This is a thread to discuss the joys, trials and tribulations of owning and operating a mature reef tank. For the sake of this discussion lets define "mature" as tanks that have been running for at least ten years. I want to make it clear that everyone's input is welcome whether your tank is 20 years or 20 minutes old. I'm hoping this thread can be a place to share experiences and give tips to fellow old-tank owners. Also, I think it would be nice for people to introduce their tank (or supply a link to their tank thread) in their first post.
So, I'll get things started...
Tank: 50 breeder w/20 long refugium
Age: 16 or 17 years
Style: Mixed reef
Lighting: T5HO (117 watts)
Filtration: EuroReef skimmer and passive GAC
The first issue I'd like to talk about is: decrease in biodiversity over time and what to do about it.
Over time I've had many of the small organisms (mysid shrimp, free-swimming copepods and other hitchhikers) disappear from my system. I feel many of these organisms are important components to a reef system (yet my tank appears to be doing fine w/o them). I'd like to reintroduce them to my system... I'm just not sure of the best way to go about it. Buying them in a bottle seems wrong, yet adding live sand or rock with the hope that you get some without getting aiptasia or another pest seems risky. So I'm wondering if others have experienced this, and if so what did you do about it.
Tom