UltraMarine Magazine Issue 41 Back Issue

Do you remember when the Queen had her annus horribilis and schoolboys across the land sniggered – a little unkindly I always thought? Well this year has been my ‘horrible year’ tank wise.
A disease outbreak took most of my fish, including my lovely powder blue tang (see UM 29 cover), who for complicated reasons was called Charlie. I no doubt could have coped, but it all happened whilst I was away and caused a massive nutrient spike that knocked most of my corals sideways with a huge phosphate spike. Thank goodness for my tank sitter Rob, who coped admirably with an unfamiliar system and limited the potential damage from catastrophic to merely bad.
I’d also had an outbreak of montipora-eating flatworm earlier on in the year that took some of my best colonies and have just have lost two stylophora due to an as-yet unexplained cause of RTN and – as if that isn’t enough – my flame angel has developed a taste for my Pocillopora damicornis – curses!
All in all not a good year for my reef, in fact I was close to giving up, it was really looking good with great colour and was close to that wonderful state of being ‘grown out’. Not any more! Pretty much starting again grrr ....... !