TronB24 29 Gallon Tank

tronb24 · Mar 21, 2009

We'll I figured it wouldn't hurt to keep a log of my tank's progress. I haven't been taking pictures throughout the whole process, but I thought it'd be fun to keep track of then and now.

Here are the current specs:

Size: 29 gallon glass aquarium
Filtration: Fluval 305 Canister filter, 2 x Koralia 1
Media: Top tray = Bio rings. Middle tray = Chemi-Pure Elite and Seachem De*Nitrate. Bottom tray = empty
Protein Skimmer: AquaC Remora
Lights: Sundial T5HO 4 x 24 watts
Rock: started with 20lbs of base rock and 10lbs of LR. I'm sure base rock is now live by now

Fish: O. Clown, LM Blenny, Sixline Wrasse, Royal Gramma (not yet added, currently in QT as of 3/21/09)

Corals: As of 3/21/09 - Toadstool Leather, Pulsing Xenia, Frogspawn, Mushrooms, 2x colonies of Zoas, Candy Canes and Open Brain Coral

This tank was born roughly around Oct. 1, 2008. The intent was to be a FOWLR, but you know how that goes. I tried to convert from a freshwater tank using as much of the equipment as I could, this being a Penguin Bio Wheel and standard fluorescent lighting fixture. Below is a photo of what I started with.

I knew I couldn't get away with this setup for long, but with the mindset of not wanting to have any corals, I felt this would do.

After my cycle finished, I started adding fish. I started with 2 damsels. I then added 2 blue chromis. The damsels quickly killed one of the Chromis, so I took both damsels back to the LFS. I then added a O. Clown. Then about two weeks later a Purple Dottyback (sp?). This is when things went bad for me. I'm not sure if it was the clownfish or the purple dottyback, but one of the fish I believe introduced ich to my system. Everything died. .

I was pretty discouraged at this point and thought about going back to freshwater. But then my ego set in (most of us boys have a big one). I don't like losing and I saw this as a potential defeat. I decided to go fallow and regroup. Then after I started upgrading equipment so that I could introduce some inverts to give something to look at in a tank with no fish for 8 week.

Tank during fallow period (Nov 2008 - Jan. 2009).

Boring! So bring on the corals.

And here's what my tank looks like today (as of 3/21/09)

From my outbreak of ich to my outbreak of cyano, I would've have never gotten this far without 3reef. Thanks to all who have help directly and inadvertly.

BTW - this is my newest coral. Added on 3/20/09

That's all folks.