Back in the tank after almost 12 years!

sibilla

Non-member
Hi All!

I've just gotten back into salt tanks after a 12 year break due to moving around so much!. Finally settled in a new place and picked up a system again.

We bought a complete system from a guy leaving the area and moved it to our new house in Feb. 220 gal, reef plus fish, plus refugium and all sorts of equipment. We got smart and hired the pros to break it down, move it and set it back up. Totally worth the cost. Unfortunately, it took longer than anticipated and the tank crashed. Lost 90% of the fish stock in 3 days. Then learned the hard way that there were, in fact, some palys in there that were not listed in the livestock manifest... an ER trip after blood exposure on day 4 to myself and my partner after making the critical error of working some rock bare handed.

(If anyone wants the details... feel free to ask... but it boils down to worst flu ever about an hour after last exposure and no, they can't fix it... you get steroids and Tylenol... and treated like you've been cooking meth in your basement cause wth is palytoxin?)

Things quieted down after that and we've slowly been working the tank with much more careful gloved hands.

The tank is recovering slowly. We seem to have been able to nurse the finger leather corals, the cabbage leather corals and i think, the kenya tree coral back from the brink. We have removed the paly colonies that we could without scraping and risking another toxin dump.

The anemones - we have 4 original bubble tip from the original tank, one new one, and one purple one that wanders all over the place that are doing fine hosting on clarkii clown and one common orange clown. I keep thinking the green carpet anemone is going to keel over, but it keeps surprising me.

The rest of the fish are doing alright. We have a group of yellow tangs that are hilarious to watch and a powder brown tank that keeps surprising us. Three damsels, one of which is the tank bully and constantly digging his burrow clean. A mandarin and a McCorsers Wrasse. Plus a bunch of little snails and hermit crabs.

Water is, remarkably stable, given how awful the first week went back in Feb. I have some adjustments to do - I think i want to move the protein skimmer to inline before the refugium - still researching that. I also want to work out my lights a bit more (two AquaticLife XS-UV LED lights)I love that they are programmable on lots of levels, but i'm still learning about what my tank needs for how long. Any advice on that front gratefully sought!

ok wow - that got a bit longer than I had intended...

Thanks!

Sibilla
 
Wow, rough ride. Glad you are back on track. 220g is a lot of space to play with.
 
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