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Reeftank Log

Reeftank Log Archives

Monday, June 30, 2003

Performed a 40 liter water change yesterday with Instant Ocean. Added 100 ml each of C-Balance A and B. This isn't a huge change in a 150g tank, but at least it's something. I may try a 60 or 80 liter change next time. What's strange is my Pinpoint salinity meter was reading 53 or about 1.026 while the Aquarium Systems and Coralife hydrometers I had were reading 1.028 - but I can't figure out how the aquarium could have become more salty over time.

Algae is still sloughing away and clam looked pretty good this morning. I can't believe how long the arms on my bristlestars are.

Installed two 4" fans over the weekend the blow out and across from the front to the back of the tank when the temperature goes over 82 degrees. They seem to work well at controlling the temperature - especially when the metal halide lights go on. On Sunday, the weather was much cooler.

posted 10:15 AM

Friday, June 27, 2003

Turned off MH lights when I came home yesterday since the tank temperature was 84 degrees and the room was 87. I'm thinking of installing two 4" fans on the inside front middle of the canopy in order to blow air across the surface of the water and out through the back. Those mini-fans I purchased just don't have enough cfm to really make a difference.

I fed 50 ml of the DT phytoplankton tonight.

I saw the clam move a bit this morning. I wonder if it just wants a better position and that's why its mantle isn't fully open.

I posted this observation to reefcentral.com

Has anyone else ever noticed that you can observe the brownian motion of the lipid particles in the thin layer of fluid over your eyes when you look at VHO URI Super Actinics? I was never able to see the particles with PC actinics. I noticed this the first time I set up and turned on my 4x110 VHO setup. I asked my wife to look at the lights to confirm what I saw, and she noticed the same thing.

posted 9:21 AM

Thursday, June 26, 2003

Two days ago, I caught the maroon clown and gave it to dmirza. I think she should do well since dmirza already keeps a maroon clown at home and will put the one I caught in his 75g at work. It was quite an ordeal to catch the maroon clown. It took 30 minutes for dmirza and I to catch the clown, and I couldn't have done it without his help. The maroon clown's cheek spines became entangled again in the net I caught her in, but I cut the net and slowly removed the net mesh to free her. Yesterday, the two false percula clowns moved into the anemones that the maroon clown had been occupying.

Two days ago, I also fed the tank 25 ml of DT Phytoplankton - mainly to feed the maxima clam. I turned the Wavemaster Pro on feed to turn off the sump pump, and I also turned off the skimmer for 5 hours. It looks like the polyps on the corals and the mantle of the clam all expanded when I added the DT.

Went to Aquatic Gallery in Milpitas two days ago. Looks like a really nice and clean store with great stock. The only problem for me is that I don't have much room left for new corals. I would like to get a school of chromis though and perhaps a coral beauty. In order to do that though, I think I'll need to get rid of the rabbitfish which is a pig! I kind of don't want to give him away though since he was the only fish that could eradicate the feathery macroalgae that came in on some IPSF rock. I purchased two red foot Trochus, a Tiger Trochus and a tiger tail cucumber. As of today, everything's still alive except for the Tiger Trochus. I don't know what it is with the tank, but snails just seem to die after awhile. My corals, shrimp, brittlestars, urchins and crabs all seem to do fine though.

Algae is still sloughing away. Have to make sure to clean the skimmer every other day. Ordered some replacement cartridges from aquariumwaterfilters.com with a reefs.org discount. I definitely should change at least 10 gallons this weekend.

posted 10:11 AM

Thursday, June 19, 2003

Wow, Blogger has a whole new look. I kind of like it. I increased the flow from the overflow to the refugium and added 10 ml of Kent Iron for marine tanks in order to increase the growth of the Chaetomorpha and decrease the growth of the hair algae in the refugium. Cleaned the protein skimmer. I can't believe how much gunk that thing takes out. I should do a 15 or 20 gallon water change this weekend.
posted 2:36 PM

Wednesday, June 18, 2003

Last night, at 12:30 am, 1.5 hours after the metal halides had turned off, but with the VHO Super Actinics still on over the tank, I noticed a big release of shrimp plankton into the tank. I could see the false Perculas, damselfish, Blue Tang and Green Chromis happily munching them. I also noticed a lot of little critters coming out to the sandbed from underneath the rocks to get food.
posted 12:14 PM

Monday, June 16, 2003

I picked up a 2-inch Tridacna maxima attached to a rock and a cleaner shrimp from RyanC this weekend. Both seem to be doing well after a day in the tank. The clam and rock are on the substrate underneath one of the metal halide lights and the clam shows full extension. I also placed some Ricordea frags on the rock and they're also doing well. The cleaner shrimp is hanging out with the other cleaner shrimp that was already in the tank. They make a cute couple and are about the same size. They like hanging out in the right rear corner with the two anemones.

