I know it's been a while. Man it is so hard to stay up to speed here on R2R while being a grown up. Anyone else here want to go on strike with me until they allow us to go back to childhood?
Well, there is not much to say. The first year was slow and boring. I tried to jump on the bare bottom bandwagon but that didn't do much for me. I didn't like the look and I genuinely believe it stalled the entire maturation process. From the very first week I added sand, I could see noticeably better PE.
Guess what!!! I started with 11 green chromis 1.5 years ago. I still have all 11. Don't ask me how. Maybe I got lucky. I have an auto feeder go off 3x a day. When I get bored, I will go feed the tank either frozen mysis or nori. They devour it all. Ironically, I had one chromis visually showing uronema. I dosed 16 ml of h202 for about a month. It disappeared and never returned. Can't confirm it was the h202 but I think it played a role.
My coral are finally taking off. Back when I added sand, I started dosing aminos. They are loving it. I've got great growth on some sps and explosive on others. My forest fire digi is bigger than my fist. The green spongodes and sonic galaxia, and derasa clam are all bigger than softballs. My Bill Murray and Hugo Rainbow stag are growing at exceptional rates while coloring up beautifully. Most of my other acros are super fluffy and just looking super happy.
I had my green slimer go purple right before experiencing RTN. I fragged about half of it and it survived. It looks recovered and is actively growing. Imagine the size of it had I not needed to frag it.
A few downers: Since moving my tank, a few of my Neptune products have failed me. My trident was about 10 months when it took a dump on me. We tried trouble shooting but Neptune finally said it needed to be replaced under warranty. The replacement has been with me for about 9 months and it too has failed. I might reach out to Neptune but this point, I'm considering pulling it all together and not using it any longer. It's been a hassle for something that is supposed to be hands off. I went to fill the Neptune AFS for a third time. I popped the lid off and it broke. I had to pay about $30 for a new lid. If it breaks again I will not replace. Paying 1/3 its value for a replacement cover is not worth it. My Neptune salinity probe is not useable. Alas, a positive from Neptune. My WAVs are awesome. They just keep chugging (knock on wood).
My only complaint with my reef tank is that at times it goes weeks neglected by me. I come home and wipe the glass but walk away without having a chance to enjoy it. Despite the neglect, my tank gets its 30-40% water changes monthly religiously. Not all at once but cumulatively. The longer it's been without a WC, the larger the WC. This neglect may be the very reason for its success. I bet the following months you'll be seeing rapid growth and coloration pictures of my tank.
Finally, here it is. Disregard all the floating algae. I had just cleaned the glass. Enjoy.