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[mseepman]

Hey Oscar, how's the temps holding up now that the outside temp in the Okanagan is finally rising. I know my tank is hotter than I like and I've got AC in my house.

[Oscar]

Originally Posted by mseepman

Hey Oscar, how's the temps holding up now that the outside temp in the Okanagan is finally rising. I know my tank is hotter than I like and I've got AC in my house.

I am very pleasantly suprised so far. Inside temperature right now is 73F. My tank for the past 2 weeks has been in the range of 78-82F with running the actinics for 12 hours a day and hallide for 10 hours.

I notice the forecast is for temps up to 35F for the next week and our rancher is south facing. I have an air conditioner that I can temporarily install in the window when necessary so this is going to be a major test.

I replaced the fan that came with the tank (it was way too noisy) with an Ice Caps variable speed fan. It has a temp probe that is installed between the water surface and the lighting unit. It is set to automatically come on the lowest setting at the same time that the hallide starts. The fan speed steps up as the air temperature increases. This fan is also super quiet which is a bonus.

I do have a 2nd fan that I received from CadLights. It is nearly silent although it is either on or off.

So next week I will shorten the time that the hallide is on and install the additional fan. In additon I have had a JBL top off setup so with all of this extra evaporation due to the fans, the salinity of the tank will stay relatively constant.

Next week will certainly be a big test.

[Oscar]

Lester the lobster molted again last night. That's the 2nd time in ~6 weeks. I think he likes his new home.

[Oscar]

I can't believe is was June when I last posted.

Since then:
- added two clowns
- clowns hosted with frog spawn
- new battle with algae
- installed top off system
- discovered a crab hitchiker

I discovered that I had a crab hitchiker only because I discovered his molt 6 weeks ago. I have tried to lure him out with food in a glass jar but no luck. Using a flashlight I discovered his little cave. So tomorrow I will extract the rock in question and try to "encourage" him to leave.

But while I am at it I will undertake a major aquascaping. I have concluded that I added too much rock to the tank. I created a large rock wall against the rear wall. It has losts of caves and tunnels but takes up too much space, limits corals to the front face and I can only clean the glass on 1 side.

So I am going to rearrange things into more of an "island" design. This means that some of the live rock will come out.






As you can see I am also suffering from a new algae burst I think is primarily from my feeding of the clowns. It took me a while to figure out the feeding methodology but by that time I had spilled an awful lot of uneaten food into the tank. As Myka pointed out I may still be leaching phosphate from the rocks

[Oscar]

For the first couple of months I was manually topping off fresh water. As the heat in the Okanagan increased this summer mannual topping got very tedious. So I setup a topoff system using a 10G wine carboy. It was setup out front for a few weeks while I tested the system.

Once I was sure it was working I slid it down and behind the tank. I now refill it using a 2nd pump and hose which works pretty smoothly. So far I only need to refill the top off jug every 2 weeks.

[Oscar]

Two weeks ago I was in Vernon and picked up the following snails to help me knock back some of the algae:
- 1 very large nassarius
- 5 astrea
- 5 cerith

I have also been actively pruning the hair algae as best I can. Each week I gather about 1 cup of hair algae. Between the pruning and the additional snails we are holding steady.

Following are photos from yesterday. It is difficult to see but there is a Koralia 1 in the centre of the rock.

[RonPeter]

It's looking better! Where did you get the snails at? Thanks.

[Oscar]

I tackled the aquascaping today. The goal was to pull the rock away from the side glass to both improve flow and allow me to clean the glass along the side. I also moved the Koralia 1 to the top left of the tank, although it is very visible now it gives more options for flow.

Aquascaping is even more challenging when you already have some corals in place. I will study this new configuration for a few days. I will have to move a few corals. For example I am thinking of moving the GSP onto an "island" in the sand at the front of the tank. That will allow it to expand but keep it under check.

I like watching the pulsing xenia, and this stuff really pulses, but I now have an appreciation for what others have said about it's rapid spread. I will have to limit it to a single rock or allow it to climb the back wall. I have reconfigured it's primary colony to give it contact with the back wall.

Here are photos from this afternoon's aquascaping: