48ish gallon bow--from ugh to ooh (I hope)

[sharuq1]

day 1-December 2, 2007

Other thread where there is info and me asking for advice is here: http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=37515

Went to Edmonton to get the tank. Put all the LR in buckets with SW. Saved as much original water as possible in buckets. Left the sand bed intact in the tank with an inch or so of water.

First impression: This is going to be alot of work. Lots of gha on the rock and in the sand as well as on what is left of two corals in the tank. I don't see any pods. I do see alot of dead snails in the sand.... I should have taken a picture of what it looked like prior to my beginning cleanup just so I would have a better comparison point, but ah well, what can I say...I thought it looked to terrible to take a pic.

By evening we got home, unloaded it all, put the rock and water into the tank after trying to brush as much gha off the rock as possible (bit hard in the dark of our badly lit living room at night), put in 15g of clean water to top it up and started the skimmer up. Added 2 caps of prime. Replaced bulbs on coralife pc fixture it came with. Then we left it alone for two days.

Caught one disgusting and rather large crab--I think he is responsible for the deaths of many of the snails as well as the fire shrimp they said they used to have:


For the pic hungry:



tank residents before being added to the tank



mandarin being added


scape that pretty much happened from me dropping the rocks in (except 3) while I couldn't see what I was doing. I like it. Wish I didn't have to wreck it to clean the tank up.

[sharuq1]

Day 3

Siphoned off 15g of water from off the sand whilst trying to get as much crud off the sand as possible. On second look the entire bed is filled with crud. If I go sand I am going to have to eventually remove this entire bed and replace it.... Frick I wish I knew how to do that without causing a major upset. Frustrated a bit.

Took the rock all out to give it a better brushing and look for crabs or other nasties. Found one more crab. Looks alot like an emerald, but it doesn't look like the emerald I used to have so I'm getting rid of it. Only kind of crabs I like are little hermits and pom-poms, personally.

Moment of sadness for the loss of my scape Ah well I knew that was coming. Going to be a while before I can put that in and have it left that way. Diatom filter pretty much cleared the detritus storm within 15 or so minutes. I am starting to love that thing. I see the skimmer is sensitive to water level...


disgusted mandarin hiding in the corner after the "poo-storm", notice how nasty the sand is


About 10 minutes after the WC, notice the destruction of my scape wah


Skimmer noticeably not working when 5gals is missing from the tank


diatom filter


Whole shebang--yeah the backround is a bit cheesy (it's wrapping paper, lol ) I may or may not change it depending on how lazy I am. The pc light is definitely too small for the tank, eh?


Edit: I sure use the words "notice" and "noticeably" alot....just had to giggle about that :P

[michika]

Yay for photos! It looks like you are making good progress with everything. I have to agree, I liked your original aquascaping too!

[jslaney]

I am sure you can get the aquascaping nice again. It might take a 2 years but you can probably do it eventualy.

I was not sure if your sand was new but there have been a few posts recently of people losing fish due to nitrate spikes from all the crap that is released when they mix up there sand.

Keep the pics coming.

Jon

[sharuq1]

Update for today:

Mandarin is looking skinny to me, made up a batch of bbs to see what would happen. He likes them....slow eating them though, not sure how many he got. Thinking I will need to try and make a feeding station thingie somehow. Only thing is I dunno how to get the bbs in there...maybe a dark tube...but not sure if a turkey baster will work for squirting them in there...also don't know how/where to find a dark tube... Ideas anyone?

[sharuq1]

Update for today.

Made a "feeding station" out of a spice jar. Several days later every single fish in the tank knows how to get in and steal all the food so I put in a second one. I see the mandarin in there every once in a while when the blenny isn't making a pig out of himself. I have small NLS and decapsulated brine shrimp eggs I bought off of e-bay.

Siphoned a bit of sand out today...I now realize this is going to be a very long task.

Ammonia is lower than it was at 0.1-0.3, nitrite is 0 and nitrate is 15

Cleaned out the diatom filter completely and put in new powder as it was full of %^&*. Rinsed out the sponges in the rena as best I could in sw. Considered throwing them out and ended up only throwing out one as I feared a spike. They are completely filthy but also covered in "things" which I am guessing are beneficial. I am hoping I didn't leave them in air too long causing die off on the bacteria population.



my mandarin investigates the spice jar I have put out for him with pellets and decapsulated brine shrimp eggs, his fins tend to fan the sand and whatnot all over




mr. L. blenny checks out his new digs beneath "Ghagsp Rock" :P


clowns that came with the tank. I may have to sell one or both of them to avoid overstocking though, as I intend to add my royal gramma and my pretty black/orange oscellaris once I think the tank is stable enough for the addition.



mandarin fighting with his reflection


one of the clowns that came with the bowfront


the whole tank, dirty glass and all ...water looks clear though

I cannot believe it but I think the 2 corals that came with the tank might just make it! Looking at the gsp I see more polyps are out than ever before and there is less GHA on it as well. The candycane is much more inflated than it was when it arrived (I thought it a goner for sure), and it looks like something has cleaned off much of the GHA from it as well (somethng besides me, I picked off as much as I was able). I think it is either a snail or the blenny.

GHA is growing on the powerhead to the skimmer as well as some other things. I am hoping to try and combat it with the snails (I need more), blenny and WC's, as well as the addition of ALGONE in the rena.

I am absolutely kicking myself for not having the forsight ot have cleaned the back glass before putting the tank where it is! I cannot reach back there and as you can see there are lots of salt drips all down the back of it from when we moved the tank. Ah well...hopefully when the coralline comes back no one will notice.

*impatience* I can't wait until I the tank is stable so I can get my coral back and rescape! Probably going to be another month or several months Just have to wait and see and keep on the water quality as best I can.

Does anyone think I should go BB, or should I go buy some new sand once I get rid of most of the old stuff? I am tempted to go BB for the cleanliness of it, but I am worried about the mandarin on the off chance he benefits from the sand bed (creatures) at all as well as I kinda like having the option of being able to put things on the "ground" -it is more stable for the rockwork.

[michika]

In case you were wondering your mandarin is a little boy! I see great progress in between your shots, nice changes. Its great to see that you are getting off on the right foot.

Well here is a suggestion for you. Why not finish pulling out all the sand and try going bare bottom for a month or two, see how you like it. If it works for you, keep it, if not, adding sand isn't too hard!

[Myka]

I wouldn't go BB with the Mandarin if I were you. He'll likely starve. You can safely change the sand out by siphoning no more than 1/6th of the sand bed out and carefully replacing it with rinsed sand (preferably "live" bagged sand as it doesn't cloud the water near as much) no more than once a week until it's all done. You won't get a spike of anything if you do it this way. Leaving that dirty sandbed in there isn't a good idea either as you'll be fighting phosphates and nitrates (and all the wonderful algaes that accompany such nuisances) forever as the sandbed will never clean itself. A couple orange lipped conches and/or a Tiger Tail cucumber would help the sandbed out.

[michika]

Do you know if your mandarin eats prepared foods? If he does you can try a barebottom tank. My mandarin eats prepared and lives happily in a bare bottom tank, so sand isn't a must.

[BC564]

My Mandarin was happy and great in my barebottom too....until he swam head first into a tube anemone....might of been an act of suicide......but anyways has since been relocated to its own confined tank.......called the death tank.....