though I knew he was already dead it was terrible. Pulled his tail off too. *sigh*
Anyways, two days later the next one died. At the time I didn't have my skimmer set up, but I tried sooo hard that last night, staye dup till three AM on a school night trying to hook it up to maybe save my fish. Didn't know if it would help at all, but it was worth a try. Woke up the next morning to a dead little fish, which I expected. 'Nother fishuneral. I also just learned that they did not have ich, but instead lymphocystis.
Waited about a week to reset water parameters, then got another pair of clowns. They are SO cute! Babies, I'm not sure how old, but about half the size of my pinky. Maybe 3/4 inch? Well anyways, their names are Ponyo and Sosuke (soss-keh) after the Hayao Miyazaki animation film "Ponyo". (Really cute, fish lovers should see it. Kinda resembles the japanese verion of The Little Mermaid.) They are doing very well, and I feel like a proud parent!
Now on to the sump. Almost done with it, I just need a bit more RO which I'll be getting soon. Underestimated how much water I'd need to fill it. In the first section, there is LS, LR, Chemi-pure. Will be adding Cheato. Next section, skimmer, which is being a pain in the behind at the moment. Then a bubble trap, then the return. I'm proud of myself. Another DIY project accomplished.
Sorry I don't have pics, I know how imporant those are here. I'll get some soon, though. I don't own a camera, but I'll borrow the boyfriend's. Thanks for reading.
Anyways, I put my tank together around two months ago and have already gone through a few freakouts. Yay. Filled it, let it cycle, and then added the start of my CUC, which was ten scarlet hermits, two turbos, and all those neat little stomatella snails that came on my live rock.
My first scare was that the entertainment center (which it said on the caution sticker that it could hold 400 lbs) that it was sitting on started to break underneath the tank. An emergency trip to Home Depot and a pissed off mother for spending about $150 to avoid a basement flood later, i had built a nice stand. Can hold well over 1000 lbs, for sure. Metal frame, nice coubards to hide my future sump. I'm proud of my first DIY project.
My first fish were a pair of false perc. clowns, and with them came a pretty little Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, who my best friend named Hernando. Cute little buggers, and even though I knew the fish were sick at the store I bought them, tempted to have life in my desolate tank. I thought they had ich, which I didn't know was such a huge threat to SW fish. My FW fish get it a lot from stuff and I can easily fix them. I think in my whole life I've only lost on FW fish from ich. Maybe I'm just lucky, but I underestimated the effect in SW. The second day I had them, I found one lodged deep in my large acropora sleleton. He didn't die and just float in there, he got stuck and suffocated. I tried to blow him out with a power head, but eventually had to pull him out with my hands. My first loss, and so graphic. I felt his flesh ripping from the sharp coral while I pulled him out, and even though I knew he was already dead it was terrible. Pulled his tail off too. *sigh*
Anyways, two days later the next one died. At the time I didn't have my skimmer set up, but I tried sooo hard that last night, staye dup till three AM on a school night trying to hook it up to maybe save my fish. Didn't know if it would help at all, but it was worth a try. Woke up the next morning to a dead little fish, which I expected. 'Nother fishuneral. I also just learned that they did not have ich, but instead lymphocystis.
Waited about a week to reset water parameters, then got another pair of clowns. They are SO cute! Babies, I'm not sure how old, but about half the size of my pinky. Maybe 3/4 inch? Well anyways, their names are Ponyo and Sosuke (soss-keh) after the Hayao Miyazaki animation film "Ponyo". (Really cute, fish lovers should see it. Kinda resembles the japanese verion of The Little Mermaid.) They are doing very well, and I feel like a proud parent!
Now on to the sump. Almost done with it, I just need a bit more RO which I'll be getting soon. Underestimated how much water I'd need to fill it. In the first section, there is LS, LR, Chemi-pure. Will be adding Cheato. Next section, skimmer, which is being a pain in the behind at the moment. Then a bubble trap, then the return. I'm proud of myself. Another DIY project accomplished.
Sorry I don't have pics, I know how imporant those are here. I'll get some soon, though. I don't own a camera, but I'll borrow the boyfriend's. Thanks for reading.
