Thanks for the compliment. I've got to admit that the crows for my tank are smaller than those for Galaxy's Edge, however... ;-)
I have not - but am close. I'm on my fourth flight instructor at this point, so it's kind of been hard to dial in the skills... :-| Flying 3x per week sounds like a great time, but work/kids/life just doesn't allow for that. I'm lucky to get 3hrs a week to fly (plus 3hrs of ground instruction). I went into this with the knowledge that it would be a slightly drawn out learning process, but that's better than not going at all.
Pulling me out of "Lurk Mode", eh? ;-)
The tank is much like the rest of my life - surviving, but not thriving. :-|
The good news is that all the fish are fat and (seemingly) happy. They get hand-made frozen food practically every morning and into the afternoon, and a bunch of nori to munch on via two feeders for communal happiness.
As far as corals go, however... Practically non-existent. The three anemones (two rock and one bubble) are doing well. The bubble went on walk-about for a bit which gave me palpitations, but it ended up basically where it started, so <<shrug>>. The clam is doing well enough, though the colors on some days seem a a bit dull. They generally come back to vibrance for a bit, which seems to cycle with no rhyme nor reason. The bubble coral colony is still doing well, and one or two other are holding on well enough.
But the vast majority of the corals I've picked up on tried to transfer - perhaps about 60 frags? - have slowly faded away. I have no idea why, honestly. ICP tests come back with everything in the green, and I've followed the guidelines on dosing in trace elements. I've got the Triton hooked up and running it's 4x daily tests and keeping those params stable. Temp and salinity are held within narrow bands thanks to automated heating/cooling. Lighting has been checked with PAR meters multiple times and flow seems to be in the realm of "somewhere in the middle" (though that is easily the least accurate measurement I have). The coralline, at least, is growing well. It keeps me scraping the glass, at least.
I also can't seem to keep chaeto alive for more than a month or two. I've tried several times and have even tried dosing in additives specifically to help it grow. I have a feeling that the reason for this challenge is that my fuge light (Kessil H380) is too powerful for the ~12" above the fuge location. It's been off for a few months now, which has turned the frag tank into a "refugium" full of hair algae. I pull out handfull of it once a week or so, which is about the only nutrient export that I have since the skimmer seems unwilling to balance between "totally dry skim" and "overflowing". Despite the frag tank looking like a mess, the DT- with it's army of 2" snails and tangs, etc. - stays free of any major algae. I have the AWC ready to go and every so often will turn it on to cycle out ~20gal, but for the most part I hold the 50gal of new saltwater ready in case there is an emergency of some type.
This is, to be honest, not what I wanted for this tank. I had envisioned that I would have something that wasn't quite a "show tank", but at least would be on the way there. Instead, I have a stable FOWLER+ tank. Which would be rather upsetting except for one thing - my MAIN goal with the tank was to get something ULM. Which, to be honest, I have. I feed the fish every day, which takes about 5min. I scrape the glass once a week or so - sometimes every other week. Every so often I pick out some hair algae from the frag tank. And aside from an occasional need to pull a snail out of a return pump input (the shells are too big to fit all the way in, so it's just freeing them from the suction) - that's about it. In terms of effort::value, this tank falls safely in the "worth it" column.
I sometimes think about trying to "fix" things - about trying to figure out how to get some of my desired corals to grow. But even the thought of that causes stress. And there is already MORE than enough stress right now. My family is doing well enough, despite all that's going on in the world. We've stayed safe from the pandemic so far. The CA fires are nearby and covering us in smoke, but so far are far enough away (despite being able to see their glow at night) that we should not be in danger. I still have my job - and though I had to reduce my hours, we can still balance our budget. I had to pause my flight school as a result of the drop, however, and finishing that would be a higher priority than picking up more corals...
So the tank is what it is, for now. I can't really complain - looking at it still brings me more peace than stress. I trust in the tank's ability to mostly care for itself, which is comforting in these times.
Yep;Hilarious
