Brew12
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My Tank Thread
I do have a mea culpa to own up to....
As some of you know, the divorce has been pretty tough for me to get through. I've really stepped back and simplified my life as much as possible. Up until this past weekend I hadn't tested anything but alkalinity in over a year. I've still done fairly regular water changes but not as often as I should. I've also rarely cleaned the glass. For long periods of time I have barely been able to clean the glass. I've left filter socks unchanged for weeks at a time. Just not good.
I finally decided it was time to try and get the tank back to where it was before the alk spike last fall. This weekend I cleaned the glass and counted my fish. Hard to believe, but I haven't lost a single one since 2019. I tested NO3 and PO4 and both were over range high which is why my SPS are doing so poorly. I did a 30g water change (biggest I'm set up to do) and added GFO and GAC for the first time in over a year. I harvested chaeto for the first time in ages which was so packed in that it had stopped growing and removing NO3. I have been pretty good at maintaining the skimmer, so that was a fairly easy clean.
So moving forward... I need to get larger containers to be able to do larger water changes. I need to put together a true mixing station so I can get away from buckets. This weekend I will be cutting out a bunch of the dead coral and trying to get that cleaned up. And that purple slimer.... it is bullet proof. It desperately needs to be cut back again.
I tried to take a picture this morning but the lighting was still too blue. I'll try to get a picture posted soon.
As some of you know, the divorce has been pretty tough for me to get through. I've really stepped back and simplified my life as much as possible. Up until this past weekend I hadn't tested anything but alkalinity in over a year. I've still done fairly regular water changes but not as often as I should. I've also rarely cleaned the glass. For long periods of time I have barely been able to clean the glass. I've left filter socks unchanged for weeks at a time. Just not good.
I finally decided it was time to try and get the tank back to where it was before the alk spike last fall. This weekend I cleaned the glass and counted my fish. Hard to believe, but I haven't lost a single one since 2019. I tested NO3 and PO4 and both were over range high which is why my SPS are doing so poorly. I did a 30g water change (biggest I'm set up to do) and added GFO and GAC for the first time in over a year. I harvested chaeto for the first time in ages which was so packed in that it had stopped growing and removing NO3. I have been pretty good at maintaining the skimmer, so that was a fairly easy clean.
So moving forward... I need to get larger containers to be able to do larger water changes. I need to put together a true mixing station so I can get away from buckets. This weekend I will be cutting out a bunch of the dead coral and trying to get that cleaned up. And that purple slimer.... it is bullet proof. It desperately needs to be cut back again.
I tried to take a picture this morning but the lighting was still too blue. I'll try to get a picture posted soon.