Well, I've decided to start a tank journal. I guess a bit of history is a good place to start.
I've had a freshwater tank since about August 2004. Before that I had a little 50 L tank while in New Zealand, built into an old TV. It was a great looking tank, but it was far too difficult to keep, given the small water volume. I ended up giving it away to a friend who made it part of his collection, plumbed into his 1000 L system.
Then in April 2005, my Girlfriend decided to get a tank. While at the shop we were talked into buying a marine setup. With the experience I have now, I can honestly say that I was totally under prepared for keeping marine fish and corals. I was, by that stage, proficient with freshwater, but really had no idea about marine.
Of course I started with the bare basics. A float
hydrometer, test kits for
ammonia,
nitrite and
nitrate and several spare water containers. The tank was delivered and I proceeded to rinse the marble chip gravel, place it and then add water and the
live rock.
Within three weeks the tank had cycled and I added my first inhabitants... 2 Percular Clowns (Bert and Earnie), a Blue Linkia star (Cookie) and a hermit crab name Igor. 12 weeks after that we were feeding the tank and tragedy struck. Earnie, while darting around the place grabbing food, ingested a small stone. He choked and was the first official casualty of my Marine Aquarium Experience.
Then came the Hair Algae (HA). At one point it was about 12 inches long. I had also added a Cynarina (fugly), and each morning it would had a large rope of HA comming out of its mouth. It evidentally grabbed the stuff at night and pulled it in. I ended up getting 6 Trochus Snails, which solved the problem.
