I began my first reef tank in 2007 and went through perhaps more than the usual struggles getting a reef tank established. I finally achieved what I felt was success with a thriving SPS dominant tank. By 2013 I was pruning and throwing out acropora by the bucketful because I had overloaded all the local reefers with frags from my common/run of the mill colonies. I certainly enjoyed having a nice mature reef tank, but perhaps because I no longer was agonizing about what I needed to fix or tweak to get there, after a year or two I kind of lost interest and let my routine slide and gradually my tank suffered and then over the years, flat out deteriorated.
That was then:
This is now (and the now photos are after I removed as much of the turf-algae encrusted coral skeletons I could break off the rockwork, nuked as many of the aiptasia I could with hot RODI water or lemon juice and did my best to scrape the thick layer of coralline algae off the glass). Remarkably my rose BTA and fish all survived the neglect:
While the current FTS certainly is sad, a few months ago when I decided to do right by my tank again, I couldn't bring myself to snap a photo. It was too disgusting. All you could see if you found a place to peak through the crud on the glass was dead sticks and aiptasia.
I have committed myself to try to resurrect this tank and treat my saltwater wards with the respect and attention they deserve. To that end I realize that although I have technically been in this hobby for over a decade, I have a ton to learn. Both old school knowledge that I never mastered and the flood of new information/technology that has exploded since I let things slide. I recalled Algae Turf Scrubbers were being heralded as great nutrient exporters right when I began to lose interest, so that was my first 'upgrade' to this tank. It is up and running and I was really pleased with how great a job its doing at nutrient export, only to find out that there has been a big swing in reef keeping philosophy away from low nutrient systems.
I never did any nutrient/trace element or carbon dosing, etc. The old system was strictly BRS two part dosing with a skimmer, GFO and GAC reactors and water changes (wet skim style done every two weeks) and ATI test kits. While I feel that I was able to pull off a satisfactory tank I always had about a 40% death rate of new acro frags no matter how carefully I acclimated them to my tank. While the Surf'nTurf, M. Accardi Teal, Turquoise, Green slimer stags, assorted bottle brush (Borealis and a few unnamed) and Oregon Tort took off and thrived, others just refused to encrust, faded and STN'd. I still don't know why, but Millepora HATE my tank. I must have tried over a dozen different millis (I love the way they look) but the only one that ever took was a generic rose milli from my LFS. It grew and colored up nicely for about a year, then stalled and faded to brown.
I hope a few forum members can at least look past, if not actually forgive, my years of negligence and be willing to help me not only bring this tank back, but exceed its former self
That was then:
This is now (and the now photos are after I removed as much of the turf-algae encrusted coral skeletons I could break off the rockwork, nuked as many of the aiptasia I could with hot RODI water or lemon juice and did my best to scrape the thick layer of coralline algae off the glass). Remarkably my rose BTA and fish all survived the neglect:
While the current FTS certainly is sad, a few months ago when I decided to do right by my tank again, I couldn't bring myself to snap a photo. It was too disgusting. All you could see if you found a place to peak through the crud on the glass was dead sticks and aiptasia.
I have committed myself to try to resurrect this tank and treat my saltwater wards with the respect and attention they deserve. To that end I realize that although I have technically been in this hobby for over a decade, I have a ton to learn. Both old school knowledge that I never mastered and the flood of new information/technology that has exploded since I let things slide. I recalled Algae Turf Scrubbers were being heralded as great nutrient exporters right when I began to lose interest, so that was my first 'upgrade' to this tank. It is up and running and I was really pleased with how great a job its doing at nutrient export, only to find out that there has been a big swing in reef keeping philosophy away from low nutrient systems.
I never did any nutrient/trace element or carbon dosing, etc. The old system was strictly BRS two part dosing with a skimmer, GFO and GAC reactors and water changes (wet skim style done every two weeks) and ATI test kits. While I feel that I was able to pull off a satisfactory tank I always had about a 40% death rate of new acro frags no matter how carefully I acclimated them to my tank. While the Surf'nTurf, M. Accardi Teal, Turquoise, Green slimer stags, assorted bottle brush (Borealis and a few unnamed) and Oregon Tort took off and thrived, others just refused to encrust, faded and STN'd. I still don't know why, but Millepora HATE my tank. I must have tried over a dozen different millis (I love the way they look) but the only one that ever took was a generic rose milli from my LFS. It grew and colored up nicely for about a year, then stalled and faded to brown.
I hope a few forum members can at least look past, if not actually forgive, my years of negligence and be willing to help me not only bring this tank back, but exceed its former self
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