Why does it have to be so hard?

bender77

bender77

Member
I worked long and hard on the aquascape of my seahorse tank. Made sure everything was stable and perfect. Started ordering macros and placing them, a sponge and a couple of leathers, a CUC. It was going great until I found the perfect leather for a spot in the tank. Every time I would go to place it, it would curl and shrivel up and make it almost impossible. This morning I got up and was determined to make it work. As I was carefully trying to get it in the spot and it was curling more and more I dislodged a rock and it all came tumbling down.
I had macros floating everywhere, rock that wouldn't go back, my poor sponge took a beating and I'm thinking it may not make it.
I've finally got things back together. It seams steady again. My hands are numb from working in the cold water and the perfect leather is now buried in the sand on the bottom. For all I know it could be laying on it's side when it decides to uncurl and right now I really don't care. I have salt water everywhere, the sides of my tank are foggy and streaked from the salt water and I still need to do water changes

I sure hope the SH are not as clumsy as I am.
 
xeniaman

xeniaman

Member
With corals, especially leathers, it is better just to leave them alone. The more you move them the more they have to acclimate to their surrounding conditions. I learned the hard way with my first leather
 
ophiura

ophiura

Active Member
I don't mean to sound, well, mean :D This could be interpreted that way but it is definitely not :D this is a "yeah, I've been there" sort of lesson learned.
This is kinda the difference between keeping an ecosystem, or keeping a wall of pictures. There are plenty of people who think fish tanks are roughly equivalent (to the extreme of fish tanks that are frames for the wall).
And people can do that. Artificial everything. For many, this is ideal and works great. It is not the case for me and I think you.
The more you try to mess with this, the more it can start to crumble. Corals (esp leathers) though looking inanimate are very very much alive. remarkably so. It is amazing how quickly they can respond to a nip at one end. Be fascinated by this, and less so by getting it right and perfect. Believe me, as soon as things grow, it will not be so perfect.
Focus on getting your rock stable, and stick some corals in according to flow and lighting. But trying to get the whole thing together in terms of what looks good where is often a fruitless and frustrating persuit, IME. It looks good until it grows a few inches and fights with the one next to it.
These are not stagnant picture frames, at least we hope. It is always growing, always changing, and so trying to get it "perfect" is only transient. :)
If you do this in an established tank, esp with a significant sand bed, it can be very problematic indeed.

So...get rock stable. For the seahorses, this will be the critical part because they won't be getting out of the way if it falls. Get corals and such distributed throughout. They will grow, it will all look good in the end
 
bender77

bender77

Member
No, you didn't sound mean at all. I just had one of those, "this would look great right there and should slip nicely into that hole moments"
Most of the time I don't really worry too much. I really think everything is stable again. I just hope this leather likes where he is on the bottom because I see no way to get him into the rock work now. Not with the way he curls when he is PO'ed.
I've knocked rocks over in my nano a couple of time just doing a water change. I've been siphoning get my tube hooked under a rock and the next thing I know it's tumbling. I am not coordinated at all. Now I pretty much try to keep everything out of the tank and do water only.
So for now, I'll do a water change tomorrow and hope for better luck. Get something tall to stick in the sand for the horses when I finally decided the tank is stable enough for them and let everything grow for awhile. As far as I'm concerned, the rocks can be bare for now.
 
novahobbies

novahobbies

Well-Known Member
LOL I totally feel your pain. I have the same problem with a frogspawn coral....when I first started placing it, I was trying too hard. Wasn't a good spot stability-wise, but I wanted it there for asthetic reasons. Needless to say, asthetics lost over stability....and the coral is on a ledge that's probably more to its liking than mine. But as Ophiura said....these are living things, and what's best for their growth is always going to pay us back in the long run.
Now, if I could just get my snails to stop knocking over my orange sponge.......
 
zeke92

zeke92

Active Member
I know what you mean. Rocks start falling, plants start floating up, powerheads fall and shoot debris everywhere...i lost more cool plants and small corals to that then would have been worth it if i had made it look good.
But Ohpiura said it perfect, it all doesn't matter once things start growing and moving on there own.
 
jackri

jackri

Active Member
Originally Posted by bender77
http:///forum/post/3112658
My hands are numb from working in the cold water
Umm.... shouldn't your temp be 78-80? That's good swimming temp there

I have a hard time figuring where to put things, and then the corals grow exactly like they shouldn't and change their minds and my aquascaping anyways

Good luck!
 
jackri

jackri

Active Member
Interesting. Our LFS just has them in one of their coral tanks for sale and just figured the temps were the same.
On the flip side.. to me hand numbing cold is ice fishing. I've also washed my car before on a bright sunny 40 degree warm day in the spring before so I guess it's all about perspective lol
 
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