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 State of the Tank: (cont.) |
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At the time I brought him home, he was two months old. At the time of this writing (11/20), he is nearly twice that. I guess what I hadn't expected here is that MY age has also doubled in the time he's been here and while this is not all directly his fault, every bit of it does seem to involve him somehow. For instance, around these parts, this past October was considered the second wettest month on record. Not the second wettest October...the second wettest month, period. And while it rained pretty much throughout the day, every day, it would pour especially hard at night, say at midnight, three am, and 6 in the morning. How do I know this? Because those were the times Rufus had to go out. So while it's maybe not directly his fault, somehow I believe he knows. He's having too much fun not to know.
Anyway, between that and the constant supervision I had to give him due to the fact that he will put anything and everything into his mouth, it's amazing there's a tank update at all. I mean, heck, I hardly saw the tank this month. There may not even be any water in it for all I know. I DO know what it's like to pry a rock nearly the size of his head out of a puppy's needle sharp toothed mouth in the middle of the night while trying to scrape poo off my boot during a cold Nor'easter though...just in case any of you had a question on the topic. But, given the fact that I did ask for this (the dog, I mean), I'll keep any more whining to a minimum. Not a halt. A minimum. |
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So okay, just by glancing at the tank this month, there doesn't seem to be any changes at all  .
This of course would make sense given I barely have enough time to feed the darn thing nowadays (told you). But upon closer inspection, there ARE a few newcomers here that we will get to in a few minutes. I'd like to begin though by stating that all the new equipment we installed last month (Tunzes, Ozonizer, Biodenitrator) continues to work well though any effects they may have had on the tank are not in evidence as of yet. I DO think I notice more clarity in the water due to the ozone factor though but this could just be wishful thinking (See? Even some of us 'old-timers' still try to rush things along).
What seems to not be abating just yet is my algae problem. In fact, if anything it may be getting worse. Here is a slightly magnified view of some of the crap I've got growing in and around a crevice between two rocks . The brown mat like stuff is the most difficult in that no amount of scrubbing or blowing seems to remove it, even temporarily. But between the aforementioned equipment and my new regimen of more aggressive water changes (20% twice weekly), blowing out behind the rockwork (once weekly), wet skimming, and making SURE the new RO/DI water tests at 0 tds, I am still hoping that a spectacular algae crash will soon be in the offing. |
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