I let the tank cycle for a month or so (which is normal for salt water tanks) and then added a few critters; a peppermint shrimp (which of course was named Patty... get it?) some snails and some hermit crabs (used as a cleaning crew to combat algae and such). First thing to go wrong ever was the peppermint shrimp died during an unsuccessful molt. OK, while a little disheartening, not the end of the world. Plus, I was ready for the first real inhabitants of the tank:
Here was a tomato clownfish and bubble-tip anemone that bonded very happily together.
I shortly after added some zooanthid polyps and some xenia. They all flouished. Then the tomato clownfish ate the xenia (which is REALLY unusual, and had I not seen it myself, I would not have believed it).
That lasted about a month, then the anemone died. I'm not exactly sure why - the feeding was right on specs as well as food and water parameters.
After Christmas, I added some ricordea mushrooms and a pair of Barbershop Goby.
Everything was going well, then I got hit with wave after wave of red algae (you can see the beginnings of a wave on the sand in that last pic). The first to go were the gobies - they didn't appreciate the algae, plus the tomato clownfish had it out for them. Usually clownfish are community fish, but after the anemone died this one turned downright nasty. He dispatched the gobies and ate the xenia.
By this point it was a win/lose battle with the red algae. I would get it out, and things would be good for a week. Then the algae would bloom again; within 48 hrs, it would cover the entire sandbed like I had never fought it. I tried siphoning it off, I tried chemical treatments, I was doing partial water changes as often as 2-3 times a week. Nothing worked. Within a month I had lost all of the zooanthid polyps. So, by this time it is March and I am down to the ricordea mushrooms and the clownfish. So, of course, the clownfish starts nipping at the mushrooms - and they die off. His job completed, the clownfish died (of pure hate, I assume) the first week of July.
By this point, I was in an epic stretch of shows, and I didn't have much time to concern myself with the mess I had caused.
But now with Chicago over and no show on the horizon until March, I've started anew.
The first thing I'm starting with is moving to a better pump/filter system. I've replaced the stock pump that came with the kit (which was roughly 100g per hour) to a Maxi-Jet 900 (which is roughly 230g per hour). The stronger water movement will help with algae formation to a degree, the other major mod will take care of the problem more definitively.
The stock filter system is such:
I'm changing it to this:
The chaeto in the middle chamber is actually a macro algae that filters water like it is its job... well, in this case, it is. I'll also do a tank mod to provide an additional light source for the chaeto so that it doesn't die. I'm hoping that with the faster flow the algae (red/bad) won't form and that the chaeto will help keep the phosphates and nitrates down so that the bad algae wouldn't have any food anyway.
Once this is done and running, I'll be adding back in new corals, starting with some more zooanthid polyps. My goal is to have primarily zooanthids, mushrooms and some candy cane coral. I might add in a new clownfish (percula this time, they are completely and totally non-aggressive). We'll see. Pics forthcoming as I finish the mods and start with livestock.