I removed the Reeftec unit yesterday and replaced it with a Tunze Stream 6080 that has a specially detuned propellor courtesy of Roger Vitko. The detuned propellor puts out 1600gph vs 2250gph. This, in addition to an unmodified 6080 provides the perfect flow for my 150g which includes a mix of SPS and softies. I also installed the 3000.26 extension units, and they have a very clean look compared to the large brace for the Reeftec. I hope this increased flow from the Streams helps get rid of my excess hair algae which seems to be sloughing away. I just have to make sure the protein skimmer and carbon keep up with the waste from the dying algae. SPS corals are still getting more colorful under the VHO lighting.

I've set the lights to 14 hours VHO and 10 hours MH. I put the sensors for both IceCap 4-inch fans right by the VHO lights so that they would increase their speed. After cleaning the fan grates of a thick coating of dust, the fans seem to be a lot quieter. I may install another fan inside the hood pointing out in order to increase cooling with the tank.

posted 3:08 PM

Wednesday, June 11, 2003

Added another 27-watt Lights of America fixture above the 10-gallon refugium. Hopefully, the extra lighting will boost the Chaetomorpha algae growth so that it takes up nutrients faster than the hair algae in the main tank. Some of the hair algae in the main tank seems to be fading away. What's strange is that the darkest algae seems to be on the sides of the tank. Maybe there's something about the new VHO lights that isn't conducive to the algae's growth.
posted 2:40 PM

Monday, June 09, 2003

I took by 2-1/2 year old daughter, Ally to see Finding Nemo at the movie theatre yesterday. She sat in my lap while I placed my backpack full of her food, and a bottle of milk next to me. She sat enraptured during the whole movie and enjoyed the whole experience. She wasn’t scared at all of anything in the movie. It definitely pays to get to a matinee show early for a children’s movie like Finding Nemo since large areas of seats are reserved quickly. I’m glad no parts of the movie made her cry. I cringed when she asked, “What happened to the mommy?” after Nemo’s mom and almost all her eggs (except for Nemo’s) were eaten at the beginning of the movie by a barracuda. I just told her that Mommy had gone away. After Nemo was taken by the scuba divers in the boat, she kept asking, “What’s in the boat?” It’s great to see her following the characters and plot of the movie. The funniest thing was when I asked her afterwards whether she liked Castle in the Sky or Finding Nemo better, she said, “Castle in the Sky!” When we got home, she pointed out in the tank all the fish that were in Finding Nemo. She really liked Bruce the Shark and wanted to take the large model of Bruce that was out in the theatre lobby back home with us. Marineland must be happy to see their external filter in the movie.

Yesterday, I also traded a Pom-pom Xenia and blue zoos for some nicely colored Ricordea frags. The Ricordea were blue, orange and green types. I've also noticed after a week that my sps corals are coloring up again. I just hope I can get rid of the hair algae growth with a more regular maintenance of the protein skimmer. Right now, I have the VHOs set at 13 hours and the metal halides set at 11 hours.

posted 2:36 PM

Monday, June 02, 2003

Switched 3x96 PC to 4x110 VHO super actinics over the past weekend. I think the PCs may have been working fine, but the bulbs are old and the VHOs provide better coverage and more wattage. I can immediate see brighter fluorescence in the colors of the corals. Hopefully, things start coloring up again.This morning, I also changed the carbon. I should set as a monthly schedule, a change of the carbon and a 15-gallon water change. Another thing I would like to do is to add another one of the Turbelle Streams with a lower power impeller that Roger Vitko sent to me. I purchased 8 snails over the weekend to help with the hair algae control in the tank. I've noticed that there aren't that many snails in the tank (hopefully because of natual dieoff and not predation), and that may be part of the reason why there's so much algae in the tank. I mixed up some kalkwasser to add to the freshwater replacement reservoir which is another thing I haven't done in months. The calcium reactor seems to be working well with a lot of calcium dissolved in the reactor and hard coral and coralline algae growth, but the tank can probably use more calcium on a regular basis now that the corals are getting larger. It was good to read in the latest issue of Reefkeeping that mixed up kalkwasser in a reservoir doesn't really lose that much of its efficacy. I should clean the protein skimmer and add kalkwasser on a weekly basis. (Actually, protein skimmer cleaning should probably be done twice a week). One last think I have to do is to prune some of the Xenia around some of the hard corals.
posted 8:05 AM


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