The Wonders of a Razor on a Stick
Ok, I FINALLY got the coralline under control with a little help from a razor that has a handle (yes, sadly I did not know such things existed. Lucky for me I have friends that are SMRT (Simpsons reference). Unfortunately they run about $40, but making it so that we could see that we actually have fish under all of the purple stuff was great.
Sadly I took the shrimp feeder out of the tank and the mandarin goby is looking fairly skinny. The feeder seemed to be raising nitrates too much. The saltwater tank tended to smell a bit like a dead ocean with it in. I was hoping that we had enough food in the sand by now, but I think I was wrong. I may need to order some copepods. The water quality has gone up with the feeder out (and my tendency to neglect cleaning it as often as I should have also created the issue).
I was discussing the possibility (oh horrors) of switching tanks a little further down the road so that we could add a refugium. The thought of moving everything gives me nightmares at night….