I'm new here and also new to the saltwater tank game. My wife decided to get a small tank and try her hand at it so she ordered a very small BiUbe 9 gallon tank. She ran that for a few months but wanted something bigger. I'm a bit of a Craigslist hustler. I scored this BC 29 HQI with stand, heater, skimmer, pump, filled with substrate, a few crabs, snails, and a blue damsel, food, chemicals, test kits, timers, etc. for $250. An older married couple retired and was moving to Cali and needed to sell it ASAP. Score.
We brought it home. The wife got it all up and running. This was her hobby. I never messed with it and know nothing about it. She did decide to remove the damsel b/che was aggressive to the 2 clown fish she added. She has added other things here and there. She had some seahorses in the old tank that died soon after adding them to this one. She bought "wild" seahorses that lasted a few months but they too died. I'm glad....never liked them. I guess they don't recognize certain food as food b/c they weren't "farmed".
Fast forward several months. She gets a promotion at work and is working 6 days a week and is never home and when she is she isn't wanting to mess with the tank. Sooooo, since there's a a lot of money tied up in this thing now I decided to take it over rather than sell it or kill everything off. I genuinely enjoy it so far but it's definitely more work than meets the eye.
The new batch of seahorses also died (again, secretly glad). Although right after this lots of other stuff started dying. Two fish, my cleaner shrimp, 2 emerald crabs, and a Koran Angelfish that lasted 3 days. I did roughly a 50% water change and kept an eye on things. The guy at my LFS (see, I've already learned a few acronyms) thinks maybe the seahorses were sick or had some kind of parasite. Anyway, things are stable and seem to be ok now.
Currently, I've got 2 clown fish, a flame angel, a cleaner shrimp, an emerald crab, and several blue legged hermit crabs and snails, live rock, and several pieces of coral. I've got a pretty big piece of fog spawn the clowns have hosted with nicely. I also have added a large chunk of galaxea coral and a Kenya tree. I'm lucky that my living room has a small wet bar right next to the tank. Wy wife bought a RO system I installed under the sink that is a huge help. I also added a moonlight blue led light bar and a Koralia 425 powerhead. The tank has a battery pump backup as well.
The substrate right now is a black rocky type. It has quite a bit of green algae clumps that resemble moss. I've tried to vacuum it up but man it stirs up a mess. I'm worried about stirring up too much mess and throwing the levels off. I don't like the way it looks. Tuesday the LFS is coming to the house and replacing all of it with a lighter colored sand mixture.
I'll post pictures of everything below. I took several with my iphone. I welcome any and all comments, criticism, and critiques. Again, I know almost nothing about this hobby and am learning as I go in order to keep this tank going. Thanks.
We brought it home. The wife got it all up and running. This was her hobby. I never messed with it and know nothing about it. She did decide to remove the damsel b/che was aggressive to the 2 clown fish she added. She has added other things here and there. She had some seahorses in the old tank that died soon after adding them to this one. She bought "wild" seahorses that lasted a few months but they too died. I'm glad....never liked them. I guess they don't recognize certain food as food b/c they weren't "farmed".
Fast forward several months. She gets a promotion at work and is working 6 days a week and is never home and when she is she isn't wanting to mess with the tank. Sooooo, since there's a a lot of money tied up in this thing now I decided to take it over rather than sell it or kill everything off. I genuinely enjoy it so far but it's definitely more work than meets the eye.
The new batch of seahorses also died (again, secretly glad). Although right after this lots of other stuff started dying. Two fish, my cleaner shrimp, 2 emerald crabs, and a Koran Angelfish that lasted 3 days. I did roughly a 50% water change and kept an eye on things. The guy at my LFS (see, I've already learned a few acronyms) thinks maybe the seahorses were sick or had some kind of parasite. Anyway, things are stable and seem to be ok now.
Currently, I've got 2 clown fish, a flame angel, a cleaner shrimp, an emerald crab, and several blue legged hermit crabs and snails, live rock, and several pieces of coral. I've got a pretty big piece of fog spawn the clowns have hosted with nicely. I also have added a large chunk of galaxea coral and a Kenya tree. I'm lucky that my living room has a small wet bar right next to the tank. Wy wife bought a RO system I installed under the sink that is a huge help. I also added a moonlight blue led light bar and a Koralia 425 powerhead. The tank has a battery pump backup as well.
The substrate right now is a black rocky type. It has quite a bit of green algae clumps that resemble moss. I've tried to vacuum it up but man it stirs up a mess. I'm worried about stirring up too much mess and throwing the levels off. I don't like the way it looks. Tuesday the LFS is coming to the house and replacing all of it with a lighter colored sand mixture.
I'll post pictures of everything below. I took several with my iphone. I welcome any and all comments, criticism, and critiques. Again, I know almost nothing about this hobby and am learning as I go in order to keep this tank going. Thanks.
