This is my first foray into saltwater. I call it my 'training wheels' tank. I started the tank in March but it wasn't starting from scratch - I bought the tank used and bucketed about 20g of the water and the LR. It had a resident damsel, an emerald crab, and a peppermint shrimp. I had it drilled and I built a custom background for it using the crate/pond foam/marine resin method. (Some years ago I had built a background with the insulation board/cement/marine resin method and after having done both types I prefer the insulation board. The pond foam was too hard to work with and too unpredictable, though I do rather like the nooks and crannies exposed when I carved it. I know it might be a repository for detritus but I also see that it's a good breeding place for copepods so maybe the upside balances the downside. Time will tell.)
Then I spent several months trying to balance the chemistry, riding out the massive algae bloom, etc as it cycled. Learning what was the same and what was different from my freshwater setup. Had a lot of fun watching for and identifying the various resident critters.
I started adding livestock to it about a month ago. The damsel ended up tormenting one of the new clownfish and the boxfish to death, so I had an adventure catching that. I bought a second clownfish and it turned out to also be a female, so it and the first one beat the heck out of each other. I had also bought a beautiful white ribbon eel and was shocked to discover it in my sump one day, so back it went too.
Then major disaster struck when I discovered one of the resident critters was a bobbit worm. See my thread 'New and need help' for all the gory details. Madjoe and Richard, MY HEROES!!! came over and dismantled the tank to evict the monster. They put everything back much better than it was. I'm expecting it to cycle and seeing a bit of algae and maybe diatoms now, but so far everything looks healthy and happy. I'll post pictures as it matures, now monster-free.
I'm a bit battle scarred...
View attachment 12330
Then I spent several months trying to balance the chemistry, riding out the massive algae bloom, etc as it cycled. Learning what was the same and what was different from my freshwater setup. Had a lot of fun watching for and identifying the various resident critters.
I started adding livestock to it about a month ago. The damsel ended up tormenting one of the new clownfish and the boxfish to death, so I had an adventure catching that. I bought a second clownfish and it turned out to also be a female, so it and the first one beat the heck out of each other. I had also bought a beautiful white ribbon eel and was shocked to discover it in my sump one day, so back it went too.
Then major disaster struck when I discovered one of the resident critters was a bobbit worm. See my thread 'New and need help' for all the gory details. Madjoe and Richard, MY HEROES!!! came over and dismantled the tank to evict the monster. They put everything back much better than it was. I'm expecting it to cycle and seeing a bit of algae and maybe diatoms now, but so far everything looks healthy and happy. I'll post pictures as it matures, now monster-free.
I'm a bit battle scarred...View attachment 12330
