Terrible with aquascape, vision, and artistic direction. Buy a preset tank?

[Lrcinos]

Hey all,

 

I have a 30 gallon tank up, but I hate how it looks. My coral placements look off, I hate how the live rock look. I was facing cyano, and my skimmer broke (second CAD Lights product to suck for me). I neglected a water change once, did it after 2.5 weeks instead of 1 week and it's overrun quickly with hair algae! Such quick devastation.

 

When I set it up, I didn't rinse the dry rock, or the sand. So I kind of got off on the wrong foot, even though I learned a lot here and on ReefCentral. So now, I'm left trying to save my tank. Taking out the filter floss every few days now, and replacing the GFO weekly since I most likely have super phosphate. My only saving grace is my RODI water reads 0 tds. Thank God

 

Also, I've grown really attached to my fish. Really cool personality. They're the best, so for that reason alone, I wouldn't shut down the tank and restart.

 

 

But, I've always wanted a second smaller tank. Maybe a 10 gallon tank, one fish, and beautiful healthy corals. Sure it would be a money sink again, but I wouldn't mind if I REALLY enjoyed the tank. I've been to a few LFS who have gorgeous display tanks (I mean, they have to make it appealing to customers somehow). And they have said they could sell the aquascaped rock, corals, livestock, etc for a fee.

 

Has anyone here done that? To buy essentially a preset tank? I know half (if not more) of the fun is tinkering/playing with the vision of what it should look like, but I just plain suck with the artistic portion, I wouldnt mind doing the upkeep. I see a lot posts here, and those live display tanks at the stores and frankly, . they make me jealous. It would also keep me motivated in the hobby, while I keep trying save my 30g

[ndrobey]

Check out the aquascaping inspiration thread on this site. You might invite someone to your place to do the scape for you.

[seabass]

Welcome to N-R.com. I wouldn't recommend starting a new tank while you are battling this tank. Fixing a problem is a good learning experience that will help you with this tank, and other tanks in the future. While starting a new tank (or one that you purchased done) could end up facing the same issues as this one. In fact, a smaller tank can often be more volatile than a larger tank.

 

Do you have a picture of the tank as it is now? Maybe we can give you some suggestions that you might like. I think you could do several things to make it more to your liking (re-aquascaping, maybe taking out some rock, adjusting the cleanup crew, some maintenance, etc).

 

It sounds like you don't currently test phosphate. What do you do for testing, and what are the parameters? Let's try to make you happy with this tank, then you can think about starting a new one. Or even restart this one (keeping your fish, maybe even in quarantine if necessary).

[Lrcinos]

Welcome to N-R.com. I wouldn't recommend starting a new tank while you are battling this tank. Fixing a problem is a good learning experience that will help you with this tank, and other tanks in the future. While starting a new tank (or ome that you purchased done) could end up facing the same issues as this one. In fact, a smaller tank can often be more volatile than a larger tank.

Do you have a picture of the tank as it is now? Maybe we can give you some suggestions that you might like. I think you could do several things to make it more to your liking (re-aquascaping, maybe taking out some rock, adjusting the cleanup crew, some maintenance, etc).

It sounds like you don't currently test phosphate. What do you do for testing, and what are the parameters? Let's try to make you happy with this tank, then you can think about starting a new one. Or even restart this one (keeping your fish, maybe even in quarantine if necessary).

I do test for my phosphates with the Hanna checker. They read 0, which (apparently) means that they're being binded up by the algae. Testing for Ammonia, and Nitrites are 0. Nitrates read about 20

 

I also have a Alk,Mag,Ca tester. I bought it to hopefully stock SPS, but they're most likely gonna die in my tank (with nitrates high, and PO4 coming from somewhere) so I don't really test it anymore. Last time I used it, the parameters were acceptable for growth. I do use Red Sea Coral Pro Salt, so it gets all the elements there

 

The thing with my rocks is they are large pieces for a nano. I should have smashed them when they were still dry old dead rock. Also I tried to keep it distant from the back wall (to avoid dead spots that people always said) which limited my ability to do a design, etc.

[seabass]

I'd use water changes to lower the nitrate level and turbo snails for the hair algae. It's not too late to break up the rock some. A picture would really help.

[piano15]

Welcome!

Don't beat yourself up, a lot of us start off on the wrong foot.

 

I had hair algae in my old 55g tank, do you have a cleaning crew in the tank? I got a whole slew of snails which helped but what helped the most was me going home everyday and picking out the algae with tweezers(my tweezers were only used for my tank and i was extremely careful to not allow the hair algae to spread)

 

What is your lighting light? Are you running them too often which can help increase the algae growth.

[piano15]

What I meant by too often, are you running your lights for longer than necessary?

 

I agree with seabass, do a water change.

What I meant by too often, are you running your lights for longer than necessary?

 

I agree with seabass, do a water change.

[Lrcinos]

No pictures because I'm full of shame

 

Anyways, I'm running my Maxspect on a 30 gallon long at

 

1:30 0/0

12:30 0/0

14:00 55/75

18:30 25/40

19;30 1/15

21;30 0/2

 

I don't come home until around 2PM, so I have it set to be at its brightest then so I can enjoy the tank when im home

 

 

My cleaning crew lasted for months but recently all died. All the nerite snails, nassarius snails, etc. I reduced feeding on the tank, so I think my peppermint shrimp slaughtered them all. It was fun the nassarius snails pop up when I fed the tank. Now none come out. I just placed an order at reefcleaners for some more.

 

I'll try doing 2x a week 13% water changes. I've been doing it once a week (4 gallons on the 30g tank)

[SquishyFishy]

I'm saving for a Red Sea Max c250 and hope to have it by next year. When I get it I am ordering Real Reef Rock for my scape.

 

www.realreefrock.com

 

It is man made and supports communities in the south Pacific with income. It is colored purple so it looks great in the start up phase.

 

So it comes in pieces that are easy to put together. And they have Tonga shelf type and branches. Drill holes down into the rock when you get it stacked right with a bit the size of rods like the acrylic ones you can get for window blinds. Stick those into the holes and then sit them in your tank on waffle crate, then put in your sand/rubble. Rocks won't move. Try to do a scape with arches and plenty of flat shelving. I made the mistake on my first scape of too much vertical rock and it was hard to get corals to stick. Also easier to control what hitch hikers come into the tank. These rocks have no dead stuff.