Hmmm, strange. In the last month I've also been getting some of that short, brown, sorta fuzzy, real-hard-to-remove algae growing over the corraline on the back wall. Horrid stuff!

Yeah I have that too. Sadly, its not growing over my coralline as I don't have any :neutral: On the flip side, my tank is rather ghetto right now as we have it in the basement awaiting the big tank build and its out from the wall a bit so I can scrape the entire back glass with my mag float/easy blade. So I can get rid of it rather easily with a scrape and a water change. Yay ghetto reef! :biggrin:

Changing my plans for this tank yet again........... (SPS Boycott)

It was originally going to be a Fowler with large cool fish: Tangs, Trigger, Tuskfish, Angels, Wrasses etc. Shortly after setting it up I moved a few soft corals over from the 90g reef. Then Marie gave me a large Pipe Organ Coral, and several large softies as well as some mushrooms. Then a little later I thought a few nice LPS would be ok, which of course led to SPS frags and colonies. All of a sudden it became a full-blown mixed reef!
However, as the fishes grow larger and the bio load increases, it's becoming more and more of a struggle to keep nitrates down. I've got 3 reactors running in the sump. One for GFO, one for nitrate sponge, and one for carbon. I also use T.A. Nitrate Destroyer and perform 10% bi-weekly water changes. With this regimen I can keep NO3 at about 5ppm.
I refuse to underfeed my fish; If I can't keep them fit and healthy I'd rather not keep them at all. The livestock in the tank now consists of: 5" Harlequin Tuskfish, 5.5" SF Tang, 6" Kole Tang, 6" Foxface, 5" Bannerfish, 5" Lunare Wrasse, 2.5" CBB, 2x 2" Fire Clowns, 4" LM Blenny, 3" Lamarck Angel, 2.5" Falco Hawkfish, 11x Chromis, many large snails and hermits and shrimp in the sump. My wife has been pining for a Blue-Chin Trigger, which I have my doubts about. The fish are all getting along well, and I'm a little leery about throwing a Trigger into the mix.
All the soft corals and LPS are thriving, but a few of the SPS are not doing so well. I lost one colony and two frags to bleaching, and two other colonies are losing colour. The faster-growing SPS (Stags, Bird's Nest, Montis, Hydno- phora) are growing well and showing good colour, as are the Milli's, Stylo's, and Pocci's. The tabling varieties are not doing as well.
IMO it's only going to get more difficult to keep SPS healthy in this tank as the fish grow, ............. so no more SPS additions for this tank. Those SPS that are doing well will stay and those that are not will go either to the 90g reef, or to fellow reefers. The 90g has few fish in it and corals grow well there. However it's mostly full, so I guess I'll have to stay away from the frag sales, and the LFS for awhile. :sad:

Nitrate sponge is no good man.....contains aluminum ( I think thats what I read):redface:..... correct me if Im wrong.

No longer being in the market for new corals does take a certain amount of fun out of the hobby...I'm thinking of changing out some of the rock in my tank in the new year just so I can start buying again :lol:

Ha Ha! I may be doing that as well in the 90g. My heart pounds and my hands start to shake when I think of weaning myself off of SPS. :mrgreen:

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr!
As if I haven't been having enough troubles with my corals lately. I just noticed one of my favourite pieces, (a Pavona I brought back all the way from Calgary last year), was missing. Where do I find it? Smack dab in the middle of my 10" Torch Coral. Yup, it's fried! Poor thing had the crap stung out of it. :(


This is it before the fatal tumble.
http://i371.photobucket.com/albums/o...k/IMG_3071.jpg

Sorry to hear about your coral. I've been having problems with nitrates as well. I started using T.A. Nitrate Destroyer in hopes to help keep the nitrates down but it's only been 12 days and so far it doesn't seem to be doing much. How long did it take for the T.A. Nitrate Destroyer to work in your tank?

Laurie, I can't honestly say how much it helps. I manage to keep nitrates down in this tank to about 5 ppm, but I can't tell how much from the Nitrate Destroyer, the water changes or the nitrate sponge. I CAN tell you that since I began using the T.A., the sponge, and more frequent water changes, the nitrates were consistently at 10 ppm; so at least one of the three is working.

If it makes you feel any better Lance (you know the saying 'misery loves company'?) this is my montipora setosa...or whats left of it
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ll/aug2309.jpg