My first Saltwater Tank

[Warhood]

Tank Gear:

Innovative Marine: 30 Nuvo Fusion Micro Long AIO Aquarium
Innovative Marine: Ghost Protein Skimmer – Midsize
Aquatop: CPS Series Circulation Pump
Coralife: Aqualight T5 Dual Lamp

The story so far:

So, this tank is relatively new, roughly four~ months old. My mother impulse bought the tank after she thought she had thrift shopped a new tank thinking I could use it as a 12-gallon Nano tank. She thought it would be a fun hobby that we could do together. However, as we started to cycle it, she started to realize that it wasn’t “rewarding” enough for her (more on this later).

After the tank cycled for a month and balanced all the nutrients and chemicals and such we bought our fish two yellow tail damsels’ fish. Surprisingly both are super peaceful (though one is growing a bit territorial of its living space). Once we were able to keep them alive (we did), my mother and I decided that

We kept them for two weeks before I ended up buying two clownfish, as well as a long tentacle anemone, as well as our fish corals. Those corals were a hammer coral, a candy cane coral and an isolated xenia. All these additions did very well! The candy cane coral starting to grow the fastest. However, towards the end of the second month the tank faced its first real adversity.

During a cleaning I was doing, the old Coralife light broke. Apparently, the light fixture was not properly sealed, and the light was collecting moisture in the fixture killing the light. I tried other light sources, but unfortunately in the week it took Coralife to send a replacement (they upgraded the light for free) the long tentacle anemone died. This one of my mother’s favorites so she started to want something to keep her interested when she returned from her vacation. Things did not get easier for the tank after this.

When the new Coralife light was delivered to my house, I was up with my mother at her vacation house. I instructed my dad how to set up the timer, and he set it up. When I returned to the house with the tank two weeks later, to my horror my father accidently set it to have hard white light 17(!!!) hours a day. The tank was covered in green algae, and the hammer coral bleached and was dead. This left the tank with two damsels, two clowns, a xenia, and a living candy cane coral.

Once I fixed the light, and cleaned the tank, I found some GSP bought two frags and put it on the two small frags on a large rock that had absolutely nothing on it. With my mother returning and wanting “color” in the tank, I ended up buying a Royal Gramma Basslet for the tank, which adjusted well and made a home for itself underneath one of my rocks.

When my mother returned home, she still felt the tank was missing something, and so without consulting me went out and bought a small Yellow Tang for the tank. The Tang nearly killed the tank. Bouncing around from side to side almost constantly, it would harass the Basslet, and one of the damsels. It also was killing (we think) any invertebrates that we were putting in the tank (specifically peppermint shrimps we bought for an Aiptasia problem). After about three weeks, I convinced my mother to return the tang, and started trying to fix the tang.

While the tang was in the tank, I moved the Candy Cane Coral to the center of the tank thinking it would do better there. This was a mistake as the extra exposure to the light left it slowly bleaching. Since this mistake though, I moved it to a less lit part of the tank and it is slowly recovering.

Presently, I have been doing two water changes a week to fix the tank. The first one resulted in a cyanobacteria bloom in the tank, which I fixed with more water changes. With the water and the tank balanced again (it is looking pretty good too I think for a new tank). I ended up buying the Aquatop circulation pump to increase water flow. The Tank seems to be doing well so yesterday, I rebought a hammer head and got a brain coral.

My hope is that after a couple weeks in the tank maintaining these two corals, I can get my mother a watchmen goby and pistol shrimp combo to help give color to the tank in hopes of getting my mother more involved. I also hope that in keeping all these things successfully in the tank, I’ll be able to have a blood shrimp to the tank, and finally a bubble tip anemone to the tank (I want to get this for my mother for Christmas).

What is the Goal:
I have found keeping this saltwater tank relaxing, and as my job doesn’t allow for to many hobbies this is one I want to foster. Eventually I am hoping to buy a 100+ gallon tank and rebuy a Yellow Tang for my mother and turn this tank into a QT tank as well as a coral tank.

Thank you for reading if you made it through it. I hope to post a couple times a month with updates as I think it will be cool to track my progression in this hobby!

[sergebmw2]

No pics


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[Warhood]

I'm trying to figure that out right now. They are in the format of the post but did not show.

[Warhood]

So apparently the site didn't like the IMG photos coding I did so I think this should work for photos of the tank.

White light:
https://imgur.com/a/WwyfQYQ

Soft light:
https://imgur.com/a/qN1ihNA

[Warhood]

So with this being my first tank, I already had a ton of failures as depicted by the first post. Today however I decided to write about something good that has happened in the tank and what I am learning.

Roughly two months ago, I had moved my Candy Candy Coral from one side of my tank to replace a coral that had died from a light mistake my father made when setting up the timer. Unfortunately even when I corrected the timer, the Candy Cane started to slowly die and bleach (The photo with the red light).

I went to my local aquarium store, and my friend who told me basically said that this coral was pretty dead, and probably not going to come back. I didn't want to believe it though. We both agreed the coral was probably dying because of the light. Instead of getting rid of the coral (or just leaving it to die), I decided to move it towards the side of the tank where the light was less aggressive and see if that would save it.

Today would mark a month since I took the Red light photo and later in the evening moved the coral. Today, when I woke up the Coral looks to be doing well! (It is the one in the blue light if you can't tell).

Hopefully this shows the beginning of me actually learning about these tanks to prevent colossal failures and deaths to these corals.

Currently, in the Candy Cane Corals place I have two different Monti's that seem to be not dying, but not really growing either so I have to watch that carefully.

Thanks for reading!

[bullock111]

I am on my first tank as well I have found there is a lot to learn and the fact you didn't give up means you are well on your way to success, I only hope I can learn from my mistakes and keep heart as well as you.

[ABzReef]

Good luck budd

[Warhood]

So i have not at a lot of changes in the tank. I have not yet the watchman goby and pistol shrimp combo. I dont know what pistol shrimp to get (any suggestions on cool pairs would be appriecated).

Now however I have turned my attention to get a BTA for my mother probably gonna get a rose BTA at that however i want one that will be very cool for my mother so would anyone who read this know where to look online for designer or rose btas?

Also seeing how i figured it out, here is my tank today after its water change, cleaning and feeding. Also a picture of the one fish hiding.

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