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Reeftank Log
Reeftank Log Archives
Thursday, March 28, 2002
SR4 is a lot easier to clean now that I raised the water level in the skimmer column so that the foam starts a little bit above the bottom edge fo the collection cup. The skimmer is still taking out a lot of fluid and gunk. I should do a water change this weekend. I think I'll add an extra half cup of salt to the 2.75 cups I normally add to my 5 gallon water change. Moved two large hermit crabs to sump of growout tank at work.
posted 8:36 AM
Tuesday, March 26, 2002
Moved the AquaC Urchin to the tank at work since the SR2 and MaxiJet modified pump occasionally stop generating bubbles. Increased the hours of light over the 50G to 6 hours a day. Received a ReefPure RO/DI unit. I bought one since I'm sick of waiting for the DI system I put together to produce. I hope the 100 GPD RO membrane works even at half its rated rate. I don't believe how much gunk the SR4 pulls out. Where's it coming from?! The small fine macroalgae is dying back, but now there's a lot of hair algae. I don't think I'll feed the fish today. I also cleared out a lot of the hair algae this morning. Hopefully, the new herbivores in the tank take care of the rest.
posted 2:32 PM
Monday, March 18, 2002
Removed the AquaC Urchin last night. It wasn't pulling out anything anymore after I put in the SR4. This allowed me to move the two return pumps to the far right so that there won't be any bubbles in the return. It was good to go back to a SeaBay meeting again on Saturday. I won two frags, a mushroom rock and Reef Vital DNA (smells like apple juice and probably is just as beneficial for a reeftank!) in the raffle. There was also a person there selling epoxy and superglue at a great price since he got a large discount order off Ebay. The frags I won were an orange Montipora digitata and a large Acropora fragment. The Acropora is brown, but I hope it colors up. Rex N. was taking down his 240 gallon tank because his power bills were too high (thank you deregulation and Enron), and he brought in some of the extra live rock he had from the breakdown. The green mushrooms on the rock of his that I won are really pretty. There's also two Capnell frags on the rock. All my raffle prize items appear to be doing well. Trochus snails are moving a lot more. I'm purchasing Emerald and Sally Lightfoot crabs in an attempt to really take down the macroalgae. The reason I'm getting the Sally Lightfoots is because of John Susbilla's Invertebrate Gallery 1 which shows a Sally Lightfoot plucking Halimeda.
posted 1:03 PM
Thursday, March 14, 2002
It looks like all the Trochus snails are alive, but only a few of them are moving a lot. Both Tuxedo urchins are doing a great job roving around. I only see the two Echinometra urchins occasionally. I wonder how much they bore into the live rock. One really good sign is that the macroalgae in the 50G is looking very sparse. The dead stuff looks like it will take a while to disintegrate. I may try to pick some of it out. 24 hour lighting over 29G seems to be having no adverse effects on the organisms in the tank - I was particularly concerned about the bubble-tip anemone and the maroon clown. The Caulerpa serrulata in there is doing great. I want the hairy pink acropora's hairy polyps to come back out. It was the fastest grower among my acropora.
Split return for Rio 2100 pump in tank at work in order to decrease backpressure on the pump and to make the outflows less turbulent. All the mangroves are doing well except one of them. SR4 venturi wasn't working when I got home so I put pulled out the airline and added a new airline with a muffler, and the SR4 is working fine now. What's interesting is that the Urchin created some foam because the SR4 wasn't working. I'm thinking of clearing a certain area so that I can put a clam in the 50G again. I don't think I'll do it for a few more months since I really want to stabilize the tank again. Since the SR4 is doing such a great job, I may pull out the Urchin and put in a small box in the sump with aragonite as mini deep sand bed.
posted 10:32 AM
Tuesday, March 12, 2002
Fed the bubble-tip anemone last night and it expanded a lot after feeding. I think I'll start feeding it once a week. All the corals except the Xenia in the 29G appear to be doing fine. Cleared a bit of turf algae from the Caulerpa serrulate. Put in some Caulerpa mexicana last night, but I decided to take it out this morning because it spreads out too much. Once the Gracilaria grows a bit more in the 20G, I want to put it in the 29G. I just hope it doesn't get sucked up. 24 hour lighting over 29G doesn't appear to be having any adverse effects so far.
