My tank seems to like it better when I don't go near it or bother the fish for anything. The water is crystal clear and all seems well. Of course they are scratching curses at me on the inside of the glass but I make believe I don't see it. My possum wrasse is still shy but comes out quite a lot just to look around to see if I am there. The pair of pistol shrimp are still making 8" high mountains and toppling rocks. They think that is funny. I think they are spawning but I can't see inside their tunnels as they keep the light off when I am close. The copperband grew a little larger than I would have liked, but I won't give him away for that as he is a good fish and always out in the front and digging around for stray amphipods which there are quite a few. I need to go out and get some worms today or they will really start a riot and I hate those little burn spots on my carpet from when they throw those molotoff cocktails.
I also need to get some clams, some for me and some for the fish. I have two different pairs of cardinals that keep spawning but I can't see their eggs as they always spawn in the back someplace. My tank is in a wall and most of the back, I can't see. Of course the clown gobies spawn on the acropora and kill it. They really don't care how much those things cost.
When I get to the LFS to buy worms I will probably also buy a fish. I just can't help it. Sometimes you can look at my tank and not see anything more than the coppperband as most of my fish like to hide. I don't care about that as I don't keep them to see them, I keep them to see if I can keep them and as long as I occasionally see them and know they are happy, I am happy. This hobby keeps me happy unlike most people who seem to have nothing but problems. I have no idea why you would want to keep doing this if you just keep spending money and keep having problems. I feel that people make their own problems by throwing money at this for all sorts of reactors, pellets, dosers and chemicals that IMO are not needed. I like the natural approach and I think my fish like it also. If your fish are dying in 2 or 3 years, you are doing something wrong as virtually all fish live longer than that, many live over 20 years.
So many threads start out with: I just bought a ribbon eel and don't know what to feed it. Or I have a copperband but it is skinny even though I tried to feed it everything. Then you find out that "everything" is flakes, pellets, seaweed, or angel formula #42. Mandarins get the most ink. To me, they are a small, peaceful, diesease resistant, self supporting, no maintenance fish, but for some reason, they are considered hard. They are accident prone, I will give you that, but they take care of themselves very nicely and are arguably the nicest looking fish there is. I remember the first time I got one in the early seventies. They were called physidelic fish then and I couldn't believe how beautiful they were. Unlike one of my girlfriends I had when I was stationed in Colorado, she looked like a flounder. I think that's what drew me to her.
I just read a thread on another forum (yes I occasionally do that, but only for research to see which forum is better, this one of course) anyway someone mentioned my tank with the reverse UG filter and they were saying that twice a year I have to remove everything from my tank, stir it up, remove the UG plates and then put everything back. Could you imagine removing everything from such an old tank twice a year. Where do people get this stuff from?
My tank requires almost no maintenance. No testing, no quarantining, very little water changes, no vacuuming, no dosing, except some ice melter and baking soda, just glass cleanings and once or twice a year I stir up the gravel and suck out any detritus.
People talk about dosing, adding Phosban, GAC, AARP, GMC and all sort of initials. There is testing, quarantining, cleaning of probes, vacuuming and an entire plethora of things that I don't even know what they are. I assume all of that stuff is needed for something, I just worry that I am doing something wrong as I don't seem to need to do any of it. Maybe I will re think my maintenance procedures which are every day I put my finger on the glass to see if the temp is correct, I smile at my fish and see if they smile back, clean the glass occasionally and throw in some worms.
Yes I also do clean the top of the skimmer every month or so and glue in a coral that my pistol shrimp broke, every few months I do take apart one of the Korilias as those stupid things, for some reason need cleanings. My 30 year old powerheads require nothing. And maybe 5 times a year I change 15 or 20 gallons of water. So I do some maintenance. But that's about it. If I think of anything else, I will post it. Have a great day
