The road up until today

Our adventure began early 2009. I have been thinking about starting a sea aquarium for some time already, I bought some books and rented some books and started reading and got enthusiastic. After much reading my wife (back then still girlfriend) decided we should go for it, we went to a specialized aquarium store and went out ordering a Red Sea Max 250.

When the RSM arrived we started by putting in a foam floor for the live rock to rest on. We added some water and started running. After a while we added osmosis water, salt and life rock imported from Indonesia. And then the waiting started.

Algae grew all over the place, unfortunately we understood you had to wait for the algae to clear before bringing in the first fish. When we went to the store to ask how long the algae faze would take we where told that we needed to bring in some algae eating creatures. At that point it was summer, and we would go on vacation soon. We decided to wait till after our vacation, and I’m glad we did. During the vacation temperatures in our apartment went up to 30 degrees Celsius, and the aquarium even reached 40. Seems the RSM doesn’t do well with cooling, so we needed an external cooler. We got ourselves a D&D DC-300 chiller as an addition to the standard RSM items. After a few weeks all the algae was back and values where stable again.  

That takes us to August 2009 when the first fish was introduced to the aquarium, the Salarias Fasciatus. This fish would help us get rid of the algae.

Not long after that we bought a couple of Ocellaris Clownfish, and got a little Bubble Tip Anemone with it for free.

Half way in September our skimmer broke down, the man in the store told me it was a weak point in the RSM and switched it without problems. At that point I joined forums and also noticed many people switching skimmers for different reasons. December the skimmer stopped for the second time, this time it was repaired. Half way February 2010 it died again, this time we got another new one, but a new model as well from the latest series. This one works up until today.

By the end of September we had 5 more inhabitants. A starfish, a sea urchin, a firefish and 2 Kaudernis. The starfish and urchin we got to clean the sand and the 3 fish, just because we liked them. Unfortunately none of them are with us at this time. One of the Kaudernis died pretty quick, seemed to have injuries, the other one we found few months later against the overflow. Both star fish and urchin died after an outbreak of Cyano bacteria summer 2010 and the firefish just died…no reason found. He almost reached his 1 year anniversary.

We decided from the start we didn’t want coral because we thought they where taken from corals reefs that already where threatened for all sorts of reasons. When we found out many corals are aqua cultured or come from coral farms we decided to go for it. Also our first time we would buy something not from our regular store. Half November through a forum I found someone selling a Toadstool leather coral. Our first coral (actually two, because there was also a cabbage leather on its foot).

The Toadstool also introduced the first plague into our aquarium, Sea Anemones. So we also added a peppermint shrimp, Cleaner shrimp and a Foxface.

Early December we added even more life to the aquarium. But our plague was also still there, not much luck with the peppermint shrimp so we decided to add a partner for him. This didn’t give any results either and both died pretty soon after that. The Anemones where killed by poring boiling water over them in a small dish.

We also added a Blue Tang, we liked the fish and we could still use more algae eaters. And we also bought 4 corals from the store, Xenia, Kenya Tree, a rock filled with buttons and we got a red mushroom for free, since it wasn’t attached to anything and therefore not sellable.

The Xenia didn’t make it, we think it got eaten by a later added fish, the other are doing great.

A new year has started and the aquarium was about to reach its first anniversary. Early February we added a hermit crab to help cleaning. Might have done that sooner, because it’s a good starting crew for cleaning.

End of February we also got some other inhabitants, which are both gone already too. A blue sea star and a loricula. The blue sea star attached itself to the button rock, and when I wanted to move it I torn a leg off…I think that might be the reason he died. The Loricula, no idea why he died, but we do think he was the cause for the Xenia to die.

March began and my birthday came. My parents gave me 2 corals and a Tube Worm. The corals where Star Polyps and a new rock with Buttons. Unfortunately also around that time we had a lot of trouble with Cyano (we think it was Cyano). Especially the Star Polyps had a hard time with it. In the end they survived but the buttons didn’t.

By the end of March everything started to get affected by the brown cover over all the rocks and corals. And besides that we had another outbreak of Sea Anemones and an outbreak of Sea Pearls. It was then we decided we where going to get everything out and rebuild and clean everything.

By the end of April we started making plans on how to deal with this, what to do with the fish, corals and inverts while we clean. We got a second aquarium, that would be the home for fish and invertebrates. The corals would be put in buckets and the life rock in big storage bins, all with water from the RSM. The rebuild aquarium would have some reef racks to make caverns more solid. Preparations where going very smooth until the Tube Worm decided to throw away its crown. After some searching it seemed Tube Worms could do this and recover…just be patient. Just when we wanted to clear the aquarium…bad timing. After 15 days the Tube Worm was recovered and we decided to get things going.

Half May everything started, for a detailed report go here Rebuilding, A 4 day report

The rebuild learned me couple of things. The planning was pretty good, but I misjudged the corals. It was a three day job and the corals where in buckets for 3 days without lights. Most recovered but the toadstool, crown jewel of the aquarium, didn’t make it.

End May we got many new corals, all from other aquarium holders. Also got a new Anemone, because our old one also died long time ago. This one is much bigger then the previous one, and the Clownfish love it. Also got a new Toadstool, but this is much smaller then the previous one. With all the new additions it looked a lot fuller.

Beginning of June we added a new Urchin, Sea Star and an extra Hermit crab. And we also got some new mushrooms for free.

Shortly after that we added two fish, a Yellow Wrasse and a Coral Beauty Angelfish, which we sold shortly after because by then we found out the angelfishes (also Loricula) might be the reason for the Xenia dying…since it was getting thinner again.

By that time the Cyano started to return. The main reason we decided to rebuild and it didn’t seem to have helped anything. We decided to stop adding Salifert Coral Food and Trace Soft, no more additions. And within a week we noticed the growth of Brown Algae stopped.

Half way July we got some more corals, more mushrooms and more buttons.

It was the end of July when we found our first mushrooms splitted. We now had more mushrooms on our first mushroom rock. It was a sign that the aquarium was recovering and going good again.

Early August we sold the Angelfish, unfortunately he wasn’t easy to catch, so we had to rebuild the whole aquarium again.

Half august we got married, went on vacation and left the aquarium for 3 weeks. My mom came by every day to feed the fish, check the water level and skimmer. But other then that nothing was done. We missed the anniversaries of the Salarias and Clownfish, but got back finding a big surprise. Half September everything had grown so much, leaving it alone for a while had done the aquarium, but mostly the corals and anemone good. Unfortunately every upside has a downside, because algae had also grown big and sea anemones where increasing and we even found 3 Majano Anemones.

Now last weekend we bought some more corals, some new Xenia with some mushrooms in between. A rock with a Kenya tree and a new Cabbage leather coral and a rock filled with Ricordea mushrooms.

So that is how everything evolved up until today. For more detailed information you can check thierry.forumotion.com.