Hey folks! I got my wife her first tank a while back and everything started out great. It seemed to be fairly established and looked like it was thriving. However, due to some unfortunate neglect from a busy busy couple of months and decline in tank conditions, plus some residents of the tank causing chaos, the tank is in dire need of revival.
Backstory:
20 gal, Clear-For-Life tank purchased. It was fairly established and doing well. 2 power heads, 1 light (Ai Prime, settings and height recommended by local shop), heater, and filter (started with a skimmer, but moved to filter)
Tank contained:
3 blue hermit crabs
5 red banded trochus (3, 1died, added 3 more)
1 Aussie scolymia
1 frogspawn
1 digitata
2 ocellaris clownfish
1 orchid dottyback
1 firecracker shrimp
4 live rocks
With a number of events over a few months things started to fall apart -- pregnant, new jobs, baby arrived, moved ~2 weeks after baby, and tank living at old house (only ~15 mins away, but haven't been able to get there as often as we'd like).
On top of the personal life items, the residents of the tank were having their own issues.
First, the biggest hermit scraped away at the scoly trying to get at food. The scoly declined, despite our best efforts and input from our local, and eventually died.
One of the clownfish, that we brought home after they had been brought to the local only a day or two before, got sick and died.
A couple of trochus didn't make it.
One of the hermit crabs didn't make it.
Digitata was broken during a water change and is hanging on for dear life.
Frogspawn started getting attacked by aiptasia. Thought they were under control, by using Red Sea Aiptasia X, but after being away from the tank for a couple of days they were back and also on the complete opposite side of the tank. As of a couple of days ago...the frogspawn appears to be nearly done for.
Trochus numbers have dwindled, with one of the hermits or something creating a little crated in the middle of the sand and moving some trochus shells and extra hermit shells into it.
On top of all of this, there must have been a touch too much light and definitely too much phosphate, as hair algae started showing up. A few manual interventions of pulling it out and scrubbing with a toothbrush and it appeared to be under control. Fast forward to not being around for a few days...and the tank looks like a mess.
Plans at present:
Tank will be moved to our new house within the next few days. Fish, shrimp, cuc, and any surviving coral will all be placed in individual bags or containers for transport.
Live rocks will be taken apart (currently puttied together), removed, dipped and cleaned.
Sand will be completely removed.
Tank will get a nice cleaning to remove and algae and be ready for a fresh start.
With all of that said -- we want to get the tank established again, but understand that there is the timeframe of the establishing that needs to be done before the lives are re-introduced. We are trying figure out the best way to go about the plans, then want to ensure we aren't having another aiptasia infestation or algae overtaking.
As for future additions to the tank:
Once the tank is happy everything is re-introduced, we would like to get the clownfish its companion.
We would like to add coral again, of course, with some being geared towards clownfish residence.
I have read some information about strawberry conchs doing well as a clean up crew addition, and some saying they can do well in tanks as small as 15 gal, and would like to add one if possible.
TL;DR - tank was feeling happy, but has since fallen apart. If you have recommendations on how to start fresh, while keeping alive the residents we have, and/or advice on moving forward and additional care I'd love to hear it!
Backstory:
20 gal, Clear-For-Life tank purchased. It was fairly established and doing well. 2 power heads, 1 light (Ai Prime, settings and height recommended by local shop), heater, and filter (started with a skimmer, but moved to filter)
Tank contained:
3 blue hermit crabs
5 red banded trochus (3, 1died, added 3 more)
1 Aussie scolymia
1 frogspawn
1 digitata
2 ocellaris clownfish
1 orchid dottyback
1 firecracker shrimp
4 live rocks
With a number of events over a few months things started to fall apart -- pregnant, new jobs, baby arrived, moved ~2 weeks after baby, and tank living at old house (only ~15 mins away, but haven't been able to get there as often as we'd like).
On top of the personal life items, the residents of the tank were having their own issues.
First, the biggest hermit scraped away at the scoly trying to get at food. The scoly declined, despite our best efforts and input from our local, and eventually died.
One of the clownfish, that we brought home after they had been brought to the local only a day or two before, got sick and died.
A couple of trochus didn't make it.
One of the hermit crabs didn't make it.
Digitata was broken during a water change and is hanging on for dear life.
Frogspawn started getting attacked by aiptasia. Thought they were under control, by using Red Sea Aiptasia X, but after being away from the tank for a couple of days they were back and also on the complete opposite side of the tank. As of a couple of days ago...the frogspawn appears to be nearly done for.
Trochus numbers have dwindled, with one of the hermits or something creating a little crated in the middle of the sand and moving some trochus shells and extra hermit shells into it.
On top of all of this, there must have been a touch too much light and definitely too much phosphate, as hair algae started showing up. A few manual interventions of pulling it out and scrubbing with a toothbrush and it appeared to be under control. Fast forward to not being around for a few days...and the tank looks like a mess.
Plans at present:
Tank will be moved to our new house within the next few days. Fish, shrimp, cuc, and any surviving coral will all be placed in individual bags or containers for transport.
Live rocks will be taken apart (currently puttied together), removed, dipped and cleaned.
Sand will be completely removed.
Tank will get a nice cleaning to remove and algae and be ready for a fresh start.
With all of that said -- we want to get the tank established again, but understand that there is the timeframe of the establishing that needs to be done before the lives are re-introduced. We are trying figure out the best way to go about the plans, then want to ensure we aren't having another aiptasia infestation or algae overtaking.
As for future additions to the tank:
Once the tank is happy everything is re-introduced, we would like to get the clownfish its companion.
We would like to add coral again, of course, with some being geared towards clownfish residence.
I have read some information about strawberry conchs doing well as a clean up crew addition, and some saying they can do well in tanks as small as 15 gal, and would like to add one if possible.
TL;DR - tank was feeling happy, but has since fallen apart. If you have recommendations on how to start fresh, while keeping alive the residents we have, and/or advice on moving forward and additional care I'd love to hear it!
