My First Posts about My Fish Tank

So to my surprise while clearing up some files, I actually found a handful of posts I made when I started my first ever saltwater tank! It was actually quite fun to read the posts I made which makes me feel that posting now about my tanks will be something I can enjoy later down the line when I look back and see how my tank has progressed.

Reading the posts I made years ago I could tell how excited I was to start my first saltwater tank. Is that what they mean to be young again? Now many years later and with much more experience through my trials and errors and a very very lighter wallet, it’s good to be reminded of that excitement and sense of “adventure” as you set up a tank and spend hours reading and reading to make sure you do everything right.

So I thought I might share the posts I found….check out the dates!

Saturday, February 16, 2002
Posted 8:58 PM
my first fish has arrived! yesterday, i went to my friend’s place to pick it up. he was tearing down his 55gallon and wanted to get rid of some stuff so i got some stuff for cheap. so what did i get. i got a blue tang, a cleanershrimp, bunch of snails and a box of additives for only $50. not bad huh?

the blue tang is about 2inches so it should fit fine in my tank for the time being. as i tried to catch it yesterday, it would try to play dead and hide in the rocks. and when it was finally in the bag, it was still playing dead. haha. but as of this moment, it’s alive and swimming around grazing on what algae i have in the tank.

the cleanershrimp has teamed up with my existing one and they hang out together. they’ve tried to clean the blue tang cause whenever the blue tang swims by the come out trying to grab him.

anyways, earlier in the week i finally got my order from inlandaquatics.com. i ordered their fauna kit, a queen conch and some spagetti macroalgae. everything came in great shape and hopefully it’ll build up my DSB.

Monday, February 04, 2002
Posted 9:37 AM
so what’s new. hmm. oh yes. both my LOA lights DIED on me. the refugium light started to flicker and then it died. the undercabinet light actually fell into the sump. so i replaced the refugium lighting to two 13watt PC from hellolights.com but they forgot to send me the reflector and the bulb. doh! and i just replaced the undercabinet light with another LOA one cause they’re so damn cheap. they cost like $5.50. but that one also fell into the sump so i’m going to have to return it. doh! i guess heavy duty double sided tape doesn’t seem to work.

on saturday, i did a 15gallon water change. thank goodness for pythons. makes life so much easier. i had converted a rubbermaid tub into a mixing tub to make saltwater and it worked out pretty well. a bit of work but i’m saving alot of money in the longrun.

so yesterday my LFS was having a 25% sale so i had to go check it out. i left after 45minutes with a bloodshrimp (supercool) and a small peppermint shrimp (to deal with my apiastia problem). i’ll post pictures in the gallery as soon as i can.

Tuesday, January 29, 2002
Posted 12:24 AM
so this weekend i finally got my refugium setup. seems to be working. i also started mixing the saltwater in a rubbermaid container outside but it’s been so cold outside that the salt is having problems mixing. i’m in need of a water change. also noticing alot more brown algae growing. wish i had a conch. i think i’ll buy one with my order to inland aquatics. i’ve decided to put my skimmer on a timer cause it’s a bit noisy for the livingroom. it’ll only go on at night so when we watch tv or have people over it won’t be loud. hope the magdrive3 pump can handle it. i finally got a picture of the bristleworm in my tank. look for it in the gallery section. still having problems with apiasta in the tank. argh.

Thursday, January 24, 2002
Posted 11:16 PM
so after waiting about two days, i finally turned on my pump again and let the system run. so far so good. i don’t see any signs of leakage. one thing i forgot was that by turning off the pump, there was no heater in the main tank. the heater was in the sump. DOH! so the tank temp dropped to about 65F !!!! luckily i don’t have anything in there besides a few mushrooms that seems angry but are slowly opening up again. phew.

so this weekend is to get my refugium started and do a major water change.

Wednesday, January 23, 2002
Posted 10:01 AM
leak. yeah. found a leak from the bulkhead that’s connected to the overflow. i was installing my LOA lights for my refugium and must’ve jostled the pipes too much and caused a leak. which means it was already leaking before and somehow the saltcreep stopped it. and i must’ve broken the layer of saltcreep. anyways, i ended up draining my overflow and drying it out. i wish i could take the bulkhead apart and redo it but everything is pretty much set in stone. so all i could do was to add another coating of silicone and hope that’ll stop the leak. i’ll probably fill it tomorrow and see how it goes. luckily i don’t have any fish in the tank so it could’ve been worse.

but anyways, i did get the LOA lights installed. i couldn’t get the screws to go all the way in so it sorta hangs off the nail which is fine cause i don’t think it’ll fall off. also bought lil’ hooks so i can plastic tie my piping to support it.

Sunday, January 20, 2002
Posted 11:09 PM
another piece to the puzzle solved. i picked up my refugium today. i picked it up from a guy who had a bunch of other acrylic tanks lying around. really cool guy. but after all was said and done, i got a 10gallon acrylic tank drilled with my custom holes for only $50. a great guy to deal with so if you’re interested in 5, 10 gallon drilled acrylic tanks, send me an email and i’ll point you to the right person.

so today i found something quite interesting. one of my red-legged hermit crabs has picked up a new shell. which is really interesting cause my LFS told me that these were hermit crabs that wouldn’t change shells. but maybe cause it was just lying there it decided to switch.

so what’s next? i have to setup my refugium and the LOA lighting i have for the refugium also. but that’s for later this week. maybe tomorrow!

Friday, January 18, 2002
Posted 10:01 AM
it’s alive! yup. one of the giant bristleworms is still alive. i saw it peeking out from a rock last night. i’ve been throwing a few shrimp pellets into the tank to feed whatever is alive in there. i did this before the lights went out. came back an hour later and started looking for cool stuff. first, i saw a bunch of pods running around which was really cool. then i saw a few things i never saw before. most of them i identified through this site. saw a long tubelike worm inside a liverock. which was identified as a Sipunculan or Peanut Worm. Then the thing i wrote about earlier about a green leafy branch shooting out of the subtrate which would retract after i shined a light on it? that’s a Echiuran Worm.