Myka's 90 gallon build & 3 province move (Pics Feb 6)

[Myka]

Well I did some renovations in the tank. I'm going to sell a few of my LPS; Froggy, Hammer, and Galaxea I think. Need more room. Added another 10 lbs of live rock, and moved a bunch of the corals around. I need to move the Gorgonian a bit, but I ran out of epoxy so I gotta leave it for now. Accidentally de-homed one of my Jawfish though. I appologised to it, but he gave me the tail and dove in one of the other Jawfish's burrows. Oops.

Oh, and both of my RBTAs nailed me real good! Welts all up my arm. Quite intense right away when I brushed against it. In a weird sort of way I think it's pretty cool. I tried to take pics of the stings on my arm, but I can't bend that way.

I will get some pics of the tank oncce it clears up. It's a bit foggy from digging in the sand.

[Myka]

I'm selling a couple of the LPS, and after that I will finish up the right side of the tank. The white rock on the right is the new addition.

[mseepman]

Myka,

The tank is looking great. It's funny to hear you say "I'm selling some LPS" after some of our tank discussions of the past. I'm so glad you went SPS. I know that you have the talent and the know-how to have a great tank full of SPS so I'm looking forward to the updates.

[StirCrazy]

Lookin good, are the SPS on the right on a powerhead?

Steve

[Myka]

Oops, Steve the frags rack is mounted on a Mag Float.
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Well, it's been a long time with no updates!

I have been working out of province since the beginning of February, so I have a tank sitter looking after the tank. I had moved into the full Zeovit system running the Zeolite rocks in a reactor, and the whole 9 yards. Three weeks ago I ditched the Zeovit system, although I continue to run the Zeolites in the reactor. I'm not using any Zeovit additives aside from K-Balance to dose for potassium. I decided to ditch out on the Zeovit because it was difficult for the tank sitter to maintain, but primarily because I have been disappointed in the results, and have found little relief in my algae blooms.

I have been battling some algae. It all started in December when I had a tank sitter (not the current one) look after the tank over Christmas, and did a fine job of culturing cyano. After that the manageable amount red and green bubble algae in my tank really bloomed. I also fight with some Halimeda and Grape Caulerpa which have found a foothold in the tank. I put my GFO reactor back online as well which I haven't used in over a year. I bought a second reactor to run carbon since I had been running it passively.

In March my last bucket of IO ran out, so now I'm using H2Ocean. I haven't noticed a difference. Although the lower alkalinity out of the bucket is nice, and the main reason I decided to change brands. I was getting 11-12 dKH out of IO, and the H2Ocean is 9-9.5 dKH.

So, my algae battle plans...clean up the tank, increase flow, raise alkalinity, add 8 Emerald crabs, continue manual pruning.

I decided to try raising alkalinity from 7-8 dKH to 9-9.5 dKH to help decrease algae. I just recently made this increase so I can't tell if it is helping. I also raised calcium to 430-440 ppm to maintain the balance.

In order to increase flow near the sandbed, and decrease settled detritus, a month ago I removed some larger LPS corals that were on the sand, and I moved all the Zoas from the sand into a system of their own. Detritus used to settle around the corals in the sand. I also removed about 15 lbs of sand from the left side of the tank which was left deep for the Jawfish. They are happily settled on the right, so there is no need for the deep sand on the left. I also thoroughly vacuum the sand all the way down to the glass to remove detritus.

It is tough to keep the tank under control when I only see it every 2-3 weeks for a couple days, and the tank sitter isn't quite as tedious (anal) as I would be (hehe).

I had to treat the tank with Interceptor after some red bug infected frags fell into my sump (they were supposed to just be floating to keep temperature, but the container leaked. That was April 27th. The Interceptor killed the two Emerald crabs, and caused a few SPS to have some very minor bleaching and/or browning, essentially it went off as expected. Two weeks ago I added 8 Emerald crabs. Well, last Saturday I noticed red bugs on one of the Acros...the one that was mainly affected in the last infection. Grr...it seems to be a magnet. I managed to catch 4 crabs, 2 died, and 2 survived the treatment.

So now some of the corals are again a tad bleached and/or browned...but I will post up some pics anyway.

Here's a pretty new Lobo I picked up last week:




This Trachyphyllia has finally recooperated from the Filefish's teeth:




This red Acro is a pretty sweet piece, but because of its location it is very difficult to photograph:




Here's a new Acro...possibly a Candlelight, have to wait for it to color up:




I love this deepwater...blue with neon green polyps. Finally starting to color up:




This is the red bug magnet - an Alien Freckles Acro...bleached out:




This awesome tabling Acro I got from Doug...not sure on the ID, but it grows like a weed!




This is my current favourite SPS in my tank. It originated from Fragalot. The skeleton is hard to see in the photo, but is white with the green polyps and purple tips. Love it. Very slow growing.




Another Fragalot Acro:




Snappy's Bird of Many Colors...mainly pink for me, but gets green and blue hues when my tank is doing better:




Here is a really cool Birdnest I got from The Reef Shoppe. Hard to get the color to show up in photos, but the skeleton has a lovely green color to it, with some pink. Polyps are light....not sure what they will do:




True Bali Tricolor...lackin colors.




My favourite Aussie Gold Torch showing some good growth:

[Skimmerking]

Mindy I really like your tank as it looks now, the SPS gives it that special pop.

looks good

[Myka]

^ Change your name?? Thanks for your comments.

[Myka]

So yesterday I decided to check the calibration on my hydrometer which I do every few months. I have a few hydrometers, but the one I use daily is the Deep Six. I have had it for 2 years, and remarkably it has actually been accurate from day one. So I test my tank with the hydrometer - 1.026, then I test with my refractometer - 1.030! Then I carefully recheck using the same sample for each check. Yep, that hydrometer is now reading 0.004 lower than actual. Yikes! So starting yesterday I slowly lowered my salinity down to 1.026 which also dropped my calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium which I slowly bumped up. I think I used up half my test kits today. Ugh.

So let it come to awareness yet again! Don't trust those dang hydrometers - recalibrate often!

[Skimmerking]

Mindy I can't beleive that you are still using a hydro meter shame on you

[Myka]

I just use the hydrometer for daily checking. It's quicker and easier. I tell you though, I'm going to start using my refractometer more often. I can't believe the hydrometer held steady for so long, then so quickly went outta whack!