Seaflowerkitty
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Hey everybody.
So, I have had a 12 gallon aquarium set up since august of 2011. I'm not flush with cash, so I had no problem taking my time. Over time since inception, I have lost 4 mushroom corals, a clove polyp, two yellow clown goby, 3 porcelain crabs, two feather dusters (yet my ones in my live rock are tiny but okay), a turbo snail and a few margarita snails, and my stomatella snail and most of my copepods have all but disappeared. I do water changes weekly and constantly check my water levels and the salinity. I am a little lax on my water tests; the ones today showed that my salinity was 1.024, my Calcium was at 400 and my alkalinity was at 11. I have had my LFS test my water as well and nothing was out of whack, except I had a spike in nitrates, which I got down asap with some small water changes. I have had hydroids, aiptasia and some red turf algae. Do ya think I'm not meant to keep an aquarium or is this just part of my journey? I know that nano tanks are harder to keep, but I would like to keep this going until I can afford a bigger tank. Incidentally, my hermit crabs, cleaner shrimp and my barnacle blenny all seem to be doing okay. The cleaner shrimp especially, since he/she successfully molts about once every few weeks. I have a trumpet coral frag that is perpetually puffed up, my hammer coral has retracted and my frogspawn has closed up as well. The only coral that seems to be thriving is my colt coral, which is growing a little bit like a weed. I will post pictures in a little while. I have to get them off my smartphone.
So, I have had a 12 gallon aquarium set up since august of 2011. I'm not flush with cash, so I had no problem taking my time. Over time since inception, I have lost 4 mushroom corals, a clove polyp, two yellow clown goby, 3 porcelain crabs, two feather dusters (yet my ones in my live rock are tiny but okay), a turbo snail and a few margarita snails, and my stomatella snail and most of my copepods have all but disappeared. I do water changes weekly and constantly check my water levels and the salinity. I am a little lax on my water tests; the ones today showed that my salinity was 1.024, my Calcium was at 400 and my alkalinity was at 11. I have had my LFS test my water as well and nothing was out of whack, except I had a spike in nitrates, which I got down asap with some small water changes. I have had hydroids, aiptasia and some red turf algae. Do ya think I'm not meant to keep an aquarium or is this just part of my journey? I know that nano tanks are harder to keep, but I would like to keep this going until I can afford a bigger tank. Incidentally, my hermit crabs, cleaner shrimp and my barnacle blenny all seem to be doing okay. The cleaner shrimp especially, since he/she successfully molts about once every few weeks. I have a trumpet coral frag that is perpetually puffed up, my hammer coral has retracted and my frogspawn has closed up as well. The only coral that seems to be thriving is my colt coral, which is growing a little bit like a weed. I will post pictures in a little while. I have to get them off my smartphone.
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