looking for a mentor

[erinelainerobertson]

I'm wondering if there might be some kindhearted soul who would we willing to come look at our tank and mentor me a bit to help me get it going again. We have an Aqueon Evolve 8 AIO tank that we started as a FOWLR project 4 years ago. We got it going and had fish etc. for 2 years until we came home from vacation and found the last fish and shrimp dead (even though my sister was caring for them and saw them alive less than a day before - my guess is that the pump was compromised). I've been putting off getting it going again because I think there are probably a number of things I should do differently this time around, and it is hard to prioritize where to put our money/effort, and I hate to sacrifice more living things without having a reasonable plan for how to give them a decent quality of life. Last time I figured things out on my own and occasionally posted to Nano-Reef.com, but this time I'd love to have an actual experienced mentor who could advise me a bit. So, if you might be willing to come look at our situation and help me map out a path to enjoying nano reefkeeping again, I'd be grateful (and so would our kids!). We live in Louisville.
Thanks for considering this,
Erin

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

The smallest aquarium I ever tried to keep was 14g, and I found it to be a really difficult endeavor. The larger the volume of water the harder it is to get some parameter out of whack....obviously any aquarium can have swings but it is a slower process in a larger tank. I've read numerous accounts of over zealous aquarium sitters who add way too much food because they miss a day or something, in a 6 or 8 gallon volume of water that extra decay and uneaten food can foul things up very quickly. Maybe the extra food clogged or restricted the pump flow which just made matters worse. I'm not saying that's what happened, but that sort of scenario has been known to happen. Since you had it up and running for 2 years, I'd say you actually did reasonably well....you must have had decent maintenance practices (testing, water changes, cleaning, etc). Just return to the basics that gave you the success you were having, and I guess you can never ever leave on vacation! :nono:

Welcome to MASC, hopefully someone with specific nano experience can chime in and help you out. Good luck!

 

[spinycheek]

Vacations have been the number one killer of my stuff. Success is just lots of little things you do that you've learned from experience and when someone else takes over, they don't have those little bits of knowledge. Maybe they used some toxic cleaner to clean the glass or thought your fish looked hungry so they added more food. If you are worried about killing things and feeling bad, maybe just start a non-fish reef. If a coral dies, it's not as sad, it's more like losing a house plant than a beloved family pet. Most reefs only last a couple of years in the hobby. Only rarely does someone keep one going for many years. Your situation is not unusual, so don't beat yourself up too bad.