JCOLE
Grower of the Small Polyps
Im at about the 4 month approximate mark since removing my protein skimmer. Nothing took an immediate hit, and now 1/3 year into the “experiment” I still don’t see much difference at all. PH is unchanged. No explosion of nuisance algae. Phosphate kind of spiked and got up to 0.34, but I let it happen and I’ve basically seen no impact whatsoever. I scrub the glass with the magnet once every 3 days or so.
I installed a Neptune gro fixture and have tumbling ball of chaeto going now. This method actually appears to be the lowest maintenance of them all. Po4 in 2 weeks fell from 0.34 to 0.3. That’s still pretty close to rounding error range of the kit so I don’t put that much stock into that absolute number. Corals still growing and happy all around.
Finally seeing more berghia than I started with when I check in the dark. They’re not eradicating the aiptasia but they’re creating large bald spots where colonies once were. They move on and the aiptasia refresh where they were cleared. Might be the bristleworms or amphipods eating the eggs and preventing a population explosion of berghia. Because I DO find their egg clutches all over constantly. They’re in there and they are breeding. I only ever see the massive ones though.
Pics under full daylight spectrum. Left the pumps on so there is some obvious shimmer in the images
Looking good man!
