DJMCB35
Community Member
Knowing we had a Jamaica holiday coming up, beginning this past Dec. 27, I did all my maintenance… equipment checks, ATO check and fill, auto-feeder set up…a few days before Christmas. Put a limited amount of floss in my filter cups and dialled the skimmer back. We were in Jamaica till Jan 4 and, although we’d tested negative there and upon our return, my wife and I made Omicron’s acquaintance by Jan 7. She had a mild bout. I got knocked on my butt and was out of action for 16 days. No water changes. One ATO top up. Irregular feeding. The glass and gravel looked like crap. A yellow tang went missing, as did a Springeri damsel and a Talbot’s damsel.
Despite the 3 missing fish and the general yuck, the tank flourished. Corals took off. The rest of the fish were fine, despite being pretty much relegated to eating pellets for 3+ weeks. The balance of the tank inmates looked great. I’ve just done a 20% water change yesterday (first in 33 days) and don’t dose at all.
Things are looking a lot cleaner, after some heavy maintenance yesterday, and my corals, fish and inverts are seem to be forgiving me, but what happened? How is it things held steady? I haven’t done any testing yet, other than checking salinity and temp. Is this all related to the old adage about things going better when you keep your hands out of the tank?
Does anyone else have stories related to long stretches of relatively unavoidable neglect? This certainly isn’t going to factor into my maintenance routines but I’m curious about how resilient my reef proved to be.
Despite the 3 missing fish and the general yuck, the tank flourished. Corals took off. The rest of the fish were fine, despite being pretty much relegated to eating pellets for 3+ weeks. The balance of the tank inmates looked great. I’ve just done a 20% water change yesterday (first in 33 days) and don’t dose at all.
Things are looking a lot cleaner, after some heavy maintenance yesterday, and my corals, fish and inverts are seem to be forgiving me, but what happened? How is it things held steady? I haven’t done any testing yet, other than checking salinity and temp. Is this all related to the old adage about things going better when you keep your hands out of the tank?
Does anyone else have stories related to long stretches of relatively unavoidable neglect? This certainly isn’t going to factor into my maintenance routines but I’m curious about how resilient my reef proved to be.