posted 4:27 PM
Monday, March 11, 2002
Added about two cups of salt directly to the 50G/29G system since it looked like the Trochus snails weren't doing too well. I probably should have added the salt in a more gradual manner, but the snails looked so "dead". I read somewhere that sometimes snails may be adversely affected by lower than normal salinity. With all the futzing around I've been doing with the tank, the SG of the tank had dropped to around 1.023. I added the salt by lifting off the collection cup of th SR4 and adding it to the column of the skimmer. The circulation in there should help the flow. Everything in the tank seemed to be doing better this morning except the Xenia elongata I transferred on Friday. The polyps look a little bunched up. I hope it recovers. If not, I still have some more at work. But the trochus snails and urchins are doing fine.
I decided to keep the lights on 24 hours of the 29G. I'll closely gauge how the bubble-tip anemone and red open brain do. I added some Caulerpa mexicana back to the 29G. Hopefully, it doesn't white out again. Cleared out a lot of the turf algae from the Caulerpa serrulata mass.
Scraped off all the yellow polyps on the left side of the glass. I've noticed the encrusting corals on some of the live rock help deter macroalgae growth. I think green slimer would really deter the growth. The montipora digitata really doesn't deter overgrowth my macroalgae.
Moved the gorgonian from the 29G to the 50G. Moved some mushrooms behind main rock structure to make room for gorgonian.
20G is doing great. I cleaned out intakes on powerheads and the circulation is breaking up the film on top and the green star polyps look a lot better. CPR Refugium is doing a great job. Mass of Caulerpa serrulata isn't floating up.
posted 11:00 AM
Saturday, March 09, 2002
Received 15 Trochus, 24 Cerith, 1 Tuxedo Urchin and 3 Queen Conches today from Premium Aquatics. Everything looked okay except for the Conches. It looks like they're dead. I'll wait to see how they are overnight, but at the moment, it looks like they're dead. I think I'm going to cut the lighting in the 50G again to 4 hours.
posted 8:09 PM
Thursday, March 07, 2002
I'm going to feed the fish every other day in the 50G and 29G in order to help control algae growth. Added modified Maxi-jet 1200 to CPR SR2 and this pump kicks ass on the RIO. The venturi intake is a bit loud, but I can put a muffler over it. I have to split the return on the Rio 2100 so that it isn't so powerful.
posted 4:51 PM
Monday, March 04, 2002
CPR SR4 is still pulling out gunk. AquaC Urchin isn't producing any skimmate at all. That's a good sign that a lot of the junk is being cleared out of the tank.Put in 2nd Poly-Filter pad over the course of two weeks. The second pad isn't darkening as quickly as the first one. A lot of the nuisance macroalgae is still dying in the 50G. Growth of sawblade caulerpa and turf algae in 29G has really slowed, even with 18 hour lighting. Presently I only have 6 hours of 96-watt actinic lighting over the 50G. I'll add probably add another 96-watt actinic if the algae keeps dying off. Eventually, I'll have two 96-watt actinics and one 96-watt 10K over the 50G like I did before. Purchased 2 Echinometra Indonesian Urchins and 10 Nassarius snails from Aquarium Concepts. Put the two urchins in the 50G to help the Tuxedo Urchin with the macroalgae. I split the Nassarius snails among the 20G's refugium and the 50G and 29G. I hope they last longer than the other ones I purchaed. Aquarium Concepts is in the process of a move, and that's why their phone line was disconnected for a day. I can't wait to visit their new location which should open on March 15th. My brother showed me the faster way to get to the store was to take 84 to 880 instead of 101 to 92. Visited a hydroponics store over the weekend, and they have quite a few large metal halide lighting systems and water pumps. I think half the people who go there are interested in growing weed.
posted 10:59 AM
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