Long Time, No Update
Wow, I knew it had been ages since I had updated my journal, but didn't realise it has been almost 10 months until I checked my last entry!
A lot has happened in the last 10 months.
The not so good:
* my second Tunze ATO died towards the end of the year (hooray, daily manual top ups again...not) and insufficient funds to replace it
* work and life got in the way of keeping on top of maintenance and tank was surviving, but not thriving for months
* went away over the Christmas holidays for a few weeks and my relative who was looking after the tank didn't read the instructions --> didn't top up any water --> lost the three SPS that were new in my previous journal entry
The good:
* my 8 fishy friends are still happy and getting fatter
* most of my zoas have been adding polyps. Amazing how different zoas react to very similar tank conditions (same water, < 15cm apart, slightly different flow) completely differently. I have some which have gone 3x or 5x the number of polyps, while others have only added 1-5 extra polyps. :)
* have an explosion of tiny snails - usually get regular spawning, but something eats all the eggs - not this time. Thankfully, there are maybe 2-3 dozen baby snails, not 20-30 dozen. Think it will be OK, but will keep an eye on it
* back to cleaning my filter socks 2-3 times a week
* since the start of April have had time to do a partial reset of the tank - lots of positive results and hopefully more to come:
- pulled out and cleaned my two surviving wavemakers - amazing how much flow was restored! corals immediately much happier)
- two large water changes a week apart with new NSW (approx 80% of total system volume)
- did a good clean out of my sump
- decided to go bare bottom for a while (strong preference for sand aesthetically) as my months of neglect last year meant the amount of detritus when vacuuming my sand during water changes was scary. Have taken out 80% of my sand over 5-6 sessions over the last 3 weeks + added a small removable DSB in my sump to keep some of the good bacteria from my sandbed
Browsing one of my LFS I saw a few zoas that I didn't have, so the gene pool has diversified again. Without sand I have reinstated some egg crate for the frags to sit on until I decide whether sticking with BB longer term or now.
A lot has happened in the last 10 months.
The not so good:
* my second Tunze ATO died towards the end of the year (hooray, daily manual top ups again...not) and insufficient funds to replace it
* work and life got in the way of keeping on top of maintenance and tank was surviving, but not thriving for months
* went away over the Christmas holidays for a few weeks and my relative who was looking after the tank didn't read the instructions --> didn't top up any water --> lost the three SPS that were new in my previous journal entry
The good:
* my 8 fishy friends are still happy and getting fatter
* most of my zoas have been adding polyps. Amazing how different zoas react to very similar tank conditions (same water, < 15cm apart, slightly different flow) completely differently. I have some which have gone 3x or 5x the number of polyps, while others have only added 1-5 extra polyps. :)
* have an explosion of tiny snails - usually get regular spawning, but something eats all the eggs - not this time. Thankfully, there are maybe 2-3 dozen baby snails, not 20-30 dozen. Think it will be OK, but will keep an eye on it
* back to cleaning my filter socks 2-3 times a week
* since the start of April have had time to do a partial reset of the tank - lots of positive results and hopefully more to come:
- pulled out and cleaned my two surviving wavemakers - amazing how much flow was restored! corals immediately much happier)
- two large water changes a week apart with new NSW (approx 80% of total system volume)
- did a good clean out of my sump
- decided to go bare bottom for a while (strong preference for sand aesthetically) as my months of neglect last year meant the amount of detritus when vacuuming my sand during water changes was scary. Have taken out 80% of my sand over 5-6 sessions over the last 3 weeks + added a small removable DSB in my sump to keep some of the good bacteria from my sandbed
Browsing one of my LFS I saw a few zoas that I didn't have, so the gene pool has diversified again. Without sand I have reinstated some egg crate for the frags to sit on until I decide whether sticking with BB longer term or now.
