Hello fellow Reefcentralites,
Please join me as I document my struggles to transform my ailing box of rocks into a reef that I can be proud of. Feel free to watch, laugh and learn along with me.
I've been in this hobby for a few years now, and while I have enjoyed myself immensely, I've never had a reef that I felt was a real success. That (, I hope) is about to change. Previous problems have stemmed from lack of knowledge, lapses in diligence (!) and poor tank planning. So, I have decided to combat all three causes of failure with the power of this site. Come help me spend my time and money, slap my wrist if needed and enjoy the ride. I just might share the glory when I win TOTM
Some background: I started working in a SW LFS in high school, and of course soon wanted my own reef. So my dad and I spent one new year's eve building an 80 gal acrylic tank for my bedroom. I've been hooked ever since, and I probably poured half of my earnings from the LFS into that tank: MH, sea swirls, skimmers that I immediately took apart to "improve" and never again got to work. I decided that reefing was all about tinkering, and I never looked back.
I'm proud to say that since that first reef, I have had in my possession an unbroken string of reef tanks (if you count the year and a half that my mom topped off a tank of LR nearly devoid of anything else). I eventually brought most of the contents of the 80 gallon to college on subsequent flights between Seattle and Boston, usually in tupperware in my backpack. I actually still have a few corals that I picked up while working at the LFS: neon green sinularia, galaxea, yellow scroll, etc. They are tough to kill, yes, but I feel pretty good about keeping them alive through 6+ years of boom and bust reefkeeping. Long story short, I have now graduated and am living in more permanent housing, and it is time to get this reefkeeping thing under control.
So, the current sorry state of affairs: I had everything in a 29 gal AGA tank until 3 days ago, when I moved it to a 29 acrylic SeaClear. I was confused about the sudden growth of hair algae in the tank, until I took out all the rocks and found this just in the sand:
Not only was my cleanup crew not eating the HA, the majority had died and were now fueling its growth with their decay. All inhabitants of the tank sat in buckets overnight while I readied the new tank. The opening in the new tank was too small to fit some of the larger pieces of LR, so I routed the opening larger, leaving about 1.25 inches on the front and sides. I drilled holes for two 3/4 inch bulkeads in the top rear corners, and a 1" bulkhead in the center top. This larger bulkhead, for the drain, I surrounded with a tiny DIY overflow, just 3" long, 2" front to back and about 6" high, glued to the back wall around the bulkhead (which now cannot be removed):
I stupidly decided that this would work for a closed loop, returning via a SCWD to the two top corner bulkheads, but as you can clearly understand, it just sucked air with the water and created nothing but bubbles. So, I did what any reefer would do, and sacrificed a bucket for a makeshift sump:
I fired up the pump, and the SCWD is working well, but the overflow is just a naked bulkhead inside the box, and is operating at a volume somewhere between very loud and obnoxiously loud. I wish I could play the newbie card here, but I just have to step back and accept that my initial design was poor.
To get an idea of the magnitude of the problem here, take a look inside the overflow and sump while the return pump is operating.
Pretty idiotically designed, although the surface is well skimmed, and there is certainly adequate oxygen exchange. Additional problems/setbacks include the following. During the move, I killed half of my fish in the tank (a green chromis, the yellow watchman remains alive and well), my green sinularia (which I've had for 6-7 yrs)was neglected under a rock for an extra day, and began to rot, dropping arms and gunk into the water when I finally rescued it. I noticed what I believe to be RTN on one of my acro frags (how nice), and I have a moderate to heavy infestation of redbugs on my smooth-skinned acros. I tested the SG today (albeit with a swing-arm hydrometer) and it came in at a cool 1.027, temps dropped possibly as low as 70F during the overnight bucket stay while moving, and I've notice some of my mushrooms melting. The tank has a nice colony of hair algae, valonia is rampant, and I estimate that 80% of my snails and hermits died during the month since I bought them.
I sure hope this is rock bottom.