New Kalkwasser, GFO, Water Change
Tuesday night I made a new batch of kalkwasser – this time I added 4 tablespoons of powder instead of my usual 2 to 2-1/2. It occurred to me that I am probably just not dosing at a high enough concentration to keep up with the tank demands! Such a simple theory, but it was hard for me to come to for some reason. I guess I just didn’t see my system as a high consumer. But my other theories weren’t holding water. For example, I thought I may have been making the kalkwasser incorrectly and it was preciptating out of solution. But I see no signs of that in the bottom of my mixing bucket. Or that something in the tank was consuming alkalinity at a higher rate than calcium, but I don’t think water testing would validate that. I think I was simply not supplementing kalkwasser in proportion to the tank’s consumption. Well, a water test tonight and again in a few days will prove or disprove that theory. (Of course, the 4 tablespoon dose was fairly arbitrary, and may need to be adjusted)
As part of a 5-gallon water change last night I changed out the GFO in one of the two reactors I am running. I am a bit behind schedule, but my goal was to change out one of the two reactors weekly, to constantly have fresh GFO running. I am letting caulerpa run rampant in the tank, for the most part, hoping that between the caulerpa and the GFO I can eliminate microalgae from the display. Then I will slowly prune back the caulerpa, maybe in conjunction with a natural predator (e.g. sea hare) or bacteria dosing (eg MB7).
I made a screen to put around the modded maxijet powerhead in the fuge/sump. The pump was pulling the chaeto right into its shroud, blocking flow and at times impeding the impeller. I used some egg crate and zip ties to make a box around the pump that so far (12 hours later) seems effective at keeping the chaeto away from the impeller. Pump performance isn’t impeded, time will tell if the chaeto responds favorably.
Alk Problems Again, and a Few Updates
I measured the alkalinity and calcium again yesterday. Alk is again down to 6 DKH, calcium remained at 450 ppm. When we stopped at Midwest Coral Farms a few weeks ago they confirmed the alk was at ~8.0 DKH. So I am either not supplementing with strong enough kalkwasser, or there is something else pulling down the alkalinity. I read an article by Randy Holmes-Farley that indicated GFO can cause precipitation, but it should be balanced precipitation – meaning the calcium levels should drop proportionately. I think I need to do a lot more testing and rethink my kalkwasser – again. Maybe I’m not mixing it correctly? Maybe I am exceeding what I can replace with kalkwasser? Maybe I’m consuming both Alk and Ca in the correct proportions and just not measuring the calcium accurately enough…
An update on the green SPS frag I picked up a few weeks ago! Perhaps an identification! They had labeled it as an Acropora gomezi, which really didn’t seem correct. I stumbled upon a photo of a very similar looking piece that was labeled Acropora vermiculata. If that’s not what this piece is, it sure is a lot closer in reality than gomezi. So I’m sticking to it – vermiculata.
The bluestripe goby is out and active! He has set up camp under the neon green candy cane. I may have seen him clean the male flameback angel the other night, but I was at a bad viewing angle. Either way, he’s out and active and eats well – I’ve seen him eat Rod’s fish eggs, and the smaller pieces of food in Rod’s original blend.
The Acropora granulosa fell down yesterday, and landed partially on a plate coral. I picked it up and reglued it in place, and it looks like it fared ok… time will tell, this same event caused STN of the other granulosa frag.
The ORA red planet is encrusting nicely. I had broken the branches off and laid them together, making three separate large sized pieces all within 1/2″ of eachother. They’ve now all encrusted to the point where they’re touching. I am beginning to see a light green color with just the actinics on. I’m excited to see this continue to grow and color.
The Pink Lemonade has great coloration developing (both the small frag and the main frag). It’s encrusting a nice base, and is developing a striking yellow/lime green coloration between pastel-red corallites. Another piece I am excited to watch grow.
The bonsai that was completely browned out when I bought it is slowly beginning to color up. It also is growing a nice base, and very slowly is growing tips. The body of the coral is still a light tan, but the areas with new growth are definitely purple.
Not much to update on the Pearlberry, blue prostrata, or green gomezi. They’re looking good, and not much change in any of them other than some slow encrusting. I saw Vivid has a green prostrata and a tricolor prostrata in stock – very tempting!
