ok. Been a while.......holy crap, 2 years since I last posted! LOL Bear with me while I get this out of my system...
I lost steam for a long time and was just maintaining the tank. I had every intention of breaking this down and downgrading, keeping just the clownfish. I gave all the fish to my cousin who has a nice 250g or so setup. I kept the clownfish, who only ever spent his days hosting the overflow anyway. I was in a rut and not at all feeling inspired.
I started shopping for an all in one nano Settled on the Innovative Marine Nuvo 8 or 16g setup today. I was ready to start shopping for it. Then, I wandered into my Petco for cat supplies. Naturally, made my way over to the fish section. This lady that I've seen there often over the years was working the section. She was the first employee in this particular Petco that I knew really understood saltwater; not like other employees who only know freshwater. This lady knows her way around saltwater. Anyway, she was there today fiddling with the frag tank. I wandered around, and low and behold, Petco now carries the Octopus brand skimmers and Hydor brand powerheads!!! I nearly fainted!
Anyway, I went to talk to her and ask about medication for flatworms, and we got to talking about the new stock. They started stocking them just 2 months ago! She said she was glad corporate finally opened their eyes to what true hobbyists are looking for. I was telling her about my plans to downgrade. She started talking about her 2 tanks -- 1 fowlr, and 1 reef w/ LEDs. I don't know why, but when I started driving home, I got inspired to really work on my 125g again!
So what I need to do is put the clown in a small 10g with some sand and live rock (and the one rock I have with mushrooms), nuke the flatworms in the 125g, clean it up and just commit to putting in more rocks. I'm thinking of having a smaller sump, too. It's currently a 60g pond liner. I will break it down, get a used tank, put it IN the pondliner (so in case of floods, it will just dump into the empty liner), and just use that. I will definitely go full reef, so I have yet to get lights. Hopefully by the time I've really cleaned the tank of pests, then I can concentrate on that next. I think I will write Petco and give her props :)