120 gallon journal - picture Feb 27

[kwirky]

No experience like experience. It's just over a month, now, and things are starting to come together

So the hair algae's all gone. I'm not embarrased any more to post a picture of the tank other than when the lights are out.


I'm starting to feel I don't have enough rock... what do you think?

I think I pretty much sorted out my alkalinity problem for the moment. I'm just dosing more often, and I'm trying to work myself into the habit of regularity.

Oh and I got a refractometer. It's a nice tool, and now I'm aware I was running my system at a salinity of 1.028, instead of the 1.025 I thought it was running at.

coraline algae's starting to show up, and the macro algae on the rocks is doing well. Nitrates have stabilized, and are sitting at 0.0 or 0.2ppm each time I test for them.

And I have two cinamon clowns in quarantine ATM. They look healthy, and they're eating well. They're little pigs!

And I added a branching frogspawn. And an elegance coral, which I hope turns out for the best. I purchased it off a fair amount of book research, but the books are out of date to inform one that recently elegance coral's not faring well in the aquarium... It's feeding, though, which I take as a good sign.

the xenia's continuing to grow like a weed. The zoos are forming runners. And my early toadstool frag fell into the rock work. I managed to find the perfect spot for it, it was reacting well, but I didn't have any epoxy or superglue left. I can't find it for the LOVE of me! Tried a rescue mission tonight and carefully disassembled that end of the rockwork, but it's as if it vanished...

As money comes in, I'd like to add more liverock (i'll be curing it properly this time), get an auto top-off together (probably run it on an electronic timer rather than a float switch), and DIY a kalk mixer or a calcium reactor.

Plus on the backburner are plans for a small, 18x18x18 nano tank for up in my bedroom. That's for after christmas probably.

Oh and I tapped into the RO portion of my RO/DI, so now I'm able to make my jasmine tea with RO water. yum

[Quagmire]

Here's a link to recent info on the Elegance coral problems

http://forum.marinedepot.com/Topic31241-9-1.aspx

At one time these corals were hardy and easy to care for,untill this infection poped up.If you're lucky enough to get an uninfected elegance,you shouldn't have much problem keeping it heathy.If not,then good luck.Maybe message Borneman on the linked forum to see if he can help you out.

P.S. I like the rock work.lots of open spaces for good water flow.

[kwirky]

I looked through the thread, and the website, but there wasn't specific info yet. Any clue what I should be looking for if it's infected? I've been feeding it every day, and I guess that's a good thing for it in case it IS infected.

Just would be nice to know what to look for.

It's interesting to hear this is what's causing it. I read on the net people figured they were being collected in deeper water, which caused a new set of husbandry requirements.

But the argument of them catching diseases from holding tanks because of the huge assortment of corals that are collected now, sounds quite plausible.

now thousand dollar question, is what does the infection look like? and the ten thousand dollar question is how do you treat it?

Come to think of it, at the LFS, one of the elegance corals did have an infection, and the guy wouldn't sell it. Quite thankful for that. It was from a different system, though, so that increases my chances of a healthy coral.

I'll continue the daily feedings and hope for the best.

[kwirky]

Almost a month since the last update, so I figured I'd do a quick run-over of all the stuff in the past month.

I lost that elegance. Albert said he lost all his in the store too. Was kind of a bummer.

I cut back the photoperiod of my T5 10k bulbs. I run the aquablue +'s for 12 hours, and the 10000k's for 6 hours. The softies and the branching euphillia have reacted well to it. Pink coraline's starting to show up. I don't know if increasing the photoperiod of the 10k's would bring in deeper and darker coraline, or if it would just bleach it.

I want more liverock, and I think that'll be the next major thing I get for the tank, along with either a blenny or a goby.

The two adolescent cinnamon clowns are out of quarantine, and in the display tank for their second day. They're timid, as expected to be, and being weened off of Spectrum Grow to mysis shrimp because I can't feed the tiny sinking pellets in the reef tank. Man fish go crazy for that new life spectrum. Too bad it dissapears in the rockwork before the fish can eat it : \

I've been having an algae problem again. Weird, super soft wavy algae growing on the glass of the tank. I think it's because of the trouble I was having with my skimmer. Solved the skimmer problem by removing the sponge bubble catcher. It was affecting the dialing of the skimmer, causing the collection cup to overflow suddenly 10 hours after I'd dial in the skimmer.

Found a hitchiker crab in the liverock that looks like the emerald crabs, behaves like the emerald crabs, yet green. I've watched him a fair bit, and he keeps to himself, just picking at invisible stuff on the rock. Innocent until proven guilty. I'll leave him alone unless he keeps growing (2" across already).

Nobody's had interest in buying the 150W HQI light, so I think I'm going to keep it until I have the chance to start up a second reef tank.

I've been humming and hawing over starting a second tank, but I keep telling myself "NO! concentrate on the one you have! any money spent on another tank is money lost for stuff like dosing pumps, etc!" I really want an array of dosing pumps after X-Mas

I've been trying to figure out a way to convert my 33 gallon freshwater tank to another reef tank WITHOUT buying anything much more. I have two 33 gallon long tanks, one in display shape, one good for a sump. I also have a DE 150W PFO HQI light needing a reflector/socket. Great light, but not for something 3 feet long.

Anyone know of a SUPER cheap way to light a small tank? I was thinking of supplementing it with a single 96W PC light, but that would be like another $140. And I still need a reflector and bulb clips for the tank. Anyone have a good source for DE bulb clips? They're like $10 in the states, but $20 up here. I was thinking of making the reflector by butchering a worklight or two for theirs. We have some extras in the garage.

[Joe Reefer]

What, no pics?

[Johnny Reefer]

Looks good Sean. I agree that you could use more live rock.

Originally Posted by kwirky

...... Found a hitchiker crab in the liverock that looks like the emerald crabs, behaves like the emerald crabs, yet green. ....

BTW, Emerald crabs are green. Hence the name.

Cheers,