Quote:
Originally Posted by prop-frags
Earth to Chris, come in Chris...
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I'm around! These kids, man, who knew they took up so much time? I've still got the tank running, fish are doing great, corals are ok, but algae... man, algae is thriving. I'm pretty impressed with my ability to grow some algae. I actually spent yesterday siphoning a bunch out. What I want to have occur, in my abundance of laziness, is to have the mangrove trees take up all the nutrients and never have to do anything else to cull algae again, but that's going to take some time. I have 9 red mangroves that are sprouting leaves, but they're not large enough to be my sole nutrient export. I've also boosted my magnesium levels in an attempt to help stymie some of the growth, but that's not really helped in the last month (it was low, around 1000ppm, so I brought it up to a bit over 1500ppm, which is on the high side but no negative effects have I seen thus far).
In other words, I've been ignoring maintenance and it's caught up to me. I'd like to pull the rocks out and start over, but that's a lot of work. And cost. I probably will start pulling some out just to get better water movement in the tank. I also replaced two of my old Tunze 6100s (as in, first generation) with two of the Maxspect 150 gyres. I like those.
I still enjoy having the tank, the kids (now almost 4 and 7) like to help out, and I don't mind the algae to be honest. I do need to get back into good habits with maintenance, but I don't think I'll do anything drastic. I had a LOT better success in my aquariuming when I was barebottom (no sand bed, cutting board on the bottom of the tank), as it lends itself better to the laziness I'm so good at, but I'm unconvinced I want to go back to that. Though it could happen.
There are a lot of other things I have in mind with the overall system, though. I've taken down the larger stock tank (110 gallons) and now just have the 40 gallon breeder as a quarantine. Neither have had anything in them for months, so it felt foolish to give up the space and electrons to keep them both going. Other things that may require attention in the near future (that are cost bearing):
- dual stage CO2 regulator
- metal halide lights (only 5 years old, but I may want to move to LED as that technology continues to improve)
- new fishes (a new naso tang specifically, and I still havent had longterm success with an achilles)
- water change automation (I have no design in mind for this at this time, however)
- new netting for the top as the screens are starting to tear
I'll try to get some imagery up in the next week or so. I'm proud to show off my algae success.