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Well... It has been a few days and I don't have much to show you other then a clean tank with some snails, but I am still going to put up a night shot because I can't get over how clear the water is and how cool it looks at night.
What can I say.. I like to document my progress with photos, so I can come back here in a year and see where I was. Nothing much to show other then my day 21. Diatom is leaving, Coralline is arriving. Tomorrow I am doing a 3 gallon water change after 10 days of nothing. I will at that time replace my filter floss, my phosguard will be rinsed and my snails will be brushed off. Parameters are all good with the exception of a PH that will not stay above 8.1, so I am dosing Seachem Marine Buffer at a 1/4 tsp. to 8 ounces of water each day until it stabilizes. I have a funny feeling that the die off might still be bringing it down. Otherwise, I could not be happier with it.
I wish I had a better camera ( not that this one is bad ) to take more "what I see" photos. The photograph just does not do it any justice. I love this addiction hobby.
Thanks for the kind words.. I appreciate that.. Yes, I have been watching my Alkalinity. It is NOT that high, but needs to come down from 12 to about 10. Not that severe an issue. I am more concerned with my magnesium at 920. We will see what it is tomorrow after a water change. My Calcium is just fine at 440. I am thinking about implementing this idea tomorrow if nothing changes after a water change.
Only time will tell.. Getting the parameters just so in a nano after 21 days is still in the works, but the coralline is growing just fine, so I have to assume that it is ok. I will know more tomorrow.
It never fail to happen.. This is why I suggest that people start to heed the warning “ Don’t fidget”. There was one rock in my tank that just would have looked better facing the other way. So after 25 days of the tank being operational I decide to move it. How hard can it be. Anyhow.. Let’s just say that moving the rock turned into a 4 hour ordeal. The damn rock would not fit backwards, so I had to move some other things which just cause a domino effect. This in turn moved some base rocks and basically fudged the whole thing up. I had water on the table, 3 towels later, 4 hours of my hands in the tank and some serious aggravation not to mention the loss of a gallon of water from pulling rock, left me with a new ( but somewhat the same ) aqua-scape.
During this ordeal I was able to at least see some bubble algae that was hiding. Just a couple bubbles, but none the less. I think they are dying off now for lack of nutrients. They seem to be losing their luster and getting smaller. Meanwhile making all this pollution in the tank actually stirred up all the snail crap which left me with about a 5 in nitrates. I am just going to ride it out until the next water change on the 20th.
The upside is that you get to see some new photos of the tank with the new aqua-scape. I am not sure if I like it as much, since I have been looking at the other one for 25 days. However, the better sides of the rocks are now showing. The first aqua-scape was by accident. Nothing better than by accident.
Enjoy. I know I will especially since I am not touching it ever again.. lol
I like the new aquascaping better. It looks like you have more room to play with as you add corals that come attached to larger pieces of rock. Plus I like being able to have the fish swim through the reef (i.e my 6 line wrasse) which they can do in version 2.
Yea i agree with eric that the new aquascape is better for the fish to swim through and such. I always have that problem with my aquascape too. I always feel like it can be better but then dont touch it because i dont want to make it worse.
Thanks for the kind words guys. I just have to get used to it myself. You ever get the feeling we are on the poor side of town. No one else comes to visit. lol However, you know what. I like that we have this tight knit group. We can count on each other. Nice....
You will do it again trust me. I tell myself every time I do a WC to leave all alone and then I move 1 rock and then spend more time with my hands in the tank then I wanted. Truth be told, leave well enough alone now. You got a neat 'scape!
I like the new scaping too, MYND. I just tore my nano down entirely and left it running with water only for a few days. I tried to re-scape it yesterday but my eyes were bigger than my stomach, lol! I brought in this beautiful piece of rock covered in purple zoos, orange zoos, and purple shrooms. It's amazing . . . . but HUGE! It takes up almost the whole tank! So now I need to pull it out and bring in some smaller stuff.
Hopefully I can come up with something as nice as yours. It's hard though, because, like you, I was really used to the way it looked. The tough part for me is that it is in my office, so I really can't spend too much time messing with it. I close my door, whirl like a dervish, clean up my mess, open my door and sit back down as if nothing happened! I'll post some pics when I finally get it looking OK.
As each day goes by I think I am liking it more.. more open like you guys said and thanks for all the kind words. When you do something like this and people respond to it.. well, it makes it even more worthwhile. So thanks!
24lbs of live rock from pacific East, but boy there were some major silicates when I got it. I was not happy about that, but since they are gone. Also, I had to break it up with a hammer, because even though I asked for nano sized rock, they sent me larger pieces. I wish they would have sent some smaller ones. I really like the colors of the rock as it progresses and the coralline is just awesome that is coming in.
On another note: I think my nassarius snail is dieing cause it is just sitting in the sand doing nothing. Have to keep an eye on him.
Just a photo update. This is Elwood's Debut. He has been in the tank 1 month ( and he is still alive ) However, I just can't get over the colors. Amazing colors to say the least. Well, at least to me.