Nanorock's 56 gal Newbie to Saltwater- Started up 9/15/2018

[Nanorock1970]

This is my first adventure into saltwater, it was starting out as a FOWLR tank but the LFS during a visit convinced me into a small Zoa colony frag so I guess FOWLR no longer qualifies.
I have 30+ years with various fresh water tanks both with live plants and without and the last time I tried salt was 1985 with a 29 gal tank, when most of the stuff you had to make yourself and their was not a LFS that had live rock, or sand so things have come a long way since that failure so long ago.
So my first real saltwater tank is this one as follows:
56 Gal Marineland tank, stand, glass top, and https://tinyurl.com/y8adgztt hidden strip light (not the actual one, mine is two strips that the total length equals my tank (my tank has a plastic divider in the middle).
I have 40 lbs of pink coral sand, 50 lbs of live rock, a canister filter , a penn plax cascade 1000 ( I know I have heard it all about the nitrate factory thing with canister filters but I am doing ok so far). In my canister filter, in the bottom basket, I have 14.1 oz of Matrix high capacity biofiltration media (says for up to 200 gal on the package and recommended by my LFS)with the canister filter bio floss on top of the basket, the middle basket, I have the 10 oz. Chem-pure original formula with bio floss on top of that, and in the top chamber, I only have one bio floss mat in the basket. We skipped on the sump filter setup because 1. there is not much room under the stand as it is, 2. we didn't want the waterfall noise in our living room all the time. I do not have a heater (though I am thinking of getting one soon) because my LFS says here in central FLA you most likely won't need one.
I have an API Saltwater master test kit and a not so good Instant Ocean beam hydrometer. I have been up until 2 weeks ago testing the water daily with my test kit and once a week having my LFS also testing to confirm my results. My tests come out slightly higher and they have the same test products so I am not sure of the discrepancy. I am relying on them for my salt level though because they have a refractometer and I should have purchased one instead.
I am purchasing my saltwater from my LFS.
Placed my live rock in my tank and positioned it how I wanted it, then added my sand, filled the tank with fresh saltwater from the LFS, turned on the filter, and added the coagulant that came with the sand. Cycled for a week, testing daily with no rise in ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate and a PH of 8.2.
Purchased 2 "Nemo" clownfish and tested for a week again without any change in water chemistry.
Added 5 turbo snails and 5 hermit crabs (not sure what type of hermit crabs the LFS picked them out for us). Cycled for a week again no change in water quality. Then the down turn. At another LFS we purchased a strawberry dottyback and a jewel damsel. We told them what we had in the tank and what we were planning and we were told those two fish should be great. Well that did not last long, within a week the dottyback terrorized the damsel to death. We called the LFS and they had said they were sorry and they should have worked out but would trade back the dottyback for something else as soon as they had a holding tank open up for it. Well that went on for a few days, in the meantime the dottyback started to chase after my clown fish. So we contacted our original LFS and they would gladly help us out and take the dottyback off our hands and that the dottyback is an A$$hole and should not have been an addition to our tank.
Purchased a Coral Beauty Angelfish, a cleaner shrimp and an emerald green crab, tested for a week and the water remained with 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and now see a climb of 10 nitrate so I am assuming that ammonia and nitrite is being cycled faster than I can see results from. Picture is from week 1, Yes I have fake plants and anemones. They glow under the blue light at night and there was not much else to look at.

That's all for now. I will write more later.
Thank you for reading and in advance for your advice and comments.

 

[benha]

