First order of business will be to pick up another 5 gallon "Homer" bucket and two lids for the two buckets I already have. I've run out of salt mix and will now begin purchasing premixed RO/DI water for a buck a gallon from my LFS, and I'm going to need probably 10 gallons, plus some room to drip-acclimate today.
Second order of business is to temporarily remove the Dwarf Hermit Crabs from the tank. I'll be needing to move around rock in the tank to get to the Damsels so I'll probably end up putting some of the smaller rock into a temporary container, then add the crabs to that so they aren't so uncomfortable. They may be in there a couple of hours.
Third order of business will be to get the six Damsels bagged up and returned to my LFS. I may need to remove some of the rock from the tank completely in order to catch those elusive fish. That's OK, though. The tank is going to get a good vacuum and scrub today.
Fourth order of business will be to get the tank cleaned up. I've been gaining insight on the science of reef tanks from the Reef Tank forums, specifically about "Reef-keeping Made Easy", Lighting, and Detritus. These three threads alone, though some may be some very deep reading, have bolstered my confidence and gone a long way toward keeping the guess-work out of this Journey. It has also dispelled some myths and some of my preconceived notions about biodiversity in the tank.
I will be vacuuming the crushed coral bed more thorough than I ever have in the past. For this I am going to need a water pump. Usually when cleaning the substrate, I only have enough time to quickly vacuum about one third of the tank due to my 5 gallon water-change bucket filling so fast. What I'd like to do is to modify one of my buckets to house a water pump that will return water to the tank. This will, in effect, give me a limitless amount of capacity in the bucket in order to completely clean the substrate. If I'm able to accomplish this, I may feel safe changing water every other week instead of weekly.
Edit - After picking up some additional buckets at Home Depot, I ended up finding something I'll try in lieu of a "pump bucket"...a 5 gallon bucket paint strainer. It's sort of like a hair net for a bucket. We'll see if that will hold the suspended detritus in the bucket while I pour the water back in to continue vacuuming the substrate. Remember - my goal is to remove as much detritus as I can initially, then perform a 10% water change. It doesn't matter how many times the "waste water" goes back into the tank as long as the detritus stays in the bucket AND i pull out 8 gallons when I'm done vacuuming.
Once I'm done with the substrate, I will turn my attention to the power filter. Currently, like my substrate, it is a nitrate factory. Before dumping the waste water from the substrate cleaning, I'll thoroughly clean the pads and impeller, and rinse out the interior. Once it's clean, it's future cleaning will be included with the substrate cleaning (still learning as I go).
Fifth order of business will be to get the live rock put back into the tank (if it needs to be completely removed, which is not a bad idea - detritus will settle underneath them) after giving them a good shake in the waste water. This will remove a lot of the detritus from the rock surface allowing the rock to begin purging itself of nutrients once again.
Sixth order of business will be to introduce "flow" into the tank. This provides a multitude of benefits:
- Detritus and other nutrients are suspended in the water column longer allowing the power filter and skimmer a wider window of opportunity to do their job. Decreased particulates in the tank translates to lower ammonia and phosphate production which both cause positive chain reactions on down the line.
- With flow, live rock will have the opportunity to wick nutrients to their surface and subsequently into the water column in order for those nutrients to be removed. Substrate will have a similar benefit.
Seventh order of business will be to introduce new flora and fauna into the tank, a.k.a. "First Fish" and "First Coral". We've decided upon the Clownfish (but not which species), but not yet on the coral. That will heavily depend on the stock currently available at my LFS.
It's going to be a busy day today. I'm going to do my utmost to ensure our new arrivals live happy, healthy lives.
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