Aaaand we're back!

Well, it's been a while. Keeping up with the tank during EMT school isn't exactly a priority, so thing's haven't gone exactly to plan. The clown pair didn't survive my being gone Thanksgiving week, unfortunately. The water tested fine, the YWG and zoas were fine, so I don't know what the deal was there. 

On the plus side, the cyano hasn't made a reappearance, and the GHA, while not completely gone, has stayed at very manageable levels, even with my somewhat inconsistent care. My CuC has dwindled down to one hermit and a couple of snails, so I have a new batch coming from Reefcleaners, along with another ball of chaeto to replace the original batch that I accidentally nuked during my battle with cyano and GHA. 

Today I picked up an adorable little black clown and a nice firefish to bring a little more life back into the tank, and so far they seem to be doing well. I'll be getting some more mushrooms to augment my zoa population, then hopefully I'll be able to upgrade my lights to accommodate some more interesting corals.

I also expressed my displeasure with my LFS' almost $3/gal for RO/DI water to the owner, who I know fairly well both professionally and socially. He offered me pre-mixed 1.023 saltwater made from their RO/DI for $1/gal in appreciation for all the business I've done with him (mostly reptile related) over the past 5 years. I'll give it a try (after testing it thoroughly, of course), and if it works out well it will end up costing about half as much as buying distilled water from Wal-Mart and mixing it myself. That will likely lead to me increasing my water changes from 4gal/week to 4gal/2x weekly. 

Hopefully doubled water changes, new CuC and chaeto will clear up the remaining GHA once and for all.


A few quick shots of the fish, sadly the zoas were still pissed after I blew the rocks off with the turkey baster earlier. Can see the last bit of GHA in the background.