This is my first adventure into saltwater, it was starting out as a FOWLR tank but the LFS during a visit convinced me into a small Zoa colony frag so I guess FOWLR no longer qualifies.
I have 30+ years with various fresh water tanks both with live plants and without and the last time I tried salt was 1985 with a 29 gal tank, when most of the stuff you had to make yourself and their was not a LFS that had live rock, or sand so things have come a long way since that failure so long ago.
So my first real saltwater tank is this one as follows:
56 Gal Marineland tank, stand, glass top, and https://tinyurl.com/y8adgztt hidden strip light (not the actual one, mine is two strips that the total length equals my tank (my tank has a plastic divider in the middle).
I have 40 lbs of pink coral sand, 50 lbs of live rock, a canister filter , and a penn plax cascade 1000 ( I know I have heard it all about the nitrate factory thing with canister filters but I am doing ok so far). In my canister filter, in the bottom basket, I have 14.1 oz of Matrix high capacity biofiltration media (says for up to 200 gal on the package and recommended by my LFS)with the canister filter bio floss on top of the basket, the middle basket, I have the 10 oz. Chem-pure original formula with bio floss on top of that, and in the top chamber, I only have one bio floss mat in the basket. We skipped on the sump filter setup because 1. there is not much room under the stand as it is, 2. we didn't want the waterfall noise in our living room all the time. I do not have a heater (though I am thinking of getting one soon) because my LFS says here in central FLA you most likely won't need one.
I have an API Saltwater master test kit and a not so good Instant Ocean beam hydrometer. I have been up until 2 weeks ago testing the water daily with my test kit and once a week having my LFS also testing to confirm my results. My tests come out slightly higher and they have the same test products so I am not sure of the discrepancy. I am relying on them for my salt level though because they have a refractometer and I should have purchased one instead.
I am purchasing my saltwater from my LFS.
Placed my live rock in my tank and positioned it how I wanted it, then added my sand, filled the tank with fresh saltwater from the LFS, turned on the filter, and added the coagulant that came with the sand. Cycled for a week, testing daily with no rise in ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate and a PH of 8.2.
Purchased 2 "Nemo" clownfish and tested for a week again without any change in water chemistry.
Added 5 turbo snails and 5 hermit crabs (not sure what type of hermit crabs the LFS picked them out for us). Cycled for a week again no change in water quality. Then the down turn. At another LFS we purchased a strawberry dottyback and a jewel damsel. We told them what we had in the tank and what we were planning and we were told those two fish should be great. Well that did not last long, within a week the dottyback terrorized the damsel to death. We called the LFS and they had said they were sorry and they should have worked out but would trade back the dottyback for something else as soon as they had a holding tank open up for it. Well that went on for a few days, in the meantime the dottyback started to chase after my clown fish. So we contacted our original LFS and they would gladly help us out and take the dottyback off our hands and that the dottyback is an A$$hole and should not have been an addition to our tank.
Purchased a Coral Beauty Angelfish, a cleaner shrimp and an emerald green crab, tested for a week and the water remained with 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, and now see a climb of 10 nitrate so I am assuming that ammonia and nitrite is being cycled faster than I can see results from. Picture is from week 1, Yes I have fake plants and anemones. They glow under the blue light at night and there was not much else to look at.

That's all for now. I will write more later.
Thank you for reading and in advance for your advice and comments.

I'm very new to the salt water too, I hope we both will have success! Cycling the tank was the most boring part, so your fake plants made me laugh. But I've seen clown fish host to a fake anenome before so might not be a bad idea!

 

[Stickboy15]

id recommend getting a ecotch mp10 for flow they last a long time and are very adjustable too. As for the light strip led lights are not the best but it'll work for now. Id recommend upgrading to 2 radion xr15 gen4s when you get into coral more.

 

[Nanorock1970]

Made it past a year...Just updating my info. Fell off the water change program I had of 5 gal. change a week. I think I went about a month and a half...Noticed my snails and my crab died....Tested my water and my Nitrates were around 60PPM...Opps killing my tank and my zoa colony shrunk up to about half the size it was....Last christmas I had updated my strip lighting to a Loop orbit strip so I have better lighting then I started with (also kept the strip light, added two more sets for more blue) I have turned my Red to 40%, Green 50% Blue 100% and white to 75%. We had a chocolate chip starfish because we started out thinking FWLR tank but we have been doing so well that we decided to continue into some coral stuff so the LFS was kind enough to rehome our friend we have had for about a year. Current stock is a peppermint shrimp (because I was a newbie and my rock came with Aiptasia anemones and the shrimp worked after a few weeks of getting used to its new tank) Cleaner shrimp still going and growing, Clowns doing well, Coral Beauty, Chalk Bass, Fire fish, Azure Damselfish. CUC is down...my fault but I have some Astreas, Cerinth, Nassarius, and Banded Trochus snails. I had 5 red legged hermit crabs but I only have 2 now...I have seen that one is definitely going to be the winner. a blue leg hermit crab and once my water is back under control I want to get 2 more emerald crabs.
Next two fish have been picked out just waiting on water quality....I want a Midas Blenny and a six line wrasse to finish up my fish stock. I have in mind a 1050 eflux pump to start with (maybe two not sure but most likely will add it later) to increase my water turnover and create some more stronger current flow in my tank. After that, I am not sure what to start with for coral stuff.

