Blacknifes 50g Battle of SPS learning

[blacknife]

Chin is up lol.. just thought it was time for a tank update

[gregzz4]

Well, with a chin as big as Quagmire's I'm sure you'll get through

[blacknife]

Working in Sylvan lake and renting a place.. Was going to start a small aio.. But asked the landlord if I could start a small tank.. I defined small as 10 to 40 gallons.. And got the green light.. I probably only be here another 10 months or so so I don't want anything to extravagant.. Just something to keep my feet wet... Where then I can finally shut down my 55 tank of most neglect

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

[blacknife]

Half debating just relocating my whole tank here since asking the landlord went so smoothly... would want to either rebuild my sump or get a smaller sump and new return pump.. kind of want to go internal so if there ever is any plumbing problems it spills back into the sump.

Or stick to my first idea.. something small and simple.. Cube coral tank.. perhaps a few fish..

cube would probably be a in kitchen project.. any other shape,size would be bedroom.. headboard reef perhaps?

[blacknife]

moved the tank to Sylvan today... forgot my ro at the other house.. so i guess it can sit the way it sits for now 3/4 full and packed full of rock.

3 pajama cardinals and 1 scopas tang, and a few snails are the obvious survivors..

remaining coral. a few random palys and zoa's, one frag of 15-20 nuclear deaths. 2 large chunks of xenia, one or 2 blue mushrooms a bunch of bright green rodaddactis mushrooms, 1 mini carpet nem, a few bubletip lookalike pest nems. and that is all of note..


I dont want to use the sump that i have, the tank is 36 wide and the sump is 42.. kind of want to finally skirt this thing in.. was debating just using the tote i used to move some rock but then my ato won't function...

oh well.. ill get it figured out.. and those little fuzzy sticks will grow again

[intarsiabox]

A standard 30g tank is 36"L and would make a good sump for your size of tank. Used ones go for pretty cheap. Good luck getting your tank all back together, moving a SW tank is a ton of work.

[blacknife]

I bought a 20 long for a sump. small rubber maid for the input/skimmer chamber. This should do until I build or get built a custom sump. Might move some of my excess live rock down there as well, like my peice that 2 years later is still battling dychiota<sp algee>.

Skimmer is not working good as it used to but still pretty good.. a bunch of the pins on the impeller are busted off but there are enough to do the job for the current bioload.

Was debating just doing fish only.. but... now that everything is running again the tank seems empty without some sps in it.
Gotta track down a few cheap starter frags before i get anything fancy again i guess.

[blacknife]

Crappy quick cell phone FTS

Went home for a few days to see the kids.. come back and one of my 2 sps test pieces is not doing good. Its not done yet but I do not have much hope.. and to make it worse i decided to **** with the tank more after that.. pulled a bit more rock out to open it up. added some sand to block the light getting down to the sump and.. because i kind of missed having sand.. not much just 1/3 of a bag of seafloor grade. Now i need to get me some sand snails.

I need to build or get built a new sump.. i really don't like this using a plain tank, My first day of days off i was in calgary and did stop and concepts but just my luck everyone was busy on a call.

I am on the fence, probably decide after i get the sump issues sorted out.. to start up the zeo again, and sell off all the "sump rock" or leave all the rock in there and not bother with any crazy ULNS system.... dammed fuzzy sticks why do i like growing you..

[blacknife]

So.. i had a few problems with my ato while in sylvan.. no more sticks. same problems killed one clam that i picked up... moved back to leduc... problem ato died in the move.. so did some of my last few fish and one shrimp. rushed unplanned move.. had no choice.

just over a month later.. things are looking good.. new fish settled in... almost tempted to get some cheap fuzzy sticks again. I wont be working on the road again for a while.. i just got put on disability while i wait for an operation.. dammed work wont put me on modified duties... it kind of sucks as im going to be pretty broke.. but on another note.. i will have lots of time.. perhaps time enough to tackle....


the 105 i got from Wayne ... 3 years ago now?

if i can get it built and holding water.. then i will build a nice stand for it.. then.. it might be time for fuzzy sticks again

Might have to start a new tank journal as well.

