Calcium & Alkalinity & Sohal Tang

Been awhile since I posted, I am not even sure where I left off... Did I tell you I got a Sohal tang?  He is beautiful!!!!  Of course, with the good in this tank, the bad always follows.  In the last three weeks I lost my 6-line wrasse and my royal gramma.  Both of these fish were in my old BioCube.  I have had both for over a year....  sniff sniff

In the meantime, I re-aquascaped a bit last weekend because a good friend of mine was breaking down his tank and I took a bunch of his corals.  I used the opportunity to move some of my corals around in to better spots (for them). 

Yesterday I picked up 2 acans from a fellow reefer and member of the DVRC.  He has a beautiful tank.  There must be well over a hundred frags in there!

Now on to the equipment side.  My new metal halides arrived today.  I am replacing the three 250w Current 10K HQI bulbs with three 250w Phoenix 14K HQI bulbs.  I will post some before and after pictures later.

Picked up my 3rd and 4th cases of salt from Jay (DVRC Vice President) last weekend.  It was part of a major group buy from Garry (yes, 2 r's) over at Get Tanked.  For those of you who have saltwater fish tanks, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND Garry's product.  Its a 2-part salt mix that is better than any I have ever tried.  And I have used, Instant Ocean, Reef Crystals, Kent, and premixed saltwater.  Its not the cheapest sat in the world, but each bag is pre-measured for either 5 or 25 gallon water changes.  Its guaranteed fresh and the quality is unmatched.

My CA reactor is on the way.  I broke down and got the AquaC RX-1.  I ordered it from Blue Zoo Aquatics.  They have been in the coral and fish business for some time, but just started selling dry goods.  And, I got a 10% discount, which was awesome! 

In the meantime, I stopped by Champion Lighting and picked up my "interim" ph Controller.  I got the Milwaukee ph Controller as well as a CO2 Regulator with solenoid, needle valve, etc.  Gary (one r) over at Champion is awesome!!!

Why the CA Reactor?  Well, I noticed that everyone else's SPS have fully extended polyps during the day.  And that the millepora were not very "fuzzy".  Turns out my alkalinity was low, along with my calcium.  So, I am hoping to balance all of this out.

My end goal is to automate about as much as I can and thus, the reason for the Milwaukee controller.  My plan is to get the ReefKeeper Elite (RKE) from Digital Aquatics, whenever that finally rolls out.

Email Blog Post

I am trying something new. I am blogging via my cell phone and via email today. Just have a quick update.

I lost my yellow watchman goby this week. I thought maybe I crushed him when I moved the rock work to catch the yellow tang.

Well, what do ya know, he was in my sump!!! I was doing a water change this morning and spotted him. This is his second trip down to the basement. Its about a 30 foot ride through the plumbing from the tank to the sump.

He is back in the main tank and doing well. In the meantime, my 6-line wrasse died this week too. I found half of him stuck to the overflow. No idea what happened to the other half. I had him for over a year. Ugh.

Its time for some new pictures

As I mentioned in my previous post, my hair algae is completely gone!  And, to celebrate I picked up the most beautiful duncan from Aquatic Obsessions in Avenel, NJ.

I also picked up a beautiful orange-back wrasse, but alas, he lasted only a couple of days.  Aquatic Obsessions was nice enough to offer me a credit for the purchase and I plan to get another fish next week.  I have to tell you that they have become one of my favorite stores.  Its a good thing they are so far from home or I might spend my life in there.

I also picked up 2 SPS from Mike at The Frazer Zoo.  The Frazer Zoo is much closer to home and Mike's SPS and zoo collection is one of the best in the area. 

I was able to finally catch and sell the yellow tang.  It took me almost 2 hours yesterday to catch him.  After 0 minutes of trying to maneuver around the rock work, I finally gave in and moved half of my rock. 

And, without further ado, here are some pictures.

Where in the World is Derek? (And a major flood)

Man, it has been a busy month.  During March, I took over worldwide marketing for my company and prepared the company for the largest product (and company) launch in our history.  That came to a head last week and I am so glad it is over.  It was a smashing success and you can read more about it on my "work" blog at http://rodner.blogspot.com.

