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

[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.....

[sharuq1]

Quick update:

Started the main sand clean up and siphoned out quite a bit of it last week with a 15g water change. I decided it was safest for the mandy's sake to reastablish a sand bed. Added one bag of clean sand to one side of the tank (put all the dirty sand to the other side) and still need to get rid of the majority of the dirty sand on the other side, then mix in some of it with new sand to seed it.

GHA is majorly growing on the gsp coral which is a shame. Not really much I can do for it at this point as my options are limited due to finance. Can't even pull it off without damaging the coral.

Decided to sell off one oscellaris as I think 6 fish is too much for this tank. One or two more WC's until I can rescape I think.

Water params are still not ready for coral, so will have to wait and be patient.

As a side note everything eats out of the food stations I set up. The blenny is the fattest pig I have ever seen! The mandy while not fat does not look emaciated either, so still crossing my fingers on that one.

As a side note my blue damsel in a different tank died today of unknown causes

[Myka]

I think we need a new FTS.

[sharuq1]

Re-organized the rock. I may add the rock that is supposed to be in my BC, but have not decided yet. Added some more clean sand and got rid of the last of the dirty sand excepting a bit to seed the new sand with. Also changed the seio to mount on the side open instead of with the flow directional deal on it and added a koralia 2 to the other side (still not entirely sure that is where I want it though). Will be getting rid of the largest clown soon in favor of my (probably black) oscellaris--have grown attached to him I guess

Also bought a pc light off another canreefer that holds two 21" bulbs and added that to the existing 2 small pc's that were there. It doesn't all fit properly on the tank, but I can't afford better lighting than this right now. I think for what I am putting in the tank though that everything will live.

Just waiting to hear back from slickfork to get my coral back I am so glad he was kind enough to babysit it for me after the BC crashed. The people here are just great.

Pics are nothing special but here you go anyway.

very bad pic of my gsp--it is still struggling with the gha that came with it


candy cane surprisingly alive

[sharuq1]

And I got my coral back woohoo!!!!! Thank you to Slickfork for babysitting it; and also thanks for the snails, chaeto, red/pink macro, gsp and birdsnest frag.










Current tank setup:
Coralife super skimmer (with fishing line mod on the needlewheel and another small mod to reduce bubbles)
30" x2 pc coralife light (actinic, 50/50..--> soon to be another 10k when I get some money)
20" x2 pc coralife light (actinic, 10k)
hydor koralia 2
seio 820
rena xp2 (currently has 2 sponges in it, ceramic media and algone--will likely be getting rid of the sponges/ceramic)
diatom filter (temporary)


Current inhabitants:
lawnmower blenny
royal gramma
2 oscellaris
mandarin
1 blue legged hermit crab
2 small tuxedo urchins
4 trocus
1 astrea
1 conch
2 money cowries
and a few other small snails I don't know the name of



Corals:
ricordea
zoos (what's left of a frag)
toadstool frag (very tiny)
hammer
frogspawn
acan
mushrooms
bright green gsp
metallic green gsp
m. digi purplish base with tan polyps
birdsnest (unsure what color will be as it is a bit bleached--looks like maybe yellow)



...and lastly a very small green bubble tip anemone, who is currently in a place I cannot photograph