[blacknife]

I write this journal more for myself than for you guys, so i can keep track of the antics of trying to keep a tank through the possess of separation and having three little monsters.

My tank looks like crap.

the tang i bought back in may, about a month after I got it.. i thought i was out of the woods with it, well one night the cleaner shrimp start riding on it and picking on it.. the next day its a gonner. all ready at that point i was having more HA than in the last posts pics. with no tang just a couple snails picking at the algae the algae got worse and worse and worse, I doubled my GFO up from a quarter to a half a cup and the algae seemed to like it even more and get worse.

I mixed up a batch of water.. and did not use it for a week or three, I go to look in my mixing barel and the water is labout 95 degrees with a thick layer of precipitate.. im like what the hell..

go through a bought of checking all my heaters.. to discover one on my tank is also on on one of those thirty degree days when the tank is 86-88 degrees and the heater is on as well.

down to one heater that works on the tank, and one that works for top up<although the dial is about ten degrees off> ever since fixing the heaters the tank has not toped 80 degrees even on the hottest days.

get the water all to the same temps and do a 10 gallon change<with the screwed up water>

back to the hair algae.. i got some turbo snails.. was like half way done acclimating them something came up and i had to leave.. so i just dumped them in anyways... come home and most of them are still sitting in the same spot stunned. one or two of them perk up and slowly munch away.

one or two die... or i thought they were dead.. so i pick them out with the tongs.. in front of my 7 year old. one was dead and one was just stunned.. the stunned one goes back the dead one i put in the garbage.

next day all the snails i bought are still there but any of my old ones are missing. i get really puzzled and frustrated.. looking in there every time i pass by my tank looking for the missing snails and to see if the few new ones are dead.

somewhere along the line i do another 10 gallon change

no change in the snails
so i buy two more snails while I am in Edmonton.. acclimate them properly

they start off ok, but by the next day they are laying around the bottom not doing anything either.
so I am really frustrated by now

My sons room starts stinking.. it smells kind of gross.. i think one of the kids or dogs must have done a one or a two or both in something and hid it instead of telling me.. get him to clean his room. low and behold these two teeny disposable zip lock containers buried in his room under dirty clothes and blankets.. I honestly thought there was poo and pee floating in them so i got him to put on gloves and clean up his mess but as he carry's them past me i notice its not poo and pee.. but rotting snails... all my missing snails... stinking that whole quadrant of the house up. He has all ways thought its funny to do what dad does and make little tanks everywhere in random objects but i thought i had him out of the habit of taking things out of my tank over two years ago.>

so a week goes by and I am in Edmonton again. I go in to MA with intent to get a couple more snails but thankfully Harvey starts asking me lots of questions and gets me thinking more.

I haven't tested water in forever.. all my test kits are outdated and im not getting new ones till i have stable income again.. but his conclusion is contaminants from the tank or something from the precipitated water is so out of wack its killing them. I get home from that visit set to clean out my water barrel and make more water.. only to find both my cleaner shrimp are done and some of my corals are looking even more rough, I can see most of my mini brittles.. they are not hiding as usual they are more like floating near where they normaly hide, even the brisstle worms are in on the sick.. big chunks of worm lazily hanging on to rock and floating around in the current instead of consciously probing for detrius... panic sets in.

vinegar wash of the brute barrel, let it fill.. mix salt as quick as i can.. and do a change when the kids are not awake and bam.. within minutes the snails start to perk up. not all of them some are st ill rough. so i mix up another barrel and finally today, 3 days after the last change i get to change another barrel. my brute filled to where i put the float switch is about a 27g water change, in a 55 gallon tank + sump so i have probably done a 1/3 water change twice in the last 4 days now. snails are all perking up more.

downside is now I am out of salt, I have one clam in there otherwise I don't really have need of REEF salt, I missed out on someone selling 25$pails of IO on the Edmonton reef group the other day, I guess ill just have to get a tub of io or reefcrystals and keep up the big water changes for a bit till the HA goes away. Perhaps then My disposable income level will come back up.

I put in new gfo today, using the last of the bit i had.. upped it to 3/4 a cup, and fresh carbon (1/2 cup as usual).

I looked at pics of my tank from when it was growing sps like mad and it just made me sad. one day it might be back that way.