The tank is about 6 months since I got it wet. It’s time to do a self assessment on the tank.
Locking back on this build thread, I’ve made a lot of progress in past few months. Honestly, I think I prioritized more on getting healthy fishes over corals. I knew that fishes will provide the nutrients for a reef, and bring a lot of life into the tank. Started from all dead rock and sand, and my goal was to get over the uglies and avoid typical new tank issues like disease and pests. So far so good. Fingers crossed.
I chalk that up to a few things. Trochus snails spawned in the tank have resulted in many baby snails. Also, early selective intervention for nuisance algae (Flux), dipping everything, getting functional fishes, maintaining N/P and building up bacteria population in the tank have kept dinos, bryopsis, and other nuisance algae/pest away.
My gut feel is that my tank is starting to mature and can sustain more delicate corals soon. My coralline algae growth is exploding all over the rocks. I think the next 6 months will be stocking the tank with more nicer corals and just letting it grow.
Biggest risk is that I will need to travel soon and during summer for weeks at a time.
Biggest mistakes so far has been QTing too many fishes at same time. I learned that blond naso have terrible survivability during QT after the fact. Then it’s a chain reaction on ammonia spike. Also, I almost nuked my tank when I clicked “ON” instead of “AUTO” on my DOS doser for alkalinity in APEX, if I had a bigger 2-part container or smaller tank volume, I would have wiped for sure. Total luck. Reminds me how a simple slip can be a complete disaster.
Looking forward to next 6 months, and making the tank pop with corals.