Hello everyone!
Theres fair bit to unpack here and an equal amount of photos in the next post so lets get to it!
Uglies: I think I may be through the thick of it (knock on wood)! I took my Tunze nano algae scraper and decided it was finally time to clean the glass because I was honestly just tired of trying to find Hermes through the green mist. I decided to only scrub the front panel and did it right before I did my weekly water change so I could take small power head and send it into the filter floss in the over flow and siphon out the remainder. It worked like a charm and by pure coincidence later that day getting my daily dose of BRS I heard Ryan say that if you remove some of the uglies and they comeback thats a strong indicator that the tank needs more time but if it doesn't come back your in good shape. Well that was last Wednesday and the front panel has stayed perfectly clear! I do plan on giving it more time with my upcoming trip to be certain but I'm excited nonetheless!
All that remains of the bryopsis is the odd ghostly white strand that will be removed as I work my way around the tank walls with the scrubber when the time comes, however I noticed a handful of what I would consider alarming things. A non bryopsis, sparse white fuzz started growing from nearly all of the liferock which at this moment is being treated like a new ugly (but if you know otherwise about whatever this is please sound off below). The truly concerning ugly was some long green filaments growing on just one edge of the liferock which I suspect to be the infamous GHA! I have an ID thread running but even if its GHA I have hope, I'll elaborate down below...
Auto top off about to be auto: I'm really excited about this one! I made a quick little ATO container our of 5 litre cereal box from Walmart which has been working but since I switched from the included canopy to the redsea DIY cover (which i still really like) evaporation sky rocketed and I've been topping of the ATO container every 2-3 days when it gets down to about 2/3s when I manually top off the QT. I've done some testing and found it tops off 1 litre roughly every 2 days meaning I cant leave this for longer than 10 days until now! I ordered a 5 gallon plastic hedpack from a brewing company off of
amazon and its arrived just in time. I've rinsed it out and hopefully this coming Wednsday I'll be able to set it up and not have to worry for 36 days at the current rate!
All seeing sun: Its no secret that I've been thoroughly enjoying Hermes since his debut and while disappointed in my search for tiny utilitarian fish for the BRS/WWC hybrid method something Randy said in the following live stuck with me, I can't recall the exact quote but I believe it was along the lines of look into more inverts for smaller tanks- so I did just that! After some deliberation, research, getting some opinions on here and consulting with Hermes himself I bided my time until the next day that I worked at the LFS and pulled the trigger. I'd like to introduce you all to Helios the scarlet hermit crab! I did at one time have fish by that name but he has since passed and although I typically don't reuse names I feel the bright red of this crab among other things is a tribute to one of the brightest catfish fish I've ever kept. asides from the fiery colour that adorns him, this Helios also got his name because the god Helios was known as the all seeing sun and every time I've peeked around the rock work since I introduced him (April 10th) theres a pair of orange eye stalks looking directly back at me! I haven't quite figured how he does this and I doubt I ever will. I must say there is stark contrast between the two species, Hermes even only several days after being added was all over the place and always on the go. Helios however has yet to come out from underneath the rockwork into plain view which is why the pictures of him in the next post are the only ones I have... I've also seen Hermes completely circle the tanks perimeter in under 10 minutes while Helios has happily moved about 4 inches deeper into thee rockwork since Wednesday. As soon as I get a proper photo of him in tank I'll post it!
Fool me once: Most would be disheartened to see the whole body of their beloved crab laying lifeless on the rocks and admittedly I felt such a thing for the first 10 seconds. Hermes is famously one of the most mischievous gods of Mount Olympus and just like his namesake this crab of mine enjoys deceit to no end. Fooled once by a faked death of his I was certain this was another of his vanishing acts but I must say he concealed himself much better this time around. In fact today was the first I've seen of him since the day I added Helios but Hermes is alive and well (and bigger)!
Now to bring this full circle, The new GHA patch had me very concerned after the horror stories I've read, with my upcoming trip I feared I'd would return to nothing but its green filaments flowing in the current and two crabs who'd have no taste for such a thing. Helios was/is still peering out from deep within a crevice far from the algae and Hermes was nowhere to be seen! Until tonight, in his new gleaming blue armour Hermes was halfway through clear cutting the filamentous forest that had taken root. Luckily he appears to be quite hungry after his molt, all I can say is GO HERMES GO!
Photos are in the order they were described!
