This hasn’t been a good week for the reef tank. It hasn’t been bad, but I certainly didn’t help things today

The first problem is with the current coming from the skimmer. It’s faster than normal, even though I’ve got it set the same & it’s skimming. The faster flow which comes out over Kyo’s home has been making it difficult for him to catch food pellets, either because they’re swept away, fall. too fast/much or because he’s skittish about going up into the current to pick them off the surface.

Naturally my remedy for this has been to attempt to adjust the flow from the skimmer & redirect the other nozzle to break up the current — and failing that — turning off everything while feeding which most reefkeepers do anyway. The problem is that Kyo gets scared and skittish when the current stops — after all this is hardly normal — and hides instead of eating or only grabs a few pellets timidly, darting out of the algae then back into hiding.

So this week has been dominated by my attempts to get enough food to Kyo, who as of today is finally eating the bare minimum with the pumps off. The result of my efforts over the week has been that Calypso, Cortez, Kalimba, Tam and assorted amphipods have been getting a lot to eat as pellets waft down in unusually high number. Which is great for them but nevertheless I’m putting 3-4 times the usual amount of food into the tank. It’s eaten, but it’s not like they’d starve without it. They got plenty before: they’re scavengers.

So, more nutrient in the tank which means another algae bloom and tiny pinkish areas in the corner which herald the recurrance of cyano. In short, the tank looks bad just a week after a thorough cleaning.

I could’ve helped matters by doing another thorough de-algaefying cleaning and a big water change, but I was down to my last gallon of replacement water — and I ran out time this afternoon. So, one gallon water change, sponge filter rinsing and at that point I realized that the picoreef was basically screwed because there wasn’t enough left for a 1 qt water change. So I siphoned off a qt with the turkey baster and replaced it with water from the mini-reef which I’d just done the hasty inadequate water change to.

Then I changed clothes & dashed out, having no time to make up replacement water. Which I will do as soon as I step in the door in a few minutes, having composed this in odd moments throughout the evening, completed it & moblogged it on the way home.

It’s been a too busy day, but the 3-day weekend looks to be more relaxing. Hope you all have a good one. (I’m gonna rip some algae.)