What a difference a month and a half can make!

[Jamie9]

I was just comparing my photo from today from about 1.5 months ago when my tank was just a month old. Day by day it's hard to notice progress...but wow, what a difference when you compare photos. It hasn't been easy, and I still struggle with dinos a bit...but thanks to lots of good advice here on R2R I'm quite happy with how things are going so far!

Here is 12/14/25:

And today, 2/1/26:

(please excuse the heater in the back there...it's REALLY cold in my basement this week!)

 

[JumboShrimp]

That really tells the tale. Good job!

 

[Reefbuds]

Lots of growth for 1.5 months. Looking great

 

[BoonieMoe]

Looking good!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

That is amazing progress in just a month! Are you doing anything special to get stuff to grow like you are?

 

[JumboShrimp]

(Right? Maybe Miracle-Grow, from the garden aisle? )

 

[Jamie9]

That is amazing progress in just a month! Are you doing anything special to get stuff to grow like you are?

Mostly trying to fight off Dinos...but in a nutshell:

Keeping Alk around 8.5, Nitrates and Phosphates tend to hover around 8 and 0.12 respectively...not aiming for those nutrient levels specifically, just aiming for steady. I dose a small amount of AFR daily to keep Alk, Calcium, Magnesium in line.

I've got some chaeto in a refugium mostly to house copepods and dosing 10mL phyto per day. I've been dosing Microbacter7 every other day, 4 mL hydrogen peroxide daily. Dosing silicate once per week. Dosing AF Life Source once per week. All those are more geared to fighting dinos than for growth.

I had intended to start using reef roids...but then my dinos hit...haven't used them at all as I now have so many other things going on that I want to get rid of the dinos and make sure everything is stable first.

What's kind of cool is all the red grape macro algae that sprang up. That wasn't intentional, it just spread from my piece of TBS live rock. I suspect it's out competing other types of algae. I like the way it looks, and my Midas Blenny likes the way it tastes...so I'm happy to let it do its thing!