So I'm sure some of you saw my thread from 10/25/05 where I was absolutely ready to swear off reef tanks... due to me seeing a nasty overnight change to my tank as show below... **and I promise you that WAS an overnight visual change otherwise I wouldn't have slept at all that night...**
Let there be light at the end of the tunnel...
- Thread starter MelanieF
- Start date
Anyway, two months later things are looking much better. Pics are included...
Problem = Pure unexcusable laziness, nothing else. I had removed the skimmer from my tank to better suit my Alveopora's liking and in the mean time this meant only fresh water was evaporating... so like a dumb@$$ I was only topping off w/ fresh water from the tap. The whole tank had been completely refilled w/ new water in February due to a move and that had completely turned me off to the whole water change headache... I never do them on my freshwater tanks and never any issues so why should saltwater be any different... "slapping myself silly".
Sooo what ensued was a SEVERE drop in pH and combined with a new light setup going from 45 watts
to 265 watts which further encouraged algae, my own ignorance caused my own heartache.
Skimmer is back on and glass tank cover is off so it is working out perfectly for now that every week I mix up some DEIONIZED water w/ new salt and just add it. (Also doing water changes again as I NEVER want to go through that again.) I know that when the humid summer comes back around it'll throw off the salt vs. freshwater evap amounts but I'm definately testing everything regularly so I'll be able to adjust when that time comes.
The Caulastrea sp. (candy coral), Favites sp. (moon coral), mushrooms and Pachyclavularia sp. (green star polyps) in the tank pics all survived the crash. Only the candy coral and the moon coral were removed to a quarantine tank...
All others are new. Husband bought me the Euphyllia paradivisa (frogspawn) yesterday for Christmas and he's giving me a gift card also so I can get more corals for restocking gradually.
Enjoy and PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don't ever make the same stupid mistake I did... Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays all!
Problem = Pure unexcusable laziness, nothing else. I had removed the skimmer from my tank to better suit my Alveopora's liking and in the mean time this meant only fresh water was evaporating... so like a dumb@$$ I was only topping off w/ fresh water from the tap. The whole tank had been completely refilled w/ new water in February due to a move and that had completely turned me off to the whole water change headache... I never do them on my freshwater tanks and never any issues so why should saltwater be any different... "slapping myself silly".
Sooo what ensued was a SEVERE drop in pH and combined with a new light setup going from 45 watts
to 265 watts which further encouraged algae, my own ignorance caused my own heartache.Skimmer is back on and glass tank cover is off so it is working out perfectly for now that every week I mix up some DEIONIZED water w/ new salt and just add it. (Also doing water changes again as I NEVER want to go through that again.) I know that when the humid summer comes back around it'll throw off the salt vs. freshwater evap amounts but I'm definately testing everything regularly so I'll be able to adjust when that time comes.
The Caulastrea sp. (candy coral), Favites sp. (moon coral), mushrooms and Pachyclavularia sp. (green star polyps) in the tank pics all survived the crash. Only the candy coral and the moon coral were removed to a quarantine tank...
All others are new. Husband bought me the Euphyllia paradivisa (frogspawn) yesterday for Christmas and he's giving me a gift card also so I can get more corals for restocking gradually.
Enjoy and PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE don't ever make the same stupid mistake I did... Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays all!
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And finally, I have two of these Tridacna derasa clams (almost twins), the same 3 yellow-tail damsels (survived the crash), a false percula clown, 75ish snails, a hitchhiking sally lightfoot crab (also somehow survived the crash) and a blood red shrimp.
FWIW, beware of getting a clown... mine was given to me by a friend who is completely tearing down and redoing his tank and this thing attacks my hands any chance it gets... it really does hurt sometimes too but maybe I'm just a wuss. :lol:
FWIW, beware of getting a clown... mine was given to me by a friend who is completely tearing down and redoing his tank and this thing attacks my hands any chance it gets... it really does hurt sometimes too but maybe I'm just a wuss. :lol:
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Thanks guys! It has a long way to go but now I know what NOT to do ever, ever again...
This time around I'm going SPS. This will force me to practice responsible tank maintenance and will challenge me to go even more in depth in this hobby. Some people manipulate others, I manipulate myself. :wink:
My akita pup has challenged me to deal with and accept the beautiful :roll: winter weather as he just absolutely loves it. Choosing that breed was another one of my self inflicted manipulations. Challenged me to socialize and train him like I've never socialized and trained before as the akita breed is known for some dominance issues...
He's a good boy!
In below pic he's almost 6 months old and 65 lbs... name is Kuda. Not neutered as depending on how he matures we may delve into Akita breeding... not sure yet as it breaks my heart to see pups in pounds that aren't wanted so if I did breed him at all it would strictly be with intentions of improving the breed. By the time you feed the adults and pups and advertise there's really not much money in selling pups anyway...
This time around I'm going SPS. This will force me to practice responsible tank maintenance and will challenge me to go even more in depth in this hobby. Some people manipulate others, I manipulate myself. :wink:
My akita pup has challenged me to deal with and accept the beautiful :roll: winter weather as he just absolutely loves it. Choosing that breed was another one of my self inflicted manipulations. Challenged me to socialize and train him like I've never socialized and trained before as the akita breed is known for some dominance issues...
He's a good boy!
In below pic he's almost 6 months old and 65 lbs... name is Kuda. Not neutered as depending on how he matures we may delve into Akita breeding... not sure yet as it breaks my heart to see pups in pounds that aren't wanted so if I did breed him at all it would strictly be with intentions of improving the breed. By the time you feed the adults and pups and advertise there's really not much money in selling pups anyway...
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Knuck's word of the day... :wink:
Word of the Day for Friday August 2, 2002 (from Dictionary.com)
torpid \TOR-pid\, adjective:
1. Having lost motion or the power of exertion and feeling; numb; benumbed.
2. Dormant; hibernating or estivating.
3. Dull; sluggish; apathetic.
Word of the Day for Friday August 2, 2002 (from Dictionary.com)
torpid \TOR-pid\, adjective:
1. Having lost motion or the power of exertion and feeling; numb; benumbed.
2. Dormant; hibernating or estivating.
3. Dull; sluggish; apathetic.
If she's anything like me she'd give you a funny look and go back to sleep...
My husband found out he can have conversations with me while I'm sleeping so lucky for me there's nothing I hide from him. My mom, however, used to get me to "sleep talk" all the time as a teenager and I always wondered how she found out all the bad things I was doing... grrrr.
My husband found out he can have conversations with me while I'm sleeping so lucky for me there's nothing I hide from him. My mom, however, used to get me to "sleep talk" all the time as a teenager and I always wondered how she found out all the bad things I was doing... grrrr.
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