Let’s see… to pick up where the last post left off, the skimmer pump is no longer making a humming noise. I had cleaned it a few times, and it finally quieted down on its own. Nice.

I had a problem with some acro’s. I still don’t know what. A new frag RTN’d on me, and shortly after that the vermiculata RTN’d, and then it seemed to spread to the blue prostrata, a red/orange mille, a blue mille, and some type of bottlebrush. Bad! It doesn’t seem to have spread from there… the prostrata seems to have stopped RTN’ing, and a frag of the same piece is fine. It’s disappointing that this has taken out some really nice pieces that I’ve had for a while. I’m hoping that whatever caused this has passed… I don’t know if it was a parasite, or a chemical imbalance, or what.

The OM valve has started making a knocking noise again. I can’t believe it. I’m hoping it’s just a grain of sand or something and not ANOTHER broken motor gear. Cripes.

The MJ1200 pump I was using as a replacement for a broken Mag1.9 broke, so I reinstalled the Mag5 pump I started the system with originally. I had to reinstall the skimmer silencer to cut back on the air intake and prevent the skimmer from running too wet, but it seems to be working fine.

I’ve started dosing Microbe Lift Special Blend, after seeing some great reviews online about it. Wow this stuff is stinky. I’ve been following the instructions, and dosing about 25-50% more to account for saltwater.

We went out of town last week (brother’s wedding, yay!!! Awesome trip!!!) and it was the motivation I needed to automate the 2-part system. I decided to take the time to also redo the level controls, pump controls, and entire wiring schematic for the tank. This was pretty much a full week’s worth of evening work. I added a second GFCI outlet, in parallel to the first, and split the aquarium loads between them. Got rid of the power strips, replaced with outlets mounted on the stand near the devices. Completely redid the pump and level controls from scratch (reusing some float switches and toggle switches) and am happy to report that it’s all functioning! Right now I have a tank-high float switch, ATO reservoir low switch, sump-high switch, and top-off switch as well as toggles for the return pump, skimmer, closed loop, and ATO pump. I have inputs ready and waiting for a sump-low switch and 2-part low switch.

I still have to clean up the wires a bit (secure them, label them), add those two float switches, make a new float switch holder for the sump, and secure the 2-part tubing. I also want to repipe the return pump and the media reactors to clean them up. I also have to monitor the alk and ca levels in the tank for a week or so and make sure the dosers are set correctly.

Photos and one-line diagrams to come soon!

To top off that evening, the main float switch died on me. Turns out, and I don’t remember doing this, I had spliced the wires and encased them in airline tubing, siliconed shut at the ends. Well, apparently water got in there (could only have been during water changes) because one of the solders corroded away. Wonderful. Copper in the tank? Not cool. I don’t think it was much, as the inverts all look ok… Crimony. I spliced one of the other float switches (outside the sump) into the control circuit and re-hung the switches at about the right height. Another project on the list of things to fix.

Tonight I did another water change, made new 2-part, scraped the tank walls, plucked some algae, and decided to glue down the green prostrata frag. It has fallen twice now, damaging tips on the blue gomezi and green vermiculata. It appears to have done quite a bit of damage to the vermiculata, there are a number of burnt tips. To make sure it wasn’t the water quality I measured the alk and ca tonight – 8.5 dkh and 350 ppm. I dosed an extra 40 ppm ca, not sure how that got so low.

I also decided to break the encrusting blue monti off the closed loop return and mount it on the top rockwork. It wasn’t getting enough light on the return and was a pretty drab color. It should contrast well against the red rbta’s and the green prostrata.

One of the four rbta’s decided to go on a walkabout last week. It’s settled in next to the vermiculata and Mille, above the “bonsai” acro. Not a cool spot for it!

I think that’s it… If not I’ll blog something tomorrow!

I have done a number of water changes. Last week I did two mid-week, and did another last night. I’m down towards the bottom of the bucket of Tropic Marin ProReef salt, probably have enough for two water changes left. It’s a bit clumped up, must have gotten some moisture in there somehow. I’m debating which salt to use next – I have a bucket of Brightwells, and another bucket of Tropic Marin. Any thoughts from my readers?

My alkalinity and calcium levels are holding pretty steady. I’ve been dosing 200 ml daily of the recipe 2 mix (comes out to 2DKH alkalinity a day). My alkalinity seems to be slowly dropping at that dosing rate (0.5 DKH over a week) so the corals must be starting to grow again. They hit a plateau for a few weeks+, I think caused by phosphate or nitrate, but I’m not really sure. Maybe it was reduced feedings of the fish? Maybe pH – I need to measure that again to see if it’s still holding around 8. Anyway, I am hoping things are going to start growing again.

I don’t think there are any other updates to speak of. No changes to equipment, no changes in livestock. Some minor rearrangement of corals. (Did I already post about swapping the purple torch and yellow/gold torch? If not – the purple likes lower light and the yellow/gold likes higher light, and for the past year+ I’ve had that backwards!! Both look much happier now!) Still pulling algae out where I can. The new DI resin must be helping with the phosphate levels in the tank – the caulerpa I remove doesn’t grow back as quickly as it had in the past. Still have nuisance algae and some turf algae I’m dealing with, but patience is key. In the past week the red cotton algae appears to have disappeared from its foothold in the hammer coral branches – another indication that things are on the right track!

unruly called me on my way home from work last night and told me the vermiculata was looking a bit bleached. Sure enough, it’s faded! Very pastel lime-green looking. That happened overnight. Tied to the skimmer cleaning? How bizarre. All the other corals look the same. I fed a fair amount of Rod’s Food after lights out last night, maybe the extra nutrients will help it color back up.

