Heidi's 150g cube

[Paulo]

Glad the duct tape got you thru the night. We were worried. Glad you took the pics with the tape. Have a fun trip,
Paulo

[Heidi]

So normally you share your bragging pictures of beautiful acros, and sexy healthy coral. This is reality people, sad but what is really going on with my reef right now. I'm not gonna lie... it sucks! My reef tank will be one year old in a week and a half... but now I am truly starting at square one. I am nursing coral back to health... before I can even think about growing and coloring stuff up. I still have not put sand back in here, I need the flow to be pretty intense. everything except a couple questionable pieces is now stable, minus the acro I lost one of the first days back in the 150, after the tub swap. So I warn you, what you are about to see is a sad sad sight LOTS of brown coral... but it will give you an idea of what I am dealing with.

Heidi


Front (still haven't painted the back black so ignore the cords)


Right


Left (side overflow as you can see)





My smurfy blue... yup I cry every time I see it.


My red milli


All the ugly zoas look great still (this thing hasn't fazed any of the soft stuff really)


zoas look fine






Hasn't phased this guy...





All thats left of a whole rock

This thing looks better....

these guys too seem to be better off..

Here's the sump, had to switch it around... and I am not using the snapper but instead rocking the "quiet one" in sump style, which is working great, and a lot more quiet.

two of the worst off... the bottom hasn't had it's polyps out since I took it out of the leaking tank...



thanks for looking... and again I hope none of you people have this kinda crap ever... never ever... EVER happen to you.

[Paulo]

Looks good. Glad you swapped out without losing everything.

[Sir Patrick]

Those acros look like they should bounce back well, with a little time. I have had them come back from much, much worse.

Hang in there heidi.

[rosebud161616]

I agree! Things don't look too bad. I know it sucks to know where these came from, but I expected a lot worse before seeing the pics! Things look healthy! Maybe a little brown, but otherwise healthy. When things are colored up again, now you'll have before and after pictures to be so proud of!

[MyNemesis]

I think you should give yourself and all those who helped you a hearty pat on the back! You pulled the whole thing off very nicely and as well as can be expected given your circumstances. It's normal to expect a few losses after a teardown/rebuild. AND ITS A LOT OF WORK. Having torn down the majority of my reef on Sunday to catch my nightmare PBT, I appreciate all your effort. Then you put it all back together and hope for the best. Only good thing about tearing things down is all the stuff you find. I found a razor blade I lost a month and a half ago. Found two corals I forgot about under the rocks, still kicking! In reefing sometimes bad things happen despite your best intentions and efforts. After I caught the Tang, I put him in a 100 litre rubbermaid tub with 30 gallons of tank water, heater, bubbler, powerhead. Tanglovers was going to put him in a 520 gallon tank, which I was thrilled about. Woke up to a dead Tang. I don't think I will ever give up on the hobby, but it seems to present a never ending thrill ride of challenges, for sure. Great job on everything, Heidi! Looking forward to watching your progress with the new tank. Thanks for all the pics, makes for a fun read!

[2pairs]

All and all considering what happened, I think you have done great saving as much as you have.
Looking forward to seeing it back ware it was.

[Heidi]

Thanks guys for all the encouragement! I am pretty happy to have the nano right now to put stuff in to "nurse". I am loving the lack of sand and have a few ideas I might use on the bb. Gotta love how much flow you can crank up with no sand
Heidi

[Heidi]

And getting all technical Since I started using better salt mix I have gotten on a stability kick as of late. I know, I know "what you're just now trying to keep things level?" Listen remember this is a learn as you go kinda hobby. I have been at it only a year and a half (with a wet tank that...before that I read a bunch) But some of this stuff is really trial and error. So in the mail today I got my BRS 2 part dosing system with the magnesium salts as well. I mixed up all my stuff and have been testing my tank weekly before and after my water change to see where my levels go. My calcium really doesn't move much (wont need to dose that for a bit). My Mag. goes down from 1400 (fresh mix) to 1380 which to me is good enough for now. ( I plan on raising it up to the 1400 and trying to keep it there as that is where my salt mix sets it) My Alkalinity now thats where my issues lie. My fresh mix salt mixes to 12.2 (I think thats a little high right now and don't want to fry stuff) After a week my tank drops to like 8 or 7 dkh... thats crazy inconsistency. When I water change right after it is about 10 dkh so I am going to try and keep it there at 10 dkh. So today after I mixed up my stuff I dosed enough of the alk part to raise it .5dkh. I will do that for 6 days (was at 7dkh today) to get it to to the 10 dkh... I hope, I am going check every day for the next week to see what happens. I have a reef tank, over the year I have kept coral alive.. decently colorful, but now I wanna grow them. Consistency is KEY, so over the next year I will be taking my tank to a whole new level!

Goals for the next year:
*2 part and Mag dose keep levels constant
*buy dosing pumps for Alk, Cal, Mag, MB7
*keep on keeping on with the bio-pellets
*get an auto top off hooked up. (fresh water 10 gallons in basement, to be pumped upstairs via the ato) . . . yup I still dump in about 2 gallons a day... manually
*figure out flow.. vortechs?
*figure out substrate (keep it bare bottom?? or something new?)
*paint the back on the new tank black... that is driving me crazy (prolly this weekend)
*grow colorful corals!

Wish me luck!

Happy Birthday to my reef!

Heidi

[thepanfish]

Go Starboard Heidi!