So how is the tank doing? Any new progress?
Got a few new fish last week. Lost a crab and a fish two days apart. Both were found on the floor, dry
The lawn more blenny never did eat, he eventually died. I tried everything I could think of. Pellets,mysis,brine,algae,nori, even ready mixxed food. The best I got was a nibble, but he never ate. An emerald died mysteriosly...I ran a battery of tests and everything was great. Old age maybe? he was pretty big.
Im only out $35,everything together, so its nota major loss. But I am installing a 2" rim around the tank to prevent more jumpers.
I got an outbreak of cyano 2 weeks ago, and pursued it aggressively. Its now down to a sliver of its former glory. I will finish off the remainder in the coming weeks.
Algae was beginning to outpace my CuC, so I flipped on the switch for the carbon reactor last week, its already at about half what it was just a week ago.As a bonus, the water is looking much cleaner as well. Ive seen bad tanks, and Ive seen super pristine. I was somewhere around "B-" quality and now Im around what I consider "B"
The diatom bloom has significantly subsided, and is only apparent along the edges of the glass where you can see the sand below the surface. Otherwise its pretty much gone.
I began dosing minute amounts of purple-up(about 1/4 recommended dose). It stimulates Coraline growth, and 2 weeks later, I have dozens of spots scattered around the tank. The base rock is now getting flecks of coraline as well.
The Cuc is at full strength, and the bottom feeder fish are also in place. I added 5 peppermints, and 5 sand sifting crabs(they look like peanuts...not crabs). Obviously I rarely see either...but once in a while I catch a glimps.
The sump was browning up, so I tossed in half dozen snails/hermits, now its looking pretty nice, plus they pick the rocks n stuff clean. Speaking of sump, the scrubber got an upgrade. I doubled up the screen and roughed it up real good. Now I get awesome Growth and clean a side each eek. This alternates so two weeks go by between a side getting cleaned. This way I always have at least one side with nice growth on it. My water has never checked above barely register able in the amonia/trite/trate department(so far I get 0's with the occasional .1-.25( I ordered a second set of test kits just to make sure that I wasnt in error. But both check identicle. All other params are optimal including calcium/mag/alk. But I wont be doing corals for another 3-5months.
Rightnow I will keep everything as is till december, but then Ill add a couple more larger fish.
Current stock list:
Lawnmore blenny(got a new one the other day, he is an eater!)
Royal Gramma
4 blue chromis
Engineer goby
Watchmen goby
Tiger pistol shrimp.
Bicolor blenny.
Sally lightfoot crab(that thing has worked its away across the tank from one side to the other...eating a path of algae destruction.
Assorted snails and hermits.
I know its a small list for such a large amount of water. But I feel comfortable moving at this pace. Since the tnak is 2 months old. I am not seeing any spikes, so im sure everything is happy.I began with WELL established LR so it was already loaded with lots of benificial stuff which is a good reason why things are so stable.
I also started making my own fish food. I get the raw meats at the deli and blend my own brew. They go ape sht over it! When I come in the room every one follows me back and forth hoping for a treat.
hmmmm what else... oh the bristle worms are AWESOME!! they tend to themselves, population thins out and expands as needed. So I always have jsut the right amount.
I got a super rad twin arc MH bulb. It does 10k and 20k spectrum. On a cold start it goes blue, then after it warms up i flip it off a few min...thenback on and get the yellow 10k. The idea is to have it on a time so that while your away you can have optimal growth, but when you get home it fires to the pleasing blue tone. Works really nice. Im happy. Also got 2 T5's for the nice actinic blue look as well. I like the twin arc, so Im gonna order 2 more in the next month or two...but no rush since im not doig corals for a little while longer.
My current project is the removal of overflow bar. Im really not happy with it, so I thnk I will remove it and replace it with something else. I dont hate it, but I dont like it either. If I ever do something like it again I will incorperate it into the foam wall itself, instead of in front of it. It blocks a little light, not a drastic amount, but I think enough to make me want to remove it. But I think the real problem is that it no longer skims water like it used too. The water level rises 1/2" above the bar now, wich means It might be getting clogged up, and requires pressure to force the water in. I havent decided yet, what exactly im gonna do,but the logistics is feasible since I dont really have anything that will suffer if I drain out half the tanks water for an afternoon. Also the asthetics of the tank I feel would be more pleasing witht he ugly white bar removed. The more I look at it, the more I dont want to see it. Even if it was covered in GSP(which was my original plan).
Cant really think of much else going on. Maybee Ill put up some shots after the overflow upgrade.
