Thanks, NM - love ya!
I don't mind sharing the bad with the good.
Last year went through some personal stuff. I totally lost interest in most everything, immersed myself in work and had bought a fish, (didn't q) that came down with ich and almost wiped out my tank...depressed me even more...did not keep up with maintenance...topped off with TAP WATER
mainly so I wouldn't hear the noise of the water running into the tank. Water chemistry went berserk, corals died and hair algae pretty much took over the tank. I ended up taking the dsb out and the tank dark for almost 3 months. Oh, the guilt! The only fish that survived was my sixline wrasse and I had some mushrooms and a candy cane.
It was a long way back. We spent most of the summer and fall going through the new cycle, bringing all water chemistry in line and stable. Began at the beginning - testing, quality water changes and several Saturday's of scrubbing hair algae with all manner of brushes as we did RO/DI water changes. Gallons of phosphate romover and carbon. Meanwhile my beloved 3-year-old wrasse made himself happy in a little 12 gallon along with the few pieces of coral. The sixline was happy to be back home and we started adding fish slowly around Thanksgiving.
Sailfins are my favorite and the new one has spent the last couple of years in a lease tank that my lfs keeps. Must have been a high traffic area, he's the tamest fish ever. He is so cool, follows your finger if you trace the front glass, eats out of my hand and doesn't know a stranger.
But the sixline is the King. He's made it through all my stupid mistakes over the years.