Great thread, nice builds. I appreciate "builds" where the aquarist actually builds the tank; buying a few bags of gravel and a couple of rocks and setting them into a commercially-produced tank is by no means a "build", although many aquarists seem to like to use that term for it.
Shame about the tuskfish; back when I had marines that was a Grail Fish for me, one that I never actually acquired. I had a Clown Trigger for a few years but would have swapped it for a Tusk in a heartbeat if given the chance. Magnificent critters.
Is the hair-algae-looking stuff what you mean when you refer to "macros"? It's got a great look, especially in a tank equipped with those wonderful RFG nozzles. Looks like freshwater Black Beard algae but in a nice green colour. My stone-age tanks were full of Caulerpa macro-algae, which could be harvested by the fistful every few days. I recall buying a small "starter" culture, introducing it and then watching it quickly disintegrate and disappear. Then, a couple weeks later, it sprouted all over the rockwork in the tank, and by the 2-month mark I was forced to start pulling handfuls out. Looked a bit like small green grape clusters; I used it as food for some herbivores, added it to my home-made gel foods and traded a crapload in to my LFS at the time. Everybody who bought it had the same story: the stuff vanished within a couple days...but then in about half the cases it came back with a vengeance.
Many thanks. Yes lately I've been annoying right many MFKers by constantly pushing for tank rebuilds and reseals when I can tell all they want is a magic band-aid for whatever problem. Aiming for something impressive with my next tank, XXL rimless design. I've spoiled myself building rimless lately....love the simplicity, hate designing canopies...despise the price of thick glass these days lol.
I cant say for sure what happened to the tusk, but the more I've read I'm leaning into either cyanide poisoning or my use of tap(nonRODI) water (unlikely imo). I've read they're a common target for cyanide fishing, and he displayed the odd behavior at times which is indicative of it. The thing is, I had some other tusk owners telling me their whimsical behavior is somewhat normal, so then I'm left with was mine just normal, or is everyone else's tusk also poisoned...anyway, I took notes, filed it away, may try again one day.
I actually never procured any macro, that stuff started growing once the tank matured, hiked in on the arag-alive I'm betting. If I let nitrates rise to 20ppm+ for a week or two it will coat the entire bottom, but after a couple big wc it will effectively trim itself back down to whatever nutrient level is available. Pretty cool stuff and looks fantastic, but I dont think I could ever eradicate it from the tank if I tried at this point.
The RFGs are the coolest thing since water conditioner. Check out vivid creative aquatics next time you want to try some new gadgets on your tanks. Neat little company.
