Starting (over) slow and trying to do it right!

[SueAbu]

Well here is Day 1 with my lonely surviving mushroom transplanted into the cycled reduced-sized-do-over!

29G simple as can be setup (with a good light). 1 fish and some CUC to get it cycled and provide the biome.

Right now, the most interesting thing are the sticker decorations my grandson added to help us along...

In the middle of Covid, my craigslist hunter husband found me a 75 gal tank that someone was giving up on. Sand, rock, equipment, sump, a Duncan, a toadstool, this mushroom (or maybe his daddy), a rock beauty, a watchman and something else all came home and THEN I figured out how to set it up and what each thing did.
When I made my first coral pack purchase on here, I didn't understand that "great pack for the beginner" meant "... Pack for the LPS/acro beginner"... And I started my trial and error with the hardest ones to keep alive! Fast forward a year and they (the surviving 7 of 10) were actually growing! So, I decided to up my game and got real lights. Everything stalled.
Then I went back to school and had no time.... And then we moved. Catastrophic Coral Failure. (The fish, however, thrived! They have moved into a 95G, have gotten too big for their britches, and are like a clique of mean girls to the new kid in class... No coral for you.)

So now it's time for doing it right. I've done much more research. Starting small. Adding what I like, not what is priced well. Limiting the fish. Focus on the color and the look. I find I'm fond of softies because of the movement. I also like the LPS and their monster mouths. Some may call that easy for beginners, but I just didn't get what I was looking for with the tiny polyps, holding my breath each day hoping I didn't see more white than color.

Here goes!!!!

 

[nuxx]

Good luck!

Also have fun!

 

[blaxsun]

Lone survivor!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Best of luck with your new tank!

 

[SueAbu]

Well, it's been a month. I read an old article about adding depth to my aquascape, so I reverse the usual mound of rocks and added rocks up and back, on the sides.

My single watchman is getting bigger, but I may get him a friend because he's proving to not be all that into the hair algae that's starting up. I have added some softies that had been outgrowing the tank at the local PetC. Then, I added some zoa's and a goni from one of the live sales, on here. I'm in LOVE with them and they've already sprouted new polyps!

I know.. I know.... I'm still so new to zoas that I get excited at every little new mouth to feed. But that's the fun of a build, right?!?

Plus, I get to brag about this gorgeous goni!!!!

I wish I could take pictures in the blue light to show you how it glows purple with glitter on the tips...

I actually wrote myself a not last week and stuck it on the tank. "Sue, you can't touch this tank until Sunday"... so that I stopped making snap decisions and let the coral decide whether they liked where I'd put them...

Now if I could just find the perfect shell for my hermit who is getting too big for his britches and tries on a new shell each day! Never know what I'm going to find walking around the rocks!!!

 

[SueAbu]

Update at almost 4 months. Maybe this thread is for the tank builders, rather than everyone else. It's nice to look back at how far the tank has come when you get frustrated. I'm, all of a sudden, excited again about how great my corals (and coral-adjacents) are doing!!!! I now have 17 colonies... 16 I bought and 1 that jumped ship off the larger zoa in the top right corner. I got the large zoa and the mystery mushroom (top middle) from the LFS for $5 because they'd been there longer than any employee who could remember what they were supposed to be. Score! The mushroom is pink tipped and has just started to show a yellow-green base under blue light. The scrambled egg zoas I got have 10 polyps now (from 4?), twizzler zoa now has 5 (from 3?) With the zoa order I got the monti in The top right and for the first time, ever, I have sps growth!!!!

The rocks have been rearranged countless times as my precarious balancing doesn't always work (and we have micro earthquakes in Maine) or the dogs play into the tank. The Xenia are attached, though and power through each tumble.

I had a lawnmower in there but he randomly took a long nap at the bottom. My 1" long watchman is getting braver. He came out last night, while my hand was IN the tank, to supervise the reconstruction.

 

[SueAbu]

My livestock is growing like crazy in here!! When I got he blue-legged hermits, they were, she'll and all, the size of a pencil eraser... Now, they're on their 2nd up-sized shells!

The Kenya tree toppled and the middle trunk broke off... However, "baby" seems to be doing just fine, tucked into a hole in the rock a few inches away. (Didn't know if I could glue the open trunk, so I'm going with, "if it's working don't mess with it")

I've branched out into new LPSs because I just love to watch them. Sooo cool! Here's a Acan I couldn't resist at the local, independent coral guy... (Now my profile pic)

No bribery needed. I'll be updating again after the 18th when I'm expecting some new additions in the o'night mail!

Question: I have a plain ole anemone not doing so well in the FOWLR tank. Can I put it in here? My watchman is bigger, but is he smart enough to stay away? (I like him better than the nem.)