Important newbie lesson - the hard way

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Shultz

Aquarium Advice Freak
Joined
Jun 28, 2004
Messages
272
Location
Suffolk, UK
Well here's a tip from one newbie to any others reading this:

Today after speaking to my LFS who agreed the tank has cycled I decided to do some last minute aqua-scaping, big water change to bring the Nitrates down & then use reef putty to hold it together since I'm only working with a small tank.

Now the fun part, the reef putty caused the water to go cloudy, at which point I should have left it alone, then rocks started falling over, which then caused dust/partitcles/small bits of rock to shift & that meant I couldn't see a damn thing!

Took all the reef putty out cause it didn't seem to be helping, got the skimmer & PH's open full now cleaning up the "mess" I've emptied the skimmer twice with nice purple putty coloured bubbles :(

Now 2hours later I can atleast see the back of the tank once again, I hope I haven't upset the balance in the tank & now I was going to put the first fish in tomorrow, but now I want to check the ammonia etc again after 24hrs so it will be saturday at the earliest.......

Here's that newbie tip you've been waiting for..........

Unless its life or death, don't fix what ain't really broken!!

Cheers Shelton.
 
Tell me about it, I've reaquascaped my tank over 10 times in a matter of two months!!! I just finished aquascaping my tank an hour ago and still seem unhappy...If only I had sand to hold the rocks down, would be so much easier.
 
Well finally this morning all is calm again!

the dust/grit/stuff that I sucked up during the water change yesterday now seems to have multipled after rocks falling over etc

The rock formation doesn't look too bad, so its gonna stay like it!

I checked my levels lastnight & all was ok, if they are the same tonight then its first fish saturday :)

Cheers Shelton.
 
I stood over my tank for 8 hrs the day I got the LR.. still wasn't totally happy by the end of it, but I forced myself to walk away just to keep my sanity :D

Still find myself looking at something occasionally and thinking "That would fit much better over there..." so I have to close my eyes and think happy thoughts till the feeling goes away :lol:
 
Happy this afternoon as I've been to the LFS, "claimed" a peppermint shrimp, 2 feather dusters (one green & one brown/white) & a royal gramma, all of which I'll pick up tomorrow!

Can't wait now :) All being well I'll take a trip to a LFS about 30 miles away during next week whilst I'm on holiday & pick up a couple of cleaner shrimps, some blue hermit crabs & a load of different snails :))

Cheers Shelton.
 
LOL..thats pretty funny. I think we have all been there at one time or another. In regards to scaping a tank, I think the most important thing that people over look is the size of the rocks.

What is the goal of any aquascape.
1. Stability
2. A natural look
3. Plenty of room for coral.

Pretty much right? Which one do you think is more stable. 3 large rocks (weight 40lbs) epoxied together or 15 little rocks that weigh the same amount. The look is much more natural and it lends itself to larger shelves to place coral.

As far as rescaping a tank 10 times in two months... :D ...I would love to see you do that with the amount of rock in my tank. Its takes 2-4 hours to get all the rock out of and back into my tank.

The most common question in my house by people seeing the tank for the first time...."you spent how much on rock?!"
 
SquishyFish said:
As far as rescaping a tank 10 times in two months... :D ...I would love to see you do that with the amount of rock in my tank. Its takes 2-4 hours to get all the rock out of and back into my tank.

Oh brother...After all of those reaquascapes, my floor was dripping wet each and every time. But after reaquascaping just this morning, I think I finally got it!!!!!!!!! Ahahah, thats right, number 11 this morning!!!

I ended up taking out 10lbs of LR which I hope the LFS will give me some credit for.
 
I take it alot people don't permanently set their rocks with some form of adhesive then ? I re-do my freshwater tanks all the time but haven't had to deal with the LR thing yet :lol: I'm still trying to decide whether i'm gonna sell a Lung or a Arm so I can buy the dang LR and start this empty future saltwater tank I have sitting next to me :D
 
My rock is set permanent now (450-500pounds). The only reason I was moving it before was because of a tank upgrade or something simular.


As far as the floor being wet. A suggestion...put garbage bags down, then towels on top of those. That will do a lot to keep the floor dry. A better suggestion (and what I use) is plastic sheeting. You can get plastic drop cloths at HD for 89cent each. Then just toss em. Keep one or two under the tank in case you need one.
 
I thought I'd get away with using a couple of tea towels to "dry" my arms as i played around, boy was i wrong, good job also I put a couple of towels down on the carpet first as I think the wife would have killed me when she got home that night :lol:

I think I lost nearly as much water on my arms & floor as I did in a week of natural evap!!

Cheers Shelton.
 
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