Not sure as of yet but a HOB protein skimmer could be in the future.

 

[Nanorock1970]

Water quality finally good, added the 1050 eflux pump I receive for christmas. I have my Midas Bleaney now and one of the best fish. So much personality. Benny the Bleaney has a few hiding spots he perching in. Pokes his head out and looks at you.

Then when you come up to the tank Benny swims all around.
I have also started to add some softies. 2 shrooms.... They have been in a week and seam to be doing well.

Anyone can help identify what mushrooms I have would be great! The LFS told me but I don't remember. So many shrooms looked at that day my head was kind of spinning to make some choices for my first shrooms

Picture a little further out to include both shrooms

Picture of my whole tank....I know the purists will be mad I have aquarium decorations in my tank. They have been in from the start and I have not had any known issues. Also I did read the article here on R2R about plastics and if you read all three articles, I would say even acrylic tanks could have a byproduct in your tank water. My Clowns have grown attached to the fake anemone and I plan on getting rid of the plant in the front once I have a coral to put there. My heart shaped hideout is my holiday decor spot.
Thanks for reading.

 

[New&no clue]

I’m pretty sure you top mushroom is a Ricordia. Not sure on the bottom.

 

[Nanorock1970]

I’m pretty sure you top mushroom is a Ricordia. Not sure on the bottom.

Yeah that would be my guess is some kind of green Ricordia and I am with you on the bottom one. Looks like many of the red shrooms. I do know my LFS said the red one will grow faster then the green one. Also the red one is def very photo sensitive. It shrinks up at night when the lights go down, much like it did when it was stressed being added to the tank, though not quite as much shrinkage.

 

[Nanorock1970]

I’m pretty sure you top mushroom is a Ricordia. Not sure on the bottom.

So after looking online at different shrooms, I think it is a red Discosoma.

Last nite my Discosoma seemed a little stressed after doing a water change the day before, shrunk up a bit. I decided to use some reef roids and feed both my shrooms. The recordia was cool looking, the surface polyps lifted off the surface to eat. The little round dots that touch normally were smaller more separated showing the body of the shroom more. After a few minutes, it resumed its normal look. The Discosoma though, cupped up and was still shrunken. Then after a few minutes after feeding, it flattened back down. Today they both look great and the Discosoma looks looks to be covering more of the rock, larger diameter looking.

Waiting patiently to scrape up funds to purchase more softies....two weeks down with the shrooms (well next saturday would be official, rushing the time just a bit,,,LOL)

 

[Nanorock1970]

Update on my shrooms in my tank and the latest LFS info. Both are doing great. I have been feeding them reefroids 3 times a week (so ok i've only fed them 6 times since I have had them) but both the ricordia and discosoma are doing great. Duh moment this week was that when I got the shrooms, I upped my light output on white from 85% to 100% two days after adding them. Well I went to check on the setting for some reason and my setting was not saved. So....I upped the white to 100% today and double checked the setting save this time.

This was about 3 days ago. Not sure if this lifting up on the rock is due to my ooopps low lighting or if it is just getting used to its home and extending itself. I do know the shroom is just slightly under that overhang on the rock above and yes maybe I could have put it lower down on the rock, but the rock rubble it is on fits nicely there and I am sure the shroom will grow down to fill in the lower part of the rock.

This is from today. My Coral Beauty decided to pose and photo bomb my picture. So far I have not witnessed any fish poking at the new stuff in the tank...

Of course here is my green recordia....I think it looks very good...Sort of wondering why I waited so long to start adding in soft corals...

When should I think I might have an issue? Well if nothing else, slow and steady.

Oh yeah LFS story...Did I tell all ready? they posted on FB that they were closing until further notice. Well they are, in my opinion, the best store around here. Where to get water, I am still getting my water from them, 10 gal every two weeks. and frozen fish food....OK well maybe I could go somewhere else for the food or order it online, But I would have to find someplace else mixing up the same salt water or break down and get an RODI unit and salt.....
Well the next day they re-posted, sorry for the confusion, They were regrouping and deciding how they were going to keep the community happy and safe. So limited hours 3 days a week. Limited store window shopping but they will help if you need something. So I was relieved. Went for my water today and got some frozen food. Was going to go for Larry's but....my budget was not going to let me spend $6 extra dollars on some frozen food (nano size pack) (even though I am sure it is way better then what I bought). Maybe when the budget is not so on edge, I will get some then.

