Well, it's not only been about 4 months since I posted here, but it's also been at least that long since I did anything to my tank besides feed the fish and add topoff water...
Since I got my new job, I've been busier than ever, and now that I'm not working from home anymore, I hardly have time to even look at my tank. In fact, you could even say I was avoiding it like a scorned lover I feel too guilty to face... Okay, that's a little over the top, but you get the point.
So in a tank full of SPS and fish, what happens when you stop your daily routine of cleaning, testing, feeding, water changing, media changing, skimmer cleaning, cheato pruning, fine tuning, light bulb wiping, amino dosing, pappone feeding, fish staring, and all the other things that make up the daily obsession? Well, besides a little nuissance algae, nothing much really...
What finally drove me to action was that my Timor Wrasse went carpet surfing, and I guess she had been doing a lot of work behind the scenes, as I suddenly had an outbreak of redbugs and monti eating nudis. Oh, and my skimmer had quit working, too.
So anyhow, I did a redbug treatment and 50% water change this weekend, fixed the skimmer, cleaned the tank with a credit card, completely tossed the contents of the sump and cleaned it out, took out about 15 lbs of infested montiporas (sob...), did a day of activated carbon and then switched over to GFO, dialed the calcium reactor back in, cleaned the vortechs, and tada! Clean and good as new.... Hopefully this will end the experiment of how long things can go before they fall apart.
Now I'm not encouraging anyone to abandon their tanks, but I'm completely amazed at how long I got away with doing next to nothing in terms of tank maintenance.
Anyhow, I miss you guys! How is everyone??? Rit, I can't believe your breaking your tank down!
Since I got my new job, I've been busier than ever, and now that I'm not working from home anymore, I hardly have time to even look at my tank. In fact, you could even say I was avoiding it like a scorned lover I feel too guilty to face... Okay, that's a little over the top, but you get the point.
So in a tank full of SPS and fish, what happens when you stop your daily routine of cleaning, testing, feeding, water changing, media changing, skimmer cleaning, cheato pruning, fine tuning, light bulb wiping, amino dosing, pappone feeding, fish staring, and all the other things that make up the daily obsession? Well, besides a little nuissance algae, nothing much really...
What finally drove me to action was that my Timor Wrasse went carpet surfing, and I guess she had been doing a lot of work behind the scenes, as I suddenly had an outbreak of redbugs and monti eating nudis. Oh, and my skimmer had quit working, too.
So anyhow, I did a redbug treatment and 50% water change this weekend, fixed the skimmer, cleaned the tank with a credit card, completely tossed the contents of the sump and cleaned it out, took out about 15 lbs of infested montiporas (sob...), did a day of activated carbon and then switched over to GFO, dialed the calcium reactor back in, cleaned the vortechs, and tada! Clean and good as new.... Hopefully this will end the experiment of how long things can go before they fall apart.
Now I'm not encouraging anyone to abandon their tanks, but I'm completely amazed at how long I got away with doing next to nothing in terms of tank maintenance.
Anyhow, I miss you guys! How is everyone??? Rit, I can't believe your breaking your tank down!
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