But, on to the tank.  It was touch and go for a while.  With all the time I have been spending in the office, the tank itself was not getting the attention it deserved and I even contemplated tearing it down and selling it.  Thank God, I talked myself out of that.

What led me to nearly quit was a massively flood while I was out of town.  UGH.  So, my wife calls me 2 weeks ago.  The tank is full of air bubbles.  No big deal.  Sometimes, the levels get out of wack in the fuge and the pump ends up sucking air.  So, she goes down the basement and the whole area is covered with water.  I am up to my neck in work and unable to get home.  My wife was really, really mad!  And I was depressed.  I knew that it was major and I knew that I would not get home for another 2 days and then go right back out of town again 2 days later.  Everything was lost, I was sure.

Well, my dad went over, shut down the system and cleaned up what turned out to be over 40 gallons of water off the basement floor.

I got home 2 days later and the salinity was at 1.019 and the temp was at 70.1.  But, everyone was alive!

Turns out, the tanks were all fine.  I was sure that the fuge or sump had cracked.  But, in reality, it was all my fault.  Before I went out of town, I did a water change and spent another hour picking hair algae out of the tank.  When I do that, I put filter socks on the drains in the basement to catch the excess hair algae.  Well, I left one of the filter socks on and it got saturated and started overflowing.  It was above the rim of the fuge so the water went right on the floor.  The levels dropped and the ATO (auto-top-off) kicked on, eventually emptying a full 33 gallon Brute trash can full of RO/DI water into the tank and onto the floor.  That's why the salinity level dropped.  And the temp dropped because the system was off-line and the heaters were in the basement.

Long story short, I was able to get it back up and running within 24 hours and didn't lose a thing.

And, the shutdown had an interesting and possibly coincidental side effect:  ALL MY HAIR ALGAE IS GONE!!!

The tank looks magnificent!  I had been holding off on getting any new coral for a while (save for a few items from a friend) because the hair algae was choking everything and the coral was suffering.

But, the tank is quite stable now and all if well.  So, I am off to a local fish store to get some coral.  There is a great place up near my office:  Aquatic Obsessions.  They have some beautiful coral.

And, if they have a hippo tang, I may pick that up as well.  But, that means the yellow tang goes bye-bye.  Whether someone buys him from me or he gets donated to a LFS is yet to be seen.

I took new pictures last night and will upload them in the next day or two.

Tank Update for March 1

First of all, how could I go two weeks without blogging???!!!  Well, work has been absolutely insane for one.  And, not a lot has happened in the tank that would make me want to post ASAP.

So, here is a quick update.  My naso tang bit the dust.  I think it was harassed by my yellow tang.  That marks two kills for my yellow tang and he is now going.  Anyone want a healthy, 4-5 inch yellow tang?

I also picked up an orange-spotted rabbitfish.  He is very cool and I will post some pics soon.   My latest new addition will help with my hair algae, I hope.  I just received a lawnmower blenny yesterday.  He has since disappeared in the tank, but I am hoping he can help with my massive hair algae problem.  My hair algae is so bad right now that the macro algae in my fuge is overrun.  I washed it all yesterday and also added another handful of chaeto.  We will see if this starts to help dissipate it.

My tank look green from the outside of the house now...  ugh!!!  My wife and I have spent an hour every Sunday evening picking hair algae out of the tank right before a water change.  It seems to be lessening a little, but I can't be sure.  Time will tell.

Sometimes I wonder why I ever wanted a larger tank.  My 14g BioCube was fantastic.  Compact and beautiful.  And I never had any problems.  But, I was greedy.  I wanted more fish.  I wanted to try SPS coral and add a whole lot more.  And, quite honestly, I wanted a project.  Plumbing the tank and figuring it all out is amazing.  Now, why can't it reciprocate and look beautiful??  argh...

As for my salt, I am about to do my fourth water change with the salt mix from Get Tanked.  So far, so good.  My parameters are in check.  My calcium/alkalinity/pH are all good now.  I really like this mix and it is so easy to use.  Nothing to measure as I do 25g water changes and it comes in 25g bags.