 

[Nanorock1970]

So for awhile I have been trying to get some different snails for my CUC and my LFS will order some of them but, either they don't have any when I get there or IDK maybe they don't order them for me. So I found Reef Cleaners Looked through what they had and well they have some premade selections of CUC. IF your into CUC with crabs, they have them, or in my case only snails, they have them. and for those of you without a top, they have a CUC package for you also. Well I already had some snails in my tank and I did not want to order a full tank package figuring they will all die around the same time later. Also if my bioload is not large enough, they will die also. So I looked at the different packages by tank size. The snail only packages are dwarf cerith, Fla ceriths, Nassarius, and Nerites. I narrowed down my choices first by how much I wanted to spend (about $40 before tax) I looked at the 20 H, the 29, the 30 breeder, and the winner was the 28 bow. seamed like 12 of each of the larger snails (Fla cerith, Nassarius, and Nerites) and 28 of the dwarf ceriths fit the bill. Easy ordering online, shipping is free (well I did the math on the individual snails and the price is included not really free LOL). I emailed the website some questions and very quickly got some answers (they are about 45 min south of me and I wanted to go pick them up and avoid shipping if I could but they are mail order only). Placed my order on Friday, Got an email generated from my order letting me know it would ship on monday as it ships priority mail. Yup shipped on Monday, received wednesday as promised even though the USPS info said estimated ship was friday (yikes, I emailed John at reef cleaners and he replied right back that I should get them wed, thur and no worries) Well, yup Wednesday it was and acclimation is easy, float bags for 15 min, open and only put the snails in the tank, discard the paper towels and water from the bags. Some snails took off right away, others took some time to get going, So far no worries, John has info that says it can take upwards of 3 days for them to wake up and get to work. Today is day 3 and most of all of them have gotten to work. I have just 3 of the FLa ceriths on day 3 that I don't think have moved yet from their initial location, not calling them dead yet cause some of the Nerite snails took 2 days while most of them took off running. I know,,,I didn't take pics of them when they went in, so nothing to see here...Move along,,,more updates soon. Oh yeah still looking for a striped blue shroom at my LFS or someone local to me to pick up..Not spending the overnight shipping for one coral.

 

[New&no clue]

So for awhile I have been trying to get some different snails for my CUC and my LFS will order some of them but, either they don't have any when I get there or IDK maybe they don't order them for me. So I found Reef Cleaners Looked through what they had and well they have some premade selections of CUC. IF your into CUC with crabs, they have them, or in my case only snails, they have them. and for those of you without a top, they have a CUC package for you also. Well I already had some snails in my tank and I did not want to order a full tank package figuring they will all die around the same time later. Also if my bioload is not large enough, they will die also. So I looked at the different packages by tank size. The snail only packages are dwarf cerith, Fla ceriths, Nassarius, and Nerites. I narrowed down my choices first by how much I wanted to spend (about $40 before tax) I looked at the 20 H, the 29, the 30 breeder, and the winner was the 28 bow. seamed like 12 of each of the larger snails (Fla cerith, Nassarius, and Nerites) and 28 of the dwarf ceriths fit the bill. Easy ordering online, shipping is free (well I did the math on the individual snails and the price is included not really free LOL). I emailed the website some questions and very quickly got some answers (they are about 45 min south of me and I wanted to go pick them up and avoid shipping if I could but they are mail order only). Placed my order on Friday, Got an email generated from my order letting me know it would ship on monday as it ships priority mail. Yup shipped on Monday, received wednesday as promised even though the USPS info said estimated ship was friday (yikes, I emailed John at reef cleaners and he replied right back that I should get them wed, thur and no worries) Well, yup Wednesday it was and acclimation is easy, float bags for 15 min, open and only put the snails in the tank, discard the paper towels and water from the bags. Some snails took off right away, others took some time to get going, So far no worries, John has info that says it can take upwards of 3 days for them to wake up and get to work. Today is day 3 and most of all of them have gotten to work. I have just 3 of the FLa ceriths on day 3 that I don't think have moved yet from their initial location, not calling them dead yet cause some of the Nerite snails took 2 days while most of them took off running. I know,,,I didn't take pics of them when they went in, so nothing to see here...Move along,,,more updates soon. Oh yeah still looking for a striped blue shroom at my LFS or someone local to me to pick up..Not spending the overnight shipping for one coral.

