Zechenia's 28 Gallon Bowfront Beginner Reef [UPDATED]

I picked up a feather duster. He seems to be loving my tank. Pics to follow at somepoint

I went on vacation, and had a friend take care of my tank. I came home and everything looks great. However, my fire fish is no where to be found. My fishy-sitter didnt see it the entire time they were there. One of my nightlights went out right before I left. The firefish's "den" is on the now dark side. I'm hoping the change just scared him into hiding and not jumping (we haven't found him outside the tank). So I am crossing my fingers on that one.

On a side note, the aquatic life fixture I have has had a few problems (things going out, first a ballast and now one of my nightlights) but their customer service is amazing. Sends out replacement parts with no questions asked. Got my nightlights yesterday, installing tonight.

Also, Coralline algae is growing so fast on my glass I need to clean it nearly every other day (atleast it seems... I'm sure it's not that bad). I'll take that as a good thing

 

Also, I finally decided to go for the HOB refugium. I found someone who is custom making one for me, and it should be ready by the end of the week. I'm excited and hope it helps my tank! I've already got the lamp for it, picking up the pump shortly, and then will be ready for some cheato and mangroves. I'm going without sand or rocks in the fuge. Just wanna keep it simple (John from reefcleaners recommended the set up)

 

Well... I f'ed up. Tightening a bulkhead on my HOT refugium that was JUST BARELY too loose and DRIPPING, I put too much pressure on my glass. Cracked the aquarium. Water rushed straight into an outlet, smoke everywhere. In a newer house without labeled breakers, so I flipped EVERYTHING off. using flashlights I filled my 2 five-gallon buckets with water and the rocks. Bottom 1/4 of the tank is ok.

I only have 2 heaters, so I have one bucket and the tank being heated. Powerheads in all three. PRAYING someone in town has another 28 gallon in stock. Taking tomorrow as a sick day, gotta get another aquarium, get the back painted (no way to do it once it's in place) then get it together first thing tomorrow. Hoping everything survives.

And to top it all off... I still gotta figure out how to get the @!@# HOB refugiums bulkhead to stop leaking.

BAD NIGHT.

 

OH NO!! i just read this entire thread start to finsh to end here!? like this!? thats my nightmare man, so sorry man, it looked great

 

As mentioned in my other thread:

New tank is up and almost full. I replaced sand with sugar grain sized sand, looks way better. I put a lot less sand in, so it doesnt rise above the bottom edge of the tank. I think it will look a lot better this way. I'm not yet sure how I feel about my new aquascaping. I think it's just "different" than what I had, so I havent had time to decide how I feel about it

Hopefully tonight I can finish filling it, and then all I have left to do is fish out as many snails as I can from the sand bed of my old tank (luckily the crack let me keep about 3 inches of water in the bottom of it).

I hope to get to pictures tonight as well. Depends how I'm doing on time.

I thought I was going to lose my tailspot blenny. He was so stressed he wouldnt get out of his little hole in the rock. Even when I was moving the rock between tanks (infact, I thought he might have been dead). However, this morning he seemed happy and was swimming around the tank.

Hopefully I only get a mini-cycle since I was able to keep all my live rock submerged, heated, and in sufficient flow.

 

Tank transition AFTER we started cleaning up the supplies:


Old Tank. Moved off stand to a table:



New Tank:






Still a work in progress. But almost there!

 

Update: I think I am through the mini-cycle phase (let's hope!).

I had a small diatom bloom in my main tank (Though it's ALL over in my fuge... guess that means it's working, haha).

I don't have a CuC in my fuge (per john from reefcleaners recommendation), so I guess that means I will have some manual removal once it starts to die off (dont see the point removing it before all the nutrients it needs are used up).

All my livestock seems happy, except my fiji leather. It had been struggling as it was, and initially showed signs of improvement in the new tank... but has declined since. I'm not holding my breath for it

Hopefully I will have more pictures soon!

 

I really like your tank and watching it progress from the start to now. I have a 26 gallon bow front that is positioned in a corner just like yours. It allows me to see what mine could possibly look like once it's done cycling.

Sorry about the first take cracking too =[ Hope everything worked out okay

 

The dog got huge!!!

Figi Yellow Toadstools are really sensitive IME. Intense lighting and mod to higher flow. Moving it around seems to make them madder than most other leathers IME.