[Dudester]

Sorry everyone, I just got back in town today. I've been gone and off-line since the 21st. I was reluctant to post since I don't have pics yet, but I didn't want to be rude. Actually, now that I think of it, it's probably more rude to post without pics than not to post at all. I'll try to snap some shots this weekend and get them posted on Monday. Really, I will!

Things actually fared pretty well in my absence. The house sitter added topoff water to the reservoir, fed the fish, stirred the ZEOliths, and added a few ZEOvit additives for me while I was gone. The new corals are all where I originally mounted them, and all are alive except for a small tank-raised elegance coral that didn't make it. I can see signs of decent growth from some of the frags, and most have kept their color pretty well. A Miyagi tort is pretty bleached, but happily the cali tort is still a fairly dark blue. On the fish front, the powder blue tang has ich on the pectoral fins as well as some spots on the body, but it ate aggressively and doesn't look thin at all. I'm hopeful that this isn't the beginning of the end for this fish. I don't know what happened, but the emerald crabs look like they've doubled in size. I saw an empty green shell and some claws on the sand, and the crabs are very shiny, so I know they've molted, but dang I can't believe how big they are!

Tomorrow I'm doing a water change, changing out the carbon, siphoning the sand, and changing out the filter socks, along with whatever else I end up doing. Hopefully that will include taking some photos. I hope everyone had a nice holiday, and thanks for following along.