Ive bought a lot of snails and other inverts from reef cleaners. They have a great selection. Unfortunately I always have some loss when I order from him. Not sure why but the great price makes up for it.

 

[Nanorock1970]

Ive bought a lot of snails and other inverts from reef cleaners. They have a great selection. Unfortunately I always have some loss when I order from him. Not sure why but the great price makes up for it.

So far so good...The weather this week was not crazy hot and I am not far, I think it only had two USPS location stops before getting out for local delivery. Yes, great pricing so if I lose a few of the Fla Ceriths, probably not going to bother complaining or getting some sort of credit/replacement on them. Like I said low price and good selection and packages that make it easy if you don't want to calc your tank size, estimate how many of what snails/inverts per gal to get bla bla bla....Pick and go or like I did pick something smaller that meets your fill in need.

 

[Nanorock1970]

Time for an update..... All is good with my reef cleaners purchase. The last of the snails took about 5 days to get moving but no DOAs. Nerite snails laid some eggs on my rock...Not sure if they will hatch or not or how long till they do.

While looking for my blue striped shroom, I got a recommendation for a not so LFS to me that might have them. I had to make a run down there anyway so I stopped in to see. None to be found but I did get a mix of zoas there.

So I guess i am spoiled typically I dip my new corals from my LFS and nothing is found...These Zoas from this other store had lots of stuff. I have dipped them and a lot of stuff was floating in the water. I let them recover and after a few day, since there are quite a few zoas on this frag, I would try fragging them myself. Watched some youtube videos and broke out my glue, xacto knife, a rubble rock I had, and my iodine coral dip (oh yeah gloves and goggles, Safety 1st) . I scraped off 6 (3 of each color) and glued them to my rubble rock. Then dipped my new frag into the coral dip for a few minutes. Gave them a rinse in clean salt water. Finally dropped them back into my tank in a low light/low flow spot for recovery. The next day they seemed to bounce back so I was excited for my first frag....Well over the next week 3 of them were not doing so well but I still had 2 of the red ones and 1 of the green ones.
During this week, I had posted on FB in a local group, if anyone had blue striped shrooms. Well, I got 4 folks replied, 1 just straight up said they didn't have any. 1 said they didn't have any but had shrooms and zoas I might like and would message me some pix. The third person didn't have any blue striped shrooms, only blue discomias. Not realy interested but he also said he had a superman shroom that he just got frags from. they sent me some pix and I said I would think about it. The last one did have blue striped shrooms, the only thing is they were 2 hours away near Miami. Well they were willing to trade me for my new zoa frag. So, since I was unable to find the shrooms closer. I made the deal.

Larger of the two blue shroom frags

Smaller one....

More updates in a bit.....

 

[Nanorock1970]

Tank update...getting lots of softies that I see lots of negative nellies....Yup I got a Kenya tree, red discomia shroom, green recordia, GSP I put on a rock island...Some Zoas. I feel the negative nellies don't "work" on their tanks and don't frag or cleanup soon enough that the sofies overrun the tank. Would you agree or am I in for a tank of overgrowth mess?

 

[New&no clue]

I Love a Softy tank, I think you are really going to enjoy it.

 

[Nanorock1970]

Newer picture of my blue striped shroom. It is growing out nicely, Still working on getting good pictures....I moved it from down front to this nook spot on my rock.

Picked up a superman shroom. Got a really great deal in my opinion and I think it is going to grow out nicely here in the middle of my tank.

My GSP frag I am making an island of. Since this picture was taken, I have about 3 baby polyps growing next to this group of 2.

The other small frag of GSP didn't make it (superglue spot on the rock)

I've also picked up a green Kenya tree. I like the colorful stuff and not like some of the leathers and softies that are shades of brown or white. I think it should do well up here. Lots of light and flow. I still need to cut down the frag plug and glue it in place. My hermits like to play king of the mountain with the kenya tree and I find it at the bottom of my tank once in awhile.

Oh yeah, these are my ugly brown zoa's that I think might be pallies? Since I have changed my lighting to more blue and less white, they are getting some of the color they had when I got them a year ago....mostly brown, with an orange center and some orange speckles on the face.....
Update on my red discomia....It is about the size of a silver dollar now. I think it looks awesome...Not sure when to expect it to make more.....

