Hello to all. Probably my first post in over two years.
I have had little to post about, my time for the hobby was limited and I probably would have been better off tearing down the tank a starting over later. Strangely things in my 90 gal (105 total with sump) started going wrong around the same time my twin girls were born... go figure. My priorities were elsewhere. There were times I would go up to two months without a water change and check perimeters.... ha! I wish.
Any way I had a nice forest of byropsis in no time, with lots of bubble algae. Many casualties included by beautiful sour apple, a flower pot, a lovely plate coral and some other frags I don't recall. A long depressing tale. Serious..... over two years. Why I never gave up not sure but I would like to share my story of what has worked to get it manageable. So here are the lesson I've learned.
First thing was probably getting back on a regular water change schedule. at least 30 gal change twice a month, but I have recently included a small change around 18 gal in between those.
Next big help was getting a skimmer that could actually handle my system. Got a Skimz sn143. Thing is awesome and just what my tank needed.
Third big thing was getting the right cleaning crew. So my best livestock cleaners are my pincushion urchin, the hero of the bunch, followed by the combo of my kole tang and algea blenny though the tang will chase the blenny but there is no end of food for now.
What has made this combo work is that they constantly clean the rocks and keep the bare spots well.... bare.
IMO all snails are rubbish, maybe ok in a true healthy tank but are no help if you are in deep trouble. If you want hermits go with the red legs but they are so so. I may try the electric blue hermits and a still want to get lettuce nudibranch. I have had too much trouble with emerald crabs harassing my corals. Had a large male named Satan that got banished to refugium. So need to figure out if anything will deal with bubble algae.
I got to say my frog spawns have thrived and even multiply over the years and my zoanthids somehow came back after the forest receded. my only sps that have made it was my pocilpora and some montys. And I have the fattest green dragonete, no end of pods in my algae forest!
I know people always ask what my perimeters are, but there really isn't anything telling. All that algae is eating nitrates, phosphates and always reads 0. I try to keep my salinity around 1.024. Really the main thing that went wrong is not doing water changes. An absolute must!
And yes I am hoping to get some pictures up in a day or so to show that yeah it got pretty bad and still needs help.
Thanks for reading, Just thought I'd share my tale.
I have had little to post about, my time for the hobby was limited and I probably would have been better off tearing down the tank a starting over later. Strangely things in my 90 gal (105 total with sump) started going wrong around the same time my twin girls were born... go figure. My priorities were elsewhere. There were times I would go up to two months without a water change and check perimeters.... ha! I wish.
Any way I had a nice forest of byropsis in no time, with lots of bubble algae. Many casualties included by beautiful sour apple, a flower pot, a lovely plate coral and some other frags I don't recall. A long depressing tale. Serious..... over two years. Why I never gave up not sure but I would like to share my story of what has worked to get it manageable. So here are the lesson I've learned.
First thing was probably getting back on a regular water change schedule. at least 30 gal change twice a month, but I have recently included a small change around 18 gal in between those.
Next big help was getting a skimmer that could actually handle my system. Got a Skimz sn143. Thing is awesome and just what my tank needed.
Third big thing was getting the right cleaning crew. So my best livestock cleaners are my pincushion urchin, the hero of the bunch, followed by the combo of my kole tang and algea blenny though the tang will chase the blenny but there is no end of food for now.
What has made this combo work is that they constantly clean the rocks and keep the bare spots well.... bare.
IMO all snails are rubbish, maybe ok in a true healthy tank but are no help if you are in deep trouble. If you want hermits go with the red legs but they are so so. I may try the electric blue hermits and a still want to get lettuce nudibranch. I have had too much trouble with emerald crabs harassing my corals. Had a large male named Satan that got banished to refugium. So need to figure out if anything will deal with bubble algae.
I got to say my frog spawns have thrived and even multiply over the years and my zoanthids somehow came back after the forest receded. my only sps that have made it was my pocilpora and some montys. And I have the fattest green dragonete, no end of pods in my algae forest!
I know people always ask what my perimeters are, but there really isn't anything telling. All that algae is eating nitrates, phosphates and always reads 0. I try to keep my salinity around 1.024. Really the main thing that went wrong is not doing water changes. An absolute must!
And yes I am hoping to get some pictures up in a day or so to show that yeah it got pretty bad and still needs help.
Thanks for reading, Just thought I'd share my tale.
