skyedale
Community Member
After being hospitalized on Dec 18 I had to have surgery on Dec. 26’th. Better than having it Christmas day. I came home on the 28’th against medical advice. I figured I would sleep better in my own bed and not have to eat hospital food. My husband was left with the task of taking care of a 3 month old marine/reef tank and a 125 gl fresh tank. He is not an aquarium person. Much to his credit I only lost one green chromis and not a single freshwater fish. He did a great job of doing top ups.
What I did gain though was a very green tank. Algae everywhere and I do mean everywhere. I bought snails and urchins to help deal with the algae. There is so much algae that if it was scrapped off it would makes one heck of a mess. Big water changes are out of the question. I can’t lift anything over 5 lbs for another 4 weeks so instead I am doing two very small water changes daily. In real terms that is 2 - 1/2 imperial gals per day. Given the evaporation it is more like top ups than water changes. It took 2 weeks, but my water parameters are back into the “normal” range.
My big issue is my substrate, I have all sorts of red patches and debris. My star fish seems to reside in one rock only. The tentacles are still a good colour and if you brush one he pulls it into the rock. I haven’t seen out of that rock so I don’t know if he is coming out at night to scavenge. I really don’t want to stir or disturb the substrate. What can I use or buy to clean up the substrate. The other challenge is I cant do anything that pulls on my core muscles.
To add to the current situation, my thoughtful husband talked to “my guy” at the LFS, I go to and came home with 3 new frags he knew I wanted. 1 - Anthelia, 1- bubble & 1 - lobo brain. In part my fault, because I asked to go and get a lawnmower blennie to deal with the algae on all my rock.
I also need suggestion on how to get my Anthelia off the urchin. See picture. I just wasn’t up to glueing the new frags in place. The poor anthelia is now on a trip around the tank, stuck on the urchins spines. So far it seems to be doing fine.
What I did gain though was a very green tank. Algae everywhere and I do mean everywhere. I bought snails and urchins to help deal with the algae. There is so much algae that if it was scrapped off it would makes one heck of a mess. Big water changes are out of the question. I can’t lift anything over 5 lbs for another 4 weeks so instead I am doing two very small water changes daily. In real terms that is 2 - 1/2 imperial gals per day. Given the evaporation it is more like top ups than water changes. It took 2 weeks, but my water parameters are back into the “normal” range.
My big issue is my substrate, I have all sorts of red patches and debris. My star fish seems to reside in one rock only. The tentacles are still a good colour and if you brush one he pulls it into the rock. I haven’t seen out of that rock so I don’t know if he is coming out at night to scavenge. I really don’t want to stir or disturb the substrate. What can I use or buy to clean up the substrate. The other challenge is I cant do anything that pulls on my core muscles.
To add to the current situation, my thoughtful husband talked to “my guy” at the LFS, I go to and came home with 3 new frags he knew I wanted. 1 - Anthelia, 1- bubble & 1 - lobo brain. In part my fault, because I asked to go and get a lawnmower blennie to deal with the algae on all my rock.
I also need suggestion on how to get my Anthelia off the urchin. See picture. I just wasn’t up to glueing the new frags in place. The poor anthelia is now on a trip around the tank, stuck on the urchins spines. So far it seems to be doing fine.
