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

[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.

[Mik_101]

Originally Posted by Myka

I think we need a new FTS.

for sure

[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

[Myka]

Lookin good!!

[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