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.