coming back to the hobby!!!

[anoah33]

after 2 years of being out of the hobby (i had a tank leak and lost everything) I'm coming back to the hobby!!

I've been working hard on setting up this new system the past couple of weeks. I started a blog to track my progress:
http://anoah33.wordpress.com

today I've been waiting on my RODI to fill the system. and it will have maybe a day for the salt to mix and temp to get right. I hope i can get my sand and live rock tomorrow evening. i am also hoping to skip (or almost skip) the cycle as i need to pick up my clownfish pair on thursday :( not ideal i know but I'm not sure what else i can do about it.

[kfisc]

How did you come to the point of needing to pick up your clownfish so soon?

[anoah33]

How did you come to the point of needing to pick up your clownfish so soon?

well, I'm buying them from the guy that bought them from me 2 years ago. he is getting out of the hobby and his tank is being picked up thursday night.

my system is a little over half full as i type this of RODI water and I'm adding the salt as soon as it is full and getting it running. I'm going to try to pick up the sand and rock tomorrow (from the same guys tank so there should be very little die off) then i think i will add a few hermits on monday and see if they make it? ill be testing my water every day also. maybe twice a day on wednesday just to be sure

[tkeracer619]

cool.

You will probably be fine.

I would take it easy for a while after adding the clowns

[kfisc]

Any chance you can add as much of the water from his tank as possible? It could help decrease the cycle time; also, I'd skip the sand, or at least start with new sand while keeping the clowns in a smaller quarantine tank with a fair amount of their own tank water.

Clowns can be fairly resilient, and so can hermits, but why not wait and give them a better chance?


Better yet, do you know anyone who might be willing to house them in their tank while yours cycles?

[anoah33]

cool.

You will probably be fine.

I would take it easy for a while after adding the clowns

that won't be a problem as this has totally taped out my wallet! lol.
I'm already having to wait a few moths before i can afford to get my lighting for corals.

i want to get a pistol shrimp/ gobie pair and maybe one or two other fish.
im also planning on adding just a small clean up crew at the start and building it slowly over the next 2-3 months

[anoah33]

Any chance you can add as much of the water from his tank as possible? It could help decrease the cycle time; also, I'd skip the sand, or at least start with new sand while keeping the clowns in a smaller quarantine tank with a fair amount of their own tank water.

Clowns can be fairly resilient, and so can hermits, but why not wait and give them a better chance?


Better yet, do you know anyone who might be willing to house them in their tank while yours cycles?

actually i was thinking about that. i do have an extra 10g tank and I'm sure i could get at least 10g of his water. i was under the impression that "new" sand would have a lot more dead stuff in it and would take longer to cycle. he has a 90g display and i have a 28g bow front so i was going to try and take the top layer of his trying not to stir it up too much.

i wasn't sure what would be harder on the clowns:
1. small possible cycle with overkill filtration
2. old tank water in a tiny tank with little or no filtration.

[Triton_Z]

I would try to use as much of the old tank water as possible with some old sand and a rock or two (assuming the 90g is pest free). I think your clowns will be fine in this setup. Just don't dump another few inches of fish in a week :D

Read over your blog. Nice work and very cool sump tank. I wish I documented and took pictures of my 210 build. I drilled through my wall as well into my garage to plumb the sump. If only I had a basement...

I dropped out of the hobby for about six years, but not completely as my A. Percula clownfish stayed in a small 20 gallon tank for three years (almost like a goldfish). She's going on 12 years now. A little trooper. I got sucked back in small by a new 29 gallon for this clown and its morphed into bigger things here last year.

Good Luck and Welcome Back :wave:

[anoah33]

its almost fitting that this is happening with the clown. when i first bought her my tank wasn't quite ready but i was at my LFS and noticed the "spot" rather than stripe. i wanted to buy her and pick her up in a week but the guy told me there was bother customer in the store who would take it today so they wouldn't hold her. she made it the first time, and I'm really not too worried about pests. the only thing thats on the rock is hair algae and i should be able to start working on that right away. not having much lighting should help with that

[anoah33]

picked up 56lbs of rock tonight!! i am getting maybe 25lbs more and i want to put egg crate on the bottom so it won't slide so I'm not even bothering with Aquascaping right now. i got a few really nice pieces~! I'm really excited about the Tonga? branch i got because its one kind that I've never had before.
i posted a couple quick pics on my blog:
http://anoah33.wordpress.com


sometime this week ill be getting the rest of the rock, and the sand and making it look nice ill post more pics then! (ooh and my clowns!!)