Well after writing my rather long winded literature review, "Fracture induced mechanisms in cast iron water mains" and finally feeling better after being rather unwell the last few weeks, I was finally able to get home to see the tank after three weeks of no water change and it wasn't good. Not good at all

kinda effed up if you ask me..
I have no words to describe the troubles the tank is having and I post this simply for the sake of being able to look back at the difficulties I've had like I always do:
I almost wanted to abandon ship and run away :headwalls: it was just disgusting, this is why you shouldn't live away from your tank while unwell kids! The thing that got me the most was how upset some of the acro's were, turns out the salinity was up way high to add to it

and my brother still thinks the tank is "normal"! I can't really blame him but he's as observational as a blind cavefish... and as ugly! lol
To add to the mounding disappointment, I couldn't find my little copperband anywhere either :worried2: :sad1: "but I swear I saw him yesterday and he was fine"
I suppose you can say I just sucked it all up and went for broke. Took me a few hours but I removed as much of the algae as I possibly could. I pulled my little maxima off his rock and cleaned him right up, taking every piece of algae off I could find and 70% of the zoa's that had grown on him, I'll be removing the rest next time! Completely removed a small rock that was overgrown and siphoned up the rest of anything else I could find.
Once I was all said and done, the acro's had immediately calmed down and settled a bit more which was reassuring to see and the little clam was getting plenty of light again, unencumbered by the algae and zoa's that were making it's life difficult!
The end result isn't much better but it's certainly an improvement, I'm hoping to have this tank completely gone within the month and everything in the new tank. I have my plans in place and the new tank is getting here on Sunday so hopefully everything turns out okay!
As you can tell, algae is definitely a bloody nutrient sink... this is the skimmer only 20mins after turning it back on once the water change was completed..
It may be an uphill sh*t fight at the moment but I'm positive about what the new tank is going to bring and I'm thoroughly excited about it and having my babies back! One of the things I'm looking forward to is being able to feed my fish babies a proper diet and get their colours glowing again

I have my plans in place for the new tank so I'm hoping I can work things in properly and have the tank running smoothly before the removalists get to the house to pack everything up! lol