2012

With the Lionfish gone, my care of the tank diminished and turned back to its usual neglect. The bubble algae definitely didn't mind...

 

                                                                     February 22, 2012

 

                                                                          March 7, 2012

 

                                                                      April 30, 2012
I finally got an RODI unit and after a couple years of tap water, this tank finally had 0 TDS water in it. Unfortunately the rock absorbed more phosphate and silicates than I can imagine and was perfect algae substrate. I moved a large Indo Acan colony from the 12g I'd had for years into this tank where it would finally have some room. The Phoenix bulb finally went out, so a dual 65w PC fixture went on the tank until I could get a new bulb.

 

                                                                          May 15, 2012
Earlier that month I figured I lost the battle with nuisance algae in this tank and came up with a new idea, grow nuisance corals to cover over the algae. I got a bag of Xenia clippings from a local club member and when I noticed them becoming food for the 3 Stripe Damsels, the fish got the boot. I also got a small frag of Kenya Tree from another member since I had heard many stories of how invasive they can be. With the Phoenix bulb out and money extremely tight I ordered the cheapest "14K" bulb off eBay I could find which ended up being at most 10K. A re-scape and cleaning rounded out the start of my new plans for this tank.

 

                                                                      June 6, 2012
With renewed interest in this tank, I finally started using my coveted ESV salt to do water changes with this tank and began shopping for soft corals. My first interest when introduced to reef tanks was all the movement soft corals gave a tank and I wanted to do that after years of keeping expensive and colorful but motionless corals. I also added two old favorites from my early days, a Royal Gramma and a Fire Shrimp. I later added an Azure Damselfish, a tiny Percula Clownfish, and an intensely orange Ocellaris Clownfish.

 

                                                                          June 8, 2012

 

                                                                         June 20, 2012

 

                                                                          June 25, 2012

 

                                                                         July 9, 2012
Soft coral collection coming along, but the small Percula Clownfish didn't survive. Within a couple weeks my favorite fish, the Ocellaris Clownfish, decided to jump out while I was asleep and found too late to save. A new nuisance algae began to take over as well, apparently some type of Turf Algae.

 

                                                                        September 4, 2012
The corals grew well, but unfortunately over the next year the Turf Algae grew better and strangled out a few of them.