21/03/2015
It's been a while! So after losing my Tomato Clownfish almost two weeks ago, I was really bummed out. But hey, gotta move on.
I have yet to decide what else to stock the aquarium with, and my fiancee and I have decided that we are moving houses early July - so it is a bit pointless to be fully invested at the moment. Especially since I am still injured.
This doesn't mean that I have given up on this tank. Au contraire, it is still a mini-reef, so I am still gonna sustain it.
So, update.
I've been letting algae run a bit rampant, as I didn't have a chance to do a water change until today. Besides cleaning the viewing panes, cleaning algae otherwise is rather pointless, as unless it is physically removed from the water, the algae would just float around and either re-attach, or die and feed more algae anyways. So the best time to clean algae is just before a water change. Especially if it is a large one.
I did an approximately 85% water change yesterday. The live stock is healthy, so I didn't mind doing such a large water change. Plus, I haven't done a water change for about a month, so it was time.
This is what the aquarium looked like before the water change:
Algae everywhere. Look at the colors of those corals tho!
Yes I know. SO MUCH ALGAE. Since I couldn't do a water change until yesterday, there wasn't actually much point in cleaning the algae, except of course the viewing panels - which quickly saw regrowths anyways.
Not that algae is that bad. XD People often have this misconception, but algae can only harm something else directly through one method: competition. Either for nutrients, lighting, space or whatever else. Otherwise, they are harmless. Good even, as they soak up excess nutrients, those that at elevated levels will harm stuff like corals. By the way, if you wonder why you'd clean the tank and algae springs right back, that would be because you did not remove the algae from the aquarium. Algae off the glass will come back rather quickly.
Sorry about the digression.
But yes, so much algae.
Check out my hand after I scrubbed all the sides off algae:
Some call it... 'hair' algae.
And that's just a tiny portion, stuck to my hands lol.
Anyways, with all the algae floating in the aquarium, I went ahead and did a water change with my hose-pump thing, draining out as much of it as possible along with the water.
Result?
You can still see some algae floating around - that was because I did leave some water behind, for the fish at least. They panicked a bit at first, but quickly regained their composure - fast enough to not see any panic by the time I could take this picture, like a minute after filling up the tank. If your fish are healthy and active, they should not mind such changes. Use that as an indication for how well you are caring for your fish (besides the occasional panic-inducing huge water change lol).
Corals too, will bounce back quickly if they are healthy. The above pic sees the corals all shrunk (except for the Bubble Coral towards the back).
This is how they look at night, a few hours later:
All the fish are congregating towards one corner. Begging for food as the usual. =.= Pigs.
And then today, less than 24 hours later:
Bloomin'!
So in conclusion, everything is going great. :D And if you want to really remove a lot of algae and prevent it from growing back quickly, give your aquarium a good clean just before doing a water change to remove all that algae.
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