No idea if the new purple granulosa is doing ok, or if the tips are experiencing STN (slow tissue necrosis). Some of them look to have new growth, and some look to have tissue loss. I’ll just be patient and let things run their course in due time. It’s too small of a piece for me to frag the bad tips off, so I don’t have too many options anyway.

The maximod impeller I put on the MJ powerhead I have in the sump is driving me nuts. It keeps stalling, and restarting it is like starting up a prop plane in the 30’s. Try to give the prop a spin and quickly clear your fingers! Try again, and again, and again as it starts to take but not quite, and then finally starts spinning. If I was relying on this for flow in the tank I’d be very unhappy.

Been noticing some nice growth on the Vivid blue gomezi. The branches are starting to take off, which is nice because it’s supposed to be a slow grower. Conversely, the new blue “granulosa” I picked up looks like the tips are burned. I am baffled, with alk beteen 8 & 9 DKH and all other SPS looking normal, I don’t know what’s causing this. If it’s new growth it’s odd looking.

Moving the purple and yellow torches was a good decision! The yellow torch is looking fantastic, although it’s still adjusting to the higher flow. The purple torch is starting to gain a deeper color. I think this is one of the first times I’ve switched placement of corals in this tank!

Sometime today I’d like to do a water change and replace the GFO and carbon media.

I saw online that people get better coloration out of their yellow Aussie torches by placing them in higher light. I have ours along the back wall in the most indirect light in the tank. So i decided to move it! Swapped locations with a purple torch that was closer to the halides but looked like it was a bit over lit. We’ll see how they respond.

The red planet frag has gotten beat up this week. Something broke it free from the epoxy holding it in place. Two days in a row I picked it up off the sand bed, and this morning I had to recover it from on top of a torch – not cool! I tried re-epoxying it in place tonight and accidentally broke a piece off. Jammed that piece into a rock crevice next to the main piece where it will get less light and flow; curious how it will respond in coloration and growth – if it can take hold before a snail or crab knocks it loose.

Tested the alk and ca tonight for the first time in a few weeks. I tested before doing my evening doses which would raise the numbers a full point (ie alk up 1DKH). Alk measured in at 7.5 DKH and ca at 350 ppm. I decided to up both levels a bit. I would like to keep calcium between 380 & 400 all day, and keep alk between 8 & 9 DKH. This will improve once I set up some dosing pumps of course, and not dose manually twice a day.

Cleaned the vortech MP40 tonight in a vinegar bath. It was laying on the sandbed when I got home from work. A littlebit of precipitate on the moving parts but not much. Not sure really if that’s what caused it to break away from the dry side but at least it’s back up and running now. And jet black clean, unlike the background of the tank.

And finally, the sighting. The eunicid worm is alive and well. Still living in the same section of liverock. I’m Ginger to try to capture it I think. Not sure if I’ll be successful… I’ll post up whatever happens. Probably a few weeks before I get motivated enough to try it.

I need to calibrate the TDS meters. My inline meter doesn’t read the same as my hand held. Not surprising since they’re only so accurate, but I want to calibrate them anyway. I also need to ask on a forum, is it bad that I had some algae/bacterial growth on the DI cartridge gasket on the incoming side? The outlet side of the gasket was clean. I washed and scrubbed the gasket in a bleach solution this evening. I wonder if I should be changing the prefilters and carbon blocks more frequently…

Hopefully the 0 TDS water will help me knock back the nuisance algae in the tank! Making fresh topoff and water change buckets as I type.

I updated some of the links in the blogroll, in the sidebar to the right. You’ll also see that there’s a new “medal” on the far right sidebar, from The Reef Tank. Click on the Vote For Us link!

Our blue millepora is mounted in the middle of the tank, just off the sand bed. Given the lagoon-style rockwork and the placement of the Vortech MP40 it’s difficult to get decent flow to this coral. Two of the closed loop outlets are located at the outside corners of the tank, facing in towards the rockwork. After fixing the OM valve last week I had one of the outlets directed along the surface of the water, but I wasn’t happy with the deadspots that existed in the middle of the rockwork. I pointed this outlet down and towards the mille, not really sure if it would have enough oomph to get flow to the coral. I guess it does – absolute sand storm down there now, and there’s a great big bare spot in the middle of the tank. The coral looks happy so I can live with the bare bottom tank there for now. Maybe as the coral grows it will reduce the water flow along the sandbed and I can get some sand to stay put again. If not, no big deal. I also may try pointing the other outlet in the same direction; that may result in a bigger sand storm though.

Finally, did a water change last night. I did 5 gallons and didn’t change any filter media or clean the skimmer neck, so it was done in less than 10 minutes. Nice and quick. I did siphon out a fair amount of algae that I had scraped off the tank bottom before starting.