My Green Ricordea I think when i got it, I thought it was 2 but I think I see three mouths on it. Waiting for it to divide or not....will they float away or just stay here?

Finally my newest purchase is a Pipe organ frag....I think it is australian white???? I got it because it looks more "flower' like then the other ones they had at the LFS...Those looked more like clove polyps on top of a pipe organ coral structure.

I have actually placed them on the other side of my tank, High flow and light by itself. I will post a whole tank view later...

 

[Nanorock1970]

Ok so I think it is official, #allmymoneygoestocorals. Seems like every 2 weeks I get paid and every 2 weeks I buy more. Just purchased a forest fire shroom and some zoas to start making a zoa garden. I started the garden off with some gobstopper zoas, Nirvana zoas, and Bob Marley zoas. This time with the pandemic going on, instead of traveling to the seller, I opted for my first mail order shipment. I found @That guy on the livestock sellers forum. Could not be happier. I have left feedback both on his seller listing and in the seller/buyer feedback forum. I was nervous with this being my first mail order since I normally go to the seller or the LFS to purchase. That Guy made it great and I definitely will buy from him again and I have already referred him to my reef friends.
All the zoas are happy, opened up in a few hours and everything looks great. Forest fire mushroom has great color and I can't wait till I get it off the sand and frag plug and get it to its spot in the tank.
New pictures taken and posting soon...

Other news, plans are ahead of anticipated start on, yup, a larger tank. Thinking of starting a planning/build thread for that soon.

 

[Nanorock1970]

Ok As promised, here is the whole tank view.

The rock down front is home to the start of my zoa garden. As mentioned I have Gobstoppers, Nirvana, and Bob Marley here at the moment. The small frag rock on the left against the glass is my zoas I have had some issues with since I got them. They are doing much better now and soon I will get them to their location for grow out.

Here is a shot of the middle of my tank. Down front left rock is my GSP rock island. Started of with 2 polyps and now it is 7 polyps. The purple mat has covered the superglue. I need to pull the rock out and pop off the superglue from the piece that didn't make it. I was sure it was not surviving when one of my spaghetti worms has ripped it off the superglue.

Front and center in the sand are my newest shroom additions, Speckled Discoma and Forest Fire. Up on the rocks, my green ricordea is doing great. I think it is splitting up. I do know it has a few mouths. Back in the shadows are my two blue striped shrooms also doing well.

Slightly better close up of the blue striped shrooms with my superman shroom photobombing the right side. Also the green sponge is doing well also. It survived tank startup on my live rock.

Shot of my kenya tree and my first zoas. The zoas seam to be picking up pace growing out. They have never really done well up here. 2 things have changed since I got them a year ago. A second light strip and the two wave pumps so I have more flow in the tank.

Picture of my superman shroom. I think it has already doubled in size. Another photobomb, this time my cleaner shrimp dropped in.

My red discoma is doing well also. It was the size of a dime when I got it. Maybe the current size of my superman and not it's about the size of a half dollar. Shrimp and Damzel in the shot. I think the damsel is getting a bit to pushy lately...Not sure if he will need a new home yet...:mad:

Lastly a shot of my pipe organ coral. I was told they are temperamental but this must be the spot. I am already seeing new polyps. I love the "flower" look it has and it is way cool when they get a pulse from the wave makers.

I also made a video tour that I am waiting on youtube to render.....Tank video coming to R2R soon....

 

[Nanorock1970]

Here it is World premiere of my camera phone video as it looks today.

 

[Nanorock1970]

Just posting a quick update. I needed to get rid of a tank bully (azure damsel) as I know it was the culprit to the demise of my midas blenny. Well I caught him and sent him back to the LFS. They don't do credit or exchanges but a week later looking for a midas blenny I saw the damsel for sale in their tank....$10 more than the other ones they have because its 2x the size (guess a year of healthy growth). I feel sort of OK as it was a safe way to rehome it fast after I caught it ( I did think about flushing cause I was so mad he killed off the most expensive fish I had in my tank) but I almost feel that the LFS should have provided me with some sort of credit or something. They made money on the fish when I bought it from them and now they are going to get an extra $10 on top of the price for a healthy local grown fish they got for free.
I'll update more soon. I got pictures and new growth and good plans to come.