Pico 5-Gallon

[ridgebackreefer]

Happy NYE! I got into fish keeping exactly 1 year ago and I couldn’t be prouder of how much knowledge I’ve gained and where my tanks are today. Thank you to all the amazing people one here who’s expertise and motivation have made this such an enjoyable hobby.

 

[ridgebackreefer]

A few weeks late but proudly posting my Coral Farmers Market haul! It was so cool seeing such a variety of coral. Everyone present was friendly and knowledgeable and it was a delight to meet so many BAR members! Having only joined in late 2021, I haven’t had an opportunity yet to meet many other members so thank you to everyone who showed up

I only got a magician zoa from the Market though. Aside from that, a kind BAR member at the CFM bet they could fill my 5 gal with a variety of coral and they clearly won that bet. Although I certainly won too considering how amazing my tank now looks. Here’s my favorite pics so far…

Edit to give credit where it’s due @H2OPlayar ! Thanks for all the info, coral, and good dogs!!
I didn’t even notice I missed tagging you while writing this out on mobile. Oops!

 

[ridgebackreefer]

Hit my first major speed bump (or smashed face first into a wall) with the tank. I recharged the Seachem Purigen I was running the in the tank. Followed all of the instructions regarding rinsing but still felt weird about having soaked in it bleach previously. You can all guess what happened next... cycle crashed. With ammonia spike, all of the coral started to look pretty sickly. Zoas won't open, alveopora is stunted, everything generally looks sad and shrunken. I trashed the purigen and have been dosing Prime daily along with multiple major water changes. Most of the coral is looking better but most of the zoas still won't open up. The ones that have are really pale and sad. It'll be disappointing if I loose them because the garden was just getting dense. Ammonia gone back to zero after 48 hours without water changes. I also put in a packet of Chemipure Blue Nano. Fingers crossed everything turns the corner and pulls through.

Weirdly, the only thing that looked mostly okay through all of this was the BTA.

 

[JVU]

Sorry to hear. Many years ago I used to use Purigen (don’t anymore). I tried recharging it once but no matter how much I neutralized/washed it, it always had the faintest bleach smell, so I jus threw it away.

For future reference, when things are crashing you can do a 100% water change since your tank is so small. Not recommended routinely of course, but it’s less dangerous than allowing residual bleach/ammonia to stay any longer than necessary.

 

[ridgebackreefer]

Sorry to hear. Many years ago I used to use Purigen (don’t anymore). I tried recharging it once but no matter how much I neutralized/washed it, it always had the faintest bleach smell, so I jus threw it away.

For future reference, when things are crashing you can do a 100% water change since your tank is so small. Not recommended routinely of course, but it’s less dangerous than allowing residual bleach/ammonia to stay any longer than necessary.

Thanks for the advice. I'll keep that in mind if anything happens again in the future. Do you think I should continue to do 30-40% water changes every few days for the next week? I'm torn between ammonia levels having zeroed out but coral still looking sick. If ammonia stays low, would it be best to just leave the water as is and not cause more potential stress?

 

[JVU]

Thanks for the advice. I'll keep that in mind if anything happens again in the future. Do you think I should continue to do 30-40% water changes every few days for the next week? I'm torn between ammonia levels having zeroed out but coral still looking sick. If ammonia stays low, would it be best to just leave the water as is and not cause more potential stress?

It’s a judgement call, but I would continue with the large water changes until the coral looks definitely better. Especially since “large” for this tank is like 2 gallons

It’s possible that you damaged the nitrification bacterial colonies in your tank since you saw an ammonia spike, so I would also add some bacteria in a bottle (like Dr. Tim’s One and Only for example) right now. I have some on hand you can have today if you want since you aren’t too far from me. Give me a text or call if you want.