- Location
- Upper West Side
As several of you know, I moved and set up a 40 breeder. It was running great, but then my two girls became mobile and started climbing! One morning they woke up early and decided to feed the fish. Long story short, those little packets that keep pill bottles dry? They are NOT silica, they are iron based. I was using them in my flake food...
By next day EVERYTHING was dead or dying. I could not figure out why. I made a large water change and found two of those packets in my overflow, they had completely dissolved.
No matter what I did I could not get things to live in the tank. So six weeks ago I:
NUKED the rock, I soaked in in clorox and let it dry. I removed ALL of the live sand and put the rock back in to cycle. Three weeks later I pulled the rock out and put in 50 LBS of new live sand and put rock back in.
I bought a six stage RO/DI and have made several water changes.
I waited three more weeks and yesterday I bought my first frag, a few snails and a flameback angelfish.
EVERYTHING immediately settled in. The snails were mobile, the fish is happy and the acan frag opened up and is asking to be fed.
Things have been a bit tough financially, so I will be stocking the tank VERY slowly with frags and I will try to buy fish that have been in established tanks for some time.
In the meantime I will be upgrading everything slowly by incorporating stuff that was on my 180. I have a few frags that were survivors and one bangai in my daughters 5 gallon tank. I feel bad, but they will be going back to my 40. ;-)
By next day EVERYTHING was dead or dying. I could not figure out why. I made a large water change and found two of those packets in my overflow, they had completely dissolved.
No matter what I did I could not get things to live in the tank. So six weeks ago I:
NUKED the rock, I soaked in in clorox and let it dry. I removed ALL of the live sand and put the rock back in to cycle. Three weeks later I pulled the rock out and put in 50 LBS of new live sand and put rock back in.
I bought a six stage RO/DI and have made several water changes.
I waited three more weeks and yesterday I bought my first frag, a few snails and a flameback angelfish.
EVERYTHING immediately settled in. The snails were mobile, the fish is happy and the acan frag opened up and is asking to be fed.
Things have been a bit tough financially, so I will be stocking the tank VERY slowly with frags and I will try to buy fish that have been in established tanks for some time.
In the meantime I will be upgrading everything slowly by incorporating stuff that was on my 180. I have a few frags that were survivors and one bangai in my daughters 5 gallon tank. I feel bad, but they will be going back to my 40. ;-)
