I write this journal more for myself than for you guys, so i can keep track of the antics of trying to keep a tank through the possess of separation and having three little monsters.
My tank looks like crap.
the tang i bought back in may, about a month after I got it.. i thought i was out of the woods with it, well one night the cleaner shrimp start riding on it and picking on it.. the next day its a gonner. all ready at that point i was having more HA than in the last posts pics. with no tang just a couple snails picking at the algae the algae got worse and worse and worse, I doubled my GFO up from a quarter to a half a cup and the algae seemed to like it even more and get worse.
I mixed up a batch of water.. and did not use it for a week or three, I go to look in my mixing barel and the water is labout 95 degrees with a thick layer of precipitate.. im like what the hell..
go through a bought of checking all my heaters.. to discover one on my tank is also on on one of those thirty degree days when the tank is 86-88 degrees and the heater is on as well.
down to one heater that works on the tank, and one that works for top up<although the dial is about ten degrees off> ever since fixing the heaters the tank has not toped 80 degrees even on the hottest days.
get the water all to the same temps and do a 10 gallon change<with the screwed up water>
back to the hair algae.. i got some turbo snails.. was like half way done acclimating them something came up and i had to leave.. so i just dumped them in anyways... come home and most of them are still sitting in the same spot stunned. one or two of them perk up and slowly munch away.
one or two die... or i thought they were dead.. so i pick them out with the tongs.. in front of my 7 year old. one was dead and one was just stunned.. the stunned one goes back the dead one i put in the garbage.
next day all the snails i bought are still there but any of my old ones are missing. i get really puzzled and frustrated.. looking in there every time i pass by my tank looking for the missing snails and to see if the few new ones are dead.
somewhere along the line i do another 10 gallon change
no change in the snails
so i buy two more snails while I am in Edmonton.. acclimate them properly
they start off ok, but by the next day they are laying around the bottom not doing anything either.
so I am really frustrated by now
My sons room starts stinking.. it smells kind of gross.. i think one of the kids or dogs must have done a one or a two or both in something and hid it instead of telling me.. get him to clean his room. low and behold these two teeny disposable zip lock containers buried in his room under dirty clothes and blankets.. I honestly thought there was poo and pee floating in them so i got him to put on gloves and clean up his mess but as he carry's them past me i notice its not poo and pee.. but rotting snails... all my missing snails... stinking that whole quadrant of the house up. He has all ways thought its funny to do what dad does and make little tanks everywhere in random objects but i thought i had him out of the habit of taking things out of my tank over two years ago.>
so a week goes by and I am in Edmonton again. I go in to MA with intent to get a couple more snails but thankfully Harvey starts asking me lots of questions and gets me thinking more.
I haven't tested water in forever.. all my test kits are outdated and im not getting new ones till i have stable income again.. but his conclusion is contaminants from the tank or something from the precipitated water is so out of wack its killing them. I get home from that visit set to clean out my water barrel and make more water.. only to find both my cleaner shrimp are done and some of my corals are looking even more rough, I can see most of my mini brittles.. they are not hiding as usual they are more like floating near where they normaly hide, even the brisstle worms are in on the sick.. big chunks of worm lazily hanging on to rock and floating around in the current instead of consciously probing for detrius... panic sets in.
vinegar wash of the brute barrel, let it fill.. mix salt as quick as i can.. and do a change when the kids are not awake and bam.. within minutes the snails start to perk up. not all of them some are st ill rough. so i mix up another barrel and finally today, 3 days after the last change i get to change another barrel. my brute filled to where i put the float switch is about a 27g water change, in a 55 gallon tank + sump so i have probably done a 1/3 water change twice in the last 4 days now. snails are all perking up more.
downside is now I am out of salt, I have one clam in there otherwise I don't really have need of REEF salt, I missed out on someone selling 25$pails of IO on the Edmonton reef group the other day, I guess ill just have to get a tub of io or reefcrystals and keep up the big water changes for a bit till the HA goes away. Perhaps then My disposable income level will come back up.
I put in new gfo today, using the last of the bit i had.. upped it to 3/4 a cup, and fresh carbon (1/2 cup as usual).
I looked at pics of my tank from when it was growing sps like mad and it just made me sad. one day it might be back that way.