4th attempt!

[el batty]

My very last salt water tank was a 4' mixed reef. I dismantled it and sold everything except the tank. The reason i sold everything except the tank because i had plans!
But its hard for a person who tasted saltwater tanks to be completely cut off.
I eventually bought a moulded tank (RS 580A) its approx 19G. Its totally against my principle to buy smaller tanks for marine when i suggest people to start with a 35-40G minimum. But, i thought, why not...lets do it and see what happens. What's the worst that could have happened? Total tank crashing? Keeping that in mind, i bought seachem stability to kick start the cycling and for managing delicate situations. Now, this being a small tank and lack of light and filtration, my options were very limited. So, i started doing research on fishes that can do well in 10G too. To them a 20G would be sufficient. I started collecting the necessary stuffs - livesand, liverocks and salt! Started them mix and let the tank cycle for 3-4 days with the help of biobacteria and introduced 4 fishes in 1 go. (Do not repeat this at home, school or anywhere else) The reason i did this was because i have over 7-8 years of marine experience and i could identify the signs of discomfort and take actions accordingly which a newbie couldn't. I took a risk. It paid off. Another reason for this was the extremely low prices of the fishes we bought from a reputed seller in Kolkata. I bought 2 azure damsel, 1 juvenile tomato clown and 1 fire goby. I previously planned to setup a goby tank only but then i thought of the closed environment of the setup and thought of testing with fire goby for starters.
I fed them NLS and hikari and it was going perfectly fine...i used to topup water and maintain salinity since in a small setup, the fluctuations can be deadly. I regularly cleaned the media and did 30L water change twice a month.(still do). It went on for around 1.5 months when suddenly things started to go wrong. The firegoby had a stroke and died outta nowhere(heat issue) and with the balance gone, the damsels started being aggressive and one started to bully the other. The only solution i felt was to minimize visual contact, so reduced lighting from 6 hours a day to 2 hours a day distributed between 3-4 times a day. This solved the aggression issue, but the coraline didn't get to spread from the LR and its barely sustaining.

Presently, i intend to continue this tank and then maybe restart the rest in my 4' tank. I will upload pictures and videos later on. And give weekly updates on behaviour and setup changes as time goes on.


P.S: My other projects are a 4' planted and a 4' annual tank which will be uploaded here in distinctive threads soon!

Happy fishkeeping and learn from my mistakes and don't repeat them. That's the whole point of it!

[SanamMarik]

dada...some pics/vids please

[Aayaan]

Hey el batty
From the size of it it is evident how difficult it must be with that set up of yours
And, you are very right regarding the need for experience to even think of trying it.
Could we please get to take a peek at it ?

Now, as far as my strict opinion is concerned, it is best to not house any fish in such a small tank. Or, only those that stay put in a single spot for most of the time. Gobbies & clowns are the best candidates. But your choice of fishes were good except I think for the Tomato Clown considering the size it reaches but, for the time being it may be a treat to ones eyes to see a tiny Candy-Red creature dancing about.
It is best to keep corals only in such limited real estate.
I fancy that one can also opt for nano tanks for every species of corals of choice and place the tanks next to each other. It would surely look awesome a collection. But, collectors are a different species altogether and its a different story.

[Aayaan]

" Presently, i intend to continue this tank and then maybe restart the rest in my 4' tank.
I will upload pictures and videos later on. And give weekly updates on behaviour
and setup changes as time goes on. "

Hey el batty
Its been more than a few weeks now. How about a little update?