Its been awhile since I've updated my journal....
First Major Algae Battle (6 months ago)
Took a 1 week vacation in April and came back to my first GHA invasion. Since my tank was only 2 months old at the time, I'll blame it on the ugly phase. In trying to combat this situation, I did the following:
- Brushed the rocks and blew detritus off daily.
- Reduced feeding to once a day but left the light schedule alone.
- Ran GFO in a reactor (but only until PO4 went below 0.03ppm).
- Additionally, I was beefing up the CUC to help mow down all that grass... and learned that emerald crabs are the MVPs of GHA eaters. I know a lot of experienced reefers don't trust crabs, but I am nonetheless thoroughly impressed by their ability to make GHA vanish.
Here's the before and after:
First Fish Casualty
Lost my first fish - "Eggsy" the Yellow Watchman Goby. One fateful night, he pulled off an improbable feat by threading the needle, and jumping in between the small gap between the tank and the lid to go carpet surfing.
RIP, buddy.
Cute Critter (came and gone)
Finally got my hands on a lettuce nudibranch, thanks to
@jorahx4. Little critter was happily roaming the tank and growing bigger until one day he looked a little injured and eventually died. I am unsure what happened to him. My guesses are he either poked his head into the mp10 and got tuned up or he had a hostile encounter with the emerald crab (or pistol shrimp). RIP, little fella.
Taking stock of coral performance in my tank
As others have experienced, some corals do great in a particular tank while some others do not. The challenging part is that its a bit of a mystery as to why they thrive or decline.
Corals that thrive in my tank - Acans, Blastos, Duncans, Euphyllias (except torch), Pipe organ, Pocillopora, Stylos, Digitatas.... mostly LPS and easy SPS.
Corals that stay alive but don't flourish in my tank - Shrooms, Clove polyps, Cauliflower colt, Acros.... mostly softies and leathers (which are supposed to be the easiest?).
Corals that have bitten the dust - my first torch (cause of death is still a mystery), goniopora (might have hurt it too much by trying to pry it off the frag plug).
Lighting Upgrade
Finally decided to splurge and upgrade my lights. Sold my AI Prime HD and got Radion XR30 Gen4 Pro w/diffusers. Overkill for my tank (I know, I know), but I just wanted to get the best and eliminate lighting from the list of possible issues when figuring out troubled coral. I now have more placement spots in the tank due to the increased spread. Also, the acros finally have polyp extension! In other news, I splurged on an apex as well but haven't installed it yet.
