The last 2 weeks for this tank has been quite significant and I believe it's moving in the right direction!
Get a bucket and a mop
Once my isolation was over I was determined to get a hold on this tank and bring it back. I went nuclear and dosed some Ultralife Red Slime Remover for the cyanobacteria, cleaned down the glass and hoovered away some diatoms and detritus and boosted the copepod population.
I also made some adjustments to the tank to help change the environment slightly, making it a little bit more inhospitable to nuisance algae. Firstly, I switched the Oase plastic inlets over to a mini glass lily pipe set with skimmer. It looks really nice in the tank, so minimal and not distracting at all! I had originally planned to use Aquario acrylic pipes but after speaking with Dennis Wong he mentioned that he prefers to use skimmers on the inlet because they draw organic waste into the filter rather than circulating it around the tank. I believe some of this organic waste could have been contributing to my problems, so on it went. Doing this also hugely increased the flow and oxygenation in the water which cyanobacteria
hates. This made me realise I didn't need to buy/use an additional powerhead either so more money saved and less visual distractions. I also lowered the temperature slightly and cut back on my phytoplankton dosing.
My next war strategy was the addition of 3 Astrea snails which has made a significant difference. They chow through algae like nobody's business! I've witnessed them sucking on individual grains of aragonite sand and making it sparkly - pretty impressive!
Before the clean:
Immediately after:
New Additions
After the big clean, things were settling down and a quick water test informed me that the cycle was complete. So I thought now would be a good time to add some fish!
The priority was getting hold of a Naked Clownfish, which I did find pretty quickly. Unfortunately on the day of delivery it arrived dead. I have obviously seen many fish die over the years in my tank, but something about
receiving a corpse was quite upsetting. I remember feeling a bit down for the rest of the day and slightly disgruntled/guilty at the whole situation. That was the first time I've ordered fish online but I couldn't let it dishearten me, it's not in my nature.
I found another one for sale from Abyss Aquatics who shipped it to me. I have to say the fish was in perfect condition and the service was top notch. Would
highly recommend them to anyone. They even put some sweets in the box, which seems trivial but when you're doing fishy business all day that quick sugar hit is very well received.
The fish is absolutely stunning and so healthy. My friend Paul suggested I call it Marmalade because of its vivid orange colour. I've decided to take this on, but since I'm fairly sure this will be the female I'm calling her
Lady Marmalade.
I wanted to wait and see what the naked clown looked like first (size wise) before purchasing the second fish. With Clownfish, they all start genderless and then become male. The biggest, most dominant of the group becomes female and the second most dominant becomes the breeding/alpha male, similar to the social hierarchy of bees. Apparently the breeding pair even secrete hormones that keep the other males infertile until such an event like the female's death, where the alpha male would become the female and one of the beta males would become the alpha male! Truly fascinating fish.
The general consensus is that they can fight a lot if you get two unpaired clowns that are too similar in size or already both females as they fight for dominance, sometimes to the death. Therefore, my plan of action was to find a significantly smaller Clownfish in person that was likely to be male still and would minimise any aggression.
Well...it seems to have worked perfectly! Yesterday I went down to Wildwoods Enfield and to my delight they had lots of small Clownfish. I got a regular patterned Ocellaris (I thought the contrast would be nice) and they have started swimming together as if they already knew each other. The naked Clownfish is much bigger and more hyperactive so I'm fairly sure she will be the female and the new one will remain a male. They look so good together and it's pretty surreal that my hobby-long dream of keeping clowns is finally right before my eyes. I will post a video once I work out how!
I also added more macroalgae which was partially for help against the nuisance algae but also to fill out the gaps and stop the tank looking so measly. In went some extra Caulerpa prolifera, Gracilaria parvispora (which I didn't need because now I have way too much), Codium fragile and Botryocladia.
The first corals also made an appearance! I added frags of Pulsing Xenia, Green Star Polyps and 'Bush Coral' which I believe is Kenya Tree. Now, I realise I probably put myself in the deep end choosing 3 'invasive' corals but I'll just stay vigilant. One thing I've come to learn is that high-energy planted tanks really puts you in good stead for this kind of setup. We're much more accustomed to blazing fast growth so this in comparison seems like a doddle. But let's see if I eat my words... 😅
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