Viking's 20 Long -- Small crash and recovery

[Mom2many]

Sadly, it didn't. Since I seem to have the Nitrates and what not under control for now, I'm going to concentrate on getting rid of the Diatoms or whatever it is. I just don't understand why the Mandarin, or my last clownfish died. My Cardinal just keeps trucking along, as do the crabs. Even my tuxedo seems fine. Just getting depressing.

I am so sorry about your Mandarin. Dont get down. Weird things happen in our tanks sometimes and often we dont figure out exactly what caused it. No matter the tank size. I purchased several Blastos two months ago. Have them all placed in the same tank and under simular lighting and flow. All are making babies and growing so well but one. It was beautiful and is just slowly melting away. I have tried feeding it more. Moving it to more shade and less flow. It looks very sad. I dont know why. So I just keep trying to save it. I mean your good news is your levels are all great now.

[Viking]

So, it has been a very long and, at times frustrating, time since I last posted. Lots of things have occured and life can sometimes get in the way. This tank has not been able to get to where I was hoping, due to alot of factors, so I have decided that I'm going to start a new one, but doing everything better. I will not call this tank a failure, as it seems to be healthy, but I have been chasing algaue and other assorted ugliness almost from the start, and I think that the start was a big part on my issues.

the 20 long was set up in a hurry becasue my attempt and a pico reef in a Bio-Bubble came to an end when the integrated pump (only source of filtration and ciirculation) died. I set up the 20 with just a HOB and the light I uesed over the Bio-Bubble and transferred the snails, hermits and few small coral frags I had, along with the 1.5 gallons of water and tiny bit of sand and rock that I had actually cycled. this was added to a bag of live sand and a couple boxed of water tht I picked up from the store with the 20 long. Nothing that I carried over died, so I figured I was good to go, but the fact that mu tank has seemed to look like a constant case of the New Tank Uglies is possibly telling me otherwise.

All this is leading me to think that I need to start over clean, So, new tank, dry rock, full cycle, etc as going to be coming.

Since I'm going with a new tank, I will porbably start a new thread. The tank has ben decied on, and I have a buch of new rock (and some nicer, newer pieces from my current tanks soaking in vinegar right now, with expected arrival of tank and stand in